 |
|
|
|||||
This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Subscribe here. Raycast is one of my favorite free apps. Its a hidden gem that helps you do almost anything on your computeradd to your calendar, list tasks, search files, do math, or control appswithout touching your mouse. Its free for Mac and coming soon to iOS and Windows. I use Raycast dozens of times daily for tasks that might take seconds individually, but cumulatively interrupt my flow. It saves me half an hour a week I can reallocate to deep work or family time. Read on for seven of my favorite ways to use Raycast and some limitations and alternatives. 1. Do quick math and conversions Convert temperatures, currencies, time zones, or measurements. Calculate dates, like “100 days from now” or “days until Nov 7, 2028.” Perform any math equation. 2. Find anything youve copiedeven days ago Easily summon your full clipboard history to paste anything youve copied. Retrieve text, links, and even images easily. Save frequently used text as favorites. 3. Save time with text shortcuts Create shortcodes that expand into text you frequently type: Set up snippets for your address, signatures, or common responses. Type custom text like \addr to instantly paste your mailing address or set @@ to automatically paste your email address. Create snippets for links, instructions, or anything you repeatedly type. 4. Add tasks, events, and notes without switching apps Interact with your favorite apps with keyboard shortcuts. Add tasks to Apple Reminders, Todoist, or other apps. Create Google Calendar events using natural language. Control Spotify playback without switching windows. Send quick messages in Slack. Add notes to your favorite note-taking app, or use Raycast Notes for easy access to a digital notepad. For example, by typing +Space (or your custom shortcut) followed by “remind” and your task text, you can add something to your to-do list without ever leaving your current application. 5. Control your computer settings Using Raycast lets you avoid navigating through system menus. Raycast Focus: Set timers and block distracting apps to get work done. Adjust screen brightness. Split your screen between two or more windows. Lock your computer when stepping away. Toggle system settings like Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. 6. Find files, tabs, and web results instantly Find exactly what you need in seconds, without having to dig through folders. Locate files anywhere on your computer. Search the web directly with Google or Perplexity. Look up word definitions. Find specific emails. Search within applications. 7. Get AI help right from your keyboard (Pro) You can add AI capabilities for $8/month Get AI input anywhere on your computer. Use natural language to control your system or to find GDocs, for example. Generate images through AI extensions. How to get started Download and install: Visit Raycast.com and download the free application. (Mac only for now. iOS and Windows coming soon.) Choose your launch key: This is the magic key combination that will quickly open Raycasts pop-up window, so you can use it for all of the efficiencies detailed in this post. By default, Raycast uses [Option] and [Space], but you can customize it. I use [Control] and [Space]. Add extensions: Browse the extension store and add integrations for apps you frequently use (Google Calendar, Apple Reminders, Spotify, Notion, etc.). Set up the clipboard manager: Try copying a few different items and access them with +Shift+V or whatever key combination you choose Create your first snippet: Add a snippet for your email signature or address with a simple shortcode like \sig. Configure quick keys: Set up custom keyboard shortcuts for your most-used actions. Bonus resources Watch to learn more: 101 things you can do with Raycast Get free Raycast extensions for your favorite apps: raycast.com/store Sample Quicklinks you can add to Raycast: ray.so/quicklinks Simple snippets you can add to Raycast: ray.so/snippets Coming next iOS app launch (AprilMay 2024): Raycasts first iPhone version will launch soon for fast access to notes, AI chat, links, and snippets. Android will follow later. Windows version: Hundreds of people are doing alpha testing to strengthen this before launch. Snippets & AI features will arrive in the next few months. Cross-device synchronization: Your Raycast settings and data will flow between platforms when new versions launch. Alternatives Alfred: Offers shortcuts like Raycast, but requires more manual customization for advanced workflows. I still sometimes use this for its clipboard manager. TextBlaze: Has advanced features I like for text expansion. Mac Spotlight: Built into macOS but with fewer features and integrations Windows options include Keypirinha & Flowlauncher, or join the Raycast Windows waitlist. Bottom line: These alternatives offer overlapping functionality, but Raycast combines their best features in one free package with a more intuitive interface. Caveats Platform limitations: Currently Mac-only, though Windows and mobile versions are in development. Learning curve: Takes time to build the habit of using keyboard shortcuts instead of opening applications. Complex advanced features. Some of the 1,000+ integrations with other apps require API keys. These special codes are like digital permission slips from applications like YouTube or ChatGPT. They require multiple steps to set up. AI features require payment: While most features are free, AI capabilities require a $8/monthly subscription or $12/month per person for teams. Extensions vary in quality: Some third-party extensions work better than others, so you cant always be sure how well lesser-used extensions will work. This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Subscribe here.
