If you're a 55-year-old brick layer who is just now realizing that you probably should have paid attention in high school rather than checking out the girl (or guy if you're a gay 55-year-old brick layer) in front of you, this article is for you (Even more so if you're a gay brick layer). If you also happen to be at the high school level and can read this, this article is also for you. If you're in college right now (and are reading this from the confines of your dorm) it might be too late for you. I'm sorry.

For most of us who tried to get something out of high school in our earlier years, we soon realized that there was almost a tangible heart beat that we had to learn to follow in order to be a successful student. Others realized that there are drugs to use and an opposite sex to keep the occupied. Those of you who are currently following that heart beat will want to listen to what I have to write, and those of you who are discovering the life of sex and drugs, you may want to kill yourself now while you're ahead of the game. Also, if you get turned down from the world's largest employer (Wal-Mart) you may also want to follow suit. There's no hope for you.

There are certain pitfalls that you must avoid when venturing off into the college world. From the obvious (And maybe sometimes not-so-obvious) rule against plagiarism and attending class regularly to the misunderstood "5 Minute Rule" when a professor is running late. I'm going to potentially save you hundreds or perhaps thousands of dollars by outlining these pitfalls free of charge for you to soak up and enjoy and share with your friends. That's hundreds or potentially thousands of dollars you could use towards the purchase of coke! Wow! That's a lot of coke! You'll be awake for weeks to come! 
Passing off other's work as your own: 
Plagiarism - The act (Or art depending on how good you are) of passing on someone else's work off as your own and attempting to take credit for it. This practice is common in many high schools across the United States, and has only gotten worse over the last decade due to the rise in popularity of the internet and Microsoft Word.Like many things in life, plagiarism is only illegal if you get caught doing it. So in order to not get caught you have to know how to beat the system. Here are some pointers to ensure that you will not get caught when passing other's work off as your own: 

1. Delete hyperlinks: 
Important note! If you're going to plagiarize and don't delete active hyperlinks in the work that you copy and paste, then you're an idiot and deserve what's coming to you.

Remember to delete any and all hyperlinks that may have been present in the content you just stole. Nothing screams "THIS IS NOT MY WORK! EXPEL ME!" more than reading "click here for more information" in the middle of your term paper. If you wish to fool the instructor for at least a second, the practice of removing all hyperlinks from your paper is a must. Click here for more information.

Not doing so makes for some good laughs when the instructor decides to announce to the rest of the class how much of a lazy asshole you are that you couldn't even delete hyperlinks to make it look as though you wrote it and not someone else. At which point you will probably deny it at first, and then soon realize that you are caught, and walk out of the classroom while screaming curse words why the professor is a moron and who is he to say what is and is not socially acceptable. 

2. Keep the same size, color and style font though out the paper:
This is another obvious thing to avoid - having text of several different sizes, font styles and colors within one paragraph of page gives away the fact that you copied and pasted items into your paper. This can easily be avoided by selecting all of the text at once and formatting it all at the same time to ensure that the font is the same size, color, and style through out the entire document.

3. "Dumb Down" words that are beyond the scope of your vocabulary:
If you're known to make many grammatical mistakes in your writing and don't have a clear train of thought most of the time, then plagiarizing may not be for you. It's easy to pick up when someone is using another's work once the reader has gotten a feel for the writer's writing. In order to avoid this problem, throw a few misspellings in the content along with the deletion of several key words words so certain thoughts no longer flow smoothly and you should be ready to pass off that work as your own.

4. Be careful when documenting your sources:
This is an important step that you shouldn't over look, though many do. Don't document sources that you directly copied content from. Doing so can lead your instructor directly to the source of where you got your work from. When citing sources, put sources that are very similar to the topic at hand to throw them off, but not the exact sources that you copied from.If you follow those simple 4 steps above, then you have a fighting chance of passing other's work off as your own at the college level. Actually, to be honest, you will still most likely get caught. I have never passed off other's work as my own, so I don't know why you would want to take advice from me on such a subject matter.

