Online storage options

In just a handful of decades, technology has come a long way in terms of computing storage. There were the punch cards in the 1960s, cassette tapes in the 1970s, floppy disks in the 1980s, CD-R and RW discs in the 1990s, and the 2000s saw the advent of thumb drives and SD cards.

Today, there are a number of storage options are available for students on most campuses, including jump drives, CD-R & RW, DVD-R and file space on campus servers. Your ipod can also be used just like a thumb drive, provided you haven’t packed it to it’s limit with music… And don’t forget that you can store your files in the “cloud.” For instance, many colleges have obtained Google Enterprise accounts and offer students free accounts. Using such an account, you can create an unlimited number of google documents, presentations and spreadsheets. Additionally, you can upload up to 1 GB of word, pdf, and power point, and excel files to your google docs account. Once you do so, you can access them from any computer with internet access.

There are a number of other online storage services for which you can take advantage, most of which offer 1 or 2 GB of free storage. Dropbox is an online storage service that allows you to store/share up to 2GB of files. You have to install a small program on your computer to run it, but it allows you to upload any type of file as long as it is under 350MB. Similar services include ElephantDrive (2GB free), FilesAnywhere (1 GB free), and FlipDrive (1 GB free) to name a few. (LiveMesh is a similar service that allows you to store up to 5GB for free, but only works for PC users running Vista or Windows 7).

For storing photos and videos, there are a number of options available. Google’s Picasa Web Album is accessible through your Geneseo Google Apps account. Picasa allows you to store (and share if you wish) up to 1 GB of video and photo files. An alternative to Picasa is Flickr, which allows you to upload up to 300 MB of photos and 2 videos per month.

Do you have a favorite storage/sharing service not mentioned above?  Leave a comment below to let me know about it!

In just a handful of decades, technology has come a long way in terms of computing storage. There were the punch cards in the 1960s, cassette tapes in the 1970s, floppy disks in the 1980s, CD-R and RW discs in the 1990s, and the 2000s saw the advent of thumb drives and SD cards.

Today, there are a number of storage options are available for students on most campuses, including jump drives, CD-R & RW, DVD-R and file space on campus servers. Your ipod can also be used just like a thumb drive, provided you haven’t packed it to it’s limit with music… And don’t forget that you can store your files in the “cloud.” For instance, many colleges have obtained Google Enterprise accounts and offer students free accounts. Using such an account, you can create an unlimited number of google documents, presentations and spreadsheets. Additionally, you can upload up to 1 GB of word, pdf, and power point, and excel files to your google docs account. Once you do so, you can access them from any computer with internet access.

There are a number of other online storage services for which you can take advantage, most of which offer 1 or 2 GB of free storage. Dropbox is an online storage service that allows you to store/share up to 2GB of files. You have to install a small program on your computer to run it, but it allows you to upload any type of file as long as it is under 350MB. Similar services include ElephantDrive (2GB free), FilesAnywhere (1 GB free), and FlipDrive (1 GB free) to name a few. (LiveMesh is a similar service that allows you to store up to 5GB for free, but only works for PC users running Vista or Windows 7).

For storing photos and videos, there are a number of options available. Google’s Picasa Web Album is accessible through your Geneseo Google Apps account. Picasa allows you to store (and share if you wish) up to 1 GB of video and photo files. An alternative to Picasa is Flickr, which allows you to upload up to 300 MB of photos and 2 videos per month.

Do you have a favorite storage/sharing service not mentioned above? Leave a comment below to let me know about it!

Facebook Gestures and privacy

The newly announced Facebook Gestures feature is being added to websites all over the net (ie. The Huffington Post Connect feature or sharing music on Spotify). Gestures is an opt-in feature that allows you to share content from a website directly to your Facebook timeline by clicking the "Add to Timeline" button.

What many Facebook users might not be aware of, is the price for all this one-click convenience. Once you add the app to your timeline it will auto-share ALL your activity to your Facebook friends unless you manually change the settings to turn the feature off. It's all well and good when the latest tech article I've read at the Huffington Post is sent to my Facebook profile, but do I really want my friends and colleagues on Facebook to know that I also had a peek at the latest celebrity gossip while I was there? Hmmmm, that's a lot of privacy to give up for convenience...

Facebook Gestures and privacy

The newly announced Facebook Gestures feature is being added to websites all over the net (ie. The Huffington Post Connect feature or sharing music on Spotify). Gestures is an opt-in feature that allows you to share content from a website directly to your Facebook timeline by clicking the "Add to Timeline" button.

What many Facebook users might not be aware of, is the price for all this one-click convenience. Once you add the app to your timeline it will auto-share ALL your activity to your Facebook friends unless you manually change the settings to turn the feature off. It's all well and good when the latest tech article I've read at the Huffington Post is sent to my Facebook profile, but do I really want my friends and colleagues on Facebook to know that I also had a peek at the latest celebrity gossip while I was there? Hmmmm, that's a lot of privacy to give up for convenience...

Tools for organizing research

If you’re like most students at this point in the semester, you are probably juggling multiple research papers or projects. Keeping track of your research from all those various places you have to look (book catalogs, journal databases, and websites) can sometimes be challenging.

There are a number of free citation management tools on the market that can help you get organized. These tools will help you save and organize all of your research in one place, in much the same way that iTunes does for your music files. Some of them will even insert citations and bibliographies into your paper for you. Check out this library guide to explore some of the more popular tools available.

Tools for organizing research

If you’re like most students at this point in the semester, you are probably juggling multiple research papers or projects. Keeping track of your research from all those various places you have to look (book catalogs, journal databases, and websites) can sometimes be challenging.

There are a number of free citation management tools on the market that can help you get organized. These tools will help you save and organize all of your research in one place, in much the same way that iTunes does for your music files. Some of them will even insert citations and bibliographies into your paper for you. Check out this library guide to explore some of the more popular tools available.