I have been trying to find some good independent artists from India on the net for a long time. Eventually after a very tiring search, I would end up in sites that would either have half-baked information with just a couple of their famous songs (sometimes just one of them!). I came across www.OKListen.com today and needless to say, I have struck gold!

Started by Vijay Basrur & Bhavin Badheka, my first impression of the site is that of a no-bullshit attitude. There are new albums on the left. If its intriguing, you click play and immediately the player pops up and you can preview the song. It does not play the full song, but that’s understandable.

The site itself looks simple in the sense that there are no gazillion links crammed into one page (like some others) – just click play and if you like it, you can buy it!

As you can see from the above image, it also has a song of the week which would be extremely helpful in promoting good and honest music.

There are lots of genres to choose from; fusion, folk rock, electro-acoustic etc.

A click on their About page reveals that the site was started after difficulty in trying to procure CDs from independent artist in India (something I completely agree with!).

We started OK Listen to create a truly pro-musician digital platform that musicians could trust and a destination consumers could come to for discovering music and supporting the musicians they love. One of our first objectives is to instill trust & confidence in musicians that their music is in safe hands.

Artists get an independent page of their own and  can access sales reports on how their music is doing. They get 70% of the sales and payments are directly credited to the artist’s bank accounts (only Indian accounts as of now). 

Artists decide on the price of the single/album they put up in the site. But so far from what I have browsed through, the prices range from INR 5 to INR 20 for singles and INR 20 to INR 120 for albums.

We as consumers get to taste music from a wide variety of artists and support them too! And if its a local band that we love, its a win-win! Consumers can buy music via credit or debit cards. Consumers can also top-up their wallets and 5% is added when you top-up by INR 500 and 10% is added when you top-up by INR 1000.

To sum it up, I thank whoever it was on twitter that gave me the link to this amazing site. Keep it up OKListen! As you would have made out from the above picture, I am big fan of Agam and I am off to order their album!

www.OKListen.com

]]> http://www.geekgyan.com/oklisten-com-a-one-stop-site-for-all-you-independent-artists-and-music-junkies/feed/ 0 http://www.geekgyan.com/15-beautiful-sunset-photographs/ http://www.geekgyan.com/15-beautiful-sunset-photographs/#comments Sun, 21 Apr 2013 13:05:38 +0000 Pushkar http://www.geekgyan.com/?p=1020

Sunsets are always a thing of beauty. I am sure you must have seen sunsets right from your house and how you wish you had captured that moment. Well, these people just did that and did it in style. Check out these amazing sunset photographs.

1. Shelter For My Soul by Mathhew Stewart

Flickr Page

2. December Sand by jjjohn

Flickr Page

3. Dourando by Eduardo Amorim

Flickr Page

4. Sunset at Lanzada Beach by Paulo Brandao

Flickr Page

5. A Queen Anne Kind of Sky by James Jordan

Flickr Page

6. Sunset by Christoper Harriot

Flickr Page

7. Symmetrical Sunset by David DeHetre

Flickr Page

8. Sunset at the Crop Field by Luis Argerich

Flickr Page

9. Winter Sunset at Hoover by Stephen A.Wolfe

Flickr Page

10. Harbor Bridge Sunset by Rhys Pope

Flickr Page

11. Birds of the Sunset by Rhys Pope

Flickr Page

12. Flaming by slack12

Flickr Page

13. Sunset by Tim Hamilton

Flickr Page

14. Matanzas Inlet Sunset by James Watkins

Flickr Page

15. Sunset by Wally Hofker

Flickr Page

One of my favorite pass time these days is motorcycling. Learnt riding one rather late in my life (at least by my standards); however, these days its all about watching motorcycle races and following the latest motorcycle news. Here’s a little treat for you guys. These 10 HD motorcycle wallpapers are handpicked and are definitely a beauty.

1. Yamaha YZF-R1 HD Wallpaper

Download

2. Harley Davidson Line-up HD Wallpaper

Download

3. Yamaha YZF-R1 HD Wallpaper

Download

4. Ducati Panigale 1199R HD Wallpaper

Download

5. Harley Davidson Nightrod Special Black & White HD Wallpaper

Download

6. Yamaha YZF-R1 HD Wallpaper

Download

7. Honda CBR1000RR HD Wallpaper

Download

8. Suzuki GSX R750 HD Wallpaper

Download

9. Yamaha YZF-R6 HD Wallpaper

Download

10. BMW S1000RR HD Wallpaper

Download

VLC Player users can now use the same no-bullshit media player now in their Android powered smartphones.

