Will the Nook Color Catch On?

If you can look past the inexplicable notch on the bottom, this may be just what you're looking for in a tablet.I haven't been too kind to Nook in the past, but I'll admit that I'm intrigued by Barnes & Noble's new offering.  B&N decided to abandon the e-ink technology that defines the e-readers with their new Nook Color, and has come from out of the blue to compete in the tablet market.

Compared to the iPad, it's underpowered, the screen is smaller, and it doesn't have near the breadth and depth of apps.  It is also cursed with an incredibly ugly notch on the corner that makes it look like a giant keychain, That said, it can surf the web and read PDF's and Office files, and this is really all a tablet needs to do to be useful in an education setting.  

So far as I can tell, it doesn't support the NookStudy program.  But then again neither does the black and white Nook. It doesn't make any sense, but they hardly have any textbooks in their store anyway, so whatever.

I read plenty of PDF's on my iPad for class, and it's a useful device for learning. But the truth is I probably wouldn't carry it with me anywhere if it wasn't also fun to use.  With my iPad, I can choose from a ton of apps to browse Google Reader, I can play games, I can watch movies.  The Nook color will have some games, sure, but not nearly as many as the iOS app store.  You can use the Nook to play videos on the built-in storage, but I don't see Hulu+ or Netflix apps coming to this thing for quite some time.  If you're going to be buying the Nook Color as a student, you should think long and hard about whether you're going use it enough to justify the purchase.

Obviously the Nook Color isn't going to do everything you might want it to.  However, you can't deny that it's priced to sell.  At $249, only half the price of the cheapest iPad, the Nook Color should prove to be a tempting device for college students.  It won't be the all-around media hub and entertainment machine you'd get with Apple's offering, but if you're committed to incorporating a tablet into your studies without dropping too much cash, this may be just what you're looking for.  

Dr. Janitor-- Paradox or Reality?

According to scary statistics, this could be your post-graduate office. Photo courtesy of booleansplit. Licensed under CC BY- 2.0.

Gizmodo posted an interesting article earlier this week that says that at least 5,000 janitors working in America have PhDs. Whoa.

The article goes on to essentially say that the amount of effort and money that students put into their college careers do not yield the same returns once they have graduated-- not even close. This seems to be evidenced in the charted information the chart of jobs and education from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which I've displayed below.

Statistics like these are enough to make any college student nervous and question how their hard-earned higher education is going to help them when they're booted out into the real world. While there could be several possible explanations to account for some of these high numbers (recent graduates working lower-skilled jobs until they find a job in their field, PhDs and other degrees that are lacking quality, etc), it's worth discussing among college students to see if there is a way to avoid being a statistic.

What this information says to me is it is becoming increasingly important for students to be more than students. An education only gets you so far. You won't be taking midterms and writing analytical essays for the rest of your life. It's important to network so that you form connections with important people who can help you after college to get started in your career. Go to alumni connections or get-togethers  that your university offers. You're bound to find someone in your field of interest who has graduated from your university. Alumni can be extremely useful network builders. Use them to start your career connections early in your college career so you're not stranded when you leave the college bubble.

It's also important to apply to internships both during the summer and during the school year. The point here is to not simply load up your resume with internship after internship, but to get experience to flesh out your student complexion. The knowledge you get from sitting in a classroom and doing research will only get you so far. At HackCollege, we know exactly how important internships can be. They're invaluable not only in the experience that they can give you, both in your field of interest and simply working in a professional atmosphere, but in the additional connections they can give you. Your summer internship may not lead to a career after college, but the contacts you've made there may prove to be extremely helpful.

While there's nothing that you can do to ensure that you'll have a fool-proof, career-guaranteed post-graduate experience, there are certain things you can do to help. As unfortunate as the Dr. Janitor paradox is, it makes us aware of some flaws in the higher education system. Even though we can't solve those problems overnight, expanding your experience as a student can help at least put you ahead of the pack.

What do you think about these statistics about higher education and low-skill employment? What are some issues you think there are with higher education? Let us know in the comments!

