#also LARGE UP APPLE PAGES DOCS!!!!

[willowcrowned]

I like to bake, can we please get the apple cake recipe?

Sure!

This cake is a not-too-sweet recipe that my mom resorts to as her default on holidays as it's parve (dairy free!), and easily altered to work for most solid fruits you have too much of. (She's planning to get rid of a bunch of hard pears with it next week). According to her, she got it from a website a decade or so ago (which has since taken the page down) but she wrote the recipe in a word doc, which I’ve copied here

Apple Cake

(makes two 9x5 inch loaves (or one decently-sized cake in a bundt tin, if you're me))

Ingredients:

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cardamom

½ teaspoon salt

2 cups sugar

4 large eggs

1¼ cups canola or safflower oil

¾ cup dark rum

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

4 Granny Smith* or other tart apples, peeled, cored, and roughly chopped**

1 cup raisins

1 cup currants

*I used honeycrisp, since that's what we had, and I think the mellower, sweeter flavor really worked with the rum, cinnamon, and cardamom

**I ended up only using about 2.5 cups of shredded apple (which I pressed a fair amount of water out of before I added) and that gave the cake a really lovely soft, moist texture, but the dominant flavor was definitely the rum. One could probably sub apple brandy and apple cider for half the rum and get an applier flavor—or, if you don't like an alcoholic flavor, use only apple cider, but I've not experimented with that so I can't tell you how it would go. My mother tells me that she usually adds the whole four and a half cups of apple and ends up with that super extra moist sticks-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth almost-underbaked sort of cake (which she likes and I don't), but she also gets a much more apple-y flavor.

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Grease and lightly flour two 9 by 5 by 3-inch loaf pans (or one bundt tin if you're me) and set aside.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cardamom, and salt in a large bowl and stir to mix.

Cream together the sugar, eggs, oil, rum, and vanilla in a separate bowl with an electric mixer.

Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and stir just until the dry ingredients are moist and blended. Do not over-mix.

Put the apples in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade and pulse several times; you should have 4 to 4½ cups processed apples. Add the apples, raisins, and currants to the batter and stir until just blended. Pour the batter evenly into the prepared pans.

Bake 1 to 1¼ hours,* until the breads have risen, the tops are slightly cracked, and a toothpick inserted in the center of each loaf comes out clean. (Note: This is a very dense, moist loaf.)

Let rest for 10 to 15 minutes before removing from the pans. 

*I ended up baking it for an hour in my single tin and it came out perfect. Baking time definitely grows exponentially the more apple you add.

[i-love-u-loser]

A Homestuck Fan Re-Reads Homestuck (Notes and gaffs)

Page 1-105

Homestuck Thoughts and notes:

'> John: Squawk like an imbicile and shit on your desk.' is just whoever imputting these commands acting like a deranged twitch chat. Doc Scratch if thats you, your better than this.

John almost shits on his desk tho for real for real.

John has the STACK Sylladex system which only lets him use the most recently used item put in. Unless combining them like some video game system.

Bunny in the Box Count: 3

John's birthed Day is 4/13… if you even care.

John is bad at programming as we see by the two …. cake?? Programs on his comuter and an… 'AAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH~ATH' program? Wonder what any of those bitches do. Program cake, his dad bakes so hes participating via.. computer???? Look at my bad virtual cake dad- except his dad would be confused but proud. Dad Egbert is something we all derserve in our life.

Dave and John are talking about a movie I have never seen, I guess in it someone pees in a bottle and claims its apple juice. Howie Mandel is coming for your sealed apple juice dave.

TG: did you get the beta yet EB: no. EB: did you? TG: man i got two copies already TG: but i dont care im not going to play it or anything the game sounds boring TG: did you see how it got slammed in game bro???? EB: game bro is a joke and we both know it. TG: yeah TG: why dont you go check your mail maybe its there now EB: alright.

Dave is malliable like clay but also would probably play this game just to play with his friend for real for real.

John gets beat to the mail by his Dad, but also does not go down immideately anyway. Probably thinks he'll get pranked.

Okay not pranked, but the parent thing of being stuck down there with them. John, baby you have THE most normal parent of all the kids. I love you so much pls just talk to ur dad.

hey buddy, pal, bestie, wHY ARE WE CAPTCHALOGUING SASSACRES FAT ASS BOOK? YOU DO NOT NEED THIS

He is angry at the command text that he wants to make space for book, pick up arms, become RANCOUROUS. Angry John.

Dave also plays real hard into the cool angle at first.

Dave has the Hash Map Sylladex, he mocks John for having the Stack. Dave tells John also he can have a strife specibus (fighting object) because he is so used to having one. John has never needed to physically fight.

Looking at the Kind Abstrata list I would like to mention a few readable honorable mentions: Canekind, curlironkind, plankkind, rockkind, and fireexitkind.

ASSIGNED HAMMERKIND AT BIRTH.

John, literally not knowing better, goes 'yeah sure its not gonna be that relevant hammer is fine.'

JOHN PUT THE BOOK. ON TOP OF THE SMOKE PELLETS.

Sburb is just a boring house game. Yes. That's it! Thats all! 1 1/2 hats :)

John, already wearing glasses, puts on fake glasses and a pointy hat. How can you see right now.

A;so clown paintings, hollowed tombs. John hates clowns.

Command text: Admire Harlequins John: eW GROSS. I hate these. I hope someone steals these. Dad is a corn ball.

Love your Dad, John. Or I will.

"As domestic myth of unaccountable origin holds, a home borrows the spirit of the flame for as long as it makes a guest of it, much as the moon takes liberty with the sun's rays. " Homestuck, Page 50

Im sorry the fucking Command for the next page '>John: Topple urn.'

TWITCH CHAT THAT IS HIS DEAD GRANDMA.

Also would like to mention there is a burning peice of game bro on their floor. House fire starter anyone?

"CHAMP.

"YOU CAN DO ANYTHING IF YOU PUT YOUR MIND TO IT.

"I BELIEVE IN YOU"

John's dad is the BEST DAD. Even though I know the gift is a LARGE HARLEQUIN, and his son hates those his notes are very cute.

John is in fact, a silly little guy.

He is 13 btw, if you even care.

John has made peace with the harlequin by putting cake glued arms to it. Also there was a cake in his room and now on the couch with like a random array of candles.

'Land sakes alive, we are cooking with petrol now!' We sure are Mr. Sassacre.

I want to read THE SERIOUS JESTER.

John is severely allergic to peanuts.

Does John's dad smoke tabbaco? Is that what's in the pipes?

John is very good at piano.

"The peanut gallery over there sure is getting a kick out of it. You are allergic to their scorn." A statuette of the Joker and a boy in a limp Jester's hat laugh at John because he can't play 52 pick up.

JOHN LEAVES THE HOUSE, HE IS NO LONGER STUCK AT HOME.

"You have a feeling it's going to be a long day." Oh boy.

'> John: Leave a surprise for the mailman.' Twitch chat command text is back and really wants John to go.

Remember the green box.

Dad loves to bake, leave him be.

John does briefly consider breaking into his OWN kitchen.

He returns after failing to get mail, finds one of the Harlequin's arms have fallen off.

Homestuck music slaps btw.

DAD was not dumb enough to fall for the disguise, catches this stupid little guy lacking.

JOHNS CAPCHALOGUE DECK: CLEVER DISGUISE, CAPCHALOGUE CARD x1, SASSACRES FAT ASS BOOK, SMOKE PELLETS.

[S] STRIFE!

BTW THERE ARE 13 CANDLES ON THIS CAKE

John gets BOZOD with a Pie. However he equips the pie tin and thusly,, there go his smoke pellets.

Smoke pellets do…. nothing? John tries to take the cake and THE FAT ASS BOOK FROM BEFORE IS EVICTED.

SASSACRE YOU BEAUTIFUL BASTARD!!! You set off the pellets!!

Dad is now busy trying to calm the smoke alarm, and now John may take his packages and also….

His Dad's PDA?

JOHN MERGED THE TWO CAKES LIKE A DUMB ASS. YOU SILLY LITTLE BOY. DUMB TEENAGE BASTARD. (Affectionate)

ALL HE WANTED TO DO WAS SIT ON THE COUCH.

(Also you cant merge things if they are not next to each other without Risk.) Stack Sylladex, worst sylladex.

Clown Bathroom RUG love that John does not go into the Adult Male Bathroom.

John obtains a towel so he can contain this icky cake mess.

[stepphase]

G Suite is now Google Workspace merges Gmail, Chat, Docs

Google is going to make a major name change to its professional office suite. It goes from being called G Suite to Google Workspace, which unites Gmail, Chat, and Docs.

Google hasn't had a good track record with their apps and their names. Services that are very similar to each other (Allo and Hangouts, Keep and Task, etc.) or services that end up dying shortly after birth are some of the stains on Google's file. Now they will put a little order with Google Workspace.

This is a new collaboration platform designed for companies that will not only unify services like Google Gmail, Chat and Docs on a professional level, but will also unify and replace G Suite, Google's professional office environment. Google Workspace will integrate Calendar, Drive, Docs, Gmail, and Meet.

The rebranding has been total, with the presentation of a new company brand and with the idea of ​​centralizing all Google tools in a single platform, making productivity much more accessible and organized than on previous occasions.

Google Workspace now unifies all the professional tools that we already saw in G Suite. Especially those of "communication and collaboration, such as chat, email, voice, video call, and content management", as explained by the company itself. As expected, these apps receive their own exclusive enhancements designed for business environments.

https://youtu.be/bE31y5HbukA

Google Workspace

In Google Docs, the preview of links is released, that is, the ability of the user to see the content linked previously without having to leave the document already created. Linked content can be a Slides presentation or a link to a Gmail email.

Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides receive the acclaimed PiP or Picture in Picture mode that allows you to minimize video calls and multimedia content in one window so you can continue to carry out tasks while watching video conferences or presentations. The ability to create documents in these tools across rooms is also added.

On the other hand, we have smart chips. If we are within a document created in Docs and we mention a person, Docs will display a menu in which we will see all the information of that contact, including their position in the company and even the address of their office, even if they do not belong to our organization. From there we can access more information or even access suggested actions.

On the other hand, Google has also done its homework when it comes to security. The data protection reports will be released next week, which will allow creating reports so that the administrators of the work environments can understand the information that Workspace stores about the company.

New prices

Google Workspace will be available today, with new pricing rates added for small and large businesses. These are the prices for companies with less than 300 employees

Business Starter: ₹125 or $1.71 per user, with a personalized email.

Business Standard: ₹672 or $9.14 per user. More storage (2 TB) and more capacity for video calls.

Business Plus: ₹1,260 or $17.15 per user, with tools such as Vault or MDM.

Companies with more than 300 employees will be able to access Enterprise, a special rate. To access this, the company will have to contact Google's sales department to check prices.

In the event that teams want to use Workspace, a plan of $8 per user is established with specific tools for video calls.

Users and companies that already have G Suite will not suffer any changes. G Suite licenses will remain until a full transition is made, and those that are not ready to adapt to the Workspace will receive information in the coming months. You can contact us to let us know if we are missing something on our page. I hope you like it and thank you for your visit.

#Stepphase #technologies #technology #tech #technews #techworld #techtrends #smartphone #apple #techupdates #futuretechnology #newtech #techgeek #technologynews #technologythesedays #smarttechnology #technologylover #technologytrends #technologyblog #gadgets #smartphone #gadget #marketing #digital #india #technologyisawesome #amazing #repost

[phoneybeatlemania]

I don't like going on anon with moots but:

you have a complicated relationship with your sister lol (don't ask me why this is the first thing I thought of)

when it comes to document applications, you are a Pages evangelist

people tell you you look like Maisie Williams a lot IRL

YES to all of these ^^^ (sort of) with exception to the Maisie Williams once because I haven’t been told that much since I got a fringe [but still get told it a little lol :)]

tell me a fact(s) you’ve learned about me since following me

[dirtychocolatechai]

meet-cute | b.b.

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Female Reader Warning(s): fluff, awkward Bucky, vet appointment stuff, Alpine Request: Babes if you're lowkey taking requests can I lowkey make one? 👉🏼👈🏼🥺💕 something flirty and cute and maybe a lil spicy with Bucky and vet!reader where something's going on with Alpine? Not self indulgent at all 😻💖 Notes: This was the first thing I’ve written in months and it felt damn good. Funny story, I actually almost went to school to be a vet tech + shadowed a vet for two weeks and got to see some wickedly cool things.

This was a bit self-indulgent on my part because I had a cat who passed away some years ago because of struvite stones and I wished he had a happier ending like Alpine so I thought why not 🤷‍♀️💖

Taglist is open

(gif from google)

There’s nothing Bucky hates more than the stringent smell of industrial cleaners and clinical white walls - too many associations and shades of memory long laid to rest - except for when something’s going on with Alpine. The Turkish Angora was fine up until a few days ago when he started to hide away and sleep all day.

That wasn’t too concerning at first...

But then came the pained little noises, the frantic running back and forth from the litter box, the excessive grooming. The pit that started forming low in his belly grew, his instincts screaming at him that something was wrong, very wrong, with his little buddy. 

Bucky wasn’t about to fuck around and set up an appointment with the first vet office he could find that had a same-day opening. And now he’s trying not to fall apart at the seams while he waits for the docs to do their magic and tell him what the hell’s going on with his cat and what he has to do to fix it.

The vet tech collected Alpine a bit ago and every minute stretches into years, the cat’s pitiful meow echoing in his ears and those betrayed eyes burned onto the backs of his eyelids.

I know, Bub, I’m sorry but they gotta figure out what’s going on. It’ll be okay, they’ll take care of you. 

His ass went numb from the plastic chair ages ago, his leg jiggling up and down at a rapid pace as he chews on his thumbnail and waits.

And waits.

And waits.

God, he knows these things take time but he’d rather be back at home, curled up on the couch with Alpine pigging out on breakfast food and watching space documentaries. 

How much longer-

“Alright, Mr. Barnes?”

The heavy door swings open with a click, a kind, professional voice preceding a pair of sensible shoes as the vet steps into the room with a clipboard cradled against her chest. His eyes snap up, skipping over her completely to look at the tech holding his cat who looks absolutely miserable. 

She introduces herself but he’s not paying attention. He’s not meaning to be rude but all his focus narrows in on that white little face, the knot in his chest unfurling at the little mew.

He smiles, his eyes crinkling around the edges as he breathes, “Hey there, Little Buddy.” 

The vet doesn’t push, in fact, she seems a little enamored with how much he melts at the sight of his pet. Her own lips quirk up into a soft smile while she stands off to the side patiently as Alpine’s set down on the metal table.

Bucky gets in a few good scritches under his chin, the beginnings of a purr just starting to vibrate his hand when the vet clears her throat delicately. 

He clears his throat, heat burrowing into the apples of his cheeks. “Shi - uh, ‘m sorry.” A hand scrubs over the back of his neck. “I’m just - uh - y’know...” 

Her laugh trickles down his spine like warm rain, the sound effectively drawing his attention away from the cat rubbing up against his side. He gets his first look at her and oh.

A bare face and a no-nonsense hairstyle greet him, her scrubs and white coat adding to the overall doctor vibe but she’s still breathtaking. The natural beauty in the curves of her face, the slant of her brows, the sparkle of her eyes.

He feels like he got sucker-punched in the chest, his heart giving a sudden throb that has him coughing like an idiot as he scrambles to not look like such a jackass.

“So,” he clears his throat, scratching at the stubble along his jaw, “What’s - what’s wrong with him?” 

Glancing down at Alpine’s chart, she hums and writes a note before glancing back up with a reassuring smile. “Nothing that can’t be managed with a special diet and watching his water intake.”

It’s like the weight of the world disappears from his shoulders, his broad frame practically heaving with his sigh of relief. “Oh thank fucking- ahem, ‘scuse me - thank god.” 

Her chuckle and sly smile have him blushing from the roots of his hair to the collar of his shirt, his stomach squirming in discomfort. Old habits are hard to break, especially ones his momma taught him with a box to the ear.

“You’re allowed to swear, Mr. Barnes,” she says, reaching down to run her fingers through snow-white fur. “We’re all adults here.” 

“No, no, I know...” 

“Hm, anyway, his blood work came back and everything looks fine which is a good thing.” 

And it’s back to business like that, any hint of personality hidden behind cool professionalism that Bucky thinks even Tasha would admire. Except for the playful gleam in her eyes as she sneaks peeks at him while going over everything they did and what they found. 

“Struvite crystals are quite common in cats at low levels, especially males because their tract is longer and narrower.” She pauses, flipping to a new page. “Depending on the severity, they can clump together in the urinary tract and actually form stones. That’s where the true problem lies because get one large enough, and it can cause a blockage.”

He’s listening with rapt attention, soaking in the knowledge she’s imparting to him all the while, petting Alpine who keeps nuzzling him and making little sounds. Honestly, he could listen to her talk for hours even if he didn’t understand a goddamn thing. 

She’s so animated when she speaks, holds eye contact and makes sure he understands everything without making him feel like an idiot. He’s had so many doctors who talked at him rather than with him, staring through him without seeing, more interested in the paycheck rather than their patients.

But not her, she cares.

Deeply.

