NEUTRALZONE  No, the comments below were fair. After Viscosity changed from free to paid software, I actually returned to Tunnelblick for a while, used it for a few more months with an open mind, but yet again it let me down, while Viscosity fixed problems faster. And Viscosity is easily AppleScriptable, which was important to me. So I ended up actually paying for Viscosity and am happy with that. I have respect for the Tunnelblick project, but for my needs, paying for Viscosity was worth it. It is not the only instance in my life where paid software turned out to be worth it over free software in terms of the real costs and benefits.

This post is not about pushing Viscosity, but about saying that the reservations expressed about Tunnelblick by multiple users are VALID.  
(Version 3.0b12)

NEUTRALZONE  You might want to check your installation for outdated Growl components lying around.

I have Safari 4 and I run GrowlMail and Growl 1.1.6 seems to be working great. I definitely get my mail and Safari notifications. I just saw my Growl notifier for a new message, and I also just saw a Download Complete notifier for Safari.  
(Version 1.1.6)

NEUTRALZONE  MacJanitor is not a viable substitute for Maintidget.

I used MacJanitor for years. It was based on the old cron (pre-Tiger) implementation of OS X maintenance scripts.

Maintidget is tied to the current launchd (Tiger, Leopard) implementation of OS X maintenance scripts. Back then, if you didn't leave the Mac on overnight, the scripts would not get run. That is no longer a problem in Leopard in most cases, and that leads to one of the advantages of Maintidget. Maintidget reports the last time the scripts were run. In most cases, this report will indicate that there is NO NEED for you to run them manually because they have been running on schedule anyway. MacJanitor does not report the last time the scripts run, so because you're flying blind, you'll probably waste time running the scripts more than necessary.

I use Maintidget as a monitor first and a fixer second, and I find that I hardly ever have to press the button. MacJanitor is both outdated and lacks sufficient feedback.  
(Version 1.5)

NEUTRALZONE  This is a genuinely useful utility. You can justify the cost on the grounds that a good file renamer can potentially make back $26 of labor when applied to hundreds or thousands of files, where Spore has no function that I know of that could make back the price of either app.

That said, I stopped using Renamer4Mac when it changed to a paid app. Using NameMangler now.  
(Version 3.8.1)

NEUTRALZONE  If you use your Mac for business this can save more money than it costs.  
(Version 4.1)

NEUTRALZONE  Sorry, SED won't work. No drag-and-drop integration with Finder and standard photo apps, must learn geeky syntax, can't see where you can number files, extreme potential for unchecked user error...I bought a Mac so that I wouldn't have to deal with nerdy command lines (I use NameMangler, which is as free as the Terminal but much less torture, but used to use Renamer4Mac which is also very nice).  
(Version 3.7)

NEUTRALZONE  It has appeared in Software Update again  
(Version 2008-003)

NEUTRALZONE  Also wanted to add that it was on Software Update earlier today (I didn't want to restart my Mac at that time) but is gone there now too.  
(Version 2008-003)

NEUTRALZONE  Just FYI, it works with my 10.5.4 MacBook Pro.  
(Version 1.5)

NEUTRALZONE  Wowww...definitely the most auspicious download of the week. Thanks!  
(Version 1.5)

NEUTRALZONE  Some freelance contracts require that the contractor have antivirus software on their computer. If they were to ever audit I could point to ClamAV and say "sure, I have some AV software installed."  
(Version 1.1.1)

NEUTRALZONE  A day too late. I put up with Tunnelblick for months and just yesterday I switched to the new Viscosity, and I am amazed how much nicer and more stable it is.  
(Version 3.0b9)

NEUTRALZONE  macsolu, you may never see a fix for this from Adobe, because it is said to be a bug of Apple's. Some of the other Leopard bugs with InDesign did not have to be fixed by Indesign 5.0.3 because they WERE fixed by Apple in Mac OS X 10.5.4. I have been watching this blog for the latest info:

http://blogs.adobe.com/indesignchannel/2008/06/indesign_leopard_1054_nav_serv.html

The latest on the Hiding bug is at the bottom of that post.  
(Version 5.0.3)

NEUTRALZONE  Apparently some posters are clueless as to what POS means to the target audience of this product. Regardless of what POS means to the kids on the Internets, in the serious and extremely lucrative grown-up's world of retail, POS is overwhelmingly recognized as an abbreviation for "Point of Sale." Who should the developer listen to, the target customers in a billion-dollar industry...or some amateurs looking for freeware on a web site?  
(Version 1.0.4)

NEUTRALZONE  I found the answer at the Growl official forums. The GrowlMail installer is skipping a step that puts it into the Mail preferences, so even if you run the GrowlMail installer AND enable it in Growl, it still might not show up (so the previous comment doesn't necessarily fix the problem).

