This is a very handy function and much faster to use than to open up the Apple calculator or to open Dashboard and wait for the calculator widget to load.

And yes, a click on Enter will open up the Apple Calculator

The Tears, originally uploaded by wheredowegonowbutnowhere.

Some photos I took some years ago of “The Tears” (ex Suede) at the Roskilde Festival…

In this photo Bernard Butler, but on Flickr.com I also uploaded the photos of Brett.

Enjoy!

The application is promising a lot, and is following the “Getting Things Done” – GTD – theory.

It’s based around actions, projects and contexts, and basically lets you create advanced sets of to-do-lists.

For a video introduction to the applications visit Screencasts online.

As soon as Iv’ve been evaluating the product I’ll update this post.

»Skip to the solution

One of Apples most underrated, and as I see it most innovative and useful products, is the Airport Express.

It has three major functionalities:

• Wireless base station and router
• Wireless printer sharing
• Wireless music streaming using Apples technology “Airtunes”

Except this it is also portable, allowing you to bring it with you when traveling or going to your summer house.

The fact is that I like this product so much that I’ve actually bought 3 of them, having one in my living room, one in the kitchen and one in the bedroom, not only to extend the wireless network using WDS but above all to be able to stream music to the stereos in each room. Fantastic!

Problem

Anyway, the problem has always been the fact that Airtunes is only available using iTunes. Looking at YouTube videos, using Spotify or viewing a film has always annoyed me since it means you need to connect the computer with a cable to the home stereo.

That was until I found the application Airfoil.

Streaming audio from (almost) any application

It should be noted that this isn’t a free application, but it’s worth every penny and it’s cost of $25 (or £17/€18) is actually low for the functionality it provides.

Airfoil is an application that actually lets you stream music from any application to your preferred Airport Express.

This works very well as long as you are streaming only audio, but trying to stream audio from a video application unfortunately will render the video and audio out of sync since there is a delay when encoding the audio and sending it to the Airport Express station.

This is probably also why Apple, other than wanting to constrain people to use iTunes as primary audio application, has chosen to limit the use of Airtunes to iTunes.

There is a solution however to the video problem, which will work for the needs of most people. It will however be a solution only for external video files, as mpg, avi or wmv, and that said, it will not work for video embedded in websites as Youtube etc.

Solution

The solution is to use the Airfoil video player.

Basically the Airfoil video player is an implementation of the quicktime functionality Mac OS offers, but it delays video to sync with remote audio playback. This means that you will be able to view video with the audio wirelessly transmitted to your home stereo, using no cables what so ever.

Note that since Quicktime by default lacks support for many video and audio formats, you will probably need to install plugins to support them. In an upcoming post I’ll explain not only how to do this and point out the best solution, but also explain how to use subtitles with Quicktime, thus creating the perfect video and audio solution.

Preparing chai tee on the beach, originally uploaded by wheredowegonowbutnowhere.

Just found some photos from my travel in India 2001, which I uploaded to Flickr. Have a look at them, they are really nice

Since many people often ask how to maximize their productiveness and I always try to give them information about the keyboard shortcuts in the system I thought a more structured explanation might be useful.

I’ve been a Mac-user since more than 10 years now, and I’ll most likely continue to do so for another 10 years. The robustness and the simple fact that it gets things done without problems are reasons enough to motivate the choice. And starting to use the keyboard shortcuts are probably the easiest way to maximize your productivity and streamline your computer experience.

The most important fact to remember is that the keyboard shortcuts on the Mac platform are universal. That is, the basic commands are always the same between applications, as stipulated by Apple in their developer guidelines, giving the user the advantage of always being able to use the same commands, in Safari, Apple Mail, Firefox, Skype or any other application based on the Apple graphical user interface.

In the following list I’ve been ordering the most useful shortcuts in categories.

Note: on newer Macs the -key is marked “⌘ Cmd”.

Most important

 + Z
Undo. Will save you more than once.

