Well it’s true. The WXUT Store Powered by Spreadshirt is now open! Currently there are over 20 products ranging from t-shirts, hoodies, to totes.

Spreadshirt allows us to market our products at reasonably low prices to our fans, or people just looking for a great shirt. Spreadshirt is the worldwide creative platform for personalized apparel. Nearly 300 employees work to help bring imagination onto shirts - from the programming of the platform to marketing and service to a finished shirt of the highest quality

All products in the WXUT Store are printed using Flex Print. Flex is a printing technique where the design is cut from a colored foil and then pressed onto the shirt under high heat. Some flex printing features are: Vibrant colors: the printed colors have a slight shine to them and contrast extremely well with fabric. Longevity and durability: tests have shown that the form and color of the flex print barely change after 100 washes. It is made of a flexible and resilient material - even thin lines do not break. Flex print has been show to even out perform traditional screen printing!

So go ahead, travel over to WXUTSTORE.com and look around, chances are you’ll like something from our store! If you have any comments, questions or suggestions feel free to leave them below in the comment section.

Managing our online content is no easy task. Online streaming takes a heavy toll on University servers. Our previous stream was sent through Windows Media Encoder (WME) then a Microsoft Media Server (MMS) streaming protocol was created. MMS requires Windows Media Player or other plug-ins to view/listen. Due to bandwidth and software restrictions the former MMS stream only allowed 50 computers to view the stream at a time, turning others away.

With our new stream in place we now have the capability for unlimited viewers, better quality audio and video, along with text overlay, “social stream,” and chat abilities. Bandwidth while using Ustream is considerably less, our stream is fed to Ustream severs which distribute the stream out to the viewers. Our Ustream channel is embedded in a pop-up player on our website (Listen Now button), our Facebook Fan Page (my Ustream Tab), and on Ustream.tv (search WXUT). We also maintain WXUT 2 a special Ustream channel used for special events, including meetings.

Our WXUT stream is also available on iPhone, iPod Touch, and Android devices. The Ustream Mobile Viewer Application is available in the Apple App Store and the Android marketplace. To find our stream search “88.3″ in the Viewer App.

Improvements for the future include integration of Ustream Producer Pro, giving HD, multi-camera capabilities along with enhanced on screen options, and higher quality audio. The usage of Producer Pro will be assessed when a computer upgrade occurs in the following months.

So enjoy the new stream without having anything installed on your computer besides Adobe Flash Player, and a high speed Internet connection.

Cam
Online Content Director

Usual plan of action: I play songs by bands in the first hour and then play another song by each band in the second hour. So it’s pretty much guaranteed you’ll hear each band at least twice during a broadcast.  But sometimes I’ll toss on an entire LP or split EP between 2 bands. I keep music to a maximum with only about 10 minutes of mandatory station stuff/sporadic rambling during the 2 hour broadcast. I also try to stay current with the local D.I.Y. punk scene (yes, Toledo is more than just a butt-rock town) and throw a bone your way whenever a show comes up.

Punk so good you’ll slap yo’ mama.

P.P.S. I also have a Youtube channel.

Oh, you know what time is…Internet Gem time. It’s been awhile since our last encounter. I spent Winter break scouring the bowels of the Internet searching to bring you the best of the Internet’s worst. Nothing solves a problem like a roll of duct tape, pliers, and a fistful of luck. Putting “do it yourselfers” to shame There, I Fixed It (TIFI) is this month’s Internet Gem.

There, I Fixed It claims:

“Anytime anyone anywhere has used duct tape, zip-ties and bubble gum to hold something together with just enough tensile strength to not instantly kill everyone in the room…that’s a kludge. Whether it was to get your first car, which was older than you, to last another month or simply to avoid having to buy new headphones, almost everyone has kludged something. We just encourage taking photos for e-fame.”

There, I Fixed It is part of the Cheezburger Network, home of such sites as Lolcats, FAIL Blog, and Engrish. TIFI is a hodgepodge of OSHA violations and lawsuits just waiting to happen. The site features such images as books being an integral part of the structural integrity of a ceiling, two pens being used as chopsticks, and what seems to be their favorite on going joke, of strange door locations leading to Narnia.

So if you have less than ten fingers, know what it feels like to ride a 120 volts, or have said “we were nearly decapitated,” put on your hard hat and stroll over to There, I Fixed It, it’s the safe alternative, unless the innards of your computer rest comfortably in a bed of water for it to remain cool, while exposed wires power your monstrosity.

Moving on to the iPad’s less satisfying characteristics. No multitasking. The iPad only allows one task to be done at time, i.e. no streaming music while typing on it’s enlarged iPod Touch/iPhone input system. No camera. The iPod line seems to be going the way of including a camera on their products, why not sneak one into that huge bezel around the screen. The huge bezel. Why such a need for it, unless your thumbs are ten inches in diameter you’re not going to accidentally input on the screen. The screen. Sure it’s a 9.7″ LED-backlit display, but come on, a 4:3 screen, in the HD era we need a wide screen. App Store Only. The iPad only runs applications from the App Store, which doesn’t support applications that Apple doesn’t see fit to be on their products. For the low-low price ($499 16GB WiFi-only edition) we should expect much more. The iPad is simply an expanded iPod Touch or iPhone minus the wide screen. For something that is supposed to take on the Netbook market it doesn’t seem to step up to the plate.

