Apr
12
Long, unwieldy URLs have always been a pain to share with others. They are prone to errors (especially when they stretch over several lines and you happen to accidentally omit characters). And good luck in trying to retype one! Also, Twitter’s 140 character message limit makes it even more challenging to share a long link.
URL shorteners are a quick and easy solution for squeezing long URLs into tweets, e-mails, PowerPoint presentations and more. Consider this complex 82-character URL to a Time magazine article on the Time.com Web site:
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1901188_1901207,00.html
It’s intimidating to say the least and breaks into two lines. Now, look at the link below created using TinyURL, one of many URL shorteners:
Much better isn’t it? And it will take you to the exact page on the Time.com Web site. Some popular URL shorteners are:
Bit.ly
Cl.igs
Short.ie
Snipurl
TinyURL
Want to read more? Check out this chart at:
http://searchengineland.com/analysis-which-url-shortening-service-should-you-use-17204
Hmmmm…let’s try that again:
http://snipurl.com/vfq0y
Apr
7
Love Sci-Fi and want to do a bit of leisure reading but don’t want to trek over to Pearson or the Thousand Oaks Public Library? Not a problem! Check out the Free Science Fiction Books app on your iPhone or iPad. All of the 700+ books are ones in the public domain, meaning it is no longer under copyright laws.
There are two options to read the book: download and read on your phone or download and read on your computer. Some titles include:
- 20,000 leagues under the sea by Jules Verne
- Martian odyssey by Stanley Grauman Weinbaum
- War of the world by H.G. Wells
- Land that time forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs
My personal favorite: Time Machine by H.G. Wells.
For more info on the app and the company that created it:
Post from i09
Spreadsong, Inc.
Apr
5
Sometimes the Pearson Library receives free subscriptions to databases to try out. Currently, we have two:
LexisNexis Statistical Datasets
American Newspapers
Students, faculty, and staff: please give these databases a try and let us know what you think! If there’s strong interest across campus, there might be a possibility of buying a subscription.
Apr
1
“YOUR MAIL BOX QUOTA HAS EXCEEDED THE SET LIMIT”
Does this email subject line look familiar? Last month many CLU account holders received such an e-message. It looked official, and the message advised recipients that their mailbox had “exceeded the storage limit” and that they would “not be able to send or receive new mail until” they had validated their mailbox. The message continued by providing a link to click in order to “re-validate” their mailbox. Fortunately, most CLUnet account holders did not fall for this phishing scam. Doing such could have downloaded malicious software, often referred to as malware.
Remember: CLU will never ask you to fill out a form in an email that requests account access information. CLU will ask you to reset your password every 180 days; the CLU password reset page is:
http://www.callutheran.edu/password
Here’s a few tips for recognizing a phishing attempt and to help keep your account secure:
1. Sender Address: Ensure that the sender address is coming from a Cal Lutheran email account.
2. Deceptive links: Note if a discrepancy between the shown link and the real destination URL exists. To see if the link text agrees with the link destination, hover your mouse over the link in the message. If you ever see a link that claims to be to one place but is really to another, beware.
3. Obvious grammatical or spelling errors (Could that explain why it’s spelled “phishing” instead of “fishing”?)
4. IP addresses in the URL: If you ever see an IP address in the shown or the real URL, be suspicious.
View the complete Tech Byte on phishing and an archive of previous issues at http://www.callutheran.edu/iss/training/tech_bytes/
Mar
30
Students: On this page, you’ll find useful information to help you study better, research better, and/or be a better student – leaving you more time for fun.
Staff and Faculty: Find the latest information on library databases, acquisitions, and more!
If you like what we have to say, leave us feedback. If you want to suggest topics to know more about, post a comment. And never miss an update by RSS-ing us using a reader (like google reader, pageflakes, yahoo reader, etc.). Want to know more about RSS? Check out this YouTube video about RSS .
Your first study tip:
Not sure what you need to do to complete an assignment from now to the due date? Try out the University of Minnesota’s assignment calculator . Set the starting date and the due date, and you’ll magically get step by step help with deadlines…allowing you get that paper done by (or even before) the due date.