Online Music: Turn on & Tune In

For the music lovers and music fans the Internet is a one stop source for music!! A high-speed broadband connection and a good set of speakers can turn your PC into a digital jukebox. The internet allows you to listen to music from commercial-free channels or download and burn songs to a CD or load them on a portable player for listening on the go!!

How do music services work?

Music services are available in two basic categories - subscription and non-subscription.

• With non-subscription services, you pay to download individual songs or an entire album. Apple's iTunes Music Store has sold over a billion songs for US $.99 per song.
• With subscription services you pay a monthly fee to access libraries of a million or more songs.. Once the subscription ends, you can no longer listen to your music, unless you have purchased individual songs. Most subscription services also charge an additional fee for their "To-Go" service, which let's you load songs on a portable device.

Sometimes the music service might not have the music you want in spite of them having thousands of songs. So, you can take advantage of the free trials they offer to check out their music vault.

If you don't like the service ,do cancel before the trial period is up or you'll will be billed for at least a month. Alternately,you can use the option of mixing the services like downloading songs from MSN Music and subscribing to Napster for everyday listening. Since most services only require a month-to-month commitment and in case you are not satisfied with the service you can cancel it at any time .

Digital Rights

Since the industry makes its money by selling CDs, there will be a revenue loss if people can generously exchange digital copies of songs. Hence, many digital file formats have built technical safeguards that does not allow duplication and sharing of music. This is called Digital Rights Management or DRM. Both AAC and WMA files utilize DRM technology while MP3 files don't.

With this technology you may not be able to burn songs to a CD or even if you are able to, it will be for a restricted amount of times!

Have fun with Online Music!!

Copyright © 2008 Laila Rajaratnam. All Rights Reserved

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Internet Radio

Computer can be used to listen to the radio. But then, to listen to radio online, your computer must be equipped with a sound card and speakers or headphones. You'll also need a media player or an audio plug-in for your web browser There are thousands of radio stations around the world and by putting their programming online, these stations can now reach a global audience.The best part is that the internet radio puts you in control. You can listen to what you want, when you want. The technology that makes this all possible is called streaming audio.

What is streaming audio?
Streaming audio is a process where you hear the music as it arrives at your computer over the internet, and therefore you do not have to wait for a complete download. Once a small amount of the file is buffered, the audio begins. Therefore, this is different from the usual method of receiving Internet audio – which is downloading a .wav or a .au or other type of file completely before being able to listen to it. As the data arrives it is buffered for a few seconds and then playback begins. As the audio is playing, more data is constantly arriving (or streaming), and as long as you are receiving a constant stream of data, you should hear constant

Tune It Up

Depending on the station, it will probably use one of the 2 major formats currently available: RealAudio or Windows Media Player. These two media players

are are not cross-compatible; you can't play a RealMedia file with Windows Media Player file and visa versa. However, some types of files, like .mp3, will play on both. A growing number of stations are using streaming MP3 format and Winamp also can be used to play these. Another popular and versatile program is Apple's iTunes for both the Mac and PC.

In general, speech sounds better than music. But the faster your connection, the better will be your audio experience .However, software audio players have control panels, so you can play, pause, fast-forward and rewind at will. Also, a few online radio programs are indexed, hence,you can directly access the content you want, like skipping the weather report to take in the local sports scores.

Turn it on

There are radio station search engines on the internet and the Radio-Locator is the most popular one.They have links to thousands of radio stations worldwide . The other popular radio websites are the National Public Radio and BBC Radio, which offers talk, sports world news and music.

Enjoy the Web Radio!!

Copyright © 2008 Laila Rajaratnam. All Rights Reserved

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All about MP3

Do you throw parties often? Go on long picnics? Listen to music all the way to and fro driving to work? Well, there’s good news for you! You don’t have to carry loads of music CDs .Compressing and converting the music to MP3 format, all you have to do is to carry a couple of CDs! For example, a regular audio CD holds between 12 and 16 songs whereas a Mp3 CD has about 120- 150 songs in a single CD.

What is MP3?

MP3 files are actually MPEG (Moving Pictures Experts Group) files. MP3 is a compressed audio format that is much smaller in file size and has similar sound quality to WAV format, the format found on normal music CDs that you buy in a store.MP3 shrinks the size of audio data while preserving sound quality, so music files can be easily distributed over the Internet. Sounds stored in the MP3 format have the extension .mp3.

