Hoga-Boga

Part 2 in creating your own universal iPod dock:

Filed under: Accessories, iPod Family, Hacks, How-tos

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(Via The Unofficial Apple Weblog.)

HDTV Guide: The short and sweet version:

by Joel Johnson

When we started writing this HDTV primer for Lifehacker, we fell face first into a big pile of nerd—lots of terminology and explanations of the minutiae of modern television technology.

Then we realized: There are a million HDTV guides out there, but very few that make the purchasing process any easier. You probably don't care about every last detail of HDTV technology—you just want to know what to buy.

So here you go. The HDTV Primer that's anything but comprehensive, but short enough you can stick it in your pocket on your next trip to the showroom.

Resolution

You want 720p native resolution. (That means 1,280 by 720 pixels). Most HDTVs 'support' 720p, but they may have a lower number of actual pixels. If the numbers are lower than 1,280 by 720, it's not native—skip it.

(There's another standard called 1080p coming up, which is 1,920 by 1080 pixels, but it's sort of expensive at the moment. If you can swing it, though, go for it.)

What about 1080i? Some say it's as good as 720p. I disagree. As long as you have 720p native resolution—even if the set also 'supports' 1080i—you'll be golden.

Size and Price

There's one old chestnut that says, "Sit twice as far away as your screen size." That's fine, on the whole, but we say the bigger the better, until you start trading resolution for size.

Your best bet? Pick a price point and see what's available in that range. These days, capability tends to increase sharply about every thousand dollars up until four thousand, then increases wildly for little return.

Want us to pick a number for you? Okay, plan on spending $2k, plus another $500 for speakers, cabling, and content that will make your HD set shine—we're talking an Xbox 360, HD cable or satellite service, or an upscaling DVD player. (I'd recommend the $200 Oppo OPDV971H.)

Hooking it all up

HDMI is the best connection, because it's all digital. DVI is fine, too—it's the same quality as HDMI, just without audio traveling on the same cable. Component is okay—it's a three-plug analog system that can still handle HDTV signals.

You'll want a digital system with HDCP, too. That's the latest crappy copy protection scheme foisted on us by a nail-biting media industry. Almost everything uses it these days, so you'll probably get it without trying.

Just like any system, try to keep everything digital if you can—you won't have any signal degradation if you do that. But if you have to use component, that's fine. Just don't go any lower—hooking up your Xbox 360 to your new HDTV via S-Video will end in tears. Those tears will be yours, rendered in stunning low-definition.

Summary

• 720p native (or 1080p if you can afford it) • At least one HDMI or DVI input with HDCP. The more plugs, the better. • The price: $2k - $3k

The un-Summary: What we didn't answer, but will try to cram in here at the end.

• What type of screen to get (plasma, LCD, rear-projection, etc.)? You probably won't care about the subtle differences. Buy 720p and the size you want and you'll probably do fine.

• Where to buy? We prefer online retailers like Amazon and B&H, even with shipping costs. But if you go to Best Buy or the like, remember: they tweak the screens to look really bright and colorful, which isn't the best way to judge the quality. If you want to buy in the store, plan on making two trips: one to scope out prices and model numbers; another to purchase after you've gone home and done some research online. (Check out AVSforum.com if you want to read lots of debate about specific models by home theater nerds.)

• Do I really need one? Of course not. But if you're wanting to buy a new TV anyway, I'd say get an HDTV. Otherwise, just watch TV on your PC or laptop.

Have any more questions? I'll be happy to answer them in the comments.

Joel Johnson, gadgeteer extraordinaire, is the first person we ask about anything hardware-related. While he's not orchestrating his army of electronic minions, Joel helps keep things running smoothly at Gawker's geekier destinations: Gizmodo, Lifehacker, Kotaku and Consumerist.

 
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(Via Lifehacker.)

Samsung YP-U2X on sale in the US:

Filed under: Portable Audio

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(Via Engadget.)

Geek to Live: Take great notes:

by Gina Trapani

Like it or not, our work lives involve meetings - status meetings, planning conference calls, brainstorming sessions, meetings for the sake of meetings. But a meeting is only as valuable as the action taken after everyone's left the conference room.

