Have you ever needed your access to your computer documents but didn’t have your laptop with you? One quick and easy solution would be to take advantage of free cloud computing services. Cloud computing gets its name from the fact that the data storage/applications processing is done remotely on a server and is not hosted or dependent on your own (client) computer – in other words, the data/service is “up in the clouds”.

Cloud computing provides a great service that many students within the Commerce program have used to increase their personal productivity as well as group productivity.

A very popular option for basic and free cloud computing is Dropbox.

I will briefly outline the two main advantages of Dropbox below:

Using Dropbox as “mobile” data storage

Dropbox creates a folder on your computer as well as a duplicate folder on their server. Any files you put on your local Dropbox folder (the one on your computer) will be replicated in the server folder. What’s neat about this is that you can logon to the Dropbox website with your credentials on any computer, upload some files, and those files will also be replicated onto your personal computer (assuming that it is connected to the internet) in real time. This way, you will have access to your documents anywhere you go as long as you have an internet connection – think of it as an online USB that’s always updated based on what you have on your computer. You can also install Dropbox on multiple computers and all the computers will share the same files, based on your Dropbox login credentials. In the same fashion, any files added to the Dropbox folder on one computer will be replicated on the server, as well as on all other computers that are registered to that account in real time, assuming that these computers are connected to the internet. If the other registered computers are not connected to the internet, Dropbox will reconcile the files the next time the computers have access to the internet.

Using Dropbox for collaboration

Not only does Dropbox allow you to sync multiple computers, you can even “share” folders with other users. For example, if I were working in a group project, I would share a folder with my group members that we can all use to submit our content as well as to read other people’s content. This way, If I ever need any files from my group members, I can just look inside the Dropbox folder instead of emailing them for it. This saves a ton of time.

How to get started?

You can download Dropbox here. With a free membership, you will receive 2GB to start. If you refer another person to use Dropbox, you will receive an extra 250MB. If you register as a student (.edu or any other authenticated educational institution i.e. queensu.ca) you will receive double per referral.

Software like Dropbox is becoming widely popular in the technology world as many companies (including Google) believe that cloud computing will be the the future of personal computers, making personal computers more bare-bones and server computing more robust.

The collaboration aspect of Dropbox makes it a must-have for Commerce students who want to increase group productivity.

A similar program to Dropbox is Evernote – an easy way to take notes in class and sync it with multiple computers.

Jason Liu

B.Comm ‘13

I just wanted to be the first to write about this. Today, the faculty board passed two motions regarding the Commerce Program’s curriculum:

1.       The Queen’s Option is removed as a requirement of the degree i.e., students will no longer have to complete a Queen’s Option of two related credits.

2.       The Arts Writing Requirement is removed as a requirement of graduation. Effective today, students will no longer have to complete a credit in “writing” courses.

These two things have been mentioned many times on blog posts as they’ve been pretty prominent requirements of the Commerce degree here. I think the Queen’s Option move is a good one. I was talking with other TAs about this at dinner the other night and we thought that getting rid of the Option would let us really explore a lot of different subjects. We don’t really get too many electives to begin with so this might help broaden horizons a bit more. As for the writing credit, it was something I planned on doing on exchange, so I don’t really know how that would have turned out for me if I had to take it at Queen’s.

Anyways, the post is more just to give a heads up about the change. You can read about the reasoning behind the move here.

Zeya Yang, Comm 2013

After working past the jetlag and the culture shock, it’s time to jump right back in to campus life at Queen’s. After living in Norway for the past 5 months and studying at the BI School of Management, I’m excited to be back in Kingston.

This semester, I have a bit of an awkward timetable due to the electives I chose for my third year. 9 hours of lectures on Mondays, with an hour of class on Tuesdays to Fridays. I have 5 courses, including Production and Operations Management (mandatory for all 3rd year Commerce students), Marketing Strategy, Consumer Behaviour, and my electives.

Even though it’s only been two days into the second semester, things are just as busy as always! Job recruitment, company info sessions, catching up with old friends, buying supplies from the Campus Bookstore, and a lot of executive team meetings. As the Queen’s Entrepreneurs’ Competition (http://theqec.com/) weekend quickly approaches, there are a lot of little things that still need to be finished before we welcome our international competitors to Goodes Hall. Packing swag bags, printing itineraries, reviewing schedules, confirming attendees, replacing last-minute cancellations…the list goes on. As part of the executive and acting as supporting co-chair, a large part of our year-long planning process is trying to anticipate the unexpected–which is always tough to do. In addition to all of this, I’ve signed on as a freelance writer with two firms so there are quite a few writing deadlines that I’m trying to keep on top of. Tomorrow, I’ll also be going back to my part-time position at Alumni Relations for the Queen’s School of Business. January is going to be an exciting month!

Speaking of deadlines, Ontario high school students have an important deadline to meet–tomorrow, at 11:59 PM EST applications to Ontario universities are due! If you’re looking to find out more information about life at Queen’s, please join me in an online-chat session hosted by the Queen’s School of Business. The chat session goes live at 7:00 PM EST tomorrow night. For more information, visit http://business.queensu.ca/bcom/chat_sessions.php. Hope to see you online!

Katherine Wong Too Yen, BCom’12

Regardless of how much time I spend at Goodes (and as a Commie, Goodes Hall is honestly a second home-away-from-home), I am still in awe of how pretty the building is. A definite upgrade from high school dusty chalk boards and rectangular bubble-gum-reverse desks. And if you don’t know what I’m talking about, I sincerely hope that you will consider to take a tour in the coming months or during the Queen’s March Break Open House.

The general report for the 2010 Junior Team Canada Economic Trades Mission to China & Malaysia was finalized awhile back, but has not yet been published on the Global Vision Website. If you are interested in the JTC Program, I would recommend taking a peek at previous mission reports: http://www.globalvision.ca/category/news/reports2/ And if anyone is interested in learning more about the 2010 trades mission, I would be happy to forward a copy of the report (e-mail me at annie.wang@business.queensu.ca )

 As an added bonus (to the pretty classrooms), the academic calendar for Queen’s usually allocated an extra week of winter holidays. And since fall semester exams take place prior to the holidays, a 3-week period of grace is pretty awesome. As you approach the stretch of your final months in high school or your winter semester ahead, I’d like to share a quick story.

Over the holidays, I had the pleasure to meet a girl named Layla from Kenya. She was selected from her village to receive a full university scholarship from the local Each One Teach One program. Though her English is a little shaky, she is working very diligently to improve her fluency- and hearing her story made me reflect on why I was pursuing my educational career. While post-secondary education provides a great basis for a stable standard of living, education at its very core is driven by a human need to learn. A penny for your thoughts to start the semester.

“Each one teach one”

-African Proverb 

Annie Wang (BComm 2013)