When True Love stays aside
of any human 's life...
loneliness takes the place
prolonging nights and days.
When True Love is not near,
what song you use to hear?
what means time and space?
which are the special days?
When Love remains so far
and you resemble tire,
to whom you will require?
where will be your desire?
When True Love is abide
with whom you can comply?
Who will respond your call
and hear you at all?
When True Love stays inside
the soul enjoys it's truthfulness
you hear His voice reply;
your heart remains rely.
When True Love overflows
something makes your face glows;
Love enjoys your free soul
looking at the Great Goal.
When True Love states His kingdom
you recover the reason;
you retrieve your lost smile;
yours becomes a new life.
When True Love really arrives
never you will be abide;
you will live in Victory
since you are seeing His Glory.
Monday, 10 September 2007
Zune
Zune: First Full Review
Microsoft was kind enough to get us some hands-on time with the Zune, not batting an eye as we eagerly slided the player down our pants, enjoying the material it was made out of. Our thoughts first, then a gallery later.
The outside is made out of a rubberized plastic, which goes through an interesting process where they paint the inside a different color than the case—this gives the Zune a two-toned look which both looks and feels great. The corners (meticulously selected down from hundreds of minutely different corners) look like they glow, which is called the "doubleshot effect". This comes from the inside radius being different from the outside radius.
So the big news: The Zune will be upgradeable. How? Let us explain...
Microsoft's put in WiFi on the Zune, which even though it doesn't seem to be a big draw to consumers now. The hardware paves the road for them to do various other "scenarios" with the Zune. In the future, via software update, the Zune should be able to possibly do stuff like share songs over the internet, wirelessly sync with the computer, stream music/video to other devices, and much more. The hardware is there, but it just needs to be activated by software. Microsoft's decided to focus (wisely) on making the Zune simple to use and intuitive for people to pick up. Something that we think they've achieved.
The UI is snappy and has lots of zooming, sliding and various cool effects when you're navigating. Luckily, the eye candy doesn't get in the way of usability. The click-pad isn't too bad to use, but it's not touch sensitive like the iPod wheels. The community menu options like sending files and pictures are all over the place. If you hit the middle button to get the context menu, you'll most likely notice an entry called "send", where you can send what you're currently listening to to nearby Zunes. Overall the UI is pretty well designed, and iPod users shouldn't be lost if they decide to migrate.
The Zune's screen was bright even outside, and had pretty much zero glare. Movies and pictures played back smoothly, and the display transitioned automatically to landscape mode when you start a slideshow/movie. Pictures are auto-cropped to display large on the screen, and will be auto-resized down from the original whenever you send them to your friends over WiFi. The Zune was easy to hold in both landscape and regular modes—no problems at all.
There are also two new concepts: inbox and flagging. The Inbox is an area separate from your library where pictures and songs come in from other Zunes. You play your received songs from here, and once you sync, the songs will be uploaded to the Inbox on your PC. Flagging is similar—whenever you flag a song, the song will show up flagged on your PC after syncing for later reference. What was the 5th song I heard in that big random shuffle I listened to on the train? Oh right, I flagged it. It's useful because you can't go on your Zune Marketplace after you sync your songs and see your "recently played" list like you can on iTunes.
We also spent a good amount of time going over the Zune Marketplace, which is what you're going to be using to buy and sync up music. The Zune is designed only to work with the Marketplace—which confirms that it will not work with Napster, Rhapsody, and other third-party subscription music services. But, ZM itself is really clean, with only enough icons and links to do what you need and no more. You can get the sense that iTunes was the benchmark they compared themselves to.
Another not-published or seldom-talked-about feature is guesting. A friend can take his Zune over to your computer, set up a "guest" relationship with your Zune Marketplace software (as opposed to a regular owner relationship), and you're free to drag songs and pictures from your library onto her device. These songs do not have the 3 play 3 day limit on them. Depending on whether you purchased or you're leasing these songs, you can do this with either 5 or 2 Zunes, respectively. So in essence, if your wife wants to grab a few songs off your library for listening to, she can—there's no "wife" relationship yet, but engineers are probably working on that. As soon as they get wives.