As of now, the VLC for Android has been released as a Beta version and supports only the NEON engine. In other words, phones with ARMv7 CPU can only use this.

The following phones will support the VLC for Android for now: Samsung Galaxy S3, Galaxy Nexus, HTC One X, HTC Desire and Motoroal Defy. Another release supporting Tegra2 and ARMv6 will be released in a few days.

The version is clearly intended for developers and hackers which is to state the obvious: Its not yet stable.

VLC for Android Features:

1. Allows direct folder browsing

2. Multi-track audio and subtitles support

3. Auto-rotation, aspect ratio adjustments and volume gestures

4. Audio control widget, audio headset control and cover art

Further features will be added on the final release of the VLC for Android version.

Download VLC Beta For Android (2.1 or more)

Microsoft is all set to release (and has in some countries) its new OS, the Windows 8. And for gaming enthusiasts out there here is a list of the games (old and new) that are compatible with the latest Windows Operating system.

I have just begun building the list, so excuse the random insertions here and there. Also, feel free to add in your inputs. I could always use a second hand. If you are looking for the List of Windows 7 Compatible Games, click here.

Again, this post will be updated as regularly as possible. If you can’t find your game here, its because I haven’t tested it yet or I am looking for patches/fix/updates.

(NOTE: The below games work on the Windows 8 Developer version). Those in  blue color indicate that it has compatibility issues or need an update/patch/fix.

My apologies for the random order of the games I have put in. If you have trouble looking; do the obvious > Press Ctrl+F and type in the game you are looking for.

