Studentware....free software for students.
***This is the first draft of an article I will be submitting for Canvas Newspaper- thought I'd put it up***
On the internet there is an undisputed king- Google. Beyond their search, mapping and email services however many people are unaware of the great free products that Google offer. In this edition of Canvas I will be examining some of these products and explaining why they can be useful for your studies.
On the internet there is an undisputed king- Google. Beyond their search, mapping and email services however many people are unaware of the great free products that Google offer. In this edition of Canvas I will be examining some of these products and explaining why they can be useful for your studies.
Google Docs is a fully featured Office Suite similar to the suite offered by Microsoft, the main difference being that Google’s product is offered exclusively online. Any work you do in Docs is saved onto Google’s servers rather than your hard drive, meaning it can then be read or edited from any internet enabled PC or Mac. This may sound like a small difference but it can save you the hassle of saving all your work onto a USB stick and the worry that you’ll lose all of your work should your computer break or be stolen. Another interesting feature of Docs is the ease at which it allows you to collaborate on a project. Simply open a new document, spreadsheet or presentation and invite the other people working on the project to access your work. They are then free to read and edit your work however they like and should you not like the changes made it’s easy to highlight recent changes and then change them back if need be.
Check out Google Docs at http://docs.google.com
SketchUp is a 3D modelling tool available for download from Google. Although not as fully featured as many of the professional software packages out there it allows even non-designers to quickly and simply knock up complex 3D models of pretty much anything. There is also a paid-for version, SketchUp Pro, for those looking for a more feature rich version of this excellent piece of freeware.
You can download this program now from http://sketchup.google.com
Last under the microscope is Google Squared, a brand new semantic search engine recently released by Google. Type ‘Manchester United Squad’ into Google and you will be given a list of websites featuring the info you require. Do the same search in Google Squared and it will list the squad, along with each members Nationality, date of birth and position. This technology is very much in its early stages but if you want to see what the future of search looks like, then check out Google Squared at http://www.google.com/squared
4 October 2009 at 03:12
Hey Tim just wanted to say i really like your bog. I think you have a really good writing style as its entertaining, factual and very funny. Keep up the good work my old mate and i too will march in the 'Geek pride parade' (Virtually of course)