Pricing is going to be the same as Microsoft's Xbox 360 Marketplace points. I saw songs go for 79 points ($1), and it will be $15 for monthly subscriptions where you lease content. Microsoft's not going to be advertising the subscription plan very much. You're still going to have to convert real money into points, something they decided on because "points were so well received" on the 360. My response was: "really? They were well received? Because we heard quite a few complaints about having to switch money before you buy stuff." To which they responded "well, 4 million people bought it, so to each his own." I was thinking, "yeah, because what are they gonna do, NOT buy stuff? They have no choice," but didn't want to be an ass.
A cool feature that iTunes doesn't have is pre-rated, or community rankings. When you buy songs from the store, you'll notice that they already come pre-ranked on a scale of 5 blue stars. When you rank a song, it'll rank it in orange stars. What's the deal? Well, these blue stars are decided based on an algorithm combining other people's rankings, the song's popularity, and editorial rankings. If your library is bigger than the total space on the Zune, the Zune suite will auto-sync your library to your player based on these auto-rankings. Pretty great, because as much fun as it is to rank songs (one of my favorite things to do on iTunes for using them in smart playlists), most people don't have the time to go and rate 3,000 songs. Pre-ratings are great for this. Which is good, because there's no concept of "smart playlists" just yet. Bummer.
Speaking of editorials, Microsoft's partnered with and hired a bunch of knowledgeable music folks who are going to be providing original text content for the marketplace. Whether it's album reviews, song rankings (see above), artist descriptions, and editorials, you'll see some cool text there.
Searching is also pretty snappy, and they've provided a consistent interface on both your own library and on the store, which they called the community. If you're searching your library for an artist you don't have, it'll come back with a link to the marketplace for the correct artist/song. Another neat feature is the way albums/folders are displayed. There's this nice spiral/stack of CDs under each item so you can quickly gauge how many items are under it visually without having a number or something else.
Miscellaneous stuff: no movie store (for now), can't talk about how many major labels they have on, Zune Marketplace will never fully integrate into Windows Media Player for an all-in-one package like iTunes. You can easily stream stuff to the Xbox 360 from the Zune software (there's even a setting in one of the options menus), or hook up your Zune to the 360 via USB. A phone may be one of the things upcoming, but as usual, they can't confirm upcoming projects whether they exist or not.
Overall, this seems pretty promising. I can't find any mis-steps or anything where I have to ask "wait, this is dumb, why did you do this?" in both the player and the software. The Zune itself is very sexy, and feels nice to the touch—not too heavy. We can't wait to do another hands on as the launch date approaches. Oh, and I still can't decide which color is my favorite
Microsoft was kind enough to get us some hands-on time with the Zune, not batting an eye as we eagerly slided the player down our pants, enjoying the material it was made out of. Our thoughts first, then a gallery later.
The outside is made out of a rubberized plastic, which goes through an interesting process where they paint the inside a different color than the case—this gives the Zune a two-toned look which both looks and feels great. The corners (meticulously selected down from hundreds of minutely different corners) look like they glow, which is called the "doubleshot effect". This comes from the inside radius being different from the outside radius.
So the big news: The Zune will be upgradeable. How? Let us explain...
Microsoft's put in WiFi on the Zune, which even though it doesn't seem to be a big draw to consumers now. The hardware paves the road for them to do various other "scenarios" with the Zune. In the future, via software update, the Zune should be able to possibly do stuff like share songs over the internet, wirelessly sync with the computer, stream music/video to other devices, and much more. The hardware is there, but it just needs to be activated by software. Microsoft's decided to focus (wisely) on making the Zune simple to use and intuitive for people to pick up. Something that we think they've achieved.
The UI is snappy and has lots of zooming, sliding and various cool effects when you're navigating. Luckily, the eye candy doesn't get in the way of usability. The click-pad isn't too bad to use, but it's not touch sensitive like the iPod wheels. The community menu options like sending files and pictures are all over the place. If you hit the middle button to get the context menu, you'll most likely notice an entry called "send", where you can send what you're currently listening to to nearby Zunes. Overall the UI is pretty well designed, and iPod users shouldn't be lost if they decide to migrate.