He can see it all over her face and it’s utterly enchanting. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t a little enamored, charmed.

Turning the tablet towards him, she shifts closer and a waft of whatever perfume she’s wearing tickles his nose as she explains what the x-ray of Alpine’s abdomen found.

“These are the stones but thankfully they’re relatively small,” she points to several hazy white ovals starkly visible on the radiograph, “We caught them in time before they became a really big problem.” 

Shit, she smells so good...

 “Now, we’ll send you home with a special diet and see how he does. Also, make sure to up his fluid intake as much as you can. The food can take several months to start dissolving the crystals so we’ll have to do everything we can to help. Sound good?”

Bucky hasn’t pulled his eyes away from her face once this entire time, and how fucking creepy is that?

Quickly looking down at Alpine, embarrassment gnawing at his belly, he nods and wishes for the first time since he cut his hair that he hadn’t so he’d at least have a passing chance at hiding the blush burning its way across his face. 

“Yeah,” he says, picking up the ball of white fluff to hold against his chest, a makeshift shield. “Is there anything else I should do?” 

“No.” She smiles, writing another note and tapping away at the tablet next to her. “I do want to see him again in about a month for a check-up.”

Fuck, he doesn’t want to leave so soon.

The irony isn’t lost on him either.

How does he make this last longer? What can he do? If Sam was here right now, he’d be kicking him in the ass and bitching at him to ask for her number already, Ice Pick.

The clack of the chart being set down rings through the room, bouncing off the walls and sounding so fucking final that he starts to panic. 

Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. 

She’s already halfway to the door when she asks, “Do you have any questions?”

The word vomit spring from him, unbidden and sudden without any thought, more forward than he’s been with a woman in years.

“Can I have your number?”

As soon as the question leaves his lips, he curses, cringes and wishes he could snatch the very words from the air itself.

Great, I just hit on my vet.

No amount of backpedaling can salvage this but goddamn it if Bucky doesn’t try, stuttering out some half-assed excuse about wanting it just in case he thinks of something later.

When he glances up, he wishes he hadn’t. The vet tech is in near tears in the corner, biting her lips so hard he wouldn’t be surprised if they started to bleed.

But it’s the absolute surprised bafflement on the woman he just inappropriately hit on that does him in, makes him about ready to burn all forms of identification and run for the hills. 

Her brows nearly reach her hairline, her mouth slack, eyes startled. She gets ahold of herself before he does, and he barely stops himself from slapping a hand over his face.

Right when he’s thinking there’s no way he’s going to be able to show his face in the office again, her expression softens with gentle amusement and her lips twitch. 

Struck dumb, he can only watch as she writes something down on a slip of paper before handing it over to him. He barely believes the string of numbers and the cheeky little call me anytime :).

The wink she sends his way is there and gone, so fast he almost believes he imagined it. 

“For emergencies only,” she says, slyly. “Of course.”

“Of course,” he agrees, almost tripping over the cat carrier as he hurries to stuff Alpine back in. “Of course, thank you. I...appreciate it.” 

“Anytime, Mr. Barnes.” 

Bucky leaves the room in a stupor, the world sharply shifted to the left as he heads to the front desk to make the follow-up appointment, but not before hearing the whispered, “Girl, you’re lucky. He’s fine!” and the “He is, isn’t he?”. 

[freettsonline]

10 Text to Speech Applications for You

Text to speech systems are not unknown — you use it while conversing with Alexa or Apple’s Siri or Google Assistant.

Though previously, it was only used for building accessible apps and speech-powered chatbots, its applications have grown in the last decade like in the area of audiobooks that help people enjoy stories or learn new things while multitasking.

Thanks to its growing popularity in the last decade, there are tons of text to speech (TTS) system providers, making it difficult for you to pick the best tool per your requirements.

That is why I have compiled this list of the best text to speech apps to guide you. This list features premium as well as free apps.

Text to Speech!

Text to Speech! is a text-to-speech app for iPhones and iPads. It produces natural-sounding accurate voices from the input text.

It can produce audio as you type in the text, but it does not support speaking out complete text files.

This app offers 90+ voices in 30+ languages and customization options too.

Pros

Supports most popular languages including English, Chinese, Danish, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Russian, etc.

Works offline, i.e., without an internet connection, like KNFB Reader.

Cons

Its voices sound less natural, unlike various solutions on this list.

No support for speaking text files or text in pictures, unlike others.

NaturalReader

NaturalReader is an easy-to-use text to speech software that can work with a variety of text files.

It provides 100+ highly accurate and natural-sounding voices in 10+ languages.

Interestingly, you can also upload text files directly from cloud storage platforms like Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive.

It supports most document formats such as PDF, TXT, DOCX, PPTX, ODS, ODT, and non-DRM EPUB. NaturalReader comes in three versions:

Online, Software, and Commercial with Online Premium starting at $9.99/month and Commercial Single starting at $49/month for one user and $10/month for each extra user.

Pros

Supports most document formats such as PDF, TXT, DOCX, PPTX, ODS, ODT, and non-DRM EPUB along with JPEG and PNG, thanks to OCR.

OCR for extracting text from scanned documents (premium only).

Supports correcting or improving the pronunciation of any word.

Cons

A free version is available but with costly upgrades for extra voices.

Free apps are online-only, i.e., they require internet connectivity.

Linguatec Voice Reader

Linguatec Voice Reader is one of the best text-to-speech tools in the market that can easily convert text files into audio streams.

Its most interesting feature is the set of 60+ astonishingly natural-sounding high-quality voices.

You can choose any one of these professional voices to convert your texts into audios.

Linguatec provides high-accuracy transcription solutions, thanks to its four products: Voice Reader Home, Voice Reader Studio, Voice Reader Server, and Voice Reader Web.

Its Home edition costs €49 (approx. US$59) per voice, which may seem very expensive — especially when compared to NaturalReader.

Pros

Studio edition costs €499 (approx. US$ 605) per language, which seems a very reasonable price for unlimited commercial use.

Supports converting a large number of text formats including TXT, RTF, DOCX, DOC, HTM, HTML, MHT, EPUB, PDF, and ODT.

Supports up to 45 different languages including all widely popular languages such as Arabic, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, etc.

Cons

No free personal version available, unlike NaturalReader.

Provides only one language and one voice in Voice Reader Home.

Capti

Capti is a productivity powerhouse including a text to speech engine, which works online as well as offline.

It provides a natural-sounding listening experience in 20+ languages and integrates with cloud platforms such as Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive, allowing you to upload files directly from them.

Capti Voice — its solution for educators — is a literacy and learning platform. As an educator, Capti Voice lets you help students overcome language barriers with personalized learning and teaching strategies.

Capti Voice can narrate a large variety of text documents such as articles, ebooks, and web pages.

Pros

Supports a host of platforms like Windows, macOS, iOS, and Chrome OS.

Features extracting articles from web pages while skipping all clutter.

Supports numerous text formats including PDF, DOCX, PPTX, EPUB, ODT, FODT, TXT, RTF, JPEG, PNG, and Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets.

Cons

Free account is limited, but it still works for individuals (limitedly).

No pricing info is available for Personal Use Pro and Classroom Use.

Voice Dream Reader

Voice Dream Reader is an impressive text to speech app

Voice Dream Reader is an impressive text to speech application that gives high-quality reading and listening experience.

It offers 200+ voices in 30+ languages (more than the above apps) and features synchronized text highlighting, auto-scrolling, and a distraction-free view which helps you to focus and better comprehend or learn the content.

Pros

Supports numerous languages such as Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, Spanish, etc.

A cheaper alternative to the above tools costing US$7.99 on the Google Play Store (for Android) and US$14.99 on the App Store (for iOS).

Supports various formats like PDF, EPUB, TXT, RTF, DOCX, and HTML.

Cons

Free version is very limited but supports buying premium voices.

No support for desktop OSs like Windows and macOS, unlike the above tools.

ReadSpeaker

ReadSpeaker offers a range of online and offline text-to-speech solutions for websites, mobile apps, embedded devices, and more.

Surprisingly, it avails 200+ voices in 50+ languages with 90+ self-branded quality voices.

ReadSpeaker offers a host of solutions, so I will focus on its general-purpose solutions.

Pros

Supports a host of languages like Arabic, Cantonese, Mandarin, Dutch, English, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, etc.

speechCloud API provides a TTS API, unlike other listed solutions.

Cons

No free version available, unlike most solutions on this list.

No pricing info is available for any of its solutions (need to contact).

Speech Central

Speech Central is a superb text-to-speech solution, allowing you to listen to your favorite ebooks, blogs, or web pages.

This app is specially designed for users with disabilities like dyslexia. It also offers features to listen to an article later, check your listening/reading history, and perform handy tasks.

Pros

Allows listening to any web page or ebook that helps at multitasking.

Windows app also allows you to convert text into audio (MP3).

Highly customizable listening and reading experience.

Cons

No support for macOS while it supports Android, iOS, and Windows.

No free trial available for Windows while it is available for Android.

KNFB Reader

KNFB Reader is an easy to use text to speech converter. It is specially built for people with disabilities like low vision, dyslexia, etc.

You can take a picture of any text, and KNFB Reader will read it aloud.

Unlike some other readers, it uses superb image processing technology to capture accurate pictures.

Pros

Offers voices in a range of languages including English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Danish, Russian, etc.

Works offline, i.e., it does not require an internet connection.

Supports converting text to Braille, unlike most other apps.

Cons

No support for macOS while it supports Android, iOS, and Windows.

Very pricey — especially if compared to Speech Central (almost 7-8x).

Panopreter Basic

Panopreter Basic is a simple text to speech converter.

It uses Microsoft TTS voices provided in Windows to convert texts in audio formats like WAV, MP3, OGG, and FLAC formats.

Though the basic version is pretty limited, its premium version allows you to customize text layouts, audio pitch, and volume.

Pros

Its Basic version is freeware, unlike almost all tools on this list.

Cons

Supports only Windows, unlike most other solutions listed here.

The basic version is very limited — misses all the customization options.

The basic version does not support DOCX, but you can copy-paste content.

iSpeech

iSpeech is another text-to-speech voice synthesis software targeted towards developers.

It can help you to convert text to audio like all other applications on this list.

Its interesting features are its APIs and SDKs, making iSpeech a better candidate for developers rather than end-users, unlike other solutions.

Pros

Online app for converting or listening to documents in audio.

Converts to a variety of audio formats like WAV, MP3, WMA, etc.

Cons

Its voices sound a little robotic, unlike many solutions on this list.

No free plan available — requires buying credits for using its app.

No side-by-side reading experience, unlike Speech Central and more.

That is all about the best text-to-speech solutions available in the market.

There are some free options here like NaturalReader, Capti, and more, but most others are only available as paid products.

Did you find what you were looking for? Let me know by writing a comment below.

[begofern]

LESSON 1: INTRODUCTION TO ICT

ICT– Information and Communication-

It deals with the use of different communication technologies such as mobile phones, telephone, Internet to locate, save, send and edit information

Is a study of computers as data processing tools. It introduces students to the fundamental of using computer systems in an internet environment.

ICT in the Philippines

          Philippines is dub as the ‘’ICT Hub of Asia” because of huge growth of ICT-related jobs, one of which is BPO, Business Process Outsourcing, or call centers.

        ICT Department in the Philippines is responsible for the planning, development and promotion of the country’s information and communications technology (ICT) agenda in support of national development.

Computer– an electronic device for storing and processing data, typically in binary form, according to instructions given to it in a variable program. Internet– is the global system of interconnected computer networks that use the internet protocol  suite (TCIP/IP) to link billions of devices worldwide.

        Means of connecting a computer to any other computer anywhere in the world via dedicated routers and servers.

    Sometimes called simply ‘’the Net’’, is a worldwide system of computer networks- a network of networks in which the users at any   one computer can get information from any other computer.

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World Wide Web

        An information system on the internet that allows documents to be connected to other documents by hypertext links, enabling the user to search for information by moving from one document to another.

        Is an information space where documents and other web resources are identified by URLs, interlinked by hypertext links, and can be accessed via the Internet.

        Invented by Tim-Berners Lee

Web Pages

Web page is a hypertext document connected to the World Wide Web.   It is a document that is   suitable for the World Wide Web.

The different online platforms of World Wide Web:

Web 1.0 – refers to the first stage in the World Wide Web, which was entirely made up of the Web pages connected by hyperlinks.

Web 2.0 – is the evolution of Web 1.0 by adding dynamic pages. The user is able to see a website differently than others.

 – Allows users to interact with the page; instead of just reading the page, the user may be able to comment or create user account.

Web 3.0 –  this platform is all about semantic web.

  –  Aims to have machines (or servers) understand the user’s preferences to be able        to deliver web content.

Static Web Page- is known as a flat page or stationary age in the sense that the page is ‘’as is’’ and cannot be manipulated by the user. The content is also the same for all users that is referred to as Web 1.0

Dynamic Web Pages– web 2.0 is the evolution of web 1.0 by adding dynamic web pages. The user is able to see website differently than others e.g. social networking sites, wikis, video sharing sites.

FEATURES OF WEB 2.0

Folksonomy- allows user to categorize and classify information using freely chosen keywords e.g. tagging by FB, Twitter, use tags that start with the sign #, referred to as hashtag.

Rich User Experience – content is dynamic and is responsive to user’s input

User Participation- The owner of the website is not the only one who is able to put content. Others are able to place a content of their own by means of comments, reviews and evaluation e.g. Lazada, Amazon.

Long Tail– services that are offered on demand rather than on a one-time purchase. This is synonymous to subscribing to a data plan that charges you for the amount of time you spent in the internet.

Software as a services- users will be subscribe to a software only when needed rather than purchasing them e.g. Google docs used to create and edit word processing and spread sheet.

Mass Participation– diverse information sharing through universal web access. Web 2.0’s content is based on people from various cultures.

TRENDS IN ICT

Convergence– is the synergy of technological advancements to work on a similar goal or task. For example, besides using your personal computer to create word documents, you can now use your smartphone. 2. Social Media– is a website, application, or online channel that enables web users web users to create , co-create, discuss modify, and exchange user generated content.

Six types of Social Media:

a)Social Networks – These are sites that allows you to connect with other people with the same interests or background. Once the user creates his/her account, he/she can set up a profile, add people, share content, etc

Example: Facebook and Google+

b)Bookmarking Sites – Sites that allow you to store and manage links to various website and resources. Most of the sites allow you to create a tag to others.

Stumble Upon, Pinterest

c)       Social News – Sites that allow users to post their own news items or links to other news sources. The users can also comment on the post and comments may also be rank.

Ex. Reddit and Digg

d)      Media Sharing – sites that allow you to upload and share media content like images, music and  video.

Ex. Flickr, YouTube and Instagram e) Microblogging – focus on short updates from the user. Those that subscribed to the user will be able to receive these updates. Ex. Twitter and Plurk

f) Blogs and Forums – allow user to post their content. Other               users are able to comment on the said topic. Ex. Blogger, WordPress and Tumblr

                         Mobile Technologies– The popularity of smartphones and tablets has taken a major rise over the years. This is largely because of the devices capability to do the tasks that were originally found in PCs. Several of these devices are capable of using a high-speed internet. Today the latest model devices use 4G Networking (LTE), which is currently the fastest.

MOBILE OS

iOS – use in apple devices such as iPhone and iPad

Android – an open source OS developed by Google. Being open source means mobile phone companies use this OS for free.

Blackberry OS – use in blackberry devices

Windows phone OS – A closed source and proprietary operating system developed by Microsoft.

Symbian – the original smartphone OS. Used by Nokia devices

WebOS- originally used in smartphone; now in smart TVs.

Windows Mobile – developed by Microsoft for smartphones and pocket PCs

Assistive Media–   is a non- profit service designed to help people who have visual and reading impairments. A database of audio recordings is used to read to the user.

e.g. Yahoo!, Gmail, HotmailCloud computing-distributed computing on internet or delivery of computing service over the internet.

 -Instead of running an e-mail program on your computer, you log in to a Web

e-mail account remotely. The software and storage for your account doesn’t exist

on your computer – it’s on the service’s computer cloud.

It has three components

Client computers   –   clients are the device that the end user interact with cloud.

Distributed Servers – Often servers are in geographically different places, but server acts as if they are working next to each other.

Datacenters – It is collection of servers where application is placed and is accessed via Internet.

TYPES OF CLOUDS

PUBLIC CLOUD allows systems and services to be easily accessible to the general public. Public cloud may be less secured because of its openness, e.g. e-mail

PRIVATE CLOUD allows systems and services to be accessible within an organization. It offers increased security because of its private nature.

COMMUNITY CLOUD allows systems and services to be accessible by group of organizations.

HYBRID CLOUD is a mixture of public and private cloud. However, the critical activities are performed using private cloud while the non-critical activities are performed using public cloud.

[inside-of-a-fangirls-mind]

A Sea Of Troubles Part 1

Words: 4644

Warnings: slight smut, some grinding and stuff. 

Pairing: Julian Devorak X Fem!Apprentice Reader

Notes: This took me a bit and most likely will be a few parts. Most of the request are coming from my AO3 page. So ye :)

It was your first full week out on the sea, you couldn't believe how far you all had made it. The Countess literally bought you and Julian a ship for helping solve her husbands' murder and save the world basically. But that wasn't the most surprising part, Julian was. Since you guys had left shore he'd been so much happier and lighter. There was almost always a smile on his perfect lips.

