"A Silent Disco..."

Got a question? Ask us: dear@hackcollege.com

Dear HackCollege,

Love the blog. I was curious what your thoughts were on having a silent disco in a dorm room, or rather during a hall crawl kinda deal.

Sincerely,
Emory '10

You got it.

Brief History
A relatively new concept, the Silent Disco [Wikipedia] originated in 2002 in The Netherlands [CNN] and is gaining popularity at several European festivals. Outsiders hear no music. All they see are a bunch of people jumping up and down at the same time, wearing headphones.

Originally developed to avoid noise curfews, the Silent Disco is therefore a wonderful idea for the typical college party.

On a Larger Scale
For a huge music festival, everyone is provided wireless headphones. Two or more DJs are streaming music to FM Stations; each listener can tune in to whichever DJ they choose. This creates a good amount of hilarity when half the party is moshing to Nirvana and the other half grinding to 50 Cent.

Smaller Scale Setup
To set this up for a dorm room party, however, a host would really only need to stream their music library or playlist to one FM Station.

The tools needed:

• Any audio device with an audio ouput

  Use your stereo's audio ouput or your mp3 player's headphone socket. Your PC or laptop probably has a headphone socket as well.

• Music library or playlist

  This is pretty self explanatory, but to avoid the usual pause between tracks, be sure to set Crossfade: On when playing your mix.

  Or you can download the early set from DJMEDI4's 2007 Bonnarro Silent Disco Mix.

• FM Transmitter [Wikipedia]

  This is where the money will be spent.

  Most FM Transmitters for personal use (See: iTrip [Wikipedia] for the iPod) will stream to 15 or 30 feet. That's probably not big enough. Try, instead:

  
  
  • Whole House FM Transmitter - 150 ft.
  
  
  • C Crane FM Transmitter - 75 ft.
  
  

  Both are priced at $80 - $100. Whole House FM Transmitter has a larger distance but only offers 7 FM frequencies (106.7, 106.9, 107.1, 107.3, 107.5, 107.7 and 107.9). The C Crane FM Transmitter covers almost the entire public FM Band (88.3 to 107.7); this is nice if you have a lot of FM Stations in your area [FMTransmitterReview].

• FM-ready (wireless) headphones

Either fit the bill, yourself, or ask everyone to bring their own.

Note: The headphones provided at Bonnaroo 2007 were Koss JR170 Wireless Stereophones.

Alternatively
You could also export your mix to a single .mp3 file with Audacity. Simply import each song separately to a project and then export to mp3. Email the single .mp3 file around, and everyone would bring their own .mp3 player and start the mix at the same time.

Or conduct it all via Bluetooth [ninemsn].

2nd Sunday in March: Daylight Saving Time

Be sure to spring forward an hour today. ;)

Stocking a Bar - Building the $100 Bar

Stocking a bar is a difficult task. Stocking a bar for $100 is even more difficult. Because there is no be-all-end-all method of stocking a bar for $100, you need to keep your goals in mind.

Limiting Factors:

• Cost
• Number of People
• Length of Party

This is a lot of stuff. Take everything with a (margarita) grain of salt and make changes as you see fit. No party is exactly the same; likewise no party has the same requirements. And--depending on your state's liquor laws, taxes, or store rip-off-ness--prices vary.

Building the Bare Bones Bar:

Before having a solid house party, you need a good foundation. If you want a full-out bar, you'll need all of these things, but pick and choose depending on the situation.

The essentials (stuff you only buy once per term, twice if you're an alcoholic)

• Tonic water
• Sour mixes
• Soda water
• Ginger ale
• Light cream
• Lime juice
• Grenadine
• Triple sec

Stuff that you probably already have but need to get if you don't

• Milk
• Water
• Ice (about a pound per person)
• Salt
• Nutmeg
• Limes/lemons
• Garnishes
• Juices (OJ, cranberry)

The essential liquor combos:

• 2 lights
• 2 darks
• Vermouth

$100 Bar for a Cocktail Party (10-15 People):

With a cocktail clambake, quality of alcohol is key. Dumping Monarch rum into a potentially delicious daiquiri is just plain unacceptable. You won't be able to stock a bar with every alcohol you can imagine and still afford the mid-shelf liquors that any cocktail party needs. We chose alcohols for covering your cocktail party drink bases, rather than providing the ability to make that obscure drink out of your friend's iPhone drink mixing widget. Gin and Tonics, not Sianara Mother Fuckers.

For a cocktail party with less than 15 people, you will need 4 to 5 fifths of booze. For a well-rounded bar, we recommend:

First Priority - Spirits:

• Vodka, 750 mL ($14-$19): Smirnoff, SKYY or Finlandia
• Rum, 750 mL ($14-$18): Sailor Jerry's, Captain Morgan, Barcardi
• Gin, 750 mL ($15-$23): Seagram's, Beefeater or Bombay
• Whiskey, 200 ml ($8-$12): Jack, Jim Bean, or Johnnie Walker

Second Priority - Beer and Wine:

• Classy Beer, 12 pack ($16-$20): New Castle, Guiness, or something along those lines
• Kickass Cheap Wine, ($5-$8/bottle): See our interview with Gary Vaynerchuk of WineLibraryTV at the end of the HackCollege Podcast Episode 18 for some great recommendations.

The spirits here will equate to roughly 2.5 liters of 80 proof booze. That's 56 shots for those keeping track. With the beer and wine, that means each person is getting the D.A.R.E. equivalent of 4-6 drinks per person depending on how many people attend.

