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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.)"
In my college days, I didn't have any high-tech gadgets at all, I only need to worry about people stealing my lecture notes!
But seriously, don't bring too many expensive devices, and if you have to, don't show off them in the public.
Uselessful technology (Air-Charged
There's only one thing that is almost guaranteed to work, and thats locking your door. When you sleep, go to class, take a dump, take a shower, lock your door. If you don't you're just asking for trouble no matter how well you trust your floor.
Depending on your dorm layout the person responsible probably doesn't live on your floor. That said there's plenty of outsiders who might pass through looking for goodies. If you live near the ground floor don't let things be easy to spot through the window, and keep it shut with the shade closed when you're gone if you're on the ground floor.
Presently here, but not there.
Locking your doors when you leave is always a good one. I spent five years living in a campus setting and I don't remember ever hearing of someone who got their door busted in to have stuff stolen, but I have heard plenty of stories about people walking into unlocked rooms.
Treat your dorm room like a server room, always lock it up.
- Sometimes you're the pidgeon, sometimes you're the statue.
Lots of times your parents' homeowner's policy will cover your stuff - have them check that out first.
buy yourself a cheap webcam and hook it up with the linux program motion and you'll have tons of fun watching pictures of how someone stole your life savings. Just make a warning sign on the door :)
-- Checking emails and kicking cheats `till the day I die.
Write down the MAC Address of your Laptop. If yoru laptop gets stolen contact who ever runs the DHCP server on campus. They will be able to tell you what the last IP Address of the laptop was and where it was plugged in and when! (what dorm should depend on what subnet). I have recovered laptops for people using this technique at my University sometimes finding it is plugged in right as we checked! Call the local cops and they bust right in and your laptop is back! Nick D
Agreed. A lot of it too depends on what the group of guys you live with are like. During the two years I lived in a dorm, the guys in my corridor were all really cool. Anytime someone saw something that didn't look legit, they'd step up. During the evenings it was common for people to have their doors propped open with laptops open on their desk, but only if some of the corridor-mates were hanging in the hall.
Really, the simplest thing is to exercise basic security precautions. If you don't go out of your way to flaunt all your expensive stuff, and you and your roommate keep your door locked at all times, you'll be problem free. As a side benefit of always locking your door, you'll never lock yourself out because you will always be in the habit of patting your pocket as you shut the door to make sure your keys are there. It's the guys who sometimes lock their door, sometimes don't that are always having to pay to be let back in by the RA.
Trust me, your average college thief is an opportunist, or a drunk. If it requires more than a little bit of effort, they'll move on. And in a typical dorm, there are plenty of easier targets out there. Kicking in a door in a dorm is bound to attract some attention.
You really need to worry about the security of your possessions when you move OFF campus to a house or something where there are parties going on. Mix in 100+ people who are imbibing, and there's always the potential for something bad to happen. Generally it's not theft, it's puke. Here again, locking your door at all times will keep 99.995% of the problems away.
Good luck to you - I'm sure once you've settled in and gotten a term or two under your belt, you'll be like I was saying "now what in the world was I so worried about?" You'll know you've made the transition when you start using the word "Home" to refer to whatever place you're not at without even thinking about it (ie, at your parent's you say 'Well, I need to load the car to head home', while at school you say 'I'm going home this weekend!')
While I agree that this is a good idea, it is not a complete solution. Imagine if you will, as you are approaching the Holidays getting ready to put the finishing touches on your killer term paper, and poof your laptop is gone.
Flash forward to your friendly neighborhood insurance agent office, filling out your claim for your uber cool $3k laptop, they may well cut you a check, but I doubt they will provide you with the 20 pages of history term paper that you have already pounded out.
Hint, when backing up your work, start thinking multiple physical locations.... But then again what is an education without having to re-write a paper or two, so on second thought forget the backups and go have some fun....8)
Not off campus housing. I also was worried, but sometime deductible on homeowners insurance are quite high (if you roof gets blown of your not up-***-creek, but if a window is broken your just gonna pay for it yourself. val1s
I can't emphasize that enough. Get up, and actually make it to those classes that you or your parents are paying good money for you to attend. Most professors don't care if you go or not, your roommates certainly won't care, and unless you live at home, you're parents won't know if you do or not, until you flunk out. Too many of my friends, when they first taste the freedom of college, decided that since no one is forcing them to go to every class, they don't actually go to any of them.
