5 Useful Gmail Labs Features

Image: Google Operating SystemGmail is the email client of choice for a lot of students, and for some universities as well. Besides having the most advanced web-based email service around (for free), Googlers have added a lot of useful experimental features for users to try out.

Multiple Inboxes

This feature is great for students who are involved on campus. It creates a separate part of the inbox, just to show messages that have a certain filter. The message filters are easy to create too. Where the drop down reply menu is, there should be a "Filter Messages Like These" button. Put a label on it, like Outdoor Club, and click save. Go to the Multiple inboxes tab and create a pane for the search query, like "label:Outdoor Club" separating those messages from the rest. This will help clear your head when it comes time to focus on one club or class.

Chat to the right

Widescreen laptops and computer monitors have become commonplace among college students. With all this extra horizontal screen realestate, it would make sense for bring their chat up to the right side. It creates a separate region for the screen where your large-ass buddy list can take its rightful place at the top of your page.

Inbox preview

At some universities, mine in particular, the internet can be painstakingly slow at times.  When Gmail is getting it's sexy Ajaxed-up self all ready for your eyes, it could take a little while. So if you really need to know if your professor emailed you back, or if another group member emailed you their part of a presentation, you'll know even before the main page opens. So, if your desired messages aren't their then you'll be able to stop the loading before anymore of your time is wasted.

Mail Goggles

This is an interesting feature. When opening Gmail the client asks you some math problems to see if you're in the right state of mind to be sending mail. I feel like this Labs feature was made for college students. Hopefully it will prevent you from send an email to your prof telling him/her how you feally reel about that class, but maybe you're good at math.

Forgotten Attachment detector

Group work is much harder in college than it was in high school mostly because there is more of a barrier when it comes to working outside of class. Most of the work is usually done through sending email attachments of work to be proofed and coalesced by other group memebers. Well, what if you forget to send the attachment. Not only does it make you look like a crazy person, but it could be detrimental to your group. So thanks to Gmail and their expert message reading technology, they'll know when you have forgotten to add something.

Do you have a favorite Gmail Labs Feature? What is it? Comment below to share!

Making a Better Latte with a Walmart Espresso Machine

Image from flickr user MiikaS

My sophomore year, I woke up Christmas morning to an espresso machine. Hooray! I thought, my life would be filled with delicious lattes every morning with leaf patterns or heart patterns or whatever pattern I wanted to make with the milk. I plugged immediately plugged it in and made my first terrible latte. 

Over its short lifetime (2 years) I gradually got better at playing with its idiosyncrasies to craft an excellent latte every morning. It's existence was so fleeting as a product that I can't even link to it. (It's gone from society's memory.) As with any crappy espresso machine, there are a few ways to make the latte taste better on top of using the usual methods of making great coffee.

Fine-Tune the Grind

This old espresso machine of mine was made almost entirely out of plastic. (The boiler of course, was not.) Regardless of the materials, this thing could not produce the pressure required to force steam through finely ground espresso beans without self-destructing.

When dealing with sub-par machines, don't grind the beans so fine. Grinds about the size of your regular drip method will do just fine. Otherwise, you might be dealing with plastic and iron shrapnel.

Froth then 'Spresso

Espresso begins to sour very quickly. Starbucks employees are trained to obey a "4 second rule." Espresso is not allowed to sit out for more than 4 seconds before it's poured into milk. Most coffee books will tell you that you can go for 30-60 seconds and still be okay.

To get around this, always froth your milk before you brew the espresso. Once the espresso's done, pour it quickly into your cup filled with perfectly frothed milk.

Use Fatty Milk

That dinky steamer nozzle is going to have enough trouble frothing milk properly. Go with a milk whose makeup makes it easier for those small bubbles to keep their structure. That means going with whole milk. If your roommates refuse to drink liquid fat, compromise and go with 2%. Stay away from skim or 1% though or you'll wind up with consistently watery lattes.

Keep It (Very) Clean

Anyone serious about coffee keeps their pipes clean. You should too, and probably more regularly. Hopefully that sour taste is just some mineral buildup and not lead leaching out of the plastic!

Dog Gets Online Degree, Shames Us All

This video is funny, because it has talking dogs. This video is also serious, because it has talking dogs. The dog in this video actually had a degree purchased from a degree mill. For five hundred dollars, the owner got a piece of paper. GetEducated is a site that evaluates online programs. If you plan on getting your masters or even some of your undergraduate credits from an online college, make sure you check this site out.

