The Importance of Knowing How To Survive Without Your Smartphone

Smartphones are so wonderful, but when without them, can we survive? Photo courtesy of Phil Roeder. Licensed under CC BY-2.0.Last Friday, I needed to get gas. So, naturally, I stopped at a gas station, got out, and went about my business. Fifty-five dollars later, I turned to get into my car only to find that it was locked. And inside my car were my keys. And my purse. And my phone.

"Ah," I thought. "This is not good."

It is a truly harrowing tale of bravery, but the upshot of the story is that I had to figure out what to do without my phone. When I was in need, I didn't have my contact list, my AAA app, or anything that my smartphone had to offer me. It made me realize that as helpful as smartphones are in times of trouble (getting lost, for instance, which is something I manage to do quite regularly), there are situations that smartphones can't help you out of. Like when it's locked in your car.

With this in mind, I think it's important for college students to realize that we might not always have our smartphones with us. There are a few very important things that we should know without having our phone with us. For instance, basic directions. If you are directionally challenged like I am, take time to learn the area around you so that even if you are without Google maps, you can basically manage to get back to a familiar area.

Additionally, you should have memorized a few important telephone numbers. The only reason why I managed to get out of that gas station without completely losing my head was that I have my boyfriend's number memorized. I was able to call him from the gas station and have him bring me my Jeep's spare key. I'd say it's a good idea to have the numbers memorized of your significant other (if applicable), at least one parent, your boss, and perhaps your best friend. This way, in case you are ever in any trouble and don't have your phone, you can always call someone who can help you or at least that you can tell that you will be late.

Smartphones are wonderful and extremely helpful in so many ways. But by being dependent on your own memory and knowledge, you can help yourself out of a sticky situation when circumstance separates you from your phone.

Have you ever had to manage without your phone in a difficult situation? Let us know in the comments!

Now's the time to buy student business cards

Image courtesy of Flickr user Matthew Solle. Licensed under CC BY 2.0.For those of you in the market for student business cards, this week might be the time to make a purchase. Moo is having a 30%-off sale on all of their printed goods through July 20th (that's Wednesday).  Their cards are printed on high-quality stock, the ink on it is pretty much water-proof, and there are eco-friendly options. They give you a nice box to keep the cards in. I really enjoy mine. All of these are good things! Unfortunately, the cards are pretty pricy--so a sale is a great time to go after them if you're in the market for visually interesting cards, particularly if you're like me and want to just use a pre-designed design template.

When you're picking what the put on the cards, go for something that looks reasonably professional without tying you to your current job. You just want your basic contact info: name, email address, twitter handle (maybe), phone number (use a Google Voice number), and website. If you want to get a little more specific, you can possibly put a one-word job description, like "writer" or "web designer." If you're super-fancy, stick a QR code on there that takes a visitor to your website. Aim for a card that you wouldn't be ashamed to give to an alumnus from your school.

Try not to get cutesy or put any information on the card that won't be true a year from now--if you like to change your Twitter handle a lot, then leave it off the card and link it to your website instead, and if you're about to graduate and lose your student email address, use a Gmail account instead. In general, however, you want to keep it so that your cards cast as wide a net as possible. Dynamic or specific content is what your website is for. It doesn't cost anything to change your landing page, but it's expensive to re-print business cards. With cards in hand, you should have an easier time preparing for the real world.

Additional discount: According to Brady Kent, you can get an additional 15% off if you use moo_sample_discount and are a first-time customer. Even better!

Incoming Freshmen Series: How to Stop Looking Like A Freshman

This is the first post of the Incoming Freshmen Series. Read our introduction for more information, and stay tuned this week for our upcoming posts.

Your author, guilty of the charge of looking like a freshman. Photo owned by author.

Like many of those who are have just started or are about to start their freshman year, my orientation is still fresh in my memory. Though the details are foggy, I remember the general outline of the schedule and unfortunately, I remember what I was wearing. I was decked out in a Florida Gators hat that has since gone missing, a Florida Gators T-shirt, a black-and-orange lanyard and a pair of gym shorts, as you can see in the picture to your right.

At UF, the freshmen used to wear special caps. Thankfully, those days are over, but there are still ways to spot the freshmen a mile away just from what they choose to wear.

At the time, I didn't see a problem with it. I was representing my school and wearing what I felt comfortable in. After my first year, I realized why the upperclassmen were snickering as I roamed the halls during my Preview orientation session.

Read on after the jump to see what I was doing wrong, and how to fix it.

Click to read more ...

How To Prepare for Post-Graduation Now - Building Up Your Network

Start building up your network of contacts now so you'll be better prepared after graduation. Photo courtesy of ella novak. Licensed under CC BY-2.0.For some of us (myself included), this is the last summer that we'll have as an undergraduate, and possibly the last real "summer" ever. The thought is a little terrifying as we enter our last year of college. The questions start coming in from friends, families, and coworkers-- What's next for you?