Whether you're headed off to a business meeting, a university lecture, or a conference session, taking effective notes is a necessary skill to move your projects, your career and your education forward. Today I'll go over a couple of my favorite note-taking methods, as well as how to make your own custom notepaper to fit your needs.

The first two methods are especially useful for business meetings and professional conferences, where it's most important to separate different types of information.

Method 1: Symbolize the next action

Using notepaper or a simple text file on your laptop or tablet, indent the pages of your notes in from the left margin. Then, use a simple system of symbols to mark off 4 different information types in the column space left in the margin.

• [ ] A square checkbox denotes a to do item
• ( ) A circle indicates a task to be assigned to someone else
• * An asterisk is an important fact
• ? A question mark goes next to items to research or ask about

After the meeting, a quick vertical scan of the margin area makes it easy to add tasks to your to do list and calendar, send out requests to others, and further research questions. (This method is the brainchild of Michael Hyatt, someone who clearly has mastered the art of attending meetings.)

Method 2: Split your page into quadrants

Another way to visually separate information types is to split your note-taking page into quadrants and record different kinds of information - like questions, reference and todo's - into the separate areas on the page. Rumor has it this is how Bill Gates - someone known for taking amazingly detailed meeting notes - gets it done.

Method 3: Record and summarize - The Cornell Note-taking Method

A system more targeted towards students digesting large amounts of information on a daily basis, the Cornell note-taking method also separates the page into different areas, as pictured:

• Note taking area: Record lecture as fully and meaningfully as possible.
• Cue column: As you're taking notes, leave the cue column empty. Soon after the lecture, reduce your notes to concise jottings as clues for Reciting, Reviewing and Reflecting.
• Summaries: Sum up each page of your notes in a sentence or two.

DIY notepaper

There are a few neat little webapps out there that produce custom PDF's of formatted, lined notepaper with various options for printing out before your meeting and possibly stowing in a binder.

Notepaper Generator [Simson.net]

Create a PDF of a lined page with a small monthly calendar in the header and an optional summary box in the upper right hand corner. Choose your font face and optionally include punch holes as well.

Cornell Method PDF Generator [Study Smarter]

Prints pages split up into the Cornell notepaper style with unlined, ruled or graphed sections. Optionally include your name, the date, and the name of your class, and up to 4 punch holes for use in a binder. Also, choose the line darkness on a scale from gray to black.

Notepad Generator [Michael Botsko]

This PDF notes template includes your name, number, the date, project name and splits the page into two sections: one for notes (with lines) and the other for action items with due dates, with optional punchholes.

What do you use to take notes in meetings? How do you keep your jottings organized and useful after the fact? Let us know in the comments or to tips at lifehacker.com.

Gina Trapani, the editor of Lifehacker, is getting better at taking worthwhile notes. Her semi-weekly feature, Geek to Live, appears every Wednesday and Friday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Geek to Live feed to get new installments in your newsreader.

 
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Related: Notetaking and GTD with Campfire
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Related: Make your own PDF notepaper

(Via Lifehacker.)

Using iCalShare calendars with Google Calendar:

Filed under: How-tos, Internet Tools

First, go to iCalShare and locate the calendar you want added to your gCal. There are legions of calendars available, so finding one (or more) should be pretty easy. Once you've found one you like, right-click (or control-click) on the "Subscribe" link and copy the link's address to your clipboard (simply left-clicking on the link will launch iCal). Now that you've got it, we're on to step two.

Set yourself up with a gCal calendar. Using a browser other than Safari, go to http://calendar.google.com and get yourself set up. Next, click "Manage Calendars" on the left hand side (see image at right). A new window appears. On the right hand side, click "Add Calendar."

At this point, a new window appears entitled "Add Other Calendar." Click "Public Calendar Address." Now you're presented with a field labeled "Public Calendar Address," and the rest is as simple as pasting the address you grabbed earlier into that field and clicking "Add." Done!

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(Via The Unofficial Apple Weblog.)

Hack Attack: Build your own DVR:

by Adam Pash

Ever since TiVo came around, I was eager to jump on the time shifting bandwagon. After all, nothing makes a productivity junkie happier than turning an hour-long show into forty minutes. But for all its loyal fan base, TiVo never seemed like the right fit for me.

For my money, time, and, let's be honest, the gratification of a solid DIY project, I'm a big proponent of building your own digital video recorder (DVR). TiVo is pretty good at what TiVo does, but imagine a world where you can also tweak your TiVo to do anything you can do with any other computer.