A workaround mentioned in the forums is to download Widemail (available here at MacUpdate) and install it. Doing so also reveals the GrowlMail prefs in Mail. If you don't care to use Widemail at this point, you can go ahead and uninstall it and GrowlMail prefs will remain.  
(Version 1.1.3)

NEUTRALZONE  This is a great idea. Would prefer it as a standalone utility, not dependent on having to start up Dashboard.  
(Version 1.3)

NEUTRALZONE  If you think the sliders are too short, you should increase the Option Panel Width, there's a preference for it. Or you can click the spin buttons. Personally I turn both off and enter small increments numerically. It sounds like you didn't look at the program long enough.  
(Version 8.4.64)

NEUTRALZONE  Man, I gotta agree with the other two. GraphicConverter can intimidate new users because it seems to come from the time when the only way to adjust images was by using dialog boxes with sliders. It's definitely a valuable tool in a Mac user's toolbox - five stars for the features - but the way you get things done is as if UI design stopped at the end of the 20th century. The reality is that there is an amazing amount of innovation in image-editing UI that's happening right now...in other apps.  
(Version 6.0.4)

NEUTRALZONE  Not only is cleaning the cache folders on disk not the same as the questionable purpose of this software, but cache cleaning normally lengthens startup time quite a bit! Startup time in OS X is optimized by caches, so when you lose those, they need to be rebuilt. When I dump caches, startup time goes from 35 seconds to 3 minutes.  
(Version 2.5)

NEUTRALZONE  "Why add one more thing to the menu bar when it's already down there in the dock?"

Because I prefer to keep my Dock hidden, I can't see the badge. Therefore I prefer to see Mail status in the menu bar, next to my other status icons. I thank the author of this software for providing this freedom of choice.  
(Version 3.0)

NEUTRALZONE  Because Onyx does not do the same job.  
(Version 2.1.1)

NEUTRALZONE  "...a BBEdit for novices."

That implies that professionals wouldn't benefit from integrated feedback and efficient workflow! A typical "high priest" type of comment. Making things easier doesn't necessarily have to dumb them down...if you don't believe that, you don't believe in the Mac.

I code in TextWrangler right now, but I think I'm going to get Coda.  
(Version 1.0.5)

NEUTRALZONE  I had the same problem, installed it and Acid Search no longer appeared in Safari v3.04 (523.12)  
(Version 0.7b4)

NEUTRALZONE  Although the original post was probably not from a Mac fanboy, this is a good lesson for the fanboys. Every day there are hardcore Mac fans berating software companies who don't upgrade their apps for the latest OSs right away, write in Cocoa, or support special Core technologies or other proprietary Apple features. The fanboys call those companies stupid, shortsighted, or doomed.

Now here is a developer who is taking full and complete advantage of the latest Apple tech, and they're still getting shot down! Well, the fanboys need to be careful what they wish for sometimes. Making a developer use the latest Apple tools and toys sometimes that means it's impractical to make the product backwards-compatible or cross-platform. If you want an app to be more practical in the world, sometimes you have to give up some of Apple's proprietary features.  
(Version 1.0v2r1)

NEUTRALZONE  Correct tekl, that shortcut does not substitute for this software because it sleeps both the computer and the display. This software sleeps just the display, leaving the machine fully awake.  
(Version 1.0)

NEUTRALZONE  Awesome concept, awesome execution!  
(Version 1.0)

NEUTRALZONE  I didn't mind the question either. I'm not the type to yell "RTFM" at people, but there is an interesting side to this one.

