LaTeX is a "document preparation system" for writing papers, books, and articles.  It is widely used, open-source, free in the sense of both "free speech" and "free beer",  and is vastly better than programs like Microsoft Word for writing scientific documents.  In this brief introduction to LaTeX, Dave Lorenzetti and Phil Price will explain what's so great about LaTeX and why you should use it.R and S-Plus are both statistics software packages with almost identical syntax and capabilities.  R is open-source and free, S-Plus is private and expensive.  They're both vastly better than programs like Microsoft Excel for performing scientific data analysis.  In this brief introduction to R, Phil Price will explain what's so great about R and why you should use it.