What are /r/PennStateUniversity's favorite Products & Services?

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Penn State dad here. My son will be a third year student in the fall. I can tell you that the dorm bedding is Twin XL. It's like a twin sized bed, but longer. You should be able to find these sheets in places like Bed, Bath & Beyond, as well as Home Goods.

I also highly recommend you get a ventilated, foam mattress topper to make the bedding more comfortable. This is the one we bought when he first moved in:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01NCF1XC6

That's not available any longer, but you can use that as a reference. You'll note the ventilation holes to keep things cool. Lastly, you'll probably want to get some kind of mattress pad to keep the topper and bed clean.

Good luck to your daughter!

P.S. I'm presuming she's going to be at University Park. If so, hopefully she got herself in one of the renovated dorms in East. Those are much more modern, and each room has its own air conditioning! Let me know if you have any other questions.

A HotShot, 100%. It's a tiny water heater that is invaluable in the dorms and can heat up water in less than a minute. Can make hot water for tea, Ramen noodles, easy Mac, or Oatmeal. Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000C3QSPQ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_YGFhBbBCK0Q3A

Unless they changed the rules, you're allowed to have the dorms, whereas you cannot have a toaster, etc.

Edit: And because someone mentioned meal plans... You can really empty out your meal account quickly by going to the dining hall 3 times a day, so being able to make oatmeal in your room before class is both extremely economical, and a big time saver over going to the Commons.

Don't waste your money on textbook and get them after your first class. Professor usually say they are required but then never use it, instead pirate books. Only buy if it's the one that has homework in it.

https://libgen.is/

https://b-ok.cc/

I just graduated and I only took 1 class that used java, the rest basically used C or some functional language. Honestly the language doesn't matter (after you really understand the first language, you get the rest, almost every higher level class makes you learn another language eventually), every language uses the same core concepts just a different syntax. Early on, I see a lot of freshman not understand the core concepts like loops, recursion, etc. And they fall behind real fast because everything is based on these fundamentals. You can't expect to learn more advanced stuff without understanding the basics. In some degrees you can get away with this, but not in comp sci =/. Everything really builds off of each other.

Id recommend learning python because it's real easy to get into. http://www.codecademy.com/en/tracks/python is a good place to start.

Understand that if you've never done this before it might get frustrating, or you might just not get it or you're like fuck this, I'm done. Just take a break, it's summer so you have time. Go at your own pace, even if it's a turtles.

Fair warning: CMPSC 121 is a weedout class.

Nestor Handzy is the greatest goddamn professor you will ever have.

This is a man who will draw chalkboard sharks when asked without batting an eye. A man who will interrupt his own lectures to talk about The Walking Dead.

http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=1490333

Earlier this year I read Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy by Tim Harford that tried to look at that same question. He argued the plow was the single most important invention because it allowed us to move from subsistence farming, which gave us time to create everything else.

I'm obsessed with data visualizations and how they can be used to help people. I teach my upper-level economics course with Tableau and have students complete data visualizations over various labor data sets. I think being able to tell a story with data visually will be a crucial requirement over the coming decades.

It's not people who want to "live green", I just like going to their parties often. If you're really curious, they're having an open house Saturday.

https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=165045383586963 PS: Onward state wrote about the co op a while back

-Abdul

It's not an area I'm intimately familiar with, but it's interesting to see how much money has been pumped into the economy recently without almost no real change in inflation rates. I read Money by Jacob Goldstein over the summer and it was really interesting. It has a small chapter on QE.

Cata+ is much better than the official app. Shows the real time location of busses, info on if individual busses are running late or early, the predicted time busses will arrive at a specific stop, and the official schedule of each bus route. I'm not sure if it's available for iOS too.

This is a link to pdf of the textbook (different cover with more chapters, but I’m pretty sure it’s the same) MATH 140/141/230. https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=65C61A14589C5D272D3187BFAC3F52B3

If you want a physical copy, I have the textbook for MATH 140/141/230 that I am trying to sell so let me know if you want to buy it (shameless plug lol)

(PS definitely check libgen.is before buying any textbooks. You'll save a lot of money!)

Bonus awesome points for Sam: He was named one of the 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America by some conservative cook. And I'm seconding this recommendation. And here's a TED talk he did so you can get a feel for who he is and the way he lectures.