While the poster said he doesn't like to download software they might not use, it is important to note that this is one that is particularly worth trying yourself. Simply because, geeks tend to strongly criticize developers who cripple or restrict their shareware, claiming you can't really test it that way. But Carbon Copy Cloner is provided as unrestricted, uncrippled donationware. Every feature can be examined and thoroughly tested without pre-paying. Such developers should be supported.

(I chose to pay the developer twice his requested donation amount for 2.0 because of its value to me at the time.)  
(Version 3.0)

NEUTRALZONE  Since I bought Parallels many months ago, this is the first non-beta build that lets me sync my Kyocera phone via its Windows-only USB sync cable and software, so I'm very happy. CPU and RAM usage seem to be well under control. Nice job!  
(Version 3.0.5160)

NEUTRALZONE  Holy moly, it's a Growl update!  
(Version 1.1)

NEUTRALZONE  Confirmed...incorrectly reports WPA networks under the WEP column.  
(Version 1.0)

NEUTRALZONE  The developer is right. The Dock is hidden on all my Macs, because I launch and switch apps faster using the keyboard.

I use the menu bar for ALL status information: unread mail, network throughput and CPU load (thanks to MenuMeters), Airport, battery life, time, etc.

I do not want to un-hide the Dock just to see one or two pieces of data. Mail Unread Menu helps keep all my status info in one place, the menu bar.  
(Version 2.5.1)

NEUTRALZONE  You really, really should be using a FireWire to SCSI adapter instead of wasting your time with USB to SCSI (two flaky standards...together! What could possibly go wrong?).

I have been using a FireWire to SCSI adapter with my Nikon scanner, for years, with VueScan. Sure, VueScan's had some quirks, but the adapter itself has been FLAWLESS through OS X updates and upgrades, and VueScan has not had problems with the adapter. It's been a very long time since I worried about any of my old SCSI devices in OS X. It's time to put an end to your misery. Forget Adaptec cards and adapters; they just don't work. Buy the right gadget.  
(Version 8.4.30)

NEUTRALZONE  Cannot download this file. Safari and Firefox get

"Access denied. Access rights not sufficient."  
(Version 1.0)

NEUTRALZONE  When I commented on the inability of iStat to follow the colors of the OS X Appearance theme, I should have mentioned I was using the application, not the widget.

Speaking of which, I have no use for the widget and greatly prefer the application. The widget has the disadvantage that it can't be watched while I work in other apps. When I try to use debug mode, going into Dashboard to see other widgets rips iStat out of debug mode and it disappears when I hide Dashboard. Thus, I agree with the recent post asking why the application is so far behind the widget.  
(Version 4.0)

NEUTRALZONE  Yeah, I disable Spotlight for my backup drives. It's annoying to watch Spotlight try to index an entire backup and slow down the machine when I don't want it to give me results from those drives. I actually use Spotlight to set the default to not index any drives except my boot and archive drives.  
(Version 1.2.3)

NEUTRALZONE  Well, maybe you're not most Mac users. Maybe you're only on your first Mac. After 3 or 4 years, every Mac user ends up with a spare computer, when you get a newer one. Unless you eBay your old Mac or give it to a family member, you'll have a spare computer soon.

In my case, I have two primary computers, a desktop and laptop, and Screen Recycler helps me make the most of all my monitors.  
(Version 0.82)

NEUTRALZONE  Carbon Copy Cloner used to be a great utility, until the one-two punch of SuperDuper and Intel Macs came along. A CCC devotee for years, I switched to SuperDuper some time ago.

I'm happy to see this new 3.0 beta of CCC. It looks like CCC is attempting to close the gap with SuperDuper's currently superior usability, feature set, and compatibility. When CCC 3 gets out of beta, Mac users will once again have two powerful options for intelligent disk cloning.  
(Version 3.0b4)

NEUTRALZONE  I agree with the replies. The original post asks "Is there really an urgent need for all these?" There's the error, assuming every fix has to be an urgent need. One man's unimportant fix is another man's urgent need. The great thing about VueScan is that unlike other software companies, if you have a problem and you need it fixed you DO NOT have to wait a month or six months until some big, anonymous company feels like releasing an update patch. Some of us love having a problem fixed within days of discovering it.

