Seeing as both wildfires and power outages are going hand in hand, I want to repost an FAQ I wrote from last year for wildfire safety, updated with some power outage info. I'll be updating and simplifying this as time allows - hopefully it's comprehensive.

EDIT: Exceeded word count, I extended it into the comment responses. Check Table of Contents for whatever info you care about.

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TL;DR SUMMARY:

Wildfires - Enhance awareness by checking fires and AQI, and buy/wear a valved N95-rated respirator (NOT a regular surgical mask). Most importantly, ensure a proper fit/seal if you don't want short or long term respiratory problems/failure.



Power Outages - Stay informed. Prepare 2 weeks worth of water and cash. Move things to fridge/freezer for up to 48 hours of storage.



Evacuations - Sonoma County is currently being evacuated as the Kincade Wildfire razes homes to the ground. Cal Maritime Academy was evacuated yesterday (10-27) due to the Vallejo ("Glen Cove") Fire. You decide if you want to prepare for evacuation - details below if so.

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Table of Contents

1. General Info - Power Outages and Wildfires
   
2. Wildfire Safety - Respirator Masks
   
3. Power Outages - Preparedness
   
4. Evacuations - Go Bag
   
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   1. GENERAL INFO - Power Outages and Wildfires
   

   
   What's going on with power outages?
   
   PG&E is implementing PSPS, "Public Safety Power Shutoffs", during times of high fire risk (dry, high winds), in an attempt to prevent wildfires.
   
   ​
   
   How do I stay up to date about power outage information? Am I affected?
   
   Official City of Berkeley webpage about PG&E outages.
   
   PG&E Outage subpage.
   
   PG&E outage map - use to check if you're out of power.
   
   PG&E's Twitter may be a better information source if high traffic causes other websites to go down.
   
   Other alternative sources available here.
   
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   What's on fire right now?
   
   Official California wildfire maps here. A colored highlighted section will appear when a fire perimeter for a significant fire is created. Incidents not covered by CalFire (the state fire department) are listed as "Not a CAL FIRE Incident", in which you can click on it to find out which local city fire department will have more information. Status updates and evacuation orders are listed under each fire's specific page.
   
   ​
   
   Tell me about the Air Quality Index (AQI)?
   
   Official EPA AQI website here. The AQI is a metric used to measure air quality and certain pollutants, such as PM2.5 and ozone.
   
   Unofficial AQI site - PurpleAir. Not government official, but there are significantly more sensors that are higher resolution and generally more accurate.
   
   You should wear a respirator for an AQI of about 150 or above.
   
   ​
   
   What is PM2.5?
   
   PM2.5 refers to fine dust particles less than 2.5 microns/micrometers in diameter - these are the particles that come from heavy pollution (see: China) and wildfires (see: California). In short, they damage your respiratory systems like no tomorrow (depending on concentration and duration of exposure) for both short term (asthma, heart attacks) and long term (respiratory disease risk increase). Source. Source 2.
   
   These particles are microscopic and cannot be seen, which means the best way you should check if you need to protect from it is to check an official AQI source, NOT simply check if it's smog/smokey outside. (FYI context - the average virus is 0.3 microns in size.)
   
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   What are other major risks to be aware of?
   
   ​
   
   Water
   
   Running water may suddenly stop. Water utilities are vulnerable to both power outages and wildfires - lack of power to run pump equipment, and water redistribution to firefighting efforts will cause water outages.
   
   EBMUD (East Bay Municipality Utility District) website.
   
   ​
   
   Prepare - Have 1 gallon of water per person, per day, for 2 weeks of self reliance. If you don't have that much storage, fill as many bottles as you can. Then buy water storage containers such as Aquatainers (cheap, larger capacity) or jerry-can style water containers (more durable, better leak-proof, and smaller capacity + handle design = easier to lift and move to your car. Water is HEAVY.).
   
   ​
   
   Cash
   
   Credit card readers and ATMs may not work, and stores will begin to only accept cash. In addition to power outages, network outages will disable the verification process credit cards - so even if you have power, credit card readers will not work.
   
   ​
   
   Prepare - Have a backup reserve of physical cash on hand for at LEAST 2 weeks worth of expenses. Smaller bills are better.
   
   ​
   
   Internet
   
   Wi-Fi and power outages are not directly correlated to each other.
   