With all the potential controversy and uncertainty surrounding TiVo firmware upgrades, the time to build your own DVR has never been better. With your own DVR, you can get all the benefits of a TiVo and more without the recurring cost for subscription. This week, I'm going to show you how simple it is to turn your computer into a DVR. After that, I'll show you a few ways that I use my DVR to take it beyond TiVo.

Whether you're using your current PC, repurposing an old one, or going all out on a dedicated DVR to put under your TV, you can get so much more out of your own DVR than you could ever get out of a TiVo.

NOTE: Keep in mind that the setup I used here is far from the only way to go. After struggling for a while with how to put together an article that would work for everyone, I decided that I would just go ahead and describe how I do things. The main purpose of this article is to provide an introduction to the world of DIY DVRs, hopefully planting the seed for the possibility of a world beyond TiVo. On the other hand, if you do choose to take a route similar to the route I've chosen, this should provide you with a good starting point.

What you need

In order to put together your own DVR, you really only need to add two things to any given computer:

1. A TV capture card
2. DVR software

Add the preceding two components to any PC and you've got yourself a solid, fully-functional DVR; it doesn't get much more simple than that.

Choosing a capture card

First things first. If you're going turn your TV into a DVR, you need a capture card. A capture card is a USB or PCI device that you install on your computer that allows you to plug your TV cable into your computer the same way you would your TV.

There are plenty of cards available, but I've had great experience with the Hauppauge PVR-150, the entry card in the Hauppauge line of cards. To ease the load on your CPU, the Hauppauge PCI cards do the video encoding on the card, meaning TV recording will take up very few CPU cycles (perfect for an older PC). After you've bought it, you are of course going to have to install your PCI card (the Hauppauge PVR-150 is the card I installed in this feature), which is easy enough to do.

Finding the right software

There are a lot of great software options for homebrew PVRs, like SageTV (Windows and Linux, $80), MythTV (Linux, free), GB-PVR (Windows, free), BeyondTV (Windows, $70), and Freevo (Linux, free), to name a few of the most popular.

Although MythTV is probably the most powerful of these programs (and it's free), when all was said and done I chose SageTV for its feature set, stability, and Windows/Linux support. Aside from its very active support forums, you can also get support directly from a real company, which is always a nice option. Out of the box, SageTV installs as easily as any Windows program, and configuring your capture card with SageTV is a breeze.

Basically, if you're looking for a quick and easy, no hassle PVR software, SageTV fits the bill. In short, your PVR will be up and running in no time. [1] However, keep in mind that one of the great parts about building a homebrew PVR is that you do have the option to tweak and fiddle to your heart's content. If that's the case, there's a lot more you can do with SageTV.

Extending SageTV

The following are all tweaks I've made to my DVR. Some are specific to SageTV, while others (Remote control tweaking and Commercial skipping) can be used with nearly any DVR software.

• Customize your SageTV: If you're not happy with the default UI of SageTV, there are some beautiful user-designed packages that are easy to install. The best one I've found is called SageMC16x9.
• Commercial skipping: Automatic commercial detection and skipping is another great feature that's pretty easy to get up and running, but there are a few different routes you can take. The easiest option is to use the ComSkip program, but you may also want to try Show Analyzer.
  
  
• Remote control tweaking: SageTV gives you a lot of flexibility for tweaking how your remote control works with SageTV, but there's a lot you can do to tweak your IR remote to work with any program on your computer by editing the irrremote.ini file. After all, it wouldn't be much of a DVR if you had to head for your mouse and keyboard every time you want to use a different program. Since virtually every Windows program has keyboard shortcuts that allow for mouseless navigation, you can easily setup your remote to control them. For example, the Hauppauge remote can handle pretty much any keyboard combination.
• Launch external programs: With SageMC16x9, you've got an added menu option to launch external programs (check post #99). This feature can come in particularly handy if you want to launch your favorite emulator, video game, DVD player, or batch script, again, without heading for your keyboard/mouse.

The cool part about putting together your own DVR is that you're only limited by your imagination, so with a little tweaking you can put together a DVR that perfectly fits your needs. If you've already built your own DVR, let us in on your setup. TiVo users, fight back! What can your TiVo do that my DVR can't? Add your thoughts to the comments or send an email to tips at lifehacker.com.

