Best products from r/Purdue

Sure! So I assume your interest lies in getting more money. Whether that means saving more money, maximizing the value of your money, having more money for retirement, or you just want more money in general (Ferraris ain't cheap amirite?)

Anyways, most classes like this one will give you a classic look at finances taken from a fairly middle class view. By and hold some mutual funds, work your way up into job security, etc. If you want to do that kind of thing then simply work out a budget, save money when you can, and invest in some index fund-syle mutual funds. But for me, that isn't enough. I prefer to work towards financial freedom rather than security.

Step 1: Mindset (books in order)

1. Rich Dad, Poor Dad - This will give you a whole new perspective on your finances and financial situation. You are at a great time in your life to learn this. It's cheap and a quick easy read. http://www.amazon.com/Rich-Dad-Poor-Robert-Kiyosaki-ebook/dp/B004XZR63M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394210870&sr=8-1&keywords=rich+dad+poor+dad
   
   
2. Rich Dad, Poor Dad Cashflow Quadrant - If the first book is an introduction, then this book is inspiration. It brings you down to earth on your finances. Not as fun as reading the first book, but very important. http://www.amazon.com/Rich-Dads-CASHFLOW-Quadrant-Financial/dp/1612680054/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394210966&sr=8-1&keywords=rich+dad+poor+dad+cashflow+quadrant
   
   
3. Richest Man in Babylon - A classic personal finance book. Short, packed with great lessons to live by. http://www.amazon.com/Richest-Man-Babylon-George-Clason-ebook/dp/B000ZH1GEC/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1394211142&sr=1-1&keywords=richest+man+in+babylon
   
   Those 3 books are great starters. You'll start thinking differently about money, and in turn your actions will start to change as well. They will also introduce you to ideas about making your money work for you. So then the question is, how do you want your money to work for you?
   
   There are several avenues to investigate. I personally trade stocks. The redditers in the personal finance section seem to push people towards investing rather than trading, and indeed you can make some conservative gains that way. But again, I want my money working aggressively for me. Anyways, read those first few books and see what you think. From there, if you are interested in good stock trading books let me know.
   
   Again you are at a great time in your life to start doing this. I'm assuming you have at least 40 odd years until retirement, may as well see what you're capable of!

No. It's pretty much an IDE like intelliJ, but inside your browser.

You can take a CS class here or you can take courses through code academy, Khan academy, etc. Personally I don't like either, but the options are there.

However, there are a ton of YouTube videos to get you started most notably Thenewboston. IMO his tutorial are the best and he starts from the very beginning and teaches you all the way to intermediate topics. In my opinion this would be the best way to learn. He has videos for other languages too as well as tutorial for so many other programs and what not.

Another good source would be this book. I have it and it holds your hand as it explains basic concepts like data types, various methods, arrays and other important parts of java.

Of course you could start by learning a different language like python, but java is a pretty easy language to learn and if you learn it, other languages will come pretty easily.

Best of luck!

Edit: I just re-read your comment and you want to learn C or Pyhon. Here is the same book, but for Python. Here are the video tutorials for Python by the same guy, and here are his tutorials for C.

You really don't need a good GPA. Here's the big stuff:

• Put a lot of work into your resume so it looks nice. This is sort of obvious, but a lot of people just throw one together without a lot of work. Also, don't listen to the CCO's resume advice, they don't know what they're talking about for CS.
  
• Side projects are really important, especially if you aren't confident with your GPA. You want to show companies that no matter what your grades are, you know your stuff where it counts.
  
• Along the same lines, you want to have an active github (and link to that on your resume). Ideally you want to shoot for one commit per day, but obviously school is a timesink and that's not always easy. One trick you can use is to commit all your school projects into private github repos, since those are still displayed on your timeline. This shows companies that you're hacking away in your free time, even when you don't have to.
  
• Read through cracking the coding interview and do some online practice questions (firecode, leetcode, etc..). It's great to land the interview, but unless you're ready for the technical interview questions you won't make it through. If you haven't experienced one of these interviews before, you should know that they're pretty different than you might expect. The resources above (especially cracking the coding interview) will give you a great idea of what to expect.
  
• Also keep in the mind that the first internship is the hardest to get. You should expect a lot of rejection letters. Even the best candidates will be getting a lot of rejection letters. If you apply to 100 companies and land a handful of interviews, that's a win. Don't let a few rejections get you down!
  
