Better Browsing - Use Your Keyboard to Browse the Web with Vimium

Today, I'm starting an occasional Wednesday feature on browsers called Better Browsing. I'll be covering all manner of extensions, hacks, and tricks for all the browswers out there, but primarily the major ones (that means Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Opera). On the inaugural edition of Better Browsing, I'm focusing on a Chrome extension called Vimium that allows you to use your keyboard to surf the web. As you might have noticed from my previous posts, I greatly abhor the mouse. Why use a slow rodent when you can make an application immediately do what you want with a keyboard shortcut? After all, HackCollege is all about finding tips and tricks to make our lives as college students easier and get things done more quickly. Thanks to my goal of not using my mouse whenever possible, I stumbled upon a great browser extension that allows you to navigate the web solely with your keyboard. If you want to speed up your browsing and keep your hands glued to the home row, check out Vimium.

You can download Vimium here and find out more about it here. Unfortunately, it’s only available for Google Chrome (sorry Firefox users).

What is It?

Dubbed as the hacker’s browser, Vimium provides keyboard shortcuts for control and navigation in the spirit of the Vim text editor. For those not in the know, Vim is a very old-school program that you can find out more about here. After you install the extension, navigate to any page and type “?” to open up the Vimium help dialog box and see all the options available to you. If you’re comfortable enough with installing the extension, you should understand what all the functions mean. You can do things like:

1. Open links in the current tab or a new tab
2. Open bookmarks in the current tab or a new tab
3. Scroll through your open tabs
4. Copy the current URL to your clipboard

Why is it Worth Downloading?

The most useful of Vimium’s many features is definitely opening links with your keyboard. After you hit “f”, Vimium will pop up a whole bunch of yellow text boxes with letters. These boxes correspond to all the links you can click on from Chrome’s current view. Hit the corresponding key combinations to go where you want – it’s that easy. Beyond this powerful feature, Vimium also opens up even quicker shortcuts that Chrome’s defaults. For example, instead of hitting Ctrl+W to close a tab, you can just hit “x”.

Finally, like any good program/extension should do, Vimium allows you to change all the default keyboard shortcuts however you want. Don’t like that you have to hold down the shift modifier for “F” to open links in a new tab? Just go to Vimium’s extension preferences to make it “f” instead of “F”.

Problems?

Most of the time, Vimium works great. Watch out for pages with links that are spaced very close to each other - I've had trouble deciphering which text boxes correspond to which links sometimes. Also, it doesn’t work with Flash sections of websites – you’ll have to stick with a mouse for that unfortunately. Finally, it sometimes (rarely though) doesn’t recognize buttons as links, another time when you’ll have to resort to using the mouse. Despite these drawbacks, I browse the web a lot more quickly now thanks to Vimium, and I hope you find it as useful as I have.

What do you think of Vimium? Have you found any Vimium-like extensions for other browsers? Let us know in the comments!

Unwire Your Dorm By Turning Your Laptop into a Wi-Fi Router

Even in 2011, many dorm rooms still come equipped only with a few ethernet connections, and no Wi-Fi. To make matters worse, oftentimes schools will ban routers that could potentially open up the super-secure locked-down network to malfeasant outsiders. But why should you be punished? You need a wireless connection for your Kindle, Xbox, and iPad, right? Luckily, whether you're on a Mac or PC, there are ways to use your laptop to create a wireless dorm room oasis.

Windows

If you're on a Windows 7 laptop, Connectify is a great utility to turn it into a Wi-Fi hotspot, no additional hardware required. As an addded bonus, they're giving away a semester-long license of their $30 pro version to students for free!

The free version isn't bad, and should serve most of the same purposes, but the Pro upgrade promises easier setup and the ability to change your network name (which could be useful for hiding the network from your nearby RA).

Mac

If you're on a Mac, things are even simpler, as this feature is built into the operating system itself. Simply plug in your ethernet and turn on Wi-Fi. Then go to System Preferences in your dock, click the "Sharing" icon on the third row, and check Internet Sharing. Finally, say you want to share with computers using Wi-Fi, and you're all set up.

You'll notice an upward-facing arrow on your Wi-Fi icon in the system tray indicating that it's working. Just remember to turn it off when not in use, because it's sure to eat up your battery life.

[Via Lifehacker]

Shy People Can Make Friends in College Too

Don't worry, doggie. You can make friends too. Photo courtesy of ♡Blackangelツ. Licensed under CC BY-2.0.I've always been a fairly shy person. I don't speak out unless I have something to say that I actually think will contribute to the conversation. I spend more time thinking of what I'm going to say than I do talking. I hesitate because I'd rather be quiet and ignored than given the "did you really just say that" look. 

