Byron is…
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This is called Dropbox.
It’s like an online flash drive!
and its so useful!
So for those to whom I have not yet extolled the virtues of Dropbox, it’s this really cool program you install on your computer (or not) that allows you to sync folders across computers.
I use two computers – a Dell E1505 I got at the beginning of summer before my freshman year, and an HP 2133 Mininote I got during the summer. Before this spring, I was doing a lot of extra work to figure out how to use my computers efficiently. During fall quarter, I would bring the HP to my systems physiology class. As my professor would always upload the presentations to 
BlackBoard (NU’s course site), I downloaded them onto my computer. During class, I would put the slides into OneNote and take notes on them with the laptop. I synced the OneNote notebook to a Flash Drive (a physical one) so I could keep the OneNote notebook on both laptops updated. However, this was extremely unwieldy, and I ended up not using the functionality too much.
During winter quarter, I just gave up completely on syncing, and relied on the thumb drive to do the classic “drag and drop files that you want to work onto the drive and then download onto the workstation”. This was really a hassle.
During spring quarter, I brought my laptop to take notes in my Social Networks class. Now, this class went FAST and was all PowerPoint, so I used a combination of computer typed notes and paper sketches. I no longer used OneNote at this point, as the program was more resource intensive. During spring quarter, I finally realized that my HP was not anywhere near powerful enough to treat like a full time machine (Think 1.0 Ghz processor. Really.) So I used Google Docs to take notes. This was a very good solution, as not only could I edit the notes online (which would be instantly saved online), I could still use Google Docs online. However, over time, I noticed that Google Docs just had a lag due to my computer being fairly weak.
At this point, I came across Dropbox for the first time. I used it to sync my school files between computers – I had a bunch of files that I needed to be able to access using either computer as I was doing work on the run, and at my desk. Dropbox allowed me to not spend so much time copying and pasting files (it turns out I’m really bad at picking the right files to copy). Unfortunately, I never ended up using Dropbox for my Social Networks class, but I imagine that I can use a simple Text Editor to write my notes now, since I can sync those automatically.
I late on discovered that another strength of Dropbox was the ability to share folders. This way, anyone you select is able to access the folders you share with them, open, and edit the files that are there. They can also add and remove files. Needless to say, this was a great method to share some music with friends, as the size restrictions that email has are now removed.
The best thing about Dropbox is that you can use it for free. Free users get 2Gb free, while $100/yr will get you 50Gb and $200/yr will get you 100Gb. It’s actually a pretty good deal, and the concept is great. Not only will files be replicated across systems, there is also a web client that allows you to access files from any computer, even if Dropbox is not installed.
If you’re interested in using Dropbox, please use the referral link. By using the link, both of us will get an extra 250Mb – and we can get up to 5Gb total for free accounts by inviting people. If you’ve got any questions about Dropbox, send me an email and I’d be happy to chat!
Sign up for Dropbox here.
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Summer: Phase 2 (pt 1)
UC Berkeley
Wait, was that four or five beats?
It’s still lots of work.
Well, I’ve just finished up my first week of class at BASE. For those who are unaware, it’s a six week program held by the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. It’s a pretty intense program where I take three classes and also have some other seminars and similar things.
One of the class I’m taking is in Accounting. The professor is a nice guy that often cracks terrible jokes (as in they are not funny, and therefore are funny because of how unfunny they are). The accounting class itself is pretty difficult. We’re rocketing along at a pretty rapid pace (yay for assets=liabilities+owners equity). Done some stuff with simple spreadsheets (on paper), T-Accounts, Trial Balances, Journal Entries, and other stuff that people who don’t know/don’t care about accounting would probably not be interested in reading.
My second class is Marketing. So far we’ve just been doing a lot of discussion and reading. We’ve done a case study on Euro Disney, and how Disney’s eagerness to have a really successful product probably led to the downfall of the project. Apparently, it’s doing better (but it did change its name to Disneyland Paris in order to try and repair the image). We’ve got a marketing project also, where we need to pick some product and then throughout the course, work on a presentation to market the product. Should be interesting (and a lot of work)
Finally I’ve got my Organizational Behavior class. Now this is probably the most intriguing class of them all. My professor is a Kellogg Alum (or something related to the school) and she’s apparently one of the best lecturers on negotiators. So since OB is a lot of psychology and figuring out people’s mentality, she always brings up a lot of interesting points about how to get people to do what you want. It’s a little creepy. This weeks seminar was about negotiations, and so she was lecturing about it. We learned about good ways to negotiate contracts (it’s not a win lose situation, you want the best for both parties so they will be willing to work together again) and also salary negotiations (know what you’re worth do some research in advance). Again, boring stuff if you don’t have any interest in it, but i figure it will be useful in the future.
(Aside: I’ve developed an addiction to Freecell. It is too much fun! And its not as boring as regular solitaire is. It is also frustrating because you can actually lose.)
Berkeley is a very different place from Northwestern. For one thing, it feels way bigger. I walked from my apartment (Channing, North end of campus) to downtown (Shattuck, South of campus) and it took me about 20 mins. I think it takes either same or a bit more to get to downtown Evanston. So it might be possible that my estimate is wrong. However, one thing I can say with certainty is that Berkeley buildings are much more dense than buildings are at Northwestern
(Aside: Did you know? During the course of writing this entry I watched an episode of How I Met Your Mother, played 2 games of Freecell, and made/ate dinner? Yeah, this writing is taking place over a long period of time.)
I’ll make this into a 2 part entry, since it’s rather long. Look forward to a Part 2!