Let me know what you think in the comments, or chime in at the poll on the home page.

Thanks!

Geekstew.asu.edu will be unavailable Wednesday May 21, 2008 from 6:00 am - 9:00 am.

I have been working for the past few days on a major site redesign around these parts. If you read my posts from a feed reader, please stop by the site Wednesday afternoon and let me know what you think of the new format. I’ll have a poll up so you can share your opinion.

Thanks to all you faithful readers out there. I have a feeling you’re going to like the facelift.

I logged into my ASU Google Docs account yesterday morning to a great little surprise. It looks like ASU students now have access to the new offline features of Google Docs.

Google Docs is only the second web application from Google to take advantage of their Gears API (the first was Google Reader back in May). In a nutshell, Gears is “…an open source browser extension that lets developers create web applications that can run offline.” If you haven’t seen it already, here is the video announcement that Google published at the beginning of April.

There are a bunch of sites that take advantage of Gears already. There’s even a feed that features companies who have adopted Gears’ technology.

I just checked out a personal finance site called Buxfer that looks pretty cool. It has all the tools you would expect from a finance application - track spending, sync automatically with your existing accounts, add tags to purchases to see where the money’s going. They even have gadgets that you can drop on your Facebook, Netvibes, or myASU homepage. Take a tour of Buxfer’s features and sign up for a free account if you’re interested. I think I will…

Oh yeah - and remember Zoho? That online suite of insanely useful applications? Zoho has been using Google Gears since November 2007 with their Zoho Writer application. If you don’t have a Zoho account, what are you waiting for?

Have fun off line, kids.

1. I have a long, successful track record of eating
2. I have never combined Diet Coke and Pop Rocks Mentos in my mouth.
3. I have run a clean (one-day) campaign.

Below is a copy of my official campaign poster. It’s gonna be huge.

Voting is being handled via email. The deadline to submit is Midnight, Sunday, April 20, 2008. You can email your vote to the current President, Nicole Horn.

UPDATE: So I didn’t get elected President, but I did manage to get voted as the Webmaster. (It wasn’t tough - there was nobody else running for that position.) So it looks like I’ve got my work cut out for me. I created a Facebook Group for the Student Nutrition Council. If you’re an ASU Nutrition student, you should definitely join.

In a landmark decision to improve the technology experience for its 60,000+ students, the University Technology Office announced this morning their decision to end its relationship with Google and their Google Apps and start fresh with Microsoft. Many of the details are still unknown, however a reputable source has made it clear that this transition will take place during the Summer 2008 break.

Student Gmail accounts, web-based (and now offline!) document editing and collaboration, calendar, website creation, and myASU accounts will be eliminated at the end of the Spring 2008 semester. They will be replaced with the mildly popular Microsoft Live@edu services. This is a similar set of services that includes an email account, calendars, and document collaboration.

The Microsoft Live@edu services are expected to launch in Spring of 2009.

Students will need to set up temporary services on their own for use during the Fall 2008 semester. According to Microsoft officials:

“This is only temporary until all the bugs can get worked out with the Microsoft Live@edu services. We really don’t anticipate it taking much longer than 1-2 semesters to get everything working properly. Definitely two semesters at the most. We would recommend students set up a new Google account in the meantime until we can get everything running.”

University Technology Officer, Adrian Sannier, is excited for the change. He has been a driving force behind the advancements to how students and faculty communicate. He sees this move to Microsoft as the University

“…heading in the right direction. With these new services, students will be rocking and rolling in cyberspace like never before. They will be able to send electronic messages to each other. Advanced users will quickly learn how to attach electronic files to these messages to share them with classmates and professors.

I’m really looking forward to seeing what Microsoft has in store for us. They have always been at the forefront of Internet-based technologies. I mean - seriously, who doesn’t have a Hotmail account? Did you know you can get like 2 Gb of free storage in a Hotmail account?!? That’s wacky!”

Google representatives could not be reached at the time of publishing. More news will follow as details develop.

Nutrition majors at the Polytechnic campus, rejoice! While it’s true that Spring Break has come to a screeching halt, there was a wonderful surprise waiting for us today in the classrooms and hallways of the Nutrition building…wireless Internet access.

When I started my nutrition classes last semester, I was peeved to discover that this was one of only a few buildings on the campus that lacked Internet access. I even started a petition using Zoho Creator, posted it on my personal (and now neglected) blog, and sent an email out to fellow students and faculty to help make a change. I received quite the response. If you’re interested, go read what people had to say.

I have grown accustom to taking notes and following my professors’ slide shows from the comfort of my laptop. This has been a great way for me to keep on top of assignments and deadlines. Most of the time professors will not post lecture notes until a few minutes before class, so it’s handy to be able to pull them up in class.

I’m not sure how they did it, but I have a feeling it has something to do with these curious bubble thingies (yes - that’s a technical term) that have appeared in the ceiling tiles in the hallways:

However it was done, it works like a dream. To all of you who were involved with setting this up, I give you a big huge* THANK-YOU on behalf of myself and the rest of the nutrition department. If you’re a nutrition student or faculty member reading this, please feel free to add your thank-you’s in the comments below.

For students thinking about leaving their pen and paper at home and switching to the digital world, here are a few web-based services you should check out:

• Google Docs (word processing, spreadsheets, presentations)
• Zoho (everything Google has, but 10x better)
• Remember the Milk (the To Do list on steroids)
• Web Apps from ASU (Never buy software again. So many applications…all free)

*Please note: The thank you that I am extending has a BMI of 33.4, which classifies it as clinically obese.

As of this morning, it is now official. In addition to this blog, I will also be reporting for the Polytechnic Campus. The articles will be published in the State Press, as well as online at the Press web site.

Here’s a link to my first article.

I will cover events, issues, controversies, celebrations, and squabbles as they pertain to the ever-changing Polytechnic campus. Home of the $5.29 create-your-own salad bar. I’m looking forward to it.