CarlySmash is in the house!

Okay, that was lame.

And I'd been sitting here staring at the screen, listening to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, with no ideas at all.
But then I realized, I could use my lack of ideas as a decent post.

So I took a page from the Book of Streeter Seidell,
and made this.

Three guys walking down the street...

The first one walks into a bar. He bought a beer and stayed there for an hour.

The second one walks into a bar. He was unconscious for an hour.

The third guy walks into a poll, and votes the second guy for president.

---
While that joke wasn't a political statement, it did have something special in it. Can you guess? A poll! That's right. And that's also a new feature on Blogger, that we get to use. (*listens for resounding cheers of joy*)

You can find the poll of the week, which I'll obviously update weekly, in the right column (For those of you seeing only a blank green background, it's the other right.)

-H²

Into the Fray

With one full day of school behind me, I'm happy to be in one piece after the (usual) amount of day 1 chaos yesterday. Despite everything from not having my ibook till the 3rd, to being without an elluminate login to attend the Physics elluminate that didn't happen anyway, it was certainly a positive precursor to what is shaping up to be one of the best years at iQ yet. The crazier it starts, the better off everyone is. It's only by having the troubles that staff and students can properly get into the online learning groove- and I don't mean that lightly.

It's the problems at iQ, and even life in general, that shape the success of its participants. Through the struggles to get everything in line, we learn where our priorities really are, and we gain crucial skills that will solidify our composition in future struggles. Chaos breeds greatness. Keep that in mind, as you wait to get that critical problem fixed (or tear your hair out at the mass-emails flooding your inbox.)


-H<sup>2


Edit 1: Added mass email note. Thanks Charles.</sup>

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