   If there is internet coming to your building, but your building has no power, you can still use your Wi-Fi network if you can run your modem/router on backup power somehow.
   
   If the ISP network center, which sends the internet to your building, is experiencing power outage issues, then you will have Wi-Fi outages, even if your building has power.
   
   -----
   
   Source for most of the respirator info - very long but thorough.
   
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   If there's more info to add or correct, feel free to comment and I'll edit this. Hope this helps everyone - stay safe out there.

/u/jeffster888 pretty much already covered everything I was going to say. It is indeed the "Nifty Fifty" and it's a lens I decided was a great value after doing a lot of research into it.

I don't actually own the stock lens. Somehow my camera body didn't come with it. The lens I normally use is a Canon 18-135 mm lens (pretty sure it's this one), and it's great because it has a huge range of zoom. IMO it far surpasses the stock lens. :P I only got my 50mm one pretty recently but I absolutely love shallow depth of field so I'm still playing around and learning how to work with it.

IMO, lens is more important than the body (as long as your body is at least decent) because you can do a lot more with different lens than you can with a different body. Also, lens are interchangeable, which makes them really handy in different situations. You definitely should consider some other lens. The stock one I've heard is decent (never personally used it though as I don't own one), but if you want to get a little deeper, definitely look for other lens. I highly recommend both lenses I have. :)

Check out this book before you apply/commit to a program. I know it's not that helpful for someone to throw a book at you when you asked a question, but I think it's pretty useful for someone considering entering a PhD program.

One other quick piece of advice I'd give is to forego choosing a lab that does the sexiest research in lieu of a lab that

A. Is a fun place to be with good people around you
B. Has a PI that cares about what is best for YOU first and foremost, even if it is different from a traditional academic career.
C. Has projects that involve day-to-day activities that you'd actually enjoy doing (working on nobel-winning work that's really boring and monotonous is still boring and monotonous)
D. Has stability in funding for the entirety of your PhD

This is the most famous Hindu epic, every Indian child knows it and most of the (PG parts, anyway) story. Very exciting story.

One of the core ideas, to me, is that everyone, including the most supreme gods, have their fatal flaws and personality weaknesses, and even the evilest demons have their good sides. Another one is that often in life there is no clear moral choice, and making the right choice seems impossible, even to a god, which brings up the question of what it means to be a moral person at all.

Featuring:

• a jealous queen that gets the king-to-be, Rama, exiled from his city (turns out: Rama is the incarnation of one of the 3 supreme gods Vishnu), so her own son would be crowned king
  
  
• a demon disgusing himself as a deer in an incredibly clever plot to kidnap Sita, Rama's wife
  
  
• the demon Ravana taking Sita to his island kingdom fortress of Lanka (Sri Lanka)
  
  
• how does Rama cross? He gets his army of monkeys to build a bridge of stones all the way from India to Lanka
  
  
• an incredible and lengthy battle between Rama and Ravana, including Ravana's brother Kumbakarna, who only wakes up every 3 months and then eats everything in sight, and Hanuman, a monkey god (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanuman), lifting an entire mountain on his back all the way to the battleground because he couldn't find the herb he needed
  
  
• Rama crowned king but the people of his city think his wife is impure (since Ravana kidnapped her), so by public opinion Rama is forced to exile his own wife. (being a good governor vs being a good person question here, Rama knew Sita was pure)
  
  Leaving out a ton of exciting details. Any translation should be fine [although Goldman's one is sure to be interesting!] (https://www.amazon.com/Ramayana-Shortened-Version-Penguin-Classics/dp/0143039679), but I do like illustrated versions (https://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Ramayana-Children-India-Epic/dp/8184682425) as well.
  
  If you're looking for a story with more philosophical questions about good vs. evil, morality, and justice, check out the Mahabharata, an even more epic tale. At one point the "good guys" gamble away their wife during a dice game. This is where the famous Bhagvad Gita comes from, which is where Krishna and Arjuna talk about the justness of war.

It very depends on your major. I would argue that it's way easier to get a high GPA in social sciences vs. hardcore sciences/engineering.

For example, if you get a 3.9 GPA as EECS major, you're probably a genius + very hard working with no life. Same thing with MCB and others.

