tech geek | TalkNerdy2Me TM

Dear Santa, All I Want for Christmas is CS5

Every time I walk in the mall and pass Santa and his little elves, I can’t help but get a little envious of little 5-year old Sally. She gets to sit on Santa’s lap and go through her whole Christmas wish list! If I had it my way, I would sit on his lap and ask for one thing and one thing only. Adobe Creative Suite 5 – queue the heavenly humming angels.

Minoring in digital design forced me to become familiar with the software. But now that I have used CS5 in the classroom, I am begging to have it on my laptop at home. One word sums up this software, AMAZING. Even if you are not a digital design junkie, CS5 allows you to let your creativity go wild and free as if you were in the African Sahara. There are so many different functions to the software that you can do virtually anything with each program included. Whether it is to photoshop your Facebook photos, create an interesting collage, or even create your own cartoon, those are just a few of the many things that you can do with Adobe CS5.

CS5 includes Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver, Flash Professional, Flash Catalyst, Fireworks, Acrobat, Bridge, and Device Central which was integrated in CS3. Device Central allows you, the developer to create content intended for mobile devices. CS5 has been updated with the most recent electronic devices including personal tablets. This is really handy for web designers or bloggers who stay glued to their smartphones. Take your website to the next level and design it through CS5.

CS5 is an investment. And I’m not just saying that because I’m an advocate, but in reality it allows you to create your own images. For example, if you have any graphic requirements in any other class, you can make them on CS5. If the organization that you are in needs 200 promotional flyers, you can make them yourself using CS5! Need to present a brochure for your business class? Invest in CS5! Need to display a building you designed for your engineering class? Invest in CS5! Need to interactively display the inside of a human body for Biology? Invest in CS55! Create your own website and capitalize on the domain name. You can turn a helpful software program on your computer into a fully marketable business.

To give you an even better picture to paint (pun intended), in class we learned how to take a really old photo that had cracks and white specks just from enduring a lot over the years. I was able to manipulate the photo so that it looked like it was taken just yesterday, even though it was 75 years old. My professor, who is a professional graphic artist, told us that a service like that would cost someone around $100 if they brought the photo to someone who had the capabilities. I was able to complete it in 30 minutes! $100 for every 30 minutes? Come on we are all college students, do the math. Having this software will allow you to do extraordinary things, inside and outside of your course requirements. My suggestion is to use it for an even better advantage, and offer your services and talents for a pretty penny.

There’s no way I could go into all of the different things you can do with CS5. You’ll just have to get the program and see what I’m talking about, and what I’m leaving out. Enter the raffle to win Adobe CS5, and if you don’t win, ask Santa for CS5 for Christmas. If he sees that all the little boys and girls around the world want the software so bad and just want to love it with all their heart, then we can convince him to give all of us the suite!

By the way… students can receive 80% off the full price of the Adobe software! Get more information here.

Hey NSCS Members: We’re giving away a copy of Adobe CS5 to one lucky member! Enter the #TalkNerdy2Me contest, simply check out our Facebook Page for contest rules on how you can win a copy of the popular Adobe CS5! The contest ends on Monday, December 19th at midnight and we will announce the winner on Tuesday, December 20th.

Ashley Williams is a junior, Broadcast Journalism major and Digital Design minor at Howard University. She is a member of The National Society of Collegiate Scholars and the Social Action chair for the NSCS chapter at Howard University. She is a chic geek at heart as she truly enjoys shopping for great deals and putting different styles together. She enjoys sharing her deals, beauty and fashion secrets to whoever is willing to listen. She is a contributing writer for TalkNerdy2Me and Hercampus.com.

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Tags: Adobe, Adobe CS5, college, Geek, giveaway, graphic design, national society of collegiate scholars, NSCS, TalkNerdy2Me

Categories: campus geek, pop geek, tech geek

Video Chatting with Jake and Amir

Back in September I had the incredible pleasure of taking part in a video-chat with Jake and Amir of CollegeHumor fame through the Google+ hangout feature. I was one of a few bloggers invited to participate and we took turns asking the guys questions about school, social media and personal branding. Side note: if you don’t know who Jake and Amir are then a) shame on you and b) go check out their videos now!

Regrettably, Amir’s sound stopped working partway into the interview so he spent the rest of the session typing out his responses and asking Jake to read them in his voice. Most of what Amir typed included the phrase “and now with more cats!” which Jake didn’t find quite as funny as the rest of us (yes, I was the annoying one laughing at everything #fangirlmoment).

One of the best parts of the interview for me was getting to see Jake and Amir just being themselves, rather than acting as their Internet personas. While it is pretty obvious that Amir is a goofball and Jake is the more levelheaded one, the guys are obviously not as black and white as they are made out to be online. For example, I recall Jake mentioning his use of a flesh-colored thong on multiple occasions, keep in mind that the whole interview took less than an hour, (if you’re curious, it was for an episode where he gets his pants pulled down) and Amir gave some tips on how to self-promote.

