Conventional Wisdom

I always wish I had known these things when I first started college:

• Hughes Breakfast & Lunch - Quite possibly the best and cheapest breakfast food anywhere on campus. With real ingredients, fresh eggs and Starbucks-brewed coffee (take it or leave it). Little known and great for winding down on Fridays.

• Oakenshield's Trays - Are the most aerodynamically pleasing and sturdy trays for traying down Libe.

• Cornell v. Colgate Hockey - The rivalry and atmosphere is near the heights of Cornell v. Harvard (sucks), but the tickets are a half to a third of the price ;)

• Overnight Course Reserves - Impossible? Never! Just make sure you take them out right before close, and ask nicely.

• 24-hour laptop loans - at Carpenter Library.

• Phillips 101 Movies - Want to watch Lord of the Rings or Tombstone on the big screen? Don't have a car? Bring your laptop to Phillips 101 on a Friday night and hook it up at the lectern. Voila! Big screen entertainment and movie theater-style seating.

• Info Sessions and Career Fairs - The best places to mooch free goodies and excellent, catered food. Even if you're not looking for a job, it pays to stop by these events. The career fair will probably even provide you with a bag for your haul. And who knows, you may actually see something you like.

• Collegetown Eating Deals -
  
• Nine's deepdish slices
  
• Souvlaki House Calzones
• Bento Box lunch specials at Plum Tree

Have more advice? Send me ideas and I'll post them :)

Campus Film (Destruction!)

I just sent in my first roll of film to be developed on campus since 2003. Let's hope it doesn't come back like the last roll did, ripped and melted. Seriously, I'm crossing my fingers, haha...

"I swing big, with everything I've got. I hit big or I miss big. I like to live as big as I can." - Babe Ruth

Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.

- Dr. Seuss (Attributed)

Tip of the Day: Don't put "secrets" in plain sight

http://::your site::/::server::/::id::_::secret::_::size::.jpg

If you're trying to protect content on your site, you really shouldn't be putting this in the html:

id = some number
server = some 2-digit number
secret = some hexadecimal hash

Might not work too well if people start using it to fill in the above url.

College Students to sway Vista sales slump?

About a week ago, my closest ~2,000 engineering friends and I were pleasantly surprised to see Microsoft on campus - handing out free copies of Windows Vista for students! Like anything worthwhile and offered for free, all of the physical copies the MS folk had brought along quickly evaporated.

But being the nice, kind people that they are, Microsoft took the names and email addresses of students down on plain notebook paper -- with the promise of delivering a Vista license key to your inbox.

Too good to be true?

While I haven't received my Vista key yet (only requirement was 'being an engineer'), this move makes sense if you think about adoption of a new OS. Why give away your expensive, flagship product?

(1) Us computer-types are first-adopters and likely to influence others in their decision to upgrade.

(2) Could we possibly be counted as "Vista Sales"? Might this be a ploy to pump up the number of Vista purchases MS can report...to further encourage sales?


It's a tipping point all over again. Encourage early adopters (and those with influence, power) with incentives. Get enough initial support to sway a critical mass. Profit. :-P

I'm willing to be a Vista guinea pig. I signed up. I'm waiting!