Get Control of Your Late Night Snacking Habit

Think before you dig in! Image by thelittleone417 and licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Fact: eating late at night does not cause you to gain weight—the only number that matters here is the amount of calories you consume throughout the whole day. 500 extra calories at noon will have the exact same effect as 500 extra calories at midnight. But it’s the time between normal waking hours when many college students’ self-control seems to vanish and we begin to indulge in anything within reach.

Curbing your late night eating habits is not easy, but it’s comforting to know you don’t need to give them up entirely. In fact, if you’re staying up more than four hours past your dinnertime, then it’s perfectly normal for your stomach to start grumbling again in the middle of your cram session. There’s nothing wrong with preparing yourself a healthy snack at any time of the day if you actually need it. Let’s face it, though—you’re probably not finishing off a pint of Ben and Jerry’s or half of a family-sized bag of potato chips because you need to. The first step to controlling your midnight munchies is to identify why you are eating.

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OS Tips - Manage windows more easily with Windows 7’s Aero UX Features

Aero Peek - Just one of the many cool Aero features in Windows 7. Photo by BiiLbo and licensed under CC BY 2.0.One of my favorite things about Windows 7 is its new Aero UX features. Once you get past all the marketing jargon, Aero essentially boils down to a few new window management features that make navigating and organizing your desktop a lot easier. For example, let’s say you’re writing a research paper. Wouldn’t it be handy to have your word processor open on one side of the screen and your browser/PDF reader on the other? Aero allows you to do that and so much more. Whether you’re new to Windows 7 or an experienced user, hopefully these tips will help you squeeze every last ounce of window management power out of Windows 7.

Quickly check out all open instances of an application with Live Preview.Aero Peek: While using Windows 7, you should’ve noticed this right from the get go. Hover your mouse over a running application in the taskbar, and you’ll see a small window popup giving you a preview of all open windows for that application. It makes window management a lot easier to see all open instances of an application at a glance, as opposed to the old system of having separate taskbar items. In addition, if you move the mouse and hold it on top of that preview window, Windows 7 will show a preview of that open window in full view. And did you ever notice that little rectangle at the right end of your taskbar? Hover over that to show the desktop, and press it to immediately minimize all open windows.

Aero Shake: This is a variant of the show desktop button. Want to bring your focus to just one window? Grab the top of any window that’s not maximized with your mouse, hold down, and literally shake the window (quickly drag back and forth) to minimize all other windows. Shake it again to show all windows.

Instead of fiddling with the mouse to get windows side by side like this, do the same thing in seconds with Aero Snap!Aero Snap: Quickly resize windows to maximize/minimize or fit them to the left or right half of the screen. For mouse lovers, grab the top bar of a window, and drag it to the corresponding side of the screen based on the size you want the window to be. For example, drag the window to the left side to have it take up the left half of the screen, or the top to maximize the window. For faster access, you can use the Windows button along with the arrow keys to achieve the same effect. For example, if you want the window to take up the right half of the screen, hit Windows Key + Right Arrow Key. It’s very, very handy to quickly make things full screen and to browse two open windows at the same time (as for research papers). This is probably the best of all the new Aero UX features and one of the things I miss most about Windows when using Mac OS X. If you’re a Mac user and you want this functionality, check out BetterTouchTool (Snow Leopard only).

Jump List: This is a super handy function to access recent documents, or application-specific functionalities like opening a new window (if the application supports jump lists). Either right click on the program’s icon in the task bar or left click and drag upward to open up a program’s jump list and see all the options available to you.

How has Aero improved your workflow? Do you have any more Aero tips? Let us know in the comments!