I have personally skipped many of the VueScan updates. It does not hurt to do that. It would hurt more if a bug went unfixed because the developer went months between updates.  
(Version 8.4.06)

NEUTRALZONE  Highly functional and useful.

It's just too bad that the UI has a choice of several garish, semi-unreadable color schemes. I run my Mac with the Appearance set to Graphite, to gray everything back when editing photos, iStat won't respect the gray and insists on its colors.

I hope future versions provide more customizable color schemes, or at the very least, a readable Graphite theme.  
(Version 3.3)

NEUTRALZONE  Congratulations, you just proved that you don't read release notes or new features lists on numerous websites.  
(Version CS3b)

NEUTRALZONE  http://www.photoshopuser.com/cs3/sk_features.html

and

http://www.photoshopcafe.com/cs3/

for a start.  
(Version CS3b)

NEUTRALZONE  Crossover was never possible on a G4/G5 because Windows doesn't know what to do on a G4/G5...unless you use slow Virtual PC, which emulates the Intel processor.

Crossover, Parallels, and Boot Camp are possible and fast BECAUSE they don't have to do the work of emulating the Intel chip. The necessary chip is already there...in the Intel Macs only.

You will not see anything like Crossover on a G4/G5 unless another company wants to do the heavy lifting of emulating an Intel processor. Right now, almost no companies are interested in doing that, when the result is so slowwwwwwww. So, practically speaking, you will never see Crossover on a G4/G5.  
(Version 6.0b3)

NEUTRALZONE  Re: MP3s

Only recently have some pro-level audio editors allowed you to import MP3s. I don't think early versions of GarageBand did. The reason is that if you are creating a high-quality work, highly compressed material like MP3 will not be acceptable as source material. The question is whether Adobe considers this pro-level for the final product.

Re: Intel

If Adobe based this on the code of their existing Audition pro audio editor for Windows, the question is not whether it is "impossible" to compile for PPC. The question is whether they think it's "financially worth it" to do a full port to a different CPU. They probably think making a Mac Intel version is an easy win so why not. That's good, because it means if all Macs were still PPC we wouldn't have even had the chance to try this.  
(Version 1.0b1)

NEUTRALZONE  Well, duh, iView Media Pro IS targeted to prosumers and professionals. And, it is infinitely more powerful than iPhoto. iPhoto simply can't handle keywords, other metadata, and import/export with the flexibility and sophistication of iView Media Pro.

If you are suggesting it should be a $50 program to compete favorably with iLife, well guess what, it already exists. It's called iView Media (not Pro). It has cut-down features. Not enough features for me, but certainly fitting what you ask for.

However, I am not an iView cheerleader necessarily. iView Media Pro has some outdated limitations and the last upgrade was too highly priced. Currently iVMP sits somewhere (well) above iPhoto and yet in some ways short of Aperture and Lightroom. iView is very good at what it does but it is currently in danger of falling behind at its price point.  
(Version 3.1.2)

NEUTRALZONE  PodTube still works with iTunes 7.  
(Version 1.0.1)

NEUTRALZONE  Congratulations on selling CoverFlow to Apple!

As long as you are happy with the deal, this is what should happen to small developers who have good ideas. iTunes is the right new home for CoverFlow. Thank god it didn't get sold to Microsoft like a couple other apps I've used.  
(Version RC1.2)

NEUTRALZONE  Can you elaborate on how the LinkOptimizer effective resolution report is $65 better than the effective resolution readouts already built into the InDesign CS2 Info palette and preflight module? Or are you using CS?  
(Version 2.0b8)

NEUTRALZONE  Are you using a SCSI card? I hear they don't work well in OS X. I run a SCSI film scanner with VueScan and it always works in Mac OS X Tiger, no matter how I power up the devices. The way I have it connected is with a Ratoc FireWire-to-SCSI adapter to the FireWire port of any of my Macs. That adapter has been rock solid reliable with VueScan.

If your Mac doesn't have a FireWire port, then I guess this doesn't apply.  
(Version 8.3.63)

NEUTRALZONE  Even though I switched to Apple Mail some time ago, it's obvious that Eudora is superior in many ways. It's just that the ways in which it is superior have become less and less relevant to the general user base (which includes me) as Apple Mail and other have gotten better and better. I held out with Eudora for a long time before Apple Mail reached the point where it could replace what I did with Eudora, and with glitch-free Secure IMAP.

