Converting .ivr to .mp3 - Tutorial

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Internet Video Recording is a popular format these days.
But not good enough to be recognized by your audio system.
Leave alone audio systems when most media players fail to play the ivr tracks.

Now if you are hellbent in converting your favorite ivr tracks to Mp3 or any other format, here is the one-stop solution
without compromising on audio quality.

RIPPING !!


Yeah, though a tedious process, it is the only way these tracks can be converted to recognizable formats.

Now the process goes this way .
* First burn the ivr files as an audio cd.
* Then Rip the cd to mp3 format.

Software Requirements :
* Windows Media Player 11
* Real Player 11

STEP 1
Burn the ivr files as an audio cd with Real Player 11, since only from this version on, the
ivr files are recognized.
For Beginners i owe a little elaboration here.

Note ::( The above video is just a mock drill done without inserting a cd, nevertheless it shows you all important elements of burning an audio cd )

STEP 2
We will go about the ripping process next.
Please take note that only windows media player 10&11 let you rip ivr files directly to
.mp3 format. In all the other previous versions you do not have this privilege.

1)Open Windows Media Player and in the menu bar, go to
Tools ----> Options
2) Wherein you have to go to the rip music option.
It looks something like this.


3) In this window, you can select the format you want the audio to be ripped to,
also you can make changes to the location you want to save the file. Moreover
you can increase or decrease the audio quality too. ( A word of caution here-
some audio systems are incapable of playing bitrates above 192 kbps).

Once the above settings are tweaked, click apply and exit WMP.
The Next time you insert a burned audio cd by following the first step. You will have autoplay
displaying the " rip cd with wmp" option. Just click OK and your files will be ripped
to the location you specified in step 2(3).
If for any reason autoplay doesn't pop up on inserting the disk, goto Wmp and click the rip
option available below the menu bar.

Cheers.

Google Chrome Review

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I thought I should post a review of the latest product from Google, Chrome. And here it goes..

To start with, Chrome is a Web 2.0 Browser. Web 2.0 is more like application oriented which makes browsing secure, fast and friendly. Meaning,Web 2.0 in Chrome will be secure, fast and friendly. While Firefox and other browsers are Web 2.0 Compatible, Chrome is naturally so. Chrome is backward compatible with Web 1.0 and fully compatible with Web 2.0. This is the first real feature that Chrome delivers.



Real Time Features:
Incognito Mode: This is the private browsing mode where data(History,Cookies..) that keeps your trace in your PC is not saved. Chrome does not retain any information from sites browsed in the Incognito Mode.

Dynamic Tabs: Guess what, these tabs are real deal. You can fool around with your tab any way you want. Drag your Tab to the display area and you can have a new window. Move tabs across windows. The real indigenous thing is that, when you open a new tab, the new tab is placed just next to that tab instead of the end. When you download something from a site, the download is marked in the tab and download status is shown only at that tab. Chrome always tries to maximise the browsing area.

Stability: Google says each tab is separately threaded. For Beginners, your CPU processes Firefox as Firefox but with chrome each tab is separately processed, If one crashes the rest will continue to work. But in others when one tab crashes the whole browser crashes. It is better to lose one than all. Multi-threaded Plugins allow each tab to process data independent of the other tab. From my test, it works neat.

Memory Handling: Chrome is not as heavy as Firefox; Chrome idles at half the memory required for Firefox or Safari. Google also says, when a Tab is closed Chrome frees all the memory that the tab took unlike other browsers which could leave a trail and eats the computer’s resources. These things make Chrome Ultra Lite. The Task Manager is good for handling Network bandwidth and Memory Utilization.

Looks: Plain Jane looks. No real Fuzz, just blue and white. All you see are the Address bar, tabs area, Browsing area, Bookmarks toolbar and the on-off appearing status bar, Now thats not a lot. No Full screen browsing option. No Menu bar or title bar. Chrome lacks polish.

One Bar for all: The Omnibox serves multiple purposes. Enter your URL, search with Google, View Autocomplete suggestions and History too. And Autocomplete can’t be switched off.

Small things that matter a lot: Same shortcuts as Firefox (Safari was irritating), Open-Source, Java Script(named V8) Debugger and DOM Inspector, Option to Clear Browsing data, I cannot live without Plugins and Chrome does not support Plugins(or toolbars)!

Though at first Chrome looked like a lighter version of Firefox, It is more than that. It is based on both Apple's WebKit and Mozilla's Firefox. Chrome has excelled well for a Beta Version.
Chrome is ridiculously fast, mature in design, bland in looks and maintains Google’s Minimalism Concept. The Browser war has a new candidate and we have another crash.

Yeah Right!!!

Why Windows?

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Windows, it always has been ‘THE OS’ for you. Ever wondered why? Some say its User friendly interface, availability of 3rd Party applications; Security Updates and Some best anti-virus applications for the surplus viruses (which of course come free!) are the reasons. Well, these reasons are favored only by a typical minority of Windows users. They never really use their computers. The majority however never knew why they chose windows! I have a few reasons to why the majority never knew or will know why they chose windows.

OEM and Big Brands: The main reason for such tremendous popularity of the Windows OS is the OEM and Brand vendors. These guys slip in windows with their Standard hardware as a standard OS. Microsoft has had a good control
over this market from the time of IBM PC Compatibles. IBM Compatibles are Computers which had similar hardware architecture to that of the IBM PCs and could support software running with IBM. At that time the two available consumer Operating Systems were from Microsoft and Apple. While Apple restricted their OS to their Macintosh, Microsoft made licensing possible for IBM PC Clones. They made themselves available to all the Vendors who could manufacture a personal Computer. This action of Microsoft, created a chain which never broke. Most of the computers manufactured were shipped with the Windows OS. This chain is quite difficult to break, could be impossible! A good reason to support my theory is Windows Vista. The vendors did not accept vista wholly due to its humongous resource hungry nature. At the time of its introduction, it was capable of running smoothly only with high-end systems of that time. The vendors withdrew their support for Vista as a result of which it was a complete disaster for Microsoft. Not to worry about Windows 7 slated to release next year.


Ignorance and Innocence: Yes it did, Ignorance and Innocence of yours did promote Windows! When you bought your PC you cared more about the hardware which is not a bad thing to do, but you never took the time to look at other options available for the Operating System. Though the list is short, the opponents are equally powerful and better equipped. Most users never knew Linux was as user-friendly as Windows, some didn’t know Linux had a Graphical User Interface (GUI) and was FREE. Nor Macintosh was available in big cheap boxes. Linux was never promoted except for a few geeks who wore the Linux tees. Yeah, innocence and ignorance is bliss, for Microsoft.

Its not yet over.

There is one good reason why you can choose open source OS.

Piracy: Have you ever seen any Ads from Microsoft begging you to buy their product, at least not in India. But instead we see TV Commercials, Hoardings, and Banners insisting you to use Genuine Microsoft Software. Last year BBC stated in their news that more than one third of software used in the business segment was pirated. And in nations excluding USA(@30%), piracy rates were more than 60% and one-third had it above 75%. So by default you would be exposed to pirated software especially windows, with or without your knowledge. Windows still is the most pirated operating system at 62%.

I ain’t telling you to shun windows, it is just that you can go open source than be a pirate unintentionally. (Of course Intentional piracy is an individual’s choice [:8]).