Though still you two never really seemed to get any alone time besides being able to pass out next to each other in bed. Running a whole ship was a lot of work, fun but nonetheless work. Mazelinka was captain, she knew how to be a pirate. Though you guys just sailed around visiting and helping cities and towns, sometimes you got into sticky situations. She knew how to get you all out, rough waters, actual pirates, the hostel cities. It was still a lot of fun.

Standing next to Mazelinka as she steered the ship into a port, the sun had just barely begun to rise in the sky. The docks already streaming with life and the smell of cooking fish. You inhale deeply before smiling, "I think I'll go get Julian some breakfast and a few ingredients, we don't stop at a city this big that often." You look to Mazelinka who nods before you take off running down the stairs and slide the plank walk out to the docks.

"Pick up some -insert spice or something- for me will ya?" She calls after you before Portia follows down the plank too.

"No problem!" You shoot a hand up waving to her as you race Portia to the end of the dock. Both of you laughing and dodging people where you can. She beats you, but just barely.

"So where are you heading first? I have a list of all the things we need." She hums looking around the town, before spotting the market place.

"Probably gonna look for the nearest magick shop, I've been running low ever since we left Vesuvia, I should have listened to Asra and packed more." YOu chuckle lightly running a hand through your hair.

"Okay, grab some bread, tea, and fruits too okay?" She hums writing on the piece of paper she had. You glance around, the market would most likely have a fortune teller booth where you could pick up a few things whether they were legit or not the spices and items would be.

"No problem, I'll see you back at the docs at 8 am!" You hum before taking off and running through the streets, it felt amazing to be able to stretch your legs like this again. You couldn't do much running on the ship, though you did try and ended up in the water twice now. Julian was not too happy about that, still trying to protect you at every intervale. That's why you were glad to of woken before he did.

As you entered the market all and smells and music and sights enflamed your senses. This place was amazing. You danced around a bunch of folks just weaving your way to a fruit stand.

All of it was perfectly ripe and ready to bite into, you had to stop yourself from doing so. Picking up a few ripe apples and bananas, then a lot of green melons, berries, and lemons. Putting them into your small basket before pulling out your coin purse and paying the seller. He smiles at you and waves you off as you continue your dance around.

Then you see a stand selling various coffees from far off places you hadn't even heard of.  You look around before finding a rather dark and bitter one, paying for it as well. Julian loved his dark bitter black coffee, and this was just what his breakfast in bed needed.

After picking up teas and quite a few loaves of bread finally what you've been looking for appears. A little magick shop. You can't hide your excitement as you run over and start browsing. Everything is shiny and pretty and you can't help but pick up more things than you need. The shopkeep takes one look at you and smiles, instantly knowing you were also a Magician.

"Oh good, I was wondering when someone of actual talent would come and visit me. I can sense it radiating off of you." She hums before pulling out a few other items that were hidden. "May I interest you in some rare finds?" She lays three items out on the counter as you look over them.

A round grey sphere full of clouds, a pendant that changes shapes every so often, and a large book with leather binding and a lock. You look over the items instantly knowing what they are, a mystic crystal ball, a transformation pendant, and a Gilmore? or perhaps an old personally diary.

You feel almost drawn to the pendant picking it up carefully, the way it changed shapes and figures before you enticed you. "I'll take them all!" You chant before pulling out your bag of money and paying her way more than everything you had is worth.

The shopkeep couldn't believe her eyes, quickly checking to see if, in fact, the money was real. "Oh my! This is way too much." She starts pushing almost half of it back towards you.

You stop her hands before smiling and packing everything away. "No, really. I used to have a shop like this. My Master was always gone and I had to pay rent and do everything myself. I know it's hard sometimes, there aren't many magicians anymore. But I can help you. Trust me I'll earn it back, everyone will pay for a little bit of magick." You smile before waving her goodbye before you head out. "I'll be back before we ship out, promise!"

With that, you are out of the shop before you hear the clock strike at 9 is. "Oops, I'm late" You sigh before taking off down the street and through the market. Though you did stop to pick up some breakfast for everyone. Eggs, bacon, and even some pancakes. It was going to be a good start to the day.

As soon as you made it back to the ship you saw Julian pacing, worried out of his mind. Quickly you walked up the plank, "Boo." You chuckled before seeing him turn towards you. His long arms entrapping you in a bear hug.

"Where have you been, Portia got back an hour ago!" He pulled you tighter to him burring his face in your neck and sighing. "I was worried." He whispered before pulling away and looking at you softly.

"Jules," You hum before cupping his cheek. "I'm fine just found a magick shop and got a bit distracted." Though you didn't think you had been in there that long. "I got breakfast for everyone though. No cooking this morning." You hum as you head down below deck to put everything out on the table.

Julian is following at your heels, watching your every move. Once his eyes see the breakfast you got he wraps his arms around you from behind. His pelvis pressed right against your backside. A blush creeps onto your cheeks glancing back to the stairs to see if Mazelinka or Portia were following you two.

"Jules, we could get caught." You whisper looking over your shoulder back at him, seeing him bite his lip his eyes dark with lust. "Wouldn't that be exciting." He smirks before leaning down and placing soft kisses on your neck. "When I awoke to find you missing my love, I was rather hoping for a..." He smirked and soft bit down on your neck "fun morning in bed."

You couldn't help the soft whine that fell from your lips as he bit you. "Jules, I wanted to surprise you with breakfast. Besides you've been so tired my dear." YOu turn in his arms and cup his cheek before running your fingers down his neck giving a small squeeze there. His soft moan makes your core tremble with delight.

"Don't play games with me Y/n" He nearly growls before pulling your hips tighter to his, leaning in and roughly kissing you. This whole time the two of you were always caught by someone or trouble whenever you went to start anything.

Just like that too, this time would be the same as Portia walked down the stairs and let out a wolf whistle. "Just don't get anyone's juice on the food please." Her voice was light and joking.

But that didn't stop you from pulling away from Julian and blushing hotly. His cheeks weren't red from just blushing and you smirked to yourself. "It's hard to get some alone time with my girlfriend with my sister always ruining it." He glares towards Portia before sitting down to start eating.

Portia chuckles before sitting next to you at the table, "Maybe if you kept it to the bedroom." She hummed before winking at you. "Besides Mazelinka and I will be off-ship most of the day. We have to get some things for Pepi, plus I want her to have some fun in the forest." She hums as she starts chowing down on her eggs.

You and Julian caught each other's eyes before both smiling, maybe just maybe this could go somewhere finally. It's crazy to think ever since meeting Julian, you two hadn't done really anything besides teasing the shit out of each other. Today that would change and you didn't want to admit it was a little nerve-racking. You wanted him, wanted him more than anything else in the world. But you couldn't remember the last time you had been with someone. Had you just not recovered those memories or have you never? Either way, you knew Jules was the only person you wanted to be with and it would be amazing either way. Especially with how much he wanted to please you.

"You hear that Jules?" You hum after getting your thoughts together. "Better eat up, you're gonna need your strength." You tease letting your leg softly rub up against his under the table. He shivers before his cheeks got even redder. But without a word he starts to scarf down his breakfast, he was always such a good boy.

"I'm just glad you can get him to eat. We used to have the hardest time. He was always afraid of gaining weight." Portia whispered to you as your eyes landed on Jules again. You knew he hated himself but he was always so cocky and confident around you, it was hard to see him being insecure. Though looking back and thinking about the time he broke into your shop and permitted you to search him. HE didn't think you would, but you wanted your hands on that sexy stranger. And now here you were moments away from being able to rip his clothes off.

"Jules, I also got your coffee." You hum passing it over to him before leaning on your palm just watching him. You were so lovestruck by your stupid boyfriend. You watched him as he ate and drank a smile on his lips the whole time. Then he caught you staring at him and offered a half-smile with his mouth full of pancakes.

You let out a soft laugh before getting up to put all the other items away. Glancing at Julian every so often cause come on, he was gorgeous and you never wanted to look away. Once the last items left were yours, you kissed his cheek before heading off to your two shared room. Putting them on the shelf by where you practiced your magick. Books and items scattered over your desk and bookcase.

A dirty thought crosses your mind, what if you were just waiting for him naked. The look on his face would be priceless, watching him stutter over his words and fall over himself not knowing what to do. You laugh it off before sitting on the end of the bed playing with the ties on your dress. If you were more confident about your body maybe.

Deciding to just change instead, you undo your dress ties and corset going for some loose pants and a top. Pulling on the pants you look around for your top, it had just been on the bed. At that moment you see your familiar {insert animal} playing with your shirt. You laugh softly before picking up your shirt softly. "[Famailiar Name], this is my shirt silly." You slip on the shirt just as Julian walks in, staring at what parts of your skin was exposed until your shirt was on.

"I think you should take it off again." He smirks leaning in the doorway, arms crossed as he tosses his hair out of his eyes. You look back at him and smile softly before sitting on the bed.

"How about you come to take it off me yourself." You challenged him before leaning back on your hands, legs slightly open before raising an eyebrow at him. He looks as if he's going to run for a second before he strolls over.

"Is that an order?" He whispers as he stands between your legs leaning down and placing a soft kiss on your lips. Before you respond you wrap your arms around his neck and pull him down on top of you before flipping the two of you. You straddle his hips easily, hands on either side of his head.

"And if it was? Would you do it?" You hum as you press your chest against him slowly grinding your hips into his, a soft moan falls from his lips as he looks up at you almost begging.

"Yes.." Was all he let out beside a small whimper. "I'll do anything you ask." And with that, you lean down and nudge his jaw to the side before placing kisses along his neck. Soft biting down a time or two just to feel his hips rut up against your core. Julian was putty in your hands, though he was the one with more recent experience.

Without much thinking you start on the buttons on his shirt, undoing them painfully slow just to mess with him. His grey eyes stare you down like you would be his last meal on this earth. His hands gripping tightly at your sides pulling your hips against his. While his hips rutted up to meet yours in some lazy grinding. Once you have all his shirt buttons undone your hands quickly spread over his pale flesh. Tracing every muscle every bone, trying to memorize everything about him. You never wanted to forget again.

His eyes follow your every movement, slowly growing impatience but not having the voice to speak up. Though his fingers did start to creep up under your shirt slightly. You glance down at him before giving him a quick kiss. "Touch me." You command before his hands fly under your shirt and tracing your warm skin up to the back of your bra. Unhooking it with one hand while the other slid up under your cup softly massaging your breast. You lean your head back for a second before letting out a moan as his fingers played with your nipple. Hips instinctively grinding down into his very noticeable hard-on. You wanted to rip his clothes off now.

However, you wouldn't get the chance as Asra stood at the doorway with a smirk. "I'm glad you guys get along so well." He teased leaning in the open doorway before chuckling.

You quickly pull your shirt down and fall off of Julian and into the floor. Cheeks a velvet red. Julian quickly jumps up to pull you off the ground. Mumbling curses under his breath. It was always something. Once you were a little more put together and off the ground you turn to Asra. "How did you get here?"

"Well I sent word to Mazelinka a few days ago, she let me know where you guys would be stopping next. So I came. But Y/N I need your help, Ilya you too." His face drops and is full of worry. "It's dangerous but you two are the only ones with enough magick to help me." You look from Asra to Jules to Asra again. You were a very well suited Magician, but Jules? He hadn't learned much since you guys set sail, a few minor spells here or there but nothing really useful.

"Asra, what’s going on." You step forward and look into his purple eyes. "Is Nadia okay? Muriel?" You instantly worry about your friends, what if something had happened and it was because you weren't there.

"No, Y/N nothing like that. Everyone is okay." Asra sets his hands on his shoulders to steady you for the news he was about to say. "It's about you." His eyes search your face for any form of worry. "I- I was talking to the Star, She, well... She had shown me something that you should see." He took your hand before leaving out of your room and towards the docks.

"Wait!" Julian nearly screaming charging after you and grabbing your other arm. "What do you mean this is about her!? What does this have to do with her? You're not gonna just drag her off and put her in danger Asra." He growled to his friend pulling you very close to his chest, wrapping his long arms around you protectively.

"Ilya," Asra started before sighing and looking around for a second. "Okay let's get a drink and talk about it. We all need our nerves gone right?" He looked to you with that signature smile of his that you always trusted. "What do you say Y/N?" He holds out his hand to you again, ignoring Julian's arms pulling you tighter to him.

"Jules," You whisper before unpeeling his arms from you, "Let's just hear what this is all about. It's about me, I gotta know." You whisper to your boyfriend before kissing his cheek softly. "The sooner we hear out Asra the sooner we can get back to what we were doing." You throw him a wink before giving his arm a squeeze.

Julian mumbles to himself before nodded holding onto your hand tightly, afraid of letting it go and losing you again. "Fine, but we aren't agreeing to anything besides hearing what you have to say." He didn't sound happy but Asra nodded and headed off towards the docks with the two of you in tow.

After a bit of walking, you find a bar, going to the very back table to be left alone. "I'll- I'll get the drinks. Don't say anything without me." He directs the last part at Asra before giving you a sad longing look. Then heading off to the bar with his normal charismatic demeanor in play.

"Y/N," Asra started as he took both of your hands looking into your eyes. "You are in danger, whether Julian wants to believe it or not. I'm here to save you." He rubs his thumbs over the backs of your hands before sighing.

"Aren't you always saving me Asra?" You whisper light-heartedly before looking towards Julian. "It's about dreams I've been having? The sea running red with blood and bodies overpowering our ship." You smile at Julian and wave to show everything is okay. He smiles and waves back before turning back to the bartender.

"Dreams? Y/N how long have you been having them." His hands tighten on yours and you knew at that moment something was wrong.

"A few days now, I've tried entering the Fools Realm to see if they had any answers but I couldn't get through. I would be overcome with nausea or pains. Asra we did defeat The Devil didn't we?" You whisper before shaking your head, you didn't know if you could do all that again.

"He's dead." Asra's voice was harsh before he sighs and bites his lip looking around. "There's a new Arcane at play, I just don't know which one. Someone or something is killing off the old ones. And since yours is the Fool and he's dead. You might still feel a connection to him and what happened. The blood makes me worry, cause I can tell two are missing already and if they all go missing.." He trails off for a second before sighing and dropping his head. "Then we won't stand a chance against it. That's why I need you and Ilya, I need you to go to the Realms with me and find out what is happening. Since yours and his are both dead so far..." At that moment Julian walks back over with six drinks. Thankfully you were going to need it.

Asra really retold Julian everything skipping out on your nightmares. But Julian's eyes went wide before looking at his hands. "Is that why I can now do this?" He whispered before making silk red ropes appear from the palm of his hands slightly.

Asra grabbed his hand and quickly inspected it. "Yes, you've started taking over the Hanged man's powers and unless you two want to turn into the Animal Arcana’s, after all, we have to move quickly." Asra puts his hand over Julians and sighs. "I wish you two would have contacted me when it first started, now we are days behind and without clues."

"I- I didn't wanna believe it was anything more than nightmare after everything we've been through. Fighting The Devil was hard Asra, I- I don't know if I can do it again.." You turn in your chair to put your face in your hands, how much more will this life ask of you. Julian and you were finally happy, but it never lasted. Not with you.

Julian rubs your back softly pulling you into his chest, cradling you from the outside world. "Hey, I'll protect you. I'll learn more magick and you won't have to do it by yourself. You'll never need to do anything alone again." He whispers and places a kiss on top of your head.

Asra looks over the two of you before smiling sadly, "I didn't know you had grown so much Ilya, I'm glad Y/N has you." Though the way he spoke said otherwise. Julian and his locked eyes for a moment having what seemed like a conversation but not a word was said.

You take a deep breath and push your hair out of your face before downing one of your beers letting the shiver run up your spine before nearly slamming the glass down. "How much time do we have to train." You get out before staring to Asra.

"A few days at most. The Fool was killed 14 days ago, the Hanged-man 9 days ago, and I'm willing to bet in 3 days another will be killed. Every 6 days.." Asra sipped at his own beer before sighing. "We will also need to head out on the ship towards Ripta. There's an island on the outskirts we will need to go to, to manually enter the Magick Realms. Anyone can if you know where to look for it, plus I have an old friend meeting me there to help. He lives within the Magick Realms, kinda like Scout. Given up his life on earth to protect the portal." Looking between the two of you before sighing.

"So," Julian started before sighing as well and wrapping an arm around your waist pulling your chair closer to his. "Let's get blackout drunk and worry about facing our foe tomorrow." He downs his two rounds before ordering more rounds.

"I second that plan," You and Asra chant at the same time before you all slightly giggle. The three of you down bitters left and right, and even a little of a local drink called Storm Haze. It was sweet and tangy and made you want to dance. Soon enough the three of you were on the dance floor. Julian keeping you close as you guys danced and Asra ended up on one of the tables dancing. You didn't know what time it was and nor did the three of your care.

At least until you all had to stumble back to the ship, Portia generally worried as drunk Asra tried to explain everything to her. But it was going well. Julian had already thrown up twice and you were hauling him towards your room to go to bed.

