Amazing (and Free) Music at Daytrotter

While doing the typical college guy thing and trying to learn how to play the guitar better, I stumbled upon a fantastic website, Daytrotter. Admittedly, the site caters more towards the indie/emo/what-the-fuck-is-this-music genres. But we all know evident drug use and good music go hand in hand.

Daytrotter is actually the name given to sessions played by traveling bands. Since any successful band tours around the country, they are bound to drive through Rock Island, IL. If a band so chooses to stop in to Futureappletree Studio One, they are invited to share with the world some of their musical talents. To quote Daytrotter's about page:

They use borrowed instruments, play with their touring mates, utilize a often unkempt toilet, eat some food and then cram back into their vans for the last half of the drive. What they leave behind is a pile of ashes, sometimes a forgotten stocking hat and four absolutely collectible songs that often impart on whomever listens to them the true intensity that these musicians put into their art, sometimes with more clarity than they do when they have months to tinker with overdubs and experiments.

When I first stumbled upon Daytrotter, my face nearly melted off when I listened to "Shut Up I am Dreaming of Places Where Lovers Have Wings" (warning: link plays music) by Sunset Rubdown. You're lucky I am here writing today. Maybe that could explain the sudden lapse in postings.

Anyway, check out Daytrotter for some of your favorite bands and see if they have any songs. All of the songs are pretty good quality and of the utmost rockery.

Melt Your Face: Daytrotter

Lifehacker's Note Taking Roundup

This might be redundant for a lot of readers. (We assume that most people that read HackCollege also read Lifehacker.) Anyway, Lifehacker published a slick little note taking roundup today.

Check it out.

Playing Video Games at Parties is Cool (Thanks Wii)

While hundreds of articles related to the new Nintendo Wii and its scarcity proliferate the Internet, there doesn't seem to be an article relating to the machine's robust ability to entertain in any situation.

The Past

Ever since I could remember, there has been a stigma regarding video games, especially in any overtly social situation. Previous video games aimed seclude and required the complete attention of the player.

Enter Dance Dance Revolution. While DDR was (and still is) considered somewhat nerdy and "Asian," it started wearing away at some pretense buried deep within my generation's conscience. Being proficient at the game is still nerdy, but it piqued an interest as to a more social, universal, and exhibition-based gaming experience.

I will admit I bought my own DDR pad about three and a half years ago. My friends mostly gave me weird glances but eventually tried it out. I take credit for planting a few seeds of the revolution.

The Present

Allow me to reflect on my social life in the past two weeks. I'm particularly a party-animal; I'll usually attend a "rager" or "facemelting" or what-have-you about once ever two weeks. The rest of the weekend nights is usually spent with around 20 friends at someone's apartment.

A side note real quick: There were people playing Guitar Hero II at a bigger party (200+) this weekend in one room. This room was not a very social room, just the entryway. Most people were near the keg or in the dance room. Not entirely prominent, but both sexes readily participated.

At these smaller parties, a Wii is sometimes present. This curious machine has the ability to make people move more than the latest Top40 single. No joke.

The Wii is not always the center of the party, but it definitely contributes to it. There are usually two sections at these parties, a social section and Wii section. People migrate back and forth, usually to see what someone is screaming about in a heated match of Wii Tennis.

This past weekend, the residents of one of our usual party places purchased WarioWare: Smooth Moves. Wow. That game is so much fun. And we had only unlocked the single player mode. The details of the night are a little fuzzy, but it seemed like everyone at the party gave the game a go without any second thought.

The stigma is gone.

The Future

Many hardcore (and antisocial) gamers are dismissing the Wii as a one-trick pony. I'm letting them.

My experience with the Wii has been exactly what the system aims to be: a plus in a social situation but not a staple. Our parties do not depend on a video game system to have a good time; and no party ever should. The Wii definitely adds to the atmosphere and energy of a party.

As more social games like WarioWare: Smooth Moves get released, the Wii will grow as a social system. Even with only three social titles (Wii Sports, Rayman: Raving Rabbits, and Smooth Moves), the Wii is prominent at parties. And it probably will be for another few years.

This truly is the beginning of a new era in video gaming. The stigma is gone. And I have still yet to meet the person that has turned down a game of Wii Tennis.

For the International Student: Free Calls Home!

If you pay for unlimited long-distance calls, this is amazing. One call to Iowa, and you can then call 50 countries (and growing!) for free with futurephone.com! Is this legit? Yes. Does it work? Often. Do you have to sign up, and will they spam you? No!

Try it. You'll be pleased.

Oh, and even if you don't have unlimited long-distance calls, with this service you can call, say, Germany for the price of a call to Iowa. Aka, it's still cheaper.

Student Loan Prices to Be Cut

Go out and get a drink. The House of Representatives voted to reduce student loan rates from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent over the next 5 years. You'll be saving a little money I guess.

Read on: Article

Subscribe to Our (New) RSS Feed

I'm not quite sure why, but we haven't been using FeedBurner to syndicate our RSS feed. That means we have no idea how many people subscribe to our feed, but we assume the number is in the thousands.