  Good luck :)

I appreciated having protein shakes. I brought boxes of the premier protein vanilla shakes (but they also have flavors in chocolate, strawberry, banana, peach, and caramel). Protein shakes made a really quick, easy, and also heavy breakfast before my morning classes. They also made a nice evening snack. It's a grab and go kinda drink. It's healthy and fills you up. On days when I only had afternoon classes, i would sometimes sleep in and have a protein shake and fruit in place of lunch.

I also appreciated having a microwave and fridge. My roommate brought them for us to share. Fridge allowed me to chill my protein shakes and even store yogurt and cheese. I LOVE popcorn and the microwave allowed me to pop it. After coming back to campus after breaks, I would always come with food from home (I'm Indian so I usually got flatbread - roti if you know what that is - stuffed with vegetables and herbs and spices). The microwave allowed me to enjoy the home cooked roti hot.

I also appreciated having wireless headphones. I know beats and airpods can be hella expensive, but I got the MPOW heasset. They're 35 bucks on Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Mpow-Bluetooth-Headphones-Wireless-Memory-Protein/dp/B01NAJGGA2/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=MPOW+headphones&qid=1563442865&s=gateway&sr=8-3. I didn't have to worry about wires or tiny buds falling out of my ears with this bad boy. Sound quality is great and it can connect to two devices at the same time. It's also super portable and can activate Siri/Cortana/Google Voice with the press or a button. Just don't wear it during class because they're huge and it might be disrespectful.

One final thing I appreciated was a powerbank. if I wasn't near an outlet but needed to juice up my phone, the powerbank saved my ass. I actually didn't bring the powerbank from home but got it for free from the IR career fair. Definitely check out the company Vertiv as they give out free powerbanks in their booth during career fairs. (I got another keychain powerbank from another company but lost it :p)

None of these things are absolutely necessary but were nice to have

Like others have said, the lack of AC is only really a problem for the first 2-3 weeks and the last week. It's best to bring a pair of box fans (like so) between yourself and your roommate and set them on the window sill blowing in.

Pros:

• Tark-Mart (Boiler Junction). Holy hell the Tark-Mart. You can literally walk to a mini-grocery store in nothing but your PJs without going outside. Want 12 packs of soda? Got it. Donuts? Got it. Frozen foods? Got it. Milk shakes? Got it. Chips? Condoms? Shampoo? Office supplies? Candy? Power Aid? THEY GOT IT.
  
• Dorm-wide WiFi. Tarkington (at least in 2012-2013) was the pilot for a WiFi implementation of ResNet. If you're too cheap for a wireless router, this'll save you some money.
  
• Excellent community. Seriously, easily one of the best, most open communities of all campus res halls. Made some great friends in my time there.
  
• The CoRec is right across the street, making for easy workouts.
  
• Wiley and Ford, the two closest dining courts (within 3 minutes of the dorm by foot) are hands down the best on campus.
  
• ~10 minute walk to the Engineering campus if you hustle.
  
  Cons:
  
  
• The AC issue is probably the largest.
  
• The building is a bit on the older side, so don't be surprised when facilities (like plumbing) choke or get dirty rapidly. Then again, it is a men's dorm.
  
• The Boiler Special will drive up Jischke and N. Stadium every Saturday morning during football season, blasting its horn and party music. It will wake you up, I guarantee it.

I don't know how long ago you used these brands but they're really improved in the last few years. I like the HP Spectre and the XPS 13. The only reason I wouldn't buy a Thinkpad is because they're super ugly, but I doubt you'll have issues with a loud fan. Everyone who I've talked to who owns one loves theirs.

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That being said, I use this ASUS laptop:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075N1YHVK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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I got the 2017 version when it was $750 but it had $1100 specs. I wouldn't recommend the 2018 version. ASUS makes some good laptops that are know for being reliable. For desktop computers, ASUS parts have a premium not because they're faster but because they're almost never defective. It seems as though that mentality is also applied to their laptops. (I bought that laptop above and it didn't charge, but I exchanged it and it's working two years later. Also, 3/4ths of my family uses ASUS and they like it).

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MSI is also good if you're looking for a gaming laptop, but I think it will be too big to bring to class.

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You need to look for a CPU that has 4+ cores and is i7 or i5. Just put the CPU model into Google and it will tell you. You need 6+ GB of RAM. I'd recommend 500 GB of storage, but you could make 250 GB work. I'd also recommend a decent GPU if you want to do light gaming or rendering. Just look for the word NVIDIA somewhere in the product listing.

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All of these suggestions have been around the $1000 price bracket but if you want suggestions in another bracket I could probably find something.