Adam Pash is an associate editor of Lifehacker. His special feature Hack Attack appears every Tuesday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Hack Attack RSS feed to get new installments in your newsreader.

Footnotes:

[1] If you're looking to take the same route I did, SageTV offers some excellent packages at their online store, bundling, for example, the PVR-150 capture card and the SageTV software at a discount. [back up]

 
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(Via Lifehacker.)

Troubleshoot Mac application crashes:

It's true: ocassionally Mac applications crash. Happily Macworld's got the rundown for what to do when it happens, including the age old cureall - rebooting. But my favorite tip is to check out the console logs, really helpful text documents that constantly update with the state of your Mac.

Launch OS X's Console utility (/Applications/Utilities). Click on the Logs button in the toolbar. From the list on the left, locate the CrashReporter folders (in your user folder/ Library/Logs and in /Library/Logs). In these folders are logs for every application on your Mac that has ever crashed.

Find the log file with the name of your problem program and select it. The output you'll see here is too technical for most people. But occasionally you'll find a clue to the cause of the crash -- for example, a reference to a problematic plug-in.

 
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Related: Setting up Windows XP on a Mac with Bootcamp
Related: Dual boot OS X and Windows with Apple's Bootcamp>

(Via Lifehacker.)

Learn to solder:

Every now and then, we'll feature a DIY project that requires a little more know-how than we all possess - for example, a project that requires a little soldering. For those of you who have found soldering to be a major DIY roadblock, you may want to check out this introduction to soldering.

Once you've got your soldering down, it's probably time to get going on your Easy button hack.

 
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Related: Build your own rotating digital photo frame

(Via Lifehacker.)

FT, the Robot Woman:
Here's another robot from the Kyoto University... so after Neon, Chroino, T-28 and Vision from TeamOSAKA, here's the FT or Female Type. It weighs 800g, it's 35cm tall and has 23 degrees of freedom.

(Via Akihabaranews.)

Hack Attack: Firefox extension packs:

If you've ever had to re-install Firefox, or you're installing Firefox for the first time on a new computer, you know it can be a pain to hunt down and install your favorite extensions. This week, I'm going to try to relieve some of that pain using previously-mentioned Firefox extension Mass Installer.

The Mass Installer extension reads a list of extension URLs from a text file and automatically installs them all in one fell swoop. Obviously that's pretty handy, but you still have to hunt down the URLs of your favorite extensions and paste them all into a text file, and who has time for that?

To be honest... I do. So, to make things really easy on you, I've packaged several of the best Firefox extensions for basic use (the must-haves for any user), blogging, web development, and performance enhancement in four separate packages that you can quickly and easily install with the Mass Installer extension.

First, install the Mass Installer extension. After that it's really easy to install the extension packs. Just go to the Mass Installer options (go to Tools -> Extensions, select Mass Installer and click Options) and enter the URL of the pack you'd like to install (see URLs below). Click OK and Mass Installer takes care of the rest. Once you restart your browser, every extension in the pack should be installed to Firefox. Mass Installer will check for updated versions of the extensions on restart, so even if the extensions get old, Mass Installer has got you covered. Simple, right?

Now lets get to the extension packs. As I said, I've put together four separate packages: Basic, Performance, Blogger, and Web Developer.

Basic extensions pack (the must-haves):

• SessionSaver
  THE must-have extension for anyone, SessionSaver saves your browsing session so that you can easily return to where you left off when browsing (even if you accidentally close your browser or it crashes). This is the absolute first extension I install.
• BugMeNot
  No matter who you are, you've probably run into a registration roadblock. The BugMeNot extension integrates with BugMeNot.com so that the registration hurdle seems more like an imperceptible bump.
• LastTab
  Makes Ctrl-Tab (Cmd-Tab for Macs) cycle to the most recently viewed tabs, mimicing the behavior or Alt-Tab.
• FoxMarks
  Quickly restore your bookmarks to exactly how you like them.

If you read Lifehacker at all, you're well aware that there are loads of Firefox extensions out there to extend Firefox to terrific new heights; however, they're certainly not all necessary. Regardless of what I'm using Firefox for, the basic pack contains the extensions that I want to have running no matter what.

