Into video Editing? - Want to edit home movies?

On your PC, in order to video edit, there are many solutions out there...
from Windows Movie Maker, which should be part of your desktop windows to many open source ones.

they provide variety of features important to range of users,,,from novice to experts. Like cameras.

I cam across this very recent review and ratings of Video editing softwares...
http://video-editing-software-review.toptenreviews.com/index.html


It rates Cyberlink's PowerDirector and Corel's Video Studio very highly. I have used both of them...cannot claim extensively but YES, i have used them.

I would recommend them and does this review...

Happy Editing.

Your own Radio Station - Internet Radio Station

Ever thought of putting up a collection and becoming a Radio Jockey?

Collection from the existing library or your own recorded songs, having loyal band of audience...to listen and jive in.

I came across UTV's http://www.UTVatplay.com

First i suggest you listen to other radio's station, for your interested theme...then sign in...Creating your user name and password.

You are all then set for Becoming your own radio station :-)

Happy Jokeying.

C-DAC Releases ISM6 for Indian Language Computing

CDAC has been a long pioneer in Indian local language software. They have been in business for over 20 years in understanding local language computing..They have leadership role in evolving a technology they call GIST - Graphics and Intelligence based script Technology.


ISM v6 a product of GIST Group has been released. A completely Unicode compliant software with support for over 19 indian languages.

With a keyboard called easy phonetic users can type in local languages as easily as English.

Try it out and would love to hear your feedback.

GyanPedia - Yet another learning asset

http://www.Gyanpedia.in, a indian site which helps school children locate relevant learning topics. It also helps school children to upload their contents/Projects.

Great site to locate content for School projects. Also you can add yours to it, to add to the existing mass of content.

Online Free Educational resources

Are you a student, parent finding (free) teachable content or more imporatant a teacher again to find online teachable aides?

Find the some of the best educational aides designed exclusives for students at curruki.

it provides multiple contents for a topic and is best used as educational supplemental aide.

it is avialable in Tamil also. You can also contribute to teaching content available on the web. Become a virtual teacher.

Happy learning - http://www.curriki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome

-Jagadish

3D Desktop

I installed based on sachin's suggestion, this 3 Dimentional Desktop.
Boring desktop did get a good boost of image.

Try to install the free version and enjoy the look and feel from http://www.bumptop.com.

3D browsing.

-jagadish

Common Craft

Many times , we have very basic questions -- what is internet ? what is rss ? what is podcast ? many times , we don't get the answers because we don't ask them and also to right guys. Many times , the person whom we ask also has a very limited knowledge about these modern tools. I came across a wonderful site which shares this knowledge in a very simplistic manner. Check some of them and you will get your fundas clear.

What is Internet ? Explained in a very simple manner



www.commoncraft.com


Do you want to know more about Twitter




Have fun...

Technology Enhanced Learning - A Very Useful Under Graduate Engineering Learning

This is a contribution from Rajagopal. Thank you for interesting insight.

If you believe primary education level is not uniform across, rapid commercialization of engineering education has contributed to drop in overall excellence in quality. I may be risking broad generalization.

IITs, IISc and some of the premier institutes have together to provide their complete content on Line. If you have good bandwidth connection, go ahead and download them. Else you can pay and buy the content.

I may be understating the importance of the content. It is a Significant boon to engineering college students who do not have access to quality education.

Technology in Education:
Govt. & IITs have got together to create this massive education reform.. to bring the IIT quality education to all students across the country.
http://nptel.iitm.ac.in/ (IITs India)

A Global Phenomenon:
This transformation in leveraging IT/Web/Multimedia for is not only in India, but also in MIT & lots of US universities.
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/courses/av/index.htm (MIT USA).

Student’s life is now different:
Definitely a game changer .. Suddenly college students(irrespective of which college they are registered with) now can learn from the best teachers. With just Rs8,000/- you can get an entire video collection for 4 year IIT B.Tech course in DVDs. http://nptel.iitm.ac.in/availability1.php

Knowledge worker’s life is now different:

Refresh your subjects free via Online video’s:
http://nptel.iitm.ac.in/video.php?courseId=1065 - link

How to decide what to buy ?

Traditionally , we all love to visit the market , feel the goods for sale , test them , bargain on the price and bring them home. From vegetables to TVs this buying method is the same. But how do you buy without visiting the showrooms ? Is it possible ?? Off Course... You can do your favourite pas time sitting at home using a computer and connecting to Internet.

