So Gmail just added a multiple inboxes feature in labs, and there are some pretty cool tricks you do with the feature whether you want multiple inboxes or just want to see filtered items.

Enable the multiple inboxes feature from labs and go to your Settings section. Here you will be able to make selections for each of the multiple "panes" in your inboxes.

The primary issue I had with this feature was that it showed all of the messages whether they were in the inbox or not. While CNet suggests that you add a filter and tell the messages in your other accounts to just skip the inbox, I wanted it to work a little different.

I wanted to see my Starred messages, but not ALL of my starred messages forever... once I archive it I stop caring. Turns out by exploring the filters a bit I could get exactly what I wanted. The secret to multiple queries in mail searching is to use parenthesis to select more than one thing.

is:(Starred) in:(Inbox) produced exactly the results I needed.

Some other combinations
is:(Starred) to:(myemail@myschool.edu) shows my important school messages only
is:(Inbox) ebay shows only the messages in my inbox that have the text 'ebay' in the subject or body

Many other cool combinations can be found by testing the define filter dialog...

If you have ever wanted all of the important links and cool stuff for CSS design and layout all in one place, this is it.

http://www.dezwozhere.com/links.html

Also if you have never seen A List Apart you should check it out too http://www.alistapart.com

_K

Check out this demo over at betterthanflex.com. They are calling it Courier New Tube. Basically it is youTube videos but converted in the Flex app to characters rather than the live video.

http://www.betterthanflex.com/app/couriernewtube/CourierNewTube.html

It is similar to the sample code that showed the conversion of pictures to the characters but much much slicker. Someone I was watching it with said "what is so cool about that" then "OH... it's letters that is F_ing cool".

Check it out www.betterthanflex.com

Outsmart has a couple of examples at their website showing some wild 3D visualizations. You can run around a 3D room with Flex charts, video components, slide shows and other components on the walls. It is pretty amazing.

There are also some examples of other 3D animation, and a discussion at their blog about other game focused technology and their place in business applications.

Check out the 3D and components demo at: http://dev.getoutsmart.com/os3d/demos/videoroom/

The 3D rotating earth with depth of field at: http://dev.getoutsmart.com/os3d/demos/earth/

If you are looking for some great resources to make your Flex projects stand out from the crowd, or even stand out like the crowd you should take a look over at scalenine.com. I have also listed direct links to some of the cooler examples at the bottom of this entry.

http://www.scalenine.com/resources.html

They have links to some of the best examples out there of Flex Themes and Icons for use in Flex Apps, or even in plain old HTML pages. On the resources page they give some links to other tutorials and UI customization options.

Recently some conversations I was involved in turned to Flex Coding conventions for actionscript 3. Most of the guys around my office are from Java backgrounds and they asserted, correctly for the most part that Sun's Java standard doc serves as a good starting point.

This will definately be a great place to start if you have never taken a look at it, or don't come from a strong CS background.

Since it is a good starting point Here is the Java Version:
http://java.sun.com/docs/codeconv/

Here are some of the other resources that I was able to dig up:

If you are using Cairngorm, thinking about using Cairngorm for your next Flex project, or just asking yourself "what the heck is Cairngorm," while reading this post, you should head over to cairngormdocs.org.

They have a great repository of resources for the Flex Cairngorm community. Specifically they have a whole lot of community created resources for learning and implementing Cairngorm, including a fully documented working example with a diagram .swf file that lets you walk through the code in a point and click manner. Definately worth a look...

A new article has been added to the Adobe.com site showing show to create rich Internet applications using SabreAMF. SabreAMF is one of 3 current PHP projects that support AMF to allow access to PHP remote objects.

Renaun Erickson wrote the five part article that walks you through configuring SabreAMF on a PHP server. You will need PHP 5 and PEAR on your web server. His tutorial shows you examples and all of the links to create and connect to a custom AMF gateway built on top of SabreAMF.

View the article here.

Want to see something seriously hot in Flex?

Check out the DisplayShelf component over at www.quietlyscheming.com. Ely gave a fantastic presentation in his MAX 2006 Architecture talk.

Who says that Flex can't look hot... oh yeah I remember.

Basically Ely shows you how to knock off the Cover Browser View from ITunes in Flex. It's like Scott Kelby down and dirty tricks but for Flex! That is a publication I would like to see as well if any of the Technical Editors over at Adobe are listening ( Amy, Craig... ?)

Check it out: Catalog Shelf

Thanks to everyone who presented at MAX and MAXUP 2006 at the Venetian in Las Vegas. All of the sessions were truly top notch and it was a real pleasure to meet a lot of the folks whose blogs, threads, and emails I have been reading over the last year or so.

My initial takes:

• The Flex and Flash content was exciting, I can't wait for more on Apollo.
• Thanks to Roger Gonzalez for working on the Modular .swfs in Flex 2.0.1
• Thanks to Matt Chotin for the sneak of the Mac Builder a couple of days early
• Thanks to Ely Greenfield at quietlyScheming.com for a great talk and great previous examples.