The number of fifths bought can be increased if your fans aren't fans of beer. Or if you refuse to serve gin, just balance everything out. Remember though: you aren't building this bar for yourself, but for all of your attendees.

$100 Bar for a Soirée (30 People):

Unfortunately, this is tough. You'll be forced to skimp on quality to come in under budget. So, do one thing and do it well. You'll want to choose 1 or 2 drinks that you'll be serving and stick with those. Long Islands are too complicated. Instead, think Screwdriver or Slow Gin Fizz. Plastic handles will be your best friend for the 30-person soirée. Here is an example:

White Russians

Our target here is 5 drinks per person. Here's your standard White Russian recipe:

• 2 shots vodka
• 1 shot coffee liqueur
• 1-3 oz. milk

Vodka tends to be much less expensive than coffee liqueur. Once the party's over, vodka is going to be much more flexible in mixing other drinks in the future. But if you insist on drinking the Dude's drink, go for it. The results will be delicious.

A note: Kahlua is going to destroy your budget. Side with another coffee liqueur. We prefer Copa de Oro for our wallet-friendly White Russians.

$100 ingredients for White Russians:

• 2 handles Vodka ($20 each)
• 1 handle Copa De Oro ($17)
• 2 gallons milk ($8)
• Remainder on beer ($35) (perhaps the milky Guinness?)

Mix your drinks right, serve in small Solo cups and you've got yourself a soirée.

The 100 Person Rager on a Budget:

Those who have left college needn't read on. If you're just going to get crazy for a night, you can't really have a budget -- but you should know what you're getting yourself into. If you're planning on having rager with 100 people for about 6 hours, you'll spend about $380 in the cheapest situation, given the breakdown below. This allots each person a drunkness of 7-8 drinks.

• 2 kegs ($100-$140 a piece): This is the mainstay of college drinking. You'd rather run out of liquor than beer.
• 9 handles, varying alcohols ($15-$20 per jug): If you really want to class it up, you'd get 19 fifths instead and vary your liquor brands even more. If you're too lazy to tend a bar, buy the same amount, and mix up some Jungle Juice.
• 5 standard box wines ($9-$12 per box): This might offend some people, but it'll only account for about an eighth of the budget/ham-boned-ness at your party.

References:

• The Official Harvard Student Agencies Bartending Course
• Approximate pricing list: http://www.abc.state.va.us/Pricelist/text/may07.csv

"I Heard My Cell Phone Has an Email Address."

Got a question? Ask us: dear@hackcollege.com

Dear HackCollege,

I heard somewhere that there's a way I can email pictures and songs to my cell phone. Do you guys know anything about that?

Sincerely,
Thatwouldbesocool

Yes, you heard correctly. Although this depends completely on your network and cell phone, in addition to text messages (SMS) you can typically also send and receive short emails and also small multimedia messages (See: MMS [Wikipedia]).

These multimedia messages, however, do have a size limit (generally 100kb or possibly 300kb). This means, the photo or video or song clip has got to be small.

Know your network and your 10-digit phone number:

T-mobile: 5551231234@tmomail.net
Verizon: 5551231234@vtext.com
Cingular: 5551231234@mobile.mycingular.com or 5551231234@cingularme.com
AT&T: 5551231234@mmode.com
Alltell: 5551231234@message.alltel.com

On a different network? See the full list [TechnoTarget].

OR you could just use Teleflip and let them figure out where the message should go. Check out our post "Free iPhone SMS with Teleflip" for more information.

Create and Send Ringtones without Registration

We've covered this topic before (See: Mobile17), but audiko is just so much better.

No registration required!

Simply navigate to audiko.net, upload your .mp3 file (or paste a link to it), cut it exactly how you like it, and then download it (to your PC or simply visit the link via your cell phone).

Did we mention that you don't actually have to sign-up to use the site? Yeah. How nice is that.

No registration required: Audiko

We're Going to SXSW!

Call us irresponsible, call us crazy.

Chris and I just booked flights to Austin to hang out with everyone at South by Southwest. If you run into us in Austin, ask us our story of our sheer irresponsibility.

If you are going and want to get in contact with us, twitter us:

• twitter.com/kellysutton


• twitter.com/lesinski

HackCollege Podcast Episode 18: Live from FOWA Miami

Chris and Kelly are somewhat live from the Future of Web Apps in Miami, FL! They had a great time meeting everyone and learning about some cool new stuff. And they managed to scored some celebrity interviews! Check it:

Topics this episode include:

• Interview with Gary Vaynerchuk


• Interview with Leah Culver


• Microsoft Photosynth


• Plaxo's Pulse


• OpenID


• Google's Open Social API


• Guest Posts


• Stanford Tuition

This episode's music:

• "Date Game" by Christopher Wade

Live from Miami: The Future of Web Apps Begins...

Chris and I landed this morning at 7:00 am EST (4:00 am LA time!) in Miami. We grabbed some coffee and now we're at the cush Knight Concert Hall in Miami. We'll be posting throughout the day about some of the talks that we find interesting and pertinent to the site.

Also, we'll be Radar-ing the entire day. So friend Chris (username: lesinski) and I (username: ksutton) on Radar.net to see what we're up to and who we're talking to.

One more thing, we'll be shooting a podcast (probably) on the beach tomorrow, so stay tuned for that.