1. My number one, most important tip is for you to sign-up with Google. Google's suite of products are extremely helpful and will serve you well. Gmail is a superb e-mail program; Google docs is a great place to store documents so that they are available to you anytime (no need for a flash drive); Google calendar is extremely versatile (that's what I use here); Google Reader is a fantastic place to bring all your RSS subsciptions. Speaking of which...

2. My number 2 tip, which is almost as important as my #1, is that you subscribe to this site with an RSS reader. That way you will be notified everytime something is updated. It saves you from continually coming here.

3. Frequently check your e-mail spam folder. Many of the e-mails I send are addressed to the entire class, which some e-mail servers take as spam and automatically route it into that folder. GMail makes it easy to see if you have spam. Unfortunately the other hosts don't so you have to be dilligent about checking.

4. NEVER, ever assume that anything you put on the Internet is safe. I don't care if it is password protected. Read this and this and think triple time before you post anything you wouldn't want to world to know.

5. FREQUENTLY back-up your hard drive, or at minimum any important documents you need to keep. Just ask me about all the horror stories of our hard drives crashing. Thankfully we back-up to multiple locations!