A Helpful Hack

Many of us may find ourselves using the Dashboard built in to our Macs. It's really handy; with all this Widgets that can do some many different tasks. In fact, you may find yourself using them a lot sometimes, and its an annoyance to constantly press F8 or click the Dashboard icon in your Dock.

Wouldn't it be better to move the Widget to your desktop sometimes? Its very possible.

Now, don't be weary because its called a hack. In fact, its perfectly safe. Apple, which you should all know is the company behind our magnificent laptops, designed this handy trick for testing Widgets.

Simply type the following line exactly as it appears in the the Terminal, which you can find by using Spotlight, that blue magnifying glass in top right corner.

defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES

Then hit enter. Next the Dashboard needs to be reset, and the easiest way to do that is to log out and then back in again.

To get a Widget off the Dashboard and on to your desktop, open up Dashboard, click and hold on the Widget you want, and then get away from Dashboard. Since you're already using your mouse, you're going to have to use the keyboard shortcut, which as I said before, is F8 by default. When it disappears, the selected Widget stays with you, and you can put it back by clicking and holding it, opening Dashboard, and releasing it.

Hope his helps!

Elluminate Ethics

As the first week of Elluminates has begun, chances are good that you'll either have one very shortly after reading this, or you already had your first and may be able to relate to some of my advice.

First of all, if you're wondering how many I've been to, I have no idea. Enough that I can't count them. I've been to almost every possible elluminate for my classes, barring illness or travel, for all of my three years at iQ. I know the ropes pretty well, and would like to share some tips on interacting within elluminate (not tech help- for that you've got other pre-established resources.)

Tip #1: Use the mic.

This is a very serious part of it. If every student used the mic to convey their point at least *some* of the time, everyone would benefit. It's more fun, it's more fluid, and you can focus your attention. Of course there will be times when you're munching on something, or your mic doesn't work (don't lie about this, btw,) or you don't feel well (this either.) However, these times are theoretically occurrences with a very low frequency, and are not -by any standards- a permanent excuse. Thinking your voice is bad is actually a permanent excuse, but unwarranted and you shouldn't get away with never speaking because of that. (Do you also never say anything in public?) Bite the bullet and get on it. You won't regret the new freedom.

Tip #2: Don't spam the whiteboard

This is another big one. Do not, even if everyone is fooling around, ever, under any circumstances, spam the whiteboard with tons of Pencil Tool, dumb images, the same text, or any other evil materials you can think up. There will be opportunities to go wild, but by going wild you need to respect others and not take up everyone's space with junk. Not spamming might go unnoticed, but if you mess with everyone, you will be seen and most people will find you annoying. For everyone that doesn't spam the whiteboard (or contrastingly makes it pretty,) I salute you in advance.

Tip #3: Be friendly and informative, not distant and blurry

Some people will join elluminates and leave their virtual self there while they go off and do whatever they do. This is not wise- You are lagging a perfectly fine computer, you aren't learning all the cool course material you could be learning, and you definitely aren't making friends. Even in a session of a class you don't like, you very well might meet a student or two with a similar opinion. *Poof* New friend... s. The best way to capitalize on the awesome fun that is Elluminate is to get involved and stay involved as much as possible.

Tip #4: Don't do
this
ever
ever
ever
ever
ever
ever
.

Tip #5: :) Too many :P Smilies are Annoying :D :P :D :S :D -_- :P

Tip #6: Saying the obvious to everyone is not helpful, and in most cases unfunny.

"Hey look, yellow."

Tip #7: Not participating in a discussion (particularly on the mic) is boring.

Tip #8: If you have to leave early, don't say goodbye more than once. Please. People who only say goodbye once are more appreciated because of it (and everyone *will* notice the first time.) This leads to tip #9...

Tip #9: Don't assume that unresponsiveness means people either don't like you, don't care what you're saying, or didn't see what you typed. They may just have nothing to say, be feeling too lazy to type back, or really don't care what you said. Also, don't take it personally. If what you're saying is important, repeat it, and if that doesn't work, someone else will join in your quest to get the message out. This is especially useful for semi-distracted teachers.

Tip #10: plz use cptl lettrs 'n full wrds sumtimes cuz it make ur stuff easier 2 read



That's all for now; might see you in class!

-H²

Why Gmail? How do I get it?

Gmail, a shortened version of the service dubbed "Google Mail" is a top notch, free email service available to anyone with an invite. Chances are, you either have it and can skip to the end of this post, or you have Hotmail/Yahoo and don't understand (or even care, for that matter,) why Gmail is so much better than the other free options out there. Well, your time in the darkness is over now. Here's why Gmail rocks the rest of the competition:

1. A Gmail account gives access to all Google services, like Blogger, Docs & Spreadsheets, Groups, Pages, custom Google homepage, and Google Talk (IM program,) just to name a few.

