Abdullah Yahya - Page 45

Blend Two Audio Clips Seamlessly Using Audacity – Cross Fade

Let’s say you want to mix two songs together with a seamless transition from one song to the other. Or, let’s say you want to strip out sections of a song and create a seamless transition between the sections you like. This can easily be done using the Crossfade Tracks effect in Audacity.

Add a new stereo track
Paste the second audio song or clip into the new stereo track so you end up with song / audio clip 1 on track 1 and song / audio clip 2 on track 2.
Select the sections of both tracks where they overlap and choose Effect > Crossfade Tracks.

Home Sound System Setup Using Bose

I recently experimented with sounds for my living room and came up with the following setup. Here’s my setup and the reasons for it.

Components:

Bose SoundTouch 300 Sound Bar: $700
Bose Acoustimass 300 Subwoofer (Bass Module): $700
1 Pair of Bose SoundTouch 10 Speakers: $330 (at Costco)
1 Pair of SoundXtra Wall Mounts For Bose SoundTouch 10 Speaker: $70 (on Amazon)

Sub-Total: $1800
Tax: 10% ($180)
Total: ~ $2000

Note: I haven’t bought the Acoustimass yet because it’s pretty expensive. However, I have tested it and it sounds great when your sound source contains bass.

Continue reading Home Sound System Setup Using Bose

How to Connect Bose SoundTouch 300 to Wi-Fi Using Mobile Phone

First, connect your phone to wi-fi and disable cellular data. Then, open the SoundTouch app and when you get to the screen below, click the Wi-fi button.If your sound bar can’t find your wi-fi network, you’ll see the following screen. Click continue. Continue reading How to Connect Bose SoundTouch 300 to Wi-Fi Using Mobile Phone

Nested JavaScript Loops Containing Async Functions That are Forced to Run Synchronously

Sometimes you may need to a lot of processing in a loop. Each loop may call an asynchronous function, e.g. calling an external URL or writing to a file. If this needs to be done synchronously, you can use the async JavaScript library.

Quick Slideshow Video Creator – Custom Photos and Audio

If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to create a video of your photos with custom audio, Slide.ly can do this. Here’s the rundown:

Up to 90 custom images / photos
1 audio / song (to use multiple audio files / songs, edit and combine them first, e.g. using Audacity)
Add custom captions for each photo
Different themes
Player is HTML-based, not Flash-based.
Can make private
Can’t download video because the end result isn’t a video.
To make a video of your Slide.ly, record the screen. See instructions. Then upload to YouTube or Vimeo.

If you need something more powerful but still simple, try Wondershare Slideshow Builder.

Invest in Real Estate or Stock Market (and Other Comparisons)

Average rate of return

Stock Market: 10% (before inflation). 7% (after inflation)
Real Estate: 10% (especially in the San Francisco Bay Area)

ROI based on own money or borrowed money

If you invest $100,000 in stocks, with a 10% ROI, you’ll get $10,000 at the end of year one.
If you invest $100,000 in real estate (20% of a $500,000 house), with a 10% ROI, you’ll get $50,000. Your ROI is based on the value of the property ($500K), not your $100K down payment. Most of your ROI comes from borrowing $400,000 from the bank.

Of course, you can also borrow $400,000 and dump it all into buying stocks but

no one, especially a bank, would lend you $400,000 to invest in stocks, and even if they did, the interest rate would be more than 10%, causing you to lose money
unless you invest in something like index funds, investing in individual stocks is more risky because their values can plummet in very short periods of time, e.g. Facebook dropped by 26.4% in just one day. A single-day devaluation like that would never happen in real estate. Real estate depreciation can occur, but it would take at least months.

Facebook biggest one-day US stock plunge

Fluid CSS Squares

Just 3 lines of CSS!

See the Pen KvwxXR by Abdullah Yahya (@javanigus) on CodePen.

Change the Color of Images Using CSS

If you have a logo, for example, that is a transparent PNG or SVG, you can change its color using CSS in the following ways:

Grayscale: filter: grayscale(100%);
Solid Gray: filter: contrast(0);
Solid Black: filter: contrast(0) brightness(0);
Solid White: filter: contrast(0) brightness(2);

You can adjust the contrast value between 0 and 1 to achieve different levels of darkness.

Easiest Way to Make Good Steak

Instructions

Buy steak meat (ribeye, new york,etc) (e.g. from Costco)
Measure the thickness of the meat, e.g. 1.25 inches thick
Preheat an indoor grill to the max temperature. I have the Hamilton Beach 25361 Electric Indoor Searing Grill. Choose the “sear” setting which is the max temperature.
Pat both sides of steak with paper towel to dry it as much as possible
Smear 1.5 tablespoons of olive oil or melted butter on both sides of meat
Put salt and pepper on both sides of meat (don’t be afraid to put more than you think – the thicker the meat, the more the salt and pepper)
Insert a cooking temperature probe through the side of the steak until the tip is at the center of the thickest part of the meat. My probe has a silicone cord so it can withstand high temperatures.
For a medium done steak, the internal temperature should be 135 degrees.
When preheating is done (green light turns on), put the meat on the grill, close lid, and grill for 7 minutes.
After 7 minutes, turn over on grill.
When the internal temperature reaches the desired temperature, e.g. 135 degree, the probe will beep. Turn off the grill, move the steak to a plate, cover it, and let it rest for 2 minutes. During these 2 minutes, the internal temperature will rise a few degrees, which is expected, and the steak will be juicier.
After 2 minutes, eat and enjoy