The Zune's screen was bright even outside, and had pretty much zero glare. Movies and pictures played back smoothly, and the display transitioned automatically to landscape mode when you start a slideshow/movie. Pictures are auto-cropped to display large on the screen, and will be auto-resized down from the original whenever you send them to your friends over WiFi. The Zune was easy to hold in both landscape and regular modes—no problems at all.
There are also two new concepts: inbox and flagging. The Inbox is an area separate from your library where pictures and songs come in from other Zunes. You play your received songs from here, and once you sync, the songs will be uploaded to the Inbox on your PC. Flagging is similar—whenever you flag a song, the song will show up flagged on your PC after syncing for later reference. What was the 5th song I heard in that big random shuffle I listened to on the train? Oh right, I flagged it. It's useful because you can't go on your Zune Marketplace after you sync your songs and see your "recently played" list like you can on iTunes.
We also spent a good amount of time going over the Zune Marketplace, which is what you're going to be using to buy and sync up music. The Zune is designed only to work with the Marketplace—which confirms that it will not work with Napster, Rhapsody, and other third-party subscription music services. But, ZM itself is really clean, with only enough icons and links to do what you need and no more. You can get the sense that iTunes was the benchmark they compared themselves to.
Another not-published or seldom-talked-about feature is guesting. A friend can take his Zune over to your computer, set up a "guest" relationship with your Zune Marketplace software (as opposed to a regular owner relationship), and you're free to drag songs and pictures from your library onto her device. These songs do not have the 3 play 3 day limit on them. Depending on whether you purchased or you're leasing these songs, you can do this with either 5 or 2 Zunes, respectively. So in essence, if your wife wants to grab a few songs off your library for listening to, she can—there's no "wife" relationship yet, but engineers are probably working on that. As soon as they get wives.
Pricing is going to be the same as Microsoft's Xbox 360 Marketplace points. I saw songs go for 79 points ($1), and it will be $15 for monthly subscriptions where you lease content. Microsoft's not going to be advertising the subscription plan very much. You're still going to have to convert real money into points, something they decided on because "points were so well received" on the 360. My response was: "really? They were well received? Because we heard quite a few complaints about having to switch money before you buy stuff." To which they responded "well, 4 million people bought it, so to each his own." I was thinking, "yeah, because what are they gonna do, NOT buy stuff? They have no choice," but didn't want to be an ass.
A cool feature that iTunes doesn't have is pre-rated, or community rankings. When you buy songs from the store, you'll notice that they already come pre-ranked on a scale of 5 blue stars. When you rank a song, it'll rank it in orange stars. What's the deal? Well, these blue stars are decided based on an algorithm combining other people's rankings, the song's popularity, and editorial rankings. If your library is bigger than the total space on the Zune, the Zune suite will auto-sync your library to your player based on these auto-rankings. Pretty great, because as much fun as it is to rank songs (one of my favorite things to do on iTunes for using them in smart playlists), most people don't have the time to go and rate 3,000 songs. Pre-ratings are great for this. Which is good, because there's no concept of "smart playlists" just yet. Bummer.
Speaking of editorials, Microsoft's partnered with and hired a bunch of knowledgeable music folks who are going to be providing original text content for the marketplace. Whether it's album reviews, song rankings (see above), artist descriptions, and editorials, you'll see some cool text there.
Searching is also pretty snappy, and they've provided a consistent interface on both your own library and on the store, which they called the community. If you're searching your library for an artist you don't have, it'll come back with a link to the marketplace for the correct artist/song. Another neat feature is the way albums/folders are displayed. There's this nice spiral/stack of CDs under each item so you can quickly gauge how many items are under it visually without having a number or something else.
Miscellaneous stuff: no movie store (for now), can't talk about how many major labels they have on, Zune Marketplace will never fully integrate into Windows Media Player for an all-in-one package like iTunes. You can easily stream stuff to the Xbox 360 from the Zune software (there's even a setting in one of the options menus), or hook up your Zune to the 360 via USB. A phone may be one of the things upcoming, but as usual, they can't confirm upcoming projects whether they exist or not.
