Surviving College With Gear And Sanity Intact?

Mshift2x writes "Like many others, I'm shipping off to college for the first time in a few days. I'm excited, nervous, and a whole array of emotions at the same time. I'm sure many slashdotters have gone through this already, and I'd appreciate any wisdom, suggestions, or thoughts the community could provide." More specifically, phrogeeb writes "Per our earlier Slashdot article on laptop lock insecurity, I've been looking around recently for other options as far as keeping track of my laptop and other semi-expensive and certainly valuable (for a college student) stuff in a dorm room setting. Any ideas? I'm looking for both laptop-specific and comprehensive solutions. Locks? Alarms? Video cameras? Trip wire? (A few serious suggestions would be appreciated.)"

Comments

ruff!

[jefe7777]

rottweiler ;-)

Re:ruff!

[garreth]

Treat your dorm room like a server room

Except with more beer and porn.

Re:ruff!

[bloo9298]

You should upgrade your server room!

Advice

[Anonymous Coward]

just tell all the chicks you meet that you had a front page post on slashdot. They love that.

Re:Advice

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, you're thinking of highschool.

Re:Advice

[caober]

Good thinking! His virginity will be kept safe that way too.

Re:Advice

[Sponge Bath]

...or become someone's bitch.

I thought he was an undergrad, not a Phd candidate.

Remember...

[Anonymous Coward]

When you meet the "morpheus" on your floor, remember to swallow the blue pill and not the red one.

Solution:

[LrdZombie]

Just kick someone's ass your first day. They'll leave your stuff alone.

Re:Solution:

[cbrocious]

No, no, no. That's prison. I doubt he's going to Assrape University.

Advice

[NicerGuy]

Either kick the crap out of someone the first day or become someone's bitch. Then nobody will mess with you. ... Wait, that's something different.

Typical karma-grabbing Slashdottian post

[NanoGator]

Don't use any gadgets! Use pencil and paper, they're cheap!

*patiently waits to be modded up to +5 Insightful even though this answer isn't the least bit helpful*

your sig...

[duffel]

'An Object at Rest Cannot be Stopped!'

I'd hate to get all relativistic on you, but it's an official physics standpoint that objects at rest can be stopped if regarded from another frame of reference that is moving with respect to the original frame. Just so you know. ;)

Times have changed.

[merdaccia]

Locks? Alarms? Video cameras? Trip wire?

You could just ask her out ...

My solution

[hopemafia]

Behave like a psychopath, start your own murder for hire business and post information about it on your door, make it known you plan to take over the world, and then develop a reputation of divinity...

Worked for me!

Re:Don't tape your dorm.

[sulli]

No, do tape your dorm.

With duct tape.

You won't be able to get in or out, but that's the price you pay for security.

Protection.

[ThousandStars]

Treat your dorm room like a server room, always lock it up.

Treat your penis the same way, lest you contract malware that even Norton Anti-Virus won't clean up.

Re:Protection.

[RsG]

It's not a problem. Most slashdotters have a "personality firewall" that shields them from infection. This revolutionary technology can prevent malware bearing toolbars from intalling on the user's front end port by "creeping" the infected host.

For those wishing to adopt the personality firewall, it's public domain freeware that can be aquired either intentionally from other geeks, or indavertantly by reading too much /. Bugs may include inability to network effectively with other users' wetware.

Note to lightsaber bearing mods: Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!

Re:Protection.

[Dr Reducto]

Funny story....my roomates friend hooked up with Robert Norton's daughter over the weekend. He was telling us, and said "It would be pretty ironic if she gave me a virus." I was laughin for like 5 minutes solid.

What? lots of HS students on Slashdot?!

[iammaxus]

We all know that there are millions of pimple-faced teens lurking about /. but most of the time, they stay out of sight with their GNAA posts getting quietly modded down to -1. No need to bring them to the fore with an article like this. Incidentally, I am a pimple-faced teen, but I am not proud!

Losing papers?

[Mal-2]

I thought the correct thing to do when you lose your "really good paper" is to get really stoned and do Apple "switch" commercials.

Mal-2

Trap!

[Webs 101]

An unlocked minifridge, full of beer and Malibu, with a stack of porn on top, is not only guaranteed to prevent further intrusion into your stuff, but it will, like flypaper and often just as sticky, entrap any pests and hold them fast until you return.

Re:everyone is dumb in college!

[Eric_Cartman_South_P]

...college kids are really stupid and naive... ...I'm still figuring college out myself...

hehe.

I hear that a 4 year university starts getting easier to "figure out" around year 7. Hang in there!

Bah

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's the real answer. Get a gun. And then make sure everyone knows how badly you want to use it.

Regrets

[Gilmoure]

The only regrets I have (I'm now married, with child-no fun allowed) are what (who) I didn't do in college. I never tried acid. I never got wasted every night for a month. I never slept with a hooker. Actually the biggest regrets I have are for the chicks I never did. Except for the fat girl I woke up next to, after drinking tequila. She was naked but I had my clothes on so I hope nothing happened but the fear is still there.

As for school, it doesn't really matter what you do. Once peak oil hits, it's all a white line nightmare and, unless you're good with a supercharged V8 and a crossbow, you'll be dog food.

You've *Got* To Get Out More

[meehawl]

Sex. Women do all their freaky stuff in college

Obviously you've never met 30- and 40-somethings at Burning Man or similar...

A new age of Slashdot

[Chmcginn]

We've transcended the dupe story. Even the dupe post. We now present to you, for the first time ever, the intra-duped post.

(Scratches head)

This advice does not help

[commodoresloat]

Trust me, if you can't eat it, f*ck it, or drive it, you don't NEED it.

That won't help a bit. You can still end up spending a LOT of money following this advice.

Re:Lock your dorm door = number 1 rule.

[Toresica]

I would suggest, if you haven't got a laptop yet, a PowerBook,
If you haven't gotten a laptop yet, get a desktop. End of story, IMO.

a chick on slashdot? can I get your number?
It's right there, beside my name. See? "Toresica (788403)"... oh, the other kind of number...

Regualr guy VS Geek

[ayjay29]

Regualr guy:
"Great! I'm off to collage, need some tips on the best places to party, the best clubs, and where all the hot chicks hang out."

Geek:
"I've been looking around recently for other options as far as keeping track of my laptop and other semi-expensive and certainly valuable (for a college student) stuff in a dorm room setting. Any ideas? I'm looking for both laptop-specific and comprehensive solutions. Locks? Alarms? Video cameras? Trip wire?"