UCM Informer

UC Berkeley Lectures On YouTube

2007-10-05T20:12:00.000-07:00

I know you've all ways wanted to know what it would be like to attend lectures at University Of California at Berkeley. Yep, UC Berkeley, the University credited with starting the 60's counter culture movement, now has another first. UC Berkeley claims to be the first major university to providing full-length lectures on YouTube.

Now we just have to work out how to get credit for attending them.

Final Lecture : Randy Pausch : Achieving Your Dreams

2007-09-30T17:29:00.000-07:00

UCM Students, I know this means sitting in front of your PC for and hour and half, but if you haven't seen this video of Computer Science Professor Randy Pausch final lecture, please take the time, it may just change your life. Randy, diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer (see his blog for details), gave this, his last lecture at Carnegie Mellon University. His advice on how to live your life and achieve your most outrageous dreams, given the circumstances is excellent and moving.

UCM Studends, How Can You Tell If Your Getting Enough (Sleep)

2007-09-29T21:41:00.000-07:00

Following up on my post UCM Students, Both Too Little Or Too Much Sleep Is Bad For Health, I've found a web page that will help you evaluate if you are getting enough sleep, Check out the BBC's Sleep page:

On it you be able to:

UCM Students, Too Little Or Too Much Can Be Bad For Your Health

2007-09-28T13:47:00.000-07:00

Lack of Sleep, seems to go hand in hand with being a College Student. Probably the fact that so much of your over all grade is dependent on the your performance on a few tests scattered through the semester. For most of us the night, before a test is spent studying and not sleeping and for those you do try to sleep, because of the level of stress, sleep is less than effective.

So here is something else for you to worry about, in a recent study of Briton government workers age between 35 and 55, reported in Reuters: Lack of sleep may be deadly, research shows. The article reports:

People who do not get enough sleep are more than twice as likely to die of heart disease, according to a large British study released on Monday.
Although the reasons are unclear, researchers said lack of sleep appeared to be linked to increased blood pressure, which is known to raise the risk of heart attacks and stroke.

A 17-year analysis of 10,000 government workers showed those who cut their sleeping from seven hours a night to five or less faced a 1.7-fold increased risk in mortality from all causes and more than double the risk of cardiovascular death.

The findings highlight a danger in busy modern lifestyles, Francesco Cappuccio, professor of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Warwick's medical school, told the annual conference of the British Sleep Society in Cambridge.

But the same study also found :

The correlation with cardiovascular risk in those who slept less in the 1990s than in the 1980s was clear but, curiously, there was also a higher mortality rate in people who increased their sleeping to more than nine hours.

So it appears that too little or too much sleep is decremental to our health, or in other words there does appear that there is a optimal amount of sleep for our health. Controls placed on the study would appear to be adequate in the results were adjusted to take account of other possible risk factors such as initial age, sex, smoking and alcohol consumption, body mass index, blood pressure and cholesterol.

Finding the optimal amount of sleep appears to be in the range of 7 to 8 hours per night as we have all been told since childhood. Unfortunately, getting any closer to finding the optimum length of sleep appears to be unique to the individual and the individuals situation. We sleep better some nights than others, so where 7 hours might be optimal one night, 7 hours might not be enough the next.

KC Star: Central Missouri added to CBE tournament field

2007-09-27T18:34:00.000-07:00

For those of you haven't heard the Mules will be playing with the big boys on November 12-13 at Mizzou Arena, UCM has been added to CBE tournament in Columbia.

Mike DeARMOND broke the news yesterday in the KC Star: Central Missouri added to CBE tournament field:

The College Basketball Experience tournament has pulled a name out of Missouri’s past to fill its regional.

Central Missouri, a Division II basketball power coached by MU all-century team player Kim Anderson, could be Mizzou’s second opponent of qualifying-round play Nov. 12-13 at Mizzou Arena.

But in adding the Mules, organizers hardly stepped away from the obvious strategy of doing their best to ensure Missouri, Michigan State, Maryland and UCLA advance to (and sell tickets for) the CBE championship round Nov. 19-20 in Kansas City’s new Sprint Center.

