If you’re interested in following me, I still write pretty frequently online. For those of you who like infographics, I started a site called Daily Infographic where myself and a team of interns post an infographic every day.

I also write for my company, Mutual Mobile, on their blog. Mutual Mobile is a large mobile strategy company that specializes in helping large enterprise corporations build and execute mobile strategies. This includes everything from developing native mobile applications to mobile marketing.

I really enjoyed writing and contributing to CampusByte — starting this site gave me a huge head start in my career. But unfortunately, all good things eventually come to an end. Thanks for all the good times.

- Jay Willingham

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Fences, literally, fences your desktop into different compartments and label them. You are then free to drag shortcuts and in and out. Fences are also movable and resizable. Basically heavy customisation is allowed according to your own preferences.

Right Click to Create

To create a new fence, select an area holding the mouse right button down.

After that, everything is intuitive. Right-click on desktop will get you to the configuration window.

Double Click to Clear

Another useful trick is that you can double click the empty space on your desktop to hide all fences. They will reappear if you double click again. It just feels good to have the desktop clean magically, right?

Store Your Distraction-free Application Shortcuts

Remember we talked about fighting off distractions with Google Chrome Application Shortcut? You can fix these shortcuts into a different fence to distinguish them from your ordinary shortcuts:)

Sounds cool? You can download the free software here.

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1. Chocolate Covered Strawberries!

This is probably the most popular treat of all. Long story short, read the recipe at What’s Cooking America!
Still don’t get how easy it is? You won’t believe how good the strawberries actually look after the mess:

And they are of course very tasty:)

2. Rocky Road!

This one is from Sorted Food.

A bit more complicated but it’s certainly worth it. This one you can easily add your own twist–other than just marshmallows and biscuits, you can also add it Oreo, M&M’s… I personally thinks dried cranberries go really well with this recipe:)

3. Add your creativity!

That’s the best you can give! You don’t expect to get through every year with the same tricks, do you?

Happy Valentine’s Day in advance!

Happy belated Chinese New Year, by the way;)

© Theo for CampusByte, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us, Stumble It! Here

Image by gouldlibrary

1. Physically Disconnect from the Internet

The Internet is by far the most tempting distraction if you think about it. What I mean by PHYSICALLY disconnecting from it is really to unplug the LAN/WAN cable, or if you’re on Wi-Fi, there’s usually a physical switch somewhere, switch it off.

But sometimes this still doesn’t work, our mind is so good at overcoming obstacles, especially when the hurdle is so low that it’s just another door sill to cross.
My suggestion is that you may stick a warning sign over the switch or the plug so that you would at least think twice before you actually make that regretful move of reconnecting to the world of distractions. While it may sound trivial, this simple trick has saved me many times. Believe me, your mind is not THAT determined at wandering off!

2. Google Chrome Application Shortcut

Of course, sometimes we do have legitimate reasons for leaving the Internet connection on, either for checking up unfamiliar terms or just watching some educational online videos. This is however very risky. Somehow in the middle of seriousness, a notification would pop up to remind you of a new message in your inbox or maybe the Facebook bookmark would suddenly become very tempting (for no reason), and when you click it, and you’re doomed. Once you’re out, you’ll hardly come back. You know it.

By creating application shortcuts specifically for every site you need (e.g. Google Calendar, certain dictionary, Wikipedia, etc.), you can cut yourself off from the rest of the Internet.

3. The Pomodoro Technique

Some of you might have heard of The Pomodoro Technique. It sounds sophisticated, but to put it simple, follows these steps:

1. Get a kitchen timer. Make a to-do list.
2. Work for 25 minutes.
3. Take a 5 minutes break.
4. Resume work until you’ve done 4 rounds (4 Pomodoros).
5. Take a 15 minutes break.
6. Start all over again.

For more details about the technique, you may visit the official site. What I’d like to highlight here is that this technique works really well for me mainly because:

• The characteristic tic-tac sound of a kitchen timer would constantly remind you that you’re on a task and hence help you focus.
• This working pattern helps you “standardise” your distractions. You are allowed to get “distracted” during breaks: Check email, continue reading that Instapaper article, whatever you like.

Another tip is that you may download an iOS app (e.g. dPomodoro) so you can have a kitchen timer all to yourself even when you’re at the library.

Also, when time’s up, you’ll get a notification to stop you immediately after the break if you’re using another app. So really it’s safe to read Instapaper during breaks:)

© Theo for CampusByte, 2011. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us, Stumble It! Here

Photo Credit

Zinch – I am more than just a test score.

