Play songs according to your mood!!

Got a good news, Happy... Under pressure, Instrumentals... something bad happened, Sad... or enjoying the rain, feeling Nostalgic or Romantic.. Whatever may be the mood be there's always songs associated with it.

At times we really feel listening to them, but consider a typical example, You just returned from a cool engaging walk with your mate, feeling like cherishing the moments through soft, silent soothing songs when all of a sudden after the current track ends starts a hip hop fast paced regional song.. Feeling disturbed, even I would be.

Well of late technology has been able to recognize (nearly) songs according to the beats, flow and accordingly predict songs for the mood you select.. Happy, Sad, Romantic.. But again you cant get a proper free stable version of it. (if you are able to find one, lemme know :)

So lets Do-It-Ourselves and that too with your favorite media player.

Idea: Renaming the "Genres" or "Album" ID3 tag name to the desired Mood according to the song.

To do this:

Step 1: we go to http://www.mp3tag.de/en/download.html and download the free utility for tag editing. This can be done through any media player also but for most of the players its limited to tagging one song at a time and this soft allows to tag multiple songs at a time saving your time and lot of anxiety.

Step 2: Its a easy-to-use software. decide on the moods you want like.. Party, Sad, Happy, Romantic, Instrumentals etc. This being done, change the fields ("Genres" or "Album") accordingly and save the file/s (most important).

Step 3: Once set import your music collection to the MP3 Tag and then select-and-tag the songs according to the mood. Tag either "Album" or "Genres" field. Like, Its its a soothing calm romantic one, set it as romantic.

Step 4: Once this is done.. Thats it.. Alls Well. Import the songs according to "Genres" or "Album" you have selected and play them.

Now you will have only music playing according to the mood set.

You can also copy the songs to your portable media player too and hear to them on-the-go.

Queries.. Shoot them to me.

Something trying to fool your system on April 1st.. BEWARE.

Time for another web attack! Though security firms affirm that no new systems would be attacked this April 1st, but its always good to stay alarmed!


Do follow the one I wrote one year back... The written things are old.. but the dangers are still fresh..
Goto http://techdb.blogspot.com/2009/03/dont-let-malwares-fool-you-on-april-1st.html and protect your online entity..


You can also visit this link (http://www.symantec.com/norton/theme.jsp?themeid=conficker_worm) for more updates on this worm!


Wishing a happy and safe computing.

Utilities to install after a fresh Windows flushover!!

Hello all, I am back from hibernation.. 
Thinking of formatting your system because of that unruly, nasty virus issue, or system being slow, file errors.. etc etc!

Formatting OS once a year (or two) is a good practice. It keeps your system flushed off of all the slowness etc issues.

.

I am pretty sure once the formatting is over one finds himself in a tornado of confusion which software to install (unless you keep a note of it).
Well TechDatabase presents an extensive guide to the most important and essential utilities to install once a fresh install is done! and that too all of them are opensource/free.

So lets start!!
.

Utility 1. Motherboard utilities

This is the most important set of utilities one needs to install before thinking of installing anything else. This includes the drivers for Video, Audio, LAN, Chipset among others.!

Utility 2. Any hardware specific drivers

Like those of Sound/Video card, Modem etc. This is pretty important like Utility 1.

Utility 3. Antivirus
Get that dusty Antivirus cd out from the rack (if you bought one) or download the free version you rely on like Avast (www.avast.com) or AVG (www.free.avg.com) etc.

Utility 4. AntiSpyware
Install Antispyware apps you rely just after the antivirus install (no specific reason though!!). Get Spybot (www.safer-networking.org), MalwareBytes (www.malwarebytes.org) etc.

Utility 5. Firewall
This install is as important as having a lock to your house. Install firewall compulsorily. Get Comodo Free (www.comodo.com), ZoneAlarm Freewww.zonealarm.com) etc.

Utility 6. Internet Browsing Apps
Needless to go deep into this point. Install Firefox (www.mozilla.com/firefox) or Opera (www.opera.com) or Chrome (www.google.com/chrome) according to your taste (If you have internet!)

Utility 6. Download Accelerators
Next is to install your favorite download accelerator/s. to pump up the downloads. Get FDM (www.freedownloadmanager.org), Orbit (www.orbitdownloader.com) etc.

Utility 7. PDF Reader
Installing cumbersome and heavy app for this task is meaningless.. Get a lighter one. Install Foxit Reader (www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader).

Utility 8. System Cleaners
This is another important set of apps to install to keep your system running smooth and slow-free. Get CCleaner (www.ccleaner.com), Disk Cleaner (www.diskcleaner.nl) etc.

Utility 9. USB Protection apps
With the invasion of USB devices on our daily lives also comes the risks attached to them. Eradicate them by using USB Manager.

Utility 10. Audio/Video Players and Codec packs.
The serious installations are over!! Time to enjoy the lighter side of computing. Get your favo media players, Winamp (www.winamp.com), VLC (www.videolan.org), KMPlayer (www.kmplayer.en.softonic.com) etc.

Thats on my list..
Got anything else.. post it here.
Comments/queries - shoot them too.