Once in the room, you set him on the bed, to which he fell backward and sprawled out, long limbs hanging over the edges. You smile to yourself before unsteadily removing your clothes and putting on a nightgown. Then crawling into bed, then you noticed the tears rolling down his cheeks.

"Jules," You mumbled wiping at his tears soft before he clung to you, hiding his face in your chest.

"I'm so afraid to lose you..." He whispered as your hand stroked his hair. "Everyt-" He choked softly "Everything I love always gets taken away. I- I can- can't lose you." He cried out pulling himself closer to you. "I can't. I won't live without you... I - I'm nothing with you." His voice is cracking an breaking as he stumbles out his words.

You close your eyes tightly, you knew Julian loved you but you haven't seen him like this before. "Jules, It's gonna be okay..." You try to soothe him playing with the hair on the nape of his neck.

"No!" He shouts before looking at you, eyes red and puffy, cheeks glistening with tears. "I lost you once, before you meant this much... and after everything..." He reached into his jacket pocket and barely pulled out a box without dropping it. "I- I need you." He almost shoved the box into your hand.

You look at it and then at him before shakily opening it. Your eyes go wide as you see a beautiful ruby ring with two emeralds on either side, it reminded you of a rose. "Julian..." You start but he cuts you off before you can say another word.

"I want to marry you, have a few k- kids. Grow old together... I- i- I've never thought about the future b-but with you... I.. I know I have too. I need too, want too." He cups your face pressing his forehead to yours before choking back another sob. "You are my everything, my meaning for life. Y/N, please... I will not lose you. Even if I had to give my life for you..." He lets the tears roll down his cheeks as he holds you.

"You won't I promise. I won't let it happen." You whisper before still, he cries. "Turn around." You whisper head starting to spin from all the drinking and everything he said. He really did love you... Like for real... He gives you a questioning glance before doing what you asked, his back now facing you. You curl up around him the best you can, his long legs slightly entangling with yours. "I'm right here, Julian. I'm never leaving you, not in life or death." You whisper and it soothes him long enough for him to drift off to sleep. You glance once more at the ring box before clinging to it tightly as you drifted off to sleep as well.

Your mind was full of thoughts, nightmares and what if's causing you to tense in your sleep. But then all of a sudden a warm wave of calmness washed over you and held you close. Your first night sleeping through the night in a while. And oh boy did you really need it... If only you knew what tomorrow would hold...

[lanxelot]

LESSON 1: INTRODUCTION TO ICT

ICT– Information and Communication-

It deals with the use of different communication technologies such as mobile phones, telephone, Internet to locate, save, send and edit information

Is a study of computers as data processing tools. It introduces students to the fundamental of using computer systems in an internet environment.

ICT in the Philippines

          Philippines is dub as the ‘’ICT Hub of Asia” because of huge growth of ICT-related jobs, one of which is BPO, Business Process Outsourcing, or call centers.

        ICT Department in the Philippines is responsible for the planning, development and promotion of the country’s information and communications technology (ICT) agenda in support of national development.

Computer– an electronic device for storing and processing data, typically in binary form, according to instructions given to it in a variable program. Internet– is the global system of interconnected computer networks that use the internet protocol  suite (TCIP/IP) to link billions of devices worldwide.

        Means of connecting a computer to any other computer anywhere in the world via dedicated routers and servers.

    Sometimes called simply ‘’the Net’’, is a worldwide system of computer networks- a network of networks in which the users at any   one computer can get information from any other computer.

World Wide Web

        An information system on the internet that allows documents to be connected to other documents by hypertext links, enabling the user to search for information by moving from one document to another.

        Is an information space where documents and other web resources are identified by URLs, interlinked by hypertext links, and can be accessed via the Internet.

        Invented by Tim-Berners Lee

Web Pages

Web page is a hypertext document connected to the World Wide Web.   It is a document that is   suitable for the World Wide Web.

The different online platforms of World Wide Web:

Web 1.0 – refers to the first stage in the World Wide Web, which was entirely made up of the Web pages connected by hyperlinks.

Web 2.0 – is the evolution of Web 1.0 by adding dynamic pages. The user is able to see a website differently than others.

 – Allows users to interact with the page; instead of just reading the page, the user may be able to comment or create user account.

Web 3.0 –  this platform is all about semantic web.

  –  Aims to have machines (or servers) understand the user’s preferences to be able        to deliver web content.

Static Web Page- is known as a flat page or stationary age in the sense that the page is ‘’as is’’ and cannot be manipulated by the user. The content is also the same for all users that is referred to as Web 1.0

Dynamic Web Pages– web 2.0 is the evolution of web 1.0 by adding dynamic web pages. The user is able to see website differently than others e.g. social networking sites, wikis, video sharing sites.

FEATURES OF WEB 2.0

Folksonomy- allows user to categorize and classify information using freely chosen keywords e.g. tagging by FB, Twitter, use tags that start with the sign #, referred to as hashtag.

Rich User Experience – content is dynamic and is responsive to user’s input

User Participation- The owner of the website is not the only one who is able to put content. Others are able to place a content of their own by means of comments, reviews and evaluation e.g. Lazada, Amazon.

Long Tail– services that are offered on demand rather than on a one-time purchase. This is synonymous to subscribing to a data plan that charges you for the amount of time you spent in the internet.

Software as a services- users will be subscribe to a software only when needed rather than purchasing them e.g. Google docs used to create and edit word processing and spread sheet.

Mass Participation– diverse information sharing through universal web access. Web 2.0’s content is based on people from various cultures.

TRENDS IN ICT

Convergence– is the synergy of technological advancements to work on a similar goal or task. For example, besides using your personal computer to create word documents, you can now use your smartphone. 2. Social Media– is a website, application, or online channel that enables web users web users to create , co-create, discuss modify, and exchange user generated content.

Six types of Social Media:

a)Social Networks – These are sites that allows you to connect with other people with the same interests or background. Once the user creates his/her account, he/she can set up a profile, add people, share content, etc

Example: Facebook and Google+

b)Bookmarking Sites – Sites that allow you to store and manage links to various website and resources. Most of the sites allow you to create a tag to others.

Stumble Upon, Pinterest

c)       Social News – Sites that allow users to post their own news items or links to other news sources. The users can also comment on the post and comments may also be rank.

Ex. Reddit and Digg

d)      Media Sharing – sites that allow you to upload and share media content like images, music and  video.

Ex. Flickr, YouTube and Instagram e) Microblogging – focus on short updates from the user. Those that subscribed to the user will be able to receive these updates. Ex. Twitter and Plurk

f) Blogs and Forums – allow user to post their content. Other               users are able to comment on the said topic. Ex. Blogger, WordPress and Tumblr

                         Mobile Technologies– The popularity of smartphones and tablets has taken a major rise over the years. This is largely because of the devices capability to do the tasks that were originally found in PCs. Several of these devices are capable of using a high-speed internet. Today the latest model devices use 4G Networking (LTE), which is currently the fastest.

MOBILE OS

iOS – use in apple devices such as iPhone and iPad

Android – an open source OS developed by Google. Being open source means mobile phone companies use this OS for free.

Blackberry OS – use in blackberry devices

Windows phone OS – A closed source and proprietary operating system developed by Microsoft.

Symbian – the original smartphone OS. Used by Nokia devices

WebOS- originally used in smartphone; now in smart TVs.

Windows Mobile – developed by Microsoft for smartphones and pocket PCs

Assistive Media–   is a non- profit service designed to help people who have visual and reading impairments. A database of audio recordings is used to read to the user.

e.g. Yahoo!, Gmail, HotmailCloud computing-distributed computing on internet or delivery of computing service over the internet.

 -Instead of running an e-mail program on your computer, you log in to a Web

e-mail account remotely. The software and storage for your account doesn’t exist

on your computer – it’s on the service’s computer cloud.

It has three components

Client computers   –   clients are the device that the end user interact with cloud.

Distributed Servers – Often servers are in geographically different places, but server acts as if they are working next to each other.

Datacenters – It is collection of servers where application is placed and is accessed via Internet.

TYPES OF CLOUDS

PUBLIC CLOUD allows systems and services to be easily accessible to the general public. Public cloud may be less secured because of its openness, e.g. e-mail

PRIVATE CLOUD allows systems and services to be accessible within an organization. It offers increased security because of its private nature.

COMMUNITY CLOUD allows systems and services to be accessible by group of organizations.

HYBRID CLOUD is a mixture of public and private cloud. However, the critical activities are performed using private cloud while the non-critical activities are performed using public cloud.

LESSON 2: ONLINE SAFETY, SECURITY AND RULES OF NETIQUETTE

INTERNET SAFETY- it refers to the online security or safety of people and their information when using internet. NETIQUETTE- is network etiquette, the do’s and don’ts of online communication.

TEN RULES OF NETIQUETTE

Rule No. 1: Remember the human

        You need to remember that you are talking to a real person when you are online.

        The internet brings people together who would otherwise never meet.

        Remember this saying when sending an email: Would I say this to the person’s face.

Rule No. 2: Adhere to the same standards online that you follow in real life.

     You need to behave the same way online that you do in real life.

     You need to remember that you can get caught doing things you should not be doing       online just like you can in real life.

       You are still talking to a real person with feelings even though you can’t see them.

Rule no. 3: Know where you are in cyberspace.

        Always take a look around when you enter a new domain when surfing the web.

        Get a sense of what the discussion group is about before you join it.

Rule no. 4: Respect other people’s time and bandwidth.

        Remember people have other things to do besides read your email. You are not the center of their world.

        Keep your post and emails to minimum by saying what you want to say.

        Remember everyone won’t answer your questions.

Rule no. 5: Make yourself look good online.

        Be polite and pleasant to everyone.

        Always check your spelling and grammar before posting.

·        Know what you are talking about and make sense saying it.

Rule no. 6: Share expert knowledge

       Ask questions online

       Share what you know online.

       Post the answers to your questions online because someone may have the same question         you do.

Rule no. 7: Help keep flame wars under control

       Netiquette does not forgive flaming.

       Netiquette does however forbid people who are flaming to hurt discussion groups by putting the group down.

Rule no. 8: Respect other people’s privacy.

        Do not read other people’s mail without their permission.

        Going through other people’s things could cost you, your job or you could even go to jail.

        Not respecting other people’s privacy is a bad netiquette.

Rule no. 9: Don’t abuse your power.

        Do not take advantage of other people just because you have more knowledge or power than them.

        Treat others as you would want them to treat you if the roles were reversed.

Rule no. 10: Be forgiving of other people’s mistake.

        Do not point out mistakes to people online.

        Remember that you were once the new kid on the block.

        You still need to have a good manners even though you are online and cannot see the          person face to face.

 Internet security

 Security Requirement Triad                  

ConfidentIality                                  Data confidentiality Privacy

              Integrity         Data integerity                                                        System integrity

              Availability

Threat ConsequenceThreat Action ( Attack)

Unauthorized Disclosure

A circumstance or event whereby an entity gains access to data for which the entity is not authorized.

Exposure: Sensitive data are directly released to an unauthorized entity.

Interception: An unauthorized entity directly accesses sensitive data traveling between authorized sources and destinations.

Inference: A threat action whereby an unauthorized entity indirectly accesses sensitive data by reasoning from characteristics or byproducts of communications.

Intrusion: an unauthorized entity gains access to sensitive data by circumventing a system’s security protections.

Disruption

A circumstances or even that interrupts or prevents the correct operation of system services and functions.

Deception

A circumstance or event that may result in an authorized entity receiving false data and believing it to be true.

Incapacitation: prevents or interrupts system operation by disabling a system component.

Corruption: Undesirably alters system operation by adversely modifying system functions or data.

Obstruction: A threat action that interrupts delivery of system services by hindering system operation.

Masquerade: An unauthorized entity gains access to a system or performs a malicious act by posing as an authorized entity.

Falsification: False data deceive an authorized entity.

Repudiation: An entity deceives another by falsely denying responsibility for an act.

Usurpation

A circumstances or event that results in control of system services or functions by an unauthorized entity.

Misappropriation: An entity assumes

unauthorized logical or physical control of a

system resource.

Misuse: Causes a system component to perform a function or service that is detrimental to system security.

Types of System Intruders

        Masquerader

        Hackers

        Clandestine user

Parts of Virus

Infection mechanism

Trigger

 PayloaD

Virus stages

  Dormant phase                                                                                                                                   Virus is idle.

     Propagation  phase                                                                                                                           Virus places an identical copy of itself into other programs or into certain system areas on t        the disk.

  Triggering phase                                                                                                                                 Virus is activated to perform the function for which it was intended.                                             Caused by a variety of system events

      Execution phase                                                                                                                                 Function is performed

Key Terms

Cyber crime- a crime committed or assisted through the use of the Internet.

Privacy Policy/Terms of Services (ToS) – tells the user how the website will handle its data.

Malware- stands for malicious software.

Virus- a malicious program designed to transfer from one computer to another in any means possible.

Worms– a malicious program designed to replicate itself and transfer from one file folder to another and also transfer to other computers.

Trojan-a malicious program designed that is disguised as a useful program but once downloaded or installed, leaves your PC unprotected and allows hacker to get your information.

Spyware– a program that runs in the background without you knowing it. It has the ability to monitor what you are currently doing and typing through key logging.

Adware- a program designed to send you advertisement, mostly pop-ups.

Spam– unwanted email mostly from bots or advertisers.

Phishing- acquires sensitive personal information like passwords and credits card details.

Pharming- a more complicated way of phishing where it exploits the DNS system.

Copyright- a part of law, wherein you have the rights to work, anyone who uses it w/o your consent is punishable by law.

Fair Use- means that an intellectual property may be used w/o consent as long as it is used in commentaries, criticism, parodies, research and etc.

Keyloggers- used to record the keystrokes done by user. This is done to steal passwords or any other sensitive information.

Rogue security softwares– is a form of malicious software and internet fraud that misleads users into believing there is a virus on their computer, and manipulates them into paying money for a fake malware removal tool.

Four search strategies

   Keyword searching

Enter terms to search

Use quotation marks to search as a phrase and keep the words linked together

Common words are ignored (That, to, which, a, the …)

+ and – can be used to include or exclude a word

   Boolean

AND – enter words connect with AND- it will include sites where both words and found

  Uses: joining different topics (i.e. global warming AND California)

OR   –  requires at least one of the terms is found.

  Uses: join similar or synonymous topics (i.e. global warming OR greenhouse effect)

NOT – searches for the first term and excludes sites that have the second term.

(i.e. Washington NOT school)

Question                                                                                                                                  

a question may be entered in the search field of search engine    

       Advanced                                                                                                                         Features are offered on many engines by going to an “Advanced search” page and  making selections. Effective in narrowing search returns to a specific topic or phrase.

LESSON 3: Advanced Word Processing Skills

Lesson Discussion

In the professional world, sending out information to convey important information is vital. Because of ICT, things are now sent much faster than the traditional newsletters or postal mail. You can now send much faster than the traditional newsletters or postal mail. You can now use the Internet to send out information you need to share. What if we could still do things much faster – an automated way of creating and sending uniform letters with different recipients? Would that not be more convenient?

I. Mail Merge and Label Generation

A. Mail Merge

         One of the important reasons in using computers per se is its ability to do recurring tasks automatically. But this ability has to be honed by learning the characteristics and features of the software you use with your computer. After all, no matter how good or advance your computer and software may be, it can only be as good as the person using it.

         In this particular part of our lesson, we will learn one of the most powerful and commonly used features of Microsoft Word called Mail Merge. As the name suggests, this feature allows you to create documents and combine or merge them with another document or data file. It is commonly used when sending out advertising materials to various recipients.

          The simplest solution for the scenario above is to create a document and just copy and paste it several times then just replace the details depending on whom you send it to. But what if you have hundreds or thousands of recipients? Would not that take too many hours? What if you have a small database of information where you can automatically generate those letters?

Two Components of Mail Merge

1. Form Document

         The first component of our mail merged document is the form document. It is generally the document that contains the main body of the message we want to convey or send. The main body of the message is the part of the form document that remains the same no matter whom you send it to from among your list.

          Also included in the form document is what we call place holders, also referred to as data fields or merge fields. This marks the position on your form document where individual data or information will be inserted. From our sample document, the place holders are denoted or marked by the text with double-headed arrows (<< >>) on each side and with a gray background. On a printed standard form, this will be the underlined spaces that you will see and use as a guide to where you need to write the information that you need to fill out. In its simplest form, a form document is literally a “form” that you fill out with individual information. A common example of a form document is your regular tax form or application form.

2. List or Data File

          The second component of our mail merged document is the list or data file. This is where the individual information or data that needs to be plugged in (merged) to the form document is placed and maintained. One of the best things about the mail merge feature is that it allows data file to be created fro within the Microsoft Word application itself, or it gets data from a file created in Microsoft Excel or other data formats. In this way, fields that needed to be filled up on the form document can easily be maintained without accidentally altering the form or main document. You can also easily add, remove, modify, or extract your data more efficiently by using other data management applications like Excel or Access and import them in Word during the mail merge process.