If you know where to look for , the world market is open for you 24X7. I am sharing here a website which gives you a god feel of things before you buy. The categories offerred are very wide  , from Consumer durabeles to IT products and you can select from a variety of brands and do all your research before making that important decision. Check this site and change the way you shop,

www.compareindia.in


Catalog shopping is not new to a western consumer . In India , it is just started. It was a fun to see a 500 page catalog book landed at my home from . My two sons spent a week to oggle at all the toys and sports goods in the catalog. Again the same catalog is available online..

http://hypercityindia.com/

Try and explore many more such shopping experience siting at your home.

Cheers and happy shopping...

Moodle - noodles!

If you are a education Institution and want to host your home grown, ever growing own content management, course management system, moodle would be ideal.

Your teachers can host their courses on internet / intra net and have students go over the homeworks, revisions etc and come to class prepared.

Seems ideal for engineering colleagues, Medical colleagues, IT savvy schools and NGOs hosting for IT enabling focussed schools.

http://www.moodle.org  is your solution. Some of your geeky students can rig it up.

Astronomy site in Marathi

 

This is a very interesting website in Marathi http://www.avakashvedh.com/ giving information about Astronomy . As an amateur  astronomer , you can find the details about the positions of planets , details of planetary  activities and much more…

Apparently this website is active for last few years.  This site is made by सचिन सखाराम पिळणकर of Mumbai.

 

 

Create Website In Indian Languages using drupal

I saw this presentation which was very exciting. Drupal.org is the official website of Drupal, an open source content management platform.

Equipped with a powerful blend of features, Drupal supports a variety of websites ranging from personal weblogs to large community-driven websites. www.drupal.org

Create Website In Indian Languages using drupal

View more presentations from drupalindia.

Voting Time - Read our politician's blogs

Its is voting time.

In order to become more aware/informed voters, we either have to read a lot of news paper or to attend political rally.

Some of the net savvy politicians and parties have been active in their blogs about their party's views and the personal views of the party luminaries.

For instance, I enjoyed reading the blog of LK Advaniji, honorable leader of opposition and head of BJP party. It is intense and very personal. I could not however locate blog of Prime minister or president of Cong Party( help me if u can).

List of all politician blogs are avialable at One India. . I read Bangalore MP, Rajeev Chandrashekar, Karnataka Home Minister VS Acharya, and i want to read views of MK Stalin.

I hope the blog entries are not carefully prepared views of the media houses of the party they represent. That would be cheating!!!

Read and become aware of what they stand for, and what they want to achieve for their country, mother India.

Local language applications / websites

We visit many websites and access many applications whil we work on our computer. Many of us have came across application which interface with the user in the Indian local language. It will wonderful to share your experiences in letting others know about these applications. The list can also cover the websites which you like to read in local language.E.g. 

When I travel outside of India on business trips, I love to read what is happening in my home town in Marthi . I visit www.esakal.com which is a website of a popular marathi daily 'Sakal" .

I am sure you also have your pet local language sites.  So start listing and drop us a mail.

Cheers.... Sachin

Quillpad - Very easy tool to type in Local Language

I recently came across Quillpad site from company in bangalore called Tachyon.

It lets you write in many indian languages but if you know basic english, your typing experience is likely to be very smooth.

best used for Greetings, emails in local languages...

Type your heart out...in many indian languages.

Indian Blogs

I am keen to compile a list of Indian Language blogs. I have found a few sites where you can have links to them. If you know more of such links , please add via comments and I will compile a list. I like the word चिट्ठे for Blog in Hindi.

Marathi Blogs List

http://marathiblogs.net/

सर्वोत्तम हिन्दी चिट्ठे/Top Hindi Blogs

Analysis/Thought Provoking
Aashiyana, Anamdas, Iyatta, Nuktachini, Masijeevi, PragatBharat, Unmukt, Visfot

Educational/Technical
EPandit, Ravi Ratlami, Sarathi

General Articles/Essays/Others
EkHindustani, Ghughuti Basuti, Joglikhi, Qasba

Verse/Poerty
ManPakheru, MyPoems

Reference/Research
Hindi Blogosphere, Kaaljayee, Shabdon Ka Safar

Collective/Larger Sties
Abhivyakti, Anubhuiti, CafeHindi, ChitthaCharcha, Hind Yugm, SrijanGatha, Tarakash