I don't care how smart you are, if you don't attend the classes, you won't learn the material. Trying to keep up by just reading the textbook won't cut it anymore. You will often cover things in the class that won't actually be in the book, but will help you understand the material better.
Oh, and don't forget to do all those papers, homework assignments and to study for the tests too.
The parent is funny, but his sarcasm makes a good point. Coming from a senior in college, don't be one of those people who are complete assholes about their stuff. One year there was this one guy who roomed with my friend that I loved to fuck with his stuff just because he would put locks and security mesures on everything. For example he locked the back of his computer with a physical lock, set a bios password, and had your basic login password for his RH9 system. I simply picked the lock, reset the bios after getting inside, then booted from a live cd and changed the root password, all because he was so rabidly paranoid in thinking people were out to get him. I would have never fucked with his stuff had he not made such a big deal over it.
The point is simple: Most roomates (especially freshman year) are generally very nice. Even people you would have never gotten along with in high school will be your best pal, simply because you HAVE to live there in close quarters to each other for so long. You will give the EXACT WRONG message by locking your stuff up. Instead, if it becomes a problem, talk to your RA (or whatever they call them at your school) about it, and THEN invest in locks and security.
As far as the rest of campus goes, just don't leave your laptop anywhere. As long as you have it with you physically outside of dorm you should be fine. In the dorm be nice to your roomate! Chances are he'll look after your stuff just as he does his own. That is, unless he's a sociopath, and you'll figure that out pretty quickly.
Don't sport around some snobbish $200 laptop bag. Get a $30 army surplus bag or the like and use it. It'll have more room for your books, anyways. Utility bags are rigid enough to hide the form of what's in them. There's always someone on every campus (or airport or train station...) looking for some idiot to put down his trendy look-at-me-I-can-afford-a-laptop bag.
Multiple Kegs, cold and on tap the entire time. No matter how techno weenie you are, if your are the beholder of beer, you'll get at least 1 chick.
Locking your ddor won't work, as several keys in a dorm will unock several doors. (There are only so many combinations of tumblers).
Most colleges give out free condoms. Use them. Daily.
Have fun!
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
...you know, the kind that are $3 at the supermarket. I guess they're called "slaps" or "flip flops" or something else depending on the part of the country you're in.
This is because dorm showers become extremely filthy and disgusting with normal dirt during the week, and even moreso on weekends when you have people vomiting in them and the cleaning staff is usually absent. You do not want to walk around in those suckers barefoot. If you do, your feet will be absolutely filthy by the time you get back to your room and you're going to have some smelly-ass sneakers at best and smelly-ass sneakers AND athlete's foot at worst.
As for laptops? Uh, don't leave them unattended or unlocked.
OtakuBooty.com: Smart, funny, sexy nerds.
But really, it's your call. Whatever you feel most comfortable with.
- A
Ultimately if someone really really wants to steal your notebook. They will. There is nothing you can really do.
:). Insurance is frequently overlooked, and while getting your laptop stolen would be shitty - being unable to afford to replace it would be far far worse.
The one thing I've recommended to friends of mine, and I will be purchasing one myself - is a backpack with a notebook slot. They are a bit less obvious on campus than traditional laptop bags which will reduce your likelihood of someone just walking past and grabbing the bag when your not looking (as they would be expecting textbooks not a laptop in a backpack).
But ultimately you need insurance. I don't know what insurance policies are like around the world, but I'm a unviersity student with 'tenant' insurance, not in dorms though, its only a $500CDN deductible if my laptop gets stolen, be it on campus or from my home. As well it is replacement insurance - not cash value insurance - so that I don't get a lower payout as my laptop depreciates in value - they would be paying for me to replace it with a laptop of equivalent value in the future.
That's what I've done to protect my shiny new IBM Thinkpad T41 that I love so much
As for gear I haven't had any problems and I dont employ any uber security methods, other than data security which really doesn't help for gear getting stolen, so I'll answer the sanity part since few people have.
Pretty much every one of these I violated my first semester, and have since changed and had a significant improvement in my college experience.
