How to download media from iTunes ?

iTunes, one of the best media application software available for free in the market. just like any other media player, such as Windows media Player, VLC media player, Real player, Quick time, iTunes can organize, maintain, and play your Movies, Music, and TV shows, stream videos or you can listen to radio. You can also download content from iTunes store through iTunes.

      It comes for multiple platforms including Mac, Windows PC, iPhone, iPad, iPod and Apple TV.

In this article, I will show you how you can download and install iTunes for Windows and download content available for free in iTunes store.

Downloading & Installing iTunes 

1. Visit www.itunes.com and click on "Download iTunes", or visit www.apple.com/itunes/download/ .
2. If you are using Windows, it will automatically detect it. You just need to click on "Download Now".

3. Run the setup, and install it.

Note: In order to play videos and watch movies, you are required to install Quick Time. Download and install it from here. The download & installation procedure is similar.
I recommend that you first install Quick time player, and then install iTunes. And always use the latest version of iTunes.

Downloading content from iTunes store

The first time you launch iTunes, it will ask you that whether you want to share your details or not?, just click "No thanks" if you are not sure.

1. Now search the iTunes store for any media you would like to download, if its available for free, you can download it, else you will have to purchase it.

2. Click on "View in iTunes". Then it will open that page in iTunes. You might have to wait a little.
3. To start downloading, click on the "free" button under Price column.

That would be all. Hope someone finds it useful !

How to adjust screen colour for Night?

Introduction

During the last several decades, there has been a lot of researches and discoveries in various fields of science. One of the discoveries is a special one, which is related to Technology and Human health. That is Melanopsin. 

    Melanopsin is a photoreceptor in the eye. It is contained in the retinal ganglion cells.

 Effects of blue light 

Several researches show that these photoreceptors, called Melanopsin, are sensitive to a band of blue light in range of 460nm-480nm. This blue light has a special kind of effect on Melanopsin. And that effect on Melanopsin has a special effect on human sleep.
 The effect is that, it somehow increases our mental activity, that is decrease in sleep times. This exposure to blue light doesn't matter during daytime, because naturally humans are supposed to stay awake at daytime.
       But during night time, this exposure to blue light can be disrupting the natural system of human body, decreasing your sleep time. That means you will stay awake for nearly an hour or so even if you try to sleep.
     So it is a very big problem for those people who have to work at night times on computer, or any other screen.

The solution

Well, you could adjust the screen colour yourself manually, but it won't be that convenient.

 So instead you can use a free software that can do the job for you. Flux is one such software, available freely for Windows, Mac, Linux, and iPad. Get it here.

 Flux fixes the computer screen-colour problem by automatically adjusting it. It makes your screen look warmer.

What is Raspberry pi ?

Raspberry Pi also known as only Pi, is a SoC.

So what is a SoC ?

A SoC abbreviation for System on a Chip. It is actually a chip or an integrated circuit which has all of the components of a complete system integrated in it i-e: having attached on it.
    A SoC can have all the components a computer or any other electronic device can have, such as Processor, usually an embedded processor, GPU, memory, both permanent and temporary, i-e RAM, ROM, SSD, Flash memory. Additional memory can also be added using SD cards or External Hard disks. I/O units such as USB, HDMI, VGA etc. Networking parts like Ethernet, WLAN adapter. Other components like ADC or DAC, Voltage regulators, timers maybe found on a SoC.

Back to Raspberry Pi

The Raspberry Pi was developed in UK for educational purposes, but now has found many more applications. As described above, it is a SoC, meaning a complete working system with all required components on a single chip.
       It is not a processor, it is not just a chip, it is not a micro-controller, it is not an extension or upgrade for a PC. But what it is, that it is minicomputer. That's more like it.
     Till now it has two models. Model A and Model B. Model B offers more features than A. The above image is of model A.The below images are of model B, which looks something like this:

Features

The key features of Raspberry Pi are:

• Embedded processor is ARM1176JZFS @ 700 MHz.
• Video core 4 GPU, which is capable of Blue-ray quality playback, using H.264 codecs @ 40MBits/s.
• Open VG libraries.
• Open GL ES 2.0
• 256 MB RAM in Model A. 512 MB RAM in Model B.
• USB support ( Model B ).
• HDMI support.
• Ethernet for Internet connection.
• GPIO ( General Purpose Input/Output ) pins Male connector.
• 3.5 mm audio jack.

Dimensions

The measures of Raspberry Pi are 85.60 mm x 56 mm x 21 mm, or 3.37" x 2.21" x 0.83". It weighs about 45 grams.

What Operating System ( OS ) it has ?

