Thursday, February 28, 2013

Simple Ways To Protect Your Online Data

Guest post by Rick Delgado

Cybercrime is becoming a more prevalent problem every year in the United States. This is because much of what used to be performed in face-to-face interactions are now done online. For example, you probably did most of your holiday shopping last year while sitting down at your computer. Criminals are well aware of the type of information you are providing websites with and are making greater efforts to access that information.
Preventing a problem is always better than trying to clean up afterwards. Knowing how to protect yourself online will save you a lot of stress and problems.
With so much risk attributed to the internet, it is essential to take necessary precautions. In addition to heavy-duty network security programs, or encrypting data before emailing sensitive information, there are simple steps you can take to make sure criminals can't steal sensitive information. Consider some of the following:

Use Privacy Settings
Social media sites allow you to choose how private you want your profile to be. It is smart to only allow people you know and trust to view your social media sites. Identity thieves will often study someone's Facebook or Twitter account to help them take on your identity

Don't Use Personal Information on Social Media
In addition to making your social media private, don't put potentially sensitive information about yourself on it. Even a birthday can give cyber-criminal clues to a password or verification question on your bank account's website. While it seems harmless, it might be a good idea to leave that information out. Your family and friends should know your birthday anyways.

Use Several Usernames and Passwords
Don't use the same password for your Facebook and bank account. Criminals use algorithms to figure out passwords. If they do happen to figure one out, they still won't be able to access information from all your accounts. Also, change your passwords frequently for an added layer of protection. Don't make your passwords obvious either.

Be Cautious of Foreign Facebook Apps
Apps have the potential to access a lot of personal information. Some of these apps are specifically designed to take your information and sell it to criminals. Be cautious of which apps you buy and what country the app is from. You are likely to be safer with apps made in developed countries like the United States.

Don't Trust Public Computers
Don't use public computers, like those in libraries or internet cafes, for sensitive financial transactions. That information could be stolen through the network. If you do use public computers, make sure to log out when you leave. If you don't, people can trace your history or log into your accounts.

Lock Your Phone
People who use smartphones are more likely to have information stolen. Have a lock or password on your screen. Don't leave passwords up on important websites. You have a lot of important information traveling around with you in your pocket. If your information isn't properly secured and you lose or misplace your phone, you could be in serious trouble.

Close Old Accounts
It is always a good idea to reduce your digital footprint. For example, if you no longer use certain social media sites, delete them. The less information you have about yourself on the internet, the harder it will be for identity thieves to trace you.

Keep An Eye on Your Accounts
Once criminals access your information they will make purchases with your credit card. Review your finances frequently to make sure there aren't any unaccounted for transactions. If you do notice any, report them immediately to your bank so you don't lose any more money.

You can never be too careful when it comes to protecting yourself and your family from hackers, identity thieves, and other cyber threats. Your virtual security is extremely important and can keep you from becoming a victim of not so virtual crimes.


About the Author: Rick Delgado is a freelance writer who specializes in the latest advancements in technology and gadgets, and is an expert in preventing online fraud.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

WavePad FFT Spectrum Audio Analysis Software

WavePad sound editor is more than just an easy audio editing program. Once you scratch the surface there are powerful audio engineering tools available for the more advanced user. These tools include the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and the Time-Based Fast Fourier Transform (TFFT) which are both very useful tools to perform sound analysis on the spectral content of the audio. These audio spectrum analyzer tools have applications in a number of areas, including linguistics, mathematics, and sound engineering including reducing noise and vibration testing and analysis.

Audio FFT Graph
fft analyzer software for audio frequency analysis The FFT analyzer graph is designed to illustrate characteristics of audio at only one point in time. It takes a small sample of audio and plots the sound frequency in Hz against the audio intensity in decibels. If the audio is in stereo two lines will be plotted on the graph, otherwise, just one plot will be displayed.

Audio TFFT Graph
Time-based fast fourier transform audio spectrum analyzer software The TFFT graph maps the audio intensity of the frequency spectrum across time for the duration of the audio clip, representing the intensity through color. On this graph the x-axis is time and the y-axis is the frequency with the decibel intensity being mapped to the color intensity scale, with black representing -128 dB and white representing 0 dB.

Both the discrete and temporal fast Fourier transform frequency analysis graphs can be created/opened from the Tools tab and both graphs will update in real-time as you move to different positions in the audio file, or even as you play the audio so you can better see what is happening in the audio. So, download WavePad audio analyzer software to take a closer look at audio and learn how to analyze voice patterns and more.