Don't bring 6 computers, two monitors/keyboards/mice, two PDAs, a PS2 + dreamcast + gba, a stereo, two TVs, a dvd player, a few old hardware for "conversation pieces" and your laptop. I did this my first semester, and while I won the "most geeky person in hightower hall" contest (not a real contest), I had no need for all that stuff. Bring a laptop, one desktop, one test machine, a TV, one or two game consoles which at least one should double as a dvd player, and some speakers. Maybe a PDA if thats your thing.
Cancel your Everquest (or whatever) accounts. I was a 4-year Everquest player and got to college and found out that Everquest didn't work on the university network. I was pretty pissed off about it for two weeks, but after a month or so I realized that I was much better off than had I been playing Everquest. I didn't even care about losing my multiple level 65's with 200+ AA after six weeks.
Get involved. We have a linux users group here at my university which is really active and very awesome. Met a lot of my now college friends this way. I'm sure your university will have an ACM chapter, an IEEE chapter, and a bunch of other geeky stuff. Join all of them. You also have a good side effect here of resume-whoring.
Don't be afraid to have fun. If you get arrested a few times, its no big deal. Do stupid stuff often and without premeditation. You'll have alot more fun this way.
Go to class at least half the time.
I was going to mod you up, but you are anon.
:
Actually this is the smartest thing I expect to read in this thread, while also being the simplest and cheapest.
Lock your damn door, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It doesn't matter if you are in the room, not in the room, just running real quick down to the bathroom or across the hall to another room with the doors open. If you don't have one foot in the door and one foot out the door, throw the deadbolt.
As for your sanity, here are some rules for life in college
1. Sex. Women do all their freaky stuff in college, so have an open mind and hit as much of it as you possibly can. Buy a big box of condoms and some good lube (google for 'millenium id').
2. Class. A good education is important, but don't let it interfere with #1.
3. Network. Not TCP/IP, but people. Every job you get in the future is going to be because of who you know, so get to know a LOT of people. Get to know them well so they don't forget you.
4. The Law. Graduating from college doesn't erase your law record, so don't get arrested.
5. The Dollar. You are going to get a lot of offers for credit cards. Credit cards are not 'free money'. If you can't pay cash for it, and if you haven't managed to save enough money to buy it in the last 6 months, what makes you think you are going to earn enough money in the next 6 months to pay for whatever you are considering putting on plastic? Graduating from college doesn't erase your credit history either, so don't screw it up.
6. The Warez and MP3z. Add #5 and #6 above up and decide if you can afford it. I'm guessing you probably can't, so don't do it from your own computer.
7. Take a few classes for personal enrichment. You aren't going to meet the best chicks in your software engineering classes.
Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
Do as the business travelers do, If you carry a laptop, keep it in a bag that will protect it from falls, and always keep the bag where you can see it.
Usually It's also better to put the shoulder strap over your head, (as in bag on left hip, strap across right shoulder)
The laptop bags Compaq has been handing out to teachers and students lately seem to be following the trend of not having any logos or brand names on it that scream "Laptop Bag!"
You don't understand--I went to school with him--he's not joking.
"Recta non toleranda futuaris nisi irrisus ridebis"
Espically if you bike is going to be sitting in one place for a long time (like you live in a dorm or something). Get a GOOD U-lock (like a Kryptonite) and lock it around the frame and front tire, not just the tire. Then get an additonal heavy chain lock (one of the kinds with a cover on them to help screw bolt cutters) and lock that around the tires and frame.
Really, theives LOVE stealing bikes and even a good U-lock can be defeated without a whole lot of trouble. You want to make yours look much harder than anyone else's hence the double locks. Even that is still no gaurentee.
Bah.
The best solution for taking notes (other than perhaps a tablet PC) is a cheap laptop. Not valuable enough to get stolen, not a replacement for a real machine (so you still have a real machine to back up onto and stuff in the very likely event that your laptop is damaged/broken/stolen), but very very useful.
With some creative Word customization, I was able to keep up with most classes. So my notes were much better, especially given that my handwriting sucks.
PDAs are wretched for taking notes on.
Gentoo Sucks
I spent two years in the dorms and they were two years I'd never want to give up. I didn't want to spend a 3rd year there and I moved off campus, but nowhere you ever live will be like the dorms will. There's always someone around to do something with, you continually meet new and interesting people, and you will almost never, ever, ever have such close proximity to that many women your age again. Move off campus after you've lived in the dorms and met people, it's great to live off campus, but living in the dorms is an experience I'd never give up.