1. AssaultCube

2. FlyForFantasy

3. KalOnline

4. Perfect World International

5. Quake Live

6. Rome: Total War

7. Runescape

8. Team Fortress 2

9. The Sims 3

10. Warsow

11. World of Warcraft:

12. Age of Empires 3 (gives a warning; otherwise OK)

13. Battlefield 1942

14. Serious Sam 2: The Second encounter

15. GTA: San andreas

16. Counter Strike 1.6

17. Battlefield: Bad Company 2

18. Crysis 2

19. Medieval II: Total War

20. Minecraft 1.8.1

21. Just Cause 2

22. Lost Planet 2

23. Mafia II

24. Grand Theft Auto IV

25. Shift 2

26. Heroes Of Newerth

27. Dead Island

28. Medal of Honor

29. Pinball

30. City of Heroes

31. Homefront

32. Deus Ex: Human Revolution

33. FIFA 2012

34. Red Orchestra 2

35. Singularity

36. Fallout: New Vegas

37. Alien Swarm

38. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

39. America’s Army 3

40. Borderlands

41. Brink

42. Champions Online

43. F.E.A.R 3

44. Global Agenda

45. Grand Fantasia

46. Half Life 2: Deathmatch

47. Hunted: The Demon’s Forge

48. Left 4 Dead: 2

49. Magicka

50. Microvolts

51. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

52. Portal 2

53. Sanctum

54. Savage 2

55. Shin Megami Tensei Imagine Online

56. Spiral Knights 

57. Starcraft 2

58. Terraria

59. Trackmania Nations Forever

60. Unreal Tournament 3

61. War Inc. Battlezone

62. Call of Duty: World at War

63. Assasin’s Creed: Brotherhood

64. Bulletstorm

65. Desktop Dungeons

66. Diablo 2

67. Duke Nukem Forever

68. Dwarfs

69. E.Y.E. Devine Cybermancy

70. EDGE

71. From Dust

72. Hacker Evolution Duality

73. Overgrowth

74. Peggle Extreme

75. Phantasy Star Universe Illuminus

76. Plants Vs. Zombies

77. Saints Row 2

78. Serious Sam

79. StepMania

80. Super-DXBall

81. Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War 2

82. The DaVinci Code

83. Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

84. Driver:  San Francisco (Switch to Compatibility Mode)

85. Crysis Warhead

86. Metro 2033 (Works in DX9 & DX10)

87. Lost Planet

88. Shift

89. Warcraft: Dota 2

90. Call Of Duty 3: Modern Warfare

91. Left 4 Dead

92. Pro Evolution Soccer 2012

93. Lineage II

94. Trackmania United Forever

95. Street Fighter IV

96. The King Of Fighters XIII

97. MotoGP 2008

98. SBK X

99. Football Manager 2012

100. Knight Online

101. Aion

102. Rift

103. Sid Meier’s Railroads

104. Microsoft Flight

105. Bus Simulator 2012

106. Railroad Tycoon 3 (Need Vista Fix)

107. Dragon Nest

108. MapleStory (Extreme Lag though!)

109. Realm of the Mad God

110. Batman: Arkham City

111. Race 07

112. GTR Evolution

113. 18 Wheels of Steel Extreme Trucking 2

114. Euro Truck Simulator

115. Guild Wars: The Complete Collection

116. The Old Republic

117. Saints Row: The Third

118. Killing Floor

119. Mass Effect 3

120. Call of Duty: Black Ops

121. Dirt 3

122. Train Simulator 3

123. Battlefield 3

124. Need For Speed: Underground 2

125. Microsoft Train Simulator (2001)

126. Aliens VS Predator

127. Assassin’s Creed: Revelation

128. Clutch

129. Counter Strike: Source

130. Eve Online

Samsung has stated that they will release two models: the Galaxy Ace Plus and the Galaxy M Style.

The Galaxy Ace Plus is more powerful than its predecessor: 1 GHz processor, 2 GB of storage for content and 1 GB of storage for apps, HSDPA 7.2 Mbps connectivity, 512 MB of RAM memory and a 3.65-inch screen with a 480 x 320 pixel resolution.

The Galaxy M Style has a 4-inch Super AMOLED screen, a single-core 1 GHz CPU, 4 GB of storage, and a 3-megapixel camera.

The Galaxy Ace Plus will first enter the Russian market and then into subsequent markets while the Galaxy M Style will visit the Korean shelves first. Both the devices will run on the Android 2.3 with the Samsung Touchwiz UI. Both the phones are meant for the Android-mid-range-phones-segment.

Geekgyan.com is up for sale people. Unfortunately, I haven’t been active for a long time on the website and have to come to realize that I must make a next step in order to move on.

I have decided that Geekgyan.com will be up for sale. Interested people may contact me at pushkar238@gmail.com. A Fully Customized Thesis theme is also thrown in! Details will be provided on request.

Little things in life matter. And so does Macro photography to an enthusiast. Of late, I have been looking at some good Macro photography shots on Flickr and other sites. Here are 10 of them that I think are stunning and worth every square pixel.

1. CoolMcFlash

2. Cubagallery

3. Aroon_Kalandy

4. Digitalkillshot

5. kiwi5555

6. Architectographer

7. Tim Bayliss

8. elshaneo

9. H de Smet

10. apdonovan

Well, thats my list of some awesome Macro photography over the past year. If you got some awesome macro photo out there, please do post the link in the comments section, would love to take a look at it! Cheers!

I love photography. I also love the post processing involved after that. With softwares like Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop, your creativity has no limits. Here are top 5 presets that I use frequently in Lightroom and would recommend you use it too!

1. Golden Dust By Richard Earney

Original

Golden Dust

You can download the preset at Inside-Lightroom.

2. Wedding Day Presets

Download Wedding Day Presets At Lightroomkillertips.

3. Ice Cold Preset

Download Ice Cold Preset At Lightroomkillertips.

4. PH Dark and White BW

Download PH Dark and White BW at PresetsHeaven.

5. PH Intensive Heaven

Download PH Intensive Heaven at PresetsHeaven.

Did you like the collection put up here? Got any similar awesome stuff? Let us know!

If you are the kind of guy who comes up with witty lines all the time, here is a chance to store those text into audio files for future purposes. Balabolka is a freeware that will convert just about any of your text into an audio file.

Balabolka is Russian for chatterer i.e someone who doesn’t shut his/her mouth. Enough with translations, the Balabolka is based on the Microsoft Speech API.

Balabolka can read texts and then can also convert them to audio files. It can read texts from DOC, RTF, PDF, ODT, FB2 and HTML files. Balabolka also lets you edit the way it reads or pronounces certain words. A VBScript is used for the pronunciation correction.

Balabolka’s audio output is top notch and the play and pause buttons makes it feel like you are using a media player.

Download Balabolka (Free)

Download Balabolka Portable (Free)