The college application process can be impersonal. Often, colleges view applicants as nothing more than grades and test scores. Zinch is committed to connecting students with the people behind the schools and scholarships free of charge. They have more than 5,000 active school profiles and offer over $2 billion dollars in scholarships. To date, Zinch has awarded 781,654 scholarships worth $1,623,044,202. The next person to receive a scholarship could be you. Upon signing up for Zinch, you are asked to add the usual information such as SAT scores and GPA. Zinch, however, goes one step farther. They ask for a profile picture, favorite music, favorite TV shows, hobbies and etc. They are dedicated to showing you off as a complete package instead of just a set of grades and scores. The first page of your profile features a blurb about who you are and more importantly, who you want to be.

Scholarships are found using a search engine. You can manipulate the scholarships you’re shown by adding more information about yourself such as background, gender, GPA and etc. The more information you add, the more accurate and applicable the scholarships shown are to you. When you “like” a scholarship, it gets added to your My Likes section where you can work on it at a later time.

You can also change what type of scholarships come up. You can view those with certain deadlines or only show awards that you can currently apply to. If you don’t fit certain types of criteria, you can uncheck selection criteria to make sure that scholarships with those requirements aren’t shown. Be sure to stop by Zinch and start saving money on college.

Fastweb – Paying for school just got easier.

Fastweb is another free scholarship finder. So far, they have awarded $3.4 billion in scholarships and over 50 million users have benefited from their services. The thing that sets fastweb apart from its competition is its intuitive set up. Based on your profile, fastweb will alert you when there are scholarships that you fit the criteria for. Fastweb also provides students with financial aid tips and internship opportunities in their area.

You can browse the new matches and either save them for later or delete them. You can click on the scholarship to see it’s requirements and get more information. The easy to read format shows you the scholarship deadline and amount of scholarship right on the original screen so you can decide which are right for you in as little time as possible.  Every time a new scholarship is available to you, an email is sent to the email address of your choice to keep you from missing out on any opportunities.

To keep you from forgetting about anything you save for later, fastweb lets you know when the deadlines are coming up and keeps reminding you on the homepage. You can also click the deadlines tab to get a detailed calendar view. This feature is especially important because the hardest thing about applying for scholarship is remembering to apply for them on time. The scholarship deadlines makes sure that you don’t miss out on any scholarships that you qualify for. Be sure to check out the many other services that fastweb has to offer to help you save money quickly and easily.

© Melanie for CampusByte, 2011. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us, Stumble It! Here

Dormzy wants to save you time in two ways. First, it saves the time of going to the grocers. Second, it saves you time sifting through a myriad of undesirable products. Dormzy’s selection is, theoretically, custom-designed to offer only what Joe College wants and nothing else. The up-side of this is that if you fit Dormzy’s concept of Joe College you will be saved the time of sifting. The downside is that if you have unusual tastes you may find Dormzy’s selection restrictive.

To be sure, Dormzy’s selection is just what you’d expect: cereal, axe, candy, soda, cousine a la Boyardee, Red Bull, Red Bull, and Red Bull. In all fairness, it does offer some healthy options. It also sells various health, bath, and hygiene products as well as some of the sundries you need to survive, such as batteries, school supplies, and those absolutely essential red cups.

Dormzy aims to save the student money. In this they succeed for the most part. Comparing items from Dormzy to items at my campus minimart, I found that Dormzy items were always somewhat cheaper. A bottle of Coca-Cola, for instance, cost $1.49 at the store and $1.39 on Dormzy. More interesting was the deodorant situation: Axe was $7.29 at the store, while Dormzy deo cost $4.69.

Of course, shipping costs threaten to eat up those savings. This is why Dormzy offers free shipping for orders of $49 and above. So if you are going to go this way, you’re going to have to go bulk.

What’s the bottom line? Dormzy saves you time and money. But its selection does not cater to eclectic tastes and it doesn’t make much sense for small, impulsive, or incidental purchases. It does, however, make sense if you are stocking up at the beginning of the semester or if you’re more broke than a Toyota’s accelerator.

Guest Post: Josh is a senior at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte; he blogs on study-tips over at http://www.gradesapp.com/blog as well as blogging on iPhone app development and marketing over at Tapity.com.