Lucky for us the guys were great about answering any question we threw at them honestly and they even threw in some funny stories as well. My personal favorite involved a jellybean-spit eating contest (you really don’t want the details on that one, just know there is either one very brave or very stupid CollegeHumor intern involved). The guys also discussed how they started out as writers for CollegeHumor and how the web series developed from there. They shared their belief that their success comes from their dependability and perseverance; the guys have released two videos a week since the start of their online series, regardless of the size of their fan base, which Jake said keeps the fans interested and the show alive. They even answered when asked if being famous helped out their love lives in any way. Jake said not really (though he did meet his girlfriend at work…sad) and Amir responded that he was engaged to a fangirl he met in an online chat. Jake seemed really happy for them.

Overall, it was an amazing experience for me to “meet” the comedians whose videos I quote with my sister all the time (if you’re curious, she’s Jake and I’m Amir). It was incredible to hear about how two regular guys worked to build a name for themselves and ended up famous with a gigantic Internet following. So to all of you out there with big dreams, don’t give up (and maybe team up with a friend who’s a bit nuts).

If you want to know exactly what the guys said, you can find a full transcript of our chat over at CollegeInfoGeek.

Thoughts? Comment below!

Jessica Errera is a Sophomore, double majoring in Dramatic Art and English at The University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill. She loves theatre, reading, tennis and all things FASHION. She is also a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars and a contributing writer for TalkNerdy2Me. You can follow Jessica on Twitter at @thisJESStin.

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Tags: Adobe, Adobe Imagination Challenge, college, CollegeHumor, comedy, humor, Jake and Amir, national society of collegiate scholars, NSCS, TalkNerdy2Me

Categories: pop geek, tech geek

Remember the Milk

I’ve discovered yet another way to organize my busy schedule. At rememberthemilk.com, I can manage my personal to-do list (like scheduling that dentist appointment or buying groceries), my school to-do list (like reading for Communication Law or studying for an exam), and my extra-curricular to-do list (like scheduling chapter meetings for NSCS or writing a Fulbright essay).

My rating for Remember The Milk is 9/10. The features are easy to use and provide a wealth of organizational opportunities.For example, tasks can be organized into different lists. Within these lists, you can tag items. The list I use most often is “Study.” Within “Study,” there is a tag for each of my classes – i.e. honrs296, tcom384, eng425. I have found that this makes maintaining an up-to-date to-do list much more simple. Another terrific feature is notes. If the title section of the task is not enough to explain it, there is a sidebar where the user can write notes. At first, I worried that I would forget I wrote a note but Remember The Milk places a small note icon next to tasks that have notes.

Though I do not use a smart phone, I learned that the application for Remember The Milk pulls the whole experience together. The website turned application is easy to use and great for on-the-go scheduling. If you are using another type of mobile device, you can request daily text messages with your tasks. Additionally, Remember The Milk provides an inbox list for tasks that you remember AFK. You can use your phone to send it to your task list. Another application that utilizes Remember The Milk is Google Calendar. Before Remember The Milk, I would make all-day events to remind myself of tasks that I needed to complete. Now, a check mark appears on each day and I can look at Remember The Milk tasks. Overall, it makes for a lot less clutter.

You may ask, why not a 10/10? My response is that, like most websites, there is room for improvement. Ideally, I would prefer not to type out the date every time I enter a task from my syllabus. Even though typing ^ before the date is pretty quick, a small, simple calendar would allow me to enter due dates at the click of a button. A feature that I would love to see added to Remember The Milk is a syllabus reader. Most of my professors email syllabi with detailed outlines of due dates. If Remember The Milk could make the task input for simple course syllabi even easier, I’d save several hours of typing “Read Ch. 3 ^09/13/2011,” “Read Ch. 4 ^09/22/2011,” and so on.

Overall, my life is MUCH more organized and manageable thanks to Remember The Milk. Creating an account is free and I highly recommend it if you have a busy schedule with more than one to-do list at any given time.

Jessica Hoffmann is a Ball State University student from Lafayette, Indiana. She will graduate in the spring of 2012 with a major in Telecommunications – Digital Production and a minor in Theatre. Aside from studying, Jessica spends her time working at two jobs, serving as the President for the BSU chapter of National Society of Collegiate Scholars, and serving on the board for Indiana Zeta Alpha Psi Omega. She enjoys spending time with her friends and family, learning new languages, watching TV shows, and going to the movies.

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Tags: apps, college, iphone, national society of collegiate scholars, NSCS, remember the milk, staying organized, TalkNerdy2Me, to-do lists

Categories: campus geek, tech geek

Top 5 Apps that Every College Student Needs

Nowadays almost every college student has an iPhone and/or iTouch and its important to have the best apps for them. I recently just got myself an iPhone this last summer and I’m obsessed with trying to find new apps. I’m pretty sure I check iTunes several times a week, if not daily.

