Comments on: Mac 101: 10 essential tips for bringing a Mac to college

By: Dave Greenbaum

Dave Greenbaum — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 02:49:01 +0000

Point well taken!

By: Dave Greenbaum

Dave Greenbaum — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 02:48:30 +0000

That’s a good one for the list. I’d say a display adapter for any portable device such as iPad or iPod. They are great for presos as well

By: Cornerstar31

Cornerstar31 — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 23:31:40 +0000

Also install Prey, to prevent your computer from theft.

By: Bill Shirley

Bill Shirley — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 13:37:26 +0000

you should prob’ly add to step 5: open/empty the bag of rice

By: MacDoc

MacDoc — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 17:57:10 +0000

I would add take a Minidisplayport to VGA adaptor (http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB572Z/A?fnode=MTY1NDA4Mw&mco=MTk3MzY4MTY) to connect your computer to most digital projectors, especially if you like to use Keynote. Lots of presentations in upper level college courses, esp in grad school and you need to bring your portable or iPad to run Keynote presentations since the school is unlikely to just have Macs connected to the projector. Even if you use Powerpoint you are usually better off using your own Mac to avoid color and font issues.

By: Dave Greenbaum

Dave Greenbaum — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 16:59:58 +0000

Not everyone agrees on that, I think it’s important to do it at a time you can afford to take risks. Each update introduces potential problems and if you’ve got a paper due at 9am and your update installs at 10pm…you run the risk of missing your deadline. Lots to do on the weekends as a student, run the updates then. For example 10.6.8 introduced print problems (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3137602?start=135&tstart=0) that I saw cause some problems with the college students here. If you can’t print that paper, it’s a problem.

By: Trevor

Trevor — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 05:51:08 +0000

Dropbox is a must for a college student. Like you said, Time Machine is just a first step, and for a kid on a laptop who is prob trying to find a quite place to write a paper, being tied down to a HD is not an option. Dropbox nearly eliminates the need for a flash drive, but also gives you access to all of your school files from every computer on campus. When the inevitable file corruption occurs on your paper that is due at 9 AM and it is currently 5 AM you have nothing to fear. Hop on the roomies computer, roll back a couple of version if you need to, finish up those last thoughts and email that sucker in. Worry about recovering any damaged files after some sleep.

By: Dave Greenbaum

Dave Greenbaum — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 01:54:17 +0000

That’s what Filevault is for

By: Freddy Kruger

Freddy Kruger — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 01:18:11 +0000

no mention of browser sweeper software so you can hide all the porn sites you surf when your parents come visit?

By: Paul

Paul — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 01:05:14 +0000

Remember that Word 2011 no longer embeds hyperlinks when creating PDF documents, so your table of contents is useless. Works fine on the Windows side . . . . Grrrrr!