Cache by LASA Ezine

@ E C Ch

the december 2009 issue

FEATURES SCHMILLION page.......14 ALL LONGHORNS ALL THE TIME page.......22 INTERNET ADDICTION VS NO INTERNET page........19

OPINIONS NETFLIX VS BLOCKBUSTER page........4 HOW SEXTING IS A MESSAGE OF PROBLEMS page.......19 Mp3 WORLD page........10

All Longhorns all the Time: Living in a Burnt Orange Nation A story about the highly popular blog for longhorn sports fans

& more TOP 7 BEST WEBSITES page..........6 Are You Addicted to facebook page...........12 TOP GROSSING MOVIES 2007 page...........13

Inside

C@chE

1 3

2 4

Henry

Danni

Favorite Website: FreeTetris

Favorite Website: Pandora

Henry is the resident drummer of TEAM PWN. When he is not working on Cache Magazine, he spends his time at home alone playing tetris on the internet. He also enjoys taking the occasional random walk all the way around the halls of LASA.

David

Favorite Website: Megavideo David enjoys hanging out with his friends and taking long walks with his dog around town lake. He loves doing his homework and spending a lot of time making all Aâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in his classes, so you see him in the library a lot studying. David also likes to watch movies on the Internet on the weekends to catch up on his movies and TV shows.

Danni is on the first ladies. She likes to chat on the computer with her friends and go to the movies late on friday nights. She spends alot of her time with her friends, She likes to hang out at the dance room of LASA with her dance team.

Monica

Favorite Website: College Humor Monica spends most of her days glued to the computer or procrastinating on school work. She enjoys anything art related, and mostly stays in her room listening to music and drawing. Her favorite place to be is outside when she can be so she can watch the sky and she hates sitting around for a long period of time.

Monica F.

Blockbuster vs. Netflix

Netflix knew where With 100,000 titles and 10 million subthe market was going scribers the Netflix epidemic is sweep--Blockbuster didn’t. ing the nation. Their concept is sim-

ple, get the DVDs you want online for a reasonable monthly price and get them sent straight to your door within 24 hours. You can go to their site and choose the movies you want, receive either one to eight at a time, depending on your monthly plan and get them sent to your mailbox in an envelope that you mail back when you are done viewing. You can even choose the "watch instantly" feature on the website and view some movies or TV shows there as well.

There are no late fees and no more paying more than you want to for your DVDs. Netflix truly is the new technology developed to make your life a whole lot easier, meaning no more driving down to the video store every time you wish to watch a movie. But whatever happened to Blockbuster? It was that one video store that I could go to for my entire movie renting needs. I remember standing in line so I could pay for overpriced DVDs and get to have them for only a few days. On top of

that those late fees that turned a single movie into an investment if you didn’t return it on the dot. But Blockbuster has been running even before Netflix, so couldn’t they see as computers came out and became more popular that it was going to effect DVD renting. Even after Netflix launched in 1999, Blockbuster did nothing to try to improve its movie renting for their customers, but rather sat around and kept charging their customers overpriced DVDs. Surely they knew that in time Netflix would catch on and they

would lose over half their customers. Netflix was the better of the two, and Blockbuster finally just might have lost the race. In truth, Netflix is better than Blockbuster. First of all Netflix saw where the market was going to go, from video stores to computers, Blockbuster didn’t. Netflix is more efficient than Blockbusters video stores; it’s faster and cheaper as well. Sending movies through the mail means that there is no more driving down to the video store to rent and then later return your movies. Which means