Video via YouTube and GetEducated

Brewing Methods for Cheaper, Better, Faster Coffee

Why does Starbucks coffee taste different when we make it ourselves than it does in the store? It’s still the same over-roasted stale beans, but some how it tastes even worse at home. It’s because Starbucks coffee shops have some of the most kickass brewing equipment around.  (There are other factors we've already covered, too.) But you can still get close yourself without spending thousands.

The easiest step you can take towards becoming a coffee snob is to throw out that automatic drip machine you bought for $5 at a garage sale. You can save the glass carafe and use it for cereal when you run out of bowls.

There are other brewing options that are cheaper, better and faster.

Why the auto-drip blows

Brewing coffee is all about how your hot water reaches the ground coffee. Consumer-grade drip machines ignore that delicate balance in exchange for automatic-ness (as in: “Automatically breaks every 12 months.”)

Your auto-drip machine boils water until it rises up a tube and then falls on to the grounds. First of all, that hot water is hitting the coffee at a random rate. The contact time between the water and the grounds is predicated on how long it takes your machine to boil water and push it up that pipe – it’s easy to get over- or under-saturated coffee (like leaving your tea out to steep for too long or too short). Secondly, the way that the water is sprinkled on to the grounds is haphazard. There’s not a little gnome in there stirring up the grinds with the coffee – a lot of your coffee isn’t getting thoroughly soaked.

Welcome to a land of better brewing… I’ll give you two options, depending on if you like intense, oily coffee or a light, balanced cup.

Manual drip

Manual drip has quickly become my favorite way to make coffee every day – it’s really fast, the coffee is balanced and solid, and the actual tools cost less than $5. The speed comes from the fact that you brew cups one-at-a-time – no need to wait for a whole pot to brew before taking that first sip. Also, since you’re pouring a ton of water through the unit, it’ll spill through much faster than the painful drip, drip, drip of your “Mr. CoffeeMate” (or whatever they’re called).

All you need is a manual drip cone sometimes known as a “Melitta” (even though many brands exist). You can find these things anywhere – even in the coffee aisle at the grocery store. A plastic one is fine but if I had the money, I’d upgrade to porcelain. You also need coffee filters which match it. Since we’re using paper filters, even if you have a crappy coffee grinder, it’ll keep powder and oils out of your cup.

This is a lot like your automatic machine only you’re doing the “automatic” part yourself – hence, “manual drip.” Use your stove (or your bought-from-Target-Ramen-water-boiler-unit) to boil some water. Put the ground beans into the filter, the filter into the cone, and the cone on to a cup (or a carafe). When the water’s boiled, let it relax off the heat for a few moments, then pour it right over the grounds, right up to the top of the filter. With a spoon in your other hand, stir the water and coffee together like you’ve just added the vodka to your jungle juice. Let it empty entirely into the cup then do the same thing again and again until you have enough coffee to stay awake during a 3-hour European film studies class. 

The French press

I keep a French press on hand so that I can French im-press (!) girls in the morning. It’s a pretty sophisticated unit that’ll run you about as much as a new auto-drip machine (about $15-20). If you’re going to be serious about using a French press, you should invest in a really nice burr grinder (Christmas wishlist) which goes for about $100. But you’ll be fine without one.

This is another method where the water gets to chill happily with the grinds. Since the filter is metal, it’ll let more oils into your cup which is good for clogging your veins and making the martini of coffee – it’s not for the faint-of-heart.

First, just like with the manu-drip, boil your own water. Combine the right water-coffee-ratio, give it a stir and then cover the pot with the plunger. Set a timer for 2-4 minutes, depending on how much hair you want to grow on your chest. That 2-4 minutes is shorter than the 10 minutes that your old drip CoffeeMeister (still not sure what to call it) used to take.

Cheaper, Better, Faster

Get it? You could spend as much as $50 on an automatic drip machine, the damn thing takes 15 minutes if you’re lucky and it makes coffee that tastes like fire.

The good, fast, cheap triangle is an engineering principle – usually you can only pick two of those items. In coffee brewing, the French press and the manual drip device let you put all three into every cup.

