Pink the reigning queen of ring tones

With advent of real tones or MP3 ring tones, ring tone market has witnessed a great surge and various artists have been incorporated into this global business of ring tones. Musical ring tones created after editing favorite musical numbers of popular pop or rock stars have become order of the day. A good number of artists are competing to top the charts that do not hail from the world of music. Instead it hails from the world of ring tones. Some artists have even geared up to grab this opportunity to popularize their songs.

But right now I am going to talk about the artist that has left a good number of her superior rivals from the music world behind the ongoing MP3 ring tone battle and clearly seems to capture the imagination of a great chunk of mobile phone users in America. Folks! I am talking about Pink, the artist whose ring tones have set the world of ring tone on fire. An increasing number of Americans and Western people are seeking her numbers as ring tones.

This twenty seven year old lass from Doylestown tasted the success with her debut album “Can't Take Me Home” way back in 2000 and her second consecutive album “Get the Party Started” gave her the recognition, she truly deserved.

Her numbers like ‘You make me sick’ and ‘There you go’ became instant hits. And even now she is encashing on these numbers. These numbers are most sought after as ring tones. Right now it is ‘Stupid Girl’ which is high on ring tone chart. Pink’s other numbers like God id a DJ, Respect and Family Portrait are among popular choices by ring tone users.

Don’t Let Me Get Me and Misery are the other two popular ring tones by Pink. Pink could be truly considered as reigning queen of ring tones in United States.

Don't miss on this Pink rage and be a part of it. Even if you haven't heard Pink's music, I am sure her ring tones would make you buy some of her albums as she is a distinct voice in music world.

Hidden spy cameras all-seeing eyes

With the advent of reality shows, more and more people are becoming aware of the possibility of using hidden cameras to spy on other people for different reasons. Seeing people in their most unguarded moments can be fascinating. Camera manufacturers have taken advantage of the fact that people want to have hidden spy cameras similar to that of James Bond or the popular prank shows of television. This has since contributed to the steady rise of the hidden spy cameras industry.

While most hidden spy cameras are used to capture harmless pranks on video, there are other uses that are not as wholesome. Voyeurs spying on their neighbors and secretly filming other people having sexual intercourse shamelessly utilize hidden spy cameras. Hidden spy cameras, however, are not just for people with nefarious plans. Hidden spy cameras are also great tools to keep watch over your home and loved ones, thereby ensuring peace of mind. They can be used to make sure that your children are treated well by their nannies and babysitters. Similarly, they can also be used to catch criminals or philandering spouses. Hidden spy cameras are so effective and handy, in fact, that they are even used by law enforcement agencies, such as the police and the FBI.

Strings or No Strings Attached

Hidden spy cameras can either be wireless or wired. Wireless hidden spy cameras have concealed transmitters that send captured images to a remote recording equipment. Wired hidden spy cameras, on the other hand, are connected to recording equipment, like VCRs and PCs, through a physical cable. Wireless cameras rely on battery power, while the wired sort has the advantage of a ready power supply.

Its Hidden for a Reason

As the name suggests, hidden spy cameras are always concealed. They are usually hidden in everyday, nondescript objects, such as clocks, calculators, radios, teddy bears, and even plants.

Recent breakthroughs in wireless technology now allow hidden spy cameras to transmit videos real-time. So, not only can you see the action as it unfolds, you can take the necessary action as well. All you would need is a PC or laptop with an Internet access to view your hidden spy cameras. You can even do online surveillance, if you wish. You can also set up your hidden spy cameras in such a way that they trigger alarms or send emails to you when suspicious activities are captured.

If you don't have this technology, however, don't fret. Most hidden spy cameras can be set up to work unattended. They can record hours of video and can be plugged into your VCR or PC directly for review. This way, you don't miss anything and can gather solid proof of misbehavior.

Hidden Or Not, You Still Want the Best

There are a few things to consider when investing on hidden spy cameras. You have to take into consideration the range of the video you wish to capture. Wide-angle viewing is also a nifty feature to consider. It allows you to view the captured video from several vantage points.

