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Music

Submission + - Album giveaway could ignite music revolution

Denyer writes: A couple of years ago, Seattle group Harvey Danger released their album Little By Little online, free, forever. Now press elsewhere are increasingly giving coverage to the idea that music serves better as the advertising for live shows and merchandise, and UK band The Crimea have thrown themselves into the ring with their second album, Secrets of the Witching Hour. What do Slashdot readers think: is there value in recordings themselves any more, or are they mostly something to be shared and attract attention to a band's other endeavours?
Music

Submission + - Music Decoded from 600 Year Old Engravings

RulerOf writes: Musicians recently unlocked a 600 year old mystery that had been encoded into the walls of the Rosslyn Chapel that was featured in "The Da Vinci Code." The song was carved into the walls of the chapel not using traditional notes, but in the form of geometric shapes known as cymatics, or Chladni patterns. After the entire song was decoded, it was set to traditional lyrics and recorded, and can be heard in a video featured here, at the musicians' website. The video also gives a visual representation of how the engravings match up to the cymatic patterns.

From the article:

"The music has been frozen in time by symbolism...They are of such exquisite detail and so beautiful that we thought there must be a message here." The two men matched each of the patterns on the carved cubes to a Chladni pitch, and were able finally to unlock the melody.

Lastly, a direct link to the video.
Media

Submission + - Showdown Coming: Mass Media vs. the New Media

JonH_cargye writes: "The big showdown between traditional mass media and the new media aggregators is coming. But not in the year 2011 as predicted in the flash-film cult classis "EPIC 2014" — it's happening in the next few weeks. In China, of all places. A copyright infringement lawsuit filed by one of China's largest newspapers is expected to be taken up soon by a court in Shanghai. The Beijing News is suing popular Internet site Tom.com seeking the modest sum of $400,000 in damages. But the suit has far-reaching significance. Just as they have in the U.S. and Europe, digital news media in China are putting the hurt on mass media, especially daily newspapers. Declining newspaper circulation leads to reduced advertising revenue, which leads inevitably to consolidation and downsizing — unless the newspapers fight back. For more, see: http://jon8332.typepad.com/force_for_good/2007/01/ epic_showdown_l.html"
Security

Submission + - Security freebie for nonprofits, universities

bednarz writes: "Network World is reporting that security vendor Acunetix will offer universities and nonprofit organizations a free a Web site security scan and report. The audit checks for SQL injection, cross-site scripting and other vulnerabilities. It also checks shopping carts, forms, dynamic content, and Web applications for security holes. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/011007-acune tix-free-scan.html"
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Paypal Withholds Donation Slain Soldiers' Families

r_benchley writes: The jackasses over at Paypal have put a freeze on an account that was set up for charitable donations for the families of soldiers killed in Iraq. Details on this disgusting story can be found at Deadspin: http://deadspin.com/sports/adam-knox-fund/paypal-d oesnt-want-slain-soldiers-families-to-receive-aid- 227699.php Hopefully, Slashdotters will realize what kind of jerks work at Paypal and will use another service for online transactions.
Businesses

Submission + - Paypal Won't Release Funds for Slain Soldier's Fam

robustyoungsoul writes: "Popular sports blog Deadspin established the Adam Knox Fund for the purpose of raising money in honor of the fallen soldier who was killed in Iraq. They took the donations through a PayPal account. Turns out now, however, PayPal will not release the money due to the way the account was set up on their end. Looks like another in a long list of shady occurrences at PayPal..."
Censorship

Submission + - Chinese court issues a summons on German blogger

gaellerman writes: "Chinese authorities can threaten international bloggers? You wouldn't think so? Well, here's some news. German newsmagazin Der Spiegel had a report on last october 19th about MAN, a German bus maker, sueing the Chinese company Zonda for copying their design of a luxury coach. In his autoregional blog Berlin based Ron Aron Hillmann quoted parts of the Spiegel report. As his sole personal contribution he changed Spiegel's introductory phrase "Chinese racketeers are shamelessly copying international name brand products" to "This example shows how fast and ruthless Chinese are when it comes to copying." Now Zhongwei Bus (Zonda is their daughter company) filed a lawsuit against Hillmann in Yancheng, China, served through a German court (including a German translation). Hillmann is summoned to pull back his libels and to appear at the trial in Yangcheng on july 17th. His attorney says there's no way to just ignore the case because then Hillmann would get sentenced in absentia — and ordered to pay damages etc which the Chinese authorities would collect through their German counterparts. Apparently there do exist respective international treaties, at least between China and Germany. Spiegel has a detailed story (in German) on the Hillmann case."
Books

Submission + - Consumer Complaint about Simpsons Merchandise

Keyz Karanza writes: "I am not sure this would qualify as news-worthy. In fact it is probably pretty trifling, but I wanted to make it known anyway — it is sort of a "consumers screwed yet again" interest.

I had recently bought a 365-Day Simpsons Trivia Desk Calendar, as I do every year. On the box, it clears states that the calendar contains "all-new trivia". Up until 2007 this had been true. But that came to an end.

Please look at this image: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v123/HangoverMS/ simpcal.jpg

This is one of MANY examples showing that the 2007 calendar utilizes a blatant recycling of trivia questions. It wouldn't have been so bad, except for the fact that the publisher, Harper Paperbacks, intentionally lied about it right on the box.

I am not looking to collect any money from a lawsuit or even get my money refunded. And I am fully aware that I am just a Simpsons nerd and my complaint will probably never amount to anything. It would just be nice to see someone "call their bluff" so to speak by making their deception a little more wide-known than just me complaining to a handful of people.

I hope you can help. If not, thanks anyway."

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