Demoscene intros came to feature their own particular style of chiptune music. Although chiptune could historically refer to any style of music, the term is mostly used today to refer to the style of music used in these intros, since other styles of music have moved on to more sophisticated technology.

The June 2008 issue of Paste Magazine has an article on chiptune artist Jeremiah "Nullsleep" Johnson, and the included sampler CD features chiptune song "Local Hero" by Crazy Q.

Voice Chips

LOS ANGELES – The life of "Charlie's Angels" star Farrah Fawcett is being celebrated Tuesday at a private funeral held, fittingly, at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.
Her longtime companion, Ryan O'Neal, and her friend, Alana Stewart, both wore black as they entered the service, which was closed to media and the public.
Fawcett died Thursday at age 62 after a public battle with cancer. O'Neal and Stewart were at her side.
"After a long and brave battle with cancer, our beloved Farrah has passed away," O'Neal said in a statement last week. "Although this is an extremely difficult time for her family and friends, we take comfort in the beautiful times that we shared with Farrah over the years and the knowledge that her life brought joy to so many people around the world."
Diagnosed with a rare cancer in 2006, Fawcett's battle with the disease was documented in "Farrah's Story," which aired last month on NBC.
Stewart, a producer of the documentary, said Fawcett was "much more than a friend; she was my sister."
"Although I will miss her terribly, I know in my heart that she will always be there as that angel on the shoulder of everyone who loved her," Stewart said in a statement.
Fawcett and O'Neal, 68, have a son, 24-year-old Redmond, who has been jailed since April 5 on drug charges.
Last week, a judge granted his request to attend Fawcett's funeral. The order by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Jane Godfrey allows Redmond O'Neal to be released for three hours and wear street clothes to attend the funeral.

NEW YORK – It's one of the biggest mysteries in the Michael Jackson saga: How much was the lavish-spending, massively debt-ridden pop icon really worth?
In the most detailed account yet of the singer's tangled financial empire, documents obtained by The Associated Press show Jackson claimed to have a net worth of $236.6 million as of March 31, 2007. But less than $700,000 of that amount was in cash — a relatively paltry sum given his opulent lifestyle, prodigious borrowing and seven-figure shopping sprees.
The dollar amounts, which previously consisted of estimates, are crucial because Jackson's estate is expected to become the focus of a legal battle between the singer's family and creditors.
The revelation came Tuesday as Jackson's family reversed itself and said the singer did in fact have a will — complicating a bid by Jackson's mother to take control of her son's finances.
Jackson had $567.6 million in assets, including his Neverland Ranch and his share of the Sony/ATV Music Publishing catalog, which includes the rights to songs by the Beatles, according to a statement of financial condition prepared by Washington, D.C.-based accounting firm Thompson, Cobb, Bazilio & Associates.
The report was prepared at a time when Jackson had large sums of debt coming due that had to be refinanced. The financial statement, which is not as thorough as an audit, was based in large part on estimates provided by Jackson's advisers that the accounting firm said it could not verify.
In the documents, the firm also said it omitted the amount Jackson owed in income taxes.
The documents do not show how much money he had coming in that year or how much he was spending, which makes it hard to estimate just how cash-poor he was. Still, the statement paints a picture of Jackson's tangled finances and the mountain of debt he left behind.
The five-page report says Jackson had debts of $331 million. The singer had just $668,215 in cash, according to the report.
The accounting firm did not return calls seeking comment.
The report puts a net value on Jackson's 50 percent stake in the Sony/ATV Music Publishing catalog — his most prized asset — at $390.6 million. The 750,000-song catalog includes music by the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond, Lady Gaga and the Jonas Brothers.
A separate document obtained by the AP details Jackson's dealings with Sony Music Entertainment Inc., which owns the other half of Sony/ATV. Jackson was guaranteed a cash distribution of $11 million a year from the venture through September 2011, according to the May 25, 2007, document that was signed by the pop star.
The document also detailed Sony's ability to buy an unspecified percentage of Jackson's remaining share in Sony/ATV.
It said Sony agreed to guarantee loans made to Jackson through September 2011 and to help him refinance his debts. Sony also agreed to advance Jackson money to help pay the interest to his main creditor at the time, Fortress Investment Group LLC, to avoid defaulting. Barclays Bank PLC took over the Fortress loan, which is now around $315 million, in December 2007.
The documents also show that Jackson gave his approval for Sony/ATV to use up to $400 million to purchase the 125,000-song Famous Music LLC catalog from Viacom Inc., which holds such songs as "Footloose" and "The Real Slim Shady" by Eminem. The deal was announced a week later.
A Sony/ATV spokesman declined to comment.
Another of Jackson's prized possessions, his Neverland Ranch, is valued at $33 million, according to the accounting firm's report. He also had $20 million worth of cars, antiques, collectibles and other property.
It's likely that Neverland, a 2,500-acre property in the rolling hills of Santa Barbara County, has dropped in value since 2007 along with the rest of the battered California housing market, experts said.