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The Softwares mentioned here are in no way related to The Indian Techdatabase and are independent entities.
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Cough into your cellphone and get diagnosed.

MOBILE PATH LAB
Cough into your cellphone and get diagnosed
Chidanand Rajghatta | TNN | November 11 2009 | Times of India Bangalore

Seattle: There may be a small change in etiquette a few months down the line. Cover your mouth with your cellphone , instead of your hand, when you cough; your mobile may be able to tell whether you have a cold, a flu, some other respiratory ailment, or if its just an irritated throat. 

A research company that proposes using acoustic vocalization analysis software to measure and interpret cough characteristic of pneumonia has won a $100,000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, one of 76 projects named by the Foundation in its third funding round of its Grand Challenges Explorations.
The proposal is just one of several emerging ideas that could turn the cellphone into a medical diagnosis tool, eventually replacing a stethoscope (which may not be around to celebrate its bicentennial in 2016) and even becoming a personal scanner.
STAR Analytical Services two-page application on Using Acoustic Analysis of Cough to Diagnosis Pneumonia was one of 3,000 proposals the Foundation recognized as falling outside current scientific paradigms and having the potential to lead to significant advances in global health , criteria for winning the prestigious grant.
In their application, Stars researchers Suzanne Smith and Joel MacAuslan said analyzing distinctive cough sounds with new software (based on a pre-recorded data base of thousands of coughs of all kind of ailments from people of both sexes, all ages, and other variables), could lead to dramatic improvements in the management of respiratory illness in the developing world and interrupt epidemics far more rapidly.
For instance, such a tool could enable a mother in the distant African outback or Indian village without immediate mode or means of transportation to transmit the sound of her childs cough by cellphone to a city hospital, where a doctor checks this vital sign and determines the course of action. 

 
Cough is one of the most common symptoms of illness and a common mode of disease spread, yet we dont use technology in any way to measure or understand what coughs mean, Smith said, adding that for acute infections, measuring cough could become as familiar as recording temperature .
If the proposal leads to successful software tools, cough measurement may become one more vital sign available by phone. Already, researchers have been toying with mobile phones to monitor vital signs such as heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature and oxygen saturation readings. 

The cellphone is perfect because its like a wristwatch that you carry around, says Shankar Sastry, dean of engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, whose lab has dramatically advanced facial recognition algorithm. The obvious advantage with the cell phone he said was it can also can access and communicate information.
Eventually, experts are predicting that people will start to take control of health monitoring and maintenance , altering the dynamic of health care and changing the physician-patient relationship.

Virus can exploit your PC for child porn.

Virus can exploit your PC for child porn
Pranksters, Paedophiles Can Tap Comps Without Users Knowledge To Remotely Store Their Stash
November 10 2009 | Times of India Bangalore

Of all the sinister things that internet viruses do, this might be the worst: They can make you an unsuspecting collector of child pornography .
Heinous pictures and videos can be deposited on computers by viruses the malicious programs better known for swiping your credit card numbers. In this twist, its your reputation thats stolen. Paedophiles can exploit virus-infected PCs to remotely store and view their stash without fear theyll get caught. Pranksters or someone trying to frame you can tap viruses to make it appear that you surf illegal websites.
 

Whatever the motivation, you get child porn on your computer and might not realize it until police knock at your door.
An Associated Press investigation found cases in which innocent people have been branded as paedophiles after their coworkers or loved ones stumbled upon child porn placed on a PC through a virus. It can cost victims hundreds of thousands of dollars to prove their innocence.
Their situations are complicated by the fact that actual pedophiles often blame viruses a defense rightfully viewed with skepticism by law enforcement.
One case involved Michael Fiola, a former investigator with the Massachusetts agency that oversees workers compensation . In 2007, Fiolas bosses became suspicious after the internet bill for his state-issued laptop showed that he used 4 1/2 times more data than his colleagues . A technician found child porn in the PC folder.
Fiola was fired and charged with possession of child pornography , which carries up to five years in prison. He endured death threats and he was shunned by friends. Fiola and his wife fought the case, spending $250,000 on legal fees. They liquidated their savings, took a second mortgage and sold their car. An inspection for his defense revealed the laptop was severely infected. It was programmed to visit as many as 40 child porn sites per minute an inhuman feat. While Fiola and his wife were out to dinner one night, someone logged on to the computer and porn flowed in for an hour and a half. Prosecutors performed another test and confirmed the defense findings. The charge was dropped 11 months after it was filed.

At any moment, about 20 million of the estimated 1 billion internet-connected PCs worldwide are infected with viruses that could give hackers full control , according to security software maker F-Secure Corp.
Paedophiles can tap viruses in several ways. The simplest is to force someone elses computer to surf child porn sites, collecting images along the way. Or a computer can be made into a warehouse for pictures and videos that can be viewed remotely when the PC is online.
But paedophiles need not be involved: Child porn can land on a computer in a sick prank or an attempt to frame the PCs owner. In the first publicly known cases of individuals being victimized, two men in the UK were cleared in 2003 after viruses were shown to have been responsible for the child porn on their PCs. AP