B. Label Generation

           Included in the mail merge feature on Microsoft Word is the Label Generator. It just makes sense that after you print out your form letters, you will need to send it to individual recipients in an envelope with the matching address printed directly on the envelope or on a mailing label to stick on. By using virtually the same process as a standard mail merge, Microsoft Word will print individual addresses to a standard form that it has already pre-formatted. Simply put, it creates a blank form document that simulates either a blank label or envelope of pre-defined size and will use the data file that you selected to print the information, typically individual addresses. So even in generating labels, the two essential components of creating a merged document are present: the form document and the data file. Only in this case, you did not have to type or create the form document yourself because it was already created and pre-formatted in Microsoft Word. All you need to do is select the correct or appropriate size for the label or envelope and select the data file that contains the addresses (data) to be printed. You can also preview your merged labels before printing if you want to.

II.  Integrating Images and External Materials

          Integrating or inserting pictures in your document is fun and it improves the impression of your document. A common use of inserting a picture on a document is when you are creating your resume. Though seemingly simple to do, your knowledge on the different kinds of materials that you can insert or integrate in a Word document and its characteristics can help you create a more efficient, richer document not only in content but also in physical form. A better understanding of the physical form of your document as well as the different materials you would integrate in it would allow you to be more efficient and versatile in using Microsoft Word.

A. Kinds of Materials

          There are various kinds of materials Microsoft Word is capable of integrating to make the documents richer, more impressive, and more informative.

1. Pictures

         Generally, these are electronic or digital pictures or photographs you have saved in any local storage device. There are three commonly used types of picture files. You can identify them by the extension on their file names.

a. .JPG/JPEG

         This is pronounced as “jay-peg“ and is the short form of .jpeg or Joint Photographic Experts Group. Like all the rest of the image file extensions, it identifies the kind of data compression process that it uses to make it more compatible and portable through the Internet. This type of image file can support 16.7 million colors that is why it is suitable for use when working with full color photographic images. Unfortunately, it does not support transparency and therefore, images of this file type can be difficult to integrate in terms of blending with other materials or elements in your document. But if you are looking for the best quality image to integrate with your document then this is the image file type for you. .JPG does not work well on lettering, line drawings, or simple graphics. .JPG images are relatively small in file size.

b. .GIF

         This stands for Graphics Interchange Format. This type of image file is capable of displaying transparencies. Therefore, it is good for blending with other materials or elements in your document. It is also capable of displaying simple animation. Apparently, this may not be too useful on a printed document but if you are sending documents electronically or through email, or even post documents into a website, then this could be quite impressive. The downside is that it can only support up to 256 colors so it is good mostly on logos and art decors with very limited, and generally solid colors. .GIF is much better for logos, drawings, small text, black and white images, or low-resolution files.

Example of a .gif format picture.

c. .PNG

          This is pronounced as “ping“. It stands for Portable Network Graphics. It was built around the capabilities of .GIF. Its development was basically for the purpose of transporting images on the Internet at faster rates. It is also good with transparencies but unlike .GIFs, it does not support animation but it can display up to 16 million colors, so image quality for this image file type is also remarkably improved. .PNG allows the control of the transparency level or opacity of images.

Example of .png format picture.

2.  Clip Art

         This is generally a .GIF type; line art drawings or images used as generic representation for ideas and objects that you might want to integrate in your document. Microsoft Word has a library of clip arts that is built in or can be downloaded and used freely. There are still other clip arts that you can either purchase or freely download and use that come from third-party providers.

Clip Art Icon in Microsoft Office 2010.

3.  Shapes

         These are printable objects or materials that you can integrate in your document to enhance its appearance or allow you to have some tools to use for composing and representing ideas or messages. If you are designing the layout for a poster or other graphic material for advertising, you might find this useful.

Shapes Icon under the Insert ribbon tab.

4. Smart Art

         Generally, these are predefined sets of different shapes grouped together to form ideas that are organizational or structural in nature. If you want to graphically represent an organization, process, relationships, or flow for infographic documents, then you will find this easy and handy to use.

Smart Art

5.  Chart

Another type of material that you can integrate in your Word document that allows you to represent data characteristics and trends. This is quite useful when you are preparing reports that correlate and present data in a graphical manner. You can create charts that can be integrate in your document either directly in Microsoft Word or imported from external files like Microsoft Excel.

Chart – Used to illustrate and compare data.

6. Screenshot

Sometimes, creating reports or manuals for training or procedures will require the integration of a more realistic image of what you are discussing on your report or manual. Nothing can get you a more realistic image than a screenshot. Microsoft Word even provides a snipping tool for your screen shots so you can select and display only the part that you exactly like to capture on your screen.

III. Image Placement

Layout of  text wrapping options.

A. In Line with Text

This is the default setting for images that are inserted or integrated in your document. It treats your image like a text font with the bottom side totally aligned with the text line. This setting is usually used when you need to place your image at the beginning of a paragraph. When placed between texts in a paragraph or a sentence, it distorts the overall appearance and arrangement of the texts in the paragraph because it will take up the space it needs vertically, pushing whole lines of texts upward.

B. Square

This setting allows the image you inserted to be placed anywhere with the paragraph with the text going around the image in a square pattern like frame.

C. Tight

This is almost the same as the Square setting, but here the text “hug” or conforms to the general shape of the image. This allows you to get a more creative effect on your document. This setting can mostly be achieved if you are using an image that supports transparency like a .GIF or .PNG file.

D. Through

This setting allows the text on your document to flow even tighter taking the contours and shape of the image. Again, this can be best used with .GIF or .PNG type of image.

E. Top and Bottom

This setting pushes the texts away vertically to the top and/or the bottom of the image so that the image occupies a whole text line on its own.

F. Behind Text

This allows your image to be dragged and placed anywhere on your document but with all the texts floating in front of it. It effectively makes your image look like a background.

G. In Front of Text

As it suggests, this setting allows your image to be placed right on top of the text as if your image was dropped right on it. That means whatever part of the text you placed the image on, it will be covered by the image.

IV. Key Terms

Mail Merge – a feature that allows you to create documents and combine or merge them with another document or data file.

Form Document – the document that contains the main body of the message we want to convey or send.

Data File – includes the individual information or data or the recipient’s information.

Merge Field/Place Holder – marks the position on your form document where individual data or information will be inserted.

.JPG – file extension for the Joint Photographic Experts Group picture file.

.PNG – file extension for Portable Network Graphics image file.

.GIF – file extension for the Graphics Interchange Format image file.

Clipart – line art drawings or images used as a generic representation for ideas and objects.

Smart Art – predefined sets of different shapes grouped together to form ideas that are organizational or structural in nature.

Text Wrap – adjusts how the image behaves around other objects or text.

LESSON 4: Advanced Spreadsheet Skills

What is a Spreadsheet Software? • allows users to organize data in rows an columns and perform calculations on the data • These rows and columns collectively are called worksheet.

3. Examples of Spreadsheet Software: • LibreOffice Calc • OpenOffice.org Calc • Google Sheets • Apple iWork Numbers • Kingsoft Office Spreadsheets • StarOffice Calc • Microsoft Excel

4. MICROSOFT EXCEL

5. To open Microsoft Excel, Press “Windows Logo” + R then type “excel” then enter.

6. Key Terms in MS Excel: • Row – horizontal line of entries in a table • Column – vertical line of entries in a table • Cell – the place where info. is held in a spreadsheet

7. Key Terms in MS Excel: • Active Cell – the selected cell • Column Heading – the box at the top of each column containing a letter • Row Heading – the row number

8. Key Terms in MS Excel: • Cell Reference – the cell address of the cell usually combine letter and number (ex. A1, B4, C2) • Merge – combining or joining two or more cells • Formula – is an expression which calculates the value of a cell.

9. Key Terms in MS Excel: • Functions – are predefined formulas and are already available in Excel • Formula Bar – the bar that displays the contents of a cell

10. FUNCTIONS

11. BASIC MATH OPERATIONS: • =SUM(x,y) or =SUM(range) – returns the sum of x and y or (all the numbers within the range) • =PRODUCT(x,y) – returns the product of x and y • =QUOTIENT(x,y) – returns the quotient of x divided by y • =x-y – returns the difference of x subtracted by y

12. BASIC MATH OPERATIONS: • =x+y – returns the sum of x and y • =x*y – returns the product of x and y • =x/y – returns the quotient of x divided by y • =x-y – returns the difference of x subtracted by y

13. OTHER FUNCTIONS: • =ABS(x) – returns the absolute value of x • =AVERAGE(x,y) – returns the average of x and y • =CONCATENATE(x,y) – joins x and y

14. OTHER FUNCTIONS: • =IF(Condition, x, y) – returns x if the condition is true, else it returns y • =ISEVEN(x) – returns true if x is an even number • =ISODD(x) – returns true if x is an odd number

15. OTHER FUNCTIONS: • =COUNT(range) – counts the number of cell containing a number within a range • =COUNTIF(range, criteria) – count the number of cell that fits with the criteria within the range

16. OTHER FUNCTIONS: • =ISNUMBER(x) – returns true if x is a number • =ISTEXT(x) – returns true if x is a text • =LEN(x) – returns the length of characters in x • =PROPER(x) – returns the proper casing of x

17. OTHER FUNCTIONS: • =LEFT(x,y) – returns the characters of x specified by y (from the left) • =RIGHT(x,y) – returns the characters of x specified by y (from the right) • =PI() – returns the value of pi

18. OTHER FUNCTIONS: • =MIN(x,y) – returns the smallest number between x and y • =MAX(x,y) – returns the largest number between x and y • =MIN(range) – returns the smallest number within the range • =MAX(range) – returns the largest number within the range

19. OTHER FUNCTIONS: • =POWER(x,y) – returns the value of x raised to the power of y • =ROUND(x,y) – rounds x to a specified number of digits (y) =COLUMN(x) – returns the column number of x • =ROW(x) – returns the row number of x

20. OTHER FUNCTIONS: • =SQRT(x) – returns the square root of x • =TRIM(x) – removes extra spaces in x • =UPPER(x) – returns x in all capital form • =LOWER(x) – returns x in non- capital form

21. OTHER FUNCTIONS: • =TODAY() – returns the current date • =NOW() – returns the current date and time

22. EXERCISES

23. Consider this data: NAME MATH GRADE SCIENCE GRADE FILIPINO GRADE ENGLISH GRADE A.P GRADE MARK 75 70 78 81 78 PETE 84 87 86 88 85 ANA 91 92 95 90 90 REA 73 75 74 75 70

24. Give the formulas to get : • Mark’s , Pete’s, Ana’s and Rea’s averages • The highest grade that Ana got • The lowest grade that Mark got? • Sum of all Math Grade? Science? A.P.? • Sum of all Rea’s Grades • The Lowest Number among all grades • The remarks (Passed or Failed)

25. Now, consider this data: FIRST NAME MIDDLE NAME LAST NAME MARK CURTIS WILLIAMS PETE MCCLOEY HARRISON ANA MONROE FRITZ REA TAN COLLINS

26. Give the formulas to get : • Mark’s Full Name • Ana’s Full Name in Proper Case • Count the number of letters that Pete’s Last Name has • “COLL” from Rea’s Last Name • “LOEY” from Pete’s Middle Name • Combining “WILL” and “LINS” from Mark and Rea’s Last Names respectively

LESSON 5: Advanced Presentation Skills

Powerpoint is a highly innovative and versatile program that can ensure a successful communication whether you’re presenting in front of potential investors, a lecture theatre or simply in front of your colleagues. The following are the five features you should be using-if youy aren’t already. Learn everything about these tips: they will improve your presentation skills and allow you to communicate your message successfully. The five features of powerpoint was

1)adding smart art

2)Inserting Shapes

3)Inserting and Image

4)Slide Transitions

5)Adding Animations

Creating an Effective Presentation

1.

Minimize

: Keep slides counts to a minimum to maintain a clear message and to keep the audience attentive. Remember that the presentation is just a visual aid. Most information should still come from the reporter.2.

Clarity

: Avoid being to fancy by using font style that is easy to read. Make sure that it is also big enough to be read by the audience. Once you start making your presentation, consider how big the screen is during your report.3.

Simplicity

: Use bullets or short sentences. Summarize the information on the screen to have your audience focus on what the speaker is saying than on reading the slide. Limit the content to six lines and seven words per line. This is known as the 6 x 7 rule.4.

Visual

: Use graphics to help in your presentation but not too many to distract the audience. In addition, instead of using table of data, use charts and graphs.5.

Consistency

: Make your design uniform. Avoid having different font styles and backgrounds.6.

Contrast

: Use a light font on dark background or vice versa. This is done so that it is easier to read. In most instances, it is easier to read on screen if the background is dark. This is due to the brightness of the screen. LESSON 6: Imaging and Design for Online Environment

PHOTO EDITING

Photo editing encompasses the processes of altering images, whether they are digital photographs, traditional photo chemical photographs, or illustrations. Traditional analog image editing is known as photo retouching, using tools such as an airbrush to modify photographs, or editing illustrations with any traditional art medium.

Graphic software programs

Which can be broadly grouped into vector graphics editors, raster graphics editors, and 3D modelers are the primary tools with which a user may manipulate, enhance, and transform images. Many image editing programs are also used to render or create computer art from scratch.

BASIC OF IMAGE EDITING

RASTER IMAGESare stored in a computer in the form of a grid of picture elements or pixels.

VECTOR IMAGESsuch as Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape and etc. are used to create and modify vector images, which are stored as descriptions of lines, Bezier curves and text instead of pixels.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RASTER AND VECTOR IMAGES

RASTER IMAGESuse many colored pixels or individual building blocks to form a complete image JPEGs, GIFs and PNGs are common raster image types. Almost all of the photos found on the web and in print catalogs are raster images.

VECTOR IMAGES alternatively, allow for more flexibility. Constructed using mathematical formulas rather than individual colored blocks, vector file types such as EPS, AI and PDF are excellent for creating graphics that frequently require resizing. 3. 3D MODELING (OR MODELLING) is the process of developing a mathematical representation of any three dimensional surface of an object via specialized software. The product is called a 3D model. It can be displayed as a two-dimensional image through a process called 3D rendering or used in a computer simulation or physical phenomena. The model can also be physically created using 3D printing devices.

IMAGE FORMATS

Ø  JPEG is a commonly used method of lossy compression for digital images, particularly for those images produced by a digital photography.

Ø  PNG (PORTABLE NETWORK GRAPHICS) is a raster graphics file format that supports lossless data compression.

Ø  GIF a lossless format for image files that supports both animated and static images.

Ø  BMP is a raster graphics image used to store bitmap digital images

Ø  EPS used in vector-based images in Adobe Illustrator.

Ø  SVG is an XML-based vector image format for two-dimensional graphics w/ support for interactivity and animation

Ø  .3ds is one of the file formats used by the Autodesk 3Ds Max 3D Modelling, animation and rendering software.

Ø  .fbx is an exchange format, in particular for interoperability between Autodesk products and other digital content creation software

FEATURES OF IMAGE EDITORS

SELECTION One of the prerequisites for many of the app mentioned below is a method of selecting part(s) of an image, thus applying a change selectively without affecting the entire picture

Ø  MARQUEE TOOL for selecting rectangular or other regular polygon-shaped regions

Ø  LASSO TOOL for freehand selection of a region

Ø  MAGIC WAND TOOL selects objects or regions in the image defined by proximity of color or luminance

LAYERS which are analogous to sheets of transparent acetate, stacked on top of each other, each capable of being individually positioned, altered and blended with the layers below, w/o affecting any of the elements on the other layers. IMAGE SIZE resize images in a process often called image scaling, making them larger, or smaller. High image resolution cameras can produce large images which are often reduced in size for Internet use.

CROPPING creates a new image by selecting a desired rectangular portion from the image being cropped. The unwanted part of the image is discarded. Image cropping does not reduce the resolution of the area cropped.

CLONING uses the current brush to copy from an image or pattern. It has many uses: one of the most important is to repair problem areas in digital photos.

IMAGE ORIENTATION – Image editors are capable of altering an image to be rotated in any direction and to any degree. Mirror images can be created and images can be horizontally flipped or vertically flopped. Rotated image usually require cropping afterwards, in order to remove the resulting gaps at the image edges.

PERSPECTIVE – is the art of drawing solid objects on a two- dimensional surface so as to give the right impression of their height, width, depth and position in relation to each other when viewed from a particular point.

SHARPENING AND SOFTENING– Sharpening makes images clearer. Too much sharpening causes grains on the surface of the image. Softening makes images softer that removes some of the highly visible flaws. Too much causes the image to blur.

SATURATION- is an expression for the relative bandwidth of the visible output from a light source. As saturation increase, colors appear more “pure.’’ As saturation decreases, colors appear more ‘’ washed-out.’’

CONTRAST AND BRIGHTENING

Contrast of images and brighten or darken the image. Underexposed images can be often be improved by using this feature.

Brightening lightens the image so the photo brightens up. Brightness is a relative expression of the intensity of the energy output of a visible light source.

Adjusting contrast means adjusting brightness because they work together to make a better image.

PHOTO MANIPULATION

Photo manipulation involves transforming or altering a photograph using various methods and techniques to achieve desired results. Some photo manipulations are considered skillful artwork while others are frowned upon as unethical practices, especially when used to deceive the public, such as hat used for political propaganda , or to make a product or person look better.