Aggregators/Directories
Blogvani, Chitthajagat, ChitthajagatRoman, ChitthaLok, HindiBlogs,  Narad, SakriyaChitthe

ChitthaJagat Popularity Index Top 20
Fursatiya, UdanTashtari, Mohalla, RaviRatlami, MeraPanna, HindYugm, Azdak, GyanDuttPandey
Masijeevi, Sarathi, Rachnakar, EPandit, Joglikhi, Tarakash, Visfot, Pratyaksha, RadioVani,
SrijanShilipi, Dastak,NirmalAnand

Creative Commons/Public Domain
Mamta TV, Masijeevi, Sarathi, Unmukt, Visfot

 

Tamil Blogs

http://www.valaipookkal.com/

Desi Games

Many of us grew in the era when there was no cable TV , no XBOX or Playstation. The common games played were Galli cricket  ( Street Cricket) , Lagori , Kancha ( Marbles)   etc etc. we spent vacations playing carom and cards. In today’s world , some of the games still hold charm , but our kids hardly play them. However PC as interesting medium it is , brings a interesting proposition to play those 100% DESI games right at your desk…. You may want to visit some of these gaming sites and play a few of them…. some of the them are really cool….. I like Galli cricket most….

www.zapak.com

http://www.desiflashgames.com/

 

 

You can even send taunts to your opponents – I like “ akal ke dushman “ the most

 

 

Play some of these and have fun…..  Good to share with your father and grandparents

Traffic Updates for Bangalore

I have been following another site of interest here. Mapunity has been working on live cameras( some do not show properly) and live traffic updates.

seems like in collaboration with Bangalore police. Do you have one like this for other cities?

Ideal form of Local Language PC

I want to imagine and jot down shape of Ideal form of a local language PC and PC experience in a local language.

For this blog, local language could be Kannada, my daily Tongue. It could well be tamil, hindi, bengali or telugu.

1. A Complete Kannada experience, from start button to finish button.
2. Rich/Diverse browising expierence on the PC- local as well as online content.
3. Seemless tools and application experience in local language.
4. Intuitive easy text input mechanisms.
5. Easy to change to English when i need to.
6. Ability to switch by existing PC to a complete kannada language with click of button.
7. In a advanced situations, i would look for translational abilities of PC or applications.

More could be added to this list. But these would be my first picks.

In my future blogs, let us explore answers to all of the questions.

How to enable Indic Language Support on Windows XP?

Most of us have wished to write in our native language while using our PC. But we don't know how to get started. here is a quick tutorial on how to enable Indian language support on Microsoft Windows XP. Microsoft has created a great site www.bhashaindia.com to enable localization of computing. It also offers tools and keyboard layouts to get started with popular Microsoft products such as MS Office. We will post the Linux localization for Indian languages in subsequent posts.

 

To download some of the tools , visit http://www.bhashaindia.com/Downloadsv2/ListCategories.aspx#WLIP

 

Since all Indic Languages are Unicode-only Languages, presently, Indic languages are supported only on WindowsXP and Windows 2000 operating systems.

1st Step: Enable Indic Functionality in the OS

• Go to Start -> Control Panel -> Date, Time, Language and Regional Options.
• Click on Regional and Language Options.
• Click on the Languages tab as shown below.

• Under the heading 'Supplemental language support' check the item 'Install files for Complex Script and right-to-left languages (including Thai)'.
• Allow the OS to install necessary files from Windows XP disc
• Reboot

2nd Step: What to Select as User Locale, Location and System Locale?

• Click on the 'Regional Options' tab to set User Locale and Location.
• Under the heading 'Standards and format' select Hindi or any other language as your User Locale from the drop-down box. This selection will determine settings for numbers, currencies, times and dates as well as sorting rules for the language.
• Under the heading 'Location', select a country where you are physically located such as India.

3rd Step: Setting-up the Indian Language Keyboards or Input Locales

• In Regional and Language Options panel, click on the Languages Tab.
• Once Languages tab is selected click on the 'Details' tab to install different input locales or Keyboards.
• Click on the 'Add' button to add a keyboard for a particular language.
• In the drop-down box select Hindi or Marathi as the Input Language.
• A corresponding keyboard layout/IME will be automatically selected as shown below. Click OK to close the dialog boxes.

