Google Doc's and Spreadsheets

Have you ever wanted to collaborate on a document with a few classmates? The collaborative workstations we have here at the Commons allow just that kind of work, but some times you want to work on the document from different physical locations, or even at the same time.

Presenting Google Doc's and Spreadsheets. If you are a GMail user you already have access to this great tool. Just surf over to http://docs.google.com and use your Google account information - that would be your GMail user name and password - and you have an online word processor and spreadsheet program. Some time this summer Google will be adding presentation functionality for those of you who desire something like Power Point.

When you access Google Doc's you will see a slightly different interface. It does not look like word and that is because it is not word. There is no grammar checker to prompt you for that comma fault, and from my experience there is no ability to set margins or view the document in a page by page manner. I don't even think there is a word count option. So what can you do?
You can do just about most everything else you need to do while composing a document. Bold, underline, highlight, set headers, check spelling, etc.

Google has taken the "Content is king" approach to this offering, leaving the more stylistic aspects like margins, which content is on which page, etc to the desktop software crowd. But the most innovative feature to Google Doc's has to be the ability to share and collaborate your documents with others. This is ideal for anyone who has worked on a group project during their university career.

So if you are looking for a way to work with your group members on that paper give Google Doc's a try.

I'll shave my head for a good cause!

This Thursday marks the annual Shave-A-Thon held by Rothermere and Doyle houses. It is a fundraising event for the Janeway Children's Hospital in St. John's. The event is being held at the campus bar (The Breezeway) starting at 8:00pm. Besides the $2 ticket price - $3 at the door – there will be a minimum donation of $15 to have your head shaved. Since it is for a good cause I have issued a challenge to the people on my Facebook.com list to raise a total of $250 to see me have my head shaved. Currently two people have stepped up for a total of $25 but I am hoping that everyone else will fill in the remaining $225. In exchange for parting with their small donation I will separate with my hair. They get the benefit of knowing they helped a good case and the entertainment of me going bald. I get the satisfaction in knowing that the loss of my hair managed to net $250+ for the children’s hospital. I feel it is a fair trade.

So if you are interested in donating to the cause feel free to leave a comment below indicating how much you are willing to donate to see me loose my hair. If you are in St John’s show up at the breezeway with the your money at 8:00 on Thursday, if not make arrangements with me. Also, if you are a facebook user post your donation there.

Finally, if I do not reach the magic $250 mark I will still donate the money to the Janeway but you loose the pleasure of seeing me loose my locks of hair. However, I’ll see if I can pay (since it is a $15 min donation) for others to loose their hair with the donations.

Hope you can help me meet my goal and help some needy kids in the process.

Comments? you have comments?

Have you ever had a comment about the Commons or for the Commons? Well if you have you are in luck. For the past three years we have had a comments box located next to the main support desk. If you are looking for it, you will find it next to the machine that allows you to put money on your print account. For the most part those comments were left un-replied, not to say they were ignored just it was rare for any follow up to be given.

So starting this week I have started my duties as the official replier of comments at the Commons. If you have a comment, suggestions, complaint, or concern about the facility, staff, equipment, etc feel free to leave your comments with us and I'll get back to you as soon as humanly possible. Also these replies will be posted publicly on the Commons webpage. A link will follow!

Update (18/02/07): I wanted to say that comments are always taken seriously and are addressed by the Commons. My above comment about it being rare for follow up to happen is in reference to communicating back to the person who left the comment. Idea's, complaints, suggestions, etc are always taken seriously and dealt with properly.

Thefts

Recently in the Commons we have seen the theft of some of our computers, as well as some of the wiring for those computers. This causes us not only stress but to redirect some of our funding that was meant for improved or expanded services to replacing those computers. The Commons is not a rich organization and having to replace these machines means it will be longer before we offer some kind of service we were previously planning on.

So I am asking you, my kind readers, to keep an eye out for suspicious activities in the commons area. We do not perform maintenance of computer hardware, or the removal of computers during the evening or weekend time frames, so if you see someone who claims to be a employee of the Commons or Library picking at the hardware, or computer equipment report it to the nearest staff. They are likely not what they appear.

