I woke up this morning and was dejected to realize that only one of the speakers was working when I connected my Nokia Lumia 820 to Altec Lansing desktop speakers to play music.
I sincerely hoped that the problem was my speakers as those are 2+ years old but my Lumia is less than a month old. Also, Lumia costed me 27 times the speakers! So, I quickly connected the earphones that were shipped with Lumia and concluded it was in fact Lumia that has the problem.
As it is said, great ideas come to us either at 3 am or when in shower. So, after my shower, I was able to fix the problem in a snap.
Of all the cons, there are a few pros of working on the weekends; I have a lot of time at my disposal at office. Sometimes I get on Learning Management System and complete a course or two. Other times, I carry a Reader’s Digest – or some book I’d be reading during the period. In fact, I started this blog and wanted to discover the blogosphere to kill that time! It’s now become more than that though.
This is what I did today:
To begin with, I wanted to listen to some music. Didn’t have a big database on the office PC, so hooked up my Walkman and parallelly was checking email and feeds from Google Reader.
One particular song, one of my favorites, ‘Zara Zara’ from Telugu movie ‘Rakhi’ has this wonderful bit (I think) that I always wanted to use as ring tone. Um, something to kill time – let me do it right away!
I need to crop the track to extract that bit so that I can use it as tone. After a couple of minutes, could locate one Audio Editing program, Wavosaur – a lite version (meaning no installation required; runs from wherever we place the .exe file), very small in size (about 700KB!) and a freeware! If you’re interested, download it here.
Loaded the track, figured out how to trim, and cropping was over in about 5 mins. When I saved the file, it’s giving out .wav files only. [:(] Not very good for a ring tone. The original track which is about 5 minutes long was 4.x MB (mp3) and this cropped bit of 48 secs long came up to 8.x MB! (wav). By exploring a couple more options/ menus, I figured out there was an ‘export as mp3′ option available. However, it cursed ‘install lame codec’ to do this.
Google zindabad! This was a little difficult part. Lame guys say, here are the files available as open source. No installation file will be provided. Oops! Downloaded the .tar.gz file anyway. Had to download another program 7Zip to extract and view the files but was no use. Further search resulted in a dll file that could work with no headaches. If you need it, download it here. Placed it in the same location of the Wavosaur and export worked like a charm!
Here’s what I’ve finally got:
PS: While I was looking around for different stuff around, tumbled upon a nice site to download hindi songs. It’s actually a blog but has a good number of tracks/ movies covered with no sign-ups, logins etc. However the format for almost all the tracks in here is .rm (Real Media). If you plan to listen to these on a computer, no issues. I needed this for my mobile. So, search was on again, located and downloaded the Switch program. Again, freeware and very small program. Allows us to convert sound files from one format to another. Got about a dozen tracks downloaded, converted and transferred to my mobile. [:)]
If you have an iPod or a music series mobile phone or a state-of-the-art mp3 player, this is for you!
Here is an amazing audio clip that uses a new algorithm to let you enjoy the new breakthrough. All I can say before you listen to it is – It’s awesome! This is something you cannot afford to miss!
(Right-click on vb.mp3 and choose ‘Save’ in the page it loads when you click the above link.)
Warning: Please do not listen to this on your computer – pleeez! I tried with a Plantronics USB headset and it didn’t work. Neither it does on my Creative desktop speakers. So, am sure yours won’t work. You can hear the sound, but what we are trying to experience is lot more – not the information.
Download it to your music device, wear your headset/ earphone/ handsfree – whatever you call it – mind you have it in the correct position – L for Left and R for right (check the markings on the ear piece, most of them have it).
Sit in a quite area, close your eyes and visualize that you are in a barber shop. Let me know what you think!
In case you receive an error when you click that download link, please add a comment and will provide an alternate one as soon as possible.
If any of you are still holding this blog in your favorites/ readers/ feeds, thanks! Time has become so scarce these days, I hardly get time to post some fun stuff in here – forget about real content like thoughts, experiences etc.
Not sure how frequently I’ll be able to post, but I’ve planned to post some music going forward. This will be available with Audio/ Music tag for tracking purposes. One track and few details about it. I will make a point to include as much information as possible about the posted track and in less than a line, why I like/ hate it. Stay tuned and keep rocking!
Enjoy the track right here!
Song Name: Maa – Taare Zameen Par
I love this because of simple, yet deeply moving & meaning lyrics; Shankar’s voice and nice music make it worth listening time and again!
Album Name: Taare Zameen Par Singer Name: Shankar Mahadevan Lyricist Name: Prasoon Joshi Music Director: Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani, Loy Mendonca
Main Kabhi Batlata Nahin Par Andhere Se Darta Hoon Main Maa Yun To Main, Dikhlata Nahin Teri Parwaah Karta Hoon Main Maa Tujhe Sab Hain Pata, Hain Na Maa Tujhe Sab Hain Pata,,Meri Maa
Bheed Mein Yun Na Chodo Mujhe Ghar Laut Ke Bhi Aa Naa Paoon Maa Bhej Na Itna Door Mujkko Tu Yaad Bhi Tujhko Aa Naa Paoon Maa Kya Itna Bura Hoon Main Maa Kya Itna Bura Meri Maa
Jab Bhi Kabhi Papa Mujhe Jo Zor Se Jhoola Jhulate Hain Maa Meri Nazar Dhoondhe Tujhe Sochu Yahi Tu Aa Ke Thaamegi Maa
Unse Main Yeh Kehta Nahin Par Main Seham Jaata Hoon Maa Chehre Pe Aana Deta Nahin Dil Hi Dil Mein Ghabraata Hoon Maa Tujhe Sab Hai Pata Hai Naa Maa Tujhe Sab Hai Pata Meri Maa
Main Kabhi Batlata Nahin Par Andhere Se Darta Hoon Main Maa Yun To Main, Dikhlata Nahin Teri Parwaah Karta Hoon Main Maa Tujhe Sab Hain Pata, Hain Na Maa Tujhe Sab Hain Pata,,Meri Maa
Of all the cons, there are a few pros of working on the weekends; I have a lot of time at my disposal at office. Sometimes I get on Learning Management System and complete a course or two. Other times, I carry a Reader’s Digest – or some book I’d be reading during the period. In fact, I started this blog and wanted to discover the blogosphere to kill that time! It’s now become more than that though.
If you have an iPod or a music series mobile phone or a state-of-the-art mp3 player, this is for you!