This is very simple actually: Get renters' insurance and stop worrying about all the rest of it. Bottom line is that there's just no way to ensure in a dorm environment that everything is safe. Even if you lock things down like a government agency with high tech surveillance and alarms, your roommate will leave the door open one day and then it all is for naught.
Renters insurance will cost you for the year far less than a single piece of security equipment, probably about the same as a cheapass webcam which would probably get stolen too if it ever comes to that. Back up the critical data to cd and leave it with a friend in another room from time to time, and password protect your laptop in hopes that whoever steals it won't be able to hack in. Beyond that its just not worth the headache to try to keep an eye on everything, its just equipment that you can buy again down at Best Buy with the insurance check should somebody ever get to it. Besides that, the best security system on the planet won't help you if somebody steals your bike from the rack in front of a lecture hall, or snags your iPod in the cafeteria while you're not looking. Insurance will cover all of this and you don't have to worry about making sure its working every time you leave the room.
Get some insurance, and get some sleep.
If you are unfortunate enough to be robbed, you'll at least have a list to give the police.
On the other hand, people tend to borrow a lot of things in college like movies and games. Sometimes even without your permission (ie if a roomate borrows or loans out your stuff to a friend). When things are out of your sight for a long time, if you're anything like me, you'll tend to forget about them, and never get them back. So if I could do it all over again, I'd definitely keep better track of the stuff I had.
The sending of this message pretty much inconveniences everyone involved.
1. Back up ALL important data regularly.
2. Encrypt ALL sensitive data.
3. Get insurance on the laptop.
I bet you a new laptop that this will turn out much cheaper in the long run than a stockpile of "high-tech" anti-theft equipment.
Heck, if insurance weren't such a highly regulated industry, I'd suggest that the students themselves form their own insurance "agencies" to cover their stuff -- everyone pitches in a premium, and when the class graduates, whatever is left is refunded to the participants.
Of course, people are prone to abuse the system, and it would probably devolve into more of a headache than it's worth... Or not?
From there, just make sure you back up essential files. Hardware is replaceable. Data rarely is.
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I am not in college. But I have had both renters and homeowners insurance and the renters insurance had a lower deductible and is easer to collect on.
We are only talking 10-15 per month and, if you get it from the same company as your auto insurance you may (depending on the state) be able to get a 5% - 10% discount on both.
tell your roommate to lock up also! i once woke up to a very large set of nostrils staring down at me because my roommate left for his early theatre class and left the door unlocked. even though the guy was cool and my neighbor, having a huge football player's head in your face going,"WAKE UP, FOOL!" was not fun. if your roommate is lax or not respectful of your property, start looking for a new one right away.
Unfortunately, my whole world came unraveled when I began to suffer from a mental illness called schizoaffective disorder.
It turned out to be a lot worse than it had to be because I would not seek treatment. I thought shrinks were for crazy people, and I didn't think I was crazy. Well, it turned out that by the time I got to see a shrink, I was crazy.
If you think you're mentally ill, get help from a mental health professional. Most colleges have some kind of counseling center, and often have staff psychiatrists and psychologists.
Life was pretty damn grim for a long time, but it got better because I finally got help.
I finally got my degree in physics, in 1993, after transferring to UC Santa Cruz.
This advice is particularly pertinent to college students because schizophrenia, manic depression, and schizoaffective disorder almost always strike a victim when they are a young adult. I knew a number of other people, both at Caltech and UCSC, who became quite crazy when they were students.
Request your free CD of my piano music.
I had more stuff stolen from me in high school than I did in university (25K students). Freshman year, we did have our room "broken" into to. Yeah, you should lock the door at night. We hardly woke up in time for the door to close. A bit later, my roomate discovered that his CDs had left. Had to be someone on our floor.
My big advice is get a PC instead of a laptop if possible. You wouldn't leave $2000 in cash sitting out your desk, don't bring a laptop. For taking notes, a pen and paper are great. Personally I find that if I write something long hand, I remember it - going back over it is extra. For really hard classes, I would sometimes type up my notes afterwards, that was a great way to quickly go back over everything.
Here are the roomates me and my friends had freshman year:
Business student, who joined a Christian Frat.
Stoner who was never in the room
Slob who was a decent guy
Annoying sorority girl who was an "ambassador" for the football team.
Nice girl who partied a bit much.
