Resources for Success: Issue 2

Posted by Michael Biornstad on Oct 6, 2011 in Academy | 0 comments

Hipmunk
“The remarkable new travel search site that aims to take the agony out of travel,” is an essential resource for university students who hope to travel home for the holidays (assuming home is a further trip than walking upstairs from mom and dad’s basement). They do have a Google Chrome app (which of course I use), but just visit their site to see how it works. Hipmunk compares flight costs and prioritizes flights in a really unique way. And they don’t charge you like Pricepoint or Expedia. They simply point you to the cheapest airline.

Awesome Screenshot: Capture & Annotate
This little extension for Google Chrome is simple and handy. It allows you to take a picture of whatever is being displayed on your screen, annotate it in a number of different ways, and then upload and share it. So say goodbye to the days of “Print Screen,” and pasting into Microsoft Paint (I’ve just lost half my readers…), because this little feature makes everything easier.

TweetDeck
By now I know you’re all on Twitter after reading my last spurring bit on the value and benefit of the resource, so I want to suggest TweetDeck. There are a number of different mediums through which the application can be used but no matter which one you choose, it can be a helpful too for keeping your Twitter world in order. I personally just use the Google Chrome app but if it’s more handy for you to have it on your desktop and off of your browser, then by all means go that route. The app allows you to sort your followers and even allows you to decide if you want to post to both Twitter and Facebook if you so choose. It’s a good tool for organizing the Twitterverse.

Grooveshark (or Spotify when it gets to Canada)
For now I’m going to recommend Grooveshark but it’s replacement, Spotify, is just around the corner, so don’t get too attached. Both work somewhat similarly in that a listener accesses music on “the cloud” or remotely and doesn’t actually download and possess the song. Grooveshark, self-professed to be the “world’s largest international community of music lovers,” allows a logged in user to compile playlists and search through a massive catalog of music that essentially pulls from myspace, band sites, and your little sister’s blog. Spotify has the legal backing that Grooveshark lacks. It will cost around $10 a month but I assure you, the interface and unlimited access makes it worth the money.

Google Chrome or Firefox
As far as browsers go I almost exclusively use Google Chrome. I use Firefox occasionally for specific “Add On” features made for the browser, but for the most part my loyalty goes to Chrome and the multibillionaires over at Google. But no matter which browser you choose, both have very handy apps and extensions that let you customize and optimize your browsing experience. I’ll consistently be suggesting apps, extensions, or add-ons for these browsers. So if you’re using Safari or, God help you, Internet Explorer, I probably won’t be much help to you.

Words with Friends
I don’t want to recommend this… but I am. It’s Scrabble. No more and possibly even a little less; however, for some reason this stupid game is as addicting as crack. Typically I binge on the app and then find myself quitting cold turkey for a week or two and then binging again. It’s a vicious cycle. So give it a try, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Michael Biornstad