"The luxury market in the past year has really taken a hit in markets across the country," said Rick Goodwin, publisher of Ultimate Homes and its parent publication, Unique Homes.

The ranch in central California's wine country was set to be sold in March 2008 because of missed payments on a $24.5 million loan, but Jackson managed to cut an 11th-hour deal to keep it off the auction block.

The fact that few, if any, similar properties in the area are selling makes it even harder to determine Neverland's current market value. A couple of properties in the 500-acre range are on the market in the area for around $10 million, said Steve Schott, a real estate appraiser based in Santa Barbara.

Jackson died Thursday at age 50 of what his family has said was cardiac arrest. Medical examiners in Los Angeles are perhaps weeks away from determining the official cause of death.

The divvying up of Jackson's assets — and the settling of his debts — are likely to be hotly contested in court. On Monday, lawyers for Katherine and Joe Jackson won temporary custody of Michael Jackson's three children and moved to become administrators of his estate.

A judge granted 79-year-old Katherine Jackson temporary guardianship of the children, who range in age from 7 to 12. He also gave her control over some of her son's personal property that is now in the hands of an unnamed third party. But the judge did not immediately rule on her requests to take charge of the children's and Jackson's estates.

___

Associated Press writers Alex Veiga, Ryan Nakashima and Anthony McCartney in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

KARLSRUHE, Germany (AFP) –
Germany's top court on Tuesday delayed the ratification of the European Union's Lisbon Treaty but leaders expressed confidence that the landmark reforms would still be adopted soon.

In a keenly awaited decision, the Federal Constitutional Court said the treaty -- aimed at streamlining decision-making in the 27-nation bloc -- must be put on ice until a law protecting national parliamentary powers is passed.

"If one wanted to summarise this result, one could say: the constitution says 'yes' to the Lisbon Treaty but demands that parliament's right to participation be strengthened at the national level," the court said.

The court also rejected complaints that the treaty would transfer too much power to Brussels and said the reforms were fundamentally in line with the country's laws.

That led Chancellor Angela Merkel to hail the ruling as a "good day for the Lisbon Treaty".

"The important message of the day is that the Lisbon Treaty has cleared another significant hurdle. I am very pleased about that," Merkel told reporters in Berlin after the judgement.

Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said: "I am sure that the treaty will be ratified this year."

In Brussels, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso was also upbeat about the treaty's future.

"I am confident that we can complete the process of ratification ... in all countries by the autumn," he said.

The treaty -- which aims not only to make the EU run more smoothly but also seeks to give the bloc a stronger voice on the world stage -- must be ratified by all 27 member states before it can come into force.

To speed up ratification in Germany, lawmakers will hold special sessions on August 26 and September 8 to pass a law that satisfies the court's demands.

A European affairs analyst at the Bertelsmann Foundation, Joachim Fritz-Vannahme, said he thought the process would now run rapidly.

"I can well expect this to happen as quickly as possible so that the ratification ... is not slowed down any more," he said.

The foreign minister of Sweden, which is due to take the EU helm on Wednesday, also said he was unconcerned about the decision.

"There is no major dissent on the political scene in Germany on this particular issue," Carl Bildt told journalists.

France's new secretary of state for foreign affairs, Pierre Lellouche, on his first official visit to Berlin, told reporters he saw a "real consensus on the German side" and that he had "received assurances that Germany will be ready by early September" to ratify the treaty.

Although the treaty was approved by a large majority in both houses of the German parliament, the country's president, Horst Koehler, has delayed signing the document pending the court's decision.

While it seems like the treaty will be ratified in Germany in September, the document's rocky road to adoption may still throw up some tricky pitfalls as three other countries -- the Czech Republic, Ireland and Poland -- have still not signed.

Ireland, which voted against the treaty last year, will hold a second referendum, probably in October, after receiving guarantees the treaty would not affect issues close to voters' hearts, such as military neutrality and abortion.

Recent polls have shown the Irish are more likely to vote in favour of the reforms the second time around as the global financial crisis has hit the former "Celtic Tiger" economy harder than most.

The eurosceptic Czech and Polish presidents have said they will not sign the treaty until Ireland has voted again.

And fears are growing in Brussels that Britain could yet torpedo the treaty if, as polls suggest, the eurosceptic Conservative party comes to power in elections that must be held before June 2010.

Conservative leader David Cameron has vowed to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty if he becomes prime minister, with surveys indicating that Britain would vote decisively against it.

If the Lisbon Treaty were to come into force, the EU would do away with the current unwieldy system of the rotating presidency in favour of the selection of a leader for a limited term.

A powerful foreign policy supremo would also be appointed.

The treaty itself is a watered-down version of the European constitution that was rejected by voters in France and the Netherlands in 2005.