Basic navigation

 + tab
Brings up the application switcher which lets you change application.

Keep  pressed and click tab ones to bring up a window with all open applications visible. Keeping the  key selected while “tabbing” lets you cycle to the next application. The application selected when you let up the  key will open up as active application

 + shift + tab
As above but in reversed direction

 + tab (+ mouse)
As above but lets you navigate the open applications using the mouse. Remember to keep  pressed and to just “tab” once to bring up the window. The application under the mouse pointer when you let go of the -key will open up as active application

 + Q
Quits the active application

 + W
Closes the active Window

 + alt + W
Closes all windows (in the active application)

 + H
Hides the active application

 + alt + H
Hides all applications except the active application

 + S
Saves the current document

 + P
Prints the current document

 + ,
Opens preferences for the active application

tab
Usually navigates between input fields. For example when filling out a form on an internet page. You enter your name, and press tab. The cursor will now be in the next (surname) text field, and you can continue typing.

shift + tab
Navigates to the previous input field

Advanced navigation

 + space bar
Opens the spotlight search field and lets you perform a search immediately.

I use this to open applications since it’s faster to open the field and start typing the first letters of an application name than to find the application in the dock or in the applications folder. While typing spotlight will suggest the most likely file corresponding to your search. Normally it finds it after 3 letters, and then pressing return/enter will open the application (or document).

Probably the fastest way to open applications.

 (+ shift) + tab (+ mouse) + Q
If you press Q while cycling the active applications window you will Quit the selected application automatically. If there are any unsaved documents opened the application will ask you if you want to save them before proceeding.

Probably the fastest way to quit multiple applications.

Text editing – basic

 + C
Copies the selected text/item/file into the memory

 + X
Cuts the selected text/item/file and stores it in the memory

 + V
Pastes / inserts the copied / cutted text/item/file

Text editing – really useful

alt + –> (right arrow)
Moves the cursor one word forward in a text

alt + <– (left arrow)
Moves the cursor one word backward in a text

alt + arrow up
Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current paragraph

alt + arrow down
Moves the cursor to the end of the current paragraph

alt + shift + any arrow
Moves the cursor and selects the word/paragraph from the current position

 + –> (right arrow)

Moves the cursor to the end of the current line in a text

 + <– (left arrow)
Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current line in a text

 + arrow up
Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current document

 + arrow down
Moves the cursor to the end of the current document

 + shift + any arrow
Moves the cursor and selects the line/paragraph from the current position

Safari

Safari is Apples web browser, and my preferred choice since it’s well integrated in the system, extremely fast and has a clean interface.

 + T
Opens a new tab

 + mouse click
Opens a link in a new tab instead of in the same window

 + shift + A
Auto compile text fields. Will fill in a web form with the most used data, for example your name in the name-field, e-mail address in the mail field and so on.

Various

 + alt + shift + 8
Inverts the colours of the screen. Perhaps seems stupid, but it’s actually very nice for reading longer texts since your eyes will not have to stare for a longer time on a white background, since this will become black. Try it.

Some week ago me and Massimo Guerci, Senior Art Director interactive at SPQR Network, got interviewed by Eyeblaster Creativezone about a project we did for our client Sony Pictures Releasing Italia.

The ad was a full page takeover of one of Italy’s most known moviesites for the film Cloudy with a chance of meatballs, and consisted of a three dimensional trailer were objects were exiting the video player and got smashed agains the “glass” of the users monitor.

The article can be read here: http://bit.ly/italianmeatballs

Microsoft Eyblaster just announced that they have selected our online 3D trailer as Editors Choice on their site Creative Zone.

This is the link to the page on Creative zone.

See a copy of the video ad here.

20091212_0312-_MG_9863, originally uploaded by wheredowegonowbutnowhere.

Go to flickr to see all the photos in the set.

Amusement Parks on Fire – Michael Feerick & Gavin Poole, originally uploaded by wheredowegonowbutnowhere.

The photos from the concert are online!