Classroom Attendance: 
The next pitfall that many freshmen in college fall into is the fact that if a professor does not show up within the first 5 minutes of class, they can leave and still get credit for showing up to that class. If you're under the impression that 5 minutes is a long time: you're retarded. Most colleges have no "official" guideline as to how long you should wait for your professor before leaving. They encourage the use of the down time towards your studies or something else useful that pertains to getting a better education.

Linked to this is the topic of attending class regularly. Traditionally, colleges did not take attendance, and did not care as to whether or not you did or did not attend class. They had their money, and that's all that mattered to them. In today’s day and age, with more and more young adults walking around not knowing how to spell even the most basic of words, colleges are putting forth rules outlining their attendance policy. Most colleges will automatically fail you from any class in which you missed more than 20 per cent of the meetings. This may be a good thing because as much of a scary thought as it is, some of these kids will be running the country in about 15 year's time.

College Books: 
If you're already enrolled in college, or know someone who is in college right now, you already know what I'm talking about. Text book publishing companies have a knack for charging college books stores and arm and a leg for purchasing books from them, which in turn is passed onto the students who are already paying an arm and a leg for tuition. Even worse is the fact that when you sell a book back to the college book store on your campus, they most likely give you 25 dollars worth of credit, then turn around and sell the book for 80 dollars and make a huge profit off of it. I have a hunch that all employees at college book stores are addicted to some form of "super drug" that costs as much as a Mercedes Benz per ounce.

In order to save yourself the hassle of waiting in long lines and getting ripped off for a book that you will only use once or twice in a semester, do yourself a favour: Go down to the college bookstore with your schedule before classes start and see what books you need. Don't actually buy the books from them, but instead write down the title, edition, author, as well as the ISBN number. This information will save you hundreds per semester and help you locate your book online a lot quicker. Try  half.com when searching for used college text books.

Now that you are confused and disoriented as a result to you reading the above, I'd like to point out that the layout and theme of the site has changed drastically over the last week or so. If you have been a long time reader and have just realized this now, I don't know what you have been smoking, but you might want to tone it down. If you notice that something isn't working as it should, or something isn't displaying properly, use  this form to tell me about it.

We're nearing 100,000 forum posts (It's about time!) and in order to mark this monumental achievement, I will be giving away 10,000 pennies. That's right $100 USD.

Here's how it works:

Each member will be able to pick one date he or she thinks will be the day that the forums reach the 100,000 mark. In the event that two (or more) members decide to pick the same day and it is the day that the odometer rolls over 100,000, whoever posted the date first will be the winner. If no one picks the correct date, the Julian Date will be calculated and whoever has the lowest absolute value from that number is the winner. Again, if there are two people who share the same number, the first poster will be the winner. Only the first entry from each member will be accepted. Any edits to posts will be disqualified.

Entries should be in the following format(s):
Saturday, January 19, 2008
1/19/08 (mm/dd/yy)
January 19 2008

Entering "Saturday, January 19, 2008 12:31PM EST" will not get you any closer. Any value you enter for time will not be accepted. Only a calendar date will suffice.

Additionally, payment will only be sent to those who have a Pay Pal account. If the winner does not have an account, the next closest member will be awarded the prize money.

Deadline for entires is February 2, 2008.

EDIT 1/21/08: Participants must have a forum membership for at least one month (30 days) in order to enter.

Link: http://www.gotthegeek.com/content/view/188/41/

After years of working in a fast food restaurant, I can attest to the unhealthiness of some of the items that are offered on the menu. The sad part is, customers willingly subject their bodies to self inflicted torture and mutilation each and every time that they indulge their self in certain items on the menu. I can do nothing but stand on the other side of the counter and watch as they happily devour a ticking time bomb that taunts them for more after each and every bite. In most cases, their children also are subjected to such abuse as well, growing up to believe that eating fast food several times a week is completely normal and healthy.

This is where I would like to point out the double-edged sword in this situation.

