ID3 Tags. . . Those simple information bits that make your audio collection more manageable, easily navigable and in general show that you know your music. From Artist, Album, Genre, Production information to Lyrics, Web Content and Album Art, everything can get added to a music file and it’s as easy as the ID3 software that you use. Off course all media players including Windows Media Player, VLC, iTunes, GOM Player, MusicMatch include the option, nothing beats an application that is dedicated to the task.
While I have personally tried several applications that deal with ID3 Tags, none have failed to impress and that is where my personal quest end with the use of TagScanner. Here is a list of features that impress:
Interface appeals to both novice and advanced users. Users can start with simple tasks such as manual updates to more complex global variable based tagging.
Has built in support for FTP Format file names, changing case in filenames, transliteration
Has built in Online tag information look up features that are better than most others (My personal favorite feature)
Can create a tag from the filename itself and can import tag information from a text file.
Has the ability to export tag information into CSV- Excel, CSV-Simple, HTML Extended Information, HTML Simple, m3u Playlist format, TXT files and XML Album List formats (Phew! )
As business focus moves into high gear with people jostling around with new ideas and new business plans and wanting to either hold certain business requirements at acceptable levels or turn around non-achieving elements of the business into successful ones, words such as “outliers”, “bottom quartiles”, “regeneration” et al start becoming common and I can personally vouch for it, because that happens to be all that I hear at work these days. So, how does one go about creating a plan to manage either business needs and factor in actions that will lead to a better managed and profitable business? The obvious answer is PLANNING and STRATEGY and for those two to work well, you need DATA and TRENDS and then you decide how you want to go about fixing whats not right and most importantly, whether your plan works or not, the only conclusive evidence one can have, to show that they are working is having daily and weekly data points that show the progress of the plan. Off course there used to be a more noble reason behind tracking mechanism which was to see if your plan worked. However, today no one seems to care of the plan works, everyone wants to know what initiatives and actions you have taken, thats all.
So, in an attempt to simplify your initiatives and plans and to help you track your progress and more importantly to give you a day by day / week by week record of your work, here is one amazing application that does it all. I’ve been using it for a full week now and I must say, it’s simplicity impresses and appeals to me. While the initial setup requires you to navigate several options and screens, it isn’t anything complicated. It is all in simple English. What, why, how, when, where am I doing a particular task and when do I expect to see results. . . Thats all there is to it.
The coolest and neatest feature that I found within this application is it’s ability to export reports into a wide variety of formats including Adobe PDF, HTML (Single and Multi page), Excel (Single Page and Multi page), XML, CSV. . .which basically means, not only can you report out information, you get to do it in one among several popular applications and share with others.
A seemingly coincidental occurrence is TWITTER getting hacked. The first time was based based on the idea of probability and the second was based on domain redirection. So, begs the question. WHY TWITTER? Why not Facebook or My Space or any other social networking site that people use and have gained mass popularity? Is it easy of exploitation or is it fame and popularity? Twitter has garnered mass following and publicity and has stayed in the news for a wide variety of reasons, including a few rather unique uses including Political Campaigns, Emergency Response, Campus Communication, Cultural Conversations. So, WHY TWITTER?
The answer probably lies in the following Twitter has. Personally I used twitter for a very short time and then discontinued my use mainly because I didn’t find it interesting and secondarily because it’s security was compromised once before. However, to me it was always remained an intriguing social tool. Think of it, Twitter does not have much in it, in terms of it’s interface. It is a simple to use and quick to setup tool. It’s purpose is simple as it enables a user to share thoughts or ideas in simple streams of text. A lot like broadcast sms, except its online. Has Twitter’s popularity become the reason for it to become prone to internet attacks? I am no web expert, however a little analytic research from Alexa’s web ranking system gave me a slighter clearer picture. The statics below show how popular Twitter is and with whom it is popular.
First lets start with a comparison of Social Networking sites and look where Twitter stands:
Facebook ranks first, followed by Twitter and then MySpace and Orkut. So technically it does fit the profile of a popular mass communication site with a target audience in millions. ***
Next come the demographics of usage as seen below based on audience age, education, gender and location of usage***
Next comes a geographic survey of Twitter audience, of where Twitter gets it’s maximum audience from***
If the above information is to go by, then your classic Twitter user is either a young college goer in the USA or India or middle aged people with a little daytime to spare. This also forms the largest base of people who under a wide variety of surveys will show as being those most interested in online activities and entertainment.
Simply put, Twitter gets hacked why? Because the people who use it enjoy online communities and are predominately U.S based, which doesn’t come out as a surprise given that the most recent hack was done for the purpose of targeting internet audience from the United States.
