1) Ditch the printer
Having your own printer at Amherst College is like owning an Egg Genie: You don’t especially need one, and you would be more embarrassed than proud if your friends found out you bought one. The average printer-purchasing Amherst freshman uses their new device for about as long as it takes for the first ink cartridge to run out. The hapless machine is then cosigned to the same realm as Easy-Bake Ovens and StairMasters, never to be used or heard from again. It’s no wonder why: Amherst College furnishes students with some of the best printing deals out there. Six cents nets you a single, double-sided black and white page. You are likely to spend more on a printer and ink cartridges in one year than you will on printing for your entire Amherst career. Laziness is hardly an excuse either, as students can print, with the aid of a college-provided (Mac-only) computer script, from their own room to the library or computer center. Plus, printers take up space and are ugly. It’s not too late to make a return.
And guess what you could buy with that money? Number 2.
2) Invest in a hard drive (and use it)
Many within the computer servicing (and airport security) profession see all hard drives as ticking timebombs: One day, in the perhaps distant — likely not-so-distant — future your hard drive will die. It will click and make strange noises and then proceeed to croak and go to hard drive heaven. It happens. A lot. Even if a malfuction doesn’t happen, any number of other disasters could: a destructive virus, an earth-shattering earthquake, a keyboard-drenching Gin & Tonic spill, etc. I want to scare you because fear inspires precaution, and as most Help Desk staff know, precaution is a weekly back-up. Think of the trouble that saves you. Think of it as life insurance, only without the messy paperwork.
3) Discover Scratch
Let’s try something. Ask the next three people that you see whether they heard of Scratch. Then ask yourself. Chances are, half the people you ask will give you the negative; the other half will slowly inch out of the room, eyes darting. Scratch is a network drive shared by members of the Amherst College community. Why it’s important is nestled safely within the word share, which, ethics aside, allows Scratch to be Amherst’s very own cultural forum. Looking for something good to listen to? Create a text file and leave a request. Scratch, by virtue of its name, isn’t about permanence, however; files left on there disappear within a few days.
Of course, sharing copy-written files on Scratch is a bit like penciling the word “pirate” in your forehead. There is absolutely nothing anonymous about it, and every file you place on it still retains information about who put it there. Hence, using Scratch for sharing anything that you yourself did not create is a risky affair and violates all sorts of things on the College’s acceptable use policy. Ethically dubious, using Scratch is something that lots of people do, but few people would be comfortable talking to the RIAA about...
4) Get the hard facts about Software
Here are a few examples of software that Amherst College provides students for little or nothing: Windows XP ($10) , Windows Vista ($15), Dreamweaver, Office, Photoshop, ArcGis, Mathematica. The list goes on. Some software is yours to keep forever (Windows, Office) while using others requires you to be on the Amherst network. Seems like a deal breaker, but when you are using your free copy of McAffe on your fifteen-dollar copy of Windows Vista, it’s somewhat hard to complain.
5) Take advantage of resources
The Information Technology department is a wonderful group of people dedicated to making sure that your Amherst computing experience is a carefree one. So take advantage of it. Call the Help Desk. You’ll be in love before you know it.
5.5) Planworld.
Try it out. It’s nifty.