Bullshit. Grok pointers or you're going nowhere
This is true. It happens to beginners all the time
Just don't. Using namespaces is bad. Just think that there were some interest in omitting namespaces, then namespaces would have never existed in the first place. Knowing that you are using a feature form the stl just by looking at it is useful in my opinion.
This is true. Try to avoid global state as much as possible and encapsulate it always. In C, never use extern and use static global variables. In C++, use static class variables and make them private. Never use global variables directly except in the module they belong to.
Use local variables in general. Prefer scoped lifetime whenever it's possible.
True.
This is crucial.
stdin is in general pretty awful. Try to avoid console input.
Git is great. If it's too complicated, mercurial can be an easier option for a beginner. Use sourcetree to make using them easier.
Nonesense. There's nothing wrong with
if (a)
b();
Alexandrescu's style of
if (a) b(); can be detrimental if you're using an IDE and can be quite unreadable too, but there's nothing wrong with not using braces in an if statement.
True.
As a final advice, use http://en.cppreference.com/w/ for C and C++ language reference over any other page.