Student productivity: what software/back up system do you use?

[confettiflyer]

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Just curious what everyone's set-up is with respect to note taking, studying, and backing up.

I use Dropbox as my primary folder containing notes/powerpoints/etc... lets me access files across my 2 laptops + desktop + library computers (via web). Anything changed is instantly synced/backed up via server. Syncs to my phone but downloading takes a while (large ppt's), which is why I prefer....

For studying/my own crunched down notes, I use Evernote for to-do lists/quiz and test notes/etc... I'll screen shot useful charts/graph and stick them in here and make a condensed version to study for exams. Syncs to my phone so I can study w/out busting out the laptop.

Then the usual suspects: MS Office for writing papers/opening lectures, Google docs when there's a group project for collaboration, and good old note pad if i just need to jot stuff down.

I'm about 95% paperless, ditched my flash drive after discovering dropbox, and all I haul is my laptop now (textbooks are mostly electronic or not purchased at all).

What do you all use? I go pretty overboard.

 

[eightball]

looks like Chrome OS will be a perfect fit for you. As much as I like cloud computing, I'm always wary that the servers will go down even momentarily and I wont be able to retrieve that paper due at 3pm on the dot.

I am also essentially paperless (almost entirely through google) but I cant lose my miniature 4 gig jump drive. Peace of mind.

 

[diastole]

I'm old school. When I was an undergrad, they didn't even have powerpoint lectures. I'm thrilled to death I don't have to write everything down like I used to have to do. And I was a bio major so we all had those four in one pens so you could draw pictures and graphs and see what was happening.

Now, I print out my powerpoints and take notes on them. We don't have books so no need to worry about them. I use MS Word for the occasional paper I have to turn in. I'm probably about 95% off the computer. I leave my laptop at home. I walk to school and study along the way with my powerpoints.

 

[Praziquantel86]

I synchronize everything between my laptop and desktop. I've been working the kinks out of my remote desktop connection so that everything I do on my laptop synchronizes with the desktop. I'm having some issues getting things to go in the other direction, but I'll figure it out eventually.

I just don't like having all that stuff floating around out there. I definitely like the piece of mind knowing that all my important information actually has a physical location.

 

[Old Timer]

Whenever you have data to protect, you need a varied array of tools. The first thing you protect against is hardware failure. The next thing you protect against is theft. You need to backup on site and remotely. For most people an external hard drive will suffice. If you use a program called Second Copy, it will keep the last five versions of a file. That's nice when your writing a long paper and you realize two versions back was better. In addition you need to back up to another PC in a different location either on-line or many universities allow you have some network storage for files.

 

[confettiflyer]

Yeah, the dropbox link I have above will maintain revision copies on the server and updated local copies on all the computers you have it installed on.

Basically, if someone steals my laptop or the HD craps out, I'm protected. I run an external drive backup of one of my computers and it captures the synced folder as well (this is once a week).

Once a semester (2x a year), I'll burn photos/files onto a DVD and mail it back to California as an off-site backup. This is mostly for photos though, by then the semester is over for my notes and it'd be cumbersome to get them mailed back in the event of a catastrophic failure.

At that point, if I really need that off site backup, there's a distinct possibility that a) I'll be dead, b) the world ended, c) nuclear warfare ensued. Probably won't need my pharmacology notes at that point.

 

[DrWrong]

A blue Ballpoint Bic Pen and college ruled paper.

 

[Omegadramon]

I use google's cloud computing services but I dont have too many backups other than my flash drive and external HD. Nothing I have that can't be replaced.