Intel® Youth Zone

Here is a refreshing site … For all the young generation , to connect with technology and experiment with their ideas. Intel is looking at connecting with the Gen –Y to make them involved in technology usage and provide them specific pointers on web where they can enjoy and learn on technology…  Need more from Intel on other segments also…..

 

Do visit www.youth.intel.com

 

Video Map

BANGALORE, INDIA: Does driving on Bangalore roads get on to your nerves? If yes, you would agree that trying to reach a particular destination or identifying a particular location in the Silicon Valley of India is even worse! With improper sign boards, faulty name boards, and crosses with repeat numbers or without numbers, you are sure to get lost.

Bangalore-based startup, VidTeq (http://vidteq.com/), which went live recently, is here to help you out with driving directions and locating a business through a unique and innovative navigation concept based on video maps. Sitting in front of a computer, you can locate the place you are looking for and navigate through the route of your destination using a video clip.

VidTeq was conceptualized by three friends, all with electronics and communications background, in late 2007. They filed for a patent on Video Map in April 2008 and the company came into being in last May.

Chandra Thimmannagari, one of the co-founders of VidTeq says: "The Video Map is a feature rich, next-generation navigable map built on a traditional digital map. The Video Map is a video clip of the complete route between the source and the destination with features such as business logos, background music, turn-by-turn audio overlay, road names, etc.) embedded into it. The Video Map has been built using individual geo-tagged video segments."

"Driving directions provided traditionally consist of a digital map, and turn by turn text directions. Directions are easy to follow provided all the streets are marked with clearly visible street nameplates, which is usually not the case in countries like India. Hence, the need for visual navigation aid arises and our Video Map product would address this space," he explains.

"The concept of digital map direction was launched in the US in early 2000. Having stayed in the US, we knew how it worked. If you just provide text direction, it won't  help. The Video Map gives a complete visual of the driving direction from point of source to destination," Thimmannagari adds.

Bangalore on the video map
To start with, Bangalore is the first Indian city covered by VidTeq. The Video Map navigation team has surveyed a list of prominent businesses and points of interest with their accurate location, and captured their photographs as well. This information, in turn, is embedded right inside the video and on the digital map. You can explore the streets i.e., virtually navigate through the streets, and determine your location, even before you step out of that door!

As part of the navigable solution, VidTeq provides the following video map of the complete route, digital map with route overlay, image (Point-of-Interest and Decision-Points) integration and landmark-based text directions. The images are integrated both into Digital Map as well as text directions.

VidTeq claims to be the first one (not just India, but the world) to come up with a Video Map based solution for road navigation. "Nobody in the world had thought of Video Maps so far. They had stopped with Digital Maps. We wanted to provide an out-of-the-box solution. Our mission is to be the world's leading provider of Video Maps and road navigation for developing countries," adds Thimmannagari.

Creating a Video Map
VidTeq has a video capture team whose job is to move around the city and capture videos of all the main roads and internal roads in Bangalore city.

"We have a camera mounted vehicle, which is used for this purpose. It provides the raw video. The raw video then goes through a stabilization process before it gets delivered to the media team for editing. Once edited, these videos get geo-tagged and stored. We have built a whole set of proprietary tools to handle the complete process of geo-tagging the video clips. This is true with images as well," he explains.

VidTeq's team of engineers and technicians have gained extensive experience in developing maps based on open source software. "In the US, Google has images inserted into the text direction. Integrating images, which actually lie on the route, is the key in our offering. Video Maps is the real solution," he adds.

VidTeq has so far covered 60 percent of important locations in Bangalore. The entire city will be covered in the next six months in two more phases with additional features like 'via service'. Through the 'via service', one can ask for a route of his/her choice between the source to destination.

"After Bangalore, we will expand to Tier I and Tier II cities in Karnataka. We will cover other cities in the country as well," he says. VidTeq also has plans to WAP enable the service on cell phones in the next six to eight weeks.

So, when you are unsure of the route to your destination next time, you know whom to tap!

 

 

Taken from CIOL -

http://www.ciol.com/SMB/SMB-Featured-Articles/Feature/VidTeq-offers-Video-Maps-of-Bangalore-roads/12209115997/0/

first post - best wishes for all indian PC users