This really breaks our hearts and I hope that someone reading this blog has information about our previous thefts or will assist in the event of future problems.

Labnet, your access to the Commons

Have you been asked to get a Unix account, Print account, CS account, one of those computer thingies that let you use the machines in the library? What ever it was called, we call it a Labnet account.

Labnet is the system we use to standardize the different computer facilities on campus. To you it is a simple combination of a user name and password which lets you use the computers in The Commons, DMC, the Chem/Phyiscs lab, CS1009, Phys ed, Education, etc. To us it is a complex network system. Either way you look at it, it is likely something you use every day. Your Labnet account lets you access the computers which all should have MS Office, unrestricted Internet access, Printer abilities, etc. Some machines have specialty software like SPSS (statistical software) but this is lab specific. It also lets you save your files on a secure network space – your H: - so you can access them from any other Labnet computer.

But did you know you can manage most aspects of your account on your own? The webpage http://webtools.cs.mun.ca/ is available for you to do things like check your print account balance (Keep in mind your print account IS your Labnet account), change your password, and even retrieve backup’s of your files. To use the site just enter your username and password.

So if you need to write a paper, do some graphs for an assignment, or just check your email. You are going to need a Labnet account.

*NOTE: Certain departments and faculties run their own systems restricted to their students. This might be a Labnet account with extra access for that lab, or a separate account altogether. Computer Science and Engineering are two prime examples.

RSS feeds

What is RSS? It stands for Really Simple Syndication. What does it do? Well it allows for the automatic delivery of information – typically a webpage – to a client. Now all that seems rather vague, but the concept is quite simple. If the content is your local newspaper, then RSS is the paperboy who delivers it to you, and you being the client are the reader. This is the basic premise. So RSS is the technology for automatic delivery of content to a reader. The technology is great because you can subscribe to many RSS feeds and have the information arrive in one program. This saves on having to surf around to several pages you like to frequent looking for updated articles. I do this a lot with my news sites.

How is this important to you? One of the great things that blogs can do is use RSS to send the content to you when you want. You just open your RSS reader (a program like Firefox or site like Google Personalized Homepage) and it automatically checks for the most recent article. It is also great for calendars, which is one of the ways I have employed it. Using Google Calendar I have created a calendar feed of the important dates in the Memorial Diary. The diary can be found on the registrar’s office but using RSS you can subscribe to the feed and be kept up to speed on the important dates at MUN. Such as when is the last day to drop courses without academic penalty, or when are applications due. I have taken every date listed and added it, but if your in doubt check with the official site (MUN has not offered an RSS Feed for this information). Again, this is an unofficial service and I do my best to be accurate, but I can make a type-o!

You can recognize a RSS feed by one of the following icons typically found on the pages of sites that use it;, , . Also for you Mac users there is an link available for the iCalendar program. Each of the icons are links to the feeds if you wish to subscribe to them. Finally I have embedded the feed in the bottom of this site, so while you read my ramblings you can see what is next on the calendar.

The beginning

This is the initial post of the Unofficial Commons blog. As such, I guess it would be proper to share some information about this blog. First off, this is an unofficial website and not endorsed by MUN, the department of Computing and Communications, or The Commons. Maybe one day it will, but as of right now it is not.

Secondly, I will attempt to be as entertaining, fun, and generally informative as possible without bogging you down with hard to grasp technical terms, concepts or the nitty gritty details that are unnecessary. The purpose of this blog is to inform you of the resources available to you at MUN, in particular how they relate to you the student, staff or faculty member. To be more specific, they will be computer/technology related resources, so if you’re looking for help with English grammar you are in the wrong place. But I do know where you can get that help!

So who am I? Why am I knowledgeable enough to write this? My name is Christopher Mercer and you might know me as one of the Commons staff, or as one of the helpful people you find at the other end of the phone when you call the Help Desk. Either way, I am part time staff and full time student here at Memorial. I have been employed as a part of The Commons for 3 years and am studying Computer Science and English. I come from a background in technical support, customer service and have extensive experience related to computer technology. My goal is to help share some of that knowledge with you, and help make your life a little easier by demystifying some of the systems at MUN.

Check back here often for little tips, tricks, and maybe learn about some services you never knew existed!