Most of these people were really decent folks or were not around enough to cause anyone problems. Don't stress the roomate until you have to worry about 'em.
As in Norton Utilities, Norton Anti-Virus.
Ah... You must mean Peter Norton.
Have you forgotten how Ford Prefect modified his towel? Safety pin your key to one corner!
DRM 'manages access' in the same way that a prison 'manages freedom'
Well, having survived my first year (I'm in Boston, MA, so that's no joke), here are a few suggestions...
/lock up the front wheel with a cable of U-lock all the time/ (locking up the bike goes without saying). I got my front wheel jacked last week because I didn't lock it up.
1) Get a Kensington lock for your laptop. It's a cable that'll plug into the lock part of your laptop. Nobody wants to go through the trouble of lifting a laptop under that kind of security.
2) Keep your dorm room locked and windows closed. It seems kind of obvious, but it's less obvious to take the suggestions seriously.
3) Some people I know have safes which work pretty well. These are kind of bulky and a pain, but it's a thought.
4) If you get a bike,
Make good friends, real friends. That's the best thing to get from college. As for locking up all your stuff. Ditch the stuff, you'll have books to read and papers to write. There will be plenty of other distractions to fill your time. Get involved in clubs or the local community. Get physical, outdoors. Hikes or bikes or jogging, swimming, etc. Keep your mind clear, strive for a perfect GPA, push yourself to the limit. See what you can achieve at those limits. A college education is no guarantee of anything. College is a big business, you have to make something of the experience.
Some other poster suggested having sex often and in quantity....
Forget about having sex as often as possible, that's lame and you're sure to pick up something that will stay with you forever. It's not worth it, don't go there. Too many partners will only bring misery and woe.
Good luck and smile often.
http://tinyurl.com/3t236
ps-be wary of the combination of credit cards, alcohol and women ; )
harmonious design
Go and meet your professoes. Really. This was advice I got from the dean my freshman year. So, I took it. The almost never see anyone during office hours so go sometime in the first week say hi and chat with them for 10 minutes. Most are just floored since it so very rarely happens. Some will resent it but that tells you that you should probably dorp the class since oyu probably have an asshole. Nearly all I've met have chatted with me about the class, their research, the university, etc.
There are two good side effects of this:
1) If you need help, you are much more likely to get it. Maybe you want in a class in the future, and the professor remembers you and lets you in. Maybe you need some advice, and the professor give it to you. They are generally much happier to help those they know, and that have shown some initiave and intrest, than those that never say anything.
2) Grades. As mentioned by the parent, they'll give you more leanincy. Not even just for begging, you can just generally slant the grading in your favour. It's just human nature. They feel that they better know you, so they are more likely to cut you some slack.
- Keep your dorm room locked.
- Keep your laptop in your backpack and keep it with you at all times.
- Bring lots of quarters for the laundry machines.
- Buy your books from Amazon or B&N online. Schools inflate the prices waaay high.
- Use lubricated condoms - the dry ones are uncomfortable (for you and her both).
Oh wait, you read slashdot. You won't be needing that last one.
I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
The scariest thing is that the parent was modded "informative"
-Ryan
AUWYHSTOT (Acronyms are Useless When You Have to Spell Them Out Too)
Correct.
:P
:P
But how do you make up for roommates that leave the door open when they go out, and you're already gone? I had this happen to me Sophmore year, and it really pissed me off. Then I moved off campus and lived in a house where miscelaneous people would sleep on our couch, and ironically, I didn't care.
Granted, this means you have to actually -leave- your room, which is asking for a lot.
Also, look out for your roommate's friends. As a freshman, you're almost destined to get a stupid jock roommate with a lot of shitty friends. (They like to piss on freshman geeks that way in admissions at some places, I'm sure.) Most people are always looking for a way to steal shit from someone.
I'd suggest getting a lock box and keeping all your non-computing shit in it. This includes keeping things like CDRs, CF, cameras, and what have you, in the box. These things like to disappear, as they're valuable and fairly common for people to own: "No, this isn't your SD card. I got this with my camera." It might be a good idea to chain the box to your bed (or some other unmoveable object) as well, as it will make a nice target for someone foraging through a room: they see a box with a lock on it, and no valuables in the room, and they're going to assume they found the mother lode.