Apple is exploiting their popularity potential, they seem to be operating on the mantra of “If we build it, they will buy it.” The people over at Axiotron have been building their own Apple tablet for years. The Modbook takes a standard MacBook and transforms it into a tablet, oh and it can run whatever you can throw at it. I don’t recommend you become an early adopter of the iPad, give Apple some time to notice what they have done and to later release the iPad 2.0.

Miley calls herself an artist. Nothing about the poorly written, horribly sung music she produces can be called “art”. In fact, Miley doesn’t even write her own songs. In an interview about her newest single “Party in the USA”, the interviewer asked Miley about the “Jay-Z song” she sings about in the single. Miley said she never listened to Jay-Z and that she didn’t know any of his songs. She didn’t like pop music and, furthermore, someone else wrote the song. She just chose it “because I needed something to go with my clothing line… it’s not even my style of music.” She just sings (sing being a relative term) what they give her. Miley obviously does not deserve all the fame and appreciation she receives if she doesn’t even write her own music and turns her nose up at other artists, especially one more famous and more successful than her.

My biggest problem with Miley Cyrus, aside from her inability to do well any of things she receives so much money for, has to be her misconception about her fan base. Miley found fame on the Disney channel. The people who watch her avidly each week do not match her in age. She does not appeal to her peers. What would any sixteen year old (and up) find appealing about an ugly girl who sings horribly about “girls nights out” and the fictional double life she leads? But Miley apparently lives under the impression that her peers enjoy her music. That must be why she dances on stripper poles on national television and dances in short shorts and a push up bra in her latest music video. She obviously does not remember that young fans look up to her and part of her job is to be a good role model for them. Instead she tries, it seems, to appeal to boys her age with her tasteless routine.

I honestly feel as though Miley Cyrus is one of the seven wonders of the modern world. How did a girl with virtually no talent become so famous? And how does she retain that fame, even though she’s trying her hardest to alienate the parents of her young fans? Miley lives under a misconception of her own talent and of the people who purchase her music and watch her on television. It irks me the flippant way she deals with her fame. I cannot wait for the day when Miley Cyrus fades away. The day will surely come. No Disney star lasts very long. And that’s all she is, in the end. A Disney channel star whose father wrote a lame one hit wonder back in the ‘90s.

If you haven’t figured out by now this is going to be an Internet Gem, they all are. I don’t write about terrible websites…besides People of Public Transit (no one visits the site but I digress). This is why you’re fat doesn’t have an issue pulling in the views. Typing “this is” into Google autocompletes to This is why you’re fat right behind “This is it,” come on MJ you’re not Tupac. This is why you’re fat: where dreams become heart attacks is a fairly simple website including a title, photo submission, and the fatness. This Internet Gem features “The Irish Hog:” “A deep-fried spiral-cut potato encasing a strip of deep-fried bacon, served with brown sugar BBQ sauce,” “Cheetos Coated In Strawberry Yogurt Glaze,”Chocolate Dipped Potato Chips,” and my personal favorite, visually, “The Steakinator:” “Two 8oz Prime Angus steaks with braised short rib, cheddar cheese, bacon and a fried egg on a toasted cheese and garlic sourdough bun.” Exploring the site for a few minutes, I experience tightening of my chest, shortness of breath, increased heart rate, and a shooting pain in my left arm. After resuscitation and regaining consciousness I take in the overall fugliness of TIWYF. So if you feel depressed about the large meat lover’s pizza you ate alone while wondering why you have no real love in your life, redirect your browser off of your ex’s Facebook page and visit This is why you’re fat, it can only help.

-C

As if WXUT.com didn’t have enough Cam Norton content, Cam Norton.com has even more! Including this article in a different font! Woo!

Taking a break from watching Teen Jeopardy (those kids are smart, smart enough for me to beat them up) I’ve returned to tell you about the next Internet Gem. A request from People of Walmart creators is their new website: People of Public Transit. As someone that has had the luxury of owning a car I have not had the pleasure of riding public transportation, but People of Public Transit can make up all the visuals I’ve “missed” out on. POPT’s about  section states: “People Of Public Transit, founded in October 2009, was inspired by People of Walmart…The public bus and subway systems are littered with amazing photo opportunities. Many of us have been sitting alone witnessing something amazing and only wishing we could share the experience with our friends. Well now you can!” This Internet Gem is still in it’s beginning phase but I have great hopes for it. Pictures of passengers include a pink knitted camo wearer, a potential serial killer wearing short jorts with tank top, and a passed out Santa. So stop working, close the book and open the laptop to People of Public Transit, chances are 90% of these people are on their way to their local Walmart.

-C

Want more of Cam Norton, visit CamNorton.com the real Internet Gem (which can be found there)