Change Mail Sidebar Icon Size in Lion

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I don’t know if any of you were bothered by the fact that in Lion, the default icon size in Mail was much larger than it had been previously.
MailMediumIcons
Personally it bugged the hell out of me, as I have a huge amount of mailboxes, and I didn’t know how to change the icon size.

Now I know. Go to System Preferences:General

SystemPreferencesGeneral

And then chose Sidebar Icon size, which also controls the finder icon sidebar icon size (though not iTunes) and changes them within in Mail as well.
GeneralSidebarIconSize

The default is medium, if you change it to small, the icons in mail are back to their old size.

MailIconsSmall

Yes, so much more pleasing!

Launchpad-Control from Chaos Space

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launchpad-control

I don’t know anyone who like Launchpad, the iOS like App Launcher built into Lion, especially anyone with as many apps as I have, but if I were to use I would want something like this, which allows you to turn apps off from display (since deleting an app from Launchpad deletes the app from the computer completely).

Launchpad-Control is pay what you want and you can download it from ChaosSpace.

OnLineVideo.net on FCP X 10.0.1

OnLineVideo.Net has an article on Final Cut Pro 10.0.1 it is not so positive. I agree with it wholeheartedly.

I like what they have to say about the new feature roles:

To a degree, roles are a solution to a problem Apple created by making Final Cut Pro X trackless. For example, in Final Cut Pro 7, or Premiere Pro for that matter, you could accomplish the same thing by placing narration on one track and music on another, and enabling/disabling the track as necessary for preview or rendering.


In addition to preview, when rendering out to a QuickTime file, you can also use roles to create separate files for further editing in another program. This is shown in Figure 4. For most high-end users, however, OMF or EDL export in Final Cut Pro 7 provides the same capability, while those editing in sister programs like Soundtrack Pro or Color would simply use the direct export feature shown in Figure 2. Apple declined to include industry-standard mediums of exchange in their product, or direct access to Soundtrack Pro, and roles is a substitute. In my view, you don’t get brownie points for fixing a problem caused by your own questionable design decisions.

And in conclusion:

For me, all the glorious new features seem like solutions to problems that I don’t have, added complexity with no payoff. With Final Cut Pro 7 or Premiere Pro, there are projects, clips, and a timeline. You import your clips, organize them into folders, and drag them down into the timeline. Then you trim a bit, add some effects, maybe a transition or two, export, and you’re done.


With Final Cut Pro 10, you have Events and Projects. You have a Magnetic Timeline, Clip Connections, a Primary Storyline, Auditions, Roles, Smart Collections: all are completely new concepts that I’ve never encountered in the dozen or so editors that I’ve cut projects on in the past, and, in some cases, they’re solutions to problems caused by questionable design decisions like the trackless interface.


The result is a cluttered interface that you really can’t control and asset management with even less control. You have effects and other functions seemingly designed to prioritize being different rather than superior. Honestly, was every established editing convention, from marking clips in and out in a source window to three-wheel color correction, so tragically flawed that it wasn’t worthy of being implemented in Final Cut Pro X, if only because it was functional and familiar to all pro target users?


More importantly, within the context of my typical projects, whether a two-hour ballet or music concert, or a ten minute streaming clip or screencam, will these new concepts help me do my job faster or better? I honestly don’t think so, particularly because Final Cut Pro 7 and now Adobe Creative Suite already suit my needs so well.



Exactly, the new features do not speed up my editing, and I actually find them slowly and less efficient. And now that is seems that FCP X has lost OMF export when Automatic Duck went away, so roles is even more useless, as I need OMF much more than just exporting tracks (though I do need tracks as well)

I don’t want a new form of editing, I want new features on top of the way I already edit, and if I like them will use them, but I don’t like the new way of editing of FCP X, and I don’t think I ever will

So much outpouring over Steve Jobs

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Wow, I can’t believe how many people have been affected by Steve Jobs death. It is all over the web. He really did affect so many people’s lives. I know it is no consolation to his family and friends, but we all appreciated him so much and I hope this shows them!

A sad day, Steve Jobs has died

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SteveJobs
It is a sad day, it seems that Steve Jobs has passed away today at the age of 56. He was an amazing man, and really changed the world with the computers and other devices that he created. He must have been very sick to have left Apple, and he obviously was.

I got my first Apple computer when I was 7, and have been a loyal Mac user ever since (though the whole Final Cut Pro thing has shaken my loyalty a bit).

Steve Jobs created computers and electronics that have inspired me and become a part of my life.

I am saddened for his family and friends, and for the world.

Rest in Peace Steve!

FCP.CO on Roles in FCP X

FCP.CO has a video by Micha Schmidt on using Roles, and getting out the audio to do a mix.

It is worth checking out, and makes it seem pretty useless as the exports using ROLES for audio tracks, only gives you complete mixdowns of each track that has been assigned Roles, but they are mixdowns, and not at all OMF tracks with individual audio tracks. So not all that useful. Sure you could make versions with audio on different tracks like this (if you have another program to make tapes).

My question do Roles export with Automatic Duck Pro Export 5.0 so that the clips show up in tracks? If that works, then it makes Pro Export more useful, but if not, Roles are pretty useless.

MacStories shows off RestoreMeNot Preference Pane

Macstories has an article on an interesting new preference Pane for OS X Lion RestoreMeNot, which is free and allows you to individually disable OS X Lion Restore Restore for Each Application of your choice.

RestoreMeNot

Personally I think this should have been built into OS X as I have had some issues with Restore and certain apps (Rapidweaver will open two instances of my site, and crash if I try and save, and the Core OS X service keeps trying to open the last installer that was opened instead of the one I am trying to open) so this is a very useful little tool.