I do not agree that they should cease development of Eudora. Reducing user choices is never good. If they modernized the UI, not just cosmetically but also functionally, the underlying great power of Eudora could be made accessible to everyone. I might even go back. But right now, although Eudora has some features that others don't, the features that are most important most of the time to most people are currently implemented in a more usable way in other mail clients.  
(Version 6.2.4b6)

NEUTRALZONE  Actually, it's Boot Camp that lets you set up Windows on your Mac. The value of Parallels is more than that. Parallels doesn't force you to shut down all your Mac apps to run Windows, because it lets you run Windows alongside OS X.  
(Version 2.2.1862)

NEUTRALZONE  Actually, it does make sense.

When Microsoft puts out the Universal Binary, it will be an upgrade, not an update. Office ain't some $25 piece of shareware, you know.

Word and Excel are much more powerful than most people need to use, but those of us who actually need the advanced features appreciate that power and acknowledge that a large, old code base can't be turned on a dime. If you think another app is better, you really should be using it instead.  
(Version 11.2.6)

NEUTRALZONE  Yes, I just started to see a font problem with Office. Launching Excel crashes ATSServer over and over, which sometimes brings down 3 or 4 other non-Microsoft apps and causes some characters to become missing in the menus. It's pretty spectacular. I need to narrow it down or reinstall, but yes, font problem can happen due to Office.  
(Version 11.2.6)

NEUTRALZONE  Yes, that was it! Now that I have filled in "As user" it no longer asks for authentication. I use static IP addresses on this network so changing IPs should not be a problem.

Thank you for the quick reply even though I recognize this site is not an official support channel.  
(Version 0.9.6)

NEUTRALZONE  0.9.6 release notes say "Keychain issues resolved" but it still asks me for full login information on start even though I checked "Add to Keychain." This is 0.9.6b according to the About box.

Nice improvements otherwise.  
(Version 0.9.6)

NEUTRALZONE  Sorry about the low stars. Looked at it quickly and as far as I can tell there is nothing wrong with this program, except that WakeOnLan is so very very much easier to use that I can't see switching to this one.

I might consider using WakeOnMac if at the very least it added the ability to automatically discover wakeable Macs and PCs on the LAN, instead of laboriously entering network data for each.

Looking forward to both apps improving through competition.  
(Version 1.0)

NEUTRALZONE  In addition to the above list, Macaroni has also done this for a very long time. And it does it on a schedule so it cleans up all your recent installs and you don't even have to remember to run it.

Another utility that does this is DeLocalizer.

In any case it's good to have all the choices.  
(Version 1.1)

NEUTRALZONE  Great new version! Doesn't crash like the old version. My only request is for it to be able to remember machines by MAC address, since on a DHCP network it will assign the wrong name to a machine since it remembers by IP address, and IP addresses get switched around in DHCP all the time.  
(Version 0.80)

NEUTRALZONE  No spam received here either. Have fun with the limitations of Aperture.  
(Version 1.0b3)

NEUTRALZONE  Frst of all there is no "they," there is only one guy (Ed Hamrick) working on the software as far as I know.

Many of his users prefer the frequent updates. Think about how it works with other software companies. Sometimes you buy an app and there's a problem but the company doesn't put out an update for 6 months and you're stuck. Many of us VueScan users prefer that he fix problems as soon as he knows about them so that those of us using those scanners can get the fix as soon as possible. With hundreds of scanners on the supported list, it's easy to have a couple problems a week to fix.

We just ignore all the updates that don't apply to our scanner, and are glad he made it better for somebody else.  
(Version 8.3.52)

NEUTRALZONE  Wow...UI is substantially improved, lots of little details changed for the better, even just in the area of editing a placemark. Keyboard shortcuts more reasonable now.

Performance is good on my PowerBook G4 1.25 GHz. A Windows friend walked by and said "That runs pretty well on the Mac, huh?" I said "Yeah, and my PowerBook is over 2 years old!"