Friday, February 22, 2013

VideoPad: Video Editing Excellence

Excellent video editing software We are very proud of the fact that even though VideoPad hasn't broken into the top three on TopTenReviews' list—yet—they have awarded our video editor for excellence. With each new release, we strive to add more of the advanced features professionals crave, and just as importantly stay easy to use. That user-friendly quality that allows everyone to make movies is in a large part what TopTenReviews has noticed and is recognizing:

"Using VideoPad requires little effort. Before we even looked at the manual, we were able to create a video. To add transitions, effects and more, all you have to do is drag and drop them in place ... Overall, VideoPad has some excellent features. It can import files directly from many types of devices and it has 3D and green-screen capabilities. It is easy to use and has basic editing tools."
    –  TopTenReviews

If you haven't tried VideoPad video editing software yet, why not download a copy today. We think you will agree that VideoPad is both an excellent and easy video editor. Those of you who are already VideoPad users remember you can always send us suggestions on how we can make VideoPad even better. With your help, those other video editors better watch out, because we plan to keep moving VideoPad forward and raising the bar on video editing excellence.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Making Fast & Accurate Transcriptions from Audio Files

Guest post by Danielle McAnn of Smartdocs

People Make Fast Accurate Transcription Transcription work requires close attention to detail. Every transcription should be assessed individually, as each one will depend on length, quality of recording and turnaround time. There are large companies such as Smartdocs dedicated purely to the transcription of audio files into text documents. We all know that while machine and audio transcription technology has come a long way, it is still useless compared with the keen ear and eye of a human when it comes to decoded human voices and interpreting human speech. Especially when there is more complex terminology being used as is the case in most medical and legal transcriptions. In other words, if you want a high quality, accurate transcription, you need a human to so it. That doesn't mean that you can't use technological aides to help you with professional transcription.

Tools like Express Scribe offer things like variable speed playback of both audio and video files, and transcription file management, making high quality, human transcription much much easier. And, with digital dictation software you can record and send dictation straight to someone else, whether a fellow typist or the document owner. It doesn't matter whether you are using a Mac or PC operating system, you still need a reliable audio software that you can control and manipulate with an effective user interface, because this will make the entire transcription process more efficient and more importantly, produce accurate transcribed files.

Monday, February 18, 2013

Quickly Cut Music and Audio Files

WavePad music editing and cutting software provide several easy options for cutting music and mp3 files. Whether you want to trim off silence or cut out a section to use as a ringtone or split long recording into smaller audio files, here is a look at how you can cut, trim and split sections of your mp3, music and audio files.
    Music cutting software to easily Trim and Split Audio MP3 Songs
  1. Trim
    To trim, or cut off, the beginning and end of a file, simply select the region you want to keep, then you can use the shortcut CTRL+T or, choose Trim (delete all but the current selection) from the Trim drop-down menu on the Edit tab. Here you can also see other choices for trimming down an audio file, including Trim start and Trim end that will respectively delete everything from either before or after the current position.
  2. Auto Trim
    If you are deleting silence from the start and end of your audio you can save yourself the step of finding the start and endpoints and selecting a region. Instead use Auto Trim to scan the audio file and remove the beginning and ending regions that are below the Auto Trim threshold.
  3. Split
    To keep the sections on both sides of the current position as individual files, instead of trimming move over to the Split drop-down menu, which is also on the Edit tab.
  4. Auto Split
    Just as WavePad can detect silences at the beginning and end of a song, it can also detect silences in the middle of a file. So, if you recorded a whole set you can select a Split file at silences from the Split drop-down to separate the recording at each silent section so you can edit and save each song individually.

Friday, February 15, 2013

Everday Text Expansion

What do you type the most? your email address? your mailing address? maybe your phone number? or your web address? Are there any words you struggle to remember how to spell causing you to slow down and correct misspellings or typos? Or maybe you frequently browse to webpages just so you can copy and paste the links to make sure you get them correct.

Spring loaded text expansion for everyday use We are all constantly typing, from emails to forms online, and some of the things we are typing we have to type all of the time. FastFox text expansion software lets you save those words or phrases so you can not only enter them in faster, but also avoid typos. Think of it like auto complete that will work anywhere on your computer, or like a super powered clipboard that can save much more than just one snippet of text at a time. You pick your own shortcuts and what they are short for, then whenever you type the shortcut it will be automatically replaced. So, typing something like :em could be all you need to type to enter your email address, or you could just type :sig to add a signature to the end of an email, a comment you're making on a forum. Anywhere you type, if you enter one of your text shortcuts FastFox will automatically replace it with the expanded text.

The possibilities are endless, you don't need to be a typist or transcriptionist to find things that would make useful text shortcuts, just think, what do you type the most often? Once you've created shortcuts for those common items and phrases you will wonder what you ever did without them. Spend less time typing with this fast, everyday solution.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Software Sweethearts

With so much software, what's not to love?

VideoPad & Express Burn
This dynamic duo will guide you faithfully from beginning to end of any video project. Use VideoPad video editing software to capture, import, edit and add effects to your videos. Finish up by burning the video to DVD with Express Burn. Create a heartfelt video recording for your beau this Valentine's Day.