Hopefully most of us have a vague idea of what we want to do. Grad school? Straight to a job? Maybe a gap year before grad school? It's never too early to start thinking about what you want to do after school, even if next year won't be your senior year. In this three-part post, I'll offer some good suggestions for you to take as you begin to plan for what comes after your undergraduate degree. Part One will focus on helping you build up your network and contacts to ensure you know the right people in your field of interest. Part Two will help you establish who you are to make you stand out in the applicant crowd. Part Three will suggest things you can do once you actually enter your senior year. 

Seek Advice

Even if you're just a sophomore or junior, it's never too early to get advice from the professionals or professors that you admire most. By that time, you will have shown your academic prowess and will probably have an idea of what you might want to do. For soon-to-be seniors though, this is a definite first step that you should take to determining what you want to do. At your internships, ask your boss and coworkers what they did after college. Did they go to grad school right away, after a gap year, or at all? How did they get to the position they are at now? What advice would they have for you? Asking people who work in the industry you hope to break into will give you a better idea of what you should expect and plan for. They will have insights that you can definitely use for your advantage. Additionally, asking them such questions will show that you truly respect their professional views and can help form a mentor-mentee relationship that can really help you in your future career.

Make sure you seek advice from your professors as well. Most professors have very good and often unusual connections with those in their field of study, either other professors or industry professionals. Your professors have seen your work for months and months and have a very good idea of what you are capable of. They will be able to give you recommendations of where you should point yourself in terms of companies, contacts, or even graduate school programs.

Reconnect and Continue Communication

It's always a good idea to keep in contact with people who you have worked with professionally or even past professors. If you truly enjoyed an internship from a year or two ago, keep communicating with them every so often so that they remember you and so that you have a contact in that specific place. Reconnecting shows that you are a good people-person and capable of taking the initiative of communication. It will also help you form a professional network that you will be able to utilize after graduation to help you land your dream job or graduate school or at least get in contact with another person who can help you get there.

Use Alumni Connection

Get in contact with the alumni chapter of your university to talk to people who have graduated from your school and who work in the industry you're interested in. Sometimes when I ask my coworkers or boss about their education and professional careers, I'm not always sure that their experience is relatable to mine because they usually have a much more specific degree from a much bigger school. With a broader, more comprehensive degree from a smaller, less-well-known school, I worry that I won't stand out in an applicant pool. However, because alumni have the same background as you, you'll be able to get a more realistic idea of what to expect post-graduation in terms of either getting into graduate school or landing a job right out of school.

Alumni are also more likely to help you along in your career or education ambitions because of the connection they'll feel with you. They can be an incredible helpful source of advice, networking, and even job opportunities.

Look for Part Two of this series to come Wednesday!

What other tips do you have for starting to build up yourself to prepare for senior year? Let us know in the comments!

[via USAToday College and HerCampus]

Four Tips to Preserve the Peace on Family Trips

Sign puns are the best puns. Image courtesy of Flickr user Jonathon D. Colman. Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

I've been living back at the family homestead for most of this summer without incident. However, a recent family trip--along with a tweet from a friend traveling to San Francisco with her family--reminded me: there's a big difference between getting along with your family at home and getting along with them on a trip.

The biggest issue is that, a lot of the time, you can't leave. If your sibling starts bugging you while the family's on the interstate, well, you just have to suck it up You don't want to blow up whatever peace you've made with your family in one weekend outing, so here are some tips to keep your sanity about you while traveling.

Bring Music: This is a little bit of a no-brainer, but remember to bring whatever device you use to listen to music and its charger and headphones. You can either listen to the music you own or--my favorite--use an app like TuneIn to tune out whoever's sitting next to you. Smiling and nodding at your sibling on the sixth hour of a car trip is a lot easier when you're listening to Katy Perry loud enough to turn your brains to liquid.

Research Your Destination: If your family is anything like mine, they're likely to leave you out of the trip planning loop because they still think of you as a kid. So, be proactive: make sure that you find out where you're going and what there is to do there. If you can find something that you actually want to do wherever you're going, you can have at least one activity to look forward to.

Escape (At Least for an Hour): Part of what's frustrating about traveling with family as opposed to friends is that it's much harder to leave your family to go do your own thing for a while. However, if it's at all possible to leave for a little bit, do it. You'll be able to decompress and enjoy yourself. Even if you're not in a very exciting location, just go for a walk around the block for a little bit--you need time to breathe (and possibly call your friends to rant for a minute).

Set Ground Rules: This goes for both parents and any siblings. For the parent end, figure out exactly what your parents expect from you: can you drink? Do you have to be back at the hotel/cabin/whatever by a certain time? Can you explore the city on your own? Figure this out before you head on to your destination so that there aren't any surprises when you get there. For siblings, as much as you can, try to head off any arguments that you know are going to happen by settling hot-button issues (like, can your sibling pry about your personal life? Who gets to control the AC in the car?) before you leave for your trip.

Family travel is probably always going to be a little stressful, but with any luck and these tips, your trip will be more happy than rage-inducing. And if not... that's what headphones are for.

