PC Tonic

Hostel life is lots of fun, and all ya techno-freaks can make it even better with proper utilisation of available tools and resources for your PC. Let’s have a look at all those computing stuff that can make life so much better for you at hostel.

GPass

GPass comes to the rescue for all of us whose institutes (our NIT included) are notorious for blocking a ridiculously large number of websites. Keeping all the techie mechanism aside, GPass will create a tunnel through which your computer can get to all those sites blocked on the server. GPass supports many common applications like Firefox, Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player etc. by default, and you can always add more applications by simply dragging them to it’s interface. This tool has been a lifesaver for me, allowing me to access Facebook, Digg, Orkut, Last.fm among others.

A good substitute is the open source Tor which works on a similar manner (only with Firefox and Pidgin).

DC++

If you ain’t sharing anything over your hostel’s LAN network, you’ll soon be a dumb outcaste. And when it comes to sharing, nothing gets better than DC++. With it’s extensive yet explained feature set, DC++ makes it just too easy to send and receive gigs of data with just a few clicks.

Google Picasa

Photos can define hostel life more than anything else. While taking snapshots with your mobile phone might be easy, keeping them organized is the tough task. Not so with Google Picasa though, which does most of the hard work of organising your images. Just download the pics to your computer from your mobile phone / camera, and Picasa will automatically pick and store them at the required destination. Picasa has all the basic image editing options as well, should you require them. And if you’ve a Google account, you can even upload the photos to Picasa Web Albums, so that they’re safe from hardware or other failures on your PC.

FastStone Image Viewer (PC), Windows Live Photo Gallery (PC), iPhoto (Mac), and F-Spot (Gnome Linux) are some other tools you could try.

Skype

Home sickness taking over? Fire into Skype, ask your parents to do the same, and start a video call! Skype is easily the best and most popular software for PC-to-PC calls. The excellent video quality and sound clarity can almost make you feel like you’re talking to your family members over the dining table!

Scribd.com

Hostel isn’t just about merry making, you still have to read to get through your courses! Scribd.com is a great online resource for reading, downloading, and sharing documents and eBooks on almost any topic. So next time your professor’s words fly over your head, go to Scribd.com, get a good document on the topic and start scribing!

Wikipedia

It has been always there, ready to help you out when nothing else clicked. And Wikipedia still stands tall, showcasing the largest ever collection of educational, political, social, religious and God-knows-what articles of the world. Should Scribd and other resources fail, you can always turn to Wikipedia for an article on the topic. Many claim Wikipedia to be carrying false information (as the articles can be modified by anyone), while in reality articles with false information are very rare.  

Evernote

Note taking is vital for us students, and this task doesn’t get any easier than with Evernote. This software application allows users to capture information of various types, including text notes, mobile phone snapshots, printed and handwritten text within images, web clips, and digital ink. All data added to Evernote are run through a series of recognizers that make any text within the various note formats searchable. The application uses a continuous "roll of paper" metaphor for its user interface. Additionally, users may create folders, categories and notebooks. Evernote is available as a download for PCs, Macs, smart phones, and also as a web application.

A viable substitute is the Microsoft Office OneNote, which comes with some versions of Office 2007 and 2003.

WordWeb

A strong hold over English is a necessary requirement in this fast globalising world. And if you don’t feel very confident in English, WordWeb is for you. This 7 MB dictionary tool contains definitions and synonyms for over 150,000 root words, pronunciations, proper nouns, related words and more. WordWeb also fits seamlessly into many common applications, allowing you to instantly look up for word meanings inside them!

Cheatbook.de

If you’re pathetic gamer like me, Cheatbook.de is the place to go. The website provides cheat codes for almost every imaginable computer game in the world! The website also provides a download for it’s database, which you can conveniently use from your desktop. With Cheatbook, you can always remain a step ahead of others in the gaming world.

Avira AntiVir Personal 

There is always a possibility of getting some torrid virus through your hostel’s LAN. Thus, a regularly updating antivirus with good heuristics (ability to detect viruses through their behaviour) is what you need to keep your computer safe. And nothing gets better at heuristic detection than Avira’s AntiVir. The free personal edition is extremely light, updates frequently, and detects almost every single malware thrown at your PC! AntiVir is fast moving ahead of other rival tools like AVG and Avast!, and is a must-have for proper PC protection.

<Always use one antivirus to avid conflicts. If you feel you’re getting adequate protection with your current antivirus, stay with it.>

Songbird

Most of us teenagers are music fanatics, and thus a 5 – 10 GB data of music on your PC is perfectly normal. Windows Media Player will almost certainly choke for such large amounts, so turn your attention to Songbird. Tipped to be an iTunes killer, this open source music management tool does it’s job very smoothly. Songbird also comes with Firefox-like extension capabilities, meaning you can add available plug-ins and skins (feathers) for added functionalities and looks.

So what other killer apps would you recommend for a rocking hostel life? Fire away in the comments!