Why is MP3 is Popular?
1. A song in MP3 format can be up to 10 times smaller than the same song on a regular audio CD.

2. MP3 is still very close to CD quality. Smaller does not mean smaller in playback time, but smaller in needed storage space.

3. Mp3 enables you to download songs quickly, with a broadband connection, it only takes minutes.

4. Since an MP3 is a lot smaller, sending or receiving MP3 takes lesser time and is faster too.

5. The format is popular for turning your PC into a jukebox of hundreds or thousands of songs.

6. You can load thousands of songs into a portable mp3 player and carry your music collection wherever you go.

7. MP3 has become the standard for exchanging music on the Internet.

Free downloadable MP3 music are available on the Internet from file sharing tools like Limewire, KaZaa, Bearshare, eDonkey and many more. These tools allow you to download entire CD's in MP3 format.
If you would like to download and listen to MP3 files on your computer, then you need *

A sound card and speakers for the computer.An Internet connection.An MP3 player (a software application you can download from the Web in 10 minutes)

How to play MP3?

To play MP3 files you need a MP3 player! These players are available in two types * portable players and software players. The portable players are hardware devices like Apple's iPod, MP3 portable players, Walkmans etc. Software players are programs you install on your computer like iTunes, Winamp, RealPlayer etc. PC users will already have Windows Media Player installed and if not, it can be downloaded from Microsoft. Once you have the player installed, you can download music from many sites on the net .You can either listen to the downloaded music on your computer or transfer the songs from the computer to the hardware device or mail it as an attachment in your messages to anyone!

Converting music to MP3?

Music can be converted from CDs which are in wav format to mp3.To convert songs from your CDs into MP3 files, you have to use a ripper and an encoder software to do that. A ripper
copies
the song's file from the CD onto your hard disk. The encoder compresses the song into the MP3 format. By encoding the songs, you can play them on your computer or on your MP3 player. The CD burning software Nero is the most popular advanced tool to convert music to MP3.It has a built in encoder for easy conversion. Windows Media Player also has provision to rip songs from CDs to MP3 format. There are many free soft wares available on the net to rip music!

Is this not cool? :)

Copyright © 2008 Laila Rajaratnam. All Rights Reserved

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What is Multimedia?

In this tutorial you will learn about different multimedia formats and how to use them !

Multimedia refers to everything you can hear or see in the computer like text, graphics, music, videos, sounds, CDs, DVDs, animation, interactive games and more. Different browsers handle multimedia in different ways. Some browsers handle multimedia online by supporting a number of multimedia formats. To experience multimedia online, you'll need a computer with sound and video cards and special software programs called plug-ins. Plug-ins, also known as players, extends the ability of your web browser, turning your computer into a radio or TV. Plug-ins may be already installed with your web browser but when a web page requires a special plug-in, you will be prompted to download it from the Internet.

Multimedia elements like sounds and videos are stored in media files and come in many different formats while the file extension determines the media type. Though there are many formats in use, AAC, MP3 and WMA are the big three formats used by digital music services. Your personal computer probably play songs encoded in any of the formats, but most portable music players cannot. For instance, iPods play MP3 and AAC files, but not WMA files. Thus, your portable player may determine which service you can use.

Sound can be stored in many different formats.

1. The MIDI Format - cannot store songs, only tunes. MIDI files can be extremely small and a 23K size music file can play for nearly 5 minutes. MIDI files are supported by all the popular Internet browsers. Sounds stored in the MIDI format have the extension .mid or .midi.

2. The RealAudio Format-The RealAudio format which supports video and allows streaming of audio (on-line music, Internet radio) was developed by Real Media, with low bandwidths. Because of the low bandwidth priority, quality is often reduced.

3.The AIFF Format -The AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format) was developed by Apple, but unfortunately these files are not cross-platform and are not supported by all web browsers. Sounds stored in the AIFF format have the extension .aif or .aiff

4.The WAVE Format - is one of the most popular sound format on the Internet and developed by Microsoft . It is supported by all the popular browsers. Sounds stored in the WAVE format have the extension .wav.

5.The MP3 Format -MP3 files are actually MPEG files.MP3 is one of the most popular sound formats for music recording. It shrinks the size of audio data while preserving sound quality, so music files can be easily distributed over the Internet. Sounds stored in the MP3 format have the extension .mp3 or .mpga (for MPG Audio).

6. AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) has improved on MP3 by requiring less data to reproduce the same sound quality. Songs downloaded from Apple's iTunes Music Store are encoded in this format.