Use a Seedbox to Torrent on Campus

Image courtesy of Flickr user jared. Licensed under CC BY 2.0.We don't condone pirating at HackCollege,  but if you're going to engage in a cat and mouse game with the RIAA/MPAA, you may as well do it the right way. Commonly used on private BitTorrent trackers where maintaining a good ratio (upload/download) is critical, a seedbox is a remote server dedicated to torrenting. Seedboxes have many significant advantages over traditional torrent acquisition methods; they're always powered on, they're connected to a fast 100+ Mbps connections and they are not subject to ISP throttling. Although seedboxes are not free, they are an excellent option for students looking to torrent on a campus network.

Although the argument that BitTorrent can be used for legal content distribution is often made, many school network administrators opt to block torrent activity. With a seedbox, all torrent traffic is downloaded to the remote server that is free of restrictions. Once your download is complete, it's simply a matter of connecting to your seedbox over FTP to pull down your files. To your network administrator, this FTP traffic is seen as "clean" traffic. Although using the seedbox means you're downloading the files twice (once to the seed box, once to your personal computer), you'll find that obtaining files with a seedbox is much quicker because of the fast and unthrottled 100+ Mbps connection.

 

Even if your network administrator doesn't block or throttle torrent data, a seedbox could still be beneficial to you as a college student. These days, most students own a single computer, usually a laptop, that they carry with them on campus. It can be difficult to download and seed large files when your laptop is constantly in limbo between awake and asleep. Using the seedbox, you can queue up large torrents to download over the course of the day with no impact on your personal computer. Once the file is done downloading, it's simply a matter of pulling it down over FTP.

 

To those who are less tech savvy, the idea of setting up and using a seedbox may seem daunting. However, it is quite the opposite. Upon paying your monthly access fee, the seedbox provider will set up the unit for your immediate use. Simply login to the BitTorrent client web interface using the links provided by your seedbox provider and select the torrent file you would like to download. Upon completion of the download, connect to the seedbox using the FTP credentials provided and an FTP client of your choice. From there, it's just a matter of dragging the files to a folder on your computer.

 

If you think you could benefit from a seedbox, I would highly recommend WhatBox as a provider. I have no affiliation with Whatbox, I'm simply a happy user of their service. You can expect to pay approximatley $25 a month for a seedbox; this cost can be split amongst a few buddies if you're willing to share the seedbox.

Once again, tread lightly in this questionable world of data transmission. If you find that really can't live without BitTorrent on campus, consider a seedbox to evade network administrators.

We're Looking for a San Francisco-Based Writer!

We're expanding to the Bay area. Want to be a part of it? Image courtesy of Flickr user jdnx and licensed under CC by 2.0

Here at HackCollege, we write a fair amount about startups based in Silicon Valley, but we've never actually had a writer stationed there to cover them in person, hence this post. 

If we pick you, you won't just be writing about startups, but you will be our correspondent in the area as needed. The only criteria (beyond geography) is that you have to be a current college student (undergrad), and you have to be able to write. It's a paid gig too, so you'll need to have the free time and energy to commit to 2-3 posts per week. Everything else is negotiable.

Here's what you need to email shep@hackcollege.com if you want to apply:

• Basic contact information (including Twitter, if you're on it)
• Resume
• A few recent writing samples
• A list of five post ideas for HackCollege, one of which you should flesh out into a full guest post

If this piques our interest, we'll get in touch to find out more about you. Good luck!

Also, sorry to anyone who wants to write for us who doesn't live in the Bay area. We might have a more general call for writers sometime in the next few months.

Watch, Read, Make

Add it on there. Image courtesy of Flickr user Eamon Brett. Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Welcome to what will hopefully be a new weekend feature--Watch, Read, Make. As you might guess from the name, we'll be using the feature to suggest something new for you to watch, read, and make over the weekend. Let us know what you think (and what else you've been watching, reading, and making) in the comments.

Watch: This clip from Bots High, a documentary about high school robot builders. This particular clip is on girls involved in robotics, and includes an interview with one of the builders talking about how it annoys her that the girls she sees on a lot of the teams get relegated to record-keeping. It's cool to see that the group of girls in the room shown in the clip has kids from all ages, and they're super-proud of what they've made. It's pretty sweet.

Read: After a lengthy rights-wrangling process, Paul Carr's new book, The Upgrade, is out in the US. I snagged the Kindle version last night, and--though a quick read--it's pretty interesting. It talks about Carr's decision to leave his apartment in London and live permanently in hotels, including the practical aspects of getting cheap rooms (which is useful information to have). It also chronicles his realization that he's an alcoholic, the history of his friendship with Sarah Lacy, and his decision to stop drinking. If you're a fan of Carr's columns on TechCrunch or are interested in how one goes about living in hotels year-round, it's worth a look.

Make: This recipe for Sonic-style cherry limeade makes my Oklahoma-raised heart go pitter-pat. If you're looking for something to rehydrate you after a night of debauchery while still keeping the summer spirit alive, it's the drink for you. For authentic Sonic style, make it with crushed ice. For an evening version, try it with gin.