Category:
E-Commerce
The image in the tweet may have been blurry, but its message was unmistakable. On Sunday afternoon, the official X account for the Democrats responded to news that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth allegedly had a second Signal group chat about missile strikes in Yemen by demanding that Hegseth be removed from his role. Hegseth, who has not admitted wrongdoing, replied to the tweet with a pugilistic dispatch attacking the Dems agenda. So far, so 2025thats when things took a turn. Instead of disputing the specifics of Hegseths reply, whoever controls the Dems social media escalated to DEFCON 3-level shitposting. The account tweeted a bleary, double-vision image of an iPhone home screen, with the caption: Petes POV. It was clearly a nod to the many allegations of alcohol abuse that Hegseth faced on his rocky path to confirmation back in January. Pete's POV: pic.twitter.com/xJo81xCcaP— Democrats (@TheDemocrats) April 21, 2025 It was also way spicier than the party of they-go-low-we-go-high tends to get. But this is just the latest sign that the Dems are ready to fight back against the GOPboth on and off social media. Its about time. Since Donald Trump resumed his presidency earlier this year, the official White House social media account has been markedly aggressive and joyfully cruel. Rather than merely echo Trumps enthusiasm for deporting undocumented immigrants, for example, the WH account on X has made a series of joking tweets about it. The account recently posted a mock-ASMR video about deporting immigrants, deportation-themed Valentines Day cards, and even a Studio Ghibli-style AI rendering of a woman sobbing after her capture by ICE. In many ways, this account has mirrored the IDGAF antagonism of this administrations constant chaosall the DOGE firings and budget cuts, tariff recklessness, executive orders, academic shakeups, and anti-DEI initiatives that have proved so destabilizing. The White Houses X account also adds its own special dimension to that onslaught, though, by giving Dems yet another thing they must officially comment on. While Democrats struggle to get their arms around the flurry of MAGA activity on any given day, the WH account might tweet, say, an AI image of Trump as a literal king. High-profile Democrats like Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and New York Governor Kathy Hochul then have to take time and attention away from whatever messaging they had in mind that day and respond to Trumpthereby ceding the day’s agenda to him. This game of attention and power unfolds online 24/7, with the deck stacked in Trumps favor. For too long this year, Dems didnt seem to know how to score an advantage. The message is the medium Although VP candidate Tim Walzs pugnacious Theyre just weird messaging about GOP politicians last August energized young voters, the results of the 2024 presidential election seemed to scare Democrats into playing it safe. Even as a February 2025 Harvard CAPS/Harris poll revealed that 64% of registered Dems believe their party should “oppose everything” Trump does, many Dem leaders complied instead. Perhaps convinced that the JD Vance couch memes cost them some swing voters, prominent Democrats like Governor Gavin Newsom of California kicked off the second Trump era with misguided appeals toward bipartisanship. The tendency toward acquiescence hit a nadir in mid-March, when Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer agreed to help Trump avert a government shutdown of his own making, without getting any real concessions in return. At that point, Dems didnt need the White House to mock Schumer onlinetheir own base did plenty of that on their own. Fight or flight Something has changed since then, however. Somewhere between the tens of thousands of people showing up to individual stops on Bernie Sanders and AOCs Fight Oligarchy tour and the hundreds of thousands who came out for the recent Hands Off protests, more and more elected Democrats seem to have internalized that their people want to see them fight back. Starting with Senator Cory Bookers bladder-bruising 25-hour filibuster speech on April 1, Dems have commanded attention with bold action. The next day, Senator Richard Blumenthal held a shadow hearing to highlight Trumps slashing cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Senators Jamie Raskin and Adam Schiff then joined forces a week later for a similar event, this one about Trumps alleged abuses of the law. Newsom has since sued Trump over his spate of tariffs, while Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador last week to meet with a constituent who was wrongly deported to a terrorist prison. That wrongly deported man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, has lately become a flashpoint in Trumps presidencyespecially since first federal courts and then the Supreme Court ruled that he should be returned to the U.S. Trumps team was likely counting on Dems to back off from the topic, to avoid being tarred as defending the rights of an alleged terrorist, no matter how flimsy the allegations. They almost certainly did not expect Garcia to become synonymous with the need for due process, inspiring no less than Joe Rogan to defend him. Trolling with the punches All the attention that Dems are now putting on Garcia has placed Trumps team on the backfoot. When the White Houses X account sent out a trolling tweet about Garcia the other day, it was addressed directly to Van Hollen. Much like what the White House has done with its social media activity all year, Van Hollen forced the other side to respond. He successfully seized control of the conversation. Now, as the Dems continue fighting back, their social media presence seems ready to take off its gloves in lockstep. Hours after the tweet nodding toward Hegseths reputation for alcohol abuse, the account trolled a White House post about Easter with a headline about egg shortages, and started a cheeky countdown for Hegseths seemingly imminent firing. Not all negative messaging at this moment may be a net positive for Dems. House Rep Jasmine Crockett, whose inventive insults are often internet gold, was nearly censured in March for referring to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who uses a wheelchair, as Governor Hot Wheels. Although that insult was not well received on either side of the aisle, it shows Crocketts willingness to push the envelope and test how much tolerance go-high Democrats have for go-low tactics. The Democrats reply to Hegseth on X suggests that the party is finally loosening its strict adherence to norms, in an era when their opponents are veering ever further from normalcy. Its a sign that Democrats in 2025 may just be ready to fight fire with firerather than pointing at the flames and declaring them too hot.