that you are potentially saving money on your gas bill because you aren’t wasting that gas driving to your local Blockbuster. Netflix is also cheaper than Blockbuster. Instead of it costing you about four dollars per movie, it can cost you just $9.99 per month for 10 movies or even more. Monthly fees are more efficient than fees per movie. You just set up a plan that determines how many movies you get and the number of films and based on what that plan is how much it is going to cost you monthly. Its quite obvious that the new technology of sending movies via mail has settled in leaving video stores competing with Netflix like Blockbuster far behind. But let’s not totally forget about Blockbuster. They too came up with a new online plan shortly after they realized that the online video renting wasn’t just going to be a phase but a new, movie renting lifestyle, if you would. Their plan is also quite similar to Netflix’s but, a little more expensive, as we know Blockbuster to be. Instead of eight plans like Netflix, Blockbuster only has four (and all are a little more pricy) and because there are only four plans it means that you can only rent up to four DVDs out at a time. Blockbuster has a range of about 60,000 movie titles while Netflix has 100,000 and on top of that, Blockbuster remains a little bit under different distributing centers in which you can purchase your movies. Overall Netflix is a faster, cheaper and more efficient way to rent your movies. Blockbuster has fallen behind and while they are frantically trying to catch up they are just losing more and more customers and more and more stores. Blockbuster had their chance, having dominated the movie renting industry for years, but it is time for them to move over and let the new and better business take over.

top

best

websites facebook Facebook is a website where you can chat with your friends and family. Also finding friends that you havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t seen in a while is so much easier to do on facebook.

yahoo Yahoo is a website where you can send and receive e-mail to different people. Also you can find music and look up news and weather and more.

myspace Myspace is a website where there are chatting, e-mail, music, and more. You can search up family and friends and design your own profile page.

twitter Twitter is a website where you up date your status on what you are doing and read what others wrote.

5 youtube Youtube is a website where you can upload videos and search videos others have made.

wEBSITES

pandora Pandora is a radio website that you can search up music of any artist and listen to the radio of your choice

7 google Google is a searching website where you can search websites, pictures, videos, and more.

INTERNET “A vast computer network linking smaller computer networks worldwide. The Internet includes commercial, educational, governmental, and other networks, all of which use the same set of communications protocols.”

by Danni B.

INTERNET ADDICTION v.s.

INTERNET

“I

“I I

would probably die, it has impacted my life in a major way,” said De’Andre J.,a junior at Round Rock High School. The Internet is a teen’s best friend. De’Andre told me about his addiction with the Internet as he was sitting in a rolling chair at a computer with Facebook open. “Internet has consumed my life a lot,” he said. A two year study by psychiatrists from Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital in Taiwan shows that more then 10.8% of students in middle school could be classified as being addicted to the Internet. Teens who use the Internet everyday and/or 20 hours a week or more are more likely to be addicted. De’Andre uses the Internet for 6 to 8 hours on weekends and 4 hours on weekdays. The Internet is just something to do so he is not sitting around bored, but without it he would still find something to do to amuse himself. “Without watch

Internet, I would just TV,” explained De’Andre.

He uses the Internet mostly for Facebook and YouTube, but does his homework using textbooks. Taylor A., a 7th grader at Ann Richards Middle School, is just the opposite: the Internet is a big part of her school life, but she doesn’t really use the Internet for anything personal. “I use the Internet get my homework

a lot; done,”

it helps me Taylor said.

Taylor only uses the web 4 times a day regularly, including during school and after school when she gets home. The only time she uses the Internet is for her homework and to check her e-mail. She would rather look something up on the computer then find it in a book - in fact, if she didn’t have the Internet she would go crazy because

she would have to use the school’s text book.

would have

protest to to have

get it!”

the Internet back, Taylor explained.

While students like Taylor often use the Internet as a resource for school, today’s adults did not grow up with the Internet to help them with their studies. “looking up everything in my teen years instead of finding it on the Internet was a drag,” Darnella Biddle, an adult that works at the Health and Human Services of the State.”If i had the Internet back then, then research would be a heck of a lot easier.” In 1983, when she was 15, she didn’t have the Internet to search search something up. She started using the web in 1988 at the age of 20 and started working with the state Employee Retirement System (E.R.S.). Now when she uses the Internet for work, its a lot easier then when she had to use books. we all know that Internet has changed from decades ago and now. We found out that it is easier to use the Internet then text books. You can use the Internet in a lot of other ways then just looking something up like: communicate, teaching, and for Entertainment.

