When I first got an annoying bright red message instructing me to try Gmail’s new priority inbox, I ignored it. A few minutes later, anxious to get rid of the aforementioned bright red message that just wouldn’t leave me alone, I enabled it.

At first I was hesitant to continue using it; just when I was ready to flick the "never ever use this thing. Ever." option, I thought it might be worth checking out settings.
Boy was I right! While Gmail only offers some pretty basic customization, what it does offer is very powerful. You can sort your priority inbox to display up to three levels before all of the other messages, including ‘important’ messages, all unread messages, starred messages, important and unread, important and read, or just choose specific labels to filter by.
Being someone who frequently sends reminder emails, this is great; it’s a very convenient filter for messages that are important, even when not recent, and seems to be quite clever (though I’m still to test this on further incoming emails, I think it sorts them effectively from the few that I’ve already marked as important).

So, crux of the matter: if you use Gmail, go ahead and enable their Priority Inbox. I don’t think you will be disappointed.

If you’re still hesitant, go ahead and check out their rather amusing video:

… now if only I could just stop the word "priority" from cluttering up my tab bar….

Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every ‘superstar,’ every ‘supreme leader,’ every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.

- Carl Sagan

How to Suck At Facebook is extremely funny.

This is very funny too! And this is trippy, but cool.

So yeah. Fun stuff.

How very, very awesome. Full view is even better.

Amusingly, Inception serves its name quite well; it thoroughly implants the idea of implanting an idea in someone’s mind in the viewers’ minds. Personally, I was jolted out of the film by the ending, leaving me wondering where I was and what was real (… I was at a cinema. And I’m fairly sure that this is real).

It was mostly the way in which the film was put together that was amazing. A marvelous combination of special effects and good scripting+acting was all it needed to work very well.
As to reality… it’s still a little sketchy. But it unwinds very nicely, leading you on with each subtle plot twist.

Long and short of it, Inception gives such a thorough mental workout that (after the 30 minutes it will take for you to stop going "Whaaaaaat?") you’ll really enjoy it.
So if you haven’t already been to see it, change your mind… or at least let me place that idea in your head.

So, our trial exams are over! Yay! I have a weekend of pure nothing, after which I will be thoroughly bored and ready to work again.

During our trial period (or, as we liked to call it, "Intense two-week cram sesh"), I listened to a bit of music as I didn’t really have much else to do… except study. Here’s some of what I heard:
Arvo Part - A Portrait
Benny Goodman - Legends
David Hill - Jerusalem
Dvorak - Symphony no. 8
Hans Zimmer - Inception Soundtrack
Hans Zimmer - Dark Knight Soundtrack
Les Miserables a few times (thankyou, school DVD…)
Mozart - Octets for Strings
Rimsky-Korsakov - Scheherazade
Tchaikovsky - Sleeping Beauty
Vivaldi - lots of misc. Concerti
And, last but most definitely not least, Sean O-Boyle - River Symphony. I cannot stress how amazing this symphony is. If you have not heard it (which you probably have not), head on over to your nearest Amazon/iTunes/similar, and go look it up.
Once again: Sean O-Boyle - River Symphony.

Firefox’s new Beta is also, again, of interest to me. It includes multi-touch for some Windows users, and a Javascript update. Other important upgrades include the disabling of AdBlock Plus (because… of something), so now none of my addons work. But more than that, I have to view every horrid GIF ad that lie on all of the gaming sites that I visit. And this of all weekends - so I’m hoping the AdBlock team verify its usage for Beta3 soon, or I’ll be a little put out.
… still, worth getting the Beta.

Interestingly, Mozilla has posted some stats about their Beta users. Apparently, "Our beta users are 96% male. Less than a quarter of you were alive when the US put a man on the moon." Like Chrome, they seem to be making tests against completely redundant events, but that’s OK; at least NASA feels more welcome now.

… that’s all for now, I think. Enjoy until boredom sets in tomorrow and the rambling continues.

Lenny

But not really. I’ve been too busy to do anything except look at a few varied blogs and listen to a whole bunch of music (more on this after Thursday). So I can assure you that this APOD picture from yesterday is awesome.

It has support for App Tabs! Awesome stuff.
Seems to be compulsory tab-above-address-bar now, but oh well. Some improved CSS3 support and a few other minor modifications.

… and Chatzilla no longer works.

More info: here, but in short, it’s well worth using.

As another set of holidays draws to a close, it is amusing to look back and see what I listened to this time while working. Largely different music, just so I could get through all of those CDs I bought months ago, but also some of the same stuff.
Here’s what I listened to:

• Andrew Lloyd Webber - Great Songs (all 3 CDs)
• Bach - St. Matthew’s Passion
• Carl Vine - All 3 Symphonies
• Chick Corea - Gold Collection
• Chopin - Waltzes, Polonaises
• Copland - Misc.
• Debussy - La Mer, Images for Orchestra, Bermagasque Suite, more Images and Arabesques
• Dvorak - Symphony 9 ("New World") a few times - special recommendation
• Hans Zimmer - PoTC soundtracks (all 3 movies)
• John Williams (not that John Williams) - Romance of the Guitar - special recommendation
• Lydian Chamber Music - Misc.
• Mendelssohn - Piano Trios 1, 2
• Randy Newman - A Bug’s Life soundtrack
• School recordings - More recent House Music recordings
• Schubert - Symphonies 5 - 9
• Shostakovich - Symphonies 1 & 2
• Smetana - Ma Vlast
• Spanish and Portuguese Orchestral Music - misc.
• Steve Burns - Music for Dust Mites
• Vivaldi - lots of concerti
• Life of Brian soundtrack - not sure who it’s by though

I also went to Melbourne and did several hours of study… fun. And back to school tomorrow, which I’m sure will be as exciting as my holidays.
Not.

Lenny

(As to the name, that relates to the previous post.)

Whenever I mention a game, it’s either because it’s really pleased me, or it’s really disappointed me. Here’s a bit of both.

Don’t get me wrong; I enjoy Nitrome games. But when their newest game is entitled Ribbit, and involves you controlling a very apt frog-rabbit, it gets a bit painful to continue playing. Which is why, in unusual fashion, I haven’t completed this game.
After the game’s villain, who seems to be obsessing about melding small animals together, creates a super-gigantic Rhino Beetle to chase you around in level 10 (prompting the lines, "Run Ribbit, Run!", which actually may be the sole reason for the game’s creation), seemingly defying his actual purpose as a villain, it got a little crazy. Plus, this villain creates space-altering blocks and switches, which is not the least bit logical.

So, I got up to level 11, where you have to bounce around in very small enclosed areas and will more or less lose the minute you mess something up. This ordinarily wouldn’t phase me, but when it’s impossible to stop the stupid thing bouncing - especially off the ceiling, thus pushing you back where you came from - it just gets too frustrating.
What am I trying to say? Nitrome, call me when you make another Flipside, Final Ninja, or Ice Breaker. ‘Till then I’ll be playing all games with my "is this sane?" filter on.

In an unrelated note, I was playing Exit Path. It’s an excellent game. Similar setting and environment to Portal (sort of), while being intriguing, and having a great learning curve. It left me wanting more, which any good game should do.
If you’re looking for something to do because, for some reason, it’s impossible to do productive things 24/7 during the holidays, then I’d definitely recommend this.

I’ll reiterate: play Exit Path, because it’s really good.

Lenny