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SaveMe - I just installed this cool little utility that does everything in its power to get you to abide by the “Save Early, Save Often” mantra you should’ve already indoctrinated yourself into doing before, during or after that last hard drive crash. Basically, it will auto-save any open documents in any OS X application on a pre-determined interval. Nice extra bit: it’s completely customizable for you to auto-save in PhotoShop every hour, Excel every 5 minutes and TextEdit never, for instance.

Ejector - Actually, I’ve been using this little Menu item for a while now. Very handy if you’re like me who (a) hates navigating down to the Desktop (or through the Finder) to eject disk images, your iPod or other “ejectables” and/or (b) seemingly has the complete inability to get the Eject key to do anything. Just mouse on up to the icon on the Menubar, and select from the pull-down menu what you want to eject.

Tickershock - I don’t know about you, but I’ve been having a hard time trying to really get RSS to groove how I want it to. I’ve expressed dissatisfaction with utilities like NetNewsWire and Pulp Fiction before - namely, I can’t move past the idea that I should be reading a blog (or whatever) in Safari. Speaking of Safari, haven’t been exactly turned on by the RSS implementation there either. A while ago there was a news ticker that I found that piped in the RSS feed from the BBC and felt that despite my ever-decreasing usable screen real estate, this would probably be the best way to go for how I want my RSS fire-hosed at me. If I use a separate application like NNW or PF, I run the risk of never launching the app (yup, Pulp Fiction still remains in my Dock, unused for months). Seeing a bunch of digits suffixed onto the Safari bookmarks toolbar also doesn’t motivate me to move my butt. While placement of Tickershock is customizable, it’s - as you can imagine - somewhat limited. Right under the Menubar doesn’t work too well (interferes with your ability to access windows). Pinning to the bottom is better, but with the Dock in the way, it is also a bit cumbersome. Aesthetically, the best way would be if you made use of Auto-Hide, as that way Tickershock doesn’t weirdly float on top of the Dock. Of course, Auto-Hide is a UI cardinal rule breaker and an option I just don’t use (nor do I pin the Dock to either side) - floating weirdly above the Dock it is. I’m still playing with it, so the jury is still out on this thing…

WinSwitch - Not terribly crazy about your user name hanging out in the Menubar when you have Fast User Switching (FUS) enabled? What? You don’t have FUS enabled? OK, I’m the only one who uses my Powerbook, but I’ve got FUS enabled since it gives you an easy way to secure your computer if you want to head to the bathroom or go for a munchie break. So, back to the topic at hand, WinSwitch allows you to configure how the FUS Menu item appears - change it to your account picture and save yourself some Menubar space so you cram more Menu items in!

MenuMeters - Also something I’ve been playing around with for a while. Surprisingly configurable, it can show you at a glance your CPU, memory, disk & network performance. I only got it for CPU & network (CPU, because, well, it’s good to be able to easily take a gander at that sort of thing; network because with my spotty ethernet performance due to some overly-tightened hinges, I can see if it’s flaked out with a quick glance). I just found out from a friend that it will also show you how much you’re paging out to VM swap files - a nice indicator as to whether, yes Virginia, it might be time to throw some more RAM in.

Well, that’s five recommedations (well, four recommendations and a “sorta-recommendation”). Hope they’re of interest to ya - lemme know, as I’m sure I’ve got other crap on here that might pique your interest.

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Anyhoo, as I’ve been playing around with Backpack (well, trying to get my mind around it and jimmy it into working for me), I’ve also been getting reacquainted with Quicksilver, an absolutely amazing time-saving OS X utility. Moreover, there’s some pretty cool Backpack-specific tweaks you can use & abuse to your heart’s content.

Speaking of Quicksilver, here’s a little tid-bit you might not know about: you can auto-hide the handy-dandy shelf.

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Hold on there camper. It’s obviously not what your thinking. A cool little program from the guys who brought you QuicKeys (Startly Technologies, née CE Software), Trans Lucy allows you to watch a DVD (or VIDEO_TS folder on your HDD, if you prefer) on a full-screen layer over everything else on your screen. “So?”, you might be asking… Well, smart-ass, you can change the translucency of that layer. Which means you can work on something through the movie layer you’re watching. For instance, I’m watching The Italian Job while typing this very post.

While I certainly don’t recommend doing this while at work and I don’t know if you like to watch TV while toiling away at the computer, it’s certainly a handy little utility to do whatever you’d like to do at home while watching a little movie at the same time.

Try it out - the trial gives you 20 minutes at a time to make up your mind, otherwise it’s $15. Oh, and speaking of recommendations, try the 2004 Wolf Blass Yellow Label Chardonnay - it’s given me a nice buzz to work off of.

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