Boston University’s Buried Techno Treasures

There’s a lot that comes with a $50,000 tuition. Most of it, like classes and club funding, is obvious and easily accessible. Other entitlements are almost secret. The labyrinthine IT website, which many students only use to figure out how to connect to printers and wi-fi, is full of techno treasures if one can actually dig for them. Luckily, I’ve found two of the coolest and most useful services BU provides students and I’m going to lay them out, plain as day, right here.

1) MyFiles

Did you know Boston University provides each student with 250 megabytes of storage space on their data server? It’s called MyFiles and it provides students with access to free “cloud” storage (think of it like a BU Dropbox). Since text files and digitized readings take up so little space (rarely over 5mb), I use my 250mb to store a backup of all my school-related files. If my hard-drive fails or, heaven forbid, some jerk in the GSU spills their Pepsi all over my computer, I don’t have to worry about losing all my papers and projects. After beating up that Pepsi-spilling punk I can work from any computer on campus (even a friend’s) and restore them to my computer once it is fixed.

Here’s how to access MyFiles:

ON A MAC: Open a new Finder window. In the top menu click Go > Connect to Server… (Command+K). A box will appear asking for a server address. Type in smb://myfiles.ad.bu.edu/Users/<username> without the brackets (for instance, I would use smb://myfiles.ad.bu.edu/Users/alasser). Then, you’ll be asked for your password. Re-enter your username and then enter your password and click Connect. After that, you should be connected!

ON WINDOWS: Launch your browser and delete the URL in your menu bar. Type \\myfiles.ad.bu.edu\Users\<username> (for instance, I would type \\myfiles.ad.bu.edu\Users\alasser) and hit Enter. When prompted, log in by again entering your username as ad\<username> (ad\alasser) and then your password. After that, you should be connected!

2) BU Blogs

Did you know that Boston University provides every student with the capability to run and manage their own blog? Yes, yes, oh yes it’s true! While student blogs are not activated by default, BU will provide any student the hosting and domain for a WordPress-powered blog. Better yet, the domain is http://blogs.bu.edu/<username>, so it appears more legitimate—perfect for linking to in a resume or internship application and providing an extended peek at your personality that doesn’t fit on a resume.

Activating and setting up your blog is foolproof. Simply navigate to http://blogs.bu.edu/create-a-blog/ and click “Login” under the “Individuals” heading. Log in with your BU account and you’ll immediately be all set up!

Additionally, if you know how to code in HTML or want to learn, BU offers HTML-based pages for students as well. Just navigate to http://www.bu.edu/tech/web/personal/people/ for instructions.