“We were 31-4 and went to the (Division II) Final Four,” Anderson said.

However, Anderson added: “We lost our top six players. We have 10 new guys.

“Especially at that point in the year, it will be a work in progress for us. It’s hard to predict how good we’ll be because we have so many new faces. But we anticipate having a good year.”

Fordham and Central Michigan are the other two teams in the MU regional. Fordham finished 18-12 last season and returns 97 percent of its scoring and rebounding.

Fordham and Central Missouri will open play at MU with a 4:30 p.m. game. Missouri and Central Michigan will face off at 7 p.m. The winners play the following night for the right to advance to Kansas City, following up the consolation game between the first-night losers.

This will be Anderson’s second game on the sidelines at Mizzou Arena. On Nov. 4, 2004, Anderson and the Mules were the opposition in the inaugural game of what was then called the Paige Sports Arena. A crowd of 10,328 watched Missouri, under coach Quin Snyder, beat the Mules 100-73 in an exhibition game.

If MU plays Central Missouri this time in the CBE, it will be an everything-to-lose and little-to-gain game. Come NCAA Tournament selection time, victories over Division II opponents are not counted.

Doing well in the CBE could mean a lot to future of Mules Basketball.

Students, 3 Tips To Enhance Your Intellegence Or Save Your Wrists

2007-09-27T18:29:00.000-07:00

"If you don't use it you lose it", and I've been told that saying applies to a lot of things, not the least brain power. Here is an article that advocates 3 tips to use your brain in slightly different ways which in theory will enhance or at least maintain your brain power.

3 Easy Ways to Improve Your Brain Power states:

1) Switch the side of your mouse-pad: Yes, it is as simple as that.

By switching the side of your mouse-pad you will force yourself to use your non-dominant hand. This, in turn, will stimulate the neural connections between the right and left hemispheres on your brain. Scientific research confirmed that people that use both hands equally have 10% more nerve fibers joining the two sides of the brain.

Ideally you want to perform as many activities as possible with your non-dominant hand, but some of them might become cumbersome. I tried to brush my teeth using my left hand for one week or so, only to find out that the tartar was building up.

Using the mouse with the opposite hand is something that you can easily integrate into your life. During the first couple of days it will feel weird, and you might need to switch back when using programs that require intense "clicking" sessions. After this adaptation phase however, you'll be navigating the computer just as efficiently with both hands.

2) Force yourself to remember things:

Sometimes you want to remember the name of a song that is playing or the name of an old acquaintance that passed by . It is right there, on the tip of your tongue, but you can't remember it. What would you normally do in such situation? Probably ask some nearby friend for the name, and upon the revelation you will even shout marveled, "Oh yeah! That is it."

The next time this happens force yourself to remember that name. The brain can be stimulated just like your muscles and the more you exercise it the stronger it will get.

Do not limit yourself to remembering names. Are you calling your mother to get the phone number of your uncle? Forget pen and paper - you can memorize it. Try to look at the keyboard of your phone in order to create a mental picture of what the sequence of numbers looks like.

The worse that can happens is that you will need to call your mom again...

3) Play games that involve some thinking:

You don't need to participate in the Mathematical Olympic Games in order to stretch your brain capabilities. Oh no, games and activities as simple as sudoku or crosswords will already have a tangible impact upon your brain performance.

Regularity is very important here, so try to incorporate these games or exercises into your routine. You could bring a crosswords book with you on the daily commute, for instance. Personally I like to play a chess match every day before I start working. It takes around 15 minutes, but it ensures that my brain gets a kick-start every morning.

From a physiological standpoint doing things differently should indeed activate areas of the brain that are normally dormant so there may be something to this argument or it could just be wishful thinking. On the other hand it doesn't hurt to give it a try, at the very least, you may avoid or ease Repetitive Stress Injury by mousing with your opposite hand.