For image quality, you need to consider your hidden spy cameras' resolution. Invest on hidden spy cameras that can automatically adjust to varying lighting conditions so you can get the clearest images possible. This way, you don't miss what happens in your home or office when you're out.

Prevent heartache use anti-virus software

Anti-virus software is a way of life in modern computing practices. In an environment where most computer users are blissfully unaware of security, a good anti-virus package is the first line of defense for your computer. There are several vendors who make and sell it, and all of them have excellent products.

Among the top vendors are Computer Associates, Symantec, McAfee and Trend Micro. Even Microsoft is getting into the anti-virus gig with Windows Protection. Microsoft's recent acquisition of GeCad in Bucharest is the foundation of their offering, plus a bunch of other small vendors to handle other corners of the computer security panoply. Trillions of electrons have been inconvenienced on the internet as pundits are exploring Microsoft's offerings in light of their historic "acquire and extend" strategy with utility software, and a number of pundits are wondering if, with the insecurities inherent in the Windows architecture, whether having Microsoft selling the anti-virus remedies that its OS makes necessary isn't a bit of a predatory practice.

Most Anti-virus software works by running a deep scan on your computer, looking for telltale signatures of virus infection. As a result, they need a virus signature file, most of which are downloaded regularly from their sites. An alarming trend is that more and more of the major market leaders in this software segment are treating these signature files as proprietary information, rather than sharing it. This may result in a situation where you need more than one AV package for complete coverage. One of the interesting counter trends are the suites of free anti-virus software, like GriSoft's AVG, which share virus definitions daily to give the most comprehensive coverage. It's known that Windows Protection uses these announcements, but Microsoft doesn't release its AV signature files for others to use.

The other scary trend is that the people who write viruses have graduated from vandals and script kiddies to organized crime. The Department of Defense treats virus protection very seriously (as anyone who's used a DoD computer, and dealt with the security can attest), and they regard bot nets and DdoS (Distributed denial of Service) attacks as being very serious threats to our nation's war fighting capabilities. This means that there's now an incentive to make bigger and better virus software doing more things, and it's getting harder to stop.

If you get hit by a virus that goes active, your options are very limited – unless you have a regular backup procedure in place. The biggest cause of heartache in computing is inadequate backups. Even if it's something relatively simple like backing up your working directory onto a DVD, it's worth the effort. Fortunately, there are online subscription services that will let you back up your data over the internet. The first upload normally takes a long stretch of time, even over broadband. After that, they run as a background process and only update the things that have changed in your configuration. The new version of MacOS X, Leopard, has this sort of functionality built in with Time Machine. There is no equally easily usable version for Windows.

If you're comfortable with opening up your computer's case, and swapping out hard drives, there is a brute force backup you can do – plug in an extra hard drive, and copy your Windows and User directories to it; you can use Windows Task Manager to set up an automated job to do this every week, copying only the files that are different, and it can be a life saver.

Living in remote place no internet connectivity learn how to put your business on-line

Let's face it. Rural internet connectivity problem is a true and real concern for developing third-world countries. The same is also true even in developed countries particularly in far, remote rural villages. Sometimes access to communication is only via two-way radios. Other areas have telephone service but wanting even in dial-up internet access.

The biggest challenge therefore for an aspiring internet businessman or home-based internet worker in far remote villages is how to achieve rural internet connectivity. What should you do if you are in such a situation?

First, take an assessment of your local area and discuss with community members the possibility of bringing rural internet access to the village. In your assessment, take note of the number of household that are going to be benefited from your idea. Local businessmen and village leaders would certainly like the idea of introducing communication service. Make them understand the benefit/advantages of your proposal. Form yourselves into a group and create a committee to be tasked with planning and raising funds for this project. For sustainability, make it an income-generating project or enterprise to help defray maintenance cost.