As a consequence, it was a little hard for me to find friends in college. A lot of people feel like this once they enter their freshman year. We're not super weird, we're not stupid, we're not mute-- we're just shy. However, college is about getting outside of your box. So if you're shy, it's time to prepare to shake off that protective layer and put yourself out there. If you don't, you'll miss out on the best things that college has to offer.

Smile

People will naturally gravitate towards you if you appear open and friendly. If you cross your arms all the time, scowl, and never look people in the eyes, people are going to assume you don't have any friends because you're a bitch. That might or might not be the case, but if you do want to make some friends in college, open up a little bit. All you have to do is smile. Smile at people walking by you on campus, at the people serving you lunch, at a funny joke someone tells in class. If you present yourself as someone who people might want to talk to, you're already halfway there.

Smiling will also help increase your confidence as well. It just brightens your face and by a secondary affect, it makes you feel better inside. Additionally, if you smile at someone, chances are, they're going to smile back. Seeing this reaction will help you realize that you can connect with someone positively with something as simple as a smile.

Carry Gum and Mints

"Hey, do you have any gum?" is an ever-present phrase pretty much anywhere you go. Carry some with you so that you can have a reason to talk to someone. Better yet, practice taking the initiative in a conversation by offering gum to those in class around you. Most of the time, people will take you up on your offer and thank you. It's a great way just to form a very simple connection. It can lead to a conversation or it can just let you know that you have a friendly face in the classroom.

Talk to People in Class

If you've exhausted your gum routine, take the next step to making friends. The people you're in class with are going to be the people that you're going to be with for the next four years for the most part. This is especially true once you get into classes of your major. The best part about the people you're in class with is that you already know you have something in common with them-- this class. Strike up a conversation about how stupid last night's homework was. As depressing as it can sound, misery loves company. Complaining about how hard classes are is a cornerstone of college life. If you had trouble understanding something from last night's reading, ask someone sitting next to you. You already have a foundation base to take to the people sitting around you-- use it.

Get Involved

This is the number one way I've met people on my college campus. Yes, it's a little daunting and terrifying at first, but joining a club is a great way to meet people and form friendships. You can join something as general as a community service club or something as wild as a dancing group (which I most definitely did my freshman year). Go to your school's involvement fair at the beginning of each semester to see what activities and clubs your university offers. There is often a niche that you will love and fit right in. Right now, I'm part of Trinity's TV station and I love it. I meet new people and friends every semester. So branch out and try something new. Break out of your shell and you'll forget you were ever shy in the first place.

How do you help yourself get out of your box to make friends? Let us know in the comments!

[via College Cures]

Best Note Taking Apps for Students

What is your favorite way of taking notes? Photo courtesy of Marco Arment. Licensed under CC BY-2.0.Last week, Lifehacker rounded up the five best note taking apps. As students, we are constantly taking notes, both in and out of the classroom. When did that emperor die again and who succeeded him? What's that equation? When am I supposed to be at that meeting? There is not an hour in the day when I'm not constantly taking down notes on all of the stuff I have to remember.

That's why Lifehacker is super awesome in providing this roundup of the best note taking apps. Some of them you will have clearly heard of before, and some of them might be new to you. For their full review, check out their article here.

Evernote

Duh. Come on. HackCollege freaking loves Evernote. Perhaps one of the most awesome things about Evernote is that you can get to it on just about any piece of technology you have. It has a webapp, desktop app for both Windows and iOS, mobile apps for iOs, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone 7. I mean, there is no escaping Evernote. It's a great organizing tool to tag and collect notes, whether it's lecture notes or just a quick jot to remind you to do something. It also lets you capture pictures and save them too, which is really helpful for when you get an assignment sheet. Take a picture of it, save it with Evernote, and now you don't have to carry the sheet around with you wherever you go.

Shep would probably marry Evernote if he could. Here's his great review of the service for students. that was featured on Evernote's blog.

Springpad

According to Lifehacker, Springpad is the best at automatically guessing what you've just uploaded. After you've uploaded something from online, a picture, or a note, it organizes it into your folders without needing prompting from you. Now that is organizing. Just like Evernote, Springpad also has a webapp plus mobile apps for iOS and Android.

Microsoft OneNote

Functioning like a word processor, OneNote takes Word to the next level. It saves automatically, gives you much more freedom on the type of information you enter and where you put it, and also lets you create specific notebooks for different projects or classes for greater organization. You can download OneNote with MS Office for both your computer and with your phone. This option is definitely more expensive than free services like Evernote, but if you are gung-ho on MS applications, OneNote may work better for you.

