We Want to See You!

Want tons of cool, free [adult swim] schwag? Today's the last day to submit your video! And we mean it! We want videos!

So stop procrastinating. Shoot a quick video, upload it, and win. It's that easy. But go ahead and use this as a reason to skip class if you really need to.

Staying up Late to Finish a Problem Set?

Cal's got your back: Monday Master Class: How to Solve Hard Problem Sets Without Staying Up All Night

10 Ways to Find a Lost Word Document (.doc)

Accidentally delete your work? Or save it somewhere and you can't find it? Or the power went out? Before you start frantically emailing your professor, follow these steps:

1. Send out a search party.
   In Windows, click Start, Search, All files and folders.
   Type what you remember of the name or simply *.doc to get all your Word documents.
   Select My Computer under Look in, and then under More advanced options, make sure Search hidden files and folders is checked.
   Then hit Search.


2. Still no luck? Check your Recycle Bin.
   Open it up and look through whatever files you've got. Did you find it? If so, right-click and choose Restore. Then if you're not sure where it actually restored to, perform a search for it.


3. Or you can pray for AutoRecover.
   Sometimes if Word crashes or closes unexpectedly, it'll still save what you had. Re-open Word. If a Document Recovery task pane comes up, double-click your document to open it and immediately Save As.


4. Search for AutoRecover files, yourself.
   In Word, go to Tools, then Options.
   Under the File Locations tab, double-click AutoRecover files and make a note of that path location.
   Click Cancel and Close.
   Open up that folder in My Computer or Windows Explorer and search for any .asd files. (Or another way to do this would be to run a search similar to step one but with *.asd instead of *.doc)


5. If you have Word set to automatically back-up your documents, there's still a chance here. Check the original folder for any .wbk file.
   In Word, click File, then Open.
   Navigate to the folder you think the file used to be located in and make sure All Files *.* is selected.
   Is there any .wbk file there? Select it and see if it's what you're looking for.


6. Still no dice? Send out a *.wbk search party.
   This step is the same as the first search party step, but now search for *.wbk files. You might find a few. Open them up, one by one.


7. Or search your temporary files.
   Again, this is like step one. But search for *.TMP files this time. You'll come up with a lot, so change the When was it modified? to the last week or so.


8. Or search even more of your temporary files.
   Some temporary files like to be unique. Search for those with ~*.* this time.


9. Open up C:\Documents and Settings\*USERNAME*\Local Settings\Temp
   This is a hidden folder, so you'll probably have to use Windows Explorer. Hit Start, then All Programs.
   Go to Accessories, then Windows Explorer. Navigate to that folder, where *USERNAME* is whatever your computer calls you. Do you see your document in that folder?

If none of those steps work, there are also programs that will help you recover deleted files. So this is the 10th and final option.

What's important to understand here is that if you delete something, it doesn't actually get deleted. Rather, it sits in a pile waiting to be overwritten. So the best way to recover a deleted file would be to try to find it right away --before it's overwritten.

If you'd like to use a program, I'd recommend: Restoration, Undelete +, or Recuva. All are free. [There's also a newcomer to the scene for Windows, UndeleteMyFiles. Thanks Lifehacker! ~Kelly, 6/25/08]

I hope this helps. And remember: Jesus saves, but Buddha does incremental back-ups.

So, to turn on the automatic back-up feature in Word, check out Tools, Options, and the Save tab.

HackCollege Podcast Episode 5: FoWA Recap/Berlin

Chris, Kelly, and Scott once again podcast from a train, with their first live audience. The guys are still hot from their great time at the Future of Web Apps conference in London and are just leaving Berlin. While not harassing Kevin Rose in London, Chris, Kelly and Scott learned about plenty of new sites and some new soulless business tactics. Berlin was more of a vacation sponsored by their program, and the guys don't talk about it too much.

This week's topics:

• Adult Swim Contest


• JustRoutes.com


• MeeCard


• baagz


• Rememble


• The Live Diggnation Taping: Episode 118


• digg.com


• The Bugati

This week's music:

• "Stadiums and Shrines II" by Sunset Rubdown
  
  

Are You a Winner?

We're still searching for videos, any videos, for our [adult swim] schwag contest. We've gotten a lot of enthusiasm but no videos! So submit your videos!

