11:20 am on February 13th, 2007 by Rosario Doriott
You missed a lecture, and you need the notes. Or you hate synchronizing the notes from your laptop to your desktop all the time. Or you and your friend share notes, and you’re tired of opening email attachments all the time. Or you’ve experienced a virus before finals already once and want to ensure your notes are forever safe. What are your options? Well, let’s take notes online from now on. Let’s share them with others, too.
There are a couple of options I’ve already heard of:
Stu.dicio.us lets you take, share, and download your notes. It also allows you to connect with your Facebook friends. You can even keep track of your grades. Also, I love its layout.
NoteMesh asks its users to collaborate to graduate. Its wiki-style system is a great idea. Instead of searching through everyone’s notes, NoteMesh asks its users to collaborate and produce/edit one set of notes for a class.
mynoteIT has so many more features than all the others. Not only can you upload .doc and .html notes, but you can also scan in images and even audio files from lectures. Wow.
NoteCentric is a new one. What I like best about it are the RSS feeds and the discussion boards for each course. This chatroom idea, I haven’t seen elsewhere.
UniversityNotes takes it one step further and asks its users to share tests as well. Right now, it’s only open to select schools, so you’ll have to check and see if your university or college is available first.
All in all, each service has its good qualities.
If you’re looking for a spot to store your notes and have some on your computer, some in a notebook, some on a recorder, I clearly recommend mynoteIT, as it has the most options. However, the big deal is that you need to find the one that most of your college is on, so that you can really take advantage of the actual intent of social note taking. For that, Stu.dicio.us is probably the best one, as it links well with Facebook.
But, please let us know in the comments if you use any of these services and which university/college you attend. Any Yalies out there?
Being the astute nerd that I am, I keep my music on a Mac Mini I’ve had for awhile on the other side of the room. The little guy keeps my music library organized and downloads the latest episodes of the one TV show I watch, The Office.
It’s surprising this hasn’t happened yet, but my music listening desire was left unfulfilled thanks to the 5 person limit imposed by (basically) the RIAA. I guess people really like my taste in music, or they are using myTunes/ourTunes. My anger seethes.
There’s a quick work-around, though. Simply password your library and then include that password in the library’s title. Case closed. I can’t wait for the day when the RIAA dissolves.
So I listen to music while walking/biking to class. I listen to music while I do homework. I listen to audio tapes when they’re available for certain books. And I always wake up to music. listentoamovie.com takes it all one step further. Now you can listen to your favorite movies and television episodes, too.
Furthermore, if you’re wearing a hooded sweatshirt and can link your earbuds through to your laptop covertly, you just may be able to do this in class, too. But that’s not recommended. I’m just putting that out there. If you like it, you can take it. If you don’t, send it right back.
It’s one thing to drink yourself to death during the summer. It’s more worthwhile to set aside some of that money that would be spent on booze and attend a music festival near you. Tickets for these festivals are going on sale soon, if they aren’t already.
My first large-scale festival was Sasquatch! during Memorial Day Weekend last year. Talk about a solid three days and an earth-shattering line-up. Some of the highlights were (in no particular order):
So we’ve covered a few of the many terms used in web 2.0. We’re also continually working our way through the huge web 2.0 directory to find those websites best suitable for college students. While I was surfing yesterday, I found a great video from Michael Wesch that depicts how the Internet has indeed changed. I thought I’d share it with you all today. Wow, I can hardly wait for Web 3.0.
the simple dollar has put out a great list on how to make this Super Bowl a bit less expensive. To start, don’t go to the bar to celebrate. Host your own party or go to one. Then:
Buy refreshments in bulk.
If you are stuck buying refreshments, this is a great day to check out your local warehouse club. These are almost always great places to get snacks in bulk, especially Sam’s Club. Plus, you may find other items that you can buy in bulk there that will save you some money.
Paint your face.
This is a great and cheap way to liven up a party. Paint your face in the colors of your preferred team. Two small containers of tempera paint from the art supply store will provide more than enough to paint your own face and that of your family. Of course, if you’re painting your face in dark blue and orange, be aware that tears make the paint streak.
Don’t waste money on decorations.
Most people could care less about decorations. If you happen to already be a superfan of one team or another, use the supplies you already have and wallpaper the party room in Peyton Manning jerseys. Otherwise, don’t invest anything in decorations; just clean the place well and have the televisions ready to go.
Bag up any leftover snacks and eat them as side dishes for the next day or two.
Don’t waste food unless there’s a reason for it. Save some of the leftover snack food and eat it in the coming days. Anything that should be refrigerated should be eaten quickly, but dry snacks can be used over time.
When my brother told me today that he’s going to be taking Intensive German this semester, I decided to search through myfavoriteblogs to find out how Web 2.0 could help him. Quizlet is the answer. It is an amazing memorization tool –perfect for Student 2.0.
Quizlet is a tool for learning vocabulary
Here’s how it works:
1. You enter a vocabulary list of any words or data you want. (ex. SAT words, history dates, French-Spanish translations, etc.)
2. Quizlet gives you a specialized learning mode, flashcards, randomly-generated tests, and collaboration tools for classmates to help you study those words.
3. You ace your test.
I’m too excited about it, myself, to continue writing this entry, so I’m going to leave it short. Enjoy!
I’m not going to describe Windows Vista; I’m not going to list its positives and negatives; I’m also not writing here to tell you whether or not you should upgrade. Rather, I’m just going to let you all in on something I bet a few of you have forgotten –Microsoft software can be free for college students. And, yes, this is true.
It’s something called the MSDNAA. Granted, its acronym sounds like a drug to me –a scary one at that.
MSDN Academic Alliance is a Microsoft program which provides some Microsoft developer tools for free to students and faculty in computer science, computer engineering, information technology, and related fields. The participating schools pay an annual fee to avail this alliance.
So, the first task is to find out if your school is part of the program. Just do a quick Google search for "[School name]“, MSDNAA. For me, I just put in yale, MSDNAA and quickly landed on Yale’s MSDNAA site. Do some clicking, and you’ll probably be able to land on your school’s MSDNAA page pretty easily, too. There, keys and downloads are free. It might take a day or two to sign up at your school, but it’s definitely worth it.
Even if you’re not interested in Windows Vista, there’s probably some other great Microsoft products there that will definitely improve your productivity.
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