The University of Massachusetts Amherst
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Linux Mac OSX Web Windows

Add-Drop Walkthrough

So as the new semester rolls around, as does add-drop period. If you don’t know what this is, it is the time during the first couple of weeks in which you are free to add or drop a class without having to go through the Registrar’s office: it can all be done through Spire!

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Software Web

TwitchPlay[Games]! Social Experiment With a Large Following — The Community

A continuation from the previous TwitchPlaysGames blog which can be found at https://websites.umass.edu/Techbytes/?p=3746

 

Once the project was done the stream went live under the name TwitchPlaysPokemon, which was given the acronym TPP. Starting with a few players, the adventure began. A new game was created and the nostalgic adventure of Pokémon was underway. Starting with roughly 1,000 people, it was mind-boggling how this once single player game was being played by so many people, yet this was just the start. TPP began rising in popularity extremely quickly. Within hours, the viewer count rose to 5,000, then to 10,000. Within two days, the stream was averaging about 50,000 viewers.

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Software Web

TwitchPlay[Games]! Social Experiment With a Large Following — The Creation

TwitchTV

Games have been a way to bring people together all across the world from those in nearby countries or across the globe. It is an undeniable fact that games are popular world-wide, but one game that was released about 20 years ago can still be mentioned today and many still remember it clearly – and that game is Pokémon. The game was originally single player, so only one person could play it at a time on one device and there was very limited play-ability in multiplayer without being physically next to someone with a cord connecting the two devices. Recently, this changed through the medium Twitch TV (http://twitch.tv).

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Linux Web

How To: Mount UDrive in Ubuntu


You may have noticed that the Help Center provides instructions for making your UDrive easily accessible on your desktop PC and Mac on our website, but, what if you’re running a Linux distrubution? Not to worry! By taking the following steps, you’ll soon be able to back up and shuffle around your important files with ease. Below are instructions for setting up your UDrive with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. While following the steps, click on images to enlarge for details. It takes a few Terminal commands, but you’re already using Linux, right? You’re not afraid of those!

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Web

MOOC? What’s a MOOC?

 

MOOC

Have you ever taken a step back from your daily grind of endless homework, classes, work, and labs; and just wanted a break? Do you sometimes just feel like there’s just too many coding classes, too many chemistry classes, just too many classes you just aren’t interested in? Don’t fret, this isn’t a sign to change your major or even your college. Not yet anyway. This happens all the time – any college class can become overwhelming and lose it’s luster. Alternatively, you could just be really bored and have not as much homework as everyone else, and think, “Gee, I’d love to take a class on Urban Planning, but really can’t fit it into my schedule”.

Well, maybe that last one doesn’t happen as much, but you get the idea. There’s this neat little secret which fixes both: MOOC, or Massive Open Online Course.

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Android Apps Google Google Apps iOS Web

How Does the “Cloud” Really Work?

cloud

Cloud Computing is becoming increasingly popular among both businesses and consumers; but what is the “Cloud” and how does it work?

A Cloud Computing System can be divided into two parts: the Front End and the Back End.  The Front End consists of either a user’s computer or a network of computers connected to the Internet.  The Back End is comprised of many different servers, computers, and storage databases that are all interconnected; these components, functioning together as a whole, form a “Cloud”.  A central server exists to administer the entire system, constantly monitoring it to prevent failures.  All these different components interact and communicate with each other through the Internet, forming a web of inter-connected, redundant devices.

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Adobe Google Linux Operating System Software Web Windows

Save Time with Ninite!

Today, the Help Center student consultants would like to suggest a time-saving tip for the next time you install, re-install, or begin using your Linux or Windows operating system: Ninite by installing and updating all your applications at once.

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Google Apps Web

Productivity with Apps at UMass

Have you ever had a hard time finishing your school assignments? Is everything last minute? Do you often forget about that online quiz that is due on Friday? Then you, my friend, may have productivity issues. But don’t worry, it is nothing serious and can be fixed as easily as checking your UMass email.

