Tired of Reading? Listen while Chrome Reads It!

Reading through several pages of reference materials in the browser while preparing for an examination I began to wish someone read it for me. It was time for some action! I installed the 'SpeakIt' plugin of Google Chrome  and within a minute I had a reader reading out clearly at a comfortable pace. Plus, I get to choose the type of voice and accent such as female UK English or US male US English, etc. Simply select the paragraphs, and click SpeakIt. 'Listen' is all you have to do! ;) 

Install Chrome SpeakIt.

Chrysanthemums greeting in Autumn!

Hearty Cloud

Love is in the air, heart is in the sky! It was a chilling day today, and returning from work, I couldn't help but stop to take a shot of this cute heart shaped cloud solitary gazing at me in the evening sky.

A must-read for on-line shoppers

After my previous post on an unsolicited phone call experience I had first-hand, claiming to be from the 'Windows technical team' about 'virus on my computer' (No, it is not from Microsoft!), I've realized that being alert on the internet is no longer enough. Home phones have started to ring bringing thieves right in. However, the internet still stands tall as the most thriving place of the 'bad' trying to getaway with your money!

If you have become an on-line shopper, a 'must-read' by Scott Hanselman this week, What geeks need to tell our parents about shopping online safely and securely is not to be missed by not just moms and dads of geeks but all those who are purchasing online.

Hanselman says "If you (or Mom) had the Web of Trust installed, this is what you would have seen when visiting an evil site like this. I'm installing this free tool on Mom's machine today. It's a browser plugin that uses other people's experience to augment yours!"

Beware of Virus calls in Sydney

Having spent couple of weeks in Sydney, I once happened to pick up a telephone call where the caller identified himself as a representative of the 'Windows technical team' and took great effort in explaining how they had identified that my computer was infected by virus and malware. Ofcourse, I just having arrived in Sydney with my own laptop found this call extremely amusing.  Indeed, I was suspicious the very moment, the caller claimed to be representing the 'Windows technical team', Microsoft does not make calls across the world  to homes about virus and malware! Nevertheless, continued to query the caller after listening to him (for almost 3 minutes on the supposed viruses and malware on my PC and how they provide services to clean it up).

Me : "How do you know that my PC contains virus and malware"
Caller : "Ma'am, we are doing a research around your area and it has been identified"

I managed to control my bursting laughter at his answer, I shall not even attempt to interpret the meaning of his answer. Based on the sub-continent accented English I figured where the call was originating from, unfortunately, they are able to make international calls across continents and convince people to lose their money and sensitive information such as credit card and bank account details.

The ultimate aim of the caller, is to make you turn on your PC, and carry out some instructions they tell you which eventually would give them access to your PC or convince you to provide them credit card/bank details, under the cover of "we will clean the virus and malware and restore your computer system safely" for a minimal fee.

Back to the telephone conversation, I just popped a silly question.
Me :  Could you tell me the IP address of my PC please?
Caller : Hung up!

Time for Google Play

Waiting at the station, for the train to arrive to take me to work, I tapped on android market to download an app and to my surprise was prompted to accept 'Google Play'. Thinking it was some game pushed, I declined which closed the market itself. Tried once more and was graced by the prompt again. A little irritated, I googled, only to find out about the rebranding spree by the Giant! Andriod market became ‘Google Play Store’ paving the way to ushering in a digital marketplace  common to mobile applications, music, movies and books (I’m sure there is more to come...) enabling Google to offer a multiple digital content shopping experience under a singular roof. All that said, one particular reviewer humerously suggests that Gmail, Google Docs and Analytics would then be unveiled as 'Google Work' as opposed to 'Google Play'!

It is difficult to imagine users having to go to Google Play Store to read a book. Err, it really sounds like a toy shop to me personally. After all, people do more than playing games and music/videos on their hand held devices! I could only giggle at the thought of the 'brain-stormers' who really drained out their heads in forcing an utterly startling name to the users of a web empire. Incidently, I had to agree to a terms of service to browse the market unlike before!

Tech Women

During my routine email check, one particular newsletter caught my attention highlighting the role of women in technology by Ellinor Mills for CNet News. If you are a woman passionately in the tech-world, read on and be inspired.

An extract: : 

Three tech leaders, Google's Marissa Mayer, Flickr founder Catarina Fake, and Padmasree Warrior of Cisco--speak on how woman have broken through the gender imbalance in the tech world. According to Mills, all three agree that progress  has been made, but that there's still a long way to go to get more women into the technology field. When Marissa Mayer joined Google in 1999, she was the first female engineer the search start-up hired. Now, vice president of location and local services at Google, she has overseen much of the technology and user interface features on Google Search. Catarine Fake who co-founded Flickr, emphasizes the fact that, although people  may stereotype referring your ways of doing things, as a very female approach to product design and technology, your role is to be that person - to be mindful of the humanity in the technology.

Padmashree who grew up in Viyawada in South India joined Motorola in 1984 following her higher studies at Cornell University, was named chief technology officer in 2003. Currently, she is CTO at Cisco. She points out the fact that as women in the tech world, we are  different and noticed, because there are few of us in the tech industry, this is something we can leverage upon as an advantage.

source : http://ces.cnet.com/8301-33494_1-57353446/tech-execs-its-a-good-time-to-be-a-woman-in-tech-live-blog/

These women  have worked hard and excelled in a male-dominated field in positions with a handful, if any female counterparts.  Nevertheless, I feel this era has witnessed a clear boom of women embracing 'techy' jobs, from those in my generation especially which would continue to grow into the following generations. Behold the future! the imbalance shall soon be wiped out with more and more tech-women currently being molded.

Worthy to mention, Grace Murray Hopper (December 9, 1906 – January 1, 1992), a pioneer in the field, a computer scientist and United States Navy officer who developed the first compiler for a computer programming language. Her conceptualization of a machine-independent programming language led to COBOL.

       

Seeing the spectacular curves of Oprah House

My first ever visit to one of the most profound and iconic building sites of this century,  the Oprah house in Sydney, a master piece by Danish architect John Utzon. I was surprised to learn that it all started off back in 1957, when he won the design competition amidst 233 entries by architects from 32 countries across the world.  It is also considered to be one of the first examples of the use of computer-aided-design. Modern architecture paves the way half a century ago!

Solo Piano Radio and Kawai

If you happen to be a piano lover and at any moment feel low, www.solopianoradio.com (Whisperings Solo Piano Radio) is a dedicated solo piano radio broadcast via the world wide web to uplift your spirits! Beautiful recitals can be listened to for free (they do have a subscription broadcast too of $30 a year! obviously, with a much larger collection).

Whisperings is partnered with Kawai piano, I presume these soulful compositions were played on Kawai pianos during studio recordings.  At a time of discovering this solo piano radio on web, I'm away across continents from my Kawai piano which I miss badly.  Kawai has built a reputation over the last 80 years for outstanding quality and craftsmanship in producing world class pianos. The Kawai upright has grabbed the Acoustic piano of the year consecutively from 2008 to 2010. Cheers to Kawai Pianos. I miss my Kawai Black Beauty!