One thing to note about the northeast US in general is that the average coldest day of the year doesn't happen until late January or early February. So yeah, this is nothing as to what might happen.

https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/file/contiguous-us-climatological-coldest-day-year-mapjpg

The worst part of PA winters is that it's not just cold, but windy. The winter weather patterns create a setup where winds are constantly blowing from Canada across the state. A 25 mph wind in winter doesn't feel very good.

https://www.wunderground.com/history/monthly/us/pa/state-college/KUNV/date/2019-1

Also keep in mind we get occasional cold blasts. Excluding a polar vortex situation, It's not uncommon for the low temperature to dip below 0 for a day or two.

I had Katarzyna Przybyla (Kasha) for 141 this past spring semester, and she was a great professor. She would teach extremely well, although her accent may be hard for some to understand. She was very understanding if students needed extra help on the homework or even in class. Overall I would give her 5/5, even check out her RateMyProfessor page. I had Bang first semester for 140 and he was great too. I found that his accent was slightly harder to understand, but he was still overall a great professor as well. I can't speak to how he teaches 141, but I would assume it would be similar to 140. Since 141 is considered to be harder than 140, choosing a good professor is quite important. Here is Kasha's RateMyProfessor if you want to check out what other students think:

http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=1052716

I may be wrong with this but the closest thing I've heard to that kind of thing was this: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=a4d330b1-1f65-4154-94b9-9b3a97fcb2ae

No idea if that is even the same thing. I'd love to know more about what you're talking about though. Either way, that cache might give you some adventure anyway.

[edit] After further investigation, I realize it's not the same thing at all. Based on what I found, the authors are deliberately vague about entrances and exits. I assume you attempted to look where they kind of 'hint' at? I'd be very interested in trying as well. Probably best to keep discovery info to a limited audience though, you don't want this thread to show up in a google result with clear instructions for every idiot in town to go boozing underground

No tickets, it's just an abandoned boarded up church about 15 miles from State College. Super spooky. I've heard plenty of stories growing up here about people who supposedly broke in and had some crazy shit happen to them.

Directions

The legend

Those of us in the cycling club (and avid community by extension) have this tool called Strava (and by extension, Garmins). We have Strava segments for the Shortridge climb up to Pollock and between Pollock and Curtin on Burrowes. I wager these are almost pretty accurate.

That being said, I don't find the climb all that bad, especially considering the longer 6–7% climbs up Bald Eagle and Tussey Mountains to name two nearby ridges.

here you go

here you go I drove by there on my way home, it looks like it collapsed sorry :(

This will be our third iteration of the RepRap RPG. In our first semester last spring, we assembled 2 RepRap Mendels and 1 Huxley, and used these to print the pieces for four more Open Hybrid Mendels of our own design which we're currently building as part of RRRPG2. In the third season which you can still sign up for, we are planning to focus more on research and development projects, such as using the machines to etch our own electronics, designing alternative print-heads and beds to allow it to do PCR DNA amplification, converting electron microscopy data into printable models of nano-scale topographies, and designing an open-source dual-material extruder which works with Mendel style machines.

We call our class an RPG because its structure mimics the work of Professor Lee Sheldon of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, who found that class participation, attendance, and grades improved when he switched from a percentage style grading system - where a student begins the semester with 100 percent and loses points from there - to one styled like a role playing game where a student begins at level one with 0 experience points (XP) and earns cumulative XP throughout the semester in order to “level-up” their grade. You can take a look at our syllabus for the current semester here for more background on the Reprap project in general and the basics of our RRRPG.

If the class is full, don't hesitate to email Professor Devon and ask for a seat - we try not to turn anyone away if we can.

Air BnB might be your only option. Check places like Boalsburg https://www.airbnb.com/s/Boalsburg--PA--United-States?checkin=09%2F18%2F2015&checkout=09%2F20%2F2015&source=bb&ss_id=xt757ou2

I'd like to direct you to the following link: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/sport

If you would be so kind, direct your attention to definition 9. This is the operational definition of sport that we use. Much like yourself, we go online and fuck with people.

Just did my part.

I also realized, that referring new dropbox users with PSU addresses will give PSU even more points.

My referral link is here. I encourage the rest of you to post your referral links here or on your facebook pages to get more members. I believe that for each person that creates a new acct from your ref link, you and the new member get 500MB of extra space.

Let the race begin!

If you would like to check in with current Energy and Sustainability Policy (ESP) students, feel free to post to our Facebook page or if you'd like to talk with alumni, visit our LinkedIn group. I am an adviser in the program and I too would be glad to speak with you if you have any questions! Feel free to email me at

For iPhone users

An alternative

P.S. This is a lot of hassle for some shitty Doritos. Long live Fritos.