Here’s a list of my five favorite apps in no particular order:

Social Media Apps
There are too many for me to list them individually so I decided to list them as a group. This group consists of but is not limited to: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, WordPress and FourSquare. If you are anything like me and you are obsessed with social media than you should have some or all of these apps. They are perfect for staying in touch friends and family as well as keeping up to date on the world.
Netflix
You will quickly learn that it will be your best and worst enemy in college. It is best when you want to either catch up on your shows or re-watch shows/ movies. However it can quickly turn into an obsession. I love having it on my phone especially when I am traveling back and forth from school and home or when the internet at my house isn’t working.
Online News
Since I am a journalism student, I love keeping up to date on current events. Some of my favorite news sources are USA Today, NY Times, Huffington Post and if I am feeling ambitious the Wall Street Journal.
Comedic Relief
Sometimes reading the news can just bring you down and whenever I need a break from the real world I turn to apps that simply make me laugh. Some of my favorite are Texts From Last Night (TFLN) or the Onion. These are just some of my favorite apps. You can also get comedic relief with many of the different games that iTunes has to offer.
Travel Apps
Since I am an out of state and a travel freak I have a lot of different types of travel apps on my phone. Two of my favorites are Southwest and CheapOAir. I mainly use my Southwest app when I am flying from school to back home. Its my everyday practical app for traveling. Whenever I am bored in class or have the urge to fly somewhere else I use CheapOAir. It allows me to find look at a wide range of airlines that fly all around the world. I often find myself looking up flights to different parts of the world when I am bored. Maybe one day I will actually book one.

Emily Miller is a sophomore at the the University of Missouri majoring Journalism and Political Science with a French minor. She was born and raised a Chicagoan but is currently living in Columbia, Missouri. She’s actively involved in the American Advertising Federation, Mizzou for Movember, a member of NSCS and a writer for the Odyssey newspaper and J-School Buzz at Mizzou. After graduation she wishes to pursue a career working for a marketing, advertising or public relations firm. Emily a passion for traveling and her life goal is to completely fill out a passport. She lives by the motto, “Live each day like it’s your last.” Follow her on Twitter at @Miilleerrr.

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Tags: android, apps, campus, college life, Facebook, iPad, iphone, iPod, LinkedIn, national society of collegiate scholars, Netflix, NSCS, smartphone, TalkNerdy2Me, travel, Tumblr

Categories: tech geek

Technology Requirements on Campus

As high school students graduate and move on to college one of the many decisions that they are going to face before moving in is buying a computer. They need to figure out which one is right for them. The decision of what computer to buy kinda depends on what career path they are going to take. The typically choice for college students is a laptop since its portable and is easy to take to class. Some universities even encourage students to buy a certain type of laptop because of different features and benefits that they have. One of the main issues with this is that some universities may recommend a pricer laptop and some students may not be able to afford.

In previous years the University of Missouri School of Journalism recommended that all of their incoming freshman to buy a MacBook Pro and also buy an iTouch as well. The University of Missouri’s reasoning for this was that MacBook Pros had more features that journalism students would benefit from. Another reasoning was that the School of Journalism primarily used Macs in all of their computer labs and that if a student owned their own Mac it would be easier for them to use. A major concern that a lot of incoming students had was that MacBooks are also double the price of a PC. The basic MacBook Pro starts at around $1100 while the average PC costs around $550. You can see that their is a huge difference in price that many students might not be able to afford. Another concern is that students are afraid that they might not use all the feature of their computer to help make up the difference. Especially with today’s economy people are more hesitant to invest that much money into a laptop even though they are excellent laptops. After much debate the University of Missouri decided that recommending such an expensive laptop might not be the best decision on their part. One of the main reasons why they first started to recommend Macs was that many students currently enrolled preferred Macs over PC and then used this information to help the incoming student make their decision.

The University of Missouri isn’t the only school that has technology requirements some other schools have this as well. The University of Phoenix doesn’t specifically say which laptop they prefer but they give guidelines on their website to help students make their own judgements. On their website they list different features that students should look for in a computer that will help maximize their college experience. Some students prefer this because than they can make their own judgements on what laptop to buy.

After the past couple of years Universities across the nation are realizing that students and their parents and more cautious of their money and want to make sure that it is going towards the proper needs. Almost everyone had to re-evaluate their want and needs because of what happened with the economy. Universities cutting back on their technology requirements or recommendation is a very good thing because students will feel less pressure about getting a certain type of laptop.

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Tags: campus, college, college life, computers, national society of collegiate scholars, NSCS, TalkNerdy2Me, technology

Categories: campus geek, tech geek

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The National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS) is an honors organization that recognizes and elevates high achievers. NSCS provides career and graduate school connections, leadership and service experiences, access to discounts and savings as well as $250,000 in scholarships annually. NSCS members are deeply committed to service, integrity and scholarship and, as a result, are impacting their campus and local communities every day. Read more...

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