HackCollege Pack

6:08 pm on November 23rd, 2006 by Kelly Sutton

Necessary tools for student 2.0.

Work won’t do itself, and technology can definitely hinder that progress (think Facebook). Thankfully, there are a few things that will help you to work faster/smarter/harder and leave more time to do the things you enjoy (we don’t judge). This list will be constantly changing as better sites/tools/technologies get released.

These tools are necessary for your survival and sanity:


We were all skeptics of online word-processing and spreadsheets… until we tried using it. Now we can’t live without it. It’s nice to be able to work on a paper while not worrying whether the computer you’re using has Microsoft Word or not.	For the student (or more generally, person) that enjoys not have their eyes flagellated out by pop-up ads or their computers molested by exploited security holes, Mozilla Firefox is the only option. Its plug-ins alone are reason enough for switching (if you haven’t already).

Watching TV on your TV is so last century. The Democracy Player can be set up to automagically download your favorite shows an hour or two after they are played. It’s a TiVo for free.	LifeHacker is probably our favorite site. Hell, it always seems like most of the outside articles we link to are on this site. Great reads for those that want to get ahead in life.

A free pocket day-planner?!? While it is a badge of ultra-nerd status, it is also a ticket to six-figure status. Blickity-blam.	While Zotero is merely a plugin for Firefox, it makes all research a breeze. It quickly bibliographs all your sources and keeps track of the pesky information that MLA format calls for (like date visited). Thank the Jesus.

In the computer lab? Want to use X messenger? Meebo’s got them all.