Find Out How Much Money You Don't Have with Mint.com

If you're a student, money is probably tight. If it's not, your parents spoil you. Regardless of how many digits are in your bank account, Mint.com will probably help teach us a thing or two about the ever-increasingly complex finance system.

Fresh Off the Press

From the get-go, Mint.com leaves a fresh tingly feeling on your fingertips. It's got the slick interface down to a T.

First up, you add one of your bank accounts or credit cards to your Mint.com account. Then watch the magic happen. If you're bank logs your check card transactions and you're always throwing down the plastic when it comes time to pay (like me), Mint will parse out each transaction and can instantly identify some of your spending habits.

I'd love to show you some screenshots of me using it, but it might get a little too personal. I can tell you right now that half of what I make in a month goes towards rent and about a quarter goes towards food. Mint figured that out right after I got my accounts in sync.

Do I Know What's Best for Me?

While we've written in the past about the magic of high-yield savings accounts, there's a lot more specialized accounts and credit cards that could be saving you money. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a service that already knew if you were getting competitive rates?

Because Mint.com knows each of your accounts, it lets you know if you don't have the best account available. Awesome.

You can also see how your spending habits in certain areas measure up to the averages in your city. For the most part, I'm assuming most students will be well below the average.

Security? Oh Yeah.

Now, one service that plugs in to all of your bank accounts seems shady. What if one person got a hold of your Mint.com account. Wouldn't they have access to all of your bank account information?

Mint is as safe as can be. It's a read-only banking service that does not save your login credentials. After you establish a link to an account, Mint forgets your passwords.

If someone manages to log in to your Mint account, they are only privy to how poor you actually are.

Special thanks to Garrett Shannon for recommending Mint.com to us!

Hack College Podcast Episode 30: Getting to Heaven

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Chris and Kelly are stepping on everyone this week on the their way to heaven...

Topics this week:

• Kelly recaps his article about summer internships and gets a smackdown from Chris.


• Chris brings up a New York Times article about gap years...


• and another one about post-grad jobs.


• The guys cover the results of a Twitter contest that Kelly started about a month ago.


• Kelly plugs a new creation: Do I Look Good Today?

Music this week:

• "Date Game" by Christopher Wade

Sponsors this week:

• Radar.net
• Empressr

Summer Internships - Making the Most

Summer is officially here for all students not in year-round institutions. My buddies at Santa Clara and University of Washington finished up their finals last week. Any self-respecting person probably is not resting for long, because those internships or jobs. This post is for those of us who have scored internships and are maybe getting a little run down. Here's how to stay at the top of your game and be remembered long after you've left. After all, not many people want to stay in academia for the rest of their life...

Do Everything

As an intern, you should never have dull time. Ever.

If you find yourself watching an inordinate number of YouTube videos (perhaps a college podcast that we all know and love), you're doing something wrong. Maybe your boss(es) is too, but you're the only one who can solve the problem.

Start reporting to people who are not your superior, but people who are peers with your superior. Get your hands involved in as much as possible.

I try to practice what I preach. Here's an example: My job title at Revision3 is "modern culture intern." That means I get to work on awesome shows like popSiren and Scam School. When I'm not busting balls on those shows, I'm writing software to help the company, brainstorming new shows, helping other people edit, contributing to the intern blog and appearing on other shows, like Internet Superstar. I am so self-righteous.

Work 60 Hour Weeks, Log 40

This is especially true if you're at a startup. As long as you're eating, paying rent and putting some away for repaying student loans, don't get greedy with the overtime you'll be working.

Get to Know Your Fellow Interns

After all, they could become your coworkers after you graduate.

Start coordinating and brainstorming specifically with them, if the situation allows it. You might come up with some crazy ideas that only other interns will want to try.

Don't Get Burned Out

You'll be stretching yourself thin if you're working your internship properly. As always with stretching yourself thin, you run the risk of meltdown. Even if you're working at the best internship in the world (Revision3), meltdowns still can occur.

I approached a meltdown earlier this week, but fended it off by doing something "normal": I sat down and saw The Incredible Hulk. Lame--I know--but it helped me get my mind off of things. Get outside every once in a while and do something dumb.

How do you make the most out of your summer internship? Let us know in some comments!

HackCollege Podcast Episode 29: ...And We're Back

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Chris and Kelly are back for the first time this summer after nearly a month and half of traveling and moving in to San Francisco.

Topics this week:

• Chris talks about his PA job on the set of G.I. Joe.


• Both Chris and Kelly are interning this summer for Revision3.


• Kelly is working on popSiren...


• as well as Scam School.


• They have both settled in in San Francisco.


• Kelly reminisces about his absurd Memorial Day weekend at the Sasquatch! Music Festival in Geroge, Washington.


• And an old(er) post is covered, "Getting in Under 21."

Music this week:

• "Date Game" by Christopher Wade

Sponsors this week:

• Radar.net
• Empressr

Mid 2008: Is EOL Online?

The Encyclopedia of Life:

We expect to have actual, authenticated species pages available by mid 2008. [via EOL's FAQ, accessed May, 2007]

Is it online and ready for public access? Go check.

Seattle U. Shuts Down Off-Campus Party

The Jesuit institution in Seattle, known to many as the un-fun school in the fun city, pre-emptively shut down a Memorial Day weekend party entitled "the Douchebag party" because the party might have violated the university's code of conduct policy.

I'm sure glad the LMU, also a Jesuit university, does not extend it's rule off of campus.

Originally reported by the Chronicle for Higher Education:

"Seattle U Stops Student Party Because of Facebook Post" [Chronicle]

Three Tech Tools for Students

Whew, it's been a little while. Everything is going great up in San Francisco at Revision3. Aside from Media Defender techno-attacking Revision3, things have been expectedly hectically smooth.

I sent out a tweet earlier this week asking for topic suggestions. Alan Bradford of ASU's Geek Stew blog wanted to hear about the top 3 tech tools I will be bringing with me back to school in the fall. Provided I don't find a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, here it is...

Google Calendar

Some way or another, I managed to become a tech leader for a handful of organizations on campus this next year. One of the biggest problems among the different groups is the lack of a centralized calendar.

Google Calendar is not only great for personal use, but also great for a the tree-structure of student government. At LMU, the student body organization (ASLMU) has no domain over other clubs per se, but is constantly looked to for web/organizational purposes. Google Calendar is a great, free device for organizing a large group of people.

The structure I have planned for the ASLMU calendar is to have one, central calendar that subscribes to all clubs' calendars.

One thing that non-regular users loves are email reminders of events. Our service organization, Crimson Circle, loves 'em.

Twitter

I am a broken record that can only talk 140 characters at a time: I love Twitter. Hopefully by the time summer's end, Twitter will have figured out its scaling issues. Twitter grows on me more and more every day.

But this fall will be huge for Twitter, if they don't implode. At the time of writing, a few of what I consider "normal people" have signed up for and started using Twitter. Us nerds are refining our Twitter pitches and unlimited data plans make people more open to the idea. Students like AJ Vaynerchuk are helping make Twitter popular among students.

While using Twitter in San Francisco just about eliminates the need for a "party" tag on a Google Calendar, I realize it is definitely not the case for any other city. But college campuses are dense and students need something like Twitter. I don't care what people are eating, but I do care which house parties are--as they say--off da hook.

...

I can't think of a third piece of tech that is undeniably useful. Sure the iPhone is nice, but I don't have one. The low-fi technology in Twitter and Google Calendar is good enough for my mobile needs. Who knows, maybe Wordpress? Student blogging is a growing movement.

What are the 3 things you're most excited to see or use going back to school in the fall?

Quick Update [Video]