 DIFFERENCES PHOTO EDITING – signifies the regular process used to enhance photos and to create them ‘’Actual editing simple process’’. Also includes some of the regular programs used for editing and expose how to use them. PHOTO MANIPULATION – includes all simple editing techniques and have some manipulation techniques like erasing, adding objects , adding some graphical effects, background correction, creating incredible effect, change elements in an image,  adding styles , eliminating blemishes from a  person’s face and changing the features of a person’s body.

b.) Infographics

also known as data visualization, information design, and communication design

It is any graphic that display and explains information, whether that be data or words. When we use the term ‘’infographics’’, we’re using it as a general term used to describe data presented in a visual way.

Infographics are important because they change the way people find and experience stories. Infographics are being used to augment editorial content on the web, it create a new way of seeing the world of data, and they help communicate complex ideas in a clear and beautiful way.

TYPES OF INFOGRAPHICS

Statistical

Process Flow

Geographic

PROCESS OF MAKING INFOGRAPHICS

Research

a)Know what is needed

b)Take a reference

c)Know the audience

d)Decide the type of infographics

Brainstorm

a)Gather ideas

b)Build thought process

Design

a)    Choose your tool and start designing

Review

a)     Cross check the data to deliver flawless output

Launch

a)    Make it viral

b)    Share on social network

BEST PRACTICES WHEN CREATING INFOGRAPHICS

a)Maintain a structure

b)Don’t use more than 3 color palletes

c)Typography matters a lot

d)Include source and references

LESSON 7: Online Platforms for ICT Content Development

1.Facebook

Posted on

February 13, 2017

Marketplace – allows members to post, read and respond to classified ads.

Groups – allows members who have common interests to find each other and interact.

Events  – allows members to publicize an event, invite guests and track who plans to attend.

Pages – allows members to create and promote a public page built around a specific topic.

Presence technology – allows members to see which contacts are online and chat.

Within each member’s personal profile, there are several key networking components. The most popular is arguably the Wall, which is essentially a virtual bulletin board. Messages left on a member’s Wall can be text, video or photos. Another popular component is the virtual Photo Album. Photos can be uploaded from the desktop or directly from a smartphone camera. There is no limitation on quantity, but Facebook staff will remove inappropriate or copyrighted images.  An interactive album feature allows the member’s contacts (who are called generically called “friends”) to comment on each other’s photos and identify (tag) people in the photos. Another popular profile component is status updates, a microbloggingfeature that allows members to broadcast short Twitter-like announcements to their friends. All interactions are published in a news feed, which is distributed in real-time to the member’s friends.

Facebook offers a range of privacy options to its members.  A member can make all his communications visible to everyone, he can block specific connections or he can keep all his communications private. Members can choose whether or not to be searchable, decide which parts of their profile are public, decide what not to put in their news feed and determine exactly who can see their posts. For those members who wish to use Facebook to communicate privately, there is a message feature, which closely resembles email.

2. Instagram

Instagram is an online mobile photo-sharing site that allows its users to share pictures and videos either publicly or privately on the app, as well as through a variety of other social networking platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Flickr. Originally, a distinctive feature was that it confined photos to a square shape, similar to Kodak Instamatic and Polaroid SX-70 images, in contrast to the 4:3 aspect ratio typically used by mobile device cameras. In August 2015, version 7.5 was released, allowing users to upload media captured in any aspect ratio. Users can also apply digital filters to their images. Videos on Instagram debuted in June 2013, allowing prerecorded square standard definition resolution clips of up to 15 seconds to be shared; later improvements added support for widescreenresolutions of up to 1080p and longer recording times for either prerecorded (up to one minute) or disappearing live (up to one hour) videos.

Instagram was created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, and launched in October 2010 as a free mobile app. The service rapidly gained popularity, with over 100 million active users as of April 2012[10][11] and over 300 million as of December 2014.[12] Instagram is distributed through the Apple App Store and Google Play.[13]Support for the app is available for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Windows 10 devices and Android handsets, while third-party Instagram apps are available for BlackBerry 10 and Nokia-Symbian Devices.

3. Twitter

Twitter  is an online news and social networking service where users post and interact with messages, “tweets,” restricted to 140 characters. Registered users can post tweets, but those who are unregistered can only read them. Users access Twitter through its website interface, SMS or a mobile device app.[10] Twitter Inc. is based in San Francisco, California, United States, and has more than 25 offices around the world.

Twitter is about learning and adding value

It is also about adding value to others by giving or sharing something valuable to them so that they are able to learn something. That is why I usually tweet about stuff that I read, learned or have good value. I have learned so much from the others that is why I love twitter. It is also about helping others, I disagree with many‘experts’ that say you should only follow ‘influential’ users because I don’t judge someone that way, and because I believe the people at Twitter don’t believe in them either. I also disagree that you should only share your own stuff otherwise you will dilute your brand. Sure it makes sense but 24/7 sharing your own blog post and following influential people?

BLOGGING SITES

Weebly

Weebly is one of the easiest website builders in the market.  They allow you to drag and drop content into a website, so it’s very intuitive to use (click here to see our opinion on Weebly).

By using Weebly’s website building elements, you can literally drag them into your website and have a website built relatively quickly, and painlessly.  The beauty of this system is that you can pretty much drag the elements to wherever you want – so it’s not very restrictive on where and how you place your website content.

Weebly’s elements include pictures, paragraphs, videos, buttons, maps, contact forms – basically all the basics for website building.

2. Tumblr

Tumblr is a popular microblogging platform designed for creative self-expression. It is considered a mindful alternative to Facebook and other social media websites where users blog on a myriad of topics.

You can link your Tumblr account to other social networks you use and you can feed your traditional blog or other RSS feed to your Tumblelog. You can also create static pages such as your own Questions page that people are automatically taken to when they ask you a question. If you want to make your Tumblelog look more lie a traditional website, you can do it by adding pages. You can make your Tumblelog private or just make specific posts private as needed, and you can schedule posts to publish in the future.

Tumblr is perfect for people who don’t need a full blog to publish lengthy posts. It’s also great for people who prefer to publish quick multimedia posts, particularly from their mobile devices. Tumblr is also a great choice for people who want to join a larger community. If a blog is too much or too big for you, but Twitter is too small or too little for you and Instagram isn’t versatile enough for you, then Tumblr might be just right for you.

It’s also easy to invite other people to contribute to your Tumblelog.

If you want to track your stats, you can add any analytics tracking code to your Tumblelog. Some users will even burn a feed with Feedburner, create custom themes, and use their own domain names

3. Pinterest

Pinterest is a free website that requires registration to use.Users can upload, save, sort, and manage images—known as pins—and other media content (e.g., videos) through collections known as pinboards. Pinterest acts as a personalized media platform. Users can browse the content of others in their feed. Users can then save individual pins to one of their own boards using the “Pin It” button, with pinboards typically organized by a central topic or theme. Users can personalize their experience by pinning items, creating boards, and interacting with other members. The end result is that the “pin feed” of each user displays unique, personalized results.

Content can also be found outside of Pinterest and similarly uploaded to a board via the “Pin It” button, which can be downloaded to the bookmark bar on a web browser, or be implemented by a webmaster directly on the website. They also have the option of sending a pin to other Pinterest users and email accounts through the “Send” button. Some websites include red and white “pin it” buttons on items, which allow Pinterest users to pin them directly.

Initially, there were several ways to register a new Pinterest account. Potential users could either receive an invitation from an already registered friend, or they could request an invitation directly from the Pinterest website that could take some time to receive. An account can also be created and accessed by linking Pinterest to a Facebook or Twitter profile. When a user re-posts or re-pins an image to their own board, they have the option of notifying their Facebook and Twitter followers. This feature can be managed on the settings page.

On the main Pinterest page, a “pin feed” appears, displaying the chronological activity from the Pinterest boards that a user follows.

A “board” is where the user’s pins are located. Users can have several boards for various items such as quotes, travel or, most popularly, weddings. A “pin” is an image that has either been uploaded or linked from a website. Once users create boards and add pins, other users can now repin, meaning they can pin one user’s image to their board as well. Once the user has set up their account and boards, they can browse, comment, and like other pins. Users might be discouraged by repeated images and difficult-to-follow direct linking features. Pinterest has also added the option of making boards “secret” so that the user can pin to and view boards that only the user can see when logged into their own account.

Pinterest does not generate its own content; rather, it draws from many resources around the web and compiles them in one convenient location for users.

[ramialanko]

Thoughts on Turtledove

Things are getting exciting. We are holding our breath to see what solution will eventually replace 3rd party cookies. This is almost as exciting when waiting for the final GDPR docs; we all know it is going to hurt our industry but how, how much, and exactly when. Apple has paved the way with ITP and IDFA, now Google is also making big changes to the world’s most popular browser Chrome and its Privacy Sandbox. For advertisers and traditional data vendors, this nightmare is called Turtledove. 

What is Turtledove?

Turtledove will basically be an API (application programming interface) which tries to enable behavioural targeting while limiting the amount of user data that is shared with advertisers. What Turtledove is proposing is to completely re-architect the current system so that user behaviors are not stored in a remote database, they are stored in your browser and they never leave your browser. In other words, Turtledove brings the auction and final decisioning out of the cloud and into the browser. Kind of funny though, since Google — that company that lamented the terrible things the header was doing to latency while proclaiming the brilliance of server connections—  now decided to leverage edge computing. 

There is no official doom day date yet but it will be released sometime within the next 24 months. Note that this applies to Chrome, it is too early to say if this move has any affect on Safari and the rest. 

User benefits

Questions also remain about how users would really benefit from Turtledove. Well, you could argue that it: 

Eliminates third-party cookies and all cross-site tracking.

Reduces browser signals dramatically making “inferred IDs” (aka, device fingerprinting, cache inspection, link decoration etc. ) unreliable and unusable.

Enables sufficiently large user groups ascertaining anonymity of any one person/device within that group, but sufficiently small to enable relatively fine-grained reach.

Utilizes these user groups instead of device-based or cookie-based identifiers.

Potential pitfalls

At this stage, some of the pitfalls are:

Turtledove would disable many common web advertiser tactics such as frequency capping, A/B testing, attribution and reporting. For these to work, Turtledove relies on the Aggregate Reporting API. Yet another early sandbox proposal to be defined. 

Turtledove could risk handing Google yet another advantage over its ad tech competitors. Only this time they are being more tactical in their approach to their antitrust practices.

An average citizen is still going to feel like being chased.

The browser turns from a relatively passive piece into an active player in the bidding. This would strain the bandwidth and computational power consumed by ad tech, particularly on mobile devices. Servers can process huge amounts of data, but data on a phone is limited by Wi-Fi, cell service and available device storage.

Complex auction logic does not seem possible. Even not-so-complex segmentation, such as merging two interest groups to create a more nuanced audience segment. 

What about Safari users today, ITP and alternative solutions?

Basically this boils down to ITP (Safari, Firefox), which in turn means no cookies, my friends. And because the adtech world is built on 3rd party audiences, ITP poses an impossible challenge for marketers. Only contextual targeting seems to provide the working solution. Which in turn, can be considered a rather one-sided approach if we merely target based on the page content. But it has proven to be effective, so it is a viable solution that is able to address all browsers. 

On top of old-school contextual targeting, advances in machine-learning and AI have opened up a whole new world of opportunities for intelligent targeting. Personally I am very excited about how well a system can profile a user without any PII and prior information with just a few signals at the time of the data request. It feels like magic but is actually based on years of AI and realtime scalability tuning. When compared to 3rd party audiences, this is revolutionary. Realtime moments can be seen as more relevant and efficient ways to profile and target. And the best part - it is a sustainable model and it is here now.

Final words

Targeting without personal data is set to become the new normal, and to me this now seems entirely appropriate. Advertising theories and methods have evolved continually over the years and I see this shift in ad tech, seismic as it is for many, as simply the latest chapter for this smart and agile industry. Moving away from cookies is going to be uncomfortable for many and unanswered questions do still remain. It will require loads of brainstorming, and brave minds to have the courage to try out new approaches in the new world of adtech.

The relief is that there already are future-proof solutions that indeed can replace and sometimes even more efficiently, the old world targeting cookie-based models. So heads up, this is going to be a rewarding ride!

[benjaminjofaiho]

The Captain Next Door Ch.1

Summary: You’re a doctor who also just so happens to be a fan fiction writer. You love lots of fandoms but Captain America is by far your fave, so what happens when you get a new job, move to Brooklyn and realize that the brownstone you bought is right next door to Captain America? Obviously shenanigans ensue.

Warnings: cursing, smutt (eventually)

Authors note: Ok guys, this is literally my first fanfic and it’s about the Cap. Please be gentle! Also guys I really do live for a slow burn so that will be present heavy, I hope you can stick with it. Let me know what you think and please, reblog, like and comment! Love y'all! P.S. I do not currently have a beta and the ‘f’ and ‘u’ keys on my keyboard are messed up so incase you see repeating letters anywhere they aren’t supposed to be feel free to let me know.

   You wiped the sweat forming on your head from the sweltering Brooklyn heat. You were from Texas but this was definitely more than you were used to, or expected from everything you’ve seen on TV about New York. You sat on the stoop of your Brooklyn Brownstone waiting and started to think back. Three months ago you were in your parents living room opening up a heavy envelope from a hospital you’ve only dreamed of. Your father beamed from ear to ear, chest swelling with pride and tears were already in your mom’s eyes the moment a paper cutter went through the envelope. Your eyes flew across the page “Y/FN Y/LN, We would like to offer you the position of Head of Cardiology here at Mount Sinai...” everything else had been a blur. All your sleepless nights in college, all the anxiety, stress, sacrifices of missed birthdays and family gatherings, all of it had lead up to this moment and it had all been worth it. Your job started in the next 5 months and you had to pack up your Texan life and move all the way to the ‘big Apple’ as your dad called it. Besides the fact that you were infatuated with the city since you were a little girl, you were ready for a change of scenery. There were so many good memories here in Fort Worth but thanks to your asshole ex, Daniel, there were also a lot of sour ones as well. Your parents and your younger siblings helped you pack up your little house that was just  15 minutes from theirs. You were able to get everything done in about 2 weeks. At the airport your family saw you off. Your younger brother, Benjamin, eyes were red.

           “Aww baby brother are you crying because you’re going to miss me?” you pinched at his cheeks.

           Swatting your hand away he chuckled “Nah, I’m just thinking about how you’re gonna be in a whole nother state bossing people around and how you’ll finally be able to mind your own business and stay out of mine.” You hugged him and he bent down so you could kiss his forehead. Even though you were 26, a whole 7 years older than him and 5’8, he still towered above you.

           Turing to your 3 youngest sisters, Joy, Faith and Hope. Their names a testament to just how southern and Christian your parents were. They were huddled together crying freely, looking like little black angels in a chapel. You hugged each of them while the youngest, Hope, held on the longest. You hugged her until she was ready to let go. You kissed Faith on the cheek and moved to turn to your parents. The third oldest Joy grabbed you and hugged you once again, fiercley. She whispered in your ear “Y/N, I don't know how to do it. I don't know how to take care of them the way you took care of us, what are we gonna do without you?”

           You looked into her brown eyes “Joy, babe all you have to do is love them. Also I’m just a FaceTime call away, PLUS I’m a big shot doctor so it ain’t nothing for me to hop on a plane for y’all. Girl I got monnneeyyyy” That managed to get a little laugh from her and you stepped back to look at your siblings. Technically yes, they were your younger ones but due to the large age gap you always looked at them as your children, your babies. The 4 of them huddled around you once more and hugged. You turned to your dad who was never one to shy away from his emotions, was all but balling.

           “Come on dad, you gotta hold it together man!” he laughed and wiped at his cheeks

“I’m just so proud of you baby girl, you inspire your brother and sisters to do more, your mother and I have always told you that, but I never told you, you inspire me to. I am beyond proud of you.”

           “Aw dad, I love you so much” Pulling you into one of his patented hugs he said “I love you too. You’re going to the big apple now Doc, make sure you take a bite” Kissing your forehead you turned to face your mom. Oh boy. Of you made it through this one you would be home free, no ugly snot face crying. She gave you the best smile she could and that was it. The dam broke and you were sobbing. She hugged you and told you how proud of you she was, how you were a shining light for your siblings and the family as a whole. She told you that she also packed some food from home in your suitcase so you could settle in a little easier. You looked at her with a heart full of nothing but love. You were a little neurotic, and had a tendency to be anal retentive, planning and sticking to strict schedule for everything, predicting 10’000 possible outcomes to any situation but your mother was always there for you. Always remembering anything you didn’t. You thought of how she was really the only one you would let see vulnerable and take care of you. You would miss that in New York. Picking up your hand luggage you were whisked through security thanks to your first class ticket. Turning once more now passed security you stood up on your tip toes and waved emphatically to your family, not caring who saw you or them looking crazy. Your family had already been a little above average but this new job allowed you to even buy your wants not just your needs. You settled down in your chair and noticed only a handful of people were in your cabin. A stewardess came to offer you some champagne and you politely declined. Looking out the window a few seconds letting the last tear fall you put your curly hair up, you had to get to work.