*** = The information herewith is sourced from Alexa Rankings and Verzion 7 is merely quoting publicly available information. Verzion7 takes no responsibility for the statistics that are presented.
I’ve been searching for new bands and new music to listen to. I’ll admit, while I love music, I don’t really follow any listening pattern. My iPod serves my mom’s taste of Indian Classical music, my computer has little music stored on it and Youtube seems to be the one source of my audio entertainment. So, a few days ago a friend and I kept playing different Youtube videos of popular songs that included Metallica, The Eagles, Pink Floyd, Joe Satriani, Messhuggah and others, we came across the G3 concerts and from there Chickenfoot.
Comprised of Sammy Hager and Michael Anthony from Van Halen, Chad Smith from Red Hot Chilli Peppers and the legendary Joe Satriani, this “super group” has released their first self title album called Chickenfoot that has an excellent line up of music.
1. Avenida Revolucion
2. Soap on a Rope
3. Sexy Little Thing
4. Oh Yeah
5. Runnin’ Out
6. Get It Up
7. Down The Drain
8. My Kinda Girl
9. Learning To Fall
10. Turnin’ Left
11. Future In The Past
12. Bitten By The Wolf
Chart (2009) Peak Position
U.S. Billboard 200 4
U.S. Billboard Top Independent Albums 1
U.S. Billboard Top Rock Albums 3
Canadian Albums Chart 9
Finnish Albums Chart[5] 36
As usual, my review comes in a long time after the rest of the gaming community finishes their own write-ups. For some, this might sound as the same old stuff repeated again, which might be true, because certain observations remain the same. So, here is the good, bad and ugly about the game so far
The Good:
The tire physics is amazing and I mean it. I have played this game so far, using my keyboard, a gamepad and a gaming wheel and on all three controllers, the on-track vehicular dynamics are smooth and at the same time exciting. Right from the word get go, you will find yourself fighting corners off and as you understand the point rewards system in the game, you start mentally arguing if you want to get that perfect corner (precision driving) or if you want to slide your way out (aggression driving).
The crash visuals are stunning. When you hit a curb, barrier or a different car, depending on the intensity of the impact your screen will do anything from going fuzzy to going full black and white fuzzy, giving you the impression of loss of focus from a drivers perspective and this feeling doubles up if you drive in the cockpit view.
The tracks have been designed with not just tight corners, but straight line speed also in mind. Unlike the city tracks that NFS previously had and most unlike the handicapped tracks we saw in Pro-Street, NFS Shift’s tracks are awesome from start to stop. They actually give you the perfect perspective of the racing track and more importantly, they allow you to explore the A to Z of your car’s abilities on the track.
The Bad:
A lot of the things in the game feel like they have been “ripped off”. The career progression screens, the vehicle upgrades screen feel exactly like they did in Juiced 2 – Hot Import Nights. Except for a few minor modifications here and there, the rest of the screens seem like they have been designed with Juiced as a foundation.
The second part of the “ripped off” feel comes from the AI. This time from DIRT. The AI maintain the driving line perfectly, to the point that at many points you notice that one AI vehicle is in a position of advantage to overtake another at a corner, however it will drop speed and maintain the driving line and once you figure out the logic, you know how to beat the AI at a corner. I’ve done this on many a track hitting the first turn at top speed and drifting my way to the front, while the AI decides to maintain the driving line.
The physics that went into designing the drift races are far too much overkill in my opinion. The best experience of the drift races comes from using a gaming wheel and pedal, where you manage to get that exact torque and braking combination and the right amount of understeer to get that perfect drift. So, drift races can be a bit of an anti-climax for a lot of people, especially beginners with the game, who will need some time to understand the physics that goes into the drift race in NFS.
Depending your playing style, the Nitrous Oxide option within this edition may or may not impress you. In the previous editions, hitting your NOS button resulted in your vehicle turning into a ballistic projectile and you could actually feel this visually and if you were using a gaming wheel, you could experience it physically in the form of the steering tightening for a few seconds. In this edition, hitting NOS does not result in such a power trip, however you will see a notable change in the vehicles straight line speed or corner exiting speed, depending on when you hit it. Even in the cockpit or driver view mode, it still lacks that bite that older editions had.
The Ugly:
When people play NFS they do so and love the series for one reason. It happens to be only racing simulation that has a story line that impresses. Look at Underground 1 and 2, Most Wanted, Carbon and Undercover. They had story lines, if it wasn’t the race it was the upgrades and the cars and if it wasn’t them, it was the story line that kept people going. The lack of the same, makes this edition no different from any other Racing Simulation.
What gets a game really interesting is the in-game audio. FEAR as a first person shooter was impressive because of the audio effects. FAR CRY impressive because of the audio. Name a game that impressed and you will automatically realize that part of it was the effective use of audio effects to immerse you in it. While the engine notes are surely impressive in this edition, there isn’t any audio to back you up. On the other side, the street racing editions of NFS have always impressed.