Category:
E-Commerce
From the first time I saw Blade Runner and heard Rutger Hauers Roy Batty describe C-beams glittering in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate, Ive wondered what it would be like to see beyond the limits of human vision. What would it feel like to have eyes that could see what we can’t normally see? I envied animals who can see light frequencies in the infrared and superheroes with X-ray vision that let them see like a NASA telescope. And today, I envy five regular human beings who, after having their eye cones temporarily rewired with a laser, were able to perceive a new color outside the typical range of the human eye. They called this color oloa name derived from the binary code 010, representing the cones in the eye that are activated during its perception thanks to that rewiring. It defies any comparison to anything humans have seen because, well, nobody has seen it except these five lucky individuals. As described in new research published in the scientific journal Science Advances, the subjects of this wild experiment agreed to describe it as a blue-green of unprecedented saturation. How our eyes work Most humans see the world through three types of light-sensitive cells in the retina, called cones. These detect red, green, and blue light, allowing us to distinguish roughly one million to 10 million colors. Thats enough to spot the difference between a ripe strawberry and a bruised one, or to admire a sunsets gradient. But a rare fewalmost always womenare born with a fourth cone type. These tetrachromats can see up to 100 million colors, spotting nuances invisible to the rest of us. For example, where a trichromat sees a single shade of green grass, a tetrachromat might perceive dozens of subtle variations. Yet even among those with the genetic mutation, true tetrachromacy is rare. The brain must adapt to process this extra input, and most screens cant display these additional hues. The people in the experiment didnt gain the ability to see millions of new colors. Instead, they glimpsed one artificial hue, like a single note added to a familiar song. The effect lasted only as long as the lasers fired, requiring subjects to stare unblinkingly at a fixed point. A twitch or glance away shattered the illusion. Researchers were able to bypass biology limitations using a system called Oza nod to the emerald goggles in The Wizard of Oz. First, they mapped individual cones in participants retinas using high-resolution scans, labeling each as red, green, or blue. Then, they fired precise laser pulses100,000 times per secondat specific green-sensitive cones, while tracking minuscule eye movements 960 times per second to keep the aim steady. Normally, activating green cones also triggers neighboring red or blue ones, muddling the signal. But Ozs precision isolated the green cones, sending the brain a code it had never decoded before. The result was olo. What Olo means for humans The implications stretch far beyond novelty. By selectively activating or disabling cones, researchers could simulate eye diseases, such as macular degeneration, and test therapies in real time. For color-blind individuals, Oz might trick the brain into perceiving missing colors by rerouting signals from surviving cones. James Fong, a UC Berkeley researcher who was one of the first coauthors in the study, told LiveScience that it could even probe whether humans can learn to interpret entirely synthetic colors: It may be possible for someone to adapt to a new dimension of color. Right now, however, Oz remains a lab curiosity. The system relies on million-dollar lasers, supercomputers, and participants willing to sit motionless for hours. The experiments targeted only peripheral visiona speck the size of a fingernail at arms lengthbecause the retinas central zone, where vision is sharpest, has cones too tightly packed for current lasers to hit accurately. Scaling this to full sight would require mapping millions of cells and tracking eye movements with zero lag, which is a target quite far from what our current technology can achieve. Our method depends on specialized lasers and optics that arent coming to smartphones anytime soon, Fong told LiveScience. For now, olo exists only in flashesa fleeting crack in the door to a stranger universe.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||