HackCollege Podcast Episode 33: Beer Sleeves

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Chris is spilling beer all over the place this week as the guys podcast from their San Francisco loft.

Topics this week:

• This week's Rule of Thumb blasts through:


• The civil disobedience behind TextbookTorrents.com


• The University of Arkansas is going tobacco-free with its new initiative called "Fresh."


• Facebook and Google Earth help make the barrier of entry for a pool party really, really low


• A straight up gangster shotguns a 24 oz.


• Chris and Kelly take a look inside Harding College professor's trouble with his peers.


• Chris shows you how to make a soda can beer sleeve.

Music this week:

• "Date Game" by Christopher Wade

How To - Soda Can Beer Sleeve

Here's the video from Episode 33 of Chris showing off how to make a soda can beer sleeve. Enjoy.

Indexing Firefox 3.0 Bookmarks with Quicksilver

If you're a Quicksilver user, you may have noticed that an upgrade to Firefox 3.0 will screw up your bookmark indexing. Ordinarily, Quicksilver should keep track of all of your bookmarks even when you make them through Firefox. In the same way that the new version of Firefox "predicts" what URL you're typing in, Quicksilver would do the same. So, the work flow is: invoke Quicksilver, start typing in your bookmark, press enter -- and Quicksilver would automatically launch your browser and the URL you wanted. There's also more complicated stuff you can do with quick web searches and bookmarks in Firefox.

Since Firefox 3.0 has a funky new Quicksilver-esque navigation bar, bookmarks are stored in a different place and in a different language. You have to ask Firefox 3.0 to export in the Firefox 2.0 style for Quicksilver to be effective.

The hack

1. In the navigation bar, type in about:config. And "void your warrany" -- that's a joke from the Mozilla folks.


2. Start typing in browser.bookmarks.autoExportHTML until you find it. This is the setting for the Firefox-2.0-style bookmark saving.


3. Toggle this setting to "true" by double-clicking or left clicking and selecting "Toggle."

After that tweak, Firefox will export the bookmarks to bookmarks.html every time you close it. From there, Quicksilver will see the bookmarks or quicksearches you've been saving.

Don't use Quicksilver? Check out our introduction to Quicksilver for students.

HackCollege Podcast Episode 32: Explosions in the Sky

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In a pre-July 4th world, Chris and Kelly podcast from their San Francisco loft amid an early fireworks display.

Topics this week:

• This week's Rule of Thumb blasts through:


• Inside Higher Ed's idea that on-campus housing is becoming more popular due to gas prices.


• A high school football top pick is in it for the education, not the sport.


• Microsoft is trying to get cozier to schools in an effort to promote "digital literacy."


• Chris and Kelly break down Boston College's attempt to curb exercise bullemia.


• Rosario slam dunks this week's Post of the Week with her post about what to do if your Windows XP is too slow.


• Kelly gives the rundown on the scam behind digital textbooks in a manner accidentally akin to Zero Punctuation.


• Chris challenges Kelly to a Twitter contest. Whoever gains the most followers over the next 3 weeks wins! Kelly: 486, Chris: 149

Music this week:

• "Date Game" by Christopher Wade

Sponsor this week:

• Radar.net

Free iPhone SMS with Teleflip

As we all know, the new iPhone 3G is released exactly one week after USA's Independence Day (phone comes out July 11). But the release of the new iPhone will herald anything but independence. Chris has been using Teleflip to text me for quite a while now. It works well.

AT&T is now charging more for text messaging plans and text messaging is no longer included in a plan. Who ever knew the price of sending 160 characters could increase faster than the price of gas?

Save Money on Text Messages with Teleflip

The idea is simple. Instead of sending an SMS message ($0.15/message without a plan), send an email to the phone number with Teleflip. Though cell phone carriers attach an email address to your SMS inbox, it's not always so easy to know which carrier your contact uses. That's why there's TeleFlip. This is a free service that figures out where that text message ought to go. Address it to @teleflip.com. Your message gets delivered straight to your bud's phone, with a little post-roll ad of course.

Here's the best part: when they reply to the text, it will automatically route it right back to your email address. You'll receive their response in your email inbox -- not as an SMS. So you don't have to pay for the texts either way.

Plus, the reply email will be genuinely from their cell phone (not an "@teleflip.com" address). Thereafter, you should use that address instead because it won't put the tail advertisement from TeleFlip at the end of the text message. Set up a separate contact field in your Address Book.app for your friends' phone numbers. It will save you some time when texting back and forth.