2. POP Forwarding- You know that funky program called Entourage on your computer, that can be setup with your iQwisconsin account? Or maybe you're familiar with Mail.app, the mac version? Well, that program uses POP Forwarding (don't ask; it's an email thing,) and while Hotmail and Yahoo don't offer POP, Gmail does, so you can forget ever using your web browser to view mail again. (And you better be thinking "Wow, I don't have to use *Firefox* to see my mail anymore!" because if you don't have firefox, you're missing out... Suppose I'd better write a "Why you should get Firefox" list too.) BTW- This feature means you can kindof ignore the next 3...

3. Streamlined features- It's got all the formatting you could want, all sorts of customization options (like tagging emails to sort them,) and an auto-save feature that makes sure you don't lose your long email just because the browser went haywire. Plus, it's all very sleek, and the adds are minimal (and even amusingly on-topic with whatever you're reading about in your email.)

4. Security/Spam protection- All possible junk messages (And I mean *all*. It catches every one of them for me,) are sent to your Spam folder, where you can delete them, unspam them, or just mark them as read. Sure, most email services have this feature, but Gmail does it better, by being smarter, and not making you load a bunch of in-between pages just to get to your junk folder and do stuff there. Additionally, Google is secure, thanks to it being Google. (You know what I mean, I hope...)

5. Integrated interface- When it has to tell you something, it does so in a very unobtrusive way. Just look at this, and try not to smile:


That's all I have for now! If you're interested, you do need an invite to use Gmail, but they're all over the place (every Gmail member gets 100ish to hand out to anyone they please.) Just drop me a note if you'd like to 'convert'.

-H²

Tips for preserving your work

I'm sure we've all experienced that dreaded moment when we realize something just went wrong and all the work accomplished in the last hour is not there anymore. It's an inevitable situation, but with some forethought and good habits, you'll find it can be easy to stop most of these events before they happen. This guide is mostly for tips on taking digital safety measures, but the easiest way to avoid data loss is obviously to do things on paper (print out exams, do assignments by hand before typing them, etc.)

Here they are:

#1 Save Early, Save Often- The most important issue is saving your documents soon after creating them, and saving that document again and again while editing it. The easiest way to do this, in most programs, is "Command+S" Especially in word processors, get in the habit of hitting "Command+S" after paragraphs, sentences, even words when you get stuck. Saving goes for exams too. They didn't put that juicy "Save" button next to "Submit" for no reason!

#2 Undo- Yes, it's true. On most applications, you can undo what you just did. If you accidentally delete a whole paragraph's worth of text, don't panic! Either go up to "Edit > Undo" or use the easier "Command+Z" on your keyboard. If it doesn't work, take a moment to breathe and calmly see if there's another way of getting it back.

#3 Backspace while taking an Exam- This one's a killer. You're typing a long essay, and accidentally hit backspace when your mouse isn't focused in the text box. Of course, makers of almost all browsers thought it was a nice idea to make backspace the hotkey for "Go back one page" and that means "Erase the exam" unless you've saved it (If not, why didn't you read #1!?) There's no way of undoing this one, but you can avoid it when you know it happens. Just always make sure your mouse is focused where you want it to be before typing anything.

#4 Email Drafts- While this one is becoming less and less important (as email programs often save themselves nowadays,) you should know that its possible. Any email program will have a "Save" option while composing an email. Take advantage of this! Save your email before you accidentally close the browser window, or just get Gmail and never worry again ;)

#5 Location > Location > Location- This is one of those problems that, while it shouldn't even cause problems, can give headaches to anyone. Ever experienced saving a file and then not being able to find it? Well, have no fear; Those days are long gone now. First off, your mac's Finder has a search function that you can utilize to find any file imaginable. Secondly, your Mac OS X has "Searchlight," a brilliant search function built into your computer for your use. You can use it by clicking that magnifying glass at the top right of the screen. However, all this is unnecessary if you just organize your comptuter and put things where they should go. You should create a folder for each class, and save documents related to them in their respective locations. Trust me, it works.

#6 "Oops, didn't mean to hit that X"- This one's related to browsing the web. If you close a webpage that you didn't want to, remember that there's a "History" function (Or should be. If you don't have one, you need a better browser,) that you can use to get that page back. On Firefox, there's even a "Recently Closed Tabs" function within History that allows you to open a tab you just closed. Unfortunately, no browser can guarantee that any forms you had on that page will still be filled out.

#7 Screenshots- Did Word just freeze up? Do you have no way of saving all the stuff you just wrote now, and you forgot to listen to #1 so it wasn't saved in the first place? Again, there's a solution! You can take a picture of the document for reference and retype it after you force quit the application. It's a simple feature, and you can use it anywhere (Elluminate whiteboards, anyone?): Shift+Command+3 (For a full screen capture) or Shift+Command+4 (To target a particular area on the screen- Click and drag, then release when the gray area is where you want it.) The files will be saved as .png images on your Desktop, where you can open them with a program (such as Preview.app) whenever you please.

That's all for now, but more tips will be added as they come! Also, feel free to suggest your own using the comment function.

Happy recovering!

-H²