Last Minute Gift
Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. Need a stocking stuffer or last minute gift? Did one of your friends buy you a present you didn’t expect, leaving you scrambling to find something to give in return?
Look no farther than iTunes. You can run to Target or Best Buy and pick up a $15 gift card. You can buy one online and print it off, if you don’t have that kind of time. Snowed in, or too far away from the object of your gift-giving impulse? Send the card by email, they’ll have it in minutes.
Merry Christmas, everyone.
— Stephen Jendrazak @ 11:11 am
Laziness
The semester is over. All that work is turned in. The tests are taken. Student’s to-do lists have finally shrunk to zero items.
Now is the time to recover. Sleep. Laze around. Recuperate.
Just to help you unwind, here’s an article on the virtues of laziness. But please, don’t read the whole thing — that would be way too much work.
— Stephen Jendrazak @ 5:53 pm
Homepage
What’s your homepage? Why did you pick that homepage? Is it still the same one you’ve had since you bought your computer? Do you keep it blank and use it to go right to what you are looking for?
I wonder what you can tell about someone by looking at their homepage? Ask a few of your friends what theirs is. Why they like it. Why they use it and what they use it for.
Some love to search, others love the “fun” stories that a few of the portals seem to display in their ever rotating tiles. Some like being advertised to, or seeing new products. Still others seem to like just using it for search. But it seems to me most just leave it as whatever it was when they got their computer. Slackers…
— Dave Morin @ 4:44 pm
Semester’s End
‘Tis the season to be busy. Projects are due, exams are coming, and students have to get ready to go home, all at the same time. This has always been the time of year when I’m sick and tired of the current semester, ready for break and hoping for an easier semester in the spring.
But not this year. This is my last semester as an undergrad taking classes on campus. Next semester most of my coursework will be in a seminar off campus, and then I graduate.
So, although I am excited for the holidays, and I think my next semester will be interesting and fun, I’m in no hurry for this one to end. In fact, I’m feeling a little nostalgic.
I spent a lot of time in college just wishing I could jump ahead a week to the point when the project consuming all my time was over. Friends and I complained about campus food, late nights studying, or how there’s nothing to do in Muncie, Indiana.
Now I’m kind of wishing I could jump back to those times, and I’m not wanting to rush my college career forward anymore. Enjoy it while you have it.
— Stephen Jendrazak @ 10:49 am
Geeked?
Technology has a funny way of growing on you. It can make you a geek without you even noticing.
Example: back in the day, my process of keeping classes organized was all about scrambling for the right notebook, rushing across campus, and scribbling semi-legible notes and test dates on whatever spare page I could find (you know, when you’re “coma-noting” and unable to read your own notes the following day?)
Now I just grab a 4.5 lb laptop on my way out the door and arrive to class with my entire academic history at my disposal. Word’s notebook view whips would-be chicken-scratch notes up into nice, bulleted, and audio-noted study aids and outlines. While iCal, DotMac, and the cell keep a half-dozen class, work, and sports schedules synced across multiple devices, posted to a webpage, and available in my pocket.
Geeked? Perhaps, but with all the crazy technologies colleges can throw at you, it’s often just the ability to keep campus life organized quickly that keeps you ahead of the game.
— Clif @ 8:32 am
Extensions
Happy Friday! I wanted to drop a quick note out there about a very useful trick that you can use to manage documents on your Mac just a little bit easier. A trend on campuses lately has been towards turning in assignments online through a variety of online course systems. Sometimes profs get confused by the documents coming to them from your Mac due to the fact that they are missing an extension.
One of the great things about Mac OS X and Microsoft Office for Mac is that the extensions are exactly the same as they are on PCs (.doc, .ppt, .xls). But, you also need to know that these extensions are being put onto your files properly. To do this, you need to turn on the “Show all file extensions” option in your Finder. To do this, follow these steps:
1. Make sure you are in the Finder by clicking on the desktop.
2. Click the bolded “Finder” menu and click the “Preferences…” menu. (You can also get to the Preferences menu by pressing the apple key and the comma key on your keyboard).
3. When the Preferences dialogue opens up, click the “Advanced” button.
4. Check the “Show all file extensions” box.
5. You are set!
Now that you have this setup, you will be able to make sure that all of your extensions are correct on your documents. If you are submitting a Word document electronically, make sure the .doc extensions is attached to the end of your filename. That way, you know that whomever you are sending to will surely be able to read your document no matter what system they are on.
Have a great weekend! Good luck on Finals everyone!
— Dave Morin @ 3:02 pm
Study Guides
Well, classes are officially over here at SCSU. So it’s on to finals/cram week. What better time to find out what’s out there to help one maximize one’s limited cram-time?
The following are the results from my search for the top cram/study downloads listed over at the iTunes Music Store:
Memory. Every good crammer needs one so be sure to check out A Great Memory: Remember Everything You Hear, Read, & Study, Develop a Powerful Memory, and 10 Days to a Sharper Memory. Not to worry, I checked it out and the “10 Days” audiobook is only three hours long. Perhaps the authors are just dealing with some really short days where they’re from?