App of the Week - Shoot and Edit Fantastic iPhone Pictures with Camera+

Supercharge your iPhoneograhpy with Camera+!As much as I think Apple makes applications with great design aesthetics and UX (user interface), it often sacrifices functionality and customizability for the sake of looking pretty. Take the Camera app for example: it looks great and on a completely basic functional level, it does what it's supposed to - take pictures and record videos. But that's it! Digital Zoom? Nope. Adjust Exposure? Nope. Adjust Focus? Nope. If you're as frustrated with your iPhone's camera as much as I was, then take a look at Camera+, our featured App of the Week. It features all those options and much, much more.

Platform Availability: iOS 3.0 and up

Cost: Unfortunately, unlike so many other Apps of the Week, you'll have to pony up some dough to get your hands on Camera+. How much will this wonderful application cost you? Grab it now while it's still on sale for $0.99; otherwise, it normally costs $1.99. Download it here!

What it is: An infinitely better camera application. Get more control over your shots with digital zoom, focus adjustment, and manual white balance. When you're done taking pictures, edit them to your heart's content with Camera+'s abundance of options. Finally, share your edited shots through every means you could ever want - Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, MMS, or email.

Read on to see the entire review!

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Watch, Read, Make: Newscasters, Anteaters, and Zucchini

Need a laptop? We've teamed up with Intel to bring you the HackCollege Laptop Chooser. If you share the Laptop Chooser, you'll be entered to win a Samsung Series 9 Notebook!

It's Friday! Time for weekend content fun. This week we've got a Google interview of Anderson Cooper, an anteater gif with spirit, and cake you can make in the microwave. Friday just got excellent.

Watch: This interview with Anderson Cooper (via the Huffington Post) at the Googleplex is really fascinating. In part, he's just an engaging speaker--the man has seen a lot of things--but his focus on just going out and doing what seems interesting is really valuable for a college audience. If you're feeling like your school lacks an emphasis on real-world application of what you're learning, listen to his comments about Yale. He feels the same way, and as a result, he went out into war zones and started shooting news stories after graduation because it seemed like it would be interesting. When he speaks about his career trajectory, it certainly seems like he followed the small, go-nowhere project ethic in order to become a well-regarded newscaster.

Read: This Reddit thread of gifs which make people laugh is pretty much the best thing ever. My personal favorite is the anteater. I cannot stop laughing. If you're having a less-than-stellar day, this will cheer you up.

Make: You know what's better than vegetables? Cake. You know what's even better than cake? Cake that has secret vegetables in it so you don't die of malnutrition. You know what's even better than secred malnutrition cake? Secret malnutrition cake that you can make in the microwave. Go forth and produce, readers!

Thomas Frank's Ultimate Loft

Yes, this happened. Image used with permission from College Info Geek

We're all for dorm room DIY at HackCollege, but Thomas Frank at College Info Geek (who brought us the equally impressive hanging desk) has taken it to a previously unexplored level. The transformation has to be up there with Kelly's wooden dorm floor as one of the most certifiably insane college transformations I've ever seen. 

Here's the backstory: Thomas got a single room (jealous), but it was far too small to fit a couch, even with a traditional loft bed. He needed to get his bed off the ground without those wooden posts in the middle of the floor. His solution, naturally, was to build a massive hanging bed that keeps the vertical posts tucked in the corners of the room. And you know what, he fit a couch in there, and a pull-up bar to boot.

If you're interested in doing this yourself, Thomas has written up a massive how-to post to walk you through the process. He may need another how-to later this year on how to keep members of the opposite sex from running for the hills when they see this thing, but for now let's just appreciate a truly awesome display of college hacking.

What Pew Internet Research about Social Media Means for Students

It's official: Women rule teh internets. Photo courtesy of Ray_from_LA. Licensed under CC BY-2.0.According to Pew Internet a non-profit organization that generates reports on the affects of the internet on American life, the "power users" of social media sites are women ages 18-29 years old. This means that "that nearly nine out of 10 (89 percent) women in that age demographic who are online use the [social media] sites overall, and 69 percent are plugged into social media outlets each day. The social media sites that the study looks at include Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. In addition to this statistic, the study also found that "nearly two-thirds of adult Internet users (65 percent) are plugged into at least one social networking site," which is double of what it was in 2008.

