Articles by Travis Winkler
12/09/09 3:31am
Freshman Footsteps | Fighting procrastination before a new semester
College freshman Elizabeth Argall already has her eye on winter break and relaxation in mind. 10/30/09 1:35am
Chef reflects on switch to Bon Appetit
Brian Walcott, a 25-year Penn chef, reflects on the switch from Aramark to Bon Appetit. Penn Dining made the change this year. 10/16/09 2:17am
Freshman Footsteps | From tutoring to ‘tighty whities,’ a full first term
Follow freshman Elizabeth Argall as she navigates through freshman year at Penn. 09/22/09 4:50am
Scissors and style on 39th Street
College senior Collin Williams’ father used to cut his hair. And when Williams was 15, his father passed the scissors to the next generation — literally. 04/24/09 5:00am
New Hey Day toast rooted in old tradition | Interactive timeline
Once the central hub and meeting place on campus before closing in 2003, the Palladium Bar - a restaurant and bar on 36th Street and Locust Walk where the ARCH building now stands - was also the anchor of a Hey Day tradition. As juniors paraded down Locust Walk, seniors toasted the procession from the bar. 04/22/09 5:00am
Live Mesh program moves toward synchronization
With the future of computing trending toward synchronization across all of a users' devices, Microsoft's Live Mesh attempts to take a step in that direction. Live Mesh is a free service that aims to provide users with 5 gigabytes of space online to share and sync their files among all their Internet-enabled devices, from their desktops to their mobile phones. 04/17/09 5:00am
Books of the future include tweeting characters and interaction with readers
If Bradley Inman is right, books will no longer be just printed words, but will involve videos supplementing the storyline, characters "tweeting" away their thoughts online and readers collaborating and revising the original story. Inman is the man behind the "Vook," an e-book platform that wraps text, video, and social networking together into one package. 04/10/09 5:00am
iPhone becomes 'one hub' for campus info
Besides merely serving as a distraction in that political science class you now realize was a mistake signing up for, perhaps that iPhone or BlackBerry will actually give you the power to drop the class on the spot. At Stanford - and more recently, Duke - that choice will soon be available to students on campus. 04/10/09 5:00am
iTunes increases song prices to $1.29
The rollout of the Apple iTunes Music Store three-tiered pricing system last Tuesday has already drawn criticism, copycats and apparent declines in sales rankings among some of the top 100 songs. In January, Apple had announced it would soon begin selling all DRM-free songs with the introduction of the new pricing levels of $. 04/03/09 5:00am
Food-ordering site GrubHub.com launches in Phila.
The new kid on the online food-ordering block is now GrubHub.com, which went live for Philadelphians last week. GrubHub aims to provide a comprehensive list of restaurants' menus while also working with some restaurants to streamline their delivery and pickup business through online ordering. 03/31/09 5:00am
Two new applications prevent drunk dialing on iPhone
The ever-looming danger of phoning an ex, a boss or any of the several people in their phone books most people would not call sober only increases with their level of intoxication. The release of two iPhone applications that allow users to block themselves from calling certain contacts for a set amount of time will help remove the potential repercussions of drunk dialing. 03/27/09 5:00am
Students reject Facebook redesign
A mea culpa of sorts was issued Tuesday by Facebook, as the recent redesign of the popular social-networking site has been met with extreme criticism and backlash from users. Product director Christopher Cox "apologized" on the company's blog, indicating that Facebook would focus on four specific problematic areas of the new design that users have given the most feedback about. 03/19/09 5:00am
'Grocer' offers late-night snacks
The late-night grocery-item delivery service, The Lazy Grocer, is hoping that you're simply too tired, overworked and, well, lazy to want to run to Fresh Grocer or WaWa to nab that bag of chips and salsa at 2 a.m. Launched in early November by two current Wharton students, senior Raj Parikh and junior Akash Shah, The Lazy Grocer offers food, drink and "essential" items for sale in its roughly 23 categories. 03/17/09 5:00am
Social networking: helpful or harmful?
The ever-growing encroachment of online social networking and electronic media on people's everyday lives begs the question of what effect these virtual interactions are having on the mind and body. According to a paper recently published in Biologist, the increasing displacement of face-to-face contact by time spent online can be associated with negative physiological changes. 03/06/09 5:00am
Landline phone use plummets
During her two years living in Penn college houses, College sophomore Jessica Renny has never used a landline phone. "I've never plugged it in, and I don't even know the number," she said. Although every room in college houses and University-owned Greek houses is supposed to come with a landline phone and jack, it appears that fewer students are making use of the provided service - and the shift away from landlines is taking place across the country, too. 02/26/09 5:00am
Comcast Corp. and Time Warner begin to offer shows online
Hoping to make a successful jump into the increasingly popular world of online video, both Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Cable Inc. are in the process of beginning to offer cable shows online to subscribers. The two companies have been in discussions with several of the largest cable-network providers, including Viacom and NBC Universal, in order to secure the rights to distribute popular shows from stations like MTV, USA and TNT online. 02/24/09 5:00am
Google's newest technology lets you broadcast your location
In what may turn your friend, your mom or even you into a modern-day Big Brother, Google's newest application, Latitude, allows you to broadcast your exact location to your friends and family. Available for any computer and on certain smartphones that are GPS-enabled, the application utilizes information from GPS satellites and cell towers to pinpoint a user's location. 02/19/09 5:00am
Conducting class through Facebook?
With parents, middle schoolers, Barack Obama and even your dog on Facebook these days, it should be no surprise that your teacher is on it too. But rather than being on Facebook for the sake of it, PennDesign Architecture lecturer Andrew Phillips is using the social networking site as an extension of his classroom. 02/16/09 5:00am
New newsletter brings 'thrills' to Philadelphia
If you want to be that slick hipster who knows about the latest, the greatest and the coolest, then Thrillist may be for you. The men's lifestyle e-mail newsletter is set to launch its Philadelphia edition this month, aiming to give readers information about the best bars, restaurants, stores, gadgets and more in the area. 02/12/09 5:00am