Overall, this seems pretty promising. I can't find any mis-steps or anything where I have to ask "wait, this is dumb, why did you do this?" in both the player and the software. The Zune itself is very sexy, and feels nice to the touch—not too heavy. We can't wait to do another hands on as the launch date approaches. Oh, and I still can't decide which color is my favorite
Histories 100 most influential persons
1. Muhammad Prophet of Islam;
2. Isaac Newton Physicist; theory of universal gravitation, laws of motion
3. Jesus Christ founder of Christianity
4. Buddha founder of Buddhism
5. Confucius founder of Confucianism
6. St. Paul proselytizer of Christianity
7. Ts'ai Lun inventor of paper
8. Johann Gutenberg developed movable type; printed Bibles
9. Christopher Columbus explorer; led Europe to Americas
10. Albert Einstein physicist; relativity; Einsteinian physics
11. Louis Pasteur scientist; pasteurization
12. Galileo Galilei astronomer; accurately described heliocentric solar system
13. Aristotle influential Greek philosopher
14. Euclid mathematician; Euclidian geometry
15. Moses major prophet of Judaism
16. Charles Darwin biologist; described Darwinian evolution,which had theological impact on many religions
17. Shih Huang Ti Chinese emperor
18. Augustus Caesar ruler
19. Nicolaus Copernicus astronomer; taught heliocentricity
20. Antoine Laurent Lavoisier father of modern chemistry; philosopher;Economist
21. Constantine the Great Roman emperor who completely legalized Christianity, leading to its status as state religion. Convened the First Council of Nicaea that produced the Nicene Creed, which rejected Arianism (one of two major strains of Christian thought) and established Athanasianism (Trinitarianism, the other strain) as "official doctrine."
22. James Watt developed steam engine
23. Michael Faraday physicist; chemist; discovery of magneto- electricity
24. James Clerk Maxwell physicist; electromagnetic spectrum
25. Martin Luther founder of Protestantism and Lutheranism
26. George Washington first president of United States
27. Karl Marx founder of Marxism, Marxist Communism
28. Orville and Wilbur Wright inventors of airplane
29. Genghis Khan Mongol conqueror
30. Adam Smith economist; philosopher; expositor of capitalism capitalism; author: The Theory of Moral Sentiments
31. Edward de Verea.k.a. William Shakespeare literature; also wrote 6 volumes about Philosophy and religion
32. John Dalton chemist; physicist; atomic theory; law of partial pressures (Dalton's law)
33. Alexander the Great conqueror
34. Napoleon Bonaparte French conqueror
35. Thomas Edison inventor of light bulb, phonograph, etc.
36. Antony van Leeuwenhoek microscopes; studied microscopic life
37. William T.G. Morton pioneer in anesthesiology
38. Guglielmo Marconi inventor of radio
39. Adolf Hitler conqueror; led Axis Powers in WWII
40. Plato founder of Platonism
41. Oliver Cromwell British political and military leader
42. Alexander Graham Bell inventor of telephone
43. Alexander Fleming penicillin; advances in bacteriology, immunology and chemotherapy
44. John Locke philosopher and liberal theologian
45. Ludwig van Beethoven composer
46. Werner Heisenberg a founder of quantum mechanics; discovered principle of uncertainty; head of Nazi Germany's nuclear program
47. Louis Daguerre an inventor/pioneer of photography
48. Simon Bolivar National hero of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador,Peru, and Bolivia
49. Rene Descartes Rationalist philosopher and mathematician
50. Michelangelo painter; sculptor; architect
51. Pope Urban II called for First Crusade
52. 'Umar ibn al-Khattab Second Caliph; expanded Muslim empire
53. Asoka king of India who converted to and spread Buddhism
54. St. Augustine Early Christian theologian
55. William Harvey described the circulation of blood; wrote Essays on the Generation of Animals, the basis for modern embryology
56. Ernest Rutherford physicist; pioneer of subatomic physics
57. John Calvin Protestant reformer; founder of Calvinism