Those statistics are pretty awesome and all, but what do they mean to us?

Firstly, it means that college-aged women are kicking butt at social media. However, just because we are using it the most, does that mean that we understand it the most? Hopefully the answer is yes, but I am not convinced. For a college student, using social media means more than just updating your close friends on what you're doing this weekend or what weird thing you just saw happen. It means using it to benefit you the most. It means using social media to brand yourself. Use it to create yourself an online presence. Become an expert on a subject. Become a known persona in those niches that you are especially interested.

Because so many women (89% of women, for god's sake) are using social media, just having a Twitter and LinkedIn no longer sets you apart from the pack. You have to be awesome at your social media management. Consider how you are using your social media. Are you making the most of it? This is a tool that is really starting to change the ways businesses work and how people are hired. It is a way of connecting and a way to make yourself known. However, if handled improperly or lazily, it's a way to just fade back into the crowd.

Now for the boys, this article has impact for you too. Because women have the upperhand in social media, you have an fantastic opportunity to stand out. If you manage your Twitter and LinkedIn accounts well, you will stand out among your male competitors because of your experience in social media. This isn't to say that you don't have to work as hard as your fellow ladybros at managing social media. It just means that you have the chance to really master something that is important in today's society and make yourself stand out more.

Anything that you can bring to the table will help you in the future, even if it's something that seems as frivlous as social media. More and more businesses have Twitter accounts to communicate with their customers to address problems, answer questions, and generate more buzz about their products. If you can bring experience and knowledge on how to manage social media well, you'll at least have your foot in the door.

For more information how to manage your social media life, check out Emily's awesome social media series TweetMemeFace.

To view Pew Internet's full report on their findings, click here.

How do you use social media to brand your image? Has using social media ever helped you get a job or an internship or helped you make a great connection?

[via Maximum PC]

College Students Don't Know How to Search

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Mads Moedker. Licensed under CC BY-2.0.Last week, Mashable published a story entitled The Google Gap: College Kids Aren’t Good At Searching where they highlighted a recent study conducted by Northeastern Illinois University which examined the research habits of 160 college aged students. Most concerning of all the findings was that the majority of students poorly use search logic for obtaining useful search results when using Google and other academic database search engines.

From speaking with the other HackCollege writers, there seems to be ample opportunities to learn how to formulate and refine a search query on campus, whether it be through a classroom lecture or by speaking with a librarian, so why is that so few students understand how a search box work?

Good search technique is critical when conducting focused research, it’s important to understand how to use a tool like Google for the classroom, but it’s also important to recognize that Google can only take you so far. Becoming comfortable and proficient with academic journal databases should be a focus of yours as they will take your research to the next level.

This story is perhaps more of a Public Service Announcement to the new Freshman than anything else; seek out guidance in formulating a query early in your college careers. You’ll be glad you took the time to learn later on when you’re neck deep in papers and you’re scraping for sources.

College 101: Greek Recruitment

My fraternity's old house, circa 1957. The house is gone, but our values are not. Photo courtesy of UF Digital Collections. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.Welcome to College 101, a weekly series HackCollege will be providing with how-to's and what-not-to-do's for incoming college freshmen, and those who think they need a refresher course. This week - an oft-debated topic on college campuses, and one that often needs to be debated - Greek organizations.

This week, my fraternity, Chi Phi at the University of Florida is undergoing recruitment. To most of us fraternity gentlemen, this week reigns supreme in importance. Not only do new members provide us with a peek of our fraternity's future, they allow us to shape the direction we wish our social organization to go.

Below is a piece I wrote originally for the Florida Odyssey. - the University of Florida's version of the nationwide Greek newspaper. It's meant for a male audience, but my case is universal. Going Greek is not a choice for everyone, but I believe many people dismiss the possibility of rushing a fraternity or sorority based on flawed stereotypes and misconceptions.

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