Missouri State Teams Up With IBM To Offer A BS Degree in IT Service Management

2007-09-19T18:28:00.000-07:00

Looks like our neighbors to the south have gotten very creative. Missouri State is teaming with IBM to offer a Bachelor of Science degree in IT service management.

IT Service Management has grown to become Big Blue’s biggest business, replacing selling Mainframes.

The degree, the first of its kind in the U.S. is a collaboration between courses currently taught at MSU and IBM’s IT Service Curriculum.

Graduates from the MSU program will have an obvious leg up in getting employment at IBM.

For more information on the new MSU/IBM program read, Missouri State, IBM launch IT services degree

Hopefully, UCM will take this as a challenge and look for some corporate partners of their own, maybe American Century, H&R Block or Hallmark perhaps.

Save Time And Confusion, Use Google Documents And Now Presentations

2007-09-18T17:52:00.001-07:00

It here, Google Presentations is real. Go to Google Documents and check it out.

Then take a look at this video from Google and find out how you can use Documents more effectively than ever. Whether you are working with a group of students on a Document, a Newsletter, a Spreadsheet, or maybe even a slide presentation. With Google Documents you can eliminate confusion and work together on the came copy of whatever your working on.

Check out Google's announcement of Presentations as well as Read/Write Web's Confirmed: Google Presentations

UCM Students, You can you take better notes

2007-09-18T17:51:00.001-07:00

Other than attending class, the single best way of improving your chances of getting a better grade is taking better notes. And if you take a look there is no shortage of guides on how you can do just that. But one of the better guides I have found is available on Lifehack.org website called Advice for Students: Taking Notes that Work.

Follow their advice and you'll find that your taking far more effective notes than you ever have before, better notes means better grades and less stress come finals time. Here are a couple of tips from the article to remember, Only write down what is new to you, (if you know it don't spend your time writing it down) and only write down what you think is relevant (if it not relevant don't spend your time writing it down). And here is one from me, spend the $50 and by a good voice recorder and record the class just in case you need to go back later, sort of an emergency backup, you may never need it but if you do you'll have it.

Book Burglars watch out, Colleges are on to you.

2007-09-17T21:17:00.000-07:00

According to USA Today's article Colleges targeting book crooks. Schools across the country are increasing efforts to fight text book thefts, including marking expensive texts with invisible ink, require bookstores to log book sellers and only allowing students to resell their textbooks.

The going rate for stolen books is up to half of the original text book price, much better than jewelry or televisions, so it makes sense to target college textbooks in burglaries.

The article continues:

Many textbooks now cost well over $100 and are tempting targets for thieves who often can sell them for half the original price. The City Council in Madison, Wis., home to the University of Wisconsin, passed an ordinance this year requiring bookstores that buy used textbooks to keep detailed records on the sellers: physical descriptions and driver's license, Social Security or state ID numbers.

The ordinance, which took effect in July, was prompted by "a spike in the number of people who were selling the books to get money for drugs," campus police Detective Peter Grimyser says.

Sandi Torkildson, owner of A Room of One's Own, a bookstore four blocks from campus, objects to keeping the personal data for six months and sharing it with police at their request without search warrants. "It's an issue of readers' privacy," she says.

Most campus police don't keep statistics on textbook thefts, but James Howard, textbook manager at Oregon State University's campus bookstore, says thefts rise as prices increase. "We see a lot of stolen books," he says. "It's easy cash."

What campuses are doing:

•The University of Texas at Arlington helps students mark their textbooks with their names and other identifying information using ink that can be seen only under fluorescent lights. Campus bookstores check used books for the markings.

•When someone tries to resell a book at the Oregon State University bookstore, reports of stolen copies pop up on checkout screens. The store paid out $1.5 million last year to buy back used textbooks.

•The University of Montana allows students to return textbooks only on a single day two weeks into each semester, and the bookstore requires sellers to present IDs, says Jim Lemcke, chief of public safety.

•At Penn State, campus and off-campus bookstores buy used textbooks and offer refunds only to those with student IDs.

