Social Media Round Up

Mashable talks about Foursquare

Mashable touts Foursquare and other location based services to go mainstream this year. This popular location based social networking service, has a iPhone application that has caught fire as of late. 

Facebook posts about photos this week

The last two posts on the Facebook blog have dealt with photos. First, a new feature allows users to upload photos via email. Secondly, there were some rumors that Facebook was letting third party advertisers post your photos without your permission. They then wrote a lengthy post about how this is not true and explained how they only way they do use your photos is to let your friends know what pages you have fanned.

College News Roundup for the Week of July 19, 2009

Harvard Prof Ignites a Race War

For some reason or another, this issue has percolated to the top of every newspaper's mind this week. Harvard profs know how to make a big stink out of localized incidents. It doesn't quite help that Barack threw in his two cents either. And now Barack's inviting everyone involved over for a beer. Guess it was a slow week.

Bill Gates: We Suck

During a talk at the "National Conference of State Legislatures' annual legislative summit," the nerd-turned-richest-man-turned-philanthropist once again advocated for better metrics among K-12 educational institutions.

The Chronicle of Higher Education Unveils a New Design

It's definitely a step up from the 1999 theme they had going on. Head over and check it out. 

What Community Colleges Mean for Students

Salt Lake City Community CollegeCommunity Colleges changing what it's like to be a student. These changes are simply reshaping the experience and could wind up helping students in the long run. The community college is an underrated asset to the college student.

When students spend there first two years at a community college they don't have the other disturbances (good or bad) that students who are living a school face. Students just go to school and that's it. Adopting this type of focus can help out a lot in the long run.  For one, your GPA will be higher. Also you'll have developed skills to handle college level material in a setting that has less temptations.  So, when the time comes for you to move on to a university where there are bars and parties you'll know when to let go.

Community Colleges are not only a vacuum for developing good study skills, they are also good for your wallet. Starting out at a community college will ease loans and help save for when you transfer out to get your bachelors degree. Having this extra money could lead to a better apartment, being able to pay for a better program or staying in a city with a higher cost of living. 

Getting an associates degree from a community college can get get your general education requirements out of the way and give you more time to figure out what your career is going to be. So, if you plan on being undeclared you might want to think about going to a community college, where you'll have two years to decide. And if you decide during your first year, there is nothing that says students can't transfer out after one year. 

Has community college been apart of your experience as a student? Comment below to share!

Image credit: Flicker User sic_jm

A Tale of Two Computers

This past week I had the opportunity to review both a netbook and a notebook and compare them and see which computer is better fit for the padding inside your backpack this fall. The netbook was a Dell Mini with a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processor running Windows XP. The notebook was a Dell Studio 15 with a Blu-Ray drive and a 2.26 GHz Intel Centrino processor running Windows Vista. 

The Review

Going in to this review, I had low expectations for the netbook's speed.  Those expectations were exceeded. The small computer was able to handle everything short of Google Earth, but that was due to resolution problems. When I watch a show on Hulu, I usually have to turn my MacBook's speakers all the way up to drown out the hum of the fan in the background. When watching shows on the Dell Mini, it ran cool and there was no other noise beside the inner monologue of Dr. John Dorrian. 

The Studio laptop on the other hand wasn't so speedy.  I don't blame that on the processor though.  Windows Vista was absolutely horrible. This came when I tried to look up directions online. The computer wasn't able to load the webpage and render the map. Google Maps suddenly became useless because of this bloated memory hog operating system. 

The one upside to this computer though, was the Blu-ray player. The picture was stunning.  For the case study I watched Iron Man, recommended from the guys over at HD Nation as one of the better movies to watch when the HD is there. For the most part, the movie was smooth. When there was a lot of colors on the screen or a camera was zooming out to get a wider view, it got a little choppy. I wasn't expecting perfection. Also the computer offers two headphone jacks to you can watch movie with someone on a plane or a ride home from school. 

The Comparison

Each type of computer has their advantages. The netbook is small but still offers a lot of the same functionality larger netbooks do for simpler computing tasks. The notebook allows more space for entertainment and advanced computing tasks.  The type that suits should reflect your major and the type of lifestyle you have. 

The Dell Mini I tested was had a monitor out port too, so if you did get tired of the sub-10 inch screen there was the possibility of getting a larger screen for it. It was good that Dell tried to fit everything they could in the small package they had to work with. The netbook had all the ports the notebook had, which was nice. With that being said, I don't think that it's necessary for students to have more that one machine at school. At least, they shouldn't have two portable machines.

Lastly, notebooks are for people who enjoy the internet and are on their computer a lot. The netbook is a good alternative for students who feel that computers are necessary evil when purchasing items for college. The value of the netbook is really high and with all of the free web applications out there, you won't have to spend another dime past the money spend to get the machine.

Do you have a notebook or a netbook? Which one do you think is better for students? Comment below to voice your opinion!

We Don't Have a Plunger - Party Fowl

Oh God. I know this is gross. But everyone clogs a toilet every once in a while.

Usually, the jet-engine nature of a college toilet is enough to bring your whole body down with it. Sometimes that fortune doesn't grace you when you're at a party in someone's dorm suite. And most college students don't have a plunger. This is an incredibly embarassing situation that you need to quash quickly. Luckily, I have two hacks for impromptu toilet de-cloggers.

