Take Our Survey, Win a Sweatshirt

It's that time again, we want to get closer with you guys. While we can't lay awake in bed with each and every one of you, we do want to know your deepest secret. Or just some cursory information. We need to do the surveys every once in awhile to make sure the companies we work with are in line with our readers. We've crossed off Halliburton, but we want to make extra sure that we work with companies that everyone likes. 

So take our survey and help us out!

Of everyone that fills out a survey, we will be randomly selecting 10 people to receive one of our brand new sweatshirts. Don't forget your email address!

Take our survey!

Backup Your Handwritten Notes

Hundreds of back up solutions exist to protect your important computer data, but have you ever thought about the consequences of losing your class notes? The tools of your craft, the countless hours of hard work capturing the subtle hints the lecturer makes. Imagine leaving your binder at the library the day before a midterm or spilling a whole cup of coffee while reviewing yesterday’s 3 hour lecture? Unless you take all your notes on your PC, this is a very real problem just waiting to happen.

Problem: Risk of losing hand written notes.

Solution: Scan your notes and save them to your computer. 

The act of scanning all your lecture notes can be time consuming, but scanners with automatic document feeders (Epson WorkForce 610 for example) can simplify this task, adding only a few extra minutes to your processing workflow.  Although the price of such hardware may be out of most student’s price range, the peace of mind is well worth the cost. In addition to backing up your lecture notes, keeping digital copies allows you to leave your clumsy binder at home and travel with your notebook or access your notes on the go via Dropbox for iPhone. If you want to go all out, you can even use a Wacom tablet (Bamboo anyone?) to add additional notes to your digital note copies. 

The possibilities are endless, but at the end of the day you’ve protected yourself against the worst and that’s what’s most important. 

Questions or comments? Post them in the comments section below or fire me an email at luke@hackcollege.com

An Interview with the Guys Behind Onward State

Occasionally on HackCollege we interview students doing awesome things, like Jason Sheedy the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon intern or Milkman, one of the best mash-up DJs out there. Last week I got Davis Shaver and Evan Kalikow from Onward State on Skype for a little interview. Onward State is an alternative media outlet for Penn State. They put up posts regularly and compete with the Collegian, the student newspaper at Penn State. I asked them about coming up with a name, rivalries, the future of the student newspapers and journalistic integrity on a blog.

Click to read more ...

Save Your Loved Jeans with Denim Therapy

This was formerly an area of catastrophic crotchal destruction. Never forget.

Jeans are a big deal on the West Coast. Like really, you guys. Like you can totally wear nice jeans instead of slacks. Thanks to Miss Fergalicous, Seven Jeans, True Religions have cemented themselves firmly on those hangars in your closet. You hang up your jeans, don't you? But like any piece of clothing, jeans get worn. Eventually, they get worn to the point of no return. My jeans always wear out in the crotchal area because of my long... bike rides around campus. Alas, these expensive jeans usually go to the jean graveyard. That is, until now.

I got an email the other day (we get lots) from Denim Therapy. Conveniently, there was a pair of jeans that I had just worn through. Denim Therapy? More like Denim Serendipity. Denim Therapy will repair your jeans for you, and just about handle anything you throw at them.

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CES: eReader Roundup

For our second episode that we shot on the NBC Universal stage at CES 2010, we decided to do a roundup of all of the eReaders that were coming out this year. CES really was the year of the eReader with dozens being announced or released. And they really ran the gamut of features. Do you want an e-ink screen with an accompanying Android-powered screen? How big do you want the Android screen to be? Do you want a stylus touch screen? Do you want a finger touch screen. So many options it's almost overwhelming!

Here are the units we reviewed:

• Amazon Kindle
• Onyx Boox 60
• enTourage eDGe
• COOL-ER
• Plastic Logic QUE
• alex reader
• Sony Reader Touch Edition

We made our choices at the end of the episode. Which one would you choose?

CES: Victorinox Presentation Master

Just as Chris got all giddy about the Sony PartyShot, I've gotta say that the Victorinox Presentation Master takes the cake for me. I always remember seeing the Victorinox logo on the back of my dad's Swiss Army knife growing up. It's exciting to see that the company is keeping their products relevant.

I met with Renee Hourigan and she acted as Vanna White for the knife. Check it out!

Full Disclosure: Both Mike and I received Presentation Master knives and I also received a Cybertool Lite.

TextbookRenter Finds You the Best Textbook Deals Whether You Rent or Buy

All we want is the best deal on textbooks. Though you can probably get your textbooks for free, sometimes, you'll find yourself cornered into trading perfectly good beer money for a textbook that subsidizes a dirty publishing company CEO's yacht. I'M BITTER! OKAY? LAY OFF! 

If you must make that sickening purchase, you've got to get the best deal. There are countless textbook comparison sites around, but few account for a new trend -- textbook renting. Renting a textbook can save you a lot of cash, but sometimes, it doesn't compare to the savings in just buying a used one. So, TextbookRenter aggregates both prices -- used and rental.  

The site is simple and clean, using one of those great all-in-one ISBN, author and title search fields. And the layout of the final results clearly breaks down your options, including shipping. It doesn't provide as many buying options as its parent site, CampusBooks (you only get a "summary price comparison"), nor does it go into details about the condition the book is in. But, after you've exhausted your free options this semester, it's worth checking to get an overview of renting versus buying. 

CES: Aluratek PMP

I caught up with Dave Song, the director of sales and marketing from Aluratek, to talk about one of their newest 720p PMP devices. This thing is sweet.