Helpful (and free) tech resources for your academic and professional needs. Please email me about failed links.

Math-friendly editors:

• LyX – visual LaTeX editor. Tutorials: LyX tutorials, Google for more
• Knitr – connects LaTeX (or LyX) editor to R (code runs from LyX). Tutorials:LyX+Knitr Setup Instructions

Scientific computing and Computer Algebra Systems (CAS)

• Python – high-level language with multitude of sci-comp packages (w)
  • Python interpreter/compiler:
    • Anaconda (free) includes interpreter + core packages (pandas, scikit, …) (w)
    • or Python.org: interpreter only. You’d also need to install core packages yourself.
  • IDE: PyCharm – popular IDE (w). Academic (full) version. Other IDE
  • Resources: tutorials, wiki, documentation, reference, StackOverflow forum

  R – popular free programming language for scientific/statistical computing & visualization

  • R Project – core engine and IDE
  • RStudio – popular and easy-to-use IDE  (w)
  • Revolution R – full-featured MS VS IDE, free for academics. Great debugger, but slow.
  • Tutorials: swirl interactive R learning, by R Core Team (short), by R Core Team (full), by UCLA SCG, more on Google
  • Tutorials: R in Finance
    • CRAN Task View: Empirical Fin, TS Analysis, Comp Econ
    • RMetrics – wealth of R code for finance
    • Guy Yollin: Intro, Portfolio Optimiz’n, TS forecasting, Quant Fin. Intro, Hi-Freq Data Analysis
    • R/Finance workshop – 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, A Little Book of R for TS
• Matlab for students – with 10 add-on, \$99 (license till graduation) (w)
• Julia – high-level/performance CAS from MIT (w)
• C/C++
• Free Microsoft Visual Studio (MS VS) 2013 download for students!! Free VS 2015 is here.
  • An excellent IDE for Python, C/C++/#, Fortran, and many more languages. Also supports Git.
• Free Intel C++ compiler for students
• Fortran – well suited for sci-comp (w). Intel Fortran Composer XE for students – \$49
• Java – very-OOP language (w)
• Mathematica – free for Rice students (w). Student’s version from Wolfram at about \$140
• Octave – (w)
• Visual Basic – Not a tool of choice, but it has its “basic” strengths ! :)) (w). Free MS VS for students!!
• SQL – structured query language for databases (w)
• MS SQL at DreamSpark for free for students!! (w)
• MySQL – free relational DB system (w)
• Code Version Control (Git)
  • Git servers: GitHub,  Bitbucket (free private repositories), and many more
  • Visual Studio 2013/2015, GitHub client, SourceTree, Git Gui
    • I had trouble with GitHub and Git Gui functionality, but SourceTree worked well. Now trying VS.

Data Banks:

• DataMarket.com – free account includes data download
• UCI Machine Learning Repository –  free, find a data set for your specific data mining needs
• Market Matrix – free, choose a dataset based on its visual representation
• US Census Bureau – free government data
• SNAP: Stanford Network Analysis Project
• Yelp Dataset Challenge
• Google Wikipedia Dataset
• Kaggle – data mining competitions and free datasets
• Bloomberg terminal – to the benefit of Rice students at Jones Graduate School of Business

PDF Tools:

• CamScanner – creates scan-like pdf files from photos (great for HW submissions, document “scanning,” etc.) (for iPhone)
• pdfFactory – allows printing to a PDF file from any document with many features (just like printing to a printer device)
• eXpert PDF Reader – free PDF reader (allows attaching files and basic editing)
• Adobe Acrobat Pro – great tool for all sorts of PDF editing (student’s version  $$120)
  • This is different from the (free) Adobe Reader, which is a basic viewer, not an editor
  • Attaching file to a PDF doc
• FoxIT – (free for 30 days) equivalent of Adobe Acrobat Pro (most key/popular features are included)
• NitroPDF – (free evaluation) and similar to FoxIT
• More freeware and shareware on CNet.com

Research Tools:

• Zotero & Mendeley – great for collecting, organizing, sharing of research articles
  • I evaluated both and greatly prefer Zotero because of its several distinct features:
    • It grabs the PDF and all its meta data from most research sites with one click
    • It opens PDF files with your default viewer so you can edit (highlight, OCR, crop, etc.) PDF and save changes
      • Mendeley uses its viewer, but opening with another viewer is possible with more clicks
• Calibre – great for organizing all types of books (PDF, DJVU, EPUB, CHM, etc.) on your PC.
  • Not designed for publications, but awesome for textbooks

Create Personal websites:

• Rice.edu (this) site (managed by WordPress)
• Google Sites – easily create your personal site for CV, research, business, etc.
• LinkedIn – great CV tool, but a poor job search site (original concept)
• WordPress – create academic, professional or personal website. Available through Rice University (hosted via Rice.edu)

Security Tools:

• Roboform – excellent password manager (about $30 personal license) for your web accounts needs. Mobile phone friendly

Disclaimer: I do not endorse any software listed here. I’m not responsible for any software or it’s maker’s malicious intent. It’s student’s responsibility to remain cautious.