MP3 World by Henry K.

s long as I’ve been interested in music, I’ve been using the computer to listen to songs. The time when I started listening to music coincided with the rise in popularity of the digital music file. However, since I didn’t own my first MP3 player until many years after I started downloading music, I would burn mixes of my favorite songs onto compact discs and then play them on the family stereo. Though this system worked for quite some time, I all but abandoned CDs when I got my got my first iPod, and I can’t say that I regret this transition at all.

dustry Association of America. Digital music is eclipsing the CD as the quality music format for the consumer, and it’s not hard to see why: while CDs do provide a tangible face to your music, MP3s are much more convenient to use, cost-effective, and a very stable way to store your music.

The digital song is essentially a piece of data stored on a hard drive and is playable on almost any personal computer with the right software. They are easily transferred and saved and can be used with a variety of devices, most notably MP3 players such as While the compact disc remains the iPod. Their mobility provides a the “standard” format for all music bonus over compact discs, which releases, digital album downloads can only be played by CD playwent up thirty-seven percent from ers that are hooked up to a stereo 2007 to 2008. In the same year, system of some sort. Playing the CD sales fell twenty-four percent, music on a CD also requires natuaccording to the Recording In- rally that you actually have the CD

on your person, whereas you can access MP3 files remotely from a computer network, or else play them from an online database such as your e-mail. I for one find it much easier and convenient to play my album collection from

“Digital music is eclipsing the CD as the quality music format for the consumer.” my iPod, which holds over forty full-length records, rather than hauling my entire CD collection around with me everywhere I go.

Digital albums are far easier to produce and distribute to the consumer. Even though CDs don’t require that complicated of a production line, they still produce dense plastic jewel cases that use plenty of resources. The compact discs themselves are made of a polycarbonate plastic and a combination of metals, making them extremely difficult to recycle. If thrown away, CDs can pollute waters and contaminate the air we breathe, according to a 2008 article published in The Daily Green. Digital songs, however, are only a piece of code written on a hard drive, and practically don’t exist if not played through a computer - leaving no environmental impact besides the joules burned by the computer. Most digital albums also don’t need to be distributed by truck to retailers, because they are stored in one location and sold repeatedly by online music stores, meaning reduced carbon emissions into

the atmosphere. Lower production and distribution expenses also means a higher cost-revenue ratio for the music labels, allowing them to spend more money on promotion, and in turn generating more profit for the artists. Compact disc supporters will tell you most eagerly that it takes merely one hard drive crash for your entire collection of music to vanish if you rely on MP3s, whereas a solid CD collection will stand the test of time if handled properly. While this is true, it is both easy and cheap to backup your music library with an external hard drive, which can be kept far away from your original library so as to prevent data loss should a natural disaster occur. However, to backup your collection of compact discs, you either must purchase a second copy of every CD you own, or rip all the songs off every album and then replicate them using a CD burner, which is

extremely tedious and time-consuming. The truth is that no music library is entirely immune to damage, but if you backup your digital music collection, then it is easy to play your music on a computer and not worry about it disappearing at any moment. I have now relied on my iTunes library for my music needs for over six years, and it has not disappointed me once. I am reminded of the portability and ease of use of the digital music file every time I’m on a road trip and find myself listening to album after album, all stored on a small MP3 player. With computer access and the right software, it is very easy to convert your entire CD collection to MP3, and in doing so you are not only eliminating a need for space in your residence, but you are also being more cost effective for the music industry and having a good environmental impact on the Earth.

ARE YOU ADDICTED TO by Henry Kellison

START N

Do you spend more than 45 minutes a day on Facebook?

NOPE

You are definitely not addicted to Facebook. Congratulations!

Do you access Face-

Do you change your profile picture at least once a month?

Do you update your status more than once a day?

Do you have over 600 friends (many of whom you don’t know)?

Of all your friends, do you know who is married, engaged, dating, or who just broke up just because of Facebook?