Videos too can be stored in many formats

1. The AVI Format -The AVI (Audio Video Interleave) format developed by Microsoft is supported by all computers running Windows and popular web browsers. It is not always possible to play on non-Windows computers. Videos stored in the AVI format have the extension .avi.

2. The Windows Media Format-The Windows Media format ,developed by Microsoft Windows Media is a common format on the Internet, but Windows Media movies cannot be played on non-Windows computer without an extra (free) component installed. Videos stored in the Windows Media format have the extension .wmv.

3. The MPEG Format-The MPEG (Moving Pictures Expert Group) format is the most popular format on the Internet. It is cross-platform, and supported by most web browsers. Videos stored in the MPEG format have the extension .mpg or .mpeg.

4. The QuickTime Format-The QuickTime format , by Apple is a common format on the internet, but QuickTime movies cannot be played on a windows computer without the plug-in installed. Install QuickTime, a plug-in for playing video clips on Macintosh and PC computers and watch movie trailers and other multimedia with this useful little program. Videos stored in QuickTime format have the extension .mov

5. The RealVideo Format- This format allows streaming of video (on-line video, Internet TV) with low bandwidths. Turn your computer into a radio or television with the RealPlayer. Once you install the RealPlayer, you can listen to the latest newscasts from National Public Radio, CNN, BBC and hundreds of other sites.This format has the extension .rm or .ram.

6. The Shockwave (Flash) Format-This format by Macromedia requires an extra component like Flash to play and to add pizzazz to a website. This component comes preinstalled with the latest versions Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari. It turns your computer into an interactive animation machine.Shockwave format has the extension .swf

Some multimedia content, called streaming media, are embedded in a web page and begin to play when you access the page.

There are many more exciting ways to use multimedia options in the computer as well as on the Internet!!

Copyright © 2008 Laila Rajaratnam. All Rights Reserved

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Files and File Extensions

Hi!! Understanding Files and its extensions will make opening those files with the programme that identify with it a real snap!!
All the documents, pictures, music or games that are stored in computers are files. Files can only be activated by programs that recognize them and are able to use it. Like, for instance, you cannot use a music program to open a letter document. Each program on your computer understands what type of file it can or cannot use by the fact that every file has a filetype given to it. These filetypes have a few extra letters added on to its name after the full stop. For example, 'mycomputer.doc' is a file, named 'mycomputer' with the filetype '.doc', meaning that it can be opened by only a program that understands doc or document files like Microsoft Word.

There are many different filetypes. The following are the common Filetypes opened by the appropriate programme.

• .avi - video file. Open with Windows Media Player
• .bmp -image. Open with Paint
• .cfg - configuration file.
• .dat - data file.
• .doc - document file. Open with Word
• .exe - program file. Double-click to run
• .gif - image file. Open with Paint
• .htm - web document. Open with Internet Explorer
  
• .html - web document. Open with Internet Explorer
• .ini - text configuration file. Open with Notepad
• .jpeg/jpg - image file. Open with Paint
• .mov - movie file. Open with Quicktime
• .mpeg/mpg - video file. Open with QuickTime
• .mp3 - audio file. Open with Windows Media Player
• .pdf - secure document file. Open with Adobe Reader
• .pps - slideshow presentation. Open with PowerPoint
• .ppt - presentation file. Open with PowerPoint
• .sys - system file.
• .txt - text file. Open with Notepad
• .wav - audio file. Open with Windows Media Player
• .xls - spreadsheet file. Open with Excel
• .zip - compressed file. Open with WinZip

If a file does not appear to have a filetype extension, open the folder it is stored and click Tools from the menu, then Folder Options. Click on the View tab and un-tick Hide extensions for known file types. Read more Entry>>

Understanding Files And File Extensions

Hi!! Understanding Files and its extensions will make opening those files with the programme that identify with it a real snap!!
All the documents, pictures, music or games are stored as files in computers . Files can only be activated by programs that recognize them and are able to use it. Like, for instance, you cannot use a music program to open a letter document. Thus, each program on your computer understands its file types . File types are the few extra letters added on to a name after the full stop. For example, 'mycomputer.doc' is a file, named 'mycomputer' with the filetype '.doc', meaning that it can be opened by only a program that understands doc or document files like Microsoft Word.

There are many different file types. The following are the common Filetypes opened by the appropriate programme.

