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In order to understand the MIDI keyboard, we should know about the musical keyboard first. A musical keyboard is the set of adjacent depressible levers on a musical instrument which cause the instrument to produce sounds.

Keyboards almost all share the common layout shown. Musical instruments with keyboards of this type include the piano, harpsichord, virginals, clavichord, organ, electric piano, digital piano, synthesizer, “arranger keyboard” or “home keyboard” (also called “electronic keyboard”), celesta, dulcitone, accordion, melodica, glasschord, and carillon. Since the most commonly encountered keyboard instrument is the piano, the keyboard layout is often called the piano keyboard.

The twelve notes of the Western musical scale are laid out with the lowest note on the left; the larger keys (for the seven “natural” notes of the C major scale: C, D, E, F, G, A, B) jut forward. Because these keys are often coloured white on a keyboard, these are often called the white notes or white keys. The keys for the remaining five notes which are not part of the C major scale (namely C#/D#, D#/E#, F#/G#, G#/A#, A#/B#) are set back. Because these keys are often coloured black, these notes are often called the black notes or black keys.

The pattern repeats at the interval of an octave. The arrangement of longer keys for C major with intervening, shorter keys for the intermediate semitones dates to the 15th century. Many keyboard instruments dating from before the nineteenth century have a keyboard with the colours of the keys reversed - darker coloured keys for the white notes and white keys for the black notes.

A few electric and electronic instruments have had this feature. It should be noted that the reverse-colored keys on Hammond organs such as the B3, C3 and A100 are not playable keys; they physically latch when pressed like radio buttons, and serve as selector switches for preset sounds. There are 21 white keys on the keyboard and 15 black.

How to make a MIDI Keyboard
MIDI keyboard connects to computer sound card or synthesizer module to create MIDI code.

This Project is built around the 8031 microcontroller. Once keyboard circuit diagram is drawn out, one can construct scanning circuitry that continuously loops through a test of each key to see if it is open or closed.

Circuit Components
Microcontroller, memory, keyboard/switch interface, MIDI/RS232 interface and power supply

Software Algorithm

• The software loops through a check of each 1st switch for every key.
• If it finds that switch 1 is open it checks to see if it was open the last time it looked. If this is the case it continues scanning.
• If it finds that it is open but was closed the last time it looked then it stores info that it is now open and then sends the “note off value” for that key out the midi port.
• If it finds that switch 1 is closed then it checks to see if switch 2 for that key is open.
• If it is open then it increments the velocity register value and continues the scan. If it finds that switch 2 is closed then it checks a register to see if that note is already on. If so then it continues the scan.
• If not then it sends the “note on value for that key out the midi port and also sends a velocity value from the velocity table that is incremented for each key check loop. Therefore, the more times that the software loops the lower the velocity value sent.

E-commerce could well change your lot, provided you have some technical know-how and a desire for exploration. As the name implies, electronic commerce or e-commerce is an internet-based business scheme that does not require any particular location, space and other stuff to conduct the operation. That is why it is considered as a virtual platform that dramatically downsizes operation costs and eliminates common hassles.

Nowadays people are accustomed to moving with shopping cart in the marketplace but this will become history in the near future as widespread availability of the internet will make everything readily accessible from any place. Furthermore, the advancement of wireless devices and improvement in mobile internet services will add a new dimension to our lifestyle by making everything easily available.

Before entering into details, a few basics of e-commerce will help. It is a kind of online business that entails an assortment of things such as electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, e-marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), automated inventory management systems, automated data collection systems and the like.

Today all e-commerce services operate using websites and sending emails. A customer can order items from a vendor’s website by making payment with a credit card (the punter enters their account information via the computer) or a previously established ‘cybercash’ account. The transaction information is transmitted to a financial institution for payment clearance and to the vendor for order fulfilment. The encryption technology keeps all personal information secure from unauthorised access.

The e-commerce trend began in 1968 when electronic data interchange gave companies the leeway to start electronic transaction. However, it was not until 1984 that a standardised format (known as ASC X12) provided a dependable means to conduct electronic business, and it was not until 1994 that Netscape introduced a browser program whose graphical presentation significantly eased the use of computer communication for all kinds of computer activity, including e-commerce.

Three types of electronic commerce are available today — business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C) and consumer-to-consumer (C2C). B2B scheme provides a direct interaction between two business activities. For instance, a wholesaler purchases one thousand units of printer from a manufacturer and deposits the payment to the manufacturer.