Keep the key to the lock box on your laniard/keychain/whatever, and with you at all times. Get a laptop lock (if you have a laptop) or just some cable + a lock if you have a desktop, and chain the machine to your desk/cubicle/whatever they give you. Maybe do the same for your stereo, if you have one, or you think it's necessary. Try not to make it obvious what a given key is for, either. (Don't label it, ffs. You wouldn't put a sticky note near your computer that said "root" with the password on it, would you? Use your head.)
I suspect that being messy might also increase your chances of not having your shit stolen. For example, if you've got a laptop and a messy room, there's more stuff all over the place to distract one's vision. If they just step in, there's not a single object on the desk saying "steal me" - they'll just see a pile of stuff.
I honestly don't think things such as security cameras would be necessary. However, it certainly couldn't hurt to stash a webcam somewhere and have it upload photos somewhere else - you never know when it might provide you with "valuable information" - for instance, cheating girlfriends roommates that steal food.
I'd recommend that you don't simply let people use your computer to check their email, or what have you. If you do, you might want to get fast user switching set up and create as lackluster an account as possible (just a browser, ma'am), regardless of what OS you run. Having people constantly use your machine ("Yeah, ask Jim in room 301 if you can use his laptop to check your mail, John, he's a nice guy.") is a good way to draw potentially unwanted attention. The people I know that have had computers stolen from their rooms usually had a lot of people in their rooms using their machines.
Finally, it probably wouldn't hurt to write bsome quick/get some software that alerts you (via email, say) where the machine is, so that in the event that it is stolen, it can be tracked relatively easily.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
Whenever you read a story like this, if you aren't a complete retard, you have to wonder. Doctors are pretty lousy at identifying the cause of rashes, and rashes from embalming fluid would have to be pretty damn rare.
So, we pop off to Snopes, and what do we find?
Of course, it's an urban legend
Best way to keep your stuff safe at college: find a fraternity with brothers you trust and join it. I can't even begin to describe how nice it was not to have to remember to lock my door every time I wanted to step out for a few minutes/days/weeks.
I recently purchased a home. In not the best neighborhood (there are two soup kitchens within 2 miles, and 4 ABC stores in the same range)... I converted one of the rooms with external access into an audio studio. I worry a lot about security.
What did I do?
1. Every piece of equipment gets a steel cage. The design of these is simple; take standard steel stock, cut with a dremel, and build a rectangular prism that can contain the item in question. Yes I had to learn welding. Put in crossbars that prevent the item from being lifted out and a decently sized padlock. Most items I have been able to position the crossbars so that the item is useable while in the cage. With a laptop this would involve a bar at the top of the keyboard and one at the bottom. Pretty? no. Secure? yes. When you have $10,000+ worth of equipment and the first day you were at your new home you met a fine gentleman walking by how had "just got out" for "gettin caught up shanking that bitch girl o mine", it's worth it.
2. Video surveillance. It's visible. I designed and printed a custom sign to the effect of "premises under wireless video surveillance" with a diagram showing the camera, the computer, the internet, and the server. Indicating quite clearly that you can't just steal the computer and take the tapes with you. In my case I bought a bunch of tv cards and real wireless/wired surveillance cameras. With the size of a typical dorm room you could probably get away with a webcam. I coded up some Windows software that saves pictures off site whenever the frames have a certain amount of difference in them; I'll be glad to dig around and find that program for you if you want...
3. All my equipment has serial numbers on it. One clearly visible tag, one tag inside the equipment somewhere. The numbers and locations of tags are on hardcopy in my records safe. Local pawn shops are required to wait 30 days before selling new goods; plenty of time to call every one in town.
4. Insurance. If all these measures fail me, I'm still insured for full replacement value.
I am disrespectful to dirt! Can you see that I am serious?!
2) Don't accept drinks from others or leave your drinks behind and pick them up later. I don't care if s/he's your best friend, turn it down and get your own drink. Doesn't matter what time of day it is. Be careful. If this doesn't make sense to you, reread #1.
I'll expand to this and say that EVEN for guys, this advice holds.
Never leave your drink unattended. Never. Especially if you are alone.
A friend of mine was chatting with a nice lady he just met in a bar, when she convinced him for a quick dance. It was going well, until he came back, drank the rest of his beer and passed out, thanks to GHB.
He woke up the next morning in the hospital, with his asshole tored up and full of stitches. He sometimes has flashback of him getting raped in the ass by 2-3 guys. They probably worked with the girl to scout potentials and used her to distract him.
