Technology Tuesday: Will Facebook get you hired or fired?

What's on your Facebook page?  Or more importantly - who?

Now more than ever, employers are researching job candidates online.  Employers look to sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to find out more about you - not only your work background, but also your personality, your behavior and how you present yourself online.

So what exactly are employers looking for when they check out your profile?  According to a recent study by social media monitor Reppler, employers might hire - or fire - you based on:

• Photo albums and tags
• Pictures or mentions of alcohol or drug abuse
• Poor communication skills
• Inappropriate or discriminatory comments or posts
• Complaining about previous employers

To learn more about who's checking out your profile - and what they're looking for - check out this article on Mashable: How Recruiters Use Social Networks to Screen Candidates [Infographic]

Can't Keep Track of a Flash Drive?

Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring all your photos, docs, and videos anywhere, and share them easily. Any file you save to your Dropbox will automatically save to all your computers, your phone or iPad, and the Dropbox website. Dropbox also makes it easy to share with others.

A Basic Account is free and allows you to save up to 2GB of data. That's the equivalent of a cheap flash drive, and you don't have to worry about leaving it in the computer or at home.

Technology Tuesday: Online Audiobook Libraries

As a child of the eighties, I still slip up from time to time when I'm talking about "books on tape."  Of course, there's now a huge variety of ways to hear a book without having to drag our your old cassette player - and it's getting easier to get your hands on audio books every day!

First - and most recently - we have Audiobooks.com, who as of today are rolling out a new service that will let you access as many audio books as you want - out of their collection of 11,000 - for a fixed monthly fee.  This is new in the online world of audio books - usually there's a cap in how many recordings you can tap into each month.  For anyone with a long commute - this could be a lifesaver!  Read more about it on Mashable.

For those of you who want the audio book experience for free, there are alternatives!  Books with expired copyright can be recorded and shared online without charge.  Ranging from Sherlock Holmes books to stories by Edgar Allan Poe, you might be surprised by what you can find here.  For some quality book and short story recordings, you can check out LibriVox (where you can both record and listen to audio books), Verako, or the Telltale Weekly.

LibriVox: http://librivox.org/
Verako: http://verkaro.org/
Telltale Weekly: http://alexwilson.com/telltale/catalog/


Are you an audio book fan?  Where do you go to download your favorite books?

Technology Tuesday: Wired's Top 10 Tech This Week

Take a break from studying to check out some of the wild, remarkable and sometimes disturbing tech inventions unveiled this week in Mashable's Top 10 Tech This Week.  From shoes that can 'see' to tiny projectors that fit in your pocket, this list is a good representative of some of the amazing innovations we're making in the world of technology.

Check out the list here.

Technology Tuesday: Google Games and Typing Sharks

Here on the blog we try to highlight fun, free and easy ways to sharpen your research and computer skills.  Today's Technology Tuesday tips are A Google A Day and Typer Shark, games that painlessly improve the way you type and search for information online.

A Google A Day

What: Google releases a new puzzle every day that puts your googling skills to the test.  Race against the clock to find answers to these daily questions, and improve your searching skills in the process!
Example: You just ordered “κρασί” from a menu in the southernmost country in Europe. What will be brought to your table?
Where: A Google A Day
How: Looking for search help, or want to work with other daily googlers?  Check out this online community where people try to crack A Google A Day together.


Typer Shark

What: No matter what your typing skills, this free online game is a fun and stress-free way to brush up on your speed and accuracy.  Even if you hardly ever touch a keyboard, the game has a tutorial mode that takes you step-by-step through new typing skills.  Once you master the tutorial, you move on to zapping sharks by typing the words spelled on their sides.  Too slow, and you're shark bait!
Where: Typer Shark!
How:  No download necessary; you can play this game directly online through the PopCap website.


Have any online learning games you'd like to recommend?  Let us know in the comments section!

Technology Tuesday: Conversations with Robots

Honda's ASIMO robot: http://www.fotopedia.com/items/flickr-3543338099 

Pop culture is filled with talking robots - from Star Wars' C-3P0 to Haley Joel Osment in A.I.  But while these chatty robots may seem like total science fiction, they may be closer to becoming reality than you'd think.  Some robotics software is so advanced, it tricks people into thinking it's human.

Meet Cleverbot, the software that talks back.  When visiting the Cleverbot website, you'll find an empty text field inviting you to chat.  You can enter a comment or question to start the conversation.

IMing Cleverbot can feel surreal, as the program 'learns' from past conversations and builds up knowledge. For example, check out this conversation I had with Cleverbot about Lady Gaga:

Cleverbot: I love music! 

User: What kind of music? 

Cleverbot: Pop/electro/dance. 

User: Like Lady Gaga? 

Cleverbot: Exactly like Lady Gaga. 

User: What's your favorite Gaga song? 

Cleverbot: Poker face. 

User: Good choice. 

This ability to 'learn' and adapt sets Cleverbot apart, and gives the program its human-like quality.  In fact, Cleverbot is so clever that it's passed the Turing Test, which was developed to identify humans from robots.  In a test in India, more than half of the test's participants thought they were speaking to a human when they were actually talking to a machine!

What do you think - would you have been fooled?  Drop by the Cleverbot website for a conversation to decide for yourself.

Printing in the Libraries

Every term, students are allowed 200 pages of free printing. After that, students must pay 10 cents per page.

When printing remember that your account number is your student ID number (900 number). Do not use the 31_ before your number like you do to log in to ANGEL.

Your password is your 6 digit birthday. That's MMDDYY.

Then walk to the release station, enter your account number and password, select your job, and click "Start Printing." Enter your password one more time. The job is then released to the printer.

Library Computers

Reminder: to access the library computers you must be a current student and have a current student ID. Please see the library desk for the computer password.