Before we go on, keep in mind that the maintence department at your university probably takes care of all plumbing problems, including a simple clogged toilet. Check your college's policies, because some ask you not to even try plunging it yourself. And that's why most students don't have a plunger.

However, this disclaimer does not help you during a "social fail" like clogging the party's only toilet.

First: Stop The Water

Watching the water level rise in the toilet feels a lot like walking into a pop quiz, only, if you fail the quiz, you get poop all over you. Let's end the overflow before we try to unclog.

If this is a deeper sewage problem, nothing can help you. But if it's just the bowl refilling itself, pull off the tank lid and lift up the float ball. Now, hold it there or try to cut off the water supply at the main shutoff. Take a deep breath.

Onward:

Wire Hanger

Some plumbers even recommend using this method in addition to a plunger before you give them a ring. All you need is a wire hanger which you can discreetly find in just about any dwelling. You're basically going to make your own "auger" AKA "drain snake," out of a wire hanger.

1. Unbend the wire, leaving a hook at the end and shove it down the hole.
2. The cross section of that toilet pipe is like an "S" rotated 90 degrees. You need to keep working that wire down the hole until it bends along that shape -- so there will be a little resistance.
3. When you reach something really resistant -- that's the clog. You can try two things: 1) Pushing the hook through the clog completely, then pulling the clog back out, or 2) Picking away at the clog until you get lucky and one of your pokes dislodges it.

Plastic Bottle

Try the hanger first because this could get messy.

Again, we're using a simple household (partyhold) item: an empty plastic liter-sized bottle -- one that you absolutely never plan on using ever again.

1. Stick the opening into the toilet bowl, trying not to let too much water inside. Get as tight of a seal between the "shoulders" of the bottle and the exit. Push it in there hard.
2. Squeeze the bottle. Ideally, the air pressure is going to push on the clog like a plunger pushing down would -- but what will probably happen is that the air will escape around the bottle's shoulders. That's okay.
3. Still keeping the seal as tight as possible, try to coerce the bottle into sucking up the water between the bottle and the clog. This action is like pulling-out of a plunger.
4. Keep repeating until the problem is resolved. There's no need to push with air again like in steps 1 and 2. Just keep the bottle submerged, squeezing and refilling.

I know this whole thing is disgusting. But you'll heed my advice if it happens to you.

[image via yapsnaps]

Social Media Round Up

Facebook takes a bite out of cybercrime

The new five step process helps users who are victims of spam hackery fix their problem within the Facebook domain. Before this brilliant feature was unveiled, Facebook emailed you about suspicious activity on your accout.

Hulu does an interview with Dave Matthews

There's a great interview with Dave Matthews in the Hulu blog. He talks about his new album among other things. At the end of the post there's a clip of Jimmy Fallon trying to sell a Dave Matthews GPS. If you haven't seen it, it's pretty funny.

Vimeo wants you to make a mockumentary

If you didn't have anything to do last weekend Vimeo is challenged you to make a mockumentary. Since last weekend is over and you're still bored, make one anyway. If you are so inclined, share your triumph with the world!

Did you find anything else interesting or helpful in the social media sphere? Comment below to share!

Image Credit: Sports Hernia Blog

Dissecting the President's Student Loan Plan

This week on What this means for students, we are going to take a look a President Obama's new student loan plan. College students and alumni have been at the mercy of the private lender for decades now. What the President's plan does is instead of contracting the loans out to private lenders, the government would loan the students the money themselves. 

Contrary to logic, this plan will save the government money over time (approximately $87 billion over 10 years). The loan industry is fighting this plan because it will take money away from them. One of plans the industry gave in response to the government's used accounting tricks to take money ($15 billion) away from low income students who receive Pell Grants. 

Predatory lending has not been limited to the housing market. School and private lenders have preyed on students. Just check out this article that was in the LA Times. The Obama administration added money for financial literacy and the loan industry compromised and put the same amount of money into advocacy of students. It's good to see that no matter which bill gets passed the students are going to be looked out for.

Do you think the President's plan will help students? Comment below to show your support or dissent!

This Week in Facebook

Events Come to the Publisher (via The Facebook Blog)

On Wednesday, Facebook announced through its blog that the Events application is going to be integrated into the Publisher. Adding the Events application to the publisher is supposed to cater to more spontaneous events. Facebook says this will give more structure to events that would previously have been planned via status update. If you don't want Karen or Brian coming you have to go into the application and make it secret.

Top British Spy Exposed On Facebook (via Mashable)

If anyone needs to take a look at their privacy settings it's Shelley Sawyer. The wife of John Sawyer put the location of their home, their kids names and the location of their parents. Mr. Sawyer is the incoming head of MI6 (yes that MI6). Mashable says this mishap is a result of Facebook's transition to being public.

Internet users heavily into cloud computing, most unknowingly (via Los Angeles Times)

This article is about Facebook directly. The article is a Q&A with the founder of Sun Microsystems, Andreas Bechtolsheim. It's about cloud computing, the technology that save your photos and hosts your applications. Besides cloud computing, Andreas talks about making a good investment. Send a good idea to him and you might get $100,000 like Sergey Brin and Larry Page (the investment that started Google).