OK ... maybe they won’t change your life. But these 9 tricks and tips are fun, easy, and useful—you’ll wonder how you never thought of these yourself!

Sometimes, walking as fast as you can to escape the wind or rain takes priority over monitoring your surroundings. But it’s crucial to stay alert. Fortunately, there are some great security tools that can help.

The Rave Guardian App gives you access to emergency resources, allows friends and family to track you on your way home, and provides a direct connection between you and the police.

When Rey kissed Kylo Ren upon her revival in Rise of Skywalker, terrified, happy, and confused gasps filled the theater. I knew the horror that this pivotal moment could bring—the “Reylo” trilogy would be forever condemned to appearances in future BuzzFeed lists like “Best Romantic Movies of All Time” and “RomComs that Make Us Want to Call in Sick and Cry in Bed.” 

Surveys are everywhere. From commercials (4 out of 5 dentists…), to politics (the Democratic primary debates require meeting a polling threshold). From the census and research studies, to meeting scheduling and customer feedback, nearly everyone wants to ask you something.

The Super Bowl is approaching, but if you’re not careful, it’s you who’s gonna get played. Social media is a field with no refs—hackers and identity thieves are waiting on the sidelines to sack you.

We're so used to living our lives online that we forget to make a game plan for keeping our personal information safe. Here are some helpful tips to keep you in the game:

In November, I submitted a departmental request. I had to complete a form, sign it, and send it to my supervisor—who works on another floor. My supervisor had to complete a couple fields, sign it, and send it to the director—who works in a different building. The director had to sign it and send it to the administrator to process.

Research Reality: Research projects can include multiple collaborators, generate large amounts of data, include hundreds or thousands of participants/samples, and require significant computing resources for data storage, transfer, and analysis. The data needs to be shared, combined, and manipulated by researchers who may sit on the other side of a wall, across campus, or across the ocean from each other.

Welcome back, everybody! Pittsburgh may be cold and gray, but you’re still living on the holiday high! You’re all stocked up, your belly is filled with cookies, you spent lots of time with friends and family, and you can’t help but look at the world through joy-filled eyes. Hopefully, that’ll carry you through the semester, or at least until spring break.

If you’re lucky enough to have scored some new smart devices, get them set up on Residence Hall Wi-Fi (MyResNet) to ease your transition back to campus.

Will you be travelling internationally on university business during the spring term? Going overseas raises a lot of technology questions. What adapters will I need? What devices should I bring? What should I do if they get lost or stolen? How do I protect my data?

As a kid, winter break was chock-full of fun and freedom. Whether you were playing for hours in the snow, reading the new Junie B. Jones book you got from the Scholastic book fair, or watching movie marathons, the world was your oyster in those sacred two weeks. A lot has changed since then—mostly the fact that now, normal life still looms large.