Tag Archive: Technology

  1. Freshman creates system for screwing

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    Did you lie to your suitemate and say you found him/her a date for Freshman Screw already?

    Do you think your suitemates will do a bad job finding you a date?

    Do you even remember that Freshman Screw is this Saturday?

    No more fear — one freshman has built a digital matchmaker service that will match you with the perfect date.

    On Tuesday night, Davis Nguyen ’15 sent out an email to the freshman class inviting those frosh still looking to set up their friends to fill out a survey to enter his matchmaker service. It asks questions like “Does he/she have a race preference?” to “Does he/she want a date who wants to ‘pre-game’/hook up?” in hopes of optimizing the matching process. The survey records participants’ preferences and automatically organizes them onto a spreadsheet.

    It all started on Sunday night, when Nguyen posted on the Yale College Class of 2015 Facebook group looking to set up a few of his friends.

    “I couldn’t find dates for three friends by just talking to people, so I posted on Facebook. I left my computer for five minutes to go to the restroom, and when I got back, I had about 36 messages,” Nguyen said.

    Within a day, Nguyen had set up 42 couples after five hours’ worth of work, and before he knew it, he could no longer pair all the requests by hand. An hour after the email was sent, Nguyen said around twenty people had already submitted requests. Participants will be informed of the chosen screw date on Thursday night.

  2. It’s the digital age, get with it!

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    If you’re one of those people who “just can’t do” Twitter, get over yourself. “Ha!” you’re probably saying as you read your paper copy of the Wall Street Journal and think about monogrammed tote bags. “One does not need to get over oneself when one is not posting mindless updates about one’s unimportant daily goings-on for all the world to see! Be quiet, Downton Abbey is afoot!”

    I do not have the time or patience to explain Twitter to you sourpusses. (Please see my treatise on Twitter, It’s About Sharing Cool Stuff on The Internet and Getting Breaking News Updates Rly Rly Fast and Following Annoying People From High School You Love to Hate.) Instead, I will say this: trying to compress my general disdain for most things into a tight 140 characters has definitely made me a more economical and clear writer. (Read my tweets! @laurenoyler!!! I am funny!!!!!!!!) Also, I find the best baby sloth videos way before everyone else.

    Anyway, since deciding to pursue my recently developed writing aspirations, I’ve been able to learn a lot from other people on the Internet. Here are some of those people/entities explicitly dedicated to helping you be Joan Didion circa 1973:

    1) @AdvicetoWriters: Offers inspirational tips by famous writers to the tune of “You don’t have writer’s block; you’re just lazy.” in a poetic, not-as-harsh tone. They tweet many times a day and are very responsible hash-taggers.

    2) @poetswritersinc: Contests, interviews, interesting writing-related articles – generally handy. They don’t tweet as often as they should, but they’re probably still learning.

    3) @TheMillions: You know it’s legit when The New York Times calls it “the indispensable literary site.”

    4) @writing_tips: Practical tips – think synonyms, style questions, and quick-and-easy grammar lessons.

    5) @hellogiggles: For examples on how to write the most boring, grammatically incorrect posts on hard-hitting subjects such as “How to be Super Nice to Everyone, Even Meanies!” and “Zooey Deschanel is My Hero, and Don’t You Meanies Be Mean to Her!”

    In other Things-You-Can-Follow-On-The-Internet news, @FSG_books has a brand new, fantastic book-and-writing-related Tumblr. Have a happy and productive semester!

  3. TEDxYale releases trailer featuring red body suits

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    Remember when your dad taught you Morse code? Yeah, neither do we. But Yale’s TEDx program has used the dots and dashes to promote their event on February 4.

    In a video sent to Yale students today, five red body-suited individuals move and bounce their bodies to a pulsing soundtrack, with interspersed images of soldiers sending morse code messages. The morse code on the red bodies spells out “TEDx Yale.”

    The Yale video, produced by Emmy Pickett ’12, was even tweeted by Chris Anderson, who has received international acclaim as the curator of TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design). He calls the video’s creativity “pretty special.”