The one side of the sword allows the fast food restaurant to operate and sell products to whom ever, and when ever so as long as the food meets local and state regulations for handling and cooking procedures, as well as nutritional values. May I add, these nutritional requirements are only there to ensure that there toxic materials present in the products. The food can pretty much have no nutritional value what-so-ever.

This lack of legislation makes it completely legal for fast food restaurants to target young children and their parents' inability to tell their children "No". Fast food moguls know that children are highly susceptible to advertising, especially when it comes to toys. They also know that many parents can no longer tell their children "no". Knowing these two parts of the equation is a certain recipe for success. Add a playground for kids to play in and you have the ultimate breeding ground for future customer loyalty as well as millions in profits.

One the other side of the sword, there is the moral responsibility that fast food restaurants and other giant corporations have to their patrons and society in general. With the millions that they put in researching what is the most effective way to make money, they find how the human mind works, and how we are evolving over time. With this knowledge, they target young children who they themselves do not know any better and immediately want to go to the restaurant to obtain the toy they just saw advertised, and they also target parents who can no longer say "no" to their children because agencies such as DYFS are so eager nowadays to take children away from their parents.

What they are doing is almost no different than tampering with human DNA to eradicate any and all defects that may plague human beings over time. Some consider this as cheating, as well as morally irresponsible and an injustice to mankind. Using the knowledge that they have acquired about the average human mind is an abuse of power, to say the least.

It occurred to me the other day that I don't actually know what's going on in the world because I don't watch TV, and I don't check up on news sites anymore like I used to.

That being said, it hit me that I could post popular RSS feeds on the header or somewhere less obtrusive on the forums this way I can kill two birds with one stone. I can check up on the forums and make sure they haven't been flooded because someone left the stupid faucet running, and I can also check up on the latest War in Iraq headlines.

So my questions to you guys are:

Do you think this is a worth while addition to the forums?

AND

Do any of you have any good RSS feeds that they already utilize and have found to be useful and reliable?

Check this out.

Will it ever end? Maybe they need to jack up prices on CDs, DVDs, and other forms of media in order to bolster sales.

My favourite part of the article:

A complaint issued by TorrentSpy suggests the MPAA paid a hacker $15,000 to steal e-mail correspondence and trade secrets. The hacker admitted that this was true.

Two wrongs apparently make a right in this case. 

This topic has been moved to Sticky Stuff.

http://www.geekforum.org/index.php?topic=4490.0

I finally made the transition from Matawan, New Jersey to Hellertown, Pennsylvania. The transition was hard, and the drive was long and boring, but I'm finally here in Hellertown.

I spent several days out here fighting with the cable modem attempting to get it to work. I finally got fed up and called my new ISP (Service Electric) who figured out that the problem was within the modem itself, not the wiring or settings that I had first thought. Luckily I never sent back my old cable modem, so I had the guy swap MAC addresses and I was good to go.

Honestly, I am surprised at the speed that I am getting from this cable connection. I took some pictures for you guys to show you why I am surprised at the speed:

http://www.gotthegeek.com/chris/pa/05-18-07/

I have a lot of work ahead of me yet, but my room is pretty much unpacked, and so is my other computer equipment in the basement. Slowly but surely this place is starting to feel more and more like home.

This is what your typical college female looks like (With clothes on)

I suspect that many of you reading this are currently enrolled in college, or are perhaps ready to take the plunge into college from high school. I also know there are some of you, however, are currently attending elementary school, or are just plain retarded. I know this to be fact because of the emails that I get that read "u suck lol", and the comments that are posted in the forums that exist for the sole purpose of pissing other members off. Sadly, you too will some day make it to the ranks of being a college student because they pretty much take anyone with two legs and a wallet these days. I guess they also admit amputees with wallets, too.

