===== Basic computing skills =====

==== Using your operating system's command line interface (aka "shell", "terminal", "CLI") ====

You should be able to open a command line window (Windows: ''cmd.exe'', Mac: ''Terminal'') and perform basic operations such as navigating, creating and removing folders, and passing optional arguments to common commands like ''cd'', ''ls'', ''copy'', ''top'', ''kill'' and others.

If the above is gibberish to you, I highly recommend you do one of the tutorials below:

     * [[http://blog.teamtreehouse.com/introduction-to-the-mac-os-x-command-line | Mac OS X terminal introduction]]
     * [[http://www.computerhope.com/issues/chusedos.htm | Windows command prompt introduction]]
     * more [[http://cli.learncodethehardway.org/book/ | extensive]] tutorial that works on Mac and Windows %%PowerShell%% (see note below)

If you already know how to use the Windows command prompt, you can consider using a fuller-featured shell such as [[https://blog.udemy.com/powershell-tutorial/ | PowerShell]] if you aren't already.

==== Using FTP to transfer files ====

Large data sets are usually stored on servers that cannot be accessed using a Web browser; they instead use FTP. It's easy, but if you've never used a FTP client like %%FileZilla%% before, [[http://premium.wpmudev.org/manuals/wpmu-manual-2/introduction-to-ftp-and-using-ftp-clients/ | this tutorial]] may be helpful.

==== Handling compressed files (archives) ====

Neural data sets are often highly compressible. Compressing files into flie formats such as .zip or .rar can save space and speed up data transfer times. To handle compression and decompression on Windows, I recommend [[http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm | WinRAR]].

==== Choosing appropriate graphics file formats ====

Know the difference between [[http://www.howtogeek.com/142174/what-lossless-file-formats-are-why-you-shouldnt-convert-lossy-to-lossless/ | lossless and lossy]] image (bitmap) formats, and the difference between [[http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/aboutgraphics/a/bitmapvector.htm | bitmap and vector graphics]] formats.