Basic user extensions text file for Mass Installer

Performance extensions pack:

• Flashblock
  Flashblock knocks out all Flash content on a web page, allowing you to choose what flash content is loaded.
• AdBlock
  Filters ads from webpages.
• Image-Show-Hide
  Clicking a button in the toolbar or pressing Shift-Z toggles all images on a web page on and off.
• FasterFox
  Performance and network tweaks designed to make browsing faster.

The performance pack should come in handy for those of you who don't like all that messy multimedia screwing with the speed of your browsing. The extensions included in this pack are intended to make browsing with Firefox as snappy as possible, minimizing bandwidth use.

If you're working with a dial-up connection, check out Gina's excellent guide for surviving a slow internet connection for more tweaks after you've installed the performance package.

Performance extensions text file for Mass Installer

Blogger extensions pack:

• Signature
  If you're sick of typing the same HTML mark-up or the same signature at the end of every post, the right-click Signature extension is a life saver.
• Auto Copy
  Every time you select the text you're heading straight to Ctrl+C anyway; Auto Copy lets you skip that step.
• How'd I Get Here
  As a considerate blogger, I'm sure you include your via links. However, if you've forgotten from whence you came, How'd I Get Here will remind you.

This one's for all you bloggers and web writers out there. Most of these extensions came from Gina's excellent Turn Firefox into a web writer feature, with a couple added extensions that make my life writing on the web a lot easier. (Unfortunately a few of the extensions from Gina's web writer post, namely Scribe, Spellbound, and Resizeable TextArea, aren't compatible with Firefox 1.5.)

Blogger extensions text file for Mass Installer

Web Developer extensions pack:

• Web Developer
  Adds a toolbar and menu with an incredible slew of useful web dev tools.
• IE Tab
  Lets you load a page in Internet Explorer embedded in Firefox - very useful for testing pages across browsers.
• ColorZilla
  Eyedropper tool extraordinaire ColorZilla lets you grab a color from any page and more.
• MeasureIt
  Handy ruler tool that lets you easily size up you page.
• Greasemonkey
  Though useful in several other contexts as well, Greasemonkey can be a great way to try out scripts when you're developing.

There are several excellent extensions available for the web developer, but I've included just a few essentials that I like to have in my web dev toolbox.

Web Developer extensions text file for Mass Installer

In the end, these packs should help cut down on the time it takes you to get started with a new Firefox installation without having to hunt down all the necessary extensions every time. Since I use most of these extensions, I'd probably install all four packs, then remove any excess extensions. It's a lot easier to remove a couple of unwanted extensions from a list than it is to get every extension one-by-one. If you'd rather do the same, here's an extension pack containing every extension listed above:

Combined extension pack

Let us know what you'd add or remove from the extension packs, as well as what other packs you might put together. Obviously these packs will may be incomplete for many of you (I tried to avoid making the packs too bloated, keeping them as universal as possible), so they're probably missing out on a couple of extensions you rely on every day to operate.

If you want to add your own extension pack to the comments, please send your text file to tips at lifehacker.com. We'll host it, send you the link, and you can let us know what you chose and why in the comments. If you haven't got a comment invite, we'll send one your way.

Adam Pash is an associate editor of Lifehacker. His special feature Hack Attack appears every Tuesday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Hack Attack RSS feed to get new installments in your newsreader.

 
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Related: Download of the Day: ListZilla
Related: Firefox extensions for your security
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(Via Lifehacker.)

Create a torrent to keep up with your shows:

TorrentFreak has a how-to that'll show you how to use BitTorrent to keep up with your shows.

tvRSS just released some extra features that makes it easier to find the latest episodes of your favorite TV-show. They optimized their search options, and support “search based rss feeds”. This makes it easy for anyone to create a personalized TV-torrent feed. This means you can have all your favorite TV-torrents in one feed.

Thanks to Lennart for the tip!

 
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Related: Download of the Day: Democracy internet video player

(Via Lifehacker.)

Put off Firefox 1.5's "Unresponsive script" dialogue:

One of the "features" of Firefox 1.5 is a pop-up dialog that appears whenever a page takes too long to load that reads, "Warning: Unresponsive script. A script on this page may be busy, or it may have stopped responding. You can stop the script now, or you can continue to see if the script will complete."