My recommendations:

• Prioritize slides if acceptable. Lectures would have on avg 15-25 slides. 50% of them (at least) are junk like background info and useless information. There is X amount of material that a Prof. can ask you on the exam. Stick to the big picture and grasp the idea behind important slides. I had a color scheme of slides in an excel spreadsheet. I did a column for each lecture and each row was the lecture slide. Then I just color scheme with 4 colors which slides are more important than others. I first studied just the very important slides, then the less important and I left the junk slides to the last minute, mainly when I had a very good grasp on the other slides.
  
  
• Record the lectures. Purchase a good recorder on Amazon or anywhere else and it would be your best friend. Some Professors are lecturing at 200mph, and it's impossible to take all the notes during the lecture. There would also be lecture when you are just too tired to listen, or it wouldn't be your day to take notes and grasp the material. I would recommend this very expensive one, but a very good one: https://www.amazon.com/Sony-ICDTX50-Digital-Flash-Recorder/dp/B007BD0H1G/ref=pd_sbs_229_3?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B007BD0H1G&pd_rd_r=NEB64ERTF3A05EH5FR60&pd_rd_w=fa4Ol&pd_rd_wg=UJru7&psc=1&refRID=NEB64ERTF3A05EH5FR60
  
  but others would work too. Some Professors had an accent and shitty recorders did a pretty bad job.
  
  
• Do and understand all the assigned problem sets. Do them again and again if you don't understand it. Ask the GSIs/Professors questions about those problem set since they are 100% going to be on the exam (or concepts from them, so understand the concept behind each problem set).
  
  
• Don't waste time reading the book. Skim the book chapters (you can get the book online as a PDF usually for free or go to the library) , read the titles, read the first and last two sentences of each paragraph, and read what each word that is in bold means. If there is a picture/diagram in the book, and it's relevant to your lecture, make sure you understand everything in it. If not, ask you GSI/Professor.
  
  
  Good luck buddy.

Former 61C ugrad TA here. 61C is broken into 6 main ideas, which you can find on the last slide of the first lecture: http://www-inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs61c/sp13/lec/01/2013Sp-CS61C-L01-dg-intro.pdf

From personal experience, 61C seems to be more difficult for most people than 61A or 61B. On the other hand, if you've been struggling with 61A or 61B, then 61C provides a much more level playing field - the material is new for pretty much everyone, so someone who's been programming since the beginning of high school doesn't have as much of an advantage as they do in the earlier classes.

Also I realize that the advice I'm about to give is devalued since I'm a former staff member, but if you want any type of A, READ THE BOOK CAREFULLY (the book I'm referencing is http://www.amazon.com/Computer-Organization-Design-Fourth-Edition/dp/0123747503/ref=dp_ob_title_bk). There are tons of subtleties in the material that we simply don't have enough time to cover in lecture/discussion/lab but are essential to doing well on projects/exams. The book is meaty, but probably the best book in the world for this material.

Feel free to respond to this if you have more questions.

If you're the type, playing board games/card games with friends is relaxing and sociable, and can also exercise your mind. A deck of cards is super cheap, and while board games have larger up front costs, you can play the same one tons of times. I'm not talking older/classic games (like Monopoly) but rather new, designer board games like The Settlers of Catan, Carcassone, or Ticket to Ride. Card games I like are Hearts and Euchre.

Yeah the book was eventually made, but it was rather quietly released without the publicity Kerr had hoped. You can buy a copy of the original 1967 edition on Amazon amazingly.

(edit: It appears that the 2012 freshmen did get a special gift copy of Fiat Lux, which makes me quite jealous. It also makes me wonder why the school doesn't have the book on sale in the Cal Student Store– I'm sure a lot of people would buy it.)

Hopefully you started freshman year, there is only really 6 semesters and 2 summers on your transcript for high school.

Might be overkill, but I had 2200+ SAT, comparable ACT, 3.8/4.2 GPA, dozen+ APs, lots of good extracurriculars (STEM and others), sports, summer jobs, etc. I would say the biggest thing I lacked was independent projects (not just programming) showcasing my interest, but everything worked out I guess.

I would say this: try to max out your schedule in terms of difficulty (for what you're allowed/meant to take), join relevant clubs and try to get notable achievements in them in what time you have, and perhaps do some CS stuff that you can showcase on your own (app to track sleeping habits, voting website for school elections, etc etc).

If you're looking for reading material, try this, I enjoyed it quite a bit when I read it in high school.