Do you often find your-

N book at work or school? Y

N self looking at photos of Y

Do you actively participate in at least two Facebook apps? (e.g. Mafia Wars, Farmville, etc.)

Do you find yourself on Facebook when you thought you were doing something else?

MAYBE

You’re probably not addicted... yet. Be careful.

people you don’t even know?

YES!

You are definitely addicted to Facebook. Get help.

REVIEWS [Movies-Top Grossing of 2009] 5.New Moon Teens of all ages work themselves into two groups after this movie: Team Edward or Team Jacob. This movie was a little on the odd side for me. I couldn’t squeeze myself into either of these groups, all I know is that neither of the last two films of the Twilight Saga have done any justice whatsoever for the book by Stephenie Meyer. New Moon is full of teenage angst and a bunch of guys running around without shirts on. There was one good point in this movie however, that actually caught my attention. Michael Sheen, playing the mind-reading Aro shows up near the end and sparks things up a bit with some actual acting. It makes me wonder what the other cast thought about Michael, probably wondering if that was acting that he was doing because clearly Stewart, Lautner and Pattinson didn’t know since they basically stood there the whole movie. New Moon was for sure another flop for the Twilight Saga, resulting in a dull 2 hours of bad acting and a loss of story.

4.The Hangover Angelenos Doug Billings and Tracy Garner are about to get married. Two days before the wedding, the four men in the wed-

ding party: Doug, Phil, Stu and Alan hop into a convertible for a 24 hour stag party in Las Vegas. Though a bachelor party sounds like one of the biggest cliches, but Todd Phillips (director) delivers and takes this bachelor party and changes it into something not the norm. They wake up the next morning in their hotel suite with the biggest hangover, and none of them can remember what happened the night before. Even worse, Doug is missing, and he has to be married in the next few hours. As the three try to find out what happened, they race the clock to find where their grom is as well. Ed Helms who plays Stu is a huge laugh, along with Bradley Cooper (Phil), and Zach Galifianakis (Alan). Though this movie seemed stupid, it is the opposite, and though some don’t wish to admit it, it was hilarious. As Peter Travers from Rolling Stone says “The Hangover ain’t art, but Phillips has shaped the hardcore hilarity into the summer party movie of all our twisted dreams.”

3.Up A young Carl Fredrickson meets a young adventurous girl named Ellie, and they both share the same dream of going to a lost land in South America. They fall in love, marry and grow old together, but 70 years later, Ellie dies and neither her nor Carl

ever accomplished their dream. But, Carl promises Ellie to go to that lost land in South America, and he does just that. In his house. With balloons as his source of transportation. However, a 8 year old boy named Russell comes along, a boy trying to get his assist the elderly badge. Together they embark on a remarkable journey to South America, where they encounter talking dogs, an evil villain and a bird named Kevin. This story is a touching heartwarming tale about life, both the ups and downs with creativity leaping out of every frame. “Up” is truly one of a kind and another brilliant work well done by Pixar.

2.Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Out of all the Harry Potter movies, this one is the best. David Yates will be directing the rest of the movies to the end, which is great to know that they are in good hands, since this past one turned out so fabulous. The movie is about the mysterious finding of a book whose owner calls himself “the half blood prince,” and the dark past of Lord Voldemort himself. Yates takes the movie and steers it in a dark direction followed by the occassional humor that Radcliffe and Grint bring to the table involving the whole hormonal transport. One of the actors however, Tom Felton, who plays Draco Malfoy, takes his role to the next level as we discover a vulnerable humanity lying beneath the normally somewhat evil Draco. This movie is like a breath of fresh air, and it’s haunting power is nothing more than extraordinary.