If all is already in place. Identify and plan now how are you going to get a backhaul internet access. Backhaul is going to be your main communication link from your area to the nearest internet service provider.

Basically, since you are going to distribute the connection to several household or establishment in the area, you will need a dedicated internet access in the level of E1 (2048Kbps) or T1(1536Kbps).

However, for start-up purposes, consider getting a high-speed, high-bandwidth DSL connection (with CIR or Committed Information Rate) from the nearest ISP. Hauling or extending the internet connection (DSL) will require using an Ethernet (IP) Radio such as Wireless Bridge (WLAN). This will require planning if your place is in a remote area.

The easy solution would be to get an internet access service via satellite or VSAT. VSAT or Very Small Aperture Terminal has the advantage of delivering communication anywhere irregardless of the topography and location of the area. As long as it is covered with-in the foot prints of the satellite transponder. A big disadvantage with VSAT Link is its bandwidth limitation, service quality and cost of service. Further, it's not as reliable as a fixed line (cable) and terrestrial wireless broadband radios.

Another viable option would be to get your backhaul internet access from the nearest internet service provider. Perhaps, the nearest is from a city several miles away from your village. Certainly, a developed town or city near your area must have telephone and internet service. Your goal now is how to bring telephone and internet communication to your village. Aim also for the telephone service. You have the advantage of local calling at no extra long-distance charges if you can get local dial tone from the said telephone local exchange.

Next conduct a survey and note the topography by drawing a path line from your village going to that particular town or city. If the path is flat, with no mountainous obstruction in between, the greater the chance of signal reaching your village straight from the telco's exchange.

Negotiate with the local exchange operator the possibility of a joint-collaboration of your proposed communication project. Explain your objective and enlist their support for the project to materialize. Ask them if they could provide a solution package that would include them providing the radio equipment for the backhaul component. Some operator would agree to the idea especially if the project offer a good return on investment and assured monthly recurring revenue.

In such case, you already have achieved your goal of bringing rural internet to your village. As much as possible, locate your node in the center where it would be easy to re-distribute the service to the whole village. The node is where the service operator dropped-off the internet connection using the radio. From their, you need to re-broadcast the connection to the whole of the village.

The most cost-effective way is to re-distribute it using an outdoor, long-range WLAN (Wireless LAN) Access Point radio. Outdoor WLAN type of radio is ideal for Wireless ISP. This type of radio is robust, high-power, reliable, designed for outdoor operation and worst-weather conditions. You will need to purchase only one radio base station - Access Point (AP) and several Customer Premise Equipments (CPE). The AP serves as the master server and the CPE the receiver/slave to connect your place to the node. For greater flexibility we suggest buying a WiFi (Wireless Fidelity) Standard radio instead of proprietary technology.

Please note, if the internet provider will not provide the backhaul radio. As mentioned, a long-range, outdoor, wireless IP-Radio called Wireless Bridge (a type of WLAN) will be needed to haul the internet connection from the city to your village. WLAN is cost-effective and reliable. The advantages of using WiFi equipment is greater than using a proprietary technology.

A proprietary technology is a solution customized by a manufacturer using its own standards and not the common standards. WiFi is an approved standard and all products complying with the standards have compatibility and inter-operability irregardless of the maker. Latest advances in WiFi products have made it an ideal choice for WISP.

Long-Range Wireless LAN (WLAN) is a broadband technology. Combining it with VoIP and virtual IP-PBX technology, the extended dial tones from the operator's local exchange could now served as trunk line for a wireless local telephone exchange. Your once isolated village is now connected using cost-effective rural internet solution.

The five major microphones

Making your voice heard with microphones is essential in certain settings.

The first microphones were invented in the course of developing the telephone, a fact that's overlooked by many people but obvious when you think about it. Since then, microphones have come to be used in all manner of technology, from making records to performing live music, from dictaphones to personal computers.

Many devices such as tape recorders, video cameras and even some computers have built-in microphones. Other devices require external microphones, and even things with built-in mics often produce better-quality sound if an external mic is used.

