Recording Online Audio Streams using Audacity

There are plenty of sites which stream online audio on the Net. You might sometime feel that some need to be recorded (Not Copyrighted Audio). But many sites don't offer to download the Audio stream. In such a case what to do???

Very simple - use an open source Audio editing tool like "Audacity" & choose the input channel (from the Combo Box in main stream) as "Mono Mix" (if Mono recording) or "Stereo Mix" (if Stereo recording). Now press the Record button & start recording. Once recording is completed, you can export the recorded audio in MP3 or other well known Audio formats. Isn't this simple!!!

(Note: Recording Copyrighted Audio is strictly discouraged.)

Tech Review: Hitachi 3 Door Refrigerator (Model#RS31SVND)

After 1 years research I finally have another object of desire. I am talking about the new gadget which my dad gifted to our family this Diwali - a 3 Door Refrigerator from Hitachi.

As usual, this Review would be less technical (with less of Technical Specifications) so that a layman can make a buying decision. This is one of the products which I am thoroughly satisfied with though the price is on the higher side. Its MRP is currently Rs.42,000 & you can get it from selected Retails Stores anything from Rs.39,000 to Rs.42,000. I bought it on the day of Dhanteras at Rs.38,999 with an Electric Toast & Grill free from Hypercity (Malad) & they just increased the price to Rs,40,999 on the day of Diwali.

Some of its salient features -

1. 366 litres refrigerator & has 3 sections - the top most one is the Fresh Food Compartment (like a regular refrigerator), the middle one is a large Vegetable Compartment (drawer) & the lowermost one is a large Deep-Freezer Compartment (drawer) for storing non-vegetarian items.
2. The Vegetable Compartment being at the middle position reduces the strain on your back, as it is the most frequently used & is placed at a comfortable position.
3. Its tall as almost I am :-) - standing tall at approximately 6 feet.
4. It weighs almost I am :-) - 72 Kgs.
5. Rather than being broader, this Refrigerator is longer & thus allows more space for items to be stored.
6. Has facility of auto-ice making - you just need to fill in water to the water tank in the topmost section & ice cubes gets automatically dispensed to the ice tray when it runs low on ice. The water tank also has inbuilt water filter to purify the water before making ice.(No need of separately filling in water to ice tray & twisting the tray to obtain ice. Ice cubes are directly dispensed)
7. Nano-titanium filter keeps the refrigerator odour-free by cleaning out all bacteria.
8. Vegetable compartment is set to high humidity to keep vegetables & fruits fresher for longer period of time.
9. Has provision to turn off auto-ice maker when you feel there is no necessity of ice.
10. Has Quick freezing option to quickly freeze items like ice cream which have been just inserted into the deep freezer.
11. Fresh Room section (drawer) in the Fresh Food Compartment to store items of regular use.

Suggestions -

1. Permanently Turn Off auto-ice maker from the controls when sufficient ice has been dispensed & you do not feel the need of ice on a frequent basis.
2. Turn On Quick Freezing when you have start the Refrigerator after keeping it Switched Off for a long period of time. This would enable faster formation of ice & also quickly freeze items like Ice Cream, if you have recently kept them in the Deep Freezing Compartment.

I have attached the snaps so that you can have a better idea. Do write to me if you need to know any further about this Refrigerator before making a buying decision. For more technical details & specifications you can google around or check at http://www.hitachi-hli.com/3doorRefrigerator.html

Tech Review: Lenovo S10-2 Ideapad Netbook

Its been just over a day that I bought a new Lenovo S10-2 Ideapad, a sleek ultra-portable Laptop, known as "Netbook" these days. Its an upgrade to the earlier Lenovo S-10 launched last year. Rather being too descriptive & technical I would keep the review rather short to make it easy for a layman to take a decision.

I got this from Hypercity, Malad, Mumbai for Rs.20,999 which also includes an excellent Headphone (with Mic). The Netbook has 6 cell Battery Pack, 3 USB Ports (2 at the right & 1 at the left), an Ethernet (LAN) Port, a VGA Port (to connect to external displays) & a Memory Card Reader (in the front). It has the typical Netbook config - 160GB HDD, 1GB RAM, Intel Atom N280 Processor & Wi-Fi - Bluetooth inbuilt. It comes pre-installed with Windows XP Home Edition. The company has provided a Glossy topping to the Netbook (which I personally liked) along with the Lenovo emblem.

(+)Likes -

1. Even after installing many applications, the Netbook still runs pretty fast.
2. The Keyboard is nicely layed out.
3. The Battery Pack is built with such an angle that it gives an inclination to the Netbook. You feel as if the Netbook is placed on a traditional Laptop Stand. This inclination makes it easy for typing & also keeps the Netbook cooler when placed on a table, as there is empty space created due to the angle.
4. The 1.3 Mega Pixel webcam is of excellent quality. I tested it with Skype & it works very well.
5. Since the speakers are placed at the side, the sound is much clearer. The output is Dolby Digital enabled.
6. Has a dedicated button for System Recovery. You can create images of your System Partition whenever you want & recover your System with the saved image as & when required.
7. The Touchpad is very sensitive & also supports scrolling.
8. The Windows comes pre-installed with Lenovo's Veriface Face Recognition application. It hardly takes 30 secs to train the application for each user configured on the System. A user can then logon by displaying his face in front of the webcam on the logon screen.
9. The webcam can be turned on/off directly using shortcut keys on the keyboard.
10. The Bluetooth is easy to configure & allows your Mobile Phone's Bluetooth Headset to be easily configured with Skype, without making much changes to your System. So as soon as you Turn On your Bluetooth Headset, Skype automatically switches from the Netbooks Mic & Speaker to the Bluetooth Headset.
11. The Wi-Fi is of good quality & has a large coverage.11. The Battery Backup is good. It almost gave me 4+ hours without connecting it to the Power Outlet even with Wi-Fi turned on.12. Comes with a nice carry case.

(-)Dislikes -

1. Touchpad is too small.
2. The Function Key (Fn) & Control Key (Ctrl) are wrongly placed. Most of the times I would press "Fn" instead of "Ctrl" for Copying & Pasting.
3. It comes pre-installed with an EISA utility partition which is used for System Recovery. This utility partition utilizes quite a lot of space & hence the entire 160GB of Hard drive space is not realized.
4. The pricing should be around Rs.20,000 to make it competetive.
5. The Netbook's body easily catches stains.
6. Does not come with a Micro-Filter cloth to clean the display.
   

I feel the inclining Battery Pack should be this Netbook's USP, along with the Face Recognition application. I am currently not in a position to set my expectations from a Netbook, as this market is quite new & yet to be matured.

Overall I found this Netbook to be very stable & user friendly & would definitely recommend others to go for it. Please comeback to me if you want to know more about this Netbook.