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Web

Data Storage via FTP

Your data is important. Scratch that – your data is very important. Whether it’s just a handful of essays, lab data, or your master thesis that launches you into the profession of your dreams, that data is still important. The worst case scenario is that, by complete accident, that data is lost and there is nothing to do about it. There is one thing to do to ensure that this never happens: back-ups. A pain? Yes. Worth it? Beyond words. Now you have a couple of options: external hard drives, cloud storage, or uploading it to a secure server. External hard drives are relatively cheap, but can be broken or lost. Cloud storage can be accessed anywhere and never be lost, but we suggest that you should be wary when uploading data to a cloud drive for security risks. Instead, a viable option is to back-up data to a server. While it can be a bit difficult at first, the process is easy with a little practice and the right software. This can all be done with with three letters: FTP.

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Mac OSX Microsoft Software Web Windows

Office 365: Office for University Students

EDIT: The pricing information in this article is out of date. Please see the article here for up to date information on how UMass students can obtain Office 365 for free.

What is Office 365?

Everyone knows about Microsoft Office 2013, Microsoft’s latest version of their popular productivity suite, yet few people have heard of Office 2013’s cousin in the cloud: Office 365.

Office 365 is the latest addition to Microsoft’s Office product line. It offers the same Office software packages as Office 2013 Professional, but with two primary differences. The first being that Office 365 includes complementary cloud storage space as well as a number of additional features, and the second difference is that Office 365 is sold as a yearly subscription rather than as a flat rate, one-time purchase.

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Google Software Web

Turkeybytes: Google Chrome

If you find yourself browsing the internet all over the place like I do, you may be looking for a more streamlined approach to browsing on multiple devices. I have found that the easiest way to do this is with a browser called Google Chrome. It can be run on any popular operating system such as Windows, Mac and Ubuntu and can even be run off of a flash drive without installing it first. It even syncs from your computer to your Android phone running the Chrome Browser app.

Users can create a google account or use a pre-existing one to sign into their browser. From there you can change your sync settings and manage any content saved with your account. All of this information and usernames and passwords and such are migrated to any browser on any computer that you sign into from there. This can be managed from your Google account dashboard. In addition to usernames and passwords, the synced content includes things like browser history, bookmarks, theme, your Voice history, saved Youtube videos, your Wallet profiles and purchases and much more. Give it a try by downloading it from the Google page!

Download: here

For more information check out this: tutorial

 

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Web

Web Browsing Advice

If there’s one thing that almost every single student at UMass does with their computer, it’s go online and look at websites. You may be looking at websites just for homework, to check out Facebook, browse reddit or do some research for a class. No matter what you use it for, though, there’s a lot of helpful hints and useful keyboard shortcuts that can make your web browsing experience better.

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Apps Google Apps Security Web

Digital Wallets The Future of Buying Products.

 

Technology has become integrated in our society, we are using it every day at work, home, and in some states there using IPad’s to teach kindergarten class. With technology becoming more of a necessity than a luxury in past years, the number of people shopping online has increased at an astounding rate. The online shopping market is projected to be worth 370 billion dollars in 2017.

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Adobe Microsoft Operating System Security Software Virus/Malware Web Windows

The 5 Most Important Things to Take Away From OIT’s NSO Presentation

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Security Software Web

Four Useful Browser Addons

There are thousands of addons available for use with a wide range of web browsers. We have compiled a list of the top four addons that we think are most worthwhile. From blocking ads to protecting users’ online privacy, these addons are useful and important. We think they will make your browsing experience more enjoyable and more secure.

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Security Web

Do Not Track – An Overview Of Internet Privacy

The Problem

When it comes to privacy on the internet, the user is very often left in the dark regarding how his or her data can be accessed and utilized by third parties. In this context, third parties can refer to “analytics services, advertising networks, and social platforms” [1] that can leverage a myriad of existing web technologies to track the websites you visit. These third parties can then use this information for various purposes such as directing advertisements toward more relevant audiences.

For example, if a website you visited decided they want to track their users’ web history, they could simply slip a clause into the privacy policy of their site (which can be intentionally obfuscated and is very rarely read by users) that would legally allow them to track your web history – even while you’re not on their site!

In an attempt to resolve this informational discrepancy (these third parties are within legal limits, just not fully transparent), the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) proposed a specification known as Do Not Track which “is designed to enable users to opt-out of online tracking” [2].

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Learning Management Systems Library Web

Go!

photo

 

UMass Amherst has a new portal for students to use, Go – All the information from UMass that you’d want in one, convenient location. Students can log on with their UMass netID and see the classes that they have in Moodle, athletic news, emergency phone numbers, and more. There are a few choice areas that students might find particularly helpful, all accessible from the Go homepage.