Short Apology

Sorry, between working graduation, finals, my birthday, and moving out, I haven't had time to write posts. I'll write a few the next day or two before I drive home (with Trippish).

Here's something to keep you busy until the next post.

Cinco de Mayo: Food, Drink, and Mariachi Music!

You all can Wikipedia "Cinco de Mayo" on your own, but I felt like this video did a good, concise job:

And about celebrating, there are 3 ingredients: food, drink, and music.

• Check out the recipes over at PerfectEntertaining.
• For drinks, my favorite Mexican beer has always been a nice Corona. I typically take a lime wedge and go around the rim of the bottle before placing it all the way in because I like a little salt on the rim of it. Other nice Mexican beers include Sol, Pacifico, Tecate, Negro Modelo, Dos Equis, Bohemia, Victoria, Tijuana Guera, and Tijuana Morena.

  Or, if you'd like to celebrate this day further, I'd recommend making a Michelada:
  Squeeze 1 green lemon (or lime, I guess) into a mug.
  Add a pinch of salt.
  Add 3 ice cubes, but this isn't required.
  Add a dash of Tabasco Sauce.
  Add a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce
  Pour in slowly your favorite Mexican beer.
  Mix and enjoy.

• To get some nice mariachi music goin', check out MariachiRadio.com or the Mariachi section of Batanga.com.

Viva Mexico!

Download It!: ChatZilla (Firefox)

Earlier I posted on how to download torrents via Firefox. But the real old-school chatters and downloaders, they use IRC --which is less likely to be blocked at your college campus.

ChatZilla provides all the usual IRC client features: multiple servers, a built-in list of standard networks, easy searching and sorting of available channels, logging, and DCC chat and file transfers, plus easy customization with JavaScript plug-ins and CSS styling.

To search for downloads, check out:
IRC Klipper - ircklipper.info/search.php
Packetnews - packetnews.com
MyDownloader - mydownloader.com
IRCDig - ircdig.com
XDCCz - xdccz.com

Now, ChatZilla will automatically recognize the links to join a particular server, but if you also want it to recognize the XDCC commands, you'll have to do this:

1. Type about:config in the Firefox address bar.
2. Type signed.applets.codebase_principal_support in the filter.
3. Double-click to change its value to True.

Then, with IRC Klipper at least, click the Pack link, and you should be good to go.

Perfect a Foreign Language via Skype

Every college I've heard of has the foreign language requirement. With exams coming up, I'm sure many of you have review sheets that you're spending hours filling out in study groups. I know a friend of mine last night was asking me for help with his French.

To which, I replied, "Par-lay-vu sans Franz-ay." He laughed. I speak no French.

But here's a tip: Find a native speaker on Skype! Because, well, the WORLD does not use AMERICA Online Instant Messenger.

Continue Reading for further instructions on how to find a native speaker, if you're not familiar with Skype.

So, after downloading Skype and choosing a nickname and all that, go to Contacts > Search for Skype Users.... Then, just fill in the details (Note: Your best bet is to input English as their Language). Click Find, and Voila! Click Add Skype Contact on a few of those you find because you'll have to request to add them, and they might not even be online (time differences!). Soon enough, you'll probably find someone just as willing to practice their English with you as you are to practice your foreign language with them! Sweet deal.

Click the thumbnails below for images of these instructions:

Joost: We Have Invites

Again, for those of you with final exams: IGNORE THIS POST. It's another distraction.

But for those of with time on your hands, I'd like to introduce you all to Joost (if you haven't already heard of it):

From BET to Comedy Central to Guinness World Records TV to Healthination to MTV to even Ren and Stimpy, Joost is a great way for the college student with a high-speed Internet connection but without an actual television set to catch their favorite shows (a full channel list is here) via their PC. For free. Awesome.

So if you'd like an invitation to join Joost (as it's currently invitation-only), just leave us a comment with your email address, and we'll send you one!

[Edit] No more invites! [/Edit]

What We're Reading: May 2, 2007

There's a regular old [expletive]-storm going on right now all over the place. Finals, finals prep, Digg exploding, and people pushing impeachment for George Bush.

Here's what we're reading today:

• 18 Ways to Improve Your Body Language [The Positivity Blog]


• The Ten Most Consistently Awkward Situations in Life [YouAreSketch]


• For Students, Wanting an iPhone and Getting One Might Be Two Different Things [Portfolio]


• Digg This: 09-f9-11-02-9d-... [Digg the Blog]

April in Review, Big Thanks, Things to Come

HackCollege is making great progress. When Rosario and I started this site, we aimed to have a steady increase in traffic each month. April has been the best month to date, and we're less than a year old. As always, we'd like to thank the regular readers and welcome the new visitors.

We bought $10 worth of StumbleUpon ads which doubled the number of RSS subscribers and has added few more regular visitors. Awesome.

This summer, Rosario and I are hoping to make some changes and a few overhauls including (but not limited to):

• A new site layout. We like the look, but we've grown enough to where we want something we've built from scratch. We have more control over our own system that way.


• New sections/regular features.


• A new editor or two.


• A few new writers.

If you'd like to help us out, just let us know.

Quick stats for the month of April:

• Number of Unique Visitors: 3,562


• Most looked-at page (minus the front page): Windows Vista Free for Students


• City Producing the Most Visitors: Los Angeles (as expected)

Facebook: Now More Distracting!

Adam Ostrow over at Mashable just put together a great list of 10 Awesome Things Built on the Facebook API.

He includes The Facebook Toolbar, which lets you extend your distracting Facebook experience to your browser (yay!), Rendezbook, which resembles speed-dating, and Facebook to Twitter, which lets you send your Facebook status to your Twitter friends (I use it!).

I would also add, to the list:

Books On Campus, which lets you buy and sell used textbooks on your college campus, and Mosoto, which lets you discover music through your friends (and share other files).

But for those of you with finals, I'd recommend a friend changing your Facebook password, so that you can't login until after exams.