UN/EDIFACT is one of the most well-known and established B2B standards. ANSI ASC X12 is a popular standard in North America. RosettaNet is an XML based, emerging B2B standard in the high-tech industry. An approach like UN/CEFACT’s Modelling Methodology (UMM) might be used to capture the collaborative space of B2B business processes.

For firms in developing countries, B2B e-commerce scheme has emerged as a potential way to reduce costs substantially. It has also given them the opportunity to access global market. Internet-based B2B e-commerce should help producers in developing countries to obtain better information about global market and give them direct access to new customers.

Business-to-consumer or B2C gives businesses the room to sell their goods and services directly to consumers. Suppose you need to buy a book online and go to a particular website to place your order. The portal processes your request and after receiving the payment, ships the book to you.

Consumer-to-consumer or C2C involves electronically-facilitated transactions between consumers through some third party. A common example is online auction in which a consumer posts an item for sale and other consumers bid to purchase it. The third party generally charges a flat fee or commission. Examples of C2C are eBay, amazon.com etc.

Starting a online business is a good decision for which you first need to develop a smart interactive website. Then you select commodities that you want to sell online. You should maintain a good network with others to market your products. Products for sale can be made by you or purchased from secondary sources. You can maintain a warehouse for product distribution.

A newcomer in the market, your first imperative should be building confidence. Collecting email IDs could be a smart a way to send product profile to others. For instance, you send in hundreds of emails to different firms and individuals. If five among them send feedback to you, it will be a breakthrough because you have made it possible with limited resources. The website that posts your advertisement should be intelligent enough. You have to take digital image of each entity and place them on the web. Adding a client interaction form is mandatory to receive order from the clients. Mode of payment can be online or direct hard cash. If online payment facility is not available, you can collect your payment after delivering the products.

Recently another technology called ‘m-commerce’ is gaining huge popularity. Mobile commerce has introduced payment without contact which in practice gives people the true touch of liberty. Today all cellphone manufacturers produce specialised phones with mobile internet facility and the rapid improvement in operators’ network has enabled people to download rich contents on their palm-held devices.

In Japan I-mode service, unveiled by DoCoMo in February 1999, is a lucid example of the resounding success of m-commerce. I-mode facilitates buying tickets, ordering books and getting news delivered to mobile handset. The service has become the largest internet access platform in Japan. In addition, I-mode users can carry out banking transactions with up to 280 banks and securities brokers.

In Bangladesh e-commerce has not yet gathered the momentum. Although there exists some e-commerce websites, they do not provide full-fledged services. The absence of online transaction facility hinders the entire process. The government should come forward and initiate and regulate this service in order to create a true e-business environment in the country.

Now folks who are newbie in the field of web design and development can enhance there knowledge to know what is CSS actually? From the wikipedia I have posted this brief overview of CSS

In web development, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a stylesheet language used to describe the presentation of a document written in a markup language. Its most common application is to style web pages written in HTML and XHTML, but the language can be applied to any kind of XML document, including SVG and XUL.

CSS is used by both the authors and readers of web pages to define colors, fonts, layout, and other aspects of document presentation. It is designed primarily to enable the separation of document content (written in HTML or a similar markup language) from document presentation (written in CSS). This separation can improve content accessibility, provide more flexibility and control in the specification of presentational characteristics, and reduce complexity and repetition in the structural content. CSS can also allow the same markup page to be presented in different styles for different rendering methods, such as on-screen, in print, by voice (when read out by a speech-based browser or screen reader) and on Braille-based, tactile devices. CSS specifies a priority scheme to determine which style rules apply if more than one rule matches against a particular element. In this so-called cascade, priorities or weights are calculated and assigned to rules, so that the results are predictable.

The CSS specifications are maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Internet media type (MIME type) text/css is registered for use with CSS by RFC 2318 (March 1998).

I will write about different tips and techniques of working with CSS and CSS based design later

Still it is conceptual only. The idea is built around battery chargers instead of batteries. The trick would be to discover the materials and environmental cost of adding chargers to relatively simple items in the first place.It is one of the ideas submitted to the Next Generation competition 2007 featured in Metropolis Magazine was this Kinetic Energy-harnessing battery charger by Yael Miller. The concept is to take power from our daily life work - such as working out, flopping around in a baby rocker, vacuuming, or flushing the toilet - add the piezoelectric effect, and come out with batteries that are charged by “human power.”

