DormItem: College Classifieds Done Right

We were a little skeptical when Daniel from DormItem sent us an email asking if we would take a look at his site. It seems like the college-specific version of craigslist has been tried far too many times. I don't know if Rosario and I were simultaneously taking large amounts of narcotics, but Daniel is proved us wrong. DormItem is like Facebook's older, more mature sister: she'll hook you up with her hot friends if you've got money.

DormItem is a straight-forward classified site that is organized by school, just like Facebook. It's got three simple tabs: Buy, Sell, and Jobs. If this catches on, my poor self will definitely be looking at the "Jobs" tab often.

It's got some slick features, such as a Spotlight-esque "itemizr" which searches as you type. It's Facebook integration is fully-functional; DormItem notifies you when new items get posted online. For those fearful of trading online, DormItem has partnered with RapLeaf, an buyer/seller online tracking system. (Note: HackCollege hasn't done the necessary research to endorse RapLeaf, but we'll trust them for now.) And, of course, it looks great and has all that juicy Web 2.0 goodness. In the words of a friend from Kazakhstan: "Very nice."

DormItem has been able to secure some traction in certain place on the Internet. It's even got the Boston Globe's attention:

Unlike Craigslist, DormItem's database is smart enough to tell you if that mini fridge or futon you're looking for is also available at another college in your area.
— Boston Globe

Not too shabby. We're very excited to see how DormItem develops.

Unfortunately, DormItem suffers from the common problem that many Web 2.0 startups do, a lack of users. I wasn't able to effectively test out the entire site because I'm located on the west coast; the site's primary user base appears to be in the MA area.

All in all, DormItem is great and shows some of the rarely-seen thing many investors might refer to as "promise." And besides, its biggest issue right now is not its fault, it's yours. So check it out and sell something... I still need a futon, preferably under $200 and in the LA area with a cover... call me.

Buy/Sell/Live: DormItem

Free Beer: Fact or Fiction

So Kelly decided to answer my rhetorical question a few entries ago by arguing that the Internet does not offer free beer. Now, because I love a Google challenge, mixed in with some Digg dexterity, I set out last night to see what I could find.

To begin, there appears to be some confusion with the phrase "free beer". From Wikipedia:

In hacker slang, gratis is typically referred to as free as in beer while libre is referred to as free as in speech.

Free as in beer refers to things which are available at no monetary cost (like free beer at a party). While one is permitted to use the object (e.g., drink the beer) without payment, one does not necessarily receive any rights (e.g. take the beer home) or ownership. It can be contrasted with the expressions free as in speech, free as in freedom, or free as in rights, which refer to something which is free of restrictions, as in the freedom of speech. One is permitted to use the object, reproduce it, repurpose it, and generally do what one will with it; usually the only restrictions applied are that credit be given to any entity that contributed to any resulting object and that such object be free as in speech as well. An example of a license with such grants and conditions is the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license.

Essentially, "free" can be available at no monetary cost, or it can be referred to in the sense of freedom. Isn't that a kicker.

Using the latter interpretation, Voresoel.dk offers its beer recipe under a Creative Commons License, just like open-source software.

It takes about 3 weeks, but, hey, if not the ladies, I'm sure the guys would be impressed.

Oh, and Kelly: Keep in mind that the day after you’ve blogged drunk, you’ve got a lot of explaining to do to your regular readers.

Housecleaning Update

Hello everyone. Now that we're on break, we've had some time to do some much needed housecleaning around the site. We've made the following minor improvements:

• We cleaned up the categories and made them more specific. Now everything won't be just in the general "College" category. There might be a little shifting around as we decide exactly how to use these new categories.


• We removed some sites from the blogroll (the links on the right) that have gone offline or are no longer being updated. We are surviving.

And currently Rosario and I are talking about updating the site's look, mostly color-wise. We'll let you know how that's going as we make decisions. Or you'll just see the site different one day.

As always, please email us if you have any input. Have a good break.

College Service Trips: A Retrospective

Hello. I'm back in my home town of Everett, Washington for the break watching "Waterworld" of all movies. I know, good movie.

Anyway, I spent Friday through Sunday on a service trip called De Colores in Mexico. It's the stereotypical build-a-house-in-a-third-world-country type of service trip. (Mexico isn't necessarily third world, but I had never seen poverty like this.)

Anyway, I'm usually not one for the hardcore service trips. (I realize service may be less of a consideration at other schools, but LMU is huge on service.) But I'm definitely thankful I chose to take two days out of my break to go on this trip.

And so I recommend considering a service trip such as De Colores. It was by no means a life-changing trip, but I had fun and it changed my perspective a little bit.

For now, back to "Waterworld."

How To: Wrap a Gift

So I was asked today to help wrap some gifts for a baby shower. Sure, I helped, but I'm neither practiced nor proficient. And so I figured: Some of you probably aren't either. Digg-ing along, I found a great article in the UK News on the exact formula for wrapping the perfect gift:

The formula is the brainchild of Dr Sara Santos of the University of Manchester, who has been working with Amazon.co.uk to help its team wrap the perfect Christmas presents.

She has considered all the factors that could impact on gift wrapping – the shape of the box, the pattern of the paper, and the amount of paper and tape wasted in the wrapping process.

Dr Santos’ equation – ½(d + 2h + w)² = 2(w + h)² – proves that wrapping attractive Christmas gifts is not just a matter of choosing the most stylish paper and trimmings, but is actually a highly technical process with little margin for error.

Where "d" equals the depth of the box, "h" equals its height, and "w" equals its width.

But I know some of you are more visual, so I also found some great tutorials from the SHIMOJIMA Co:

Last but not least, some people just don't have the spatial skills for wrapping. Maybe I just don't. And so I found some good practice over at GamePuma.

Hope this helps!

Get Your Game On: PuzzleLand and Tilt

With finals and final papers all around, I know the last thing you guys need are more ways to procrastinate. If this is the case, you're probably not visiting the site right now anyway --as we have seen a little dip in daily visitors this past week.

So for those of you without finals and final papers, let me show you my two latest addictions:

• PuzzleLand has 5 levels. Help James defeat Gregory! It took me 2 days. Or you could use the directions.


• Tilt has more than 11 levels. My best score has been 2010.

Enjoy!

On Choosing Next Semester's Classes: PickAProf.com

Wow, I wish Yale University were on their list of schools... PickAProf gets real information from the colleges/universities, themselves, and compiles grade averages per class, per professor. So the deal is: If you're unsure whether to take class A or class B, why not go with the professor who gives out more As?

Sounds good enough for me to already check the site out.

But, even better, PickAProf also offers Facebook login, a planner, and a book exchange! See what classes your friends are taking. Plan it all out. And, when you're done, get rid of the book!

(Oh, and as my friend Lindsay just pointed out to me: RateMyProfessors is a good resource, too.)

I ask you all: What doesn't the Internet offer?!

Waste Time with Web 2.0: DareJunkies.com

As I flip through the Internet, I tend to get stopped by a few websites. I'm a huge procrastinator, like many college students, and the Internet has probably been nothing but an interruption to me lately, but, hey, I like it. Therefore, I'd like to show you all my newest find: DareJunkies.

If you like YouTube and if you've got the time and a video camera, why not win your share of $5000? DareJunkies sets up a few contests --some "dares". Users of the website videotape themselves performing the "dare", submit it, and hope they get the most votes.

And if that's not enough:

We want to see your best videos. Did you accidentally fall thru a window doing a keg stand, and someone filmed it? Great. We want to see it. The top 5 most viewed videos wins a $100 prize each month.

So take a second and check out DareJunkies! The current contest ends December 31st.