* .avi - video file. Open with Windows Media Player
* .bmp - image file. Open with Paint
* .cfg - configuration file.
* .dat - data file.
* .doc - document file. Open with Word
* .exe - program file. Double-click to run
* .gif - image file. Open with Paint
* .htm - web document. Open with Internet Explorer
* .html - web document. Open with Internet Explorer
* .ini - text configuration file. Open with Notepad
* .jpeg/jpg - image file. Open with Paint
* .mov - movie file. Open with Quicktime
* .mpeg/mpg - video file. Open with QuickTime
* .mp3 - audio file. Open with Windows Media Player
* .pdf - secure document file. Open with Adobe Reader
* .pps - slideshow presentation. Open with PowerPoint
* .ppt - presentation file. Open with PowerPoint
* .sys - system file.
* .txt - text file. Open with Notepad
* .wav - audio file. Open with Windows Media Player
* .xls - spreadsheet file. Open with Excel
* .zip - compressed file. Open with WinZip

If a file does not appear to have a filetype extension, open the folder it is stored in and click on Tools from the menu, then Folder Options. Click on the View tab and un-check Hide extensions for known file types.

That's it!


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Guide to sending Money Online.

Hi again comp noobys!! Online money transfer is one of the easiest and quickest ways to send money via the Internet!Here's a simple guide to send money online!!

With the world shrinking into a global village, with the advancement in technology and with the extensive use of Internet, sending or receiving money online is just a snap! There are times when we need to send money, and send it real fast. What do we do? Send money order online. They are quick, cheap, convenient and safe and can be sent to anywhere in the world. There are two options for online money order, by bank and by Internet.

What is online money transfer by bank?
Online money transfer is the electronic transfer of money from one bank account to another. The recipient should also have a bank account and the money is transferred electronically within minutes direct into a bank account of the recipient. By this bank-to-bank account transfer, no actual cash is exchanged, but the electronic balances are adjusted accordingly in their respective accounts.

What if one does not have access to a bank account?
A cash wire transfer is possible. The money is paid at the bank and the recipient produces identification at the time of disbursement of funds. Cash wire transfers are expensive and has certain drawbacks. During a purchase transaction a seller can provide false information to the sender of the cash wire transfer,collect the cash at the receiving end under the false ID, and vanish without delivering the merchandise.

What is online money transfer by Internet?
There are popular reliable financial providers like Western Union, which does not require you to have an account with them to transfer money online. It has outlets worldwide and money is transferred electronically between these outlets. A person can pay the transfer fee and money at a Western Union and the recipient can collect the fund from the nearest Western Union branch within minutes. The advantage of this method is that there is no need for Internet access or bank.For either transfer by bank or by internet,the only criterion is to provide the name of the person or firm the money is being sent to and the recipient's account number, the address and phone number of the bank.

Other reliable companies like PayPal, E-gold, and Xoom also offer the option of transferring money on line in a matter of seconds from one email id to another. Pay pal is the world's largest online payment service which allows people from all around the world to buy and sell off the internet. All one needs is an email address. The fees for such transactions may be a percentage of the money being transferred or a fixed fee, irrespective of the amount being transferred.

Ultimately,there are the nationalised Bank's International Credit and Debit cards like Visa and Mastercard ,as well as ATM cards which enable online money transfer within minutes.Whenever these cards are swiped at a retailer,wire transfer is authorised from the bank account of that card to the retailer's bank account.

Online money transfers are quick paperless transactions and furthermore,as precaution, during money transfers, details like the name of the country, bank,regional location and customer account number are facilitated by use of the IBAN that is,International Bank Account Number.

Hope this was sort of clear! :)

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What is Downloading and Uploading?

What is Downloading and Uploading?

When you receive a file to your computer, you download the file or bring it down to your computer and when you send a file from your computer, you upload the file or send it up.

Downloading

Every single thing that is done on the web like accessing a web page and browsing is some sort of downloading as you are actually downloading the text document and all the connected graphics from a web server.

Downloading Files

Downloading files mean that files are saved locally on your computer's hard disk. When you download, you copy a file from another computer to your computer. When you download a program from the Internet, it is delivered to your computer. The program you download is a bundle of files. Each file makes up the entire program you download. A program can be anything - software, an electronic book, or a game. There are many useful free or inexpensive programs found on the Web.

How do you download a file?

The process of downloading files is fairly easy. First you connect to the Internet and start your Internet browser like Internet Explorer, Firefox etc. Then locate the file that you want to download.