Chicago's DePaul University has a similar policy. "If you come to turn in a book for cash, you have to be a DePaul student," says Mike Dohm, assistant director of public safety. "They won't even talk to you if you're not."

So College Students, don't get caught by a Book Burglar, be aware the Burglars are out there and they want your text books. One stolen backpack full of books could net a book burglar a cool $300 bucks on $600 dollars of expensive college textbooks. Don't make the mistake of thinking that since you don't really want those text books, that some else doesn't.

The Ultimate Guide to Success in College??

2007-09-10T22:49:00.000-07:00

I've come across something that might be of interest for some of you take a look at The Students Blog: The Ultimate Guide to Being Successful in College:

Let’s face it: High school doesn’t really prepare you for college. Having the choice of not going to class can be tempting after being forced for so many years. There’s also the possibility of living on your own, meaning you’ll have to learn how to cook and clean (or at least how to use a microwave and be OK with living in a pigsty). If you want to actually succeed in college and come out having learned something in the end, then keep reading.

Sleep – Getting enough sleep (and going to sleep at the same time each night) is probably the single most important thing you can do for yourself. It’s fine to stay up late every once in a while when you go out, but if your sleeping habits aren’t mostly normal and regular, it can really mess you up. If you want to feel awake without having to get a coffee after every class (which ends up being more expensive than you’d think), then you need a sleep schedule. Even if all you get is five hours a night, go to sleep at the same time every single day. Your body will get used to not getting much rest (although it’s still not great for you), but if you constantly change the time when you’re getting that rest, your body won’t ever know what’s going on and you’ll feel worse than getting no rest at all. Sometimes pulling an all-nighter is better than the two or three hours of sleep you might get at random hours of the day.

Calendar – Before the semester starts, head down to the local office supply store (or the school bookstore) and buy a weekly scheduler. When you go to class, make sure you write down every problem set, quiz, oral report, project and test into your schedule. Take the time to copy over all the information from each class syllabus (like reading assignments) too. That way, even if you end up not going to class, you’ll know what you missed and you won’t feel like you’re falling too far behind. If you take your laptop to class, try using iCal or Google Calendar.

Notes – Take your laptop with you, or else buy a notebook for each class, and TAKE NOTES. Most professors pull questions for their tests from their lectures, so if you sleep through your classes and only read the textbook, you could end up in serious trouble on your finals. Taking notes, especially when you’re tired, is also a great way to keep yourself awake. If you don’t write very fast, or if you have a problem listening and writing at the same time, think about getting a mini recorder. Then you can spend class time listening to your prof, and you can take notes later. Make a note of the people who show up to class consistently and look like they’re paying attention and writing lots of stuff down. If you miss class, they’re going to be the best people to go to for notes from the days you missed.

Goals – Coming up with both long-term and short-term goals will not only help you get more work done, it’ll help you to feel more focused. For short-term goals, you’ll want to make compromises with yourself. You might really want to watch season première of The Office, but that term paper is due tomorrow morning. If you have a clear goal that you need to finish that paper, then you’ll realize that TV might be a little less important. (And besides, you can always download the episode later.) For long-term goals, try to be both realistic and flexible. Setting goals that you know you won’t be able to accomplish will never help you.

Studying – Before you start studying, you need to figure out your learning style. Do a little research online to determine if you learn visually, kinesthetically or aurally. If you’re a visual or aural learner, focus more on paying attention in class than taking notes; a mini recorder can help. If you're kinesthetic, take a lot of notes. Knowing your ideal way of learning will also help you when you’re preparing for your tests. If you understand how you learn, you’ll know if flash cards or audio books will be better for memorization. Also make sure you have a regular time and quiet place for studying every day. Try not to study in front of your computer—too many ways to get distracted. Listening to music isn't always a good idea, either; it can interfere with your concentration. If you absolutely have to listen to music, put on some classical Mozart or Pachelbel.