NO! The university will be watching you and you'll be flagged big time.

Go with a private VPN, but even then, the university will be monitoring your internet traffic usage and they'll know what you're up to just from the traffic patterns of uploads/downloads.

I use Private Internet Access myself at home, but bear in mind I'm off campus and not a student so don't have to worry about such things. I also don't torrent because there's no need for me to do so at this stage of life.

I really liked this book.

https://www.amazon.com/Programming-Language-2nd-Brian-Kernighan/dp/0131103628

it is like 50 years old so i guarantee you can pirate a copy or get one used somewhere.

You might scoff at such an old book but it was literally written by the guy who designed the C language and it is a very good book.

Note that it does assume you have some knowledge of programming already but it shouldn't be too hard regardless.

I know you said watch but wanted to put this on the radar, there is a Penn State Gameday app that you can listen to the game (Steve Jones) * andriod * apple

At least we didn't get the brute force of it. Welcome to an easy day in Canada.

https://weather.com/storms/winter/news/2020-01-18-newfoundland-blizzard-record-daily-snow-st-johns

All I can find is this http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/penn-states-takes-down-photo-of-elmo-being-given-a

With no explanation of whether it was a BOT or Sesame Street decision to remove the photo. Or if it was removed for another reason.

Not a representative or anything, but I’ve been using notion and it’s been great. At this point I can’t imagine how easy it’s made my life. Feel free to check if out if it feels useful for you

https://www.notion.so

It's honestly not that hard, just a little tedious. Follow the directions and you'll be fine. I would recommend getting a screwdriver set, preferably with a ratchet screwdriver because it makes it a lot faster than using the crappy hex wrench they usually have for these.

https://www.amazon.com/Amartisan-Multi-bit-Screwdriver-Portable-Multi-Purpose/dp/B097HN6L2B/

If you absolutely can't put the things together, I'm not working and could probably help, but seriously, like someone else said, it's practically a rite of passage for your first apartment and you just look at the directions and use common sense. You'll feel so accomplished when you assemble that first item and once you get the first thing, you'll be faster with the others.

Hey everyone, I am conducting a survey for a project that I am doing. I am looking to understand the perceptions that college students have on violent video games and their effects on the people who play them. I am attaching the survey to this post, and any responses would be greatly appreciated!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFRra3ZFZm9vSEg4ZVZUTVhZRmhVZmc6MQ

Thanks to anyone who takes the time to fill it out!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001R1Q0OG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

​

This saved my life freshmen year. Anything Honeywell is generally good

If you only need to carry a MacBook, I suggest you could buy a small backpack. I often ride my bike to campus, make sure you have a durable mountain bike, the hills around campus are crazy.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XZTZ7GB?ref\_=cm\_sw\_r\_cp\_ud\_dp\_YSS6H235FZNW1SK54TNE

Anyone who says they don't encounter ticks in this area is completely wrong. Ticks are terrible almost everywhere. Our area (in Fisherman's Paradise) now is a rare hot spot for Deer Tick virus. https://www.lymedisease.org/penn-high-rates-deer-tick-virus/

Anecdotally I walked my dog on a leafy path (no brush or high grass) in Scotia a couple weeks ago and removed over 20 ticks from him and me, mainly on our feet and legs. I've also found them to be really bad in most random parks in State College (such as Lederer Park and Thompson Preserve), in Rothrock, in the Whipple Dam area, Lake Perez, Toftrees, Shingletown, ... honestly you have to be on your guard everywhere. I had Lyme's, it sucks. Best to come up with a serious prevention strategy and be diligent about checking yourself after every hike.

Treating your hiking clothes is the obvious step. I also recommend a Gerber Dime it's like a mini Leatherman and I've found it to be the perfect weapon for smashing any tick you find on you (before it has bitten you).

Read this. I think it'll help reframe your mindset a bit https://www.amazon.com/Subtle-Art-Not-Giving-Counterintuitive/dp/B01I29Y344/ref=sr\_1\_1?crid=DES3JHH7Y19K&keywords=the+subtle+are+of+not+giving+a+f+ck&qid=1644848789&sprefix=subtle+are%2Caps%2C149&sr=8-1

There are a good number of trails close to town, but not sure what you might be familiar with. Many of the trails are pretty rocky. You can check out trails with Open Street Maps, which is by far the best maps I've found for hiking here (trails in red). https://www.openstreetmap.org/search?query=pine%20grove%20mills%2C%20pa#map=14/40.7616/-77.8033&layers=C

I go to the law school here, and a fellow student summed it pretty well I think: https://docs.google.com/document/d/15oHWN50GS274lAXXXEhXG9efNdMboNYZouq8s90owqA/edit?pli=1

It's a work in progress, but it might shed some light on why some feel he has been treated unfairly.

