Elisa – The Open Media Center

I’m not sure if too many people know about Elisa, quite frankly it is quite amazing that something as wonderful as Elisa is not in the limelight(as yet!). For a quick and brief introduction, Elisa is a sleek next generation media center where you can watch videos, browse pictures, manage music etc.

Read ahead for a quick list of features:

MUSIC:

Elisa finds music and arranges it by artist, by album and by folder. It includes all the album art to give you a very interesting interface to play with. Elisa has been designed in a extensible manner by which adding plugins can enhance features. It currently bundles the shoutcast radio plugin.

VIDEOS:

Elisa arranges videos and allows you to play them. It also has a youtube plugin that can be used to browse youtube videos!

PICTURES:

Elisa finds pictures from the default folders. The picasa extension allows you to browse pictures uploaded to your web album.

All locations that Elisa can look into can be defined in home/~user~/.elisa/elisa.conf. Whats better is that the file locations, network urls, anything!

Elisa works on both Windows and Linux, though on Windows its still an alpha release.

Some tips to install Elisa on Ubuntu:

Elisa is packaged with Ubuntu Hardy (8.04) To install and get it working properly with all plugins do:

$ sudo apt-get install elisa

$ sudo apt-get install elisa-plugins-bad elisa-plugins-ugly

$ sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-fluendo-*

$ sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad

$ elisa

Here’s a link to install Elisa on earlier versions of Ubuntu: http://www.uluga.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=766012

Nail care tips – for beautiful nails

Here are a few random tips for having great looking nails without having to visit your beautician! You can do this at home and have nice, healthy, strong and beautiful nails.

They gotta be strong! Having strong and healthy nails is the key to making them beautiful.

• Fragile, pale, dry nails are a result of lack of minerals and vitamins in your body. The most important thing is to eat well. Iron, calcium and Vitamin A deficiency would make your nails weak. Make sure your diet gives you all of these.
• Over growing your nails makes them easily susceptible to breakage. Maintain a comfortable length, else not only would they break easily but would be a big inconvenience. Neither can you type properly nor can you grip heavy things easily.
• Shaping your nails in the wrong manner makes nails chip easily.

Shaping you nails. It is very important to shape your nails in the right manner. Here are a few tips.

• Length: Keep the length medium, neither too short, nor too long.
• Shape: Do not shape uncut nails. Always cut your nails to get a rough shape before filing them.
• Filing: File your nails always in upward strokes. Maintain the direction of filing. Filing nails with downward strokes makes them chip out in layers.
• Always cut and file your nails after a bath or when your hands are moist. It is much easier to file nails just after a bath.

Manicure at home. It is very easy to do a simple manicure at home. You can buy a manicure set for yourself which would come in handy. Here’s how you can give your nails a quick manicure.

• Dip your hands in a tub of lukewarm water. Add some mild cleaning agent, like facewash and gently massage your hands. Do not keep your hands in water beyond 5-7 mins. Make sure you have removed previously applied nail polish.
• Tap dry your hands. While they are moist, use a cuticle cutter and remove all the dead tissue around your nails. Finish your preliminary cutting at this point. Do not file your nails yet.
• Generously apply a moisturizing cream on both your hands and gently massage them. Do this for ten minutes or so until all the cream is absorbed by your skin. Massage each finger with upward strokes.
• File your nails to obtain a desired shape.

Applying nail polish. It is very important to apply nail polish neatly inorder to have gorgeous looking nails!

• The nail polish you apply should not be thick because of age. Using acetone to dilute it would make it thin and easy to apply but you wouldn’t get that original look.
• Always use upward, graceful strokes that end only after the entire length has been applied with nail enamel. Don’t end your strokes in between, that would make it shabby.
• The first coat will dry fast, in about 5 minutes. Apply the second coat in a similar manner. Be careful now! Use a hair dryer to dry your nails and immediately dip your nails in a tub of cold water. This would help the second coat to dry fast.
• Now apply a thin coat of transparent nail polish. This will add to the beauty!
• It is always good to practice application on your right hand with your left hand. It will be hard in the beginning but with time you’ll be an expert!

Finally its very important to eat healthy and exercise. Regular exercising not only keeps us fit but also keeps our skin very clean and glowing.