           So yes, you were a doctor and that was all good and fun but you were also a huge nerd. Huge. While most people went to the club, concerts and generally having pretty good times outdoors you were stuck at home. Even when not studying you were still stuck to your computer. Once your family insisted on going to six flags and you brought your ipad with the attachable keyboard and your family kept talking about how dedicated of a student turned intern turned full-fledged doctor you were. If only they knew… You were working on your fanfiction and your followers and subbies were a bunch of savages! If they didn’t get their fix from you and you didn't stick to your upload schedule, your inbox would definitely be a madness, all sorts of threats and your lovelies would call you everything but a child of God. You’d been away for about a month and a few days now and your beta, Jay had started texting your actual phone. You met Jay on Tumblr a few years before, there had been some light flirtation always present but never anything serious. You worked better as friends and when you decided to get into fanfiction to blow steam off, he proved a good beta reader.

TXT From Jay: Doc! Where the hell are you at? Your rabid readers are jumping down my throat trying to you. Why you would leave a major cliffhanger for Captain America, and Sonia I have no idea. They want to know what’s happening next, low key I do too.

           You giggled. You thought of everything, you knew setting up a completely unaffiliated and untraceable account for your writing was a good idea. 1- you didn't want angry people in your inbox losing their minds. 2- You’ve been going for interviews and you didn't want a case where a potential employer would google your name and see all the filth you think about earth’s mightiest heroes and other people who don’t even exist. No way, you couldn't have that type of rep attached to you.

TXT From Y/N: Jaybaby, I’ve been going through it. Sorry, just been in the process of moving and you know life can get a little messy. Plus I really needed a break. Funnily enough I’m working on The Dangerous Dame right now. I’ll send the new chapter to you within the week. XO

Thinking back to seeing the avengers save New York you were grateful for them. They were kicking ass and taking names. Keeping all of us safe but damn if they weren’t all so fine. And you did mean ALL. To be honest that Natasha could. Get. It. All of them could get it. But there was something about that Captain America. He was sort of shy and had a boyish charm about him but that body made you think of pure sin. You wanted to wrap yourself around him and never let him go. You wanted to do nasty things to him. You wanted him to completely demolish you. So you did what everyone who is obsessed with anyone does. Try and consume as much media about said person as possible. Hey, It is the golden age of technology after all. After having your fill of random fan pictures, blurry videos of him in action you needed more stimulus. Where better to turn than Tumblr. Much to your dismay, there was barely any Cap Fanfic and when there was there was so little reader insert. And even then, there was literally less than 10 where he was actually into a black woman. This wouldn't do, you thought to yourself. That’s how Doctor Chris was born. Of course his name was Steve but he always sort of looked like a Chris to you. You didn’t just write about him but other people too, your stories took off and were a good escape from your hectic life.

           A car pulled up to you on your empty street and a short round man with a very stereotypical New Yorker accent shouted up to you, shaking you our of your memories

           “Ay lady, are you” his beady eyes peered at a piece of paper “Y/N? Are you Y/N?”

           “Yes that’s me”

           “Alright come get your unit, and not to be rude or anything but could you make it snappy? I got to make 15 more deliveries before the day is over.”

You slowly rose “Alright, I understand. However I paid for the delivery service? Aren’t y’all supposed to put it in my house?”

           “Lady you paid for the delivery service, not the installation service. That's another fee.”

           “I understand that” You replied still confused “ But I thought you would deliver it into my home.”

           “No way lady, that’s the set up service. You paid for the delivery service. That's an entirely different fee.” He repeated.

           “Understood” Your lips pulled into a flat line “Well sir could you at least help me get it into the first floor of my house?”

           “Did you pay for transportation insurance?”

           “….no…I didn-”  he cut you off “Well sorry Lady, I can’t help you.”

           “You can’t help me off load this huge AC and just carry it up 7 measly steps with me?”

           “Nope, can’t do it. It’s against company policy. Say I should look up at a pretty bird cuz the day’s so gorgeous and what not, then your unit slips out of my hand, there goes your cool breeze. Who’s gonna pay for that? Certainly not the company, cuz you didn’t pay for the transport insurance. That's a different fee. Now you’re angry at me, I mean technically it was my fault for being so clumsy and distractable and what not. But guess who else isn’t gonna pay? Me! Then guess whos gonna be upset and take me to court but loose horrifically because my brother in law just passed the bar? You! So lady no, I can’t help you. Why don’t you get one of the other tenants in the building to help you?”

           “Well, not that it’s any of your business, but I own the brownstone and I live alone. So there’s no one that could help me.”

           “You had enough money to get a brownstone but not enough to pay the fee?”

           “Alright thanks whatever your name is. I’ll just take my AC Now.”

           You looked at him while you struggled for 15 minutes just to get the AC out of the truck and the second you safely had it on the baking concrete of the curb you heard the back of the truck slide down and heard a door slam. You turned around to see the truck driver starting up the car and he shouted over the roaring engine.

           “Thanks for shopping with Coole Breeze, your number one cooling solution  in the tricity area, have a frosty day!” and with that, he was off.

           Even though you were wearing a  pretty airy romper and you did work out about 3 times a week, that was nothing against that heavy ass air conditioner and that Brooklyn heat. You put your hands on top your head and squinted up the sky. You again thank God your street was empty. You must have sweated out your Twist out and edges by now. You were convinced you were looking crazy. But hey, It was a Tuesday at 1. Everyone who was someone was at work, kids were in school so it was just you and this behemoth air conditioning unit.  Getting into classic Y/N calculations your decided what you were going to do. Yes, this AC was, technically for your room but you won’t be able to get it all the way up there by yourself right now so you can create a pulley system and pull it through the window. Huffing and puffing to your started mimicking your father.

           ‘Buy a fixer upper baby girl, it's a great investment. You could build your dream home and sell it eventually , it’ll be fun! Your brother and I will fly up there to help you whenever you need us or have free time. Matter of fact I’m pretty sure my army buddy Wilson still lives in New York…Not sure the part though. But I know he and his boy are engineers of some sort. I can even ring them up to help you when I can’t make it myself. This will be a terrific family project honey!’

           “ Sure dad!” you shouted at no one in particular “ who’s going to help me now though?!” At least your mother had the foresight to buy you a fully equipped toolbox, 12 foot ladder and a whole bunch of things that a new homeowner/renovator needs. It took a bit of maneuvering but you were able to get the ladder out the door and down the steps. You were now atop of it, building and hammering away at a pulley system. You were determined to sleep in a chilly 50 degrees tonight, by any means necessary. You saw two men one white and one black, approaching from your left through your peripheral vision. You steeled yourself to any cat calling that may occur, from the angle - to what you had on, it wasn’t a good situation. You couldn't make out faces but you could see that one was visibly bigger than the other. They stopped walking a little behind you and you couldn't tell which one asked but you heard someone say

           “Hi, do you need any help?”

           “O fanks” You replied with a slight lift of your hand with a screwdriver hanging out the side of your mouth and a heavy covering of sweat on your forehead. Using the back of your hand to wipe the sweat off you removed the screwdriver from your mouth and cleared your throat then repeated “No thanks” In a clearer manner. Thinking to yourself how could these guys even help me? While screwing and grunting softly you weren’t mentally present. You were trying to solve the problem you created. You had written yourself into a corner and you were trying to figure out a way out of it. You started to get the thread of an idea that you were mentally trying to work into a tapestry for your readers, however, while still trying to flesh it out something else was fighting for your attention. In the back of your mind you heard his voice again.

           “Are you sure? We may be able to be of better help than you thin-” Remembering your mothers call the night before talking about a movie she watched on lifetime where people in the ‘big city’ would help you get something into your house as supposed good Samaritans then come back and rob you, or do worse you decided against it instantly.

           “Listen, thanks but no.” You huffed out “Apparently I paid for the delivery service and not the installation service as the lovely delivery man told me. This however does NOT include carrying my AC up the 4 flights of stairs to my bedroom because that's apparently another fee. So no, there isn’t anything you gentlemen could do for me” You heard a little chuckle behind you and heard a quieter deeper voice say:

           “You have to pay the fees, that’s where they get you” his voice was full of laughter. He wasn’t outright laughing but you could still somehow hear it in his voice.

           Momentarily forgetting you were on a ladder you whipped around to give the guy a piece of your mind. But all it takes is a moment. And in that moment, you were falling backward off a 12 foot ladder. Back, back, back, you go thinking this is how it would end. You dead on the concrete. You hadn’t been to china town yet! Why hadn’t you been to china town? Or the empire state building! OR the statue of liberty! You shouldn't have rushed your mom off the phone last night. You would have given anything to hear her aimless ramblings and numerous ‘be carefuls’ one last time. OH GOD! You hadn’t had sex in a year and a half! This is how you were going to die. Trying to tell off some harassers with an uncompleted house in your name before you started your dream job. You squeezed your eyes shut and braced for impact

           Your body hit something that was hard like cement but was warmer and…. Somehow smelled like leather? And Christmas? And Home somehow? You opened your eyes to see a face partially obscured by a blue baseball hat pulled down over the front and a full beard. You couldn't see who he was and he was leaning in close to your face while he held you. There was something so familiar about him, but you couldn't place it. His voice kept fading in and out of your head.

           “Ma’am? Ma’am! Stay with me!”

Sounding like echos of screams and whispers bouncing off the inside of your skull all at once you blinked slow and mustered out what you could:

           “Don't…Tell me what to do…Asshole” and everything faded to black.

_______________________________________________________________________

Okay guys! thats about it for the first one. I would really appreciate the feedback! Is this something you would want more of? Or should I move on to some other fic ideas I have? Let me know and thanks for reading!

[captainskyson]

Help?

Fellow writers! What programs do you use for your stories - particularly your long fics? I used to use Apple Pages, but after a Cloud crash and lost document scare, I haven’t trusted it since. Google Docs has also been much friendlier in regards to keeping my formatting when I post into Ao3.

However! I’ve recently come to discover that Docs was not made for large files - responsiveness started to drag slower and slower as my chapter count increased, and now at 468 pages it will only allow me to read the document and won’t actually connect to the cloud so I can make edits. (It stopped being able to open the file on my phone at all a long time ago, lol.)

For the time being, I’ve started up a new file where the old one left off - but is there a program out there that can handle large documents and I can keep everything together in one file? I’m curious to hear what other programs you all use.

[purplesurveys]

609

What has been the most annoying thing about your day so far? I had a blood test done for my dog last Friday and they still haven’t updated me about the availability of the results. They really shouldn’t have said “Wait within the day or tomorrow” if they weren’t going to be able to deliver their promise up to THREE days later because it’s just giving me more anxiety.  Is your computer running slow today? (Mine is, and it's annoying!!!!) No. I don’t do a lot of things with mine and it’s especially relaxed now that school’s out for Christmas and the programs I usually have on are now closed. Do you own a romper? Yes, I have a couple. Do you have a smartphone or a dumb phone, or no phone? I have a...smartphone, I guess. What popular social media platforms AREN'T you on? Instagram.

Have you ever spilled nail polish? I don’t think I have, no. What was the last thing you were stressed about? Well, since you got me talking about my dog’s blood test, then that. I’ll also be stressing over my Incomplete marks throughout the holiday break. What does your computer's slow-loading cursor look like? I don’t get it – like what shows up when my laptop kinda lags? It shows me the Mac rainbow pinwheel. Do you prefer Microsoft Word or Pages? I use Google Docs to write class notes and to work on anything acads-related. I used to use Pages, then I realized it didn’t suit me so I moved on to Microsoft OneNote, then it just traumatized me after I tried using it for my notes in Econ class which I barely passed – so I just moved on to GDocs. Would you rather have a trampoline or swimming pool? Swimming pool. I have little use for a trampoline. Are you angry at someone right now? Myself, as always. Do you ever dream of getting revenge? It’s an occasional thought just so I feel satisfied but it never gets into specifics. Do you have the same favorite colors you had when you were a kid? Mmm no. My favorite as a kid was purple, because it was my great-grandma’s favorite and a lot of her stuff was purple. When she passed, I saw it less and less and I phased it out as my favorite color. What do you like to put in your tea? I don’t like tea. What do you like to put in smoothies? There’s one smoothie that I admittedly do like; it’s called the Breakfast Smoothie from Go Salads but I dunno what’s in it so let me look it up real quick – ok so I just checked Zomato, and it consists of apple, banana, cinnamon, oats, coco sugar, chia seeds, greens, and soy milk. I don’t make smoothies myself but if I absolutely had no choice, I’d get that specific kind. Do your stuffed animals have names? I don’t even own any stuffed toys. What was the name of the first porcelien doll you got? I never had one. What would you like to paint on a rock? I’ve never thought about painting on a rock. Do you own any tapestries, and if so, what's on it/them? Nope. Do you sell any products? If so, what? No, I don’t. Am really not the business-y/entrepreneurial type, lmao. If not, do you want to start a business? See above. Have your parents ever crushed your dreams? No, they have always been accepting and supportive. Bonus points to my dad for not laughing in my face when I told him I wanted to be a runway model back when I was 12 because I WOULD HAVE. Do you own anything cheetah print? I have a hand-me-down tank top with a cheetah print but I only wear that around the house. Do you know how to knit? No, I never learned how to. We were taught knitting and crocheting in home ec but I have a very hard time learning if it’s hands-on (which also explains why I can’t do origami), so I was never able to catch up with my classmates and never got to submit final projects either. Have you ever made a collage for your bedroom wall? I did like a lettering thing of a quote made up of cut-up magazine pages when I was in high school, but I’m not sure if that counts as a collage. Do you make DIY projects and gifts? No, because I’m terrible at anything DIY. Would you ever get a tattoo? I would but it would take A LOT of courage, crying, and getting over my fear of needles lmao. Is your computer slow? Nope. The one time it noticeably lagged was when I downloaded The Sims 4 and started playing it. I quickly realized it isn’t a gaming laptop though so I had the program deleted almost immediately. What types of churches do you find really boring? All of them. Would you ever start a small group in your home? Uh, like a cult? No, that’s pretty weird. Do you have an inspiration board? No, I don’t. What do you take when your back hurts? I don’t take anything, I just change my position to one where my back won’t feel as strained. Does your back hurt right now? Not so much at the moment. What color are your nails painted? THEY AREN’TTTTTT Are you wearing a romper? I don’t wear rompers around the house lmao. Do you have a colored teddy bear? Nope. On what day is your local grocery store the busiest? I’m guessing Sunday, since everyone usually goes out on Sundays anyway. What day do you usually go grocery shopping? My mom does hers on the weekends.  Do you prefer to shop online or in stores? In stores tbh because I get to see the products before thinking about buying them, but I won’t deny that online shopping is also a lot more convenient. Do you like shopping? Looking through shelves and hangers can be overwhelming for me so no not really, but it does feel good when I’ve already bought everything I want/need haha. Do you own any band t-shirts? Just one.

Do you have an annoying neighbor? They have annoying kids, but no I don’t have issues with the neighbors. Do you have a dream? Sure. Do you own a pair of Lularoe leggings? No. Would you ever wear leggings as pants? I have before. Owls or peacocks? Peacocks, I guess? Lions or horses? Lions. Do you like getting caught in the rain without an umbrella? No. Can you still fit into kid's clothes? Kid’s clothes are hella small so I highly doubt it, but I do have a rather petite figure. Would you rather wear orange or black? Black. Is your kitchen floor black and white checkered? It isn’t. Do you own bar stools? We don’t. Who have you been told you look like? I’ve been told I look and speak like Frankie Pangilinan lmao. I also had a high school classmate who liked telling me I look like Lucy Hale but I haaaaaaardly see the resemblance. What color are your doorknobs? Gold. Do you feel like you are waiting for life to start? Now more than ever, yeah. What devotional do you read, if any? Do you own a bobblehead? Not since I was a kid. What do you make wishes on? Just candles. Do you own pastel-colored jeggings? I don’t own jeggings at all. Are you in physical pain right now? Not anymore since I got my teeth treated. So relieving. Are you in emotional distress right now? Always during the holiday season. What color nail polishes do you think are best for summer? I don’t care. What's the best natural pain reliever? Dogs and good food. Do you like trees? I’m not particularly obsessed but I do care for them, if that’s what you’re asking. Do you own a flashlight? Yeah, I have one in my car that doubles as a taser. What is your city known for? Rice cakes, a waterfall, its resorts, and being on a mountain. What is your state known for? Rizal isn’t particularly known for anything other than being near Metro Manila and large chunks of it being atop a mountain lol. What is your country known for? A murderous president, being in the news for hurricanes and floods, beaches like Palawan and Boracay, and balut, which so many people are pussies about. Do you have a church home? I don’t even know what that means. If the local mailman sent you a facebook friend request, would you accept? No. What's your favorite Paramore song? OMG ARE YOU KIDDING HAVE YOU READ THIS TUMBLR Do you like the song "Fake Happy"? YES Do you tan easily? A bit, yeah. Do you own plaid pants? Nope. What did your first Barbie doll look like? I don’t remember because I didn’t really like playing with Barbies. Do you like scrambled eggs? Love them. They’re my favorite kind of eggs, along with omelets. Have you ever made a recipe you found in a magazine? Nope. Have you ever done a craft that you saw in a magazine? I probably did as a kid. What kind of business would you most like to start? Food, most likely. Are you bitter about anything? Aren’t we all. What is your favorite nail polish color? I don’t caaaaare. What is your favorite color for cars? White. What is your favorite color for bridesmaid dresses? Something muted, like dirty white or cream or beige. I don’t want a lot of flashy colors in my wedding. What is your favorite color in general? Right now it’s pastel pink. Do you look good in black? Yes. Do you ever wear orange? Rarely. Do you have a twin? No. If you had a twin, what would he or she be named? I don’t have a clue.