Procrastination – For some people, procrastination actually helps them get stuff done because they have the pressure of a deadline to meet. But procrastination typically only works well for short essays or math homework. If you have something that actually takes a lot of time to research or put together (like a science project, a term paper or a midterm), then you'll want to make sure you have plenty of time to do it.

Socializing - Being social is the key to success. No matter which road you take in life, you'll always need to interact with others. Don't put off taking that public speaking class you need for general education until your last semester, especially if you're shy. Once you’re able to talk easily to others, you’ll feel less lost in the sea of people on campus. Practice on people in your classes; introduce yourself and say you don't know very many people. Or if you want a better excuse, ask if they have notes you can borrow or photocopy. In between classes, make eye contact with others on the quad and smile at them. If someone smiles back, that might be an opening for a conversation.

Life is all about acceptance and learning. With the right attitude and the proper outlook, college can turn out to be some of the best years of your life. In the end, as long as you stay on top of things, there's no reason you can't be both social and do well in school; because after college, you'll need both skill and charisma to be able to succeed

OK, now no one has any reason not to succeed, NOT... This is a might short article to be the ultimate guide to success, but it does bring out some good points particularly with it says to get enough sleep. That really is about the best tip anyone can give to college students, other than get to class of course.

Students - New York Times offers it's TimesSelect service for free to University Students and Faculty.

2007-09-05T18:15:00.000-07:00

Here is a tip for UCM Students. New York Times offers it's TimesSelect service for free to University Students and Faculty. TimesSelect can be an invaluable resource when doing research for papers or just keeping up to date with the latest news!

You must be a student or faculty member with a valid college or university e-mail address to be eligible for this offer. You no longer need an access code to activate your TimesSelect University Subscription.

To start the process, please provide your school e-mail address at this link.

$10,000 College Scholarship For Bloggers Offered

2007-09-04T15:21:00.001-07:00

Read/Write Web has a post announcing a $10,000 College Scholarship For Bloggers. Interested? Check out their article, $10,000 Up For Grabs For College Bloggers.

Here is a summary:

If you're a US citizen, a blogger, and are currently a full-time student an accredited college or university: listen up. CollegeScholarships.org, a directory of college scholarship and financial aid opportunities, today announced a $10,000 scholarship for college bloggers.

The Blogging Scholarship is the largest of the six scholarships offered by the site (they also offer a $2,000 award specifically for political blogging) and is open to any US citizen, student blogger, regardless of blog topic. If you don't have a blog, site encourages students to begin now and submit your name for consideration by the deadline next month.

The site is accepting nominations (in the form a 300 word essay about why the blogger -- which doesn't have to be you -- deserves the award) until October 6th. In keeping with the Internet theme of the scholarship, the winner will be chosen by an online vote during the month of October from among 10 finalists (determined by the founders of the site).

Last year Stephen Yellin of Drew university won the award, $5,000, for his work as "MrLiberal" on the DailyKos website. The this years winner will be announced at the end of October at Blog World.

Parents Rejoice, AT&T Will Introduce Smart Limits Soon

2007-09-03T23:40:00.000-07:00

AT&T Smart Limits will enable parents to keep a tab on the mobile usage of their kids.

In a company statement AT&T said: “We were certainly hearing from parents who were dismayed at overuse of text or phones. We want to find a way for kids to use phones without having to take the phone away.”

The new service will be offered to their customers as a $4.99 per line add-on named AT&T’s Smart Limits.

It will be available to AT&T Customers without a contract so it can be enabled or disabled at will. It will provide several different functionalities including: call blocking, hour limits to text message etc. Web specific settings will be available as well.

Emergency calls to 911 would remain active all the time, as mandated my law.

Unfortunately, the service will have limited functionality on advanced phones like the Apple iPhone as they ship with independent browser and are capable of accessing the web using wi-fi.

Firefox Campus Edition now available for download

2007-08-29T10:18:00.000-07:00

The Campus Edition of Firefox comes bundled with a few extras including:

FoxyTunes - Control almost all media players, find videos, CD covers, videos, band bios all from within Firefox.
StumbleUpon - The top tool for finding websites that "might" appeal to your interests.
Zotero - a web research collection tool that works from within Firefox.