1.Transformers Revenge of the Fallen

hough this movie was the highest grossing movie of 2009, it’s far from being anything but good. Michael Bay found a way to take Transformers and make a sequel that was worse than the first movie, as if we hadn’t had enough. The movie starts with Sam (Shia LaBeouf) and sending him to college leaving his girlfriend, Mikaela behind. Bay even brings in another girl, Alice, another student at Sam’s college who becomes another one of Bay’s tools to objectify women even more than he has with Mikaela. From there the story moves forward to some chase in Egypt involving the destruction of pyramids with fights between robots where you can’t tell the difference between one and another. Speaking of autobots, Michael Bay created two very offensive bots, Skids and Mudflap who play the role of being the black stereotypes. So if you are wanting to go see a horrible movie and waste your time, this one is definitely the one to pick. by Monica

A CLOSER look AT a new band in AUSTIN.

By Monica Falcon

is a late night downtown. Claustrophobia is the least of your problems as you squeeze your way through endless groups of people huddled together at the Parlor. Outside, the air is cold as it clings onto you and people try to talk over the music blaring from The Parlor. Inside however, the atmosphere is very different. It’s sweaty and you are completely deaf to the people around you, only able to hear the music coming from the band in the corner of the room. There’s a girl standing next to the singer, her jet black hair draped over her guitar, eyes averted as she ignores the audience, captivated by her music.

The girl playing the guitar is Frankie, one of the five members of a band called Schmillion, a relatively new band to Austin that just got together at the end of this past summer. Their music takes a rock feel with a variety of songs like Spine, Overgrown and Where are We? Frankie first took her interest in music at a young age, starting out playing the piano, which she had always been drawn to even before she could walk. At the age of three, she began to play around with it and when her mother asked if she wanted lessons all she could say was “No, I already know how to do it,” since she could push down the

by herself. When her friends began to play a few years later Frankie begged to take lessons with them as well. Her mother agreed and from that point on Frankie practiced almost everyday, already passionate about her music. Some years later Frankie took up cello at her school and got her first Fender Starcaster under her Christmas tree that same year. After that she taught herself a few chords, got stumped and asked for lessons there, too. This past summer Frankie and a few friends decided to start up Schmillion. They had all already known each other for years, so when they began talking about the possibility of playing together, the band came together almost unexpectedly. From then on they practiced once a week during the week days and then played different gigs during the weekends. For the next few months they worked on producing their own music and covers for others artists as well.

10 minutes saying ‘I can’t breathe through my nose!’ It was really funny.” A typical band practice starts out when Ceci’s mom brings cupcakes and after they have tacos, a sort of tradition that sort of evolved according to Frankie. Then they talk about whatever they did that week and finally start playing. “Normally, we always get side-tracked when we start playing and then remember something interesting and then we end up going on and on about it.”

“I

LOVE the way we can WORK together. One of us brings in some RIFF and then we BUILD on top of it”

“I love the way we can work together. One of us brings in some riff and then we build on top of it,” Frankie says. Aside from being band mates, all 5 members in Schmillion are also very good friends.

Schmillion has a total of 8 original songs so far :Spine, Groceries, Where

are We?, Capricorn, Overgrown, Agent 3512 and Rain and Planes. They have

also

done

few

covers

Piece of My Heart by Janis Joplin.

“I enjoy learning other peoples but I’ve “We are always playing pranks on each always liked writing my own music other and one time at band practice, Si- cause there is a lot to learn from it and enna threw a cupcake at Zoe and it got all I find it most interesting,” she explains. over her nose. She walked around for like

While in the hot sweaty room of the Parlor if you look around to the various band members, Sienna banging on the drums, Natalie holding the mic her knuckles white as she sings, Zoe shaking her head as she plays her guitar and Ceci standing still staring at the audience as she too plays you will see Frankie, eyes completeled averted downward, ignoring the audience overall.

As for Frankie, she plans on going to college and not pursuing a career in music, but keeping it as a side bar of something she does on top of any job she happens to have. “I definatley plan on playing music my entire life and I hope I’ll be in a band for a really long time.”

Frankie laughs “My brain sort of stops stringing together real thoughts during out gigs because I get so nervous. I just try to keep track of the song, when the changes are and try not to look at the audience. That’s what make me so nervous.” The future of Schmillion is fairly vague, other than the fact that they plan to keep playing, writing new songs and performing them at different places around Austin. “There’s still a lot of work to be done. We are planning some more gigs, but not too much before the end of the year, then after that we will go on from there,” Frankie adds.