    According to reports, red body-suited individuals were spotted in multiple classes today, including Anthony Smith’s “Introductory Macroeconomics” and Jo Handelsman’s “Genes and Environment.”

    The x in Yale’s TEDx program signifies that it’s one of many independently sponsored TED programs across the world. Yale’s TEDx program had its introductory event last semester with Juan Enriquez, the founding director of Harvard Business School’s Life Sciences Project.

  4. Other new websites compile various services

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    Every day, in every way, Yalies are supposed to strive for the best. During shopping period that translates into a nasty twice-yearly sale, where nothing is actually on sale, especially not textbooks, and everyone is stressed because OMG we have to take the best classes! A key part of this ritual is receiving hordes of promotional emails.

    But now comes a rando website that’s not just for regular Elis — it’s for baller scholars.

    An email sent out early this morning — just after the email from Everything Useful — from the mysterious but aptly named ‘Yet Another Yale Student Website Creator’ encourages students to “get the best deals so you don’t have to quintuple-mortgage the family farm just to take a science credit.” Cross Campus is certain a brusque “uhwhut” followed by a curt “kthx” were mentally beamed back to this suggestion from all across campus.

    Apparently, using YetAnotherYaleTextbookWebsite.com will help you “realize your full potential.” Pumped? The site seems to be an attempt at a central directory, and lists twelve potential sources for purchasing or renting textbooks textbooks, including Amazon, BookRenter.com and the YCC-YHHAP Book Exchange.

    Of equal interest is sister site YetAnotherYaleBluebookWebsite.com, which, while offering a smaller selection of only six bluebooking options (one of which is OCS – r u srs?), may be equally valuable to the confused Yalie.

    It as yet unclear whether they were created by some jerk who doesn’t have reading yet or an altruistic soul just trying to make our lives easier, or whether this is all one big LOL. We’re leaning toward the LOL.

  5. New website tries to host everything Yale

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    Via an email to Yale early this morning came news of a newly launched website called “Everything Useful.” Everything Useful hopes to compile important information for Yale students in one place, according to the email. Think Wikipedia, but for Yale.

    Created by Casey Watts ’12, the new site explains everything from getting free food at Durfee’s and taking Yale transportation to shopping for school supplies and for classes.

    The website also offers a different, more real type of help. One subhead, titled “procrastination,” features a list of websites students can peruse when trying to stay awake during lecture. Sites listed include GoodCrush Yale and Yale FML. Another subhead lists YaleLunch as a way to meet people.

    Do people still use GoodCrush? Regardless, we’re a little disappointed the News didn’t make the cut. Someday…

  6. Another week, another e-mail snafu

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    email.jpg

    Except this time, it is Yale’s fault and not Hotmail’s. Many Elis woke up this morning surprised to find their inboxes completely devoid of new mail, the result not of summer doldrums but rather a faulty Yale e-mail server.

    Early Monday, one of the servers that handle’s Yale e-mail failed, according to Information Technology Services officials, and as a result no e-mail messages sent to students, faculty members or staff whose mail goes through that server have been delivered over the past day and a half. Mail sent to the affected users — several thousand in total, according to ITS — bounced back, but usually not for hours after the original message was sent.

    (more…)

  7. If you use Hotmail, you haven’t gotmail (from Yale)

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    MSN Hotmail

    Don’t try to send an e-mail to an msn.com, hotmail.com, or live.com address from your Yale e-mail account; Microsoft is currently blocking all e-mails sent from mail.yale.edu to those domains. According to a message on the Yale ITS website, Yale is working to contact Microsoft to resolve the issue but does not know how long it will be before it will be fixed.

    In other news, people actually still use Hotmail.

    Update, 12:33 p.m. Wednesday: Hotmail users — many of whom are clearly very passionate about their e-mail service provider — can now sleep easy. ITS reports that the issue with Microsoft should now be resolved.