[kaisallee1560514-blog]

What Is The Best Manner To Convert Mp4 To Mp3 Information In Bulk?

Is the quickest and easiest method to convert audio to video online. HD Video Converter MP4 is a fast and fundamental plartform that allows you to obtain videos from all the popular social media platforms corresponding to Fb, YouTube, Instagram, Vimeo, Dailymotion and Twitter. The video is converted to HD High quality MP4 and different high quality video codecs for you to obtain. Supported Audio File Codecs: WAV, MP3, WMA, M4A, OGG, AVI, FLAC, AAC, AU, AIF, WMA and extra. In case you still need a devoted instrument, then we like the free Doxillion Doc Converter Software program (for Windows and macOS). It supports Phrase, HTML, PDF, and other widespread document formats. And it's easy to use, handling every little thing by means of a single one-screen interface. Hit the Add Recordsdata button to build an inventory of information, then set your output options within the pane beneath. Free MP3 to M4R converter on-line, convert MP3 to M4R, convert WAV to M4R, create iPhone ringtone, make M4R iPhone ringtone. This M4R converter works directly out of your web browser, it allows you to convert mp3 to mp4 online a song to M4R audio format (for iPhone ringtones), so you can use the transformed M4R audio file in your iPhone as ringtone. Edit movies earlier than changing with options of cropping, trimming, rotating, adding watermarks, etc. Throughout setup, Free Video Converter tries to put in a toolbar and an Web browser in addition to attempts to change your default homepage, however you can easily skip them. Below Convert possibility you will notice Add Recordsdata. From there, a window will pop up that can will let you choose M4A files from your computer and open with the program. You may also drag and drop recordsdata to the program. One other manner of uploading is clicking on the inbuilt browser after which seek for the suitable M4A file. After selecting the proper profile, click on on the Browse button and choose your vacation spot folder and the identify of the brand new MP3 file that shall be created. Web Video Converter is a free video converter that helps most main formats.

Step 1: Add your MP4 information. You'll be able to extract them from your computer or Google Drive and so on. On the record of installed applications select Free MP4 to MP3 Converter and then click Uninstall. It will launch the uninstall wizard. You will take pleasure in higher quality of audio due to built-in MP3 normalizer. It enhances too quiet audio recordsdata or their parts like music, speech information and voices in films' soundtracks robotically. At the same time it is not going to change already adjusted audio quantity. Use MP3 files for net pages, internet movies, in fact for anything on the Web. An MP3 file is a compressed music file. It masses rapidly and still performs with a very good sound quality. There are a number of ranges of possible compression however for Web usage we recommend 128kbps which is what you obtain mechanically from our server whenever you order music from us. In case your venture requires a different level of compression you may simply do it yourself with iTunes using theWAV file equipped together with your order. With this online video converter you'll be able to add your mp4, avi, WebM, flv, wmv and lots of other standard forms of video and wealthy media information to show them into top quality animated GIFs. Supply video file will be uploaded out of your computer or smartphone or fetched from one other server by URL. Profile: Choose the profile with the encoding that you just'd like your new file to be. As an example, in case you chosen aMP4 file for converting toMP3, you'd use the "Audio - MP3" profile. 5. Select OKAY after which press the large green Start button that appears on the backside of the display. Inside seconds the file shall be transformed. You'll know the conversion is full when you see the Conversion Full field pop-up. Press the OKAY button to finish the method.

If in case you have any questions on converting recordsdata or any other types of recordsdata, please depart a comment beneath. We're blissful to assist reply all your video conversion questions. In the new window, Choose the directory for output file, choose the conversion profile (Audio mp3) and click on Start button. 5. Go to the MP4 video file saved in your pc. Nonetheless, M4P is a protected format, just a few on-line file converters will work with it. Moreover, some online service could comprise spy ware, adware or other potential security hazards. So I personally advocate you to go for Methodology 1 to deal with the entire course of offline in a protected surroundings. The free desktop program is sweet enough in security and performance. More wonderful features are ready so that you can discover. MP4 files can comprise video and sound data. It's a file container that helps different multimedia content material types resembling multiple audio streams, subtitles, 2D and 3D picture frames. MP4 can be used for streaming media services (on-line or digital TV). This file sort helps the management of transmission speeds for media signal, as well as correcting corrupted frames. Thanks to comparatively low system necessities, MP4 is now the most well-liked container kind for sharing media. If you happen to've bought music from the iTunes Retailer, you will have AAC information at 256 kbps (that is kilobits per second, a sign of the quality of the compression; increased numbers are better). For those who've bought from Amazon, you may have MP3 files, most probably in VBR (variable bit fee compression), so the bit price you see might be a mean. Recordsdata from other sites could also be in FLAC and even WAV format; the previous is the commonest for lossless information, notably from websites that sell reside or classical music. Apple Lossless: Also called ALAC, convert mp3 to mp4 online Apple Lossless is much like FLAC. It is a compressed lossless file, though it's made by Apple. Its compression is not quite as efficient as FLAC, so your information may be a bit larger, but it surely's totally supported by iTunes and iOS (while FLAC isn't). Thus, you'd need to use this when you use iTunes and iOS as your major music listening software. An audio converter is a software used to transform one type of audio file (like an MP3, WMA, WAV and so on) to another. For example, when you've got an audio file whose format shouldn't be supported by any of your computer applications , then you definitely won't be capable of play the file without changing it to a format that your pc supports. This is where audio converter software program turns out to be useful.

[leiaramos651-blog]

How To Convert WMA To MP4 (With Photos)

Freemake Audio Converter converts music recordsdata between 50+ audio formats. One other utility that may be utilized to for YouTube to mp3 to mp4 converter linux conversion is the Similar to the opposite on-line converters that now we have discussed, this instrument can even rip MP3 audio from video within minutes relying on one's internet velocity and video file size. The only factor that issues me about this app is it stops working and makes your browser crashes sometimes. Another useful gizmo from DVDVideoSoft, Free YouTube Obtain comes with an enormous 25 video conversion choices that may convert your information robotically as soon as they've downloaded for viewing on completely different units. To extract MP3 from MP4 on Mac, you must use an MP4 to MP3 Converter Mac. Here I introduce three Mac MP4 to MP3 converters so that you can convert MP4 to MP3 Mac. Take a look. In the "Profile" bar, you possibly can directly choose MP4 as output format. Please see this EULA and Privacy policy for the Miro Video Converter utility and installers. In contrast to different services, our app has no limit on the variety of recordsdata you'll be able to convert. Convert as many as you need. AAC: Advanced Audio Coding , also referred to as AAC, is just like MP3, though it's a bit extra efficient. Which means that you can have recordsdata that take up much less area, but with the same sound quality as MP3. And, with Apple's iTunes making AAC so standard, it's nearly as widely appropriate with MP3. I've only ever had one device that could not play AACs properly, and that was just a few years in the past, so it's fairly onerous to go mistaken with AAC both. WAV format information comprise uncompressed audio and that will result in large file sizes, depending on the length. MP3 is the most well-liked file format for audio. It makes use of specific compression methods that scale back the file dimension of the audio with out shedding important high quality of the recording. Moo0 Audio Converter enables you to simply convert audio information into different codecs. Click on the "Begin" button to start converting your file. Freemake is a feature-wealthy and intensely straightforward to use audio converter that supports multiple input and output audio file codecs. With Freemake, you may combine multiple files into one giant audio file. This software additionally means that you can regulate the output quality earlier than file conversion starts. Input formats supported embody MP3, WMA, WAV, OGG, M4R, M4A, FLAC, AC3, AMR, and AAC. Output formats supported embrace MP3, WMA, WAV, OGG, mp3 to mp4 converter linux M4A, FLAC, and AAC.

Any Video Converter is a superb video format converter that designed with zero costs. So you'll be able to convert one video format to the desired video format totally free, akin to convert MP4 to AVI and more. What's more, Any Video Converter is a simple-to-use program and anybody can function it with out too many abilities. Reap the benefits of OVC's free MP4 to MP3 converter for getting prime quality MP3 recordsdata out of your present MP4 movies. Our extremely versatile video converter supports conversions to many different formats as well. The Miro Video Converter and Miro names, logos, and icons are trademarks of the Participatory Culture Foundation (PCF). I want to take an mp3 audio file and have an mp4 file constructed from it with an image of my alternative showing when the mp4 file is being played in VLC or when uploaded to youtube. Batch processing is supported for changing a number of files at a time. The software program helps one-click on video to MP3 obtain at tremendous fast pace and in lossless quality. Native movies can be transformed in a few simple steps. Extra features include video enhancing, video obtain, video transfer, DVD burning, GIF making, and others. Thus Wondershare Video Converter Ultimate process to be one of the best different to free on-line video to MP3 converter. Click "File" and choose "Set Output Folder." Select the place you want all converted recordsdata to be positioned. Then click on on Convert video button. Once added the music successfully, you may click on setting button to vary the basic parameters (Including Output format, Output quality and Conversion speed, etc). If you should obtain Spotify music to MP3, please choose MP3 as output format. I love Any Video Converter. There are a whole lot of video converter software program solutions and I have tried many of them, but there's none better than Any Video Converter. Any Video Converter has saved me a lot time and time is money. I tell everyone I do know to get Any Video Converter when they need video conversion. thirteen. Go to the MP4 video file saved in your pc. fre:ac gives full help for the Unicode character set. That means it will probably deal with not solely Latin scripts, but in addition Japanese, Cyrillic, Arabic or Indian. Should you like music from everywhere in the world, you possibly can tag your files correctly. This conversion tool help conversion of MP4 files such asmp4,m4p,m4b,m4v to MP3 format. In case you are on the lookout for a instrument to carry out conversion the other method around (GIF to Video), give our GIF to MP4 or GIF to WebM converter a try.

Before we start describing why the Audio & Music Lab Premium is the proper software program for converting MP4 to MP3 , we should make clear the terminology first. Not like the pure audio format MP3, MP4 is a multimedia file format. It is a digital container for various content and is predicated on the Apple QuickTime format. It is ceaselessly used to save lots of digital audio content material and video streams. But it will also be used to save audio and video tracks in addition to subtitles, 2ND and 3D graphics.Compared with music and movie files, documents appear relatively simple. However changing between document codecs can be trickier, because a lot of them—the Phrase doc format from Microsoft, the Pages doc format from Apple, and so on—are proprietary. Step 2: Choose the video format you wish to convert to, corresponding to AVI format. After which modify the video settings at the video tab. Nonetheless, if you already know the best instrument to transform those movies in mp3 format and obtain on to your phone or PC to play them offline, you would finally save all these subscription charges.MP4 is likely one of the most popularly used video codecs which can be known for maintaining high quality even after file compression. Nonetheless being a video file, it occupies first rate storage space. When you've got various MP4 videos that you simply only use for enjoying the audio, changing it to MP3 shall be a sensible step to save house. Moreover, there are a variety of media players that does not support MP4 format for playing only the soundtrack. The only resolution in all these circumstances is to transform video MP4 to MP3. Wondershare Video Converter Final is one apt MP4 to MP3 audio converter that ends in lossless high quality output file at super quick pace. The software program works on each Home windows and Mac system and takes care of all conversion needs. With assist to over 1000 formats, Video Converter Final additionally works as MP3 to MP4 converter. Look for the steps under to know easy methods to convert MP4 to MP3.

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CDA MP3 Converter

You possibly can trim any MP3 file totally free in Mac OS X thanks to the bundled QuickTime Player app, which comes preinstalled on every single Mac. In this easy tutorial, we are going to use the Format Factory" which is an incredible common media file converter. These are a number of the strategies that provide help to convert audio CDs to MP3 format so that you may listen to them on other gadgets reminiscent of computers, iPods, and MP3 gamers. Now you possibly can convert audio tracks right in your browser. It's quick, secure, and free. Convert your music and videos to a different audio format and add audio filters to it. Supported output codecs are: - MP3 - OGG Vorbis - Opus - FLAC - WAV Home windows releases are zip recordsdata. Just obtain the latest, extract it, and run theexe file in the extracted folder. On Linux you possibly can set up it with Flatpak and Flathub: `flatpak install flathub com.github.Bleuzen.FFaudioConverter` The code is presently on GitHub: This is only a mirror. Briefly, hook up the participant through USB, obtain Audacity 2.0.5 (free), change Mac System Preferences - Sound - Input - to "USB PnP Audio System". In Audacity, go to the Transport tab and turn off Overdub, and turn on Software Playthrough (can also be modified beneath Audacity - Preferences - Recording). Make DOC and DOCX recordsdata easy to learn by converting them to PDF. Hey! The software program is awesome. It took me so long to search out an audio converter that wasnt crammed filled with useless, superfluous options that I could not doable care about.

Word: Free Audio CD to MP3 Converter automatically fills the tags and the artwork, which may be seen in iTunes, Winamp or only a Home windows Explorer folder. Write your videos to DVD - Now it can save you your videos on a disc and watch with your loved ones on TELEVISION. You can even obtain online movies with iSkysoft iMedia Converter Deluxe. Step 1. Upload your audio files. Drag and drop your media recordsdata directly into this system window or click on Add" button to choose them from the supply folder. Select your file within the Supply Listing" window and select MP3" within the Destination Info Sort" window. Since that you just need to convert CDA file to MP3 file, and then it is possible you will must set the exported information as MP3 file format freely. The Profile" panel might probably be thought-about the place you can select MP3 audio file beneath the Widespread Audio" sub-tab below the Format" menu. You'll be able to change the observe's title, artist, album, yr and style. Tags are supported for mp3, ogg, flac, wav. There are dozens of different video codecs, and generally you'll want to modify between them. That is while you want a video converter, and whereas free video conversion software is a superb choice in case you have a large batch of files to transform, a web-based tool is extra convenient for infrequent use. We'll preserve this article up to date frequently so that you at all times know the place to search out one of the best websites for converting your videos without these limitations. A: This is a good question, however sadly, the brief answer is SURE. Since MP3 is a lossy audio format, changing any audio codecs (e.g. CD Audio) to MP3 is a quality-loss process, but with the build-in Lame MP3 encoder, the encoded MP3 files sound like a trustworthy copy of the unique CDA music collections to most listeners. Additionally, we provide free online audio conversion service which does not occupy your phone CPU. CDA to MP3 Converter supports most generally used common enter and output audio codecs. It's not doable to add the ID3 tags themselves to an audio disc, because all audio data will likely be converted" to a particular file format which only contains audio data. There are many audio formats on the market. The most typical of them are such codecs as MP3 (MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) and WAV. The format kind usually corresponds to the file extension (the letters within the file identify after the dot, for examplemp3,wav,ogg,wma). I've an Mp3 file i have to convert towav to be able to import it into a voice changer program. You will note few popping up windows displaying the download and import of the log to your Revo Uninstaller Professional and then the primary Uninstall dialog that reveals the progress of the uninstall of CDA to MP3 Converter. MP3Reducer is a free service that means that you can scale back MP3 file measurement on-line, compress mp3 audio files online. Helpful service to fit more songs on your MP3 participant by decreasing the MP3 audio bitrate. Just select the MP3 audio file and then click the button "Add File". It could actually assist you to Convert Cda To Mp3 Online video and audio files to make them supported by PSP. Choose the choice if you wish to open the information in Audition after conversion. In Home windows Media Player, click on Arrange to bring down the drop-down menu, then click on Options. Tips and recommendation concerning the web copyright registration of audio files. You'll be able to view all file choice by machine, audio and video. Codecs together with; AAC, MP3, MP4, RealAudio, RealAudio Lossless, WAV, WMA. Windows Media Participant is exclusive to Windows computer systems. If not, then click on on the Browse for a file (folder + magnifying glass) button, choose yourcue file and click on Open. The audio converter app works perfectly-i finally discovered a freeware to transform FLAC to Apple lossless and maintain the tags. If you're ripping songs to put in your iPod, MP3 is what you need to keep on with. Just insert the audio CD within the CD tray and select the Rip Selected Tracks to MP3 choice from the Rip menu. Not only can Hamster convert a number of audio recordsdata in bulk, but it could possibly merge the files into one, very similar to Freemake Audio Converter.PowerISO shows CD Ripper window. All tracks in the disc might be listed. Choose the audio tracks which you want to rip mp3, and click on "Rip" button on toolbar. A: It is simple! Just click the CDA to MP3 Converter download button on the page. Clicking this hyperlink will start the installer to acquire CDA to MP3 Converter free for Home windows. CDA to MP3 Converter converts CDA to MP3 in batch. The converter moreover supports DTS Audio CD. The software is an ALL-IN-ONE audio converter that converts more than ninety audio and video formats to AAC, AIFF, ALAC, CAF, FLAC, M4A, M4B, MP3, MP4, OGG, WAV, WMA, and so on.