How else do you avoid telecom companies price-gouging you? Let us know in some comments!

De-Clutter Your Windows XP System

MakeUseOf posted an excellent six-step guide last week to cleaning your Windows XP system for the summer.

Heavily condensed (read the full article):

1. Unclutter
Remove excess software through >start >control panel >software.

2. Clean up
A great tool for this is CCleaner.

3. Clear & Compress
- Click [Windows] + [R], the Run dialog box will open.
- Type “Cleanmgr.exe” (without brackets), another dialog box will pop up.
- Select the drive you wish to clean.
- Wait for the application to complete its calculations.
- Select files you wish to clear and actions you wish to take.
- Click >OK to confirm and let it do its job.

4. Control Autostart Programs
A free tool which allows you to control which programs run when you’re booting your system is Startup Control Panel

5. Defrag
- Go to >Start >Programs >Accessories >System Tools >Disk Defragmenter
- The defragmentation window will open.
- Click >Analyze to see whether a defrag is necessary.
- Choose the volume you wish to defrag and click >Defragment.

Finally: Speed Logoff
Microsoft provides a tool called User Profile Hive Cleanup Service which can speed up this process.

These steps may not be particularly novel to our more high-tech readers, but they are simple enough for the average Windows user to greatly benefit.

And be sure to rinse and repeat when school starts.

Hack College Podcast Episode 31: All New!

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Chris and Kelly are here this week introducing an all new format for the show. Shorter! More action! More beer! Let us know what you think!

Topics this week:

• In a segment called the "Rule of Thumb," the guys blast through 4 stories:


• Social network for librarians hits the scene.


• Anthropology professors talks about the merits of YouTube.


• Survey Says: Only half of U.S. students are using eBooks.


• 3 Bucks for Brendan.


• AJ Vaynerchuk shotguns a beer in the new segment "...And Now for Someone Shotgunning a Beer!"


• The guys review the new Bud Light Lime side-by-side with Bud Light with a lime.


• Kelly recaps a post this week profiling Mint.com.


• In a segment called "Screw U," Chris talks about the dangers of student checking plans after you graduate.

Music this week:

• "Date Game" by Christopher Wade

Sponsor this week:

• Radar.net

Feel Good and Donate over the Summer

As Kelly alluded to in an earlier post, these last months I have been applying, interviewing, and finally choosing which law school I will attend next year. My votes are in, and I will be much closer to Chris and Kelly this next year, out at USC in Los Angeles. ;)

I have already begun tracking "USC Law" on Twitter, so hopefully I will encounter other students online before driving out there early August.

Now. I have discovered that part of the process of moving on to law school involves some heavy donating. For me, this is a lot of clothing and used/old electronics.

Donate Your Used Clothing to Goodwill

At Goodwill, they have various policies nationwide. So, you'll have to check your state's website. But, in general,

Goodwill generally will not accept donations of auto parts, non-working electronics, furniture showing signs of damage, or exercise equipment. For liability reasons, Goodwill generally will not accept baby cribs. Sanitary regulations prohibit Goodwill from accepting mattress donations (although most Goodwill retail stores do sell new mattresses and box-springs at reasonable prices). Recently, due to safety concerns (in particular, concerns over lead content), Goodwill will not accept many toys, particularly those made in China.

Goodwill will generally always accept donations of clothing, shoes, books, accessories (handbags, belts), and consumer electronics. [Wikipedia]

Also see The Salvation Army's guidelines.

Donate Your Old Computer

If you plan on getting a new desktop or laptop for school, donate the old one at TechSoup. Search your zip code, and the service will provide you with organizations readily available to recycle and/or refurbish and donate your old computer.

Note: Be sure to wipe your hard drive completely clean of your personal information before donating. See Active@Killdisk or Darik's Boot and Nuke (Windows) or ShredIt X (Mac).

Ship the Rest of Your Used Electronics to Charities

RecyclingForCharities makes this very simple.

Note: If you are donating an old cell phone, be sure to erase all your data.

But Can I Make Some $$$ ?

Of course. Be sure to get a receipt from Goodwill and/or The Salvation Army. Depending on what you donate, it can rack up some nice tax deductions. See The Salvation Army's valuation guide.

And if you think that textbook is worth it, you can always try to sell it off Amazon.

And a good site to sell your used electronics would be eBay.