The Official Student Newspaper of Calvin College Since 1907
November 6, 2009
Volume 104, Issue 10
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Features

Decreasing newspaper circulation has (ironically) been in the news a lot lately. Newspapers are suffering from economic troubles along with everyone else, and they continue to report drops in circulation. At the same time, Nielsen ratings show a jump in online readership. While many sources attest people who read newspaper online are still a very small minority, the number of online readers continues to grow.

Many print newspapers, including the Chimes, offer an online version of the paper. The New York Times has a very fine website, featuring articles from the paper accompanied by high-quality digital images. There are also a number of Internet-only publications, such as Slate.

Perhaps the most enticing feature of online periodicals is that they are interactive. Most, including Slate and The New York Times, allow comments on articles, so online readers can respond to the ...

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FIND YOUR SOUND - Alissa Goudswaard, Features Co-Editor

Music listening services like Pandora, Last.fm and Grooveshark allow users to listen online to streaming radio for free. Internet jukeboxes of a sort, these sites make music recommendations based on music users claim to like.

Pandora is an Internet radio and music recommendation service created by the Music Genome Project, which uses an algorithm to sort music according to over 400 attributes, such as syncopation, vocal harmony and instrumental proficiency. When users enter a song or artist they like, Pandora responds by playing selections that are musically similar. Because of copyright limitations, Pandora operates only in the U.S. Pandora users cannot listen to tracks on demand and cannot move to previously listened-to songs.

Last.fm, based in the U.K., is also a music recommendation service. Rather than operating on a complex mathematical algorithm, it ...

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