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While you’re in college, professors may require you to open specific files to read, do homework, and to study. If you are unable to open these files, you’ll be in big trouble.

1. PDF – FoxIt Reader

A “PDF” is marked by the file extension “.pdf”. These files are all over the Internet and are very common in college. FoxIt Reader will open them for you. You might also try Adobe Reader, though FoxIt is a bit faster. Keep reading »

One of the best benefits about going to college nowadays is the option to take notes using a laptop or netbook rather than handwriting it. Typing out your notes can offer many distinct and huge advantages:

• Speed. If you know how to type, you can usually type much faster than you can write. The less time you spend writing, the more time you spend listening.
• Convenience. If all of your files are saved on your laptop, you don’t need to worry about losing your notebook for that class, or checking to make sure if you have the right one.
• Organization. You have a lot of control over how you take notes — you can make lists, you can bold/italicize/underline words, you can highlight important topics, you can make headings, and so forth.
• Ctrl+F. If you’re trying to find a specific topic, you can use the nifty shortcut ctrl + f to find the topic quickly rather than hunting through many handwritten pages.
• Easy to share. If a friend needs to look at your notes, it’s easy to just copy the file/text, rather than lending out your notebook or photocopying a couple of pages. Plus, it’ll always be neat and legible!

If you want to take notes with your laptops, there are some things to definitely think about beforehand: Keep reading »

More and more, students are relying on their laptops and netbooks to take notes in class. Most students type far faster than they write, so taking notes through typing definitely seems preferable.

Although some classrooms will have wall outlets nearby for you to plug your laptop into, many will not, and if you have several classes in a row, you might find yourself in trouble if your laptop battery starts to run low. Running out of battery juice mid lecture could be a nightmare, so preventing that from happening is definitely important.

Here are some tips to getting the most juice out of your laptop’s battery: Keep reading »

If you have Windows 7, you probably fell in love with the new taskbar — nice big icons, lots of space to put your favorite programs, and so forth.

Having Windows Explorer pinned to your taskbar is pretty common, but when you click on it to open a new instance, you’re taken immediately to your Libraries folder. For some, this is nice, but it’s not ideal. Wouldn’t it be great to pin multiple locations to the icon? Wouldn’t it be great to change the default location?

You can! Keep reading »

As you may well know, Windows 7 — Microsoft’s newest operating system — is now out, and there’s been quite a lot of buzz about it! Windows 7 was designed to fix up many of the most common complaints about Windows Vista, and it’s done a spectacular job.

Having used Windows 7 for a couple of months now, I can say that I love it. It looks a lot sleeker, it runs more smoothly, and everything is more simple to access and change. Microsoft did a great job.

Normally operating systems cost quite a bit — Windows 7 Home Premium costs $120 brand new, but if you’re a college student, you can upgrade for only $30!

How can I get Windows 7 for $30?

If you have a valid .edu e-mail address (which almost every college and university will give you), you can probably upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium for $30. Simply go here, type in your e-mail address twice. You’ll be sent an e-mail with a link to purchase Windows 7. Keep reading »

As I go through my day, a million things occur to me to do later on — maybe I want to remember to watch a certain TV show, maybe I need to get some schoolwork done, or maybe I have an appointment I need to remember. The biggest problem is that I always forget what I was going to do.

Most of the time, these reminders aren’t that important, but it does really suck when it’s something significant.

Finally, I realized the best way for me to get my life together: sending text messages to myself. I’m on the computer often, and because I check my e-mail often, my reminders don’t go forgotten. When something occurs to me to remind myself of, I quickly open my phone and send a text message of the reminder, such as, “test on Friday”. Then, when I’m home and at the computer, it pops up as an unread e-mail. Keep reading »

I’ve always thought Google Reader Notifier was a decent extension, and I’ve liked it for a while, but today I found some mysterious blue ads in my FireFox status bar. I tried to find what the cause was, looking for any mysterious new add-on and running virus scans, but I couldn’t find out why.

After a quick Google search, I found out Google Reader Notifier was to blame. It’s really sad to see an extension developer force advertisements in like that.

If you’ve suddenly found big blue ads in your status bar, Google Reader Notifier is to blame. Disable it or uninstall it to get rid of the ad. Feel free to leave a review and show your displeasure. Keep reading »

One of my favorite thing about FireFox is the “add-on” capability, allowing you to install tiny extensions that add additional functionality that you might find useful. Mozilla has a bunch of addons which are always worth browsing through, but I’ll save you some time with this small list of my favorites:

Essentials

• AdBlock Plus – Gets rid of virtually every ad on the Internet.
  

  FireFox extensions are surprisingly useful.

• Download Statusbar – Creates a bar at the bottom of the page when you’re downloading so you can easily track your download’s progress.
• Greasemonkey – Allows JavaScript scripts to be installed. These scripts can do a huge array of things — check out userscripts.org to find some scripts for sites you like.
• FoxyTunes – You’ll wonder how you ever lived without this one. FoxyTunes creates a small interface in the status bar that you can use to interact with your media player — you can quickly change songs, mute the volume, pause it, and so forth all from your browser window.
• StumbleUpon – The end of your boredom on the Internet. StumbleUpon displays new and interesting sites that fit your interests. Keep reading »