High school guidance counselors make it seem as though if you don't hurry up and apply to as many colleges as you can by your first week of junior year in high school, you won't get accepted into any colleges. In fact, you might as well go home, write a nice long emo blog entry about how the world doesn't understand your complex views on abortion and the existence of God, and then proceed to kill yourself because you missed your one and only chance at success. Don't get me wrong, I know there is some truth in what they say. The more "prestigious" (I use that term loosely because with enough money, even a goat can be enrolled into a university like Penn State) universities will obviously be very hard to get in to, and universities in heavily populated areas with large student populations will also be hard to get in.

When the acceptance letters roll on in, many people already have misconceptions about what college should and should not be, and what professors are and are not supposed to do for you and the other students. These misconceptions are most likely instilled in most people's minds thanks in parts to the media and their uncanny ability in scaring the public into thinking cows are taking of the world.

Some of these misconceptions might include the following. Though, they are also not limited to the following. I'm not exactly sure what some people expect when they get into college, to be honest. Maybe the expect it to be a rave with bubbles.

If for some reason you look like this, you then have a valid reason to miss class.

"College is great. I can show up to class whenever I want to, and I can leave class whenever I want to!
This is 100% true. If you want to fail your class(es), this is a great way in doing so. Unless you have a legitimate reason as to why you're missing class, or why you're leaving early, it's best not to miss it. "Why?" you ask. Because generally speaking one class in college is roughly the equivalent to one week in high school. Unless you plan on reading all that material in your text book and somehow figure out what the correct key points are from the material you just read, it's not going to work out. Believe me, you're only fooling yourself by thinking that you'll catch up by reading the text book on your own time. And if you're like any other college student, you have lots of parties to go to! Besides, who actually still reads these days?

"I don't need to study for this exam. I have so much stuff to do today. The professor will probably grade on a curve anyway because everyone else will do poorly, too!"
This might be true; some professors may grade on a curve from time to time, but don't count on it all the time. There are some colleges that require professors to grade on a curve - which is total bullshit if you ask me. This way if you go to a really dumb college, you're half-assed 85 average turns into an instant A because the majority was below you. The bottom line is, unless your professor tells you that the exam you'll be taking is graded on a curve before hand; don't count on it being done.

"I didn't do so well the last two exams. But that's ok, I'll just ask the professor if I can do some extra credit to bring my grade up!"
Yes, it would be nice if the remainder of our lives could be lived as though we were still in high school, but we're not. When you screw up at work, don't expect there to be "extra credit" to make up for it, or if you run a red light and mow some poor innocent kid down with your car., don't expect there to be extra credit there either. I don't think extra credit is going to bring that poor kid back to life. The same holds true (At least it should) when you screw up in college-level courses; don't expect the professor to hand out extra credit assignments to help boost your grade. I doubt the professor wants to take more time to grade extra assignments because you screwed up. Some professors will do this because they are naive, but if you have a professor that knows what he or she is doing, don't count on there being this magical thing you once knew as extra credit to bring your grade up from the 13th level of hell.

This is what your typical college party looks like (With clothes on, of course)

"College is all about partying! It's the best time of your life I heard. I better live it up!"
College and parties are two eternal truths. They go together hand in hand. Every movie that you have ever seen about college has probably almost always had a party in it. This depiction is true for the most part - most major universities have numerous parties going on within the campus every night. Your first intuition as a freshman may be to go to as many of these parties as you possibly can in order to make friends and to try and fit in as a true college student. You'll quickly learn that those who are out partying on a regular basis are the ones who have GPA levels hovering around the 1.7 to 2.0 mark. These are the kids who go through one semester in their big 4-year college partying and living it up thinking they have it made, go through the next semester on academic probation, realize that actually doing the required work is hard, and then spend the remainder in some community college where they get their associates degree in pottery, or some other nominal field.

College is great! I'm doing so well, I can't wait to graduate and finally get my dream job that I've always wanted!
Good to hear you're doing well. Good job. However, don't get your hopes up on finding a good job as soon as you make your way out of college. In fact, don't be surprised if it takes you several years before you can even get into the industry that you want to get in. Keep in mind that when you graduate, you're graduating along with another million or so students in the United States alone, and out of those million, chances are many of them have the same educational background as you. Complete with the same degree, possibly the same work-related experience, and some might even have the same name as you! So my word of advice: Keep looking when you get out of college and don't give up. Also remember to take a number when you graduate this way when your number is called, you can go up and get in.