Imagine all the television remotes we could power just from flushing!

Yael Miller’s “Kineticel” concept proposes to put small piezoelectric chargers inside common household furniture and appliances, trading a little extra effort in your endeavor for freeish power. Kineticel chargers in a set of dumbbells could make electricity while you’re just doing your daily works!

This computer-generated image released by the European Space Agency (ESA) on April 15 shows trackable objects in Low Earth Orbit (LOE) around Earth from the North Pole. There are now more than 12,000 objects that are monitored in orbit, 11,500 pieces of which are in low Earth orbit, which is at an altitude of between 800 and 1,500 kilometres, where there are many commercial, military, scientific and navigational satellites. In low orbit, debris can stay adrift for decades before they eventually burn up in Earth’s atmosphere. Another 1,147 pieces are in geostationary orbit, about satellite orbits in the direction of the Earth’s rotation, at an altitude of approximately 35,786 km, where telecommunications satellites are typically deployed.

Photo: AFP 

Most washing machines have a round drum that spins to wash the clothes. The clothes tumble over each other as it turns that helps the washing powder or liquid to clean the them. The cloths are rinsed in clean water to remove the soapy water.

The clothes may be washed and rinsed several times in the washing machine to get them really clean. Then they are spin very quickly to remove most of the water so that they will dry quickly.

You’ve got that killer outfit, those perfect shoes, and just the right amount of make-up. As you’re brushing your hair, you notice strands of hair in the comb. Your hair. Poof! You’re down in the dumps. Indeed, nothing kills self-esteem the way hair trouble can. While this may sound like a petty problem, studies have linked hair and self-image to confidence and performance. Women who feel good about themselves and their hair can be attentive, focused and present in the here and now (Tolle 2001, 2002, 2003). Women who feel unhappy with their hair, suffer. Through internalized social comparisons and real experiences of criticism from peers, partners or parents, they feel small and inadequate, unhealthy and unwholesome.

There’s more to the whole hair than self-confidence and self-image though. Let’s look at some interesting connotations related to hair:

Hairstyles and image

* Hairstyles are a medium of expression. Teenagers may adopt hairstyles that provoke shock, puzzlement, or even disgust as a means of indicating rebellion.

* New hairstyles indicate change (McAlexander and Schouten, 1989) while familiar hairstyles symbolise personal continuity.

* Women of mousy-coloured hair often choose to dye it blonde to signify sexiness, fun and availability.

* Blondes are considered more glamorous than brunettes and redheads (Heckert, Heckert, and Heckert, 2003)

* When making recruitment decisions for professional positions, it is often brunettes that are preferred and awarded higher salaries over women of other hair colours because they are seen as more capable (Kylie and Mahler, 1996)

Hair as a symbol of sexuality

* In many cultures, hair length and quality are indicators of reproductive ability, and thus younger women are concerned with displaying good hair, wearing longer hair than older women.

* Nuns cut their hair short and cover their heads as a symbol of renunciation of sexuality.

* In India, women make a pilgrimage to Tirupathi in South India, where they then shave their heads as a symbol of gratitude for favours received from God, thus signifying willingness for a time to become asexual persons.

Hair and Opposites (Synnot)

* Opposite sexes tend to have opposite hair (men have short hair, while women have longer)

* Head hair and body hair are opposites (Women keep longer hair, but depilate body hair; men keep shorter hair, but bodily hair is a symbol of masculinity)

* Opposite ideologies have opposite hair (Professional hairstyles are medium length and neat, alternative hairstyles are either very short (i.e. Skinheads) or very long (i.e. Hippies) or variously coloured (i.e. Punk)

Hair Politics

* In the late 19th and 20th century women were required to have long uncut hair, which could be moulded into elaborate shapes as a symbol of the family’s wealth and status.

* Beginning in the 1850’s feminists called on women to dress with freedom and have simpler hair.

* In China and Japan, bobbed hair was seen as a symbol of female promiscuity and a sign of defiance of the domestic ideal, and was banned. The state took control over women’s hair, and short-haired women were publicly executed or heavily penalised (Sun, 1997)

Condensed and adapted from “Living in the hair and now” -Dr Nimmi Hutnik.