I play a little bit - I'm learning it in a strings class at school. It's strung and tuned exactly the same way as an electric bass (E A D G, from left to right). It's a little harder on the fingers (if you want to play it that way) because of the flatwound strings but you get used to it. As for finding the placement of notes, there's plenty of charts available on the internet and in music stores. The internet ones are usually free though
. Since you have some experience with violin (I know cello is closer in size but it's tuned differently), you might not have too much trouble finding the notes. Just rely on your ears (and maybe have a keyboard or piano at the ready so you can be sure your playing the note in tune), then mark the spot with some fret tape