Check out the Firefox Campus Edition download here, and get set to get those computers ready.

Choosing the right cheap sunglasses for your face?

2007-08-27T13:52:00.001-07:00

I know I'm no good at it, and I could use some help, so I went looking and I found, Sunglass Hut: Choosing the right sunglasses for your face.

The Sunglass hut's artile covers such things as your facial shape. You can have a Round, Oval, Diamond, Square, Triangle or Oblong shaped face, no matter, they can help you find just the right pair of sunglasses for you. Maybe not me since, I'd have to say my face is more Oddlong than Oblong, but thats just me.

After finding the right type for your face you can go out to Lifehackers: Find cheap glasses online, to find find just right pair of "Cheap Sun Glasses" to wow your friends and family.

Notely, Students Get Organized This Semester

2007-08-23T17:06:00.000-07:00

Classes started yesterday, so it's time to get serious about getting organized for the semester. It's not to late to take a big step forward in getting your stuff where you can find it.

Take a look at Notely, Notely is the leading web based application designed specifically for students from a students point of view, Notely was designed with all the features a student would need, note taking, calendar, to-do list, task list and an upload area.

Here is a video demo of Notely, take a look and see for yourself if Notely is not your answer to keeping everything where you need it, to get the most from your college classes.

Muleskinner:UCM Named One of 'America's Best Colleges'

2007-08-22T19:04:00.000-07:00

In case you missed it, the Muleskinner reports:

UCM was just named one of "America's Best Colleges" by "U.S. News & World Report."

Among all public master's institutions in the Midwest, Central ranks 15th. It was also announced that, based on preliminary analysis, the incoming freshman class has the highest average ACT score in its history.

According to a University press release, UCM's Honors College contributes to this new ranking. The average ACT of incoming first-year honors students is 27.3, and their average high school grade point average is 3.8, said Peter Viscusi, dean of the college.

"America's Best Colleges" is an annual publication by "U.S. News" available on newsstands today and online at www.usnews.com/colleges. The annual rankings group schools based on categories created by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and is a popular resource for paraents and students who are contemplating which college or university best fits their education goals.

Comparative research is used to help students and their families make choices.

The "U.S. News & News World Report" rankings represent a comprehensive analysis of how more than 1,400 accredited four-year schools compare. The analysis is based on a set of 15 widely accepted indicators of excellence, such as graduation rates, class size, full-time faculty in the classroom and quality of incoming students.

Based on the criteria, UCM was named one of the top public universities in the Midwest, which includes institutions that offer baccalaureate degrees, master's degrees and a limited number of doctoral degrees.

- compiled from a UCM press release

Beyond the Earth, Lies the Sky – Google Announces Earth’s SkyH

2007-08-22T14:12:00.000-07:00

Wow, It has been a while since the Media has been so excited by the release of a new feature on and existing software product. Google Earth announced today the addition of Sky to Google Earth, and there are media reports everywhere Here are just a few:

Google LatLong: Sky: The final frontier, TechCrunch: Google Earth Heads For The Stars
and Gizmodo: Google Conquers the Stars After Fully Invading Earth

Other Discussions: VentureBeat, CyberNet Technology News, Search Engine Land, ResourceShelf, John Cook's Venture Blog, dailywireless.org, Lifehacker, franticindustries and Boing Boing

Free College Tuition, Senator Max Baucus Proposes

2007-08-22T13:38:00.000-07:00

Looks like the Congress Critters are trying to fix their legislative miscues with, you guessed it, more legislation.

Sen. Max Baucus (Dem from MT) wants to offer free college tuition for US math, science, and engineering majors conditional upon working or teaching in the field for at least four years. This of course is pointed a the problem created by the H1B bills. Originally created to "Solve a perceived shortage of Information Technology Professionals", the bills have accidentally devastated the math, science and engineering education programs across the country. H1B legislative by bringing in thousands of technical professionals from overseas has greatly depressed the growth rate of technical industry salaries which has resulted in fewer and fewer students choosing to go into these highly challenging fields.