To which I ask, "Why, Mozilla? Why?" I run into this error a lot since I upgraded to Firefox 1.5, especially with the slow-as-snails installation of MovableType we wrestle with each day to publish Lifehacker. Happily it's not hard to delay this annoying dialog. To do so:

1. Type about:config in Firefox's address bar.
2. Filter down to the value for dom.max_script_run_time.
3. Change the value to something higher than the default (which is 5.) I set mine to 20.
4. Bask in interruptionless browsing!

Thanks to John for asking, and Itchy Hands and the MozillaZine forums for answering.

 
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Related: Firefox 2.0 alpha preview video
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(Via Lifehacker.)

Hack Attack: Become a Gmail master:

by Adam Pash

Gmail is hands-down the best web-based email service on the 'net. Conversation threads, search, tagging, and keyboard shortcuts have completely revolutionized the way I look at my inbox. I manage all of my email from my personal Gmail inbox, including the daily flood of Lifehacker messages. At this point, I can't imagine a program I could use to manage my email any more efficiently.

Despite my undying love for Gmail, there are still a lot of people who aren't won over by sheer enthusiasm alone, and still others who just aren't taking full advantage of the features and functions they've got at their fingertips in Gmail. Either way, the only thing a Gmail naysayer needs is a better understanding of everything you can do with Gmail.

Today I've got a rundown of the methods and add-ons I use to make Gmail more powerful. By the time you're done with this article you'll be a bona fide Gmail power user, too.

Quick look at what to expect

When you're done setting up your Gmail account, you should be able to do everything you see in this short video without once leaving your keyboard (which means beaucoup productivity for you):

Let's get started down your path to Gmail mastery.

Set up labels

The first thing you'll want to do to flex Gmail's muscle a bit is set up a few labels. If you're new to labels, think of them as folders, or better yet, tags. [1] Your email doesn't have to specifically reside in any folders to be just as accessible. In fact, labels are great specifically because you can apply multiple labels to one email, making your email that much easier to find. Setting up labels is super-easy:

1. Go to Settings, and then select the Labels tab.
2. In the textbox labeled, "Create a new label:" simply type your label and click Create.

Yep, that's it. I'd suggest going through your email and figuring out how you might want to categorize and label your emails. I generally create labels for any mailing lists I'm on, along with labels for different work-related emails and an ever-important Follow-up label for the emails I want to make sure I remember to reply to (e.g., those emails I'm not going to reply to immediately but I don't want to fall through the cracks).

Of course, your labels will revolve around your needs (as they should), and if you don't already have an email system, I'd encourage you to examine your email and develop one.

Set up filters

While labels are great on their own - and I label a lot of messages after they land in my Inbox - there are a lot of instances where you can assign labels automatically based on the characteristics of the message, thus saving yourself the work. That's where filters come in.

Gmail can filter an email based on six criteria: From, To, Subject, Has the words, Doesn't have, and Has attachment. Obviously this setup offers a lot of power for filtering your incoming mail. After you choose your criteria, you can choose any combination of the following options: Skip the Inbox (Archive), Star it, Apply the label..., Forward it to, and Delete it.

When I set up a new filter, I commonly choose to Skip the Inbox and Apply a label. For a detailed description of how to do this, check out my feature on bookmarking with Gmail[2].

Managing multiple email accounts with Gmail

It's not at all uncommon to have more than one email address these days (actually, for many of you it's been pretty common for years now). Though you may never be able to consolidate all of your email to one address, you can at least deal with all of your email from one account.

If your non-Gmail account allows for email forwarding, set it up to forward your mail to your main Gmail address (this process will vary based on your email account, but it's generally really easy to do somewhere in the settings). For example, all of the Lifehacker tips email (which comes to Gina, Keith, and me) comes straight to my personal Gmail address, at which point it's filtered out of my inbox and labeled "Lifehacker Tips."

With Gmail's recent addition of smart replying, you shouldn't have to worry about sending email from the wrong address. When someone sends you an email, Gmail will automatically use the appropriate email address when replying (whether it's a Gmail address or not).

Using keyboard shortcuts

This is where Gmail really starts to shine. Despite the fact the Gmail does a lot of things very well, a lot of these features were just sort of ho-hum for me. It wasn't until I started using keyboard shortcuts, and then the Gmail Macros script, that I completely fell in love with Gmail.