[via Gizmodo and The Chronicle of Higher Education]

Guest Post: The Dangers of Four Loko

Today's gust post is from our friends at College Candy. These drinks came out after Lesinski told us the cheapest ways to get drunk, ounce per ounce, and I'd like to see how it holds up.

Here’s a quick little midterm for you: you have $10 in your pocket, but you need to unwind at the end of midterm week.

Do you:

A.) Blow all your cash on one drink at the swankiest club in town.
B.) Scour campus for a party and drink for free
C.) Stock up on cheap, flavored, and surprisingly strong cans of malt liquor.

I’m pretty sure everyone chose the last choice, and even though our little midterm isn’t graded, that answer is decidedly wrong. Four Loko is a popular new canned alcoholic beverage. Essentially an alcohol-fueled energy drink. Each can contains the equivalent of three beers, caffeine, and artificial flavoring, all for under $3. But the benefits of this cheapie drink are eclipsed by the serious threat it poses to students who intend to party hard.

Recently 23 Ramapo College students were hospitalized due to intoxication in just a few weeks – many of these incidents involved Four Loko. Currently, the president of the North Jersey school is banning this and similar beverages, and urging the leaders of other schools to do the same. We’ve all heard the warnings about cocktails like Red Bull and vodkas – the alcohol brings you down while the caffeine heightens your senses, confusing the body and making it difficult to determine just how intoxicated you are.

Four Loko is even more dangerous, as it’s fruity flavors make it easy to drink multiple cans quickly. In fact, the dangers of Four Loko are so severe that the drink is being dubbed “liquid cocaine.” The combined affects of alcohol and caffeine are even more frightening when you consider that both are diuretics, which can cause dehydration.

The possible consequences of drinks like these are undeniable: students can face hospitalization, injury, or overdose as a result of the seemingly harmless alcoholic energy drinks. Whether or not your campus chooses to ban these, we urge you to be as cautious as possible when it comes to drinking Four Loko. Or, play it safe and go for a $3 40 instead. It’s way more fun to drink out of a bag anyway….

StudyBlue Creates On-the-Go Flashcards

StudyBlue has the hippest layout since Tumblr and an excellent flashcard feature, to boot.If you're looking for a browser-based note-taking and flashcard tool, StudyBlue may be your new favorite site. Because the service is targeted specifically at students, it's organized in ways that closely mirror the binders of notes that it hopes to replace: data is organized by classes, and the two content options (note and flashcards) closely mimic their analog counterparts. However, unlike paper-based notes, these are accessible from any browser and can include rich text, sound, and images.

The easy-to-use interface and text formatting tools are strong points for the service. Sign-up takes thirty seconds, and only requires visiting the site's front page and clicking an email confirmation link. The formatting tools work just like they would in a desktop text editor, but they focus on what's useful for note-taking: lists, indentations, colors, and super- and subscript. I know that the science, tech, math, and engineering students I know have trouble taking computer notes because equations are difficult to type out. The dedicated super- and subscript buttons could make typing out STEM equations worlds easier. StudyBlue has nailed a feature that is rarely implemented as well or as cleanly as it is with the service. There is also a non-English character button, but cycling through it to get to the right Greek letter is probably less efficient than just learning the keyboard shortcuts for the letters.

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Amaze Your Friends With the Chrome Dev Channel

Chrome's experimental Tab Overview system lets your tabs emulate Mac windows in Expose, and this is a very good thing.

If you're reading this, you've probably at least tried using Google Chrome, and in all likelihood you probably liked it.  If you want a sneak peak at a few mind-blowing new Chrome features before those suckers using stable releases get the chance, then you've come to the right place.  

Step 1: Subscribe to the Dev Channel

One of the neat things about Chrome is that it updates itself in the background, so that you always have the latest version.  By subscribing to the dev channel, you're essentially skipping a few versions ahead, where Google is testing out a few features that may or may not ultimately make the cut for a stable release.  Be sure to read through the warnings on the channel page before you subscribe; I haven't personally had any issues, but just understand that your Chrome experience may be a little buggier than you're used to.  