58. Gregor Mendel Mendelian genetics
59. Max Planck physicist; thermodynamics
60. Joseph Lister principal discoverer of antiseptics which greatly reduced surgical mortality
61. Nikolaus August Otto built first four-stroke internal combustion engine
62. Francisco Pizarro Spanish conqueror in South America; defeated Incas
63. Hernando Cortes conquered Mexico for Spain; through war and introduction of new diseases he largely destroyed Aztec civilization
64. Thomas Jefferson 3rd president of United States
65. Queen Isabella I Spanish ruler
66. Joseph Stalin revolutionary and ruler of USSR
67. Julius Caesar Roman emperor
68. William the Conqueror laid foundation of modern England
69. Sigmund Freud founded Freudian school of psychology/psychoanalysis (i.e., the "religion of Freudianism")
70. Edward Jenner discoverer of the vaccination for smallpox
71. Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen discovered X-rays
72. Johann Sebastian Bach composer
73. Lao Tzu founder of Taoism
74. Voltaire writer and philosopher; wrote Candide
75. Johannes Kepler astronomer; planetary motions
76. Enrico Fermi initiated the atomic age; father of atom bomb
77. Leonhard Euler physicist; mathematician; differential and integral calculus and algebra
78. Jean-Jacques Rousseau French deistic philosopher and author
79. Nicoli Machiavelli wrote The Prince (influential political treatise)
80. Thomas Malthus economist; wrote Essay on the Principle of Population
81. John F. Kennedy U.S. President who led first successful effort by humans to travel to another "planet"
82. Gregory Pincus endocrinologist; developed birth-control pill
83. Mani founder of Manicheanism, once a world religion which rivaled Christianity in strength
84. Lenin Russian ruler
85. Sui Wen Ti unified China
86. Vasco da Gama navigator; discovered route from Europe to India around Cape Hood
87. Cyrus the Great founder of Persian empire
88. Peter the Great forged Russia into a great European nation
89. Mao Zedong founder of Maoism,Chinese form of communism
90. Francis Bacon philosopher; delineated inductive scientific method
91. Henry Ford developed automobile; achievement in manufacturing and assembly
92. Mencius philosopher; founder of a school of Confucianism
93. Zoroaster founder of Zoroastrianism
94. Queen Elizabeth I British monarch; restored Church of England to power after Queen Mary
95. Mikhail Gorbachev Russian premier who helped end Communism in USSR
96. Menes unified Upper and Lower Egypt
97. Charlemagne Holy Roman Empire created with his baptism in 800 AD
98. Homer epic poet
99. Justinian I Roman emperor; reconquered Mediterranean empire; accelerated Catholic-Monophysite schism
100. Mahavira founder of Jainism
2. Isaac Newton Physicist; theory of universal gravitation, laws of motion
3. Jesus Christ founder of Christianity
4. Buddha founder of Buddhism
5. Confucius founder of Confucianism
6. St. Paul proselytizer of Christianity
7. Ts'ai Lun inventor of paper
8. Johann Gutenberg developed movable type; printed Bibles
9. Christopher Columbus explorer; led Europe to Americas
10. Albert Einstein physicist; relativity; Einsteinian physics
11. Louis Pasteur scientist; pasteurization
12. Galileo Galilei astronomer; accurately described heliocentric solar system
13. Aristotle influential Greek philosopher
14. Euclid mathematician; Euclidian geometry
15. Moses major prophet of Judaism
16. Charles Darwin biologist; described Darwinian evolution,which had theological impact on many religions
17. Shih Huang Ti Chinese emperor
18. Augustus Caesar ruler
19. Nicolaus Copernicus astronomer; taught heliocentricity
20. Antoine Laurent Lavoisier father of modern chemistry; philosopher;Economist
21. Constantine the Great Roman emperor who completely legalized Christianity, leading to its status as state religion. Convened the First Council of Nicaea that produced the Nicene Creed, which rejected Arianism (one of two major strains of Christian thought) and established Athanasianism (Trinitarianism, the other strain) as "official doctrine."