So, yeah, even guys need to watch out for that kind of things.
And to add on to #1 of the parent, knowing and talking with your professors is very handy for more than just grades and homework. They are great sources of information on the college internal affairs and can oftentimes be great resources for things other students don't have access to. For instance, becoming good friends with one of my profs enabled me to get a computer-related job when I was in a crappy, manual-labor student employment. I was able to use several profs as great references for employment because when they were called, they never said, "Who???"
There are some pricks out there and there are some great, insightful, inspiring people. Try to find those and rub elbows as much as possible, you'll be forever grateful.
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You learn 20% in the classroom, 80% outside of the classroom - College isn't all about the classes; they are important, don't get me wrong. No one pays $20K/year to hang out. But I learned the most outside of class in the form of social interaction, mental and psychological reform, and changing and honing of my beliefs and feelings. Understand that concept and you'll make a productive 4 years.
Party like it's on sale for $19.99 - You'll never get to do it again, and even into your twenties you'll start to slow down and start saying things like, "I used to be able to do that" in reference to long nights of drinking and partying where 3pm was breakfasttime the next day. I'm not saying you need to get so wasted every weekend that you can't see straight; have a few of those, but at least go out, have a beer, and socialize as much as possible.
Appreciate the opportunities - Picture this: it's a Thursday afternoon. The weather has just gone sunny and warm, the kind that makes you feel like everything's great. You have class at 2:30. A friend says, "Too bad we have class, we should go have a beer by the river and enjoy the weather." What are you going to do? SKIP THE CLASS! Don't do it every day, but in cases like this, you'll gain more from that skip than you would have had in class. This situation hit me during senior year; all my roommates were in the same class with me. We actually sat down, wrote and email to the prof, and apologized, saying that the day was too nice to spend inside, we hoped he understood. Then we left and went out by the river, had some beers, and shot the shit. A great, happy day. When we came home, we found an email from the prof, saying, "I don't blame you."
Women are fascinating creatures -- meet some - This is obviously for the guys, but girls, feel free to reverse the idea. Women are really fascinating creatures, and I'm not talking about just sex. Their unique perspective on life and ideas and views are great stimuli for the mind; find the interesting ones and hang out with them. Cultivate great friendships with women of all walks -- even if they never turn out to be a date or a lay, there's nothing like walking across campus and being able to yell out, "Hey, Erin!" and having that cute blonde wave back at you enthusiastically, stop and talk to you. How's that for an ego boost?
That being said, I would agree with the "get laid" sentiment to some extent. At least, there's a lot of women both interesting and just plain attractive that I wished I had gotten up the guts to approach and ask them for a night of passion or at least some friendly exchanges of pleasure. So give it a shot, you'll be glad you did.
Your friends are your rock - Make friends. Lots of them. Of all types of people, backgrounds, and interests. Don't limit yourself to geeks or any other group. Knowing people of all walks gives you the power of connections, of knowing who to contact when you need something. Need a great, raucaus party to go to? Are you going to contact a geek? No! Contact that football player you made friends with in the caf line. Need an 'in' on the setup of wiring in the buildings? Call up the weird guy that studies blueprints you saw last week! I could give a million examples, but have friends. Call them randomly. Take them out for beers at 11pm. Go over and give them 'stress breaks'. Anything.
Respect your sleep - I don't mean don't stay out late or anything -- that's fine. But respect sleep for what it is: a chance to refresh. Something that makes you think clearer. If you schedule your classes in the early mornings and you're a night owl, you WILL SUFFER. I don't care how "dedicated" you are -- when push comes to shove, and it will, you'll be screwed. Know yourself, admit your weaknesses, and get over them. Watch your schedules so you can get naps and sleep appropriately.
Take Naps - Piggybacking on the above, take naps.
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Safe means use a condom and/or other means of avoiding STDs and pregnancies.
Sane means you are in your right head - if you're drunk or tripping your judgement is out the window, if you are doing it merely to fit in or look cool to your peers that's not sane.
Consensual means you both know and agree with what's going on. If either you or your partner is insensible becuase of drugs or drink you can't consent and it's rape. Don't do it to someone else and don't let yourself get into a situation where it can be done to you.
Sara
Designer, Gamer, Macgrrl in an XP World