[images via stephencarlile and jakeliefer]

Featured Desk Space: Cost-Efficient Customization

HackCollege approves of Ben's choice in Web sites.

Today's featured desk space comes from Ben Torell, a junior computer science major at Wheaton College in Illinois. He just finished putting together his workspace and sent it in to show off on HackCollege.

Being a computer science student, Ben said his second monitor is "unbelievably useful." He went ahead and picked up an HP 2009m monitor from Amazon along with a Logitech diNovo keyboard. He has his code editor on one screen and some docs on the other. From my own experience, this is definitely the best way to work. Much to his display though, his new toys didn't quite fit on the cramped college desk. 

So what did he do? He hacked his desk. He took off the annoying bookshelf-on-top-of-your-desk and place that on top of his dresser. He's freed up some desk space and given himself a defined workspace. As you can see, he's separated from the rest of the room. Cut down on distractions to increase productivity. I've been doing this for years and it's awesome.

Ben's resituated things to give him a more defined work area.

Ben also points out he found the cheapest laptop stand out there: a three ring binder. Awesome. That's much cheaper than the Griffin Elevator I picked up. (Must. fight. buyer's. remorse.)

While he didn't mention it in his email, I couldn't help but notice the lamp pointed against the wall. This little technique is a good way to reduce eye strain during long computing sessions. If you're bleary-eyed after long work sessions, try pointing an incandescent lamp on the wall behind your screen(s).

If you'd like your desk to be featured on HackCollege, shoot an email over to room@hackcollege.com with a description and pictures of your desk. Don't forget to tell us a little bit about yourself! 

Stay Out of the Student Poorhouse with Mint

The whole "broke college student eating Ramen" thing is really more of a cliché than an actual truth. Well, unless you're me and you just genuinely enjoy the taste of Ramen in the morning. Don't judge me.

Regardless of your financial situation and your tastes for Ramen, college is often one of the first times we're in control of our own finances. We've got bills to pay, we've got to figure out if we can afford an XBox, and many of us even play a part in paying for our college career. There's a lot to manage and a lot to learn, and it's not always the easiest process.

That's where Mint, a fantastic Web-based way of managing your money, comes in. In essence, Mint is an application for managing all your various finances, figuring out where you spend your money, and finding out ways to spend your money smarter.

The first thing you'll love about Mint is that it makes a few important things simple.  Once you give it your login info for various bank and PayPal accounts, student loans, and credit card accounts, it brings all your accounts into one place. You can easily check balances, check recent transactions to make sure nothing fishy is going on, and see how much pocket change you've got - all in a few seconds.

If you dig a little deeper, Mint can break down all your expenses for you, to see where all your money's going (for me? Starbucks. Darn chai lattes). It automatically sorts your expenses into various categories, like "Groceries," or "Shopping," or even "Bar/Alcohol." That one's depressingly high, but I digress. Knowing where you're spending money is a huge help, and is a big first step to actually spending it on important things.

Where Mint can really be helpful is in budgeting your spending. You can set up a budget for every month, telling Mint how much you want to spend in various categories. Mint will automatically track your spending, and will alert you, even going so far as sending you a text message, if you go over your budget.  It frequently makes me feel guilty for spending more money than I want to, but I think that's probably a necessary first step.

The alerts Mint offers are equally useful, and have saved my ass more than a few times. You can have Mint send you an email or a text message if, say, your bank account drops below a particular amount, or if you've got a credit card bill due. Mine's set to let me know if there's a big purchase or withdrawal, so I know right away if someone has gotten hold of my account or credit card number.

Instead of having to check for all that information, and constantly make sure you're not missing something important, Mint does it for you, and just lets you know when something comes on the radar. There's also a mobile interface and an iPhone app, if you need to look something up when you're on the go.

Once you get set up with Mint, realize how much money you spend that no one needs to spend, ever, you'll probably experience what I did: something akin to "being a total failure at everything always." Don't worry, though, Mint's got you covered here too: they offer tons of ways for you to save money. Everything from credit cards with lower interest rates, to ways to find coupons or rewards at places you already shop is offered to you, all to make those numbers next to your bank accounts a little larger.

Mint's the perfect solution for students, or really anyone, looking to get in control of their money situation. You'll see how much money you've got, how you're earning and spending money, and how you can put some more money in your pocket. If you're feeling enterprising, you can even take a look at Mint's "Net Worth" graph, which shows you exactly how much you're worth (you know, like Bill Gates is worth $60 Billion).

