Tags: domain, temple, website
Posted May 22nd, 2008 in Internet | 1 Comment »
A blog is a website where you can easily post news and other anouncements for the benefit of your congregration and other interested parties. Although a blog usually is limited in functionality compared to a custom build website, the easy of use makes up for that.
Blog here, Blog there…
There are some nice free blogs available to our benefit. I will not mention all of them, only the ones i have personally worked with before:
- Blogger
- WordPress
They both have their pro’s and cons and i will not go into that here. You can find that out for yourself here.
Get the Website Quick…
For both blog systems you need to register at their sites. For Blogger you will need to have a gmail account. If you dont have that, then this account will be opened for you when you register. Your website address will be for example mytemple.blogspot.com.
When you register at wordpress.com you can immediately start a blog. This is offered as part of the registration process. The username that you will choose will also be the website address, for example mytemple.wordpress.com.
What will your blog look like ?
With both Blogger and wordpress you can choose from a variety of pre-made layouts (templates). This you can do in the Adminstrative panel (called Dashboard). Blogger supplies a few templates that might suit your needs. WordPress has more templates avaiable but if you want to change colors you need to buy credits to do that. With Blogger you can do this for free.
This blog/website uses the “Digg 3 Column” template and i created my own banner on top. I created this in almost 20 minutes.
Still Not Easy Enough?
You will need some time and knowlegde to get acquainted to both Blog systems. That is unavoidable. But these systems are, by far, the most easy to use and to set up without having to know all the technical details.
This article is not a complete guide on how to set up your blog and does not claim to be one. If you are a complete beginner i suggest to start with Bloggger. If that proves too difficult, then you might consider asking a computer friend to get things going.
When the blog website is created, the posting of articles is even easier. With Blogger you can send an email to your blog that will be published automagically!!.
Some examples
Tags: bhajans, buy, class, mp3, recorder, wav
Posted May 21st, 2008 in Audio, Guides | No Comments »
Question
I would like make audio recordings of classes and bhajans. What should i buy?
Answer
Personally i think, at this moment, the best buy is :
Other answers
iPod and others
You could use an iPod, or other standard mp3 player to record. But do not expect too much quality from that. The low quality microphone and the lack of a dedicated record button speak against it for a solid recommendation.
In the past there used to be mp3 players (hard drive based) that offered a microphone input, (like the iRiver H120, H320 and H340). But generally mp3 players only have a Line-input. This means that you need a microphone that is powered seperately because the signal of the microphone is too weak for the Line-input.
Memo and Micro Recorders
Back in the old days the only option to record your voice was either a walkman or a memo recorder. Now that times have advanced so have the memo recorders. The tape was removed and now it records digitally.
These recorders usually do a much better job than iPods and the like. Most of them have reasonable microphones and have a excellent battery life. Lots of memo recorders use standard AAA batteries and these recorders are very small in size. But there are some tradeoffs also. Most of these recorders only record in WMA format (but that is changing, see below) and the quality settings are limited. Also the internal memory is not user expandable although some more expensive models might offer this option.
Olympus is making some excellent memo recorders. They even have WAV recorders now (LS-10).
Anybody out there who wants to make a review of a memo recorder ?
Tags: krishna, mobile, ringtone
Posted May 21st, 2008 in Mobile Gadgets | 2 Comments »
Shabda Hari Dasa, a Krishna devotee working in the Persian Gulf, is professionally employed making ringtones for mobile phones. In his off hours he also makes ringtones to remind one of Krishna.
He has sent me some, and I’m posting them here. He says they should work for most phones. You can transfer them to your phone, he says, by data cable, bluetooth, or infrared.
Now here are the tones:
PC users, you can click on a tone to play it or right click to get the option to download it. Mac user, well, I suppose you know what to do.
Tags: h2, handy, mp3, recorder, wav, zoom
Posted May 9th, 2008 in Audio, Reviews | 4 Comments »
Introduced on Feb 2007 this “handy” little recorder is cheap and versatile. I personally dont have a lot of experience with this gadget so i shall refrain from giving recommendations. But instead i will point to some nice reviews done by other experts.
I have said it before and it bears repeating: if you want professional features, prepare to pay professional prices. If you want a dandy little recorder that won’t break the bank, fits in your pocket, and does a fine job, then get this H2.
I’ve wanted something like this my whole life, and this thing delivers. I give it a ten out of ten for performance and price.
The H2 is my little friend. I’ll whisper my secrets to him and he’ll paint my thoughts on the ether. IT SOUNDS GREAT!
Nice to know
- Records in WAV and MP3
- Runs on 2 AA Batteries
- USB connection is the older 1.1version (so 12 MB/s)
- Connected to the computer, can be used as a audio capturing device.
- Is very cheap
- Has not 1, 2, 3 but 4 internal microphones…
- Uses a SD/SDHC Memory card.
Still i prefer the Edirol R-09HR
Tags: digital, harddisk, HD, space, usb, Western
Posted May 9th, 2008 in Computers and Gadgets, New Stuff | No Comments »
Then it is a good time to increase your storage space of your laptop (or other computer). We get more and more and more data and we want to have it. But our hard disk space is limited unfortunately. So if you have a USB port to spare then you can buy a USB harddisk.
Western Digital is releasing some interesting new models with lots of space. These USB (2.0) hard disk do not need a power supply and are nice and small. They fit in your pocket and are easy to take on travelling. So if you are a travelling preacher then go for it :
In a month or so this passport will be available in 500 GB. Current models have a storage space of 80, 120, 160, 200, 250 or 320 GB. I would recommend buying the biggest possible if you have the money.
If you need to upgrade your internal laptop hard disk then you can read my post with some guidelines on how to do this.