Simplenote

Another free application (yay free!), Simplenote is an up and coming note taking service. It has a great developer community that keeps coming up with new add-ins to make the service more functional and easy to use. One of the most interesting features of this service is that it allows you to search through revision history for your notes. If you're looking for a fresh new way to take your notes, you should check out Simplenote.

Google Docs

Although this didn't make it onto Lifehacker's list, Shep and I have proved that Google Docs is a really awesome note taking tool. Google Docs is especially useful when you're in class with someone you know. Check out how to use Google Docs for collaborative note taking.

Paper

This revolutionary way of taking notes has been around since, well, okay it's been around for basically forever. As Lifehacker did their roundup, they found that a lot of people actually prefer to take notes with your basic pen and paper. In fact, in a follow up survey, 35% of people said that they use pen and paper, following just behind Evernote with 36% of people. I actually find this really interesting and wonder if this percentage stays true when the demographic is younger and in college.

Personally I am actually a big fan of handwriting notes, of certain kinds. My to do list is invariably in a little fat notebook that fits perfectly in my pencil pouch. I don't have to take out my phone or computer to just jot down something quick I need to remember to do or buy that day. For class notes, I take faster (and actually legible) notes on a computer, but for day to day notes, I prefer handwritten notes.

What is your preferred style of note taking? Have you tried any of the above applications? Let us know in the comments!

[via Lifehacker]

Network Through Volunteer Gigs to Expand Your Job Pool

 This way, you probably don't even have to print cards! Image courtesy of Flickr user Martin Linkov. Licensed under BY NC SA 2.0.Formal networking events, if you're not outgoing by nature, can be a miserable exercise. In addition, they can seem pretty thoroughly artificial and weird. Even if you do enjoy networking, it can be hard to really discover who to target--it's hard to know about a company's culture when you're just talking to one representative for a few minutes in your student center.

If you have a regular volunteer gig, however, you can network in a less painful way. If it's a regular engagement, one assumes that you enjoy the work done wherever you're spending your time. You've likely formed relationships with many of the staff members at your institution, as well as fellow volunteers. You have--because you're a HackCollege reader--distinguished yourself as providing valuable services and being reliable. You've likely been able to demonstrate a skill set that you don't have occasion to show at your on-campus job or in class.

So, if you've done these things, start letting people where you volunteer know that you're graduating soon and looking for a job. If you're not hoping for a job in a field directly related to your major, specify what field you are interested in. Tell a few staff people with whom you have a relationship, and alert any out-of-college volunteers.

The adult staff members and volunteers most likely know many more working adults than you do. Older volunteers likely work in a variety of industries outside of the volunteer context. By letting this particular group of people know that you're looking for work, you're casting your net much wider than you might at a formal event. Because people know and presumably like you, they're likely to work harder to pass on any information on job openings that they hear about and to vouch for you if needed.

There's nothing wrong with career center networking events, particularly for people looking at careers in business or finance. But if you find them unpleasant or are just looking to expand your potential job pool, let people you volunteer with know you're looking. You will likely find job opportunities you didn't know existed at companies you'll enjoy working at.

Are you a senior looking for a job post-graduation? Got any job tips? Let us know in the comments!

Citelighter Makes Online Research Less Painful

The Citelighter citation adding screen pulls in plenty of information automatically, but still lets you make changes as needed.There are few things more annoying than manually writing up a bibliographic reference, or copying and pasting information into a citation generator one text box at a time. Citelighter is a new online service that can make this tedious necessity of college life a thing of the past, at least for some sources.

To get started, simply sign up for an account at Citelighter.com and install the Firefox toolbar (yes, that's a bit of a bummer) UPDATE: I've been told they're working on Chrome and Safari extensions. As you scan around the web, you can highlight any information that would be relevant to your topic, and hit "Capture." A popup window will appear with the highlighted content and text fields for all the relevant bibliographic info. Many of these boxes will be filled automatically, though you may need to add a few things manually. For example, the app didn't pick up author names properly on HackCollege, so I had to key those in manually.

Unfortunately, it doesn't work quite as well for research papers and databases as it does for standard websites. You won't be able to scan in PDF's of research papers, and it seemed to get a little confused by the structure of the Academic Search Complete database we get through Trinity. Still though, it may be worth your time to fill the information in manually just to keep all of your citations in one system.

You can pull up your comprehensive list of quotes and sources when it comes time to write your paper, and even export a full bibliography in MLA, APA, or Chicago/Turabian format. There are obviously a million different ways to track sources and generate bibliographies, but Citelighter is well designed and works great, particularly if you aren't exclusively citing academic journals.