Sound Software Sweethearts
WavePad & MixPad
This pair is the audio software dream team. Use WavePad audio editor to record and edit a song first, then incorporate with other tracks with MixPad for your multi-track mixing needs. They work together seamlessly to help you create your own love song for your valentine this year.

Express Dictate & Express Scribe
If ever there was a practical match, it's this one. Express Dictate digital dictation software allows you to record dictation, and send to a transcriptionist, while Express Scribe makes transcription easy with features like variable speed playback, and file management.

Looking for the perfect match? Save by bundling related programs pairs and purchasing them together.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Boosting the Bass in Audio Files

Boosting Bass in Songs and Music Files with the WavePad Equalizer Want to boost up the bass in your music? The Equalizer in WavePad music editing software is your answer. Open your song in WavePad and select Equalize on the Effects tab. Equalizing allows you to adjust the level of frequencies in your audio amplifying ranges of sound frequencies. So you can change the volume of just the higher or lower (bass) frequencies in a song, as opposed to simply amplifying a song which will affect all of the frequencies.

Unlike a graphic equalizer you might see in a studio, with a multitude of knobs and dials for certain frequencies, the WavePad equalizer displays a graph of the frequencies going from the low frequencies at the left to the high frequencies on the right giving you very finite control of the frequency ranges you want to control. Move a point up on the graph to make the frequency stronger and lower a point to make it weaker.

To familiarize yourself with the equalizer take advantage of the presets to get started, but don't be afraid to play around with them and to adjust their settings to see how they affect your songs. To boost the bass start with the Low Pass filter presets. If you hit play you will hear the higher frequencies drop down, giving a boosted effect to the bass. Chances are the result won't be exactly what you wanted on the first shot, but this will provide a good starting place to make further adjustments. Changes aren't applied until you actually click Apply, so you can continue to tweak the graph as needed without fear.

Other preset filters include a High Pass Filter which is the opposite of the Low Pass Filter lowering the bass instead of the higher frequencies, a Band Pass Filter to maintain the frequencies in a specified range and lower the regions above and below that section, and several more that you can experiment with on your own, or go to the help for more details on the settings of each of these presets.

Try WavePad sound editor today to boost your bass and pump up the volume of your music.

Monday, February 4, 2013

Do More with Audio - Blog Carnival February 4, 2013


Here are this edition's entries to Do More with Audio:

Matt presents Play the Rings of a Tree Trunk Like a Record posted at Make: Blog, saying, "What would the trunk of a tree sound like if a cross section of it were played like an LP?"

Mary presents Music resources for small churches posted at The Mustard Seed Journal, saying, "links to sources of instrumental music for hymn singing and more."

Mel presents Audio reporting tools of the trade: then and now posted at journomel.com: Examining where journalism is heading, saying, "a shift from using many one-use devices to one device with many applications."

Darren presents C25K Podcast Music – Make Your Own and DIY! posted at PromoGuy dot Net, saying, "How you can create your own C25K podcast and get running!"

profmaja presents Why I Put a Recording Space in My Classroom posted at Day in the Life of a Backwards Musical Mind, saying, "A space for my students to work on their rhythm projects and promote excitement towards doing their best."

Jessica Clark presents 10 iPhone Apps for Recording & Editing Audio posted at Kenney Myers, saying, "Here is a list of 10 interesting applications that I have looked into recently for recording and editing audio."

Chris presents Epic Musical Mashup posted at Mental Floss, saying, "video artist Crumbs Chief mashes up an insane number of musical dance numbers, matching them to the mashup track 'Come Again (Beatles vs Rare Earth vs Beaties vs Daft Punk vs Cypress Hill vs Boston)' by the Kleptones."

Floppy music DUO - Imperial march by Paweł Zadrożniak:



You might also be interested in: That concludes this edition of Do More with Audio. If you have an audio story to share or advice, tips or tricks to share, we hope you will submit your audio posts and articles to the next edition.

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Make "Picture-in-Picture" Videos with VideoPad

Create picture in picture video with videopad for pip video editing The picture-in-picture (PIP) effect is commonly used in videos where more than one set of images is shown simultaneously in order to tell a story or convey additional information. Picture-in-picture is frequently used as part of news clips and in instructional videos.

The PIP effect can easily be achieved using VideoPad Video Editor software (version 3.0) by adding the video clip you want to overlay as your picture-in-picture onto the timeline so that it is positioned above the video you want to serve as the background in your video.

With this clip selected in the timeline, click on the "Effects" button then choose "Motion" from the drop-down menu at the top of the dialog box. Use the "Scale," "Position X" and "Position Y" controls to adjust the size and placement of your clip. You will be able to see the position and size change in the preview window on the right side of the Effects dialog box.

When everything is positioned the way you want it simply close the dialog box to apply your changes. Then, when you preview your movie, you will see your re-sized and re-positioned video clip overlaid on top of the larger clip.

Creating a picture-in-picture video in VideoPad is that easy. Use the same process to position images on the screen, making it an easy way for businesses to add their logo to videos.