Ah yes, the ol' "getting motivated at night and then totally not following through." I am well acquainted with this. It started because I had a job where there weren't a lot of demands for the first few months. I came off a previous job that was super demanding. So I slipped into coast mode like a comfy barstool. It took me literally over a year to break these bad habits.

A few things that I focus on:

1. reasonable goals (not six hours of undistracted work, but three)
2. what actually needs to be done first
3. a really good organization system. May I suggest Getting Things Done. I don't follow it 100% but I plundered his good ideas. Ignore the really lame cover. I think this guy has a good system.
4. silence. music and work is not for me. Nor are any other distractions. Social media is a killer.
5. metrics for tracking work. I dunno, it just helps and makes me feel like I did something. I used to be a huge metrics hater when it came to productivity.
6. setting up an "entry point" for work. For me, it's responding to email and doing administrative tasks first. I know exactly what I'm going to do first each day when I sit down at my desk. Sometimes I even write a sticky note the night before of what to do first.
7. getting up earlier than I need to do and getting active first thing. I either work out or clean my house for 45 minutes before starting my work. No matter what time I get up, the first 45 minutes to an hour are garbage time anyway and I never accomplish any work.

Hope any of this is helpful. It's not a good feeling to make promises to yourself and not be able to keep them. I know exactly how you feel.

Hey I commented on your post earlier. I was listening to podcasts while cutting the lawn and I thought of your post. This podcast seemed really relevant to your situation. The second half of it focuses on people that are looking for a job in this trying time. There’s good advice in here. I recommend you give it a listen.

https://castbox.fm/vd/255955173

Good luck!

You can find our syllabus and introductory slideshow here, which should give you a brief overview of how our class works. Is there anything you're curious about which I didn't cover in my wall of text elsewhere in this thread?

Depends on what levels you are talking about. If you want to play pickup with a stack, check out SCUL. They have pickup on Tuesday nights at 5:30 and Sunday afternoons at 1 on the community fields on South Atherton.

If you are looking to play pickup for fun, there is a group that plays Monday at 6:45pm on Old Main Lawn. We also play other times during the week, but monday is the "official" time. This is NON-competitive, NON-stack with people of all abilities (some who are playing for the first time). We have a facebook group, PSU Summer Sports and Beyond II. I'm out of town for the next couple weeks (and usually run things), hopefully somebody else is picking up the slack.

I'm sure that there are others, but these are the ones about which that I know and in which I am involved.

Yes, office 365 is tied to your account and a few weeks later it'll be deactivated.

You can always try LibreOffice which is a free alternative that does the same thing. It's available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

https://www.libreoffice.org/

If you like white noise, have you tried sleep headphones? I've only had mine for a few months for travel but I'd swear by them. You'll need to charge them every day though. Earplugs aren't too expensive in bulk either if that's more your speed.

+1 for investing in a mattress topper and closing the radiator in your dorm. If that's still not enough, see if you can crack open your window or run a fan pointed at you at night. Or switch to lighter weight bedding/sleepwear - I rarely used more than a lightweight quilt to sleep in the dorms and in my off-campus apartment.

Here it is

I think you'd appreciate this book

Check if the professor has any reviews on http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/

My girlfriend is almost fluent in spanish because her mother / father and grandparents are. She took an intensive spanish class during the semester and told me that it was actually pretty tough for her.

I don't know if you gleaned it from my previous posts or not but I am studying for my BS in CS at NJIT. The course you described well I have had 3 of them so far. I want you to be thankful that your department is smart enough to choose the best textbook to learn the subject at hand. I only discovered the Epps book out of desperation when I was failing my first discrete math course. It helped me raise my grade to a C. I will never forgive my professor for the bullshit he put me through.

Looking at Professor Barlow's ratings. I would say he is not too bad.