· If you are using Internet Explorer, click with the RIGHT mouse button on the hyperlink and choose “Save Target As”.

· If you are using Netscape, click with the RIGHT mouse on the hyperlink and choose “Save Link As”.

The browser normally prompts you for a folder to which to save files, and it provides a default filename. You can change the folder and filename if you wish. Make a note of the location and name. Once the file is downloaded to your hard drive it can be viewed by double clicking in Windows Explorer.

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What is a URL?

A URL, or Uniform Resource Locator, is the location of a file on the Web. The Web has a huge collection of electronic files stored on millions of computers all around the world and the URL is the address used to locate the files. Every URL is unique and identifies one specific file. Therefore, it is the address of a web page and is also known as a - web address .URLs are also used to link one page to another. It gives you the ability to skip from one web page to another with just a click of your mouse. It is usually pronounced by sounding out each letter but, in some instances are pronounced as "Earl".

• A URL usually has no spaces.
• A URL always uses forward slashes (//).
• URLs aren't case sensitive. So typing in upper and lower case letters takes you to the same page.
• If you type a URL incorrectly, your browser will not be able to locate the site. Always make sure you spell the address correctly.

The URL is typed into the address bar, as in the following case of Google’s web address..

A URL is made up of several parts and the format of a URL is -

Protocol://site address

Whereas, the site address consists of the host computer name, the domain name and the domain type.

• Protocol: http
• Host computer name: www
• Domain name: google
• Domain type: com

For example, the URL of Google site is :
http://www.google.com/

The domain is generally the name of the organization or company. The following are the different types of domains.

.com - commercial institution

.net -commercial institution (addition to .com)

.edu -educational institution

.org -not-for-profit organization

.gov -government institution

.mil -military

.int -international institution

.biz -commercial institution

.info -unrestricted use

Domain types can also be different for different countries. For instance, an educational site can have the domain name www.school.ac.uk in the United Kingdom. Thus ac (academic) is used instead of edu. Similarly com is represented as co for Indian domain names.

The country code too differs from one country to another. Some country codes are given below:
in: India
de: Germany
ca: Canada
jp: Japan
uk: United Kingdom

For instance, Google India or MSN India will be www.google.in or www.msn.co.in

Thus, when you type the address of a Web page into your browser, you are typing a URL.

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How Credit Card Phishing Scams Work

Credit card scams which are called Phishing is akin to Fishing - fishing for password .The basic concept is, bait is thrown out with the hope that someone will bite it. Phishing is when a criminal tries to obtain sensitive information like credit card numbers in an illegal manner. The scamsters set up bogus websites that is a replica of legitimate sites like banks, credit card companies and even Microsoft, in an attempt to trick consumers into giving up their credit card numbers. The modus operandi of these criminals is usually to spam out authentic looking e-mails with duplicate addresses, as well as pose as customer service representatives and request the customers for their online password. The e-mail subject headers warn the recipient of a problem with their account which needs to be updated or, in the case of Microsoft, the need to install still another patch. Furthermore there is a form attached to the email to fill out personal information, or a link to update personal information. By either filling the form or clicking the link the recipient is taken to the bogus site where the personal information is used for stealing the credit card numbers.

Lack of awareness about such fraudulent practices has made phishing successful. There are anti-phishing softwares or client-based anti-phishing programs that identify the phishing content contained in websites and e-mails and these programmes are now integrated with most of the email clients as well as web browsers like Internet Explorer, Firefox , Netscape and Opera.

However, here are a few pointers to bear in mind so as to avoid phishing scams.

1. Banks never send email asking for password or any other sensitive information.
2. Never ever follow a link in an e-mail .Instead, go directly to the valid company's site and then log on from there or call the company directly.
3. Always type the URL directly into the address bar of your browser. Confirm the URL's authenticity by looking for the security padlock icon in the browser's toolbar, which signifies a secure site.
4. Never use the same password for all of your online accounts.
5. Never store online account information and passwords in files on your computer.
6. Monitor your online accounts. Make sure all transactions are valid. Never send personal or financial information to any one via email.
7. People getting such mails should immediately check with the bank or company concerned.
8. Banks never start the mail with "Dear Customer".

Awareness and understanding of how this scam works, is the most efficient protection against credit card scam. If you are a victim of phishing scam, you can report it to the Anti-Phishing Working Group which is a global law enforcement association whose objective is to eliminate and curtail this insidious threat to e-commerce.

Copyright © 2008 Laila Rajaratnam. All Rights Reserved

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