Free Programs: Mac Edition

Who doesn't like free stuff? These programs will help you become more productive and do a few things that need to get done.

Read on: Crucial Mac Software: College Edition

Stop Reading This: Internet Worse for Your Grades Than Alcohol

Oh, ridiculous justifications. Because every one constantly uses the Internet, so too must every one constantly drink. Michigan State University released the findings from a survey stating that

...nearly 20 percent of students had withdrawn from a course or had experienced grade problems due to excessive use of the Internet or computer games; this compares to only 8.5 percent who said that drinking problems have the same effect. In addition, the percentage of people with Internet problems is far higher among men than women.

What ever is a student to do with this information at his or her fingertips? The (il)logical conclusion is to drink more and surf less. This should bring up GPAs by a few points, right? Or will Uncle Sam declare consumption of information via websites illegal for those under 21 years of age? Any way you look at it, the article could overturn society as we know it.

Read on: Internet Replaces Jack Daniel's as "Best Excuse for a C Average"

AOL Xdrive: Goodbye Thumbdrive

One of the most annoying things that I do reguarly is forward emails of homework assignments to myself to print them. This is especially true if I'm working on my laptop outside.

Thankfully, for students (and every one else), AOL has a program called Xdrive. The 5Gb they give each user should be more than enough for small Word documents. If you decide to use it, make sure you keep copies of every file you upload, just in case.

Grab it at: AOL's Xdrive

27 Money Tips for College Students

Every day through the campus cafeteria I watch my meal plan dollars slowly tick down. I wonder: how will I make it to May?

Fortunately for all college students, getrichslowly.org has posted 27 tips on saving/getting money.

Read on: 27 Money Tips for College Students

10 Tips to Jumpstart Creativity

Tired of sitting in front of your computer screen in Microsoft Word, staring as the blinking cursor of a blank page?

Dave Jeffrey's suggestions won't make you a smarter person, and they surely won't write that paper for you. They may, however, get you thinking, and get that paper on its way to being done.

Read on: Dave Jeffrey's Top 10 Creativity Boosters

Write Faster, Write Better

Life would be great for students if we could spend less time in front of an LCD screen hammering out a paper and more time at the beach. I stumbled over this article on the front page of del.icio.us a few minutes ago.

The article is very thorough and precise (minus the occassional ironic typo). Pardon this man's annoying diction. He's got a point. Give this a quick skim; you just might learn something.

Read on: Half an Hour: How to Write Articles and Essays Quickly and Expertly

Movie Theaters are not Going Away: Digital Delivery Trumps DVDs, not the Galleria

As a student in film school, I know that attending the movies will always be a social event. With digital delivery of movies hitting the mainstream, many decry the future success of theaters. In this mode of thought, why didn't movie theaters disappear after the VHS tape or the DVD?

Even the reasons of not wanting to watch a movie on an iPod screen are not applicable.

The shallow argument would also argue that the original iTunes Music Store would herald the end of live performances. If anything, digital delivery of music has increased respsective listener bases and thus increased concert attendance, especially for those smaller bands.

So please, think the next time you blog.

Procrastination Assassin: WriteRoom

Homework, papers, nonsense. These all go hand in hand, but--when it comes down to it--each student must engage in his or her fair share of it throughout the years spent at university. Thankfully, for Mac users, there's a tool to make paper writing go much, much faster by removing the distractions of websites, AIM windows, etc.

I present to you: WriteRoom. It's a very simple program that just maximizes itself to cover the entire screen. A simple idea, but one of the most useful programs I have ever used.

Get WriteRoom here.