Compare that to the professor teaching my version of CS360, David Nassimi

I can see why you think Roger Chistman is bad. Holy shit 18 pages of comments on ratemyprofessor. The good comments reflect him as a bit of a challenge. I think I will maybe just audit the class so I can experience it myself. I sure as hell am going to take CS360 because I feel I got screwed at NJIT in that regard.

go through the C++ tutorial at https://www.sololearn.com/ and you will have a huge head start for that class. It can all run through your browser and you can easily learn the basics that way without needing to install anything.

Yes and no. R can be text, but there are open source tools (free for most everyone, unless you need commercial oriented features, which get quite expensive) that provide a full IDE and data visualization. The one that immediately comes to mind is R Studio (IDE), and its sister tool, Shiny, for data visualization. Check out what they have: https://www.rstudio.com

Another open source data mining tool for R is Togaware’s RATTLE: https://rattle.togaware.com

I realize SPSS has been around for a long time, but R is very popular and continues to grow rapidly. Consider that Microsoft has wrapped R in recent versions of SQL Server!

Thank you for such a useful post and answers to the most common questions on academic integrity. Unfortunately, there are a lot of similar questions on various forums and educational communities. Students commit cheating as they are not aware of all the consequences and penalties. If it is a case of unfair accusation, they also don’t understand what should be done next to protect themselves. This post will be a great help for students for sure.

Still, there is no information about the most harmful type of cheating for academic integrity. Contract cheating is extremely hard to detect and sometimes students don’t consider it to be academic dishonesty. There are a lot of insights presented in the recent interview of Thomas Lancaster with Unicheck about this topic.

Is this post a joke? There are ~15,000 people living in university housing and every single fucking one of you is addicted to growing Jeff Bezos's pile of Amazonian gold. Give it more than six hours before you start getting verklempt. You'll be slipping and sliding into those DMs before you know it.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DDXQ6NQ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_STY60R53ZQXHNDF1JD6E?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

I had one of these, and it was nice because I could take the anchor chord around campus with me, and I could also anchor it to something big and heavy in the dorm room, like a bed or desk. This link is for a Mac laptop, but I’m sure they have them for all types of laptops.

I think the lockable drawer just kind of depends on where your daughter is living. The one in my dorm room was the bottom drawer on a little rolly box-type-thing, so someone could’ve theoretically picked it up and walked out.

Probably goes without saying, but remind your daughter to always lock the door unless she or her roommate are there! Also lock it at night too.

Just to give you a reference, this is what it looks like. It's used to grade students for participation points in class. You maybe using it fall semester onwards depending on the class

I tried a couple USB adapters that were awful. I finally got this pcie card and it works fantastic. https://www.amazon.com/Network-PCIE-Wifi-6-Card/dp/B089FCX3C3/ref=asc_df_B089FCX3C3/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=459728334703&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=5650049611756914618&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&h...

I will do that, appreciate the pointer. I bought C Programming Absolute Beginner's Guide by Greg Perry and Dean Miller a while back so I might use that to complement Youtube as you suggested instead of Udemy.

if 110 pages of printer paper is that big a deal, then boy do i have a deal for you!

https://www.amazon.com/Bluetooth-FM-Transmitter-Wireless-Adapter/dp/B07F2RTN5Z/ref=zg_bs_1293687011_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=W0QYNPJ6FC43H26161ZC

Oh gotcha. I’d recommend something like this that you can plug into the outlet in the car and it works as a Bluetooth receiver but then broadcasts over a local radio station so that your car can listen to it

You said "good", so this first one from 1955 doesn't count.

The History of Pennsylvania State College: Flick-A-Rama https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvevJzYF2yw

This is from 2010. Amazon Prime.

Raise the Song: The History of Penn State https://www.amazon.com/Raise-Song-History-Penn-State/dp/B004NO6NMI

If you go to a website with HTTPS, which is most competent ones nowadays (including Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Reddit, etc), your ISP (in this case Penn State) can see the domain you connect to and a bunch of encrypted traffic. They can technically do some traffic encryption on that data to find out a little bit more but that's highly unlikely.

If you pirate over P2P networks you'll get shut down faster than you can say "I should've used a VPN".

Speaking of which, if you use a VPN such as Private Internet Access. I highly recommend them, it's relatively cheap and provides some peace of mind when browsing the web.

I've made reference to this in another thread, but in Viktor Frankl's book "Man's Search for Meaning," he discusses how people in acutely stressful situations react in ways that many people "on the outside" of the situation would see as bizarre, or at least counter-intuitive. Since I am not well-studied in matters of the psyche, I can't really recall the clinical reasons why that happens, but my guess is that it is some sort of mental defense mechanism.