Hey everyone!

I'm installing all the necessary software onto my laptop for september and I was wondering what to install!

I'm in math&stats, so my courses are: math 1X03, 1xx3, 1b03, 1c03, physics 1b03, 1ba3, compsci 1ma3, econ 1b03, 1bb3 and matls 1M03.

I currently only have a virus scan, TI Connect, matlab, adobe acrobat and microsoft office (This is what happens when you end up building your own laptop).

Anything else I should consider getting? Does mac give out any necessary software?

Maple or Mathematica will probably be useful since it is much better at symbolic computation than Matlab.

They have student discounts for both products I believe.

If you're looking to type out Math symbols and such, you should familiarize yourself with LaTeX. It's kind of complicated when you're just starting out, but it's how professional papers are written (once you 'program' the format, it automatically does it for you).

Depending on your interests, you may want to look into some graphing calculator software. Maple and Mathematica are both kinda overkill in my opinion, but they could be very helpful at times.

EDIT:

Here's a sample paper I wrote in LaTeX 2 years ago. I was by no means an expert, but I think it looks nice enough:

OH wow. LaTeX seems really useful. Those symbols are always insanity to get on word.

I have a TI-84plus Silver Edition and a TI-89 Titanium. I only have TI Connect for it and all I know how to do is print screen the stuff with TI Screen Capture... Anything else for first year I'll absolutely need?

You are going to want all the software to access the McMaster wireless network.

Before you try to connect to the wireless network you'll need

1) A valid anti virus

2) Windows Updates (I think SP2 + all security updates as a minimum if you're using XP)

2) Clean Access Agent - needed to connect to McMaster wireless (I couldn't find it, but you can download it as soon as you try to connect to the Mac network)
- Use macID to login

3) If you're off campus and/or you want to access the entire McMaster network (not just the internet connection) you'll also need to use Cisco VPN If you're on campus, connect to VPN after connecting to the Clean Access Agent.
- Use macID to login

Also DO Definitely use One Note instead of Ms Word for any subjective courses. It is wayyy better then the more clumsy Word and makes it super easy to organize stuff under one application. You can even search in ALL of your notes for stuff! Alot of people don't even know about it for some reason.

I wouldn't recommend using your computer to take notes in class. I don't even like it for my classes with regular english notes, but it's terrible for chemistry, physics, maths, etc. with all of the symbols and equations.

Originally Posted by tauntobr

I wouldn't recommend using your computer to take notes in class. I don't even like it for my classes with regular english notes, but it's terrible for chemistry, physics, maths, etc. with all of the symbols and equations.

Oh yeah *facepalm* I just noticed you have nothing subjective at all. I probably am able to type fast enough to type directly to my laptop(and edit it later) but alot of times especially for graph/numbers heavy stuff like Econ I used to do it on a pen/paper notebook and later Draw them onto my One note, but I wouldn't obviously recommennd everyone to go through that whole process, its VERY time consuming

speaking of wireless access, is there any way mcmaster tracks, via your account when you log in wirelessly, how much you download? for example limit on rez was 2gb, is there a limit when your downloading wirelessly? and if so does anyone know what it is?

Originally Posted by zango

speaking of wireless access, is there any way mcmaster tracks, via your account when you log in wirelessly, how much you download? for example limit on rez was 2gb, is there a limit when your downloading wirelessly? and if so does anyone know what it is?

I'm not sure, but the few times I tried using P2P over the Wireless network back in first year, it didn't connect.

Originally Posted by tauntobr

I'm not sure, but the few times I tried using P2P over the Wireless network back in first year, it didn't connect.

yeah they probably block the most common ports or something, guess ill just have to test it out for myself and see what happens.

Originally Posted by tauntobr

I'm not sure, but the few times I tried using P2P over the Wireless network back in first year, it didn't connect.

Were you using the VPN client? Some P2P programs might be blocked but for the most part everything should be accessible with VPN + Clean Access.

Originally Posted by tauntobr

I'm not sure, but the few times I tried using P2P over the Wireless network back in first year, it didn't connect.

I've gotten Torrents to work from time to time (Usually around 100 KB/s). Overall, they do seem to shape the traffic a bit on the wireless.

Originally Posted by Ownaginatios

I've gotten Torrents to work from time to time (Usually around 100 KB/s). Overall, they do seem to shape the traffic a bit on the wireless.

wow, yeah but 100 kb/s is pretty good, i would have only expected to get about 20 on wifi on campus.

i dont know since i didnt torrent on rez last year since dc++ was my baby haha!

but yeah, always good cuz then when im at school during the day i can keep my torrents running and what not, awesome.

did you do anything to your torrent client like change ports or anything? or did you just manage those speeds as soon as you logged on?

Originally Posted by zango

wow, yeah but 100 kb/s is pretty good, i would have only expected to get about 20 on wifi on campus.

i dont know since i didnt torrent on rez last year since dc++ was my baby haha!

but yeah, always good cuz then when im at school during the day i can keep my torrents running and what not, awesome.

did you do anything to your torrent client like change ports or anything? or did you just manage those speeds as soon as you logged on?

I don't think I changed the ports or anything; it was just a fluke that would sometimes happen. My client was uTorrent.

This year DC++ will be available on the campus wireless network as well. I'm interested in seeing what speeds we get on that or if it will even work.