Minimum System Requirements:
EA recommends the following as the minimum required specifications for the game: 3.2GHz Processor, 1GB RAM and a PCI-Express, pixel shader 3.0 graphic card with 256MB.
I was thinking about editing an image I shot and converting it into a grayscale version with just one color highlighted. I’ll explain, I wanted to edit IMAGE 1 to look like IMAGE 2 . . . . So here is a quick tutorial on how to achieve this in Adobe Lightroom. . . . .
So here is tutorial. . .
STEP 1:
Import the image you want into Lightroom and either select an existing catalog or simply create a new one.
STEP 2:
Once the image shows up on the screen, double click the thumbnail, to see the full size image.
STEP 3:
Then on the top right, select DEVELOP and then in the right hand side pane, expand HSL / COLOR / GRAYSCALE
STEP 4:
Select the second tab under HSL / COLOR / GRAYSCALE, which would be the SATURATION tab
STEP 5:
Now, simply tweak around with the sliders to achieve the look you want. Voila!
IMAGE OF A MONUMENT WITH THE SKY AS THE BACKGROUND BEFORE EDITING
SAME IMAGE AS ABOVE AFTER EDITING
One more example image that I edited the same way:
I am speechless…. Really speechless…… Citreon does this ! ! ! ! They do this? ? ? This is unfair…. They put it on a road I don’t live in and in a place I can’t drive. . . . . .Damn… this is awesome.
For a self confessed game super freak . . . . I think it is time to publish my own Best Game Weapons list. . . . So here is the 10 Best Game Weapons list.
1 ) Unreal’s Redeemer: This is one weapon that never fails and never fails to impress. . . On a proper map with over 11 enemies milling around in various fire fights, the redeemer takes out close to 8 of them in one blow and it’s damage against even the deadliest Dark Walker or Leviathan is unrelenting and gore filled.
2) Gauss Rifle: From Crysis, Fallout 3, Half Life and any other game that has it. An awesome multi-purpose weapon that serves well in 1×1 close combat, sniping and in a support weapon role. Shown below is the Fallout 3 edition.
3) FGM-148 Javelin: From Call of Duty Modern Warfare…. This is one hell of a weapon to wield. While it is limited to being an anti-tank weapon, the sheer damage it can cause roots it into the 3rd spot. Below, is an actual Javelin being deployed. Awesome eh?
4) Snooper Rifle: Return To Castle Wolfenstein’s most effective weapon. With the ability to “see” through walls and shoot through them too, in some cases… This is one mean weapon to wield.
5) BFG 9000: No list is complete without Doom’s BFG…. Termed in most circles as the Big F****** Gun…. This packs a punch that made people go woah even in a 2D shooter
6) Rocket Launcher Unreal Tournament: Again the list can’t be complete without this one…. Like a six pack of beer, this has the same kind of chilling fun. Able to line up 6 rockets into a single shot, heat seaking / target lock capable, has an alternate fire mode that chucks rockets like grenades.
7) AWP: The Arctic Warfare Police sniper rifle. Counter Strike will never be what it is, without this weapon. The weapon that created the concept of Bunny Hopping in a FPS. The gun that made people think twice before popping their heads out of blank areas.
8 ) G36c: Call Of Duty Modern Warfare was on of the best FPS’ I played in a long time and this gun made it better. It sees you through most Close Quarter Battles with multiple opponents in both SP and MP modes.
9)The Penetrator: Fear’s best weapon in my opinion. Deals heavy damage and has awesome audio to accompany it’s action.The one major difference in this weapon being that it shoots spike shaped projectiles, that “nail” your enemy. Not literally but actually. It nails your enemy to walls!
10) Energy Sword: From Halo 2, the venerable energy sword that you wield when you play as a Covenant Elite. The one weapon that brought a new name to melee. While the short range melee weapons suffered from the paradox of stabbing into fresh air, if the enemy moved, this baby’s range makes stabbing from a few feet away a joke.
IMAGE OF A MONUMENT WITH THE SKY AS THE BACKGROUND BEFORE EDITING
SAME IMAGE AS ABOVE AFTER EDITING
Hope this helps!
4) Snooper Rifle: Return To Castle Wolfenstein’s most effective weapon. With the ability to “see” through walls and shoot through them too, in some cases… This is one mean weapon to wield.
6) Rocket Launcher Unreal Tournament: Again the list can’t be complete without this one…. Like a six pack of beer, this has the same kind of chilling fun. Able to line up 6 rockets into a single shot, heat seaking / target lock capable, has an alternate fire mode that chucks rockets like grenades.
