Tag: Applications

College Applications

Halloween is also a scary deadline for high school seniors who have to apply for colleges. Many colleges declare November 1 as the application deadline and the seniors are juggling with college applications and essays. Seniors are also figuring out where to go and how to pay. FAFSA, financial aid, and scholarship applications are also due at this time. Completing the application process while managing senior year and other activities is definitely a challenge for high school seniors.

Common App

Every student uses their individual style of completing applications and essays. Filing FAFSA, financial aid, and scholarships is another aspect of college admissions. Some colleges may waive application fees based on a student’s score. Common App is a platform for the students where they can create a profile and submit applications to many colleges. Payment options are available through the Common App. Applying to as many colleges as possible is suggested, as the colleges are highly selective. Each student’s individual preferences also might be different and in order to meet those, students need to keep their options open.

Scores

Students need to submit their high school courses, interests, sports, activities at school and outside of school, and all other details in the Common App. Some colleges provide an essay topic and the students are required to write the essay before they can submit the application. Other colleges that are not in the Common App, have respective websites to file the applications. Having the ACT, SAT, GPA, Toefl, AP Scores, College credits (if any), and other information ready will help in the application process. Putting all the details will help the colleges get a fair idea about the student.

FAFSA

A FAFSA ID is needed for both the students and parents so the colleges can get financial information. Students who cannot file the FAFSA can fill out an alternate form if any provided by the colleges. Parents who cannot file FAFSA can fill out a paper form. Students are encouraged to apply for FAFSA even though they are not eligible to get any aid. Colleges use the FAFSA ID to determine the financial aid a student can get. Based on the Federal-aid, state aid, and college aids, students can get an idea of how much more they need to pay from other sources such as work-pay, parental support, or loans. Once they receive the admission letter, students can create an account on the college websites and get an estimate of how much their tuition and dorm charges are going to be.

Scholarships

Applying to different scholarships is also crucial for the student. Regardless of their financial status, students are encouraged to apply so that they are left with fewer loans by the time they graduate. Again, scholarships need essays! and other criteria. STEM courses have special scholarships that the students must apply. Requesting recommendation letters and getting them ready is also crucial as colleges and scholarships are asking for them.

Senioritis

Seniors are often tired and get lazy in the senior year resulting in ‘Senioritis’. Students must be mindful that senior year is the basis for their future and planning ahead will help them save time and money. It is overwhelming for the students to catch up with the courses, sports, activities, college applications, and all. Students can get the help of teachers, counselors, parents, friends, and mentors to reduce stress. The applications and scholarships do have a deadline and timelines are important. Good luck to all the seniors in their college application process!

iPhone Apps and Accessories – A Newcomer Guide

Are you a new iPhone owner? Are you confused how to set it up? And are awed by the large number of Apps available? Welcome to the iPhone club. Here are some tips and best practices for you and your iPhone.


My husband and son cannot stop jumping after seeing the new iPhone which we got yesterday. The instructions book said to charge fully, but did not mention how long. And we have to switch it off before charging. So, how do we know if it is fully charged.

Setting up

  • Do not switch on the iPhone initially
  • Charge the iPhone using the charger provided
  • Wait for half-an-hour to one hour and switch it ON. Check if it is fully charged.
  • Download the iTunes software from apple.com/iTunes
  • Register your phone as per the instruction manual
  • Make a test call to any other phone number
  • Connect the Apple iPhone to your personal computer
  • Start downloading the applications

iPhone Apps

You need not download all the Apps given there. You can choose among the free apps given under each category. The Apple iPhone website lists all the paid and free apps under different categories. The Apps for keeping current and the Apps for fun and games are useful. Alternately, you may browse through your iPhone to download an application.

I found the following Apps useful:

  • Apps for Business: Currency Converter, Jobs, iSchedule
  • Apps for keeping current: CNN Mobile, FOX News, Yahoo, TIME Magazine, NYTimes
  • Apps for Music: Rhapsody, Top 100s by Bing
  • Apps for Students: Dictionary.com, Math Magic,  Math Drills
  • Apps for Working Out: Diabetes, Body Fitness, Weight Watchers, Calorie tracker, WebMD, Runkeeper
  • Apps for Managing Money: Expense tracker, Bill tracker, Personal assistant, Wells, BillMinder
  • Apps for Fun and Games: All-in-1, PAC-Man Lite, PandaMania

It is essential to read the customer reviews. Some apps work only on certain version of iPhone and only on Mac computer. The ‘fringe’ app is also useful in calling outside the network and saving minutes! Register at ‘Textfree’ app to send free texts to any other mobile.


iPhone Accesories

Now after the iPhone has arrived, there is a desperate need for its accessories. 🙂 Here are some of the additional accessories you may need for your iPhone.

