Most students in law school know that they can forward their schools’ e-mail correspondence to their personal emails (yahoo, gmail, hotmail, etc.). Most, however, don’t know that they can send email from those services under the guise of their school’s email account. So in other words, after setting this up, emails sent from your personal email account will look as if they were sent from your school’s official email address such as, “From: XX@lawschool.edu.” The trick is pretty great if you 1) want to sound professional in correspondence, 2) need to send an email that will get through a prof’s spam filter, or 3) just make sure that person you met last Saturday never gets your personal email. Here’s the process in Gmail: Go to Settings > Account > Add Another Account. Google requires confirmation of ownership and will email you at your Law School’s email address. (Note: Make sure to select Gmail as the email server and not your school’s). Once you receive that email, click the confirmation link and you’re good to go. From now on, whenever you reply to emails or compose new ones, you’ll be able to select which email you want it send it from. This way, you don’t have to log on to your law school’s email software to send an official law school email (ie, to your externship, professor, law firm, etc.).

2. Watch Your Shows When You Want, Wherever You Want

How else does a law student claim sanity through the barrage of cases, briefs, memos, and drama of high school law school? By watching television and movies, of course! Alas, not all of us have the time to do so on a school night especially with 15 cases to brief and a Venti Mocha Frapp to get through them at 2.00am (see tip #5).  In this respect, hulu.com, surfthechannel.com, and www.quicksilverscreen.com offer high-quality video streaming of popular, syndicated television shows and movies for free. Hulu allows users to build playlists of shows to watch at a later time. if you pause or shutoff your computer, Hulu remembers where you left off in the show and queues the video to that point the next time you log in. Hulu also now sends email alerts to users whenever the latest episode of their favorite series is online. Hulu’s newest update of the Hulu Desktop program (for Windows, Mac and Linux setups) now offers a slick interface and integration with Apple and Windows Media remote controls. Surfthechannel and QuickSilversScreen, on the other hand, provide a larger number of newly premiered movies and TV shows ahead of release dates on Hulu.  Both Surfthechannel and quicksilverscreen feature user-generated content, however, so the video quality tends to vary from high-definition to barely passable.

3. Listen to Any Song, Album, or Artist Anywhere

Grooveshark allows users to stream music to their computers over the internet for free. The application differs from offerings such as Pandora, Spotify, last.fm, 8 Track, and Finetune because all songs, albums and listing are user-generated. All songs are uploaded to the site by Grooveshark’s many users and thus its content is diverse and up-to-date.

The latest Michael Buble album, “Crazy Love”? Check. That old Beatles song, “Yellow Submarine”? Check. The Family Guy’s rendition of “Peanut Butter Jelly Time”? Check.

Because of the freedom of content, Grooveshark users can listen to any song and generate their own playlists as well. Moreover, the site itself operates as a “music recommendation engine” and actively suggests music based on your selected artists and/or tastes. With Grooveshark there’s no more need for carrying your entire music collection on your laptop. With a large (and growing) user-base, Grooveshark promises that there is no tune that it can’t play. www.grooveshark.com

4. Get Free Voice-mail to Keep In Touch (GoogleTalk; PC-only)

For those who like to keep in contact with a more personal touch, the answer isn’t Facebook, AIM, or email but rather Google Talk. Installation of the Google Talk client on a Windows PC allows users to record voice messages of any length for any recipient with an e-mail address. The recorded file in gets sent as an easy-to-download mp3 of decent quality. (Bonus: If the receiver is a Gmail user, the file plays right in their browser). The Google Talk client in this sense differentiates itself from the Skype offering which offers voicemail functionality at a price. Google Talk is ideal for long distance conversations where the recipient is not currently online. It’s also not too shabby for stealth recording.

5. Quit Drinking Coffee and Learn to Love the “Coffee Replacement”

Luckily, I quite coffee years ago. But I still love tea. (Aside: I’ve created my own drink: SPIT (¼ Sprite and ¾ Ice Tea) to get over the fact that Ice Tea isn’t sweetened in the States). If you have a nagging addiction to the brew and would like to seek out a new solution, try Coffee Replacement. Stefanos Karagos, the website operator of anabubula.com, created an interesting mp3 file that purportedly changes the brainwave-state of your mind. It alters your state of consciousness in a quasi-natural way without chemicals or stimulants. Rather, the sound of the mp3 (which sounds like a bird flapping right beside your ear) slowly eases the mind into an energizing state. Karagos claims that this works because the brain tries to synchronize its brainwave activity to the stimulus it’s presented with. To try it out yourself, go to this download link: http://snurl.com/coffeerep. For more background info from anabubula.com, go to: http://snurl.com/coffeerep2.