1. Lights yes. Drivers here suck. Pedestrians here suck. Hell, most of the other cyclists on campus and around Berkeley suck too if I'm going to be honest... You want everyone to see you, and you also want to be able to see, especially the potholes and pedestrians.
   
   It's winter so lights are a super worthy investment, especially because they last a long time and you'll be able to use them for years before you run into battery/durability issues.
   
   You don't really need the lock posted in the comment you replied to. I mean I have one myself and all, but I don't carry it normally because the value of my campus commuter isn't worth the weight of the lock (that bitch is heavy.) I only use it if I happen to want to ride one of my nicer bikes around, or if I'm going to be parking my bike at the BART station or downtown for a whole day- that kind of thing.
   
   IMO the Evolution Series 2 U-lock plus the cable is going to be fine for most on campus usage as long as you're not leaving the bike unattended for a whole day, or overnight. Biggest thing when locking up is doing it properly. Make sure the u-lock gets the frame and your rear wheel both, and use your cable for the front.
   
   
2. It's a pretty meh choice. A popular bikesdirect road bike is the Windsor Wellington, but I wouldn't recommend it either. The money you save on the bike itself is not worth the frustration from riding a poorly assembled and adjusted bike. You'd pay $100 at any of the local shops to have them assemble and adjust it anyway, and riding an improperly adjusted bike is an un-fun PITA. Doing the assembling and adjusting yourself is "easy" but doing it right takes some tools you may not have, and some finesse that takes a while to learn. That being said, the cheapest road bike from one of the LBSs (Local Bike Shops) here will run you at least upper 600s IIRC, so take your pick.
   
   If you think you'll be riding regularly though, as transportation and recommendation, I highly recommend you go with an LBS option because people who know what they're talking about will guide you through your choices.

They're $10 on amazon and you can get it delivered free to MLK in two days with a free amazon student prime account.
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2/141-3173843-7478613?url=search-alias%3Dmobile&field-keywords=usb+c+charger

Edit: here is a good amazon basics cable that I use for my mac ($7): https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-USB-Type-C-2-0-Cable/dp/B01GGKYZQM/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8&th=1

I have this one and I actually really like it. Super affordable too. Made the on-campus beds much more bearable. I have the 2-inch and that's been good enough for my needs. :)

>coming up with a coherent political theory

For what it's worth, my personal impression is that intellectuals on the far right are more coherent in their politics than intellectuals on the far left. Intellectuals on the far right can often point to specific things they think work well, such as Singapore, or European monarchies. Sometimes they even have radical new proposals... but at least they are concrete. I less often here of concrete ideas coming from the far left. My general impression is that the far left has strong ideals about radical egalitarianism, but no plan for how to achieve it that's more sophisticated than "destroy everyone who disagrees with us".

Of course, most of the people on both sides who show up for events like this one are not intellectuals and don't have coherent views.

I've found that just making a lot of people drinks constantly is really good practice.

Of course, a classroom setting is nice, but if you want a way to learn with less overhead, just keep asking your housemates if they want a drink.

Whenever you encounter something weird (eg why does a Washington Apple taste like ass with Maker's Mark but delicious with Crown Royal?) you can read up on it online.

Also, highly recommend this book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Ultimate-Bar-Book-Comprehensive/dp/0811843513/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346205273&sr=8-2&keywords=bartending

Again, this isn't meant as a suggestion to replace classes, but rather, if you aren't able to find the time or money or tenacity to go to bartending classes.

Thank you for putting in the time to look up these courses. If you don't mind, can you please tell me how taking this modern control sequence compares to just reading the textbook linked below? I am asking strictly in terms of content/knowledge to be gained (as being mentored is always preferable to reading the textbook alone).

https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Control-Engineering-Katsuhiko-Ogata/dp/0136156738

Background in you are curious:

I am preparing to take this course at Waterloo - http://compneuro.uwaterloo.ca/courses/syde-750/syde-556-course-outline.html - which mentions control theory in its description.

This is the best damn self study book I have ever seen on the subject and think it does better than the latter half of Math 53 in setting up many of the key concepts.

It is short, to the point, and from the outset makes the connections to EM abundantly clear. It is not difficult to find copies of that text online.

they do sell a pack of 10 water bottles at Amazon for $19, in case you're interested. https://www.amazon.com/CSBD-Fitness-Squeeze-Bottles-Plastic/dp/B07B69LT5B