Tulane University Freeman School BLOG

Before we get to the Lazy Post, here’s one lazy link I couldn’t resist posting: Must. Be. Nice.

Staying on top of your time is difficult while at business school. You have to manage your classes, group meetings, job/internship search, part time job/internship, social life, checkbook, etc. Here’s some of the digital tools and hardware I’ve used over the past two years to help keep me on track:

1. Exchange account (paid, about $8/mo) - Tulane gives each student their own MS Exchange account with a 100mb mailbox. Not enough for students sharing large pdf’s. I pay for a 1gb mailbox (and soon will be migrating to sherweb for 3gb) which has more than enough for all my Tulane items.

Also, I can access all my emails/contacts from the web/anywhere, and if my laptop blows up I don’t lose anything as all my data is stored on a server somewhere.

2. Blackberry or Windows Mobile Smartphone and data plan - You need a way to stay abreast of emails/contacts/appointments when you’re on the go. A smartphone that syncs with your Exchange account is a great way to make sure you don’t miss any appointments. A windowsmobile smartphone will sync with the above Exchange account for free. A blackberry account will run you about $30/mo on top of any data fees you pay to Verizon/Tmobile/ATT.

3. Xobni. Inbox backwards, Xobni has just been released into public beta. It’s a lightening fast search tool for your email, but also threads conversations like your brain does. Much more useful than Outlook’s default search.

4. X1 - For deep searching of all other files on your computer, X1 can’t be beat. It’s a resource hog, so make sure your laptop has at least 2gb of ram (memory), but well worth it to instantly search all your word/excel/powerpoint/adobe/etc docs.

5. Mozy - 2gb of free, online backup for your office/financial/other data. $5/mo gets you unlimited, but the 2gb cap is enough for all my school docs and Quickbooks data. The program runs in the background and is basically ’set and forget.’ It will only complain if it can’t backup your data after x number of days.

6. Skype/Gtalk/MSN - a good way to save threaded conversations among groups of friends. Better way to send files than email.

7. Drop.io - an even better way to share files among friends/classmates. Say it with me: Email is not for filesharing.

8. FoxIt PDF - make your own pdf docs from word/excel/powerpoint. Did I mention it’s free?

9. Dual Monitors - Spend $150 bucks and get yourself an extra monitor. All new laptops these days will support a split desktop: simply plug your new LCD into the monitor out port on your laptop and voila! Instant screen real estate upgrade. Very useful for writing papers (Firefox in one screen, Word in the other) or working on complex excel docs.

Also pictured: My Samsung i617 smartphone (unlocked to Tmobile where unlimited data’s only $5/mo), Panasonic RP-HC500 noise canceling headphones (great for studying and for your flights to Mexico, China, France), Bluetooth headset, external keyboard and mouse. Not pictured: Epson CX3810 Printer/Scanner - takes aftermarket ink cartridges, awesome unit! Canon SD1000 digicam. Every picture/video you see here has been shot with this little guy.
(shameless plug: I’m trying to sell my printer and monitor - contact me if you’re interested)

10. A good laptop. Mac/PC, doesn’t really matter. A 13 inch screen or larger will save your eyes from Excel burnout. 2gb of ram at a minimum, Windows XP (not Vista), and at least a 6 cell battery. Get the educational version of MS Office from Tulane for $70. Also get a good warranty: you’re going to be bringing this unit everywhere, something inevitably will get dropped/spilled on it.

My money is no object pick: Panasonic Toughbook
My I take out loans so I can eat pick: Dell XPS or Latitude line with Complete-care warranty.

11. A few Ethernet cables. Aka network cables. There will be times when Tulane’s wireless just sucks, save yourself the hassle and carry one with you. Monoprice has the cheapest cables around.

12. Roomba. You don’t know how dirty you are until you get one of these suckers. I take my shoes off when I get home and still dirt and dust are everywhere! This unit is a great way to keep your apt clean without actually doing any work. Don’t go for the fancy units, the Red version works just fine.

13. Shredder - spend $20 bucks on a cheap shredder. You’re going to be mailed a ton of statements from Tulane, many of which contain your Student ID number, which also happens to be your SSN. Tulane does a good enough job losing your personal data, no reason for you to help them out.

14. Moo Cards - Don’t buy into the Freeman School/Kinko’s ripoff racket: $75 for 500 cards is about 480 more than I gave out - ever. Once I got my Moo Cards, however, they went like hotcakes! Like your resume, business cards are a unique opportunity to represent yourself and make a lasting impression.

15. Last one: An up-to-date antivirus and antispyware program. This is more of a personal appeal. If you’ve read this far, you’ve probably figured out that I’m a little geeky, or at least know my way around a computer. This has been, for better or worse, a sure-fire way for me to get stuck fixing my classmates pc’s when they’ve gotten viruses. More often than not, my friends had let their antivirus program that came loaded on their laptop expire. Avast, the program I linked above, is in many expert’s opinions better than Norton/McAfee/Microsoft’s offerings. And it’s free for personal use. Did I mention it’s free?

Let me know if I missed any indispensable tools that you use to keep yourself organize and running at 110%.

-Joel Yarmon, joel@tulanemba.org

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