There are five basic types of microphones, each using a different technology.

The first kind of microphone used carbon dust and little diaphragms to convert sound waves into electrical signals. Dynamic microphones use magnets to produce the same effect. Ribbon microphones use thin ribbons suspended in magnetic fields. Condenser microphones function as capacitors, often requiring a battery to create voltage. Finally, crystal microphones make use of the unique electrical properties of some crystals.

When it comes to personal computers, microphones can be handy for certain applications, though most users don't consider them a necessity for everyday computer usage. Some instant-message programs allow you to actually speak to the other person, provided both of you have microphones. Some people use their computers as miniature recording studios and thus need microphones to record their voices. And of course with podcasts becoming more and more popular, computer microphones are even more in-demand.

Microphones vary widely in price and quality. The cheapest ones start at around $20 for very basic, imprecise use. The most expensive ones can be several hundred dollars for intricate, state-of-the-art quality. Musicians' technicians often speak passionately about the brands and types of microphones they prefer, knowing their differences inside and out. To the average listener, though, they all sound about the same.

Nokia n95 - martin s quick review

Nokia N95 - All the features under the sun

With a dual-sliding design and a stylish plum-and-silver colour scheme, the Nokia N95 packs a lot of features into a fairly small package. You’d expect it to weigh more than it does – just 120g of phone, measuring 99mm x 53mm x 21mm. Sliding the phone downwards reveals the traditional keypad, whilst sliding in the opposite direction gives you access to the multimedia controls. The alphanumeric keypad is raised slightly, and responsive to light touch. Blue back-lighting means you can easily see what you’re typing. The LCD screen is large, bright and clear and resolves at 240 x 320 pixels. It is easy to view, even in direct sunlight, but you will need the included clear plastic screen protector to avoid scratches and finger marks.

Nokia’s N95 is undoubtedly feature-packed. Much of the hype surrounding it has to do with the included GPS functionality. Two mapping systems are available, both of which are free to view but the GPRS/3G connection needed to access them isn’t. Turn-by-turn navigational guiding also incurs additional charges. Using the phone’s keypad to operate the system proves a little trying and lack of volume is also a problem.

As the first phone to include a five megapixel camera, the N95 commands respect. Image quality is good, as is colour reproduction. As with most phone cameras, image sharpness suffers a little. In particular, the N95 really struggles with night shots, despite having a red-eye reduction flash. There’s an autofocus and macro, portrait, sports, sequence and burst shooting modes, plus the option to manually control white balance, colour tone and exposure. The phone can interface with web-based photo accounts including Flickr, Vox or Lifeblog.

The Nokia N95 functions well as a multi-media device – it includes both video and music players. There’s support for MPC, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA and M4A audio formats, as well as MPEG-4, H.264/AVC, H.263, 3GPP and RealVideo files. The quality of the bundled earphones isn’t poor, but it is an advantage that the phone has a 3.5mm headphone jack so that you can plug in better quality headphones if you’re serious about your music. Here, the multimedia keypad really shines, with the previous, play/pause, stop and next keys offering intuitive control of the device. You can watch videos on the Nokia N95, but the screen is really too small to do the feature justice.

A new feature is the Video Centre – an RSS feeder for video content from Reuters and YouTube. Using this, you can download and stream video clips using Wi-Fi or your provider’s data service. Memory is adequate – with 160MB of internal memory and a microSD slot that supports cards up to 2GB.

Unfortunately, the phone does feel a little cheap, with the sliding mechanism a bit loose and the plastic quality not as good as it should be, given the phone’s price tag. Battery life is another disappointing aspect of the phone, with only 160 hours of talk time and up to 200 hours of standby time. These figures are slightly better if you’re using a traditional GSM network, but are still well below par. Use of the GPS or camera noticeably accelerates battery flattening.

If money isn’t an object, the Nokia N95 offers a feature-packed phone in a light-weight, well-designed package.