“My BRAIN sort of STOPS stringing together REAL thoughts because i GET so NERVOUS”

by Danni B.

how

SEXTING is a message of problems

he handcuffs are so tight the are cutting off the circulation on Janeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wrist. Her hands are behind her back with a man walking her forward to his car. Closer she approaches the car bright red and blue lights are blinding her in the face when the man behind her pushes her in the car. All this happened once she uploaded an inappropriate photo on the Internet. Teens now are uploading photos on all kinds of websites that are either in the nude or partly nude. This is called Sexting-this is when you upload sexually suggestive messages or images to others via cell phone, or posting them on social websites such as Facebook and MySpace.

Teens shouldn’t upload photos of themselves for sexual attention, because instead of getting attention they will be embarrassed when they get caught and have to go to juvy for sexual harassment. Putting up photos of yourself that will represent you, where your family and friends can see it, that will be embarrassing, because they are going to think of you in a negative way. Everything on you put on the Internet has your name following with it so everybody knows its you. Some teens do sexting on the Internet for the sexual benefits that they will get from guys. Girls will do anything to get and keep a boyfriend.” “sexting is a new way to get attention,” Anita Modi said at age 17,of South Brunswick. Jade, a 15-year-old girl in Alabama, and her friends sent pictures of them self, pornography, to 3 older boys to get their attention. At that time the boy’s coach saw the picture and the boys spent the rest on the night in juvy for sexual assault, said in nj.com, a website that covers NJ news, in a magazine about life and living. Sending pictures on the Internet can come to a bad result. You never know if you are talking to a psycho. Someone else can be on the other side of that computer pretending to be someone else, but would you know? People can get access to messages. If you send someone an inappropriate picture and that person sends it to his friends and they send it to their friends then everybody is going to know your business not just the one guy you wanted to show. So not only you get embarrassed but also now you are know as what you did and guys will be expecting more from you. If you ask or open a message that has a picture of a girl in the nude or partly nude then you have the chance of being framed as sex abuser. “Once you get caught you might be facing to be put on the sex offenders list and it will be hard to get a job or buy a house with that on your record,” said in

nj.com in a magazine about life and living. You might even stay a couple of nights in juvy or jail, and it won’t be fun. But if you are thinking about putting pictures on the Internet will get you attention, then you are right just maybe not the attention you are looking for. An 18-year-old girl, Jessica, from Cincinnati High School went through a lot just because of sexting. Jessica had sent her boyfriend a message with and attachment of her in the nude, but once her and her boyfriend broke up he decided to send the picture to hundreds of student at Cincinnati High. Girls harassed her and called her “slut, whore, and porno queen.” she became depressed and didn’t come to school. In may that year she went on the Cincinnati new station and talked about how it feels to go through this situation and that other teens shouldn’t go though it themselves. Two months later she had committed suicide. So uploading pictures of yourself and sending it to a boy or boyfriend isn’t always a good idea. So be careful and uploading pictures can have its ups and downs but remember that something can go wrong once you press uploads.

All Lon All The

Livin Burnt O

nghorns

e time

ng in the Orange Nation by Henry K.

www.

alking into Andrew Wiggins’ office was nothing like I had assumed it would be; though spacious, it was blandly furnished with a large desk, two guest chairs, and a set of cabinets. Nothing besides the small, framed painting of the Texas Longhorns logo suggested the role that Wiggins plays in the UT sports program. He’s the co-founder and occasional writer on the extremely popular longhorn sports blog, Burnt Orange Nation, and his job relies on the importance of high-quality, free content on the Internet. Burnt Orange Nation is a relatively young blog, but it has already become an extremely popular way for Texas sports fans to stay up-todate with information or stats about the latest football, basketball, or baseball games.