Sure, free college tuition may increase the number of students entering the fields but until Congress wakes up and stops meddling with the free enterprise system by bringing in foreign technologists, I doubt they will find a permanent fix for the problem. In other words, If you want more US. math, science and engineering majors quit artificially lowering their value by bringing in foreign workers.

Firefox Campus Edition Coming Soon

2007-08-21T21:21:00.001-07:00

Here is a tip, If you are not already using Firefox then go out and get Mozilla’s Firefox Campus Edition, which is pre-bundled with several student specific extensions like Zotero, FoxyTunes and StumbleUpon.

It wasn't quite ready when I posted this but hopefully it will be there by the time you read this.

Are you a Complainer? Here is how to stop.

2007-08-21T18:41:00.001-07:00

Are people telling you that you complain too much? Is your complaining affecting your relationships? Well if so then Steve Pavlina has some excellent advice about how to change your behavior and stop complaining in How to Stop Complaining.

Steve says,

"The reason you may be stuck in a negative thought pattern right now is that at some point, you chose it. You figured the alternative of accepting full responsibility for everything in your reality would be worse. It's too much to handle. So you turned your own thoughts against yourself to avoid that awesome responsibility. And you'll continue to remain in a negative manifestation pattern until you're ready to start accepting some of that responsibility back onto your plate.

Negativity needn't be a permanent condition. You still have the freedom to choose otherwise. In practice this realization normally happens in layers of unfolding awareness. You begin to accept and embrace more and more responsibility for your life."

Need a Tape Measure, you could use your headphones?

2007-08-20T14:08:00.000-07:00

Collaborative DIY site Instructables has a net suggestion for making a quick ruler from your headphone cord. Just mark of the inches or centimeters for that matter, in whatever color you perfer, I personally like a dark shade of gray as to kind of go with the existing iPod gray. Check out the their post in Instructables article: Use Your Headphones as a Tape Measurer.

Job Hunting - Digital Dirty Laundry Lasts Forever

2007-08-17T18:25:00.001-07:00

For all those of you with Facebook and/or MySpace pages, and I know most of you do, you need to read Careers - Job Hunting - Digital Dirty Laundry Hurts Prospects from eWeeks blog. Did you know that besides indexing the internet, Google keeps a historical record of what has changed. So even if you delete those incriminating party pictures, Google still keeps a copy, and that is a bad thing when you consider:

"Since February 2005, the percentage of recruiters who say that they use search engines to learn more about job candidates has grown from 75 to 83 percent."

And

"The number of recruiters who have eliminated a candidate based on what they found online jumped from one quarter (25 percent) to nearly one half (43 percent). "

And last but not least:

"For better or worse, the Internet provides recruiters and employers with a wealth of unfiltered information that's used to help evaluate candidates, From a candidate's perspective, there's no question that managing your reputation online is as important as it is offline." says Dave Opton, CEO and founder of ExecuNet.

So before you get carried away with your new found freedom and you want to post the neat new pictures you took down on Pine Street last Thursday, remember, "While sticks and stones will break my bones the Internet lasts forever".

What is the Job Markets Golded Ticket? Answer = Internships

2007-08-17T18:24:00.001-07:00

After college, you want to get the very best job possible. To that end, you keep your grades up, your involved in numerous campus organizations, and you have even kept your record squeaky clean, with all that you would think you are a prime candidate to land a top level job.

Maybe not, check out eWeeks, Internships Becoming the Golden Ticket they discuss how doing an Internship in the summers prior to your Junior and Senior years is a great way to introduce you to the same managers that will be hiring you after you leave college. Think of your internship as one long job interview.

Even if you have no interest in joining the company you intern with, that internship experience may play a major role in evaluating you by the company you are interested in. Hiring managers will frequently contact the company you interned with for their opinion of you.