Three Tips to Avoid Being Annoying Question Kid

Keep your questions up, or on, your sleeve. Image courtesy of Flickr user Oberazzi. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.It happens in every one of my classes: at least once a class period, a kid raises his hand and I shudder. I do that because I know that the kid is going to say something asinine, be unpleasant to the professor, or just generally eat up time with a 20-minute question. I call him Annoying Question Kid.

However, I have a theory that most Annoying Question Kids are not aware that they're being annoying question kids. I think they just see themselves as motivated students. So, for your reading elucidation, I present three tips on how to avoid being--even unintentionally--Annoying Question Kid.

Don't comment on things you didn't read: This one happens at least once a week in every one of my classes, and it drives me up the wall. If the professor asks a question about a textbook chapter or journal article that you didn't read, don't volunteer yourself to comment on it. The fact that the professor doesn't call you out on your clearly incorrect answer in class does not mean that you pulled it off--it means that they're filing it away for later. Additionally, this will make your classmates think you are either dumb or lazy.

Don't try to prove the professor wrong: I'm not saying that professors are always right, particularly when it comes to matters of interpretation. However, if you want to challenge a professor on a point, there's a right and a wrong way to do it. The right way is to say, "I understand where you're coming from, but it seems to me that Aristotle is saying..." followed by textual support for your point. The wrong way is, "Well, isn't Aristotle really saying that..." followed by something you just made up. Chances are that whatever point you're making, the professor has thought about it and has already decided against it for some reason. Don't try to phrase your questions as tricky gotcha questions for professors. They will beat you down, and you will look obnoxious.

Wait until you've got something interesting to say: Often, if you did the reading and are good at the subject, you can answer most of the questions that the professor asks. However, try not to raise your hand for every answer you know--it makes you look desperate for acknowledgement. Wait until you have something insightful to say and let your classmates speak when you don't. You don't want to talk the most out of the class. Instead, you want to have the highest interesting comment/time speaking ratio in your class.

Speaking up in class is an awesome way to form a relationship with a professor and stand out from the pack. But, by picking when you talk and maintaining a respectful tone when you do, you'll have a much greater and more positive impact than you would without forethought.

What First Amendment Rights Mean for Students

Do you know your rights? Photo courtesy of euthman. Licensed under CC BY-2.0.Last week, I received a mass email from a group called The Fire. According to their website, their mission is "to defend and sustain individual rights at America's colleges and universities. These rights include freedom of speech, legal equality, due process, religious liberty, and sanctity of conscience-- the Essential qualities of individual liberty and dignity." I took a law class two semesters ago, and so the article that The Fire had sent to me intrigued me, and I wanted to take a closer look at it.

The article stated that 67% of the nation's largest and most prestigious campuses currently have speech codes that violate the First Amendment. This statistic is quite alarming, and so after reading the article (which you can find here), I had a look at their full PDF study where they came to this conclusion of the violation of students' right to free speech, which you can also look at here.

What I came away with from reading and understanding this report and article was less on what The Fire had to say, and more of what I felt as a student myself. Firstly, it's important to understand that a college cannot violate your First Amendment rights if it is a private institution. The First Amendment says that the government cannot infringe on your rights; a private institution can do essentially whatever it pleases. At least half of the universities that The Fire "investigated" were private colleges. So before you think that your rights are being violated because your dean is censoring your newspaper, realize that that only applies at state-funded schools.

Secondly, even if you do attend a private university, it is important to understand what your rights as a student are and how to cope with the administration and the freedom of speech. Does your newspaper have to be submitted for review by the administration before it can be printed? How does this affect its content? How do you as a student feel about it? How can you have a dialogue between the administration and students about this censorship?

Some universities have good reasons for their censorship. Universities are a place of diverse thoughts and backgrounds, and it would be extremely tense if there were groups who promoted hateful ideas against other groups of people, whether the ideas were racist, religiously intolerant, sexist, etc. On the other hand, these types of speech are (usually) defended by the Constitution. So are universities censoring senselessly or are they doing it with purpose? Are they doing it to maintain power and control or to try to protect their students?

Far from telling you what you should think about colleges and student rights, I simply want to encourage other college students to be aware of what kind of rights you have on your campus. If you attend a government-funded school, your rights are featured in the picture above. If you attend a private school, your rights are listed a document that your school has. If you are concerned about the freedoms your university provides or lacks to provide, ask to see it. Gather a group of other concerned students to discuss what you think should be allowable on a campus. Create a form, a dialogue of some sorts. Just be aware. Understand and protect your rights as a college student.

What are your views on student freedoms on campus? Are you even concerned with your rights as a student on a college campus? Let us know in the comments.

[via The Fire]