NICE JOB Google!  
(Version 4.0.1563)

NEUTRALZONE  Now, if only someone would write similar software to make the iPod do this...it's much easier and cheaper to swing around like a Jedi weapon! ;)  
(Version 1.0)

NEUTRALZONE  You miss the point. A password is not needed to download the file, but your admin password is needed to run it. I just downloaded it to my friend's MacBook because she asked me to install a temperature app, but she's not around and I don't know her admin password. Therefore the utility cannot run until she gets back.  
(Version 0.6.1)

NEUTRALZONE  Crazy post there. Your conspiracy theory doesn't explain why Adobe Lightroom came out on the Mac first and Windows users are still screaming about why they haven't gotten a beta yet.

And you suggest that Adobe leave Apple's board of directors. Yeah, that'll increase Apple's influence on Adobe. And Adobe isn't even on Apple's board of directors. What are you talking about?  
(Version 9.0.1 (9.0.1x294))

NEUTRALZONE  I am a user of Default Folder since the OS 9 days. The feature set of Default Folder is very deep now, especially compared to the early days, and compared to other similar utilities. You can't get software anywhere near $5 that does what Default Folder does. If your hourly time is worth anything, $35 isn't much because Default Folder can save you many hours of navigation over the course of a year. A Mac without it just feels wrong.  
(Version 3.0)

NEUTRALZONE  Ah, but you did use it before, so your statement is self-contradictory.  
(Version 1.1.2)

NEUTRALZONE  You forget that "click 'n' drool," as you say, is the entire reason for Mac OS X to exist. If it were not for the GUI, people like me would never use a Mac and you might as well stick to Linux. A utility with a GUI is one I can use.

I can also use the command line, but the options are not as well exposed and precise syntax is necessary. In short, more work. For many regular users, if it's not in the GUI, it doesn't exist.  
(Version 0.2.1b)

NEUTRALZONE  You can ask a question for free on adobeforums.com, and while it's officially a user forum, Adobe staff have been seen there. The users on the forum often know more than front-line phone support staff, anyway.  
(Version 9.0.0.297)

NEUTRALZONE  Useful! The PowerBook G4 adapter can fall out of wall outlets a little too easily because of the weight of the power brick combined with the flimsy plug on a hinge and the lack of a third prong. Just today the adapter fell out of the wall outlet in a cafe a couple times (the outlet is loose because of the heavy usage by patrons) and I wouldn't have noticed if it wasn't for Unplugged. I have a clear view of the battery icon in the menu bar, but if I don't look up there, I might not notice the power state change.

My only wish is that it was more integrated into HardwareGrowler so that Unplugged doesn't have to run as a separate application.  
(Version 1.6)

NEUTRALZONE  What's the advantage of using Pastor over Keychain Access which is built into OS X and integrates with the password requests made by other apps such as Safari? Any advantages other than the password generator?

Nothing against Pastor; it's always good to have choices and I'm just wondering.  
(Version 1.7.2)

NEUTRALZONE  One more example. Real estate. On more than one occasion I've shown Google Earth to a real estate friend and you should see their eyes get all wide.

"you mean...I can find addresses...zoom in...mark them...instant route finding...survey the neighborhood...save custom sets of locations...it's so fast!!!" It's really amusing, they get all excited.  
(Version 3.1.0621.0)

NEUTRALZONE  I save lots of web pages as PDF, but it doesn't always work. Some web pages create print output using a print-friendly CSS style sheet which means you do not get anything that looks like the screen. When that happens, it's better to take a bitmap screen shot.

Also, some web pages render very badly to PDF, with misaligned layouts or controls (buttons etc). This is another case where a straight screen shot can be a more precise representation of the page.

Basically I use either Safari Stand plug-in, which adds an "Export to PDF" context menu so you can bypass the Print dialog, or Paparazzi. What seems unnecessary? Paying for SnapWeb.  
(Version 3.1r3)

NEUTRALZONE  Google Earth is useful for anyone who finds value in locations. It's used for creating interactive records of weather, resources, ecology, demographics, historical changes, etc. Let's put it this way: If you are in a business where having a GPS is useful, then Google Earth is useful to you.

For many examples of what people are using Google Earth for, check out the Google Earth blog. Here is an example:

http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/science/

(I am not affiliated with them or Google)  
(Version 3.1.0621.0)