Gmail Notifr

I recently discovered Gmail Notifr (via The Changelog), and in spite of the odd name, it's the best Gmail notifier for Mac that I've found. I figure it's time to reduce my dependence on Sparrow, since it's unmaintained, and so far this notifier + Gmail in Firefox is working well (with multiple accounts).

Exporting Powerpoint Figures to Latex on Mac

I wanted to quickly write down how to export Powerpoint figures to use within pdflatex on Mac OS X, since a quick Googling didn't turn up a straightforward explanation:

1. Ensure the figure is on its own slide.
2. Print the slide to a PDF.
3. Open the PDF in Skim.
4. Do Tools -> Select Tool.
5. Select the figure and adjust the borders of the selection appropriately.
6. Do Tools -> Crop Page.
7. Do File -> Export..., pick a file name, and choose "PDF with Embedded Notes" as the file format.
8. Include the resulting file in the Latex document, e.g., using graphicx.