One way to clear OS X GUI glitches without a reboot or logout is to quit the Dock, since OS X will recognize that the Dock isn't running and helpfully restart it for you. Unfortunately, Apple has not seen fit to provide a handy, GUI-based means of quitting and restarting the Dock, analogical to the Finder Relaunch command in the Force Quit window, but you can do it yourself with a three-word AppleScript

I've had a hate-hate relationship with Bookmarks since the late '80s. Back then, bookmarks were as important as your dialup phone number. Remember dialup? Internet access has come a long way, but managing your bookmarks has not; not from within Safari. For me, there are two kinds of bookmarks: the ones I use every day and the temporary ones for projects and research. Today, I will be talking about the project and research bookmarks.

On October 17th, Applelinks' Charles Moore gave a great review of Bento 2. What I'd like to do here is provide a more detailed exploration of FileMaker and Bento, and explain why both are excellent database programs which serve two completely different customers. The fact is, Bento is an amazingly simple, easy to use database that requires no knowledge on how to create a database. FileMaker is an amazingly powerful database that is very simple (when compared to other databases), but requires creating every field, every relation, and every structure of a database. Admittedly, this is much more complicated and more work than many people need. Thus, there is Bento (and to borrow a phrase from the early days of Apple), a database "for the rest of us."

Apple includes about 20 Dashboard widgets with the OS X Install, and many more are available from third parties, targeted to a vast range of specific interests and tasks, but you're not limited to those - you can make your own custom-tailored widgets using the Web Clips feature in the Safari Web browser with just a few minutes work and a few mouse clicks

I don't know about you, but I'm terrible at keeping horizons level in landscape shots or in pictures where one is usually intent on foreground objects and forgets to level the camera. Happily, Photoshop Elements 6 can fix this often shot-ruining flaw quite easily

Curious about the condition of your notebook's battery?

Seems I have more time for watching movies when I'm not actually near my DVD player, so, what to do? Get some honest use out of my iPod classic and iPhone, that's what to do. Trouble is, I don't use iTunes for buying movies. I want the extras, I want the 5.1 surround sound. I want the relative lack of compression, and, yes, I want the DVD sitting comfortably in my collection. Converting store-bought DVDs to the iPod isn't as convenient as purchasing the movie straight from the iTunes store, but it's also something that should intimidate you at all. It's mostly pretty easy, and even better, it's free with HandBrake.

This free notification system for OS X gives you a great deal of control over how apps present alerts, news, and other information.

Let's say you want to add an album's publication year to each track in iTunes, or that you want to change the genre to something a little more accurate, or even that you want to add artwork. For a long time, I actually did this field by field, track by track for a whole album. Oh, foolish me, as this can easily be addressed in one fell swoop.

Tool to check your preference files for corruption

And ideally, download real installers and updaters instead of using Software Update

RAM testing can diagnose the cause of random crashes and kernel panics