“It was about five or six years ago and a friend of mine, Peter Bean, used to email back and forth with me about sports,” Wiggins said. “Eventually he decided that our email exchanges were so lively we should probably put these somewhere where other people can read them.” Thus began Burnt Orange Nation, or as it was called then, All Things Longhorn. Over time, the blog grew a devoted following and the team moved over to the larger blog conglomerate, Sports Blog Nation, and began adding more writers to the blog to accommodate the growing demand for content. “The majority of the guys we added were really just “online friends”, people who participated in the blog...these were the people who were writing really strong, well-developed, thought-out, complete fan posts on topics that Peter and I didn’t think about.”

Though the blog covers as many UT sports as it can, the school is known across the nation for being truly fanatic about only one: football. As long as there is something having to do with football occurring at the University of Texas (and there almost always is), Burnt Orange Nation will be writing about it.

Burnt Orange Nation

highly values the ability of its users to post stories - albeit within reason.

“I’d say right now it’s 95% football focus and 5% other,” asserted Wiggins. “UT is so huge into football that spring practice is important, National Signing Day in February is important, they’ll follow the NFL draft in the spring, and in summer we

start to talk about what’s going to happen in the fall, so there’s always something to talk about in terms of football. There will still always be people that are going to only want to read about football, so unless we can keep that on the front page, we risk losing them.” Football will always remain the focus of the blog’s content, but that doesn’t mean you won’t find a wide variety of sports that UT has to offer - and not all analyzed by the staff. Even though it’s the official writers who contribute the most, Burnt Orange Nation highly values the ability of its users to post stories as well, albeit within reason. “Obviously if they write about Aerosmith’s new album, then we’re going to delete it,” ex

.com plained Wiggins. “It has to be UT sports-centric.” Despite the freedom that the blog allows it’s users, you won’t find many “spam” posts if you look at the blog today - UT sports fans are genuinely interested in providing their outlook. The blog supports many ways for fans to post their own content, and encourages it’s users to comment on feature stories on the main page. “The fan and member participation make Burnt Orange Nation what it is, it’s not four or five people writing and everybody reading - it’s interaction, and it’s people bring stuff to the table that we would’ve never thought of,” said Wiggins.

As people switch over to the Internet for their source of information, the future of print media remains in question. Most of Burnt Orange Nation’s users aren’t the type who tend to trash athletes and coaches. This is particularly evident on large game days, when the blog holds events known as “game days open threads”. “(On the game day open threads), people log on from Brazil and say they’re up in the middle of the night, and at the end of it someone else will say ‘Oh, I’m in Japan’,” Wiggins related. “It’s amazing that we can bring these kinds of people together (through the blog).” The high amount of user contribution has led to a large growth in popularity for the blog. However, the goal of Burnt Orange Nation largely hasn’t changed

ternet for their source of informasince it first started out on a tion, the future of magazines and free blogging service years ago. newspapers remains in question. “It’s amazing the way newspapers “I’d say the aim is still the same at first failed to but are slowly rething – to provide content in a fun acting to free and unlimited conenvironment from a fan’s perspectent of good quality on the Internet tive, and to make it complete and that’s basically their competition,” refreshing,” Wiggins revealed. “We remarked Wiggins. “I think newsalso want a positive environment papers are getting it, but it may (for the blog) - we’re real strict on be too late for a lot of them.” people writing content that defames players. Criticism is one thing, but Print media is certainly struggling defaming a player just for the point to catch up, and as of now it seems of making a joke is something else.” clear that blogging is poised to become part of the latest way for the As the blog has developed into an common citizen to access news. easily accessible gathering place Wiggins’ blog has matured into a for UT sports fanawwtics, writrallying point for UT sports fans, ing on it has made Wiggins realand as long as the Longhorns conize the turn that media is taking tinue to win, Burnt Orange Nation is taking in the 21st century. The will continue to write about it - and blogosphere has certain qualities the Longhorns will certainly be that print media can’t attain, and as winning for a long time to come. more people switch over to the In-

TOP 10 Gadgets of 2009

5. Nokia

Nintendo DSi

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iPhone 3GS