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The will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you

Student Tip: Use Google Docs and Calendar to Import Class Syllabi

Student Tip: Use Google Docs and Calendar to Import Class Syllabi: "Taylor Bell is a Google Student Ambassador at Boise State University. From time to time, we'll have ambassadors like Taylor share some of their favorite tips and tricks for making Google tools and applications useful for student life. If you have a tip to share on this blog, please let us know!

So you probably all already know that Google Calendar is a lifesaver when it comes to organizing classes. The problem, though, is that sometimes professors don’t create a Calendar-ready syllabus for us! Don’t fret – here I'll share how I've managed to harness the power of Google Docs to streamline a Calendar for each of my classes, so hopefully you can do the same.

Start by loading the template located at http://bit.ly/importtemplate, then rename it to correspond to the name of the class syllabus you’re working on. Leaving the header row, fill in the assignment and due date, as well as the time.

After you’ve finished filling in your due dates, go to File > Download As > CSV. This will create a comma-delimited text file of your schedule that’s ready to be imported directly into Google Calendar.

With your CSV saved to your computer, head over to Google Calendar. Go into Settings (in the top right corner), then click Calendars. Scroll down to the “Create New Calendar” button then create a calendar with the name of your class. In my case, the class is called 'Technical Communication' (it's a good one). Once your calendar is created, go back to Calendar Settings, and click on “Import Calendar.” Then locate your .csv file, and choose your newly-created calendar.

After clicking the Import button, you will receive a message about successfully importing your events, and they will show up automatically on your Calendar! There are, of course, variations available. For example, if you prefer to just have one calendar called “School,” you could use the import template to create one massive CSV for all of your classes, then follow the rest of the steps. Either way, it beats typing in each individual due dates manually!

Posted by Taylor Bell, Student Ambassador at Boise State University

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Eyelashes and Eyeliner For… Your Car!

Eyelashes and Eyeliner For… Your Car!: "

I love this design. After all, I think of my own car as a person. A few years ago, I even sold her, only to buy her back again because I missed her so much. She is a beauty, and I keep her leather interior all fresh and smelling good, and I make sure she gets the best gas and maintenance.

However, I never knew of a way I could make her look like the pretty girl she is, until now. These are eyelashes for your car! You simply install these beauties on the headlights with a little automotive grade adhesive, and your girl car will smile with pride and joy.

Are you and your car headed out for the evening? You can take her look up a notch and make her glamorous for a night out by purchasing the crystal eyeliner. Yeah, that’s what I’m talkin about baby! You can order these inexpensive little accessories at http://carlashes.com.

[via autoevolution]

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FlashBike: The Only Way To Roll With Your Flash Memory

FlashBike: The Only Way To Roll With Your Flash Memory: "

There are many designs that have graced the small flash memories that we carry with us on a daily basis. It’s like we take pride in giving our files a nice, stylish place to stay while we transport them from A to B. Some are radical, while others are plain or exclusive. The original designs were boring and stiff, but there are so many new designs today that I am sure no one knows the full scope of it all. There is one that stands apart from the rest.

That flash memory is designed by Alex Naboko and is called “FlashBike.” It’s a rad design, and it has a little bit of that Harley Davidson badboy attitude about it. The function of it is also quite unique. Just like with a regular motorcycle wheel you roll out the actual flash connector from within the wheel cover.

This awesome flash memory of course comes in several different colors and designs, so you will most definitely find one that matches your liking. It also has a little key chain loop for you to attach the flash memory to your key chain. It’s secure, easy and rad. What else could you want in a flash memory key chain design? Plus, it brings out the biker in you.

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Gmail Priority Inbox

Gmail Priority Inbox: "Last year, I posted about a new Gmail feature that will prioritize important messages. This feature will be available soon and it's called Priority Inbox.

'Priority Inbox is a new view of your inbox that automatically helps you focus on your most important messages. Gmail has always kept spam messages out of your inbox, and now we've improved Gmail's filter to help you see the emails that matter faster without requiring you to set up complex rules. Priority Inbox splits your inbox into three sections: Important and unread, Starred, and Everything else. Messages are automatically categorized as they arrive in your inbox. Gmail uses a variety of signals to predict which messages are important, including the people you email most and which messages you open and reply to (these are likely more important than the ones you skip over).'



Gmail also adds two buttons that let you classify messages as important or unimportant, just like the 'Mark as spam' and 'Not spam' buttons. Unlike spam filtering, finding important messages is more difficult because you can't use information from other accounts to classify messages.

Google has to build a personalized classifier for each Gmail user and it needs a lot of messages. 'Email importance ranking works best for people who receive a lot of email,' explains Google. Google takes into account implicit signals like: the messages from people you frequently email are important, if a message includes words frequently used in other messages you usually read then it's probably important, the messages you star are probably more important than the messages you archive without opening. There are also explicit signals: click on the important/unimportant buttons, create filters to mark messages as important.

Priority Inbox will be available in Gmail and Google Apps over the next week, but you'll only see it in Google Apps if the administrator has enabled 'pre-release features'.

Tidbit: Gmail uses the 'important' label to classify messages, so that's the reason why you can't create a label named 'important'.


{ Thanks, Niranjan, Tillmann and Nikola. }

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In-cell dropdown and validation in spreadsheets

In-cell dropdown and validation in spreadsheets: "Today, we added in-cell dropdown and validation to spreadsheets. This makes it easy to constrain the values of an individual cell to a specific range or list. For example, if you are building a trip planning spreadsheet, you can now limit the options in the travel destination column to a select set of cities via dropdown lists.

In-cell dropdowns also make input easier by reducing unnecessary typing and errors in processing. You can create dropdown lists in individual cells through the data validation tool by validating against a range of cells in your sheet or by creating a custom list.

Follow these steps to create an in-cell dropdown list through validation against a range.

1. Enter data into a range of cells.
• For example, create a list of destinations on your spreadsheet.
2. Select the cell(s) you would like to validate.
3. Under the Tools menu, select Data validation...
4. Change the Criteria to ‘Items from a list.’
5. Click the button next to the ‘Create list from range’ option and select the range of cells you entered data in during Step 1.
   
6. Click Save and the cell you chose to validate will have a dropdown arrow in it with the data in your cell range as the potential input values. If you want, you can set a cell to allow invalid data.

You can also create a in-cell dropdown using a custom list.

1. Under the Tools menu, select Data validation...
2. Change the Criteria to ‘Items from a list.’
3. Click the button next to the 'Enter list items' option.
4. Enter a set of custom values, separated by commas. For example, you could enter 'San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.'
5. Click Save and the cell you selected will have a dropdown list with the values you entered as potential input values.
   

Let us know what you think in the comments.

Posted by: Li-Wei Lee, Software Engineer

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