Sure, I know some of you reading this probably objected to almost everything I wrote above. If so, Chances are you're not in touch with reality. If this is the case, I suggest you re-evaluate what you're doing in college. You're probably better off dropping out of college and becoming a professional blogger, or a singer. Or Both.

If you agreed with almost everything I wrote, then congratulations! You realize that attending college is not a joke, and to get anywhere in life, it's going to take real dedication and not just making it look like you're doing hard work like you did in high school.

Please use this form to send me any complaints. I am sure there will be some.

I'm going to be moving to a new house in Pennsylvania with the folks in a couple of months. In fact, they just had the closing today, so all that's left is selling their current house here in New Jersey. The new location that the folks are moving to has a fairly large basement, and I got the go ahead to build a dedicated room to house my server rack and other equipment in.

I'm planning on making the room about a 10 foot square with drop ceiling tiles, and some kind of flooring that prevents static electricity from building up.

Before I went ahead and started building this room, I wanted to ask you guys what I should be on the look out for, or what pitfalls to avoid. I know some of you have pretty extensive experience working in data centers and/or server rooms, so hopefully I'll be able to get some good advice.

Below are what we believe to be the finalists from the latest caption contest. Remember, the winner walks away with a brand new LG DVD ROM/CD RW drive.

Just as a reminder, here is the image that was used:

Secretary Rice sings along with President Bush... "C is for cookie; that's good enough for me. C is for.."

"The DVD writer that Chris will send you is about this high, Yes that is a standard !"

Picture taken in response to this PSA:

"Shit! I was THIS close to getting George scared of Litebrites."

Secretary Rice demonstrates the approximate volume of entries in the Caption Contest after all the dialog entries are thrown out.

No no George...they're just a little bit more to the left on the map...the horn shaped one.

"Senator, may I remind you that the President only knows about this much of what's going on in the world, ever."

I seem to be having a brain fart when it comes to designing this short program to convert centimeters to yards, feet, and inches. Below is the code that I have so far:
#include <cstdlib>
#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
int cent, inches, feet, yards;
cout<<"Enter the amount in centimeters:";
cin>>cent;
inches = cent / 2.54;
yards = inches / 36;
feet = inches % 36;
inches = feet / 12;
cout<<yards<<" Yards "<<feet<<" Feet and "<<inches<<" Inches\n";
     system("PAUSE");
    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

Anyone have any insignt on where I went wrong? I know it's something really stupid, like the conversion itself - not the syntax.

First person to post the correct solution/helpful advice leading to the correct answer gets 100 coolio points!

Sorry to all of those who had nothing to do on Saturday night because of the downtime. I didn't think I would use as much bandwidth as I have this past month.

I have been eying the Samsung SCH I730 (picture attached below) for about a week now. I want this phone, or something like it, because of the features - SD slot, MS word document reader/editor, 802.11 compatability, and most of all, the ability to synchronize the phone's calendar with my Outlook Calendar with ease.

I have been holding back on buying this phone for a few main reasons:
1. Size. I know it's going to be slightly larger than my current phone (Currently a Razr), but I'm not sure how much larger it's really going to be.
2. I have read that some people have trouble using the QWERTY keyboard because it's so small.
3. I don't think I want to shell out another 30 a month to get wireless broadband from Verizon.

So I guess my questions are as follows:

1.Do you find a phone similar to the Samsung SCH I730 to be too large and too bulky to carry around? I'm not really too picky when it comes to this, but I just don't want something the size of a Bible on my hip while I'm walking around.
2. Is the keyboard difficult to type on? Or did it just take some time getting used to?
3. Is it still worth getting a phone like the Samsung SCH I730 if I'm not going to get the data plan from my provider, Verizon?

And lastly, can anyone recommend anything aside from the Samsung SCH I730 that they have used and liked?