  1. iPhone LCD Protector – To protect the screen from scratches
  2. iPhone Leather pouch – To carry your iPhone
  3. iPhone Car charger – To charge it in the car on the go
  4. iPhone Additional charger  – To avoid the hassle of carrying the charger to and fro from office
  5. iPhone Emergency battery – To charge the iPhone where you do not have a laptop or other plugin options
  6. iPhone cradle – To charge and rest your iPhone

meritline offers iPhone accessories at a reasonable rate. But, they take two weeks to deliver. If you cannot wait that longer, eForCity can send you the product instantly. The docking station at amazon is $24 and can accommodate your iPhone along with its LCD protector.

In addition, buy.com, newegg, tigerdirect, tech4shop are some other websites to check for iPhone accessories.

Remember to read the user reviews and additional information  before ordering any product and check for its compatability for the iPhone you own. Best wishes for your new iPhone and the monthly internet service charges that your provider bills you. 🙂

Cloud Computing – The Next Big Thing

Cloud computing is based on the internet (Cloud) for developing computer technology (Computing). It involves delivering hosted services over the internet.



Gartner have said that “Cloud computing heralds an evolution of business that is no less influential than e-business”. It does add though that “cloud computing is very much an evolving concept that will take many years to fully mature”.

However, Robert McGarvey says that by 2012 only 21% of businesses will not be using Cloud Computing and 20% of businesses will own no IT assets.

Significance

Information Technology faces continuous requirement of extending the resources without increasing the cost. Cloud computing can assist IT in increasing the capacity and adding capabilities.

Cloud computing supports latest models for IT services that are developed over the internet. It involves the provision of dynamic, scalable and virtual resources as a service over the internet. Cloud Computing helps reduce IT infrastructure costs and enhances competitive advantage in an IT company. It can support additional users and can create flexible IT environment.

A recent study by Aberdeen Group revealed that companies adopting Cloud Computing have reduced IT costs by 18% and data center power consumption by 16%.

Applications

Companies such as Microsoft, Google, Salesforce.com, NetSuite, and Amazon among others have deployed Cloud Computing in their services. The three main services supported by Cloud Computing are:  

  1. Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS): With Cloud Computing, infrastructure vendors can provide physical storage and processing capabilities to support services on the internet.
  2. Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS): With Cloud Computing, companies can encapsulate a layer of service and provide it as a platform. The users can build higher-level services using the applications from platforms.
  3. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS): With Cloud Computing, companies can offer applications on the internet as a service and on demand. A single instance of the software runs on the cloud and can serve multiple users or organisations.

Advantages

Gartner stresses that Cloud computing is emerging at the convergence of three major trends service orientation, virtualization and standardization of computing through Internet. Here are some advantages of Cloud computing:

  • Scalability
  • Cost saving
  • Business agility
  • Disaster recovery
  • Built-in backup
  • Device independence
  • Security
  • Location independence
  • Maintenance

Disadvantages

Cloud Computing has numerous advantages such as continuous data access, virtual storage, pay-by-use model, scalability and so on.

However, here are some of the challenges of Cloud Computing:

  1. Security of the data stored on the internet
  2. Reliability on external sources and third party hosts for data supply
  3. Dependency on internet and connectivity
  4. Difficulty in managing multiple platforms or multiple clouds which enterprises require
  5. Slow connectivity for web-based applications

Cloud Computing is often confused with Grid Computing, Utility Computing and Autonomic Computing. The challenges and developments in the topic make it interesting and essential for research.

Products

IBM, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, HP, VMWare are some of the largest vendors of clouds. Here are some of the examples of cloud computing.

  1. Web mail: Google, Yahoo, Microsoft
  2. Online storage services: Humyo, ZumoDrive, Microsoft’s SkyDrive, S3 from Amazon
  3. Online collaboration tools: Google Wave, Spicebird, Mikogo, Stixy, Vyew
  4. Online suites: Google suite, Ajax13, ThinkFree and Microsoft’s Office Live.
  5. Virtual computing platforms: Amazon’s EC2, Open source platforms such as AbiCloud, Elastichosts and NASA’s Nebula

ZDNet has analyzed common myths of cloud computing to bust the common misconceptions in that area. Cloud computing is here to stay and will bring in major developments in IT services.