The first thing you'll want to do is enable keyboard shortcuts in Gmail. This is as simple as navigating to the General tab in the Settings and selecting "Keyboard shortcuts on." The keyboard shortcuts let you navigate through your messages, within your conversations, archive a conversation, and jump to your inbox without ever having to go for the mouse. Here's a list of the default Gmail keyboard shortcuts.

Gmail's keyboard shortcuts by themselves are great, but if you really want to take control of your Gmail inbox, I very highly recommend installing the Gmail Macros script for Greasemonkey. Though it does a lot, the most powerful thing you'll use the Gmail Macros script for is navigating through your labels (including your inbox, trash, drafts, etc. - after all, they're all just labels) and labeling your conversations with a really slick Quicksilver-like interface.

First you'll need to install the Greasemonkey Firefox extension if you don't already have it installed. Next, install the Gmail Macros script. There are a couple of different scripts available on the linked blog post, but I prefer a patched version of the script that stays more true to Gmail's original keyboard shortcuts.

Here's a quick look at the key commands that the Gmail macros script provides (click for a larger version):

It may take a little time to get the shortcuts embedded in your memory, but you can easily bring up the list of shortcuts at any time in Gmail by typing a question mark (?).

Knock out repetitive email

If you do a lot of repetitive typing in your emails (if I type the same thing three times a day I consider it repetitive), you can really knock down your repetitive emails quickly with AutoHotKey HotStrings. I'd never get through my inbox without them, and they're very easy to set up and edit.

Searching your Gmail inbox

Of course, a solid Gmail tutorial wouldn't be complete without a quick rundown of searching your Gmail (it's Google, after all!).

Search operators in Gmail work much the same as they do with Google. Type the operator followed by a colon, and then your search term (e.g., to:tips@lifehacker.com). Likewise, you can exclude terms from your search with the hyphen (-).

The search operators allow you to limit the scope of your search to the to (to:), from (from:), and subject (subject:) fields. Easy enough, right? You can also search based on labels (label:), emails with attachments (has:attachment), and even dates (after:/before:yyyy/mm/dd).

Search operators will come in especially handy if you need more flexibility when setting up filters (you can add any search term to the "Has the words" field). Here's a comprehensive list of Gmail search operators.

Take your Gmail toolbox on the road

Finally, to make my Gmail add-ons (Greasemonkey, Gmail Macros script, and AutoHotKey assignments) as portable as possible, I email them to myself as attachments so that whenever I'm away from my computer I can work just as efficiently as if I were at home.

With all of my systems in place, I'm more pleased with Gmail than I have been with any other email client, desktop or web based. Of course, I'm sure I haven't exhausted the matter. Gmail users: what tips and tricks do you use to enhance your Gmail experience? Non-Gmail users: What methods do you use that blow Gmail out of the water? Give us your thoughts in the comments or at tips at lifehacker.com.

Adam Pash is an associate editor of Lifehacker. His special feature Hack Attack appears every Tuesday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Hack Attack RSS feed to get new installments in your newsreader.

Footnotes:

[1] There are a lot of advantages of Labels or tags over folders. One huge benefit of labels is that if you choose to delete a label because you no longer find it useful (perhaps your system has evolved and you want to clean house), the associated email will not be deleted. Instead, the label is simply removed. Remember that with Gmail, the whole point is that you don't have to delete any of your email - ever. A second benefit of labels is that you can mark one email with as many labels as you like. [back up]

[2] If you want to use Gmail as a bookmarking tool, drag and drop this modified GmailThis! bookmarklet onto your browser's bookmarks toolbar and edit email address and the text labeled "bookmark here" to the labels you've setup for your bookmarks. [back up]

 
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(Via Lifehacker.)

Antec Minuet 300 Case:

Antec has released their latest case, the Minuet 300, to cater to those micro-computer lovers. This case supports both AMD and Intel CPUs in a micro ATX form factor motherboard. It is able to stand vertically or lay horizontally and even includes 300W ATX power supply. There is also an upgraded cooling system to accommodate for the common heating problems related to small-form-factor PCs. This case is available for $89.95.

 
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(Via Gizmodo.)

Why is Windows so slow?:

Filed under: OS, Software

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(Via The Unofficial Apple Weblog.)