It does not comes with an installed OS, as it does not has any storage device. It boots from a memory/SD card or a hard disk/ solid state, which has to be attached externally. While purchasing one, we can also choose to buy one SD/memory card which comes loaded with an OS, usually Raspbian( Debian Linux redesigned to be compatible with Pi ) or NOOBS setup ( an installer which gives a list of all supported and recommended OSs ). But if you don't want to buy an additional SD card, you can download the same OSs free from their official website, here. After downloading, you can use it with an SD card you already have.

Devices able to connect to Raspberry Pi

Nearly everything.

• TVs, Monitors ( CRT, LCD, LED )
• Headphones
• All kind of Mobiles including, Android, Windows phones, i Phone/Pads/Pods
• PCs, Mac and all other computers running Linux, Unix etc.
• Head phones, Speakers, Microphones ( through audio jack )
• Cameras, sensors
• Keyboards, Mouse, Touch-pads
• Printers, Plotters
• And many more stuff of the kind

Where to buy ?

You can buy it from the official website. Or from here at element14. Or from here.

Many ways to use it 

It can be used in many many ways. Some of the uses are listed below:

• As a media center for watching movies, playing songs, just connect it to your TV and use RaspBMC, an alternate OS similar to XBMC.
• As a NAS ( Network Attached Storage ), or in other words, your own Cloud server.
• Build Arcade machines.
• It can be used to build Robots.
• It can be used to build security systems.
• A Tablet computer, by running Android on it.
• To build a UAV
• Make a land-line phone.
• Make a Supercomputer.

That would be all. Hope you like it !

What is an Ad-hoc network ?

Ad-hoc network

           An Ad hoc network is a computer-to-computer network, or in more advanced terms a peer-to-peer network. The word "ad  hoc" is a Latin word, which means "For this purpose", which means for a special purpose.
      It is usually a temporary network established between two or more computers, for special purposes such as network sharing, file sharing and devices such as printer sharing. It may be temporary or permanent.

How it works?

     
        Its working is simple. If one computer has internet access, then it can share it with other computers. Unlike Wi-Fi, it does not requires a router or any Base station, thus it can also be called an "infrastructureless" network. It is simply a network between a group of computers. Suppose a computer has LAN or WLAN any kind of network access, and it has another wireless adapter or Ethernet port which is currently not in use. Then, with the help of wireless adapter or the Ethernet port, it may share its network from its LAN or WLAN, on wireless adapter or Ethernet. Then other computers will be able to access internet wireless or wired, depending on how it is being shared.
       In simple terms, it is the sharing of data to and from two or more devices. In adhoc network each mobile device or any device with wireless capability connected to the network acts as a router.

Almost all operating systems support an ad hoc network. It is very easy to create one.

The other computers or devices must be in range of the host computer/device for an adhoc networks to be created.

What is DNS ?

DNS stands for Domain Name System, not Domain Name Server. It is a protocol or a set of methods and actions which defines everything happening from the requesting of a webpage by a client, through the conversion of domain into IP address and the processes taking place in server, to the providing or redirecting of client to the requested webpage. It is a short and easy summary of DNS. But it should be noted that the files and webpages are not transferred by DNS, in fact only their addresses are transferred.

Steps involved in DNS

The Domain or URL

First the client or user requests for a webpage in a web browser. The syntax of URL or Domain which is entered in the address bar of the web browser is something like this:
A domain name consists of several parts called labels. The are separated by dots, such as www.rustedbyte.blogspot.com .
The right-most label is called top level domain. In the above example .com is the top level domain. The other labels to the left of top level domain are called subdomains or subdivisions of the top level domain.The subdivisions may be up to 127.
Any label may not start or end with a hyphen.

Conversion of Domain or URL into IP address

Through DNS, the Domain, web address or URL you have entered is converted into its IP address. For example, google.com has IP address : 173.194.124.39 .
  You can find out the IP address of almost any website by pinging. Just open command-prompt, or cmd.exe. And the use ping command, such as:
        ping rusted.blogspot.com
You can use the IP address to open a website by just entering the IP address into the address bar.

IP address gets transferred to server

The IP address gets transferred to a server, usually ISP's server. The server looks up for the IP address in its memory, if found then it will redirect the client to the server which is hosting the requested webpage. If not found then it will transfer the requested address to another server, if that server knows the address of the server which hosts the requested webpage, then it will transfer required info to the ISP's server.

Caching of the webpage's server's address

If the server which gets the clients request, already has the requested webpage's hosting server's address, then it will just redirect the client to the requested webpage. If not, the above step will take place. After getting the address from another server, the ISP's server will cache the address or store it in its memory, in case there are more requests for the same webpage.

Back to the client

The client gets redirected to the requested webpage.