In that moment, I feel like I should just pack up my toys and give up… That I’ll never achieve the lofty heights of whatever is in front of me. It’s not as depressing as it sounds, I often take a great deal of inspiration from these discoveries…  so I thought I would share some with you all.

Here is an amazing project by subcycle labs:

steeplechase – subcycle labs from christian bannister.

Subcycle (a.k.a. Christian Bannister from Portland, Oregan) has come up with an incredible new way of interacting with audio setups, using Processing to generate visuals based on the music, and a multi-point touch system with many different modes. Here he is, demonstrating some breakbeat functionality:

multi-touch rhythm navigation (subcycle labs) from christian bannister.

1. Use GMail as an App

I’ve been using GMail for a number of years now. I prefer the web interface to any mail application I’ve ever used. But often found myself losing GMail in a bunch of Firefox tabs. Recently I started using Fluid.app so I always have GMail in my dock and can cmd+tab to it rather than lose it amongst four billion Firefox tabs.

There’s also Mozilla’s Prism, which has cross-platform support.

2. Use Keyboard Shortcuts

Pushing the ? symbol on your keyboard in GMail will show a list of keyboard shortcuts. These can be extremely useful in navigating through your messages and contacts. My most frequently used are:

3. Use Labels and Filters

Labels are GMail’s equivalent of folders. I often like to label all my gig tickets, purchases, etc. so I have them to hand as I need them.

You can have GMail automatically assign labels to certain incoming or outgoing mail by using a filter. So if you wanted all email from Amazon to go into a “purchases” folder, for example you could set this up.

Go to Settings->Filters and choose “Create a New Filter”.

4. Let GMail handle all of your Accounts

GMail has an excellent and often-overlooked setting panel called “Accounts”. You may have an old Hotmail account, or an email for your own domain (hello@robmac.net, for example).

GMail will let you send mail from other addresses, import mail from other webmail accounts and check mail regularly on a POP3 server. All for free. Now when I hit “compose” I’m able to choose which account I want to send from – and very cleverly, GMail will automatically reply from the address to which the mail was sent.

5. Sync your devices

I use the iPhone to sync my mail, and my calendar. Google Sync is excellent at keeping these updated. Google Sync is able to push mail and calendar data to my phone instantly. Very handy. Find out more about syncing all sorts of devices.

This message was not paid for by anyone. Although you’re more than welcome to send me some cash…

GraphicDesignerToolbox

It lets you put modules together just like Quartz Composer – but a lot more simple. I like where this program is going, but I’d love it if I could output an animation… I sense 300 screenshots coming up…

Here’s #1:

Have created a calendar for everyone to enjoy, based on the ATP Playing Times site. Click the button to add!