If you want to save some money and just want a scientific calculator, I HIGHLY recommend Casio's natural display calculator. Only $20. I've had one since junior year of high school and bought a 2nd one junior year at Purdue and never bought or used a graphing calculator.

It won't graph, but you can enter an equation and it will give you the X/Y (or in this case, X/f(X)) points in a table for you to use and graph. It can also solve definite integrals and derivatives.

The best part, though, is that it's natural display. So it will give you answers like sqrt(2), 1/3, 4pi, etc., rather than 1.6542135432468421... and you can enter in equations the same way. I think graphing calculators do this now too, but there's still the $80 difference.

Granted, I didn't do engineering, so maybe graphing will work best, but my program had the same amount of math, so I thought I would offer my 2 cents.

Lots of people that are bike commuting are first time riders doing this. They may have rode to school back in middle school, or around town for fun but usually not as bike commutors that really need to share the road. Learning etiquette and laws are important. College is a time of a lot of growth both academically as well as socially and just straight real world experience. You are 100% correct though, but on some lights.
https://www.amazon.com/Cygolite-600-Hotrod-50-Bicycle/dp/B01IO12V6C/ kind of expensive but worth it. I start my commute into the city at 5:30am so it's not light out yet most of the year and they work great.

I’ll preface this in that it may not be allowed in dorms, but I really appreciated having a clothes steamer, just a cheap one like this. Quick and easy for getting wrinkles out of formal clothes you need to wear, or a t-shirt that’s been crumpled in a pile or some drawer for months. As for whether or not you can have it, I’m unsure it Res Life has an issue with it since it does emit heat and steam. However, I asked my RA (who admittedly was pretty chill), and he said he could care less. Largely because I imagine you have to actively be vying for the Idiot of the Century award to set something on fire using a steamer.

> Should I get a printer?

If you have some cash to spare, I picked up a cheaper monochrome laser printer (they print really nice, and toner is super cheap). Super convenient if I was in a rush, or didn't wanna leave my dorm room. I'd probably suggest it. Something like a Samsung or Brother.

> How would rushing work if I'm in an LC? Just wait til later?

Shouldn't interfere at all. I rushed first semester freshman year and was in an LC. There was a good number of guys all on my floor that joined different houses.

If you really like this stuff, I would highly recommend two textbooks:

For the communications topics, reliability, optimization etc, ditch Leon-Garcia and pick up this book by Trivedi

If you're interesting in Machine Learning like I am, then this book by Bishop is fantastic. You can find both in the Engineering library I believe.

AND since Purdue lets you change your e-mail address when ever you want, as long as they have 6 months free amazon prime you can always have it while at Purdue.

Just create a new Amazon account, create a new purdue e-mail address, sign up and tada: another 6 months of Amazon Prime.

That said, I HIGHLY recommend the JVC HA-RX700.

I'm not an audiophile. I've dealt with cheap ear buds all the time because I lose them and use them to work out, etc. These are at my work desk and the difference is night and day. Amazing bass response, everything is crisp. They even have some hard core head phone modders:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/435809/jvc-ha-rx700-mods

http://www.mcfrede.dk/projects/jvc_ha-rx700_headphone_mods/jvc_ha-rx700_headphone_mods.shtml

CS182 is a discrete mathematics course. It has a lot to do with logic and proofs, and less to do with algebra and calculus. Most have never really seen what you will be covering. If you can, I would get the book and work through some of the problems before the start of the semester.

CS240 is similar to CS180, but it is taught in C — a much lower-level language. Once again, I recommend getting the book (I assume it will be The C Programming Language) and doing some of the exercises. Java syntax comes from C/C++, so that part will be somewhat familiar. C is pretty barebones, though. There are no classes, only functions. There is no ArrayList, LinkedList, etc. You have to build it all yourself. And when you allocate memory using malloc() (similar to calling new), you have to remember to free it when you’re done using free(). There is no garage collection.

Good luck!

I'm in SOC 100, distance learning.

In my blackboard, I have slides and respective notes for each chapter in the book, (book is You May Ask Yourself.)

If any of the folders in this image of my Blackboard look useful to you let me know, and I can send you to slides and notes.

If not, maybe this class is entirely different. Good luck mate.

Introduction to Linear Algebra is an excellent textbook. Strang explains things in very simple, "what's the point" terms. This is the only textbook I have ever actually enjoyed reading. There are also quite a few videos of Strang's lectures at MIT where he works out plenty of examples.

Schaum's Linear Algebra reads like an exam review: it highlights the main concepts (without the theory) and presents hundreds of worked out examples.