And the $500 study-break contest deadline has been extended. We've already given away our free pair of carpet skates, but you can still win your own and a chance at $500 here.

Video: "A Vision of Students Today"

Here's a quick video to kill some time. Some interesting and some rehashed/whiny material presented by some Kansas State students:

[via digg]

Saving Your Tabs in Firefox

Research season: the productive student becomes a tab maniac during this time of year. Just in time for midterm papers, I’ll share some methods for saving tabs in Firefox so that you can come back to your research later. You and your computer can take a rest.

Impromptu

Personally, this is my favorite method, just because of how resourceful it is. You can do this right now, using Firefox’s built-in capabilities: no need to install a plug-in (which means you can do this on a computer other than your own). The idea is simple. Force Quit (Command+Option+Escape) Firefox. This will “force” your tabs into Firefox’s Auto-Recover. When you open the browser again a window will pop-up, asking if you’d like to restore your last websites – think of this as a “reminder” that you’ve got to get back to your research. Agree to the restore, and you’ll have the last session’s info. If you chose to decline and procrastinate, you’ll loose your work.

I won’t completely endorse this method, because of the ramifications of a Force Quit. Kelly Sutton got all up in my face about “memory leaks” and other disasters of the Force Quit, but I think Firefox is robust enough to handle such an action every once in a while. And if you’re using the school’s computer lab, who cares?

Built-in Power

Hidden within the depths of Firefox, there is indeed a way of easily saving your last session – but you have to know where to find it. Open Options/Preferences and in the “Main” tab, under the “Start-Up” heading, select “Show my windows and tabs from last time” under the pulldown menu at “When FireFox starts:.”

The obvious disadvantage here: I don’t always want my tabs/windows from the last session. I only want them when I’m in the midst of an intense research spell. Most of the time, I want Firefox to greet me with my homepage. Also, having this option enabled would likely lead to a procrastination collage of several windows and tabs from multiple projects. Better to just start from scratch each time you open your browser.

The Incubate

The obvious method of saving your work is bookmarking. Bookmarks>Bookmark All Tabs… (or Shift+Command+D) will put all of your current tabs into a handy folder. The problem is, you’ll pretty much never find these tabs again. Bookmarks are like banishment for links. How often do you honestly weed through your Bookmarks? That’s why I call it “The Incubate” – do this if you plan on coming back to this later – way later. The other methods will keep your last tab situation at the forefront so that next time you’re in FireFox, you have no choice but to face the grindstone.

The Extensions

There are several Add-ons that provide options for saving tabs (even if the extension has nothing to do with tabs). The three I’ve encountered that specialize in tab-saving are Tab Mix Plus, Tab Saver! and Session Manager

.

Tab Mix Plus is a complicated program with a cornucopia of options for tab management: copying tabs, customizing the look of tabs, emergency recovery of tabs, etc.. Many people use it, but not me.

I used to have Tab Saver! installed and I appreciate it for its simplicity. Tap Control+Shift+T or select “Restore Tabs” under Tools and the last saved set of tabs comes up, but its minimalism also leads to a little confusion sometimes. It stays out of the way and uses a minimal amount of ram.

Now, I use Session Manager. I have it setup so that each time I close Firefox, it asks if I’d like to save the session (instead of Firefox’s usual spiel about having multiple tabs open). If I say yes, then the next time I open Firefox, it will ask me if I’d like to restore the older session. As long as I haven’t saved any sessions lately, the program never bothers me. It has many more features, but this is all I use, and it's worth it.

I gotta give props to Sam McQueen for tipping me off on the impromptu method. It's a primo hack and so is he.

Madness at Midnight, Start of NCAA Basketball Season

College students around the U.S. wake up today hopefully more hungover than they've been in awhile. That's because last night was "madness at midnight" or "midnight madness" across the nation; the NCAA basketball season officially started at midnight this morning. To commemorate this annual occasion, we've dug up some sports-related posts from our archives. Enjoy.

• Worst NCAA Mascots [via HackCollege]


• April is Just Around the Corner [via HackCollege]


• The 10 Best College Pranks [via SI On Campus]

I'm just hoping this year will finally be LMU's year to shine. How about you?