Mozilla is working on a new Firefox edition exclusively for college students. Basically it’s the Firefox browser bundled with extensions focused for student use such as FoxyTunes, Zotero, etc. Although the Firefox Campus Edition isn’t quite ready for download yet expect it to be released soon, just in time for the upcoming school year. Stay tuned for updates.

Firefox Campus Edition

Today I started (again) my endless journey to a college degree. The start of a new semester gives you a clean slate and a chance for new opportunities. But for most of us, a few weeks into the school year and we begin to veer off our path and lose some vigor. Jay White, at the blog Dumb Little Man, wrote a great post on “10 ways to Keep That Back-to-school fresh start Enthusiasm All Semester.”

Jay mentions some great tips you would probably never consider, such as diet:

“Do not change your diet - eating more or less can change your concentration, energy level and ability to stay alert. Presuming you are satisfied with your current mental chemistry, avoid changing your diet. P.S. Studies show 75% of college freshmen put on 7lbs their first semester – keep lean and mean.”

Read the nine other tips at the full post here.

For other back-to-school tips check out some of these posts:

Advice for students: slow down and read

Back To School: Get Organized at School With Notely

Have your own school survival tip? Let us know in the comments.

I’ve finally posted a “how to”: How to solve the 3×3×3 rubik’s cube: In three steps and with only six moves (to memorize).

As a young freshman, I looked forward to moving into my dorm and assembling an impromptu shelving unit via the cinder-block-and-plank method. Unfortunately, I have yet to see another one at my school (maybe it’s not a West Coast thing) or any other dorm or apartment I’ve visited.

Image courtesy of “Ms Bunburyist” of Reed College (via Flickr)

Today, as I built one in our new rec room in Chicago, it occurred to me that this 60s and 70s college tradition must be resurrected. This weekend, I was at Miami University of Ohio hanging out with some friends and many were still scrounging for decent furniture. This thing can be your stylish, sturdy and sometimes free, alternative to Goodwill.

Read on to your heart’s content »

Ellie over at ThePinkC has recently unveiled her own “Back to School” series, with a new tip every day (running until the end of this month):

• Geek Girl: Naked Alarm Clock (We like this one!):
  

  Students (and workers!), isn’t it is a big hassle to reset your regular alarm clock if you just need a quick afternoon nap? The worst part is if you forget to turn the alarm on after you took such pains to reset it or if you set it for 2 a.m., not 2 p.m.!

  Don’t despair, though. The Naked Alarm Clock is a reliable and easy to use internet clock…

• Back to School: 5 Time Management Tips that Work
• Back to School: Get A Tutor!
• Back to School: Find out your learning style
• Welcome to Soulville: Making the Most Out of Your College Career
• Back to School: Reading Skills that Produce Results

And you can subscribe to the entire series via rss.

I’m studying abroad in Germany once again come Tuesday. I’ve started packing digitally, at least. I can’t quite afford to bring along my 80 gigs worth of music, especially since my laptop’s hard drive is a measly 40 gigs. I embarked on a solution a few days ago and found the mother lode.

Anywhere.FM looks and functions like iTunes… inside your web browser. It lacks a few features, but it still is not half bad. I’ve been loading my music library into the site for the past week now and I should have access to all of my music while in Deutschland. Did I mention it doesn’t limit your uploads? I’ll just have trouble finding it all, since Anywhere.FM doesn’t have a search function yet.

Anywhere.FM has a few features that will eventually mature. There’s a section for friends’ playlists, although I can’t quite figure out how to find friends. It also seems like the developers are building in some last.fm-esque music discovery functionality. We’ll see.

The site is good enough for me right now, and will only get better.

iTunes in the Cloud: Anywhere.FM

Here at HackCollege, we’re all about keeping our notes in “the cloud” (on the web) or on a thumb drive instead of on paper. It saves trees and it allows you to search your notes easily. Unfortunately, it’s nearly impossible to take notes in any advanced math course. Tablet PC’s don’t cut it, and let me know when you find a double-integral sign in the Microsoft Word symbol library. I’ll see you in a week.

A math professor and friend of mine, pointed out the LaTeX markup language to me a few months ago. LaTeX is a multipurpose markup language with some very powerful and extensive math symbols. Think HTML, the web markup language, on ‘roids and for word documents. And I have a pet theory: a student with a laptop could learn it so well they could take notes in math class. If you’ve ever punched in an equation to your TI-89, you can use LaTeX. This time you get a full keyboard. No more 300-page notebooks full of nearly indecipherable notes.

Read on to your heart’s content »

HackCollege is hot.

Check it out: This Fall, a Handful of Students Reshape the College Landscape with - What Else - the Web.

The blog is an addition to the recently popular universe of “lifehacks,” small tips and tricks to make life more efficient. Kelly soon realized much of college life was backwards and definitely not taking advantage of the slew of new software. Much of this new software becomes more useful as more people adopt it, a typical quality of social webbased software. HackCollege was no exception; shorty after launch, Rosario Doriott, a Yale student with similar interests, joined the site as an editor. Since then, HackCollege has added two more writers to keep up with demand for pertinent and intelligent college-related content.

Our friends over at Lifehacker posted a back to school round-up today. Did you know that you can get SAT study guides for your video iPod? When will they make downloadable essays for in-class finals?

It All Comes Together: Back to School Roundup [Lifehacker]

It’s about that time to start thinking about what to put in your dorm room, especially if you’re a freshman. These links will give you a hand up in the dorm room coolness factor:

• College Dorm Room Shopping Part 1 [CollegeFashion.NET]
• College Dorm Room Shopping Part 2 [CollegeFashion.NET]
• How to Build Your Own Air Conditioner [HackCollege]
• Packing a Dorm Room into a Car [HackCollege]

Good luck, see you at school.