--- title: College computer setup #description: #feed_description: author: Issa Rice creation_date: 2015-07-28 last_major_revision_date: 2015-07-28 language: English # Possible values are "notes", "draft", "in progress", and # "mostly finished" status: notes # Possible values are "certain", "highly likely", "likely", "possible", # "unlikely", "highly unlikely", "remote", "impossible", "fiction", and # "emotional" belief: emotional # accepts "CC0", "CC-BY", or "CC-BY-SA" license: CC0 tags: uw, computing #aliases: --- # First year Over the course of my first year at [University of Washington](), my computer setup changed a few times, so I thought I'd talk about them here (since it might help others decide on how to approach their own college computer setup). Before college, I didn't have a fast laptop computer; my main machine actually was an Acer laptop but its screen was broken so in order to use it I had to connect it to an external monitor! I didn't want to take this machine to my dorm room because I knew it would be a pain to setup, and also I still wanted a computer to use at home. I didn't get a laptop for college at first (unlike many of my peers). My reasoning was that laptops are easily stolen, and I didn't expect to do any "real" work outside my dorm room: I can still program in my room, and I have my phone with me all the time to read things on, so why would I spend several hundred dollars on a new laptop? So I decided to build a desktop for my dorm room, and keep my "laptop" with the broken screen at home. You might think a desktop would be more expensive, but because a friend had some extra parts for most of the machine, and was willing to basically give it away to me, I was able to get the desktop for around $60. Since I already had an extra monitor, keyboard, and mouse, this was a pretty cheap and good deal. Due to some complications with building the machine though^[A defective motherboard and optical drive.], actually bringing the computer to my dorm was delayed several weeks(?).^[ A little before courses had started, but after I had already moved into my dorm, I actually remember asking a question on Quora about how to get a Haskell compiler for the UW library computers. ] So for the first few weeks (?) I didn't really have a computer in college (this wasn't *really* a problem though, in terms of doing coursework: most of the homework was due each week so I could just e.g. do math problems on paper and LaTeX them over the weekend). Later, I had begun working with a friend in a UW library each week to do some extra CS learning. This, of course, required having a device on which I could program that was portable. No problem, I decided to buy a Google Nexus 7 tablet, and then connect to a Linode machine in the cloud that had everything already setup. I could even buy a Bluetooth keyboard because Vim on a touchscreen didn't sound like fun. Well, this worked for a while, except the Bluetooth keyboard wasn't that great to type on, and *constantly* depending on WiFi to connect to Linode wasn't that great either (although UW does provide WiFi everywhere). This setup, where I would take the tablet and phone around during the day and then work on my desktop in my dorm room, lasted for most of the year. Part of why I didn't change earlier was that most classes continued to not really require a laptop; we never programmed in class or anything and all I needed was a browser, which the tablet adequately supplied. Even when studying with my friend, a lot of the time we'd just be reading and doing problems on paper, so being able to program wasn't *that* important. In spring quarter though, I finally got a Thinkpad x220^[Two friends independently suggested I get this machine!], which was great timing because having an actual mobile machine to program on was important for [ATM S 559](). # Second year at UW I've gotten really used to having a laptop to take around with me everywhere. I actually often just keep the Thinkpad in my backpack even when I don't necessarily use it in class (it noticeably makes my backpack heavier though). This year, being able to program outside of my dorm room has been more important: CSE 332 has partner programming projects, so being able to work in a public space is useful. In addition, math 33X this year has had a lot more opportunities to work with classmates on problem sets, and since I typeset most of my homework with LaTeX, it's useful to be able to solve a problem and then type it up all while working with people in a library. I actually like my Thinkpad so much now that I just use it at home as well; I just take it back each weekend. At home I hook it up to an external monitor and enjoy a dual-screen setup.