Writing.For those long term papers, the classic On Writing Well looks like a real winner. Or if you’ve got a spare 10 hours on your hand, be sure to check out Ron Fry’s How to Study Program.
Persuasion. Of course, desperate times may demand desperate measures. If you’re headed for a bomb don’t go there before brushing up on the negotiation skills. Consult the classic: How to Win Friends and Influence People.
— Clif @ 1:43 pm
Welcome Clif
Clif is currently pursuing an MBA @ Southern CT State University. Prior to graduate studies, he completed his BA, BS in Psychology & Legal Studies at Umass-Amherst. By day Clif is the Assistant Dir. for Mac Support on campus … and by night he is the bartender at a local wedding hall. When he has time off from work or his studies, Clif enjoys skiing, biking and almost-golfing!
You can reach Clif at clifsblog@mac.com or visit his homepage at http://homepage.mac.com/clifhirtle/scsu.
— Student Blog Admin @ 7:39 am
SubEthaEdit
I hope everyone is having a great week. Okay. I have something to admit…
I love third-party applications. I’m constantly searching VersionTracker, MacUpdate or the Apple’s Mac OS X Downloads page. Slowly over time I’d love to share some of my favorite third-party applications with all of you.
First things first: SubEthaEdit is one of the coolest programs out there. It’s a text editor, but is designed so groups of people can all view and edit a document. Working on a coding project or editing an English paper with multiple people now becomes ten times easier! The best part is that SubEthaEdit is free for non-commercial use, including students! So, the next time you’re in class, try getting some fellow Rendezvous friends to help collaborate with your note taking skills. It’ll make class a lot easier, and much more fun.
— Sarah Friedlander @ 4:11 pm
Welcome Sarah!
Sarah is a new media publishing major and a mass media communications minor at Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York. She is 21 years old and will be graduating in two years. When not working on her Power Mac G5 or 12-inch PowerBook, she enjoys playing flute/piccolo in concert band, eating sushi and hanging out with friends. Her iPod contains a plethora of music, including Trans-Siberian Orchestra to Dream Theater to Radiohead. She is an avid poster collector, including Apple’s Think Different Campaign which are framed and hung in her bedroom. Want to learn more? E-mail Sarah at sarahfriedlander@mac.com.
— Student Blog Admin @ 3:47 pm
Apple By Night
Coffee shops are sometimes the coolest places in the world. In every culture everywhere I have traveled, you can find the same thing. Great friends and great atmosphere. Both of which combine to create unique and interesting places for meeting and interacting with wonderful people.
I love how just pulling your Powerbook out immediately starts people asking questions. They correlate Apple with some of the coolest lifestyles. Last night I got some of my favorite kinds of questions:
“Hey man, do you ski?”
“I love Apple, my boyfriend does awesome things with his G5 and music.”
“I used to do promotions for Macworld, I’m so happy to see young people working and evangelizing Apple.”
What a lifestyle to live. What a great conversation starter. What a great way to connect and meet new people. All while enjoying a warm mocha. Perfect.
— Dave Morin @ 12:37 pm
Quicksilver
Now that we’re all back from Thanksgiving Break, I wanted to share a cool program a friend showed me last week.
It’s called Quicksilver. It’s totally free, and it’s great. Once you’ve downloaded and installed it — which takes no time at all — you press control-space to activate it.
Then you just type. Begin typing a program’s name, and it will guess which one and open it. Begin typing a contact’s name, and it will bring up their address book card. Begin typing a song name, and you can play it in iTunes. Begin… well, you get the point. You can empty the trash, shut down, or get a definition. Anything.
The program is incredibly intelligent. It learns what you’re likely to mean when you type a certain set of letters, and it can even guess that “wor” is likely to mean Microsoft Word, or that “ie” is likely to mean Internet Explorer.
Give it a try — this is one of those programs that makes using a Mac even faster and easier.
— Stephen Jendrazak @ 8:26 am
Welcome Stephen
Stephen is a journalism graphics major and political science minor at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. He is 21 years old and will be graduating in May. He likes traveling, napping, movies, and bookstores. His iPod contains every Barenaked Ladies album that’s been released, the tape in his VCR is full of West Wing recordings, and his book shelf is simply impossible to categorize. Still don’t know him well enough? Drop Stephen an email at stevehj@mac.com.
— Student Blog Admin @ 7:33 am
The Grind
Turkey day was always the best part about being in school. Football games, new classes, midterms, papers, parties. The fall is always crazy. Going back home to Montana was always incredible and a needed break. The same rings true in the “real” world. Hard work pays off, breaks feel epic.
Then, it’s back to the grind. It’s funny how the day afer thankgiving break, the freeways are packed, classes are packed, meetings are packed. You have to love group psychology. Everyone back to work! Then it just slowly tapers. Breaks are part of the good life. Recharge. Refresh. Eat food. Sleep. Rest. Back to work.
— Dave Morin @ 4:26 pm