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1. Khan Academy

This is probably the most established educational video site. It contains 1800+ videos mainly of maths and science topics. (There are also history and finance videos!) Khan’s videos are well presented and even sometimes humourous. He maintains a casual conversational tone which makes the videos highly engaging. (But don’t expect anything comedy-like, they are after all hardcore science :P)
I find this site particularly helpful when I need a quick grasp of certain mathematical concepts which would be too abstract to understand through plain text. The series on eigenvalues really helped me a lot in an introductory math course I took over the summer.

His choice of the colourful electronic blackboard is an added bonus.

2. Learn Lab techniques: Benchfly

Here you can find many “video protocols” of biology and chemistry. There are workthroughs from basic lab skills like using the light microscope and a Pipetman, to whatever I haven’t heard of.
Sometimes they also share little tips like how to label PCR tubes effectively and how to pronounce the dye Hoechst, which are often interesting to watch, provided you are a science student.

3. Watch Foreign Cartoons e.g. El Mundo de Bob Esponja

Well, I’m not referring solely to this site but any foreign cartoon sites out there. Watching cartoons in foreign language helps you immerse yourself in a foreign environment and can help you develop the natural sense of grammar and sentence structure which could be hard and boring to learn from books.
While you may find these cartoons rather silly now that you have grown up, don’t forget you are very much like the little children in another country learning their mother tongue. These cartoons are specially designed that you don’t have to understand 90% of the words before you can make sense out of them. The producers will even deliberately repeat certain common expressions again and again to help you memorise better.
Take Bob Esponja for an example, each episode is only about 10 minutes long. If you manage to watch an episode twice every day at lunch, you can soon get well ahead of your class. By watching each episode for a second time, you will be surprised how much more you can understand. Because after you’ve got the whole storyline, your brain will start to fit in the vocabs you’ve learnt previously in class into what you’re listening according to the context. For recurring words that you don’t know, jot it down and look up the dictionary afterwards, for there must be reasons why they keep repeating–they are often common and useful expressions.

4. Vlogs on Youtube

For an ESL student, these videos hold more than random daily records. Ever since I’ve found vloggers with accents I love, and eventually got addicted to watching their videos, my spoken English has improved a lot, especially in intonation, which is often the weakest aspect for speakers of tonal languages. Furthermore, you can easily pick up the latest slangs. They keep your language base lively.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, watching these educational videos is also a great excuse for not working, a great way to procrastinate! Bonus, uh?

© Theo for CampusByte, 2011. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us, Stumble It! Here

Image from FirstToGo.com

Flashcards are nothing new. You remember carrying them around the campus when you were… fourteen? Then you decided that making flashcards just takes too much of your time, and the cards are just too nerdy to carry around.

gFlash+ is a practical, minimalist app that works on both iOS and Android. As suggested by the “G” in its name, gFlash+ download data from your Google Spreadsheet: A two-column spreadsheet will be converted to a stack of Q&A flashcards, while a five-column one will become a custom-made multiple-choices challenge. It can also track your performance and give you an overall score for your reference.

Language Learning

I found these features particularly useful to someone who is studying a foreign language (in my case, it’s Español):

• After the first round you shuffle the cards, more focus will be put on those you’ve got wrong in the previous round. It does facilitate learning and can avoid the unnecessary boredom caused by recurring easy questions.
• You can reverse the Q&A, just like how you flip over a real stack of cards. After you can understand the new words, and you’ll also want to spell them, right?
  
• If you have no time to assign confusing choices for your MC quiz, it can also randomly generate choices from the same card stack. (brilliant!)

The Bonus — Image Challenge

This is what your old card set can’t do. Adding images as prompts is just super easy with gFlash+. You just fill the cell with the image URL, and poof! That’s it. I am not sure where else you will find this useful, but it works just well for my butterfly identification test!

Yet Another Bonus — Slip of Touch

I’m not sure about Android, but on the iOS version, if you swipe right to left, you can choose to change your last score–useful when regret faking that you knew the previous question. (Admit it, that’s what we all do…)

Setting Tips

The default setting is a bit tricky here. Again, I’m not sure about Android, but on the iOS, you change the defaults under the system settings, not within the app itself.

So have fun with gFlash+ and be sure to make good use of it next semester:)

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Photo Credit

Word Processors – Dark Room and WriteRoom

Sometimes, learning to write is as easy as eliminating the distractions in your life. For times when you need to sit down and knock out a ten page paper in three hours, there is Dark Room (for Windows) and  WriteRoom (for Mac 0S and iPhone OS). Dark Room and WriteRoom are free downloadable full screen writing programs. The programs turn your computer screen into one large writing surface without the distraction of other programs and desktop icons. All you need to do is sit down, cue up the program and write like it’s what you were born to do. Keep in mind that neither program currently has many formatting option, so they’ll need additional formatting in Word or Pages.