22. James Watt developed steam engine
23. Michael Faraday physicist; chemist; discovery of magneto- electricity
24. James Clerk Maxwell physicist; electromagnetic spectrum
25. Martin Luther founder of Protestantism and Lutheranism
26. George Washington first president of United States
27. Karl Marx founder of Marxism, Marxist Communism
28. Orville and Wilbur Wright inventors of airplane
29. Genghis Khan Mongol conqueror
30. Adam Smith economist; philosopher; expositor of capitalism capitalism; author: The Theory of Moral Sentiments
31. Edward de Verea.k.a. William Shakespeare literature; also wrote 6 volumes about Philosophy and religion
32. John Dalton chemist; physicist; atomic theory; law of partial pressures (Dalton's law)
33. Alexander the Great conqueror
34. Napoleon Bonaparte French conqueror
35. Thomas Edison inventor of light bulb, phonograph, etc.
36. Antony van Leeuwenhoek microscopes; studied microscopic life
37. William T.G. Morton pioneer in anesthesiology
38. Guglielmo Marconi inventor of radio
39. Adolf Hitler conqueror; led Axis Powers in WWII
40. Plato founder of Platonism
41. Oliver Cromwell British political and military leader
42. Alexander Graham Bell inventor of telephone
43. Alexander Fleming penicillin; advances in bacteriology, immunology and chemotherapy
44. John Locke philosopher and liberal theologian
45. Ludwig van Beethoven composer
46. Werner Heisenberg a founder of quantum mechanics; discovered principle of uncertainty; head of Nazi Germany's nuclear program
47. Louis Daguerre an inventor/pioneer of photography
48. Simon Bolivar National hero of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador,Peru, and Bolivia
49. Rene Descartes Rationalist philosopher and mathematician
50. Michelangelo painter; sculptor; architect
51. Pope Urban II called for First Crusade
52. 'Umar ibn al-Khattab Second Caliph; expanded Muslim empire
53. Asoka king of India who converted to and spread Buddhism
54. St. Augustine Early Christian theologian
55. William Harvey described the circulation of blood; wrote Essays on the Generation of Animals, the basis for modern embryology
56. Ernest Rutherford physicist; pioneer of subatomic physics
57. John Calvin Protestant reformer; founder of Calvinism
58. Gregor Mendel Mendelian genetics
59. Max Planck physicist; thermodynamics
60. Joseph Lister principal discoverer of antiseptics which greatly reduced surgical mortality
61. Nikolaus August Otto built first four-stroke internal combustion engine
62. Francisco Pizarro Spanish conqueror in South America; defeated Incas
63. Hernando Cortes conquered Mexico for Spain; through war and introduction of new diseases he largely destroyed Aztec civilization
64. Thomas Jefferson 3rd president of United States
65. Queen Isabella I Spanish ruler
66. Joseph Stalin revolutionary and ruler of USSR
67. Julius Caesar Roman emperor
68. William the Conqueror laid foundation of modern England
69. Sigmund Freud founded Freudian school of psychology/psychoanalysis (i.e., the "religion of Freudianism")
70. Edward Jenner discoverer of the vaccination for smallpox
71. Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen discovered X-rays
72. Johann Sebastian Bach composer
73. Lao Tzu founder of Taoism
74. Voltaire writer and philosopher; wrote Candide
75. Johannes Kepler astronomer; planetary motions
76. Enrico Fermi initiated the atomic age; father of atom bomb
77. Leonhard Euler physicist; mathematician; differential and integral calculus and algebra
78. Jean-Jacques Rousseau French deistic philosopher and author
79. Nicoli Machiavelli wrote The Prince (influential political treatise)
80. Thomas Malthus economist; wrote Essay on the Principle of Population
81. John F. Kennedy U.S. President who led first successful effort by humans to travel to another "planet"
82. Gregory Pincus endocrinologist; developed birth-control pill
83. Mani founder of Manicheanism, once a world religion which rivaled Christianity in strength
84. Lenin Russian ruler
85. Sui Wen Ti unified China
86. Vasco da Gama navigator; discovered route from Europe to India around Cape Hood
87. Cyrus the Great founder of Persian empire
88. Peter the Great forged Russia into a great European nation
89. Mao Zedong founder of Maoism,Chinese form of communism
90. Francis Bacon philosopher; delineated inductive scientific method
91. Henry Ford developed automobile; achievement in manufacturing and assembly
92. Mencius philosopher; founder of a school of Confucianism
93. Zoroaster founder of Zoroastrianism
94. Queen Elizabeth I British monarch; restored Church of England to power after Queen Mary
95. Mikhail Gorbachev Russian premier who helped end Communism in USSR
96. Menes unified Upper and Lower Egypt
97. Charlemagne Holy Roman Empire created with his baptism in 800 AD
98. Homer epic poet
99. Justinian I Roman emperor; reconquered Mediterranean empire; accelerated Catholic-Monophysite schism
100. Mahavira founder of Jainism
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