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Improve Your Room with Simple Organizational Tips

I cannot comprehend how someone could work in this clutter. It would eat me. Photo courtesy of sindesign. Licensed under CC BY-2.0.

I'm not sure if y'all can tell by now, but I dislike living in dorm rooms. It's kind of been a recent theme of my posts recently. In the past few weeks, I've given tips about how to make living in dorms bearable, such as the best ways to clean your room, ways to get to sleep in a noisy environment, and wrangling those pesky cords.

So, today I'm going to talk to you about some organization techniques that you can use to help make your room a little more livable. Dorm rooms are small. Some are itty bitty. In such a small space, when a room gets even a little bit messy and disorganized, it seems to take over the entire room. For me, keeping my room organized helps me not only feel more at home in a dorm but helps me work better too.

White Boards and Bulletin Boards

If you don't have one of these babies, you should go out to Target or some local megastore and get one. They are fabulous and I will tell you why. First of all they take up wall space and make your walls look less blank. My dorm walls have always been this kind of horrid prison grey and so I've always been eager to fill the space up. White boards and bulletin boards do just the trick. Obviously, they can do more than just take up space since you can tack on little decorative things as well.

As far as organization goes though, they're a great place to keep important sheets of paper. Unlike keeping things on your desk where things may or may not fall off/behind/under/into Narnia, magnets and thumbtacks keep your papers in place. Keep your boards in a place you often look at like next to your desk or the wall in front of your bed, and you'll have to look at them every day which will be a good reminder that you need to take care of whatever paper you've tacked to your boards. Additionally, I use my white board to organize not only my papers but my day-to-day activities. Every week, I make a long list of things I need to do by the end of the week. Seeing it every day reminds me what I need to do and so I keep myself organized and on track.

If you ever have trouble hanging up bulletin boards or white boards you should simply refer to my next point.

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Intro to Cooking: Sesame Broccoli Salad

Image courtesy of Eating Out Loud. This guest post is courtesy of our good friends at College Candy. 

It may have been the vegetable non grata at your childhood dinner table, but now that you’re a super-chic college chick there’s no reason to balk at broccoli. Of all the greens with which to fill your plate, broccoli has a unique varied texture that soaks up yummy sauces, and is robust and filling, too. Now is the peak season for the veggie, so it’s a great time to stock up on its calcium and folate.

 Snack Ideas:

• Awesome as a crispy, fresh vehicle for hummus spread or paired with Laughing Cow cheese.
• Steam in boiling water and serve drizzled with Thai peanut sauce (available in the ethnic foods section of your grocery store)
• Chop and scramble with eggs and ham for an omelet twist.

The Recipe: Sesame Broccoli Salad

By now, you’re probably tired of the caf salad bar and its endless iceberg lettuce. Whip up this salad at home and it will serve you for a week. Sometimes I add chunks of steamed chicken for a protein boost and to make it a complete meal. Crunchy, sweet, and savory!

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Microsoft Open House: The Review

The new Windows Phone 7 was the big deal of the day. It was, to its credit, very pretty.As you saw last week, I was able to interview Steve Ballmer as part of the Microsoft Open House. But that was really a small portion of the overall event. Most of the day was spent on the launch and demonstration of the new, the shiny, Windows Phone 7. Microsoft will be releasing three of the phones on AT&T for $199.99 in the coming months, and there will eventually be 9 phones released--the next carrier set to get them is Verizon, which will see them next year.

Before we start anything: the new Windows 7 phones don’t have a copy and paste feature. They will get it starting next year.

Moving on: Microsoft completely overhauled the Windows Phone interface for Phone 7, and it shows. The focus of the new phones is on the devices as extensions of people. As a result, it’s possible to add individual contacts to your desktop as apps. Their app will update with their latest Facebook or Windows Live updates, so you don’t have to enter into the app itself to see what your friends are up to. Unfortunately, the contacts apps aren’t integrated into Twitter--and the Microsoft representatives were a little cagey as to when (of if) that would happen. There is a dedicated Twitter app; however, it’s not dynamic at the main screen level.

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