Writing prompt – OneWord

OneWord is a one-word online writing prompt designed to get your creative juices flowing. You are provided with one word and sixty seconds to write about it. In order to become an accomplished writer, you must flex your writing muscles daily. Writing is a skill that needs to be cultivated and strengthened.  Using OneWord once a day will help you not only learn how to start thinking outside of the box with your writing but it has the added bonus of teaching you how to work under pressure.

Beating Writer’s Block – 911 Writer’s Block

Sometimes in college, you’re required to write more than just a research paper or a simply essay. Occasionally you will be encouraged to be creative and write with a little more flair. In English courses,  you will often need to write a short story or an original composition. Getting the initial idea can be easy but developing it into a full story line can be an immovable hurdle for some people. That’s why 911 Writer’s Block was created. Karate chop your writer’s block in the face with this free tool. By pushing a button on the phone keypad interface, you’re only moments away from a fresh ideas about settings, dialogue, dramatic entrances and more. In moments you can spice up boring character dialogue and inject life into a dead storyline. 911 Writer’s Block can even come in handy on research papers by providing interesting and fresh new verbs. You also have the option of submitting your own 911 tips and saving your favorite tips for later.

Free Resources – Reporter’s Desktop

Reporter’s desktop is the ultimate free resource and is an invaluable tool to use when writing research papers or articles. From the start page, you have access to all the top search engines, reference information, a dictionary, a thesaurus and more. Instead of having to browse multiple websites to find the information you’re looking for, just navigate to Reporter’s Desktop for one stop shopping to fulfill all your writing needs. It is not only guaranteed to save you valuable time but is sure to give you the accurate information that you need.

Evaluation – PaperRater

I’ve already covered PaperRater in-depth in THIS post. However, it’s such an amazing tool that it bears repeating. Use PaperRater when you have the first draft of your paper/essay finished to polish it and to correct any rudimentary mistakes. It checks for grammar, spelling, vocabulary, originality and even has a snazzy vocab builder tool to broaden your vocabulary horizons. The only thing that PaperRater can’t do is evaluate the ideas and tone of your writing. PaperRater should be the last stop for all of your papers, essays and stories before they reach your professor’s desk and hit the chopping block. With just a few swift clicks, you can improve your paper in extraordinarily easy ways.

© Melanie for CampusByte, 2010. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us, Stumble It! Here

Image by ~hequalstohenry

As mentioned in their blog post, here are the major changes:

• There are no more profile tabs. Instead, you get a navigation sidebar like the one on your Home page.
• An overview is added under your name on the Wall and Info tabs. It includes a brief bio and 5 recently tagged photos of you.
• Under the new category “Sports” on your Info page, you can list the sports you play and the teams and athletes you are crazy about.
• Now you can tag people in the sports and activities you engage in, as well as friends you work and go to school with. All the tags will appear as a “with…” note next to the activity. These common details between you and your friends will all go to the friendship pages.

The above, however, are just the summary of what have been told on the Facebook Blog. Not to bore you, here are some other tweaks which I found equally worth mentioning:

Adding Language

You can list the languages you speak under Basic Information. They will be shown in your brief bio as “Speaks blah, blah and blah”, impressive, huh? (It would definitely look cool if you know a lot of different languages:P).

Specifying Classes and Projects

Previously under Education and Work, you can only narrow things as far as your college concentrations and work positions. But now you can even list all the classes and work projects you are (or were) involved in! And of course, you can also “with-tag” your classmates and co-workers on each of them.

More Relatives

Yet another long-awaited feature. Now under relationships you can include relatives beyond your immediate family: uncle, aunt, niece, nephew, cousin(male/female), grandson, grand… you name it.

They will all appear under your Friends on the sidebar. But instead of the modest list you got the past, your relatives now show up with their profile picture. I have to say that could be a little bit overwhelming sometimes, especially if you have a large family.

Every time Facebook launches a new profile layout, there is bound to be opposing voice. But this time, I am generally happy about it. Like the several updates I mentioned at the beginning of the post, these touches on social details are going to bring people closer together.

P.S. if you haven’t figured out the way, here’s the link to switch:P

So, Are you also positive about the new Facebook Profile, or are you going to stick with the current one until the day they make it compulsory? I’m interested to know:)

© Theo for CampusByte, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us, Stumble It! Here