My net worth? Right about $14.85. I'm gunning for ya, Warren Buffett.

Photo: croncast

13 Caffeine-Free Ways to Get More Energy

WAKE UP!It may be coffee week here at HackCollege (and don't get me wrong - I heart coffee. I'm drinking it as I write this post), but coffee can become more of a crutch than an aid for a college student.

When you wake up, many people's first inclination is to get a cup of coffee. But coffee leads to a spike in energy, usually followed by a crash that leaves you with one of two choices - either drink more coffee, or be tired all day. It's a vicious cycle.

But it doesn't have to be that way. There are tons of ways to get energy, without the crash, and usually with some extra health benefits on the side.

And no, I'm not talking about 5 Hour Energy.

Here are 13 ways to get a quick, long-lasting energy boost - caffeine-free.

Chocolate - There are all kinds of benefits of chocolate, not the least of which is it's delicious. It's a sugar rush, plus an endorphin high that'll leave you flying high.

Cold Water - Dehydration is one of the most common causes of fatigue. Drink water - lots of it - and you'll be feeling good much longer. You're supposed to drink 64 ounces per day, and more certainly can't hurt ya, either.

Berries - Any berry is good, but raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries are believed to be the best, chock-full of natural stimulants.

Orange Juice - Vitamin C is a great way to get more energy, and citrus tastes and smells have also been shown to be good for an energy boost as well. Lemons and limes are good too, but orange juice is the best and best-tasting option, if you ask me.

Anything Cold - Cold water, I've already mentioned. But really anything cold can work - soda, juice, or what have you. It's a shock to the system, a kick in the pants - whatever you want to call it, it'll get your heart racing and your eyes open.

Meat - The protein in meat gets metabolized slowly, which means it'll keep you going longer than something that's carb-rich, like bagels or bread. Eat a piece of chicken or fish, and you'll feel awake a lot longer. Eat a bagel or pasta, and you'll feel good for a while, and then crash like you would after a cup of coffee.

Nuts - Nuts are a great, high-protein option for an easy snack. They're usually pretty salt-heavy, and can be high in fat as well, but a handful of almonds or peanuts can be a great, low-hassle energy boost.

Green Tea - Everyone says that if you drink green tea for a week, you'll feel more awake, more alert, and not need coffee anymore.  I'm not a green tea drinker, but the number of stories that say "replace your daily coffee with green tea" is impressive.

Apples - Apples apparently contain boron, which is believed to be great for alertness, in addition to all kinds of other useful benefits. Apples are one of the best foods for you there is, and its energy-boosting features are just one reason to eat them. But that's the reason we're talking about right now.

Oatmeal - If you're going to eat food with lots of carbs, make sure it's the good kind - that's the kind you'll find in oatmeal. It's got tons of complex carbohydrates,  lots of fiber, and is the perfect thing to put something sweet on top of.

Bananas - The sugar in bananas, since it's natural, is a lot better for you than processed sugar, but still gives you a lot of the same energy benefits.

Yogurt - There's tons of magnesium in yogurt, which has been shown to provide you a long-lasting energy boost.

Eggs - Eggs, like some of the others on this list, are a total superfood. It's high in the energy-aiding kinds of protein, full of vitamins and minerals, and has all the things you need (like leucine) for recovering faster after exercise, so you're not going to get tired as quickly either.

Next time, instead of coffee, grab one of the above foods. I bet you'll save some money, and feel a whole lot better.

How do you get an energy boost when you need one?

Photo: Jeff The Trojan

HackCollege Turns 3 Today!

Wow. I can't believe it. 

As of today, HackCollege is officially three years old, making us one of the longest running student-powered blogs in existence. We've had our best year yet, too. And we've got plenty more in store over the next few years.

A big thank you to old and new readers for sticking with us for the past years. We would not be here if you guys didn't around through our less-than-perfect posts or our bizarre and sometimes nonexistent schedule.

We'll be continuing to hack as the year goes on and will constantly keep fresh voices in the mix. Oh, and did I mention we will be throwing more parties? (Philly and Boston, we've got our sights set on you.)

What's your favorite memory of HackCollege? Leave us a comment!