So, update your RSS feeds if you've got them to our new feed address:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/Hackcollege

Or you could just click on the button in our little task bar at the top that reads "RSS Feed."

It's a feeding frenzy!

Student Running Linux Part 2: One Week and Counting

It's been about one week since I installed Linux on my Dell 700m laptop. Since then, I have yet to use it to write a paper or do anything too out of the ordinary. I have noticed a few things that are nice about Ubuntu. It makes me wonder what halleucinogenic drug the Windows team must be smoking/inhaling/freebasing/eating/dropping when they decided to not include a feature that a user-created operating system sports.

• Everything looks clean. I can't quite put my finger on it. I would describe OS X as "slick," but Ubuntu merits the adjective "clean" or "refined." It took a little getting used to, but now I much prefer this new Linux UI to the Windows UI. The jury is still out on OS X vs. Ubuntu. (Note: Technically, Ubuntu uses a modified Gnome UI. This isn't too important, but some of the more hardcore readers would call me out on that.


• The way Ubuntu manages the computer feels right. Whenever I plug in my AC adapter to charge my battery in Windows, my taskbar (dock?) would inform me that my laptop was "charging." No shit. Ubuntu gives me an estimated time to charge to 100%. It's obviously never spot on, but it usually comes within 10 minutes.


• The commandline. Being my nerdly self, I usually have a commandline terminal open. I've also aliased all of the programs I use to quick shortcuts. All I have to do is type "firefox" into the terminal and blickity-blam, firefox opens. Nothign revolutionary, but it takes significantly less time than grabbing my mouse, moving it to the start menu, clicking, finding the Firefox icon, and then clicking again.


• Installing system components. Ubuntu didn't come with everything I wanted (what OS does?) so I had to install some extra stuff. There's a nifty little program inside of several Linux kernels called the "Synaptic Package Manager" or something similar. It has a database of (almost) every program for Linux. All you have to do is check a box, it does the rest. And it does it oh so well.
  

Stay tuned, I have to write a paper sometime this week. I'm sure I'll have plenty to report then.

Interhouse at Caltech

There are certain points in the history of humanity where large structures are built, idols are worshiped, and all worries are forgotten. This was the scenario on the night of January 13, 2007 at the California Institute of Technology.

Many students may think that Caltech would never throw a successful party. They have no frats. Their IQ's are too high to be significantly effected by binge drinking. As I was reminded on Saturday, Caltech students don't do much except study and plan for parties.

This party known as "Interhouse" used to be thrown every year back up until one fateful year when the party was cancelled because of a stabbing. And only 20 years later was the party revived Saturday night to the pleasure of 8,000 people. The party was to inaugurate the finished remodeling of the four south houses. What better way to break in a building than to put a few holes in the wall?

Each of the south houses Ricketts, Blacker, Dabney, and Fleming simultaneously threw their own themed parties. Rickett's theme was post-apocalyptic, Blacker's Soviet Russia, Dabney's a speakeasy, and Fleming's Never Never Land. Each theme was incredibly well pulled off; the house reps spent two months planning and a solid two weeks constructing.

The following is a photodiary of the night. Hopefully these smaller pictures can do a little justice to a night I will remember forever.

Allow me to introduce you to a nuclear submarine, or at least a mock-up of one. This was the most impressive construction job of them all. You could walk up to the top and look down at everyone on the dance floor.
Here's the other angle of the Russian sub with a shot looking out over the water (inside a tank they constructed). Keep in mind this is all inside of a quad.
Inside Blacker's lounge was a sign that read something like "Mother Russia is watching you!" with monitors seeing through the cameras they planted around the party.

Also inside the Blacker lounge was a mock-up of Star Wars. Not the movie, the laser plan back in the 1980s. The map was nicely animated with blinking dots and whatnot.


The dancefloor on top of the submarine surrounded by water and snow and gigantic murals of Russian. Blickity-blam.


Dabney kept it low-key with a speakeasy theme. This was by far the mellowest one, but that wasn't a bad thing. It was a nice place to take a rest from the other three relatively crazy ones. They also had a jazz band and a bluegrass playing in their lounge. So classy.


Ricketts kept it grunge with their post-apocalyptic theme. This was by far the most lively dancefloor of the night. The DJ kept the krumpable songs playing all night long.


In Fleming's Never Never Land, foiliage hung from the sky over their pirate ship, rope bridge, and dance platforms. I never want to grow up.


In Never Never Land, pirates are a must, dancing pirates specifically. This was the second-best dancefloor, but it definitely got overwhelming at times.


And there's me krumping with a friend. 'Nuff said.

And that's about all the pictures that turned out. Caltech always blows my mind whenever I visit for a party, but this one was by far the craziest I have been to.

I'd like to sincerely thank Caltech for letting all of us from LMU to head over to the party. All 17 of us thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

So the next time someone invites you to a party at Caltech, don't scoff.