Next Semester Experiment, Google Apps
The next half-semester is going to be pretty light weight. I’m only taking one course, broken into two parts, Physics. This should be a pretty easy class for me, I hope.
The experiment is going to be trying to do most of the class using Google applications. As of right now, I use MS Office 2007, with the 4 major applications being OneNote, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. I use at least 3 of these for any given class, so it’s going to be hard not to use them full time.
What I will use, and probably the biggest transition, is for starters, Google Notebook. I use OneNote for all my classes, it saves a lot of time with taking notes, cross-referencing notes with other notebooks or sections, and a lot of time printing off a hundred documents. I’ve got it down to where I print off rough drafts only by the way. I will post all the stuff in OneNote as well, mostly for archiving.
Next, I will use Google Documents instead of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Now, the caveat to this is that I will use Google Documents only for creating, editing, and proofing. For final submission, I will use MS Office for final proofing and submission, until I have a warm and fuzzy about using Google Doc’s by itself.
Using these won’t be a real big deal, since I have been using them for quite some time. It makes it easy for me to work on homework at work (while not working) and do the notes in Google Docs, and work on it at home as well. It comes in handy since I have to use my secure thumbdrive for both work and the Guard (federal regulations and all), and it’s a real pain in the ass to keep one document current. I have, on more than one occasion, submitted one document that was still in draft, whilst the finished product was not on the thumbdrive, but on the computer, or on the server. Synchronizing my files using the Google Doc’s should hopefully mitigate that issue. Hopefully.
So, while I’m in the middle of this experiment, I’ll post any information I have, be it cool tricks, annoyances, and just general fact finding.
GMail is moving with IMAP and another cool feature
(I know I’ve posted a lot the past two days, but I’ve also had more time in front of the computer to read stuff, gets the gray-matter moving)
For those of you using GMail, I am sure that most of you know that you can use an email client such as Outlook, Outlook Express, Mail, so forth. You do this because GMail has POP, or Post Office Protocol, enabled. The downfall to this is that you can either download your email to your client, and delete it off the server, or you can download it and have it on the Google server. If it’s left on the server, then you do have a backup copy of your emails, but if you deleted any in your client, you have to delete them off the GMail server later on.
GMail is now enabling IMAP, or Internet Message Access Protocol, can help synchronize your server and your email client message. If you delete it in your client, such as Outlook, it will be deleted in GMail. If you delete it in GMail, it won’t be downloaded in your client, and if already downloaded, will disappear in your client. For more information, you can go to this page: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=12760
Another nice thing about GMail is that they’re up’ing the storage given now. Last week, I noticed that I was just under 3000MB of storage, and now it has moved up to 4450MB of storage. This isn’t up to the 5GB Hotmail offers, but it’s a lot. I forsee this moving upward even more in the future.
Wichita, the world’s best drivers
So, going to the store today, I see the best example of the best Wichita driver.
I’m going to the store, to pick up some milk for the kids and a pizza for dinner. I’m stopped in traffic, and look in the mirror to see what looks like two people arguing…They’re animated and look angry. They had two kids in the back seat as well…
Then I saw something that I recognized – sign language. Ok, so they’re arguing in sign…The light turns green, we’re heading down the road again. I look behind me while we’re going about 40MPH, and the driver is driving with his knee ( I assume) while him and the woman (assume his wife) are looking at each other and having a signing argument!
Holy Fuck I said. I get irritated with cell drivers, driving smoking and talking while looking left to turn right. I’ve even seen a lady driving, smoking, and weaving through traffic with a few untethered kids popping around.
***(real-time alert—I just watched my son walk 6 steps from one side of the door to the other—cool:)***
Anyways, this was an all-time high for me, watching this couple argue in sign language, kids in the back, and completely not even watching the road, but mouths open staring at each other and arms flailing…wow. This guy is a good driver!
