Software
Here is the list of some recommended softwares:
GNU Plot: It is portable command line software used for plotting.
Dropbox: This is a folder on your computer that's backed up online and accessible through a web interface or on any other computer linked to the dropbox account. It's extremely useful for sharing lab files across multiple computers, and doing backup. 2 GB for free, we paid for the 50 GB account.
JabRef: It is used for handling the bibliography and bibtex database.
TeXmaker: is a free, modern and cross-platform LaTeX editor for linux, macosx and windows systems that integrates many tools needed to develop documents with LaTeX.