Technician Online

August 21st, 2008

Better than your Facebook status

By slbrinkl on August 21st, 2008

You checked your e-mail. You added Thomas Jones, changed your status and wrote on Katie’s wall. You changed your AIM away message. Now what?

It’s the question some ask themselves: How else can I tell the world exactly what I’m doing, all the time?

The answer: Twitter.

Twitter, the site exclusively for those who can’t get enough of status updates, has become a new phenomenon among the Web-savvy.

Imagine your Facebook news feed, but solely with status updates and replies to your friends. It’s all updates, all the time.

But it’s not a blog.

You get 140 characters per entry, and no more. And that includes punctuation and spaces. There’s hardly room to include URLs to Youtube videos or New York Times articles, so Twitter automatically changes long links to “Tiny URLs,” which are shortcuts to the links, to allow for more room in your posts.

Twitter makes it easy to keep up with your fellow Tweeple, too. You can “follow” friends, and they can follow you too. Following someone allows his or her updates to list on your home page. And if you like, you can even “@reply” to them, but again, only if you keep it to 140 characters.

While Twitter lacks the fluff that Facebook and MySpace thrive on, like walls, photos and applications, Twitter makes up for it in simplicity. A clean, uncluttered design makes the site easily navigable for its users.

However, the site is relatively new (it got its start in July of 2006). Twitter is growing in popularity, but the servers can’t seem to keep up with all of its more than 2 million users. If you decide to tweet, expect to see the Twitter “fail whale” — an illustration of a whale being lifted out of the ocean by signature Twitter birds — during the occasional down time.

On the other hand, Twitter isn’t usually down for long, and you can always post a rant about the outage when it gets back up. The updates just keep rolling.

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August 20th, 2008

No announcement on QB to come today

By Josh Harrell on August 20th, 2008

According to N.C. State media relations, coach Tom O’Brien will not be releasing a depth chart for the South Carolina game at today’s press conference — meaning O’Brien will not have to make a decision on his quarterback today. O’Brien is expected to release the depth chart either Friday or Saturday.

Typically, coaches release their pre-game depth charts at the press conference the week leading up to the game. O’Brien also did not release statistics from Tuesday night’s scrimmage — the last of the preseason. He is expected to publish those stats at today’s press conference.

Check blogs.technicianonline.com later today for audio and coverage from today’s press conference.

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August 13th, 2008

Injury bug bites Pack

By Josh Harrell on August 13th, 2008

Preseason practice takes its toll on most college football teams, and the Wolfpack is no different. Coach Tom O’Brien announced Tuesday that running back Toney Baker had surgery to clean out residue in the knee he already had surgically repaired and that safety JUCO transfer Clem Johnson had suffered a broken jaw and could be out for the season.

While O’Brien did not give a timetable for Baker’s return, the running back core shouldn’t suffer too bad without him, as Jamelle Eugene and Andre Brown return in front of a group of talented youngsters.

But the loss of Johnson could prove to be painful for the Pack. O’Brien said that Johnson, who spent his past two seasons playing quarterback at Valley Forge Military College, had played so well in preseason practices at safety, that it looked as though he would be a starter. With his loss, the already thin safety unit may have to rely on two redshirt freshmen — Justin Byers and Jimmaul Simmons — to start at free safety opposite senior J.C. Neal.

Both Byers and Simmons were talented recruits, with Byers taking home MVP in North Carolina’s Shrine Bowl game, but the team was hoping for a more experienced secondary to face South Carolina’s high-flying passing game.

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