Bounties offered for fixes to things in OS X that irritate me

[onceagain]

Looking For Help
I'm looking for some help and I am willing to pay. I am offering bounties for various issues I have with my Mac. Solve the issue, get paid. It's that simple. My current list of bounties offered is included in this message. Current total is now $290. These are all issues that I have essentially given up on solving - so I don't have a lot of hope here, but I thought I would put it out there in case someone is interested in working on one of these.

MAC OS X BOUNTIES
1). Prevent applications from re-opening upon logging in. Bounty: $15
I had this working under Lion, using some combination of locking the
Application Saved State directory in my home directory and some defaults write commands - but this broke under Mountain Lion and I've been unable to get it to work again. Solution must work in all situations (i.e. clicking the "don't restart applications" option when logging out is not a solution). I want to arbitrarily turn off or hard reboot my computer on a whim, log in, and not have everything re-open.

3). Turn off menu flashing. Bounty: $10
In OS 9, you could specify the number of times menus flash when you pick something from them. I liked ZERO! Under OS X, this option has gone away. Now you're stuck with menus flashing 3 or 4 times every time you pick something. Annoying.

4). Scroll Bars on the Left. Bounty: $10
In OS 9, there were various 3rd party utilities you could use to decorate the user interface. One of them included a means for putting scroll bars on the left. Hell, even SunOS could do it natively, way back in 1990 (or earlier). But not OS X - you get no options at all. Extra $5 bonus bounty for getting back real scroll bars, instead of these lame wanna-be scroll bars we've been stuck with since Lion.

5). Lefty Mouse Pointer. Bounty: $5
In OS 9, there were various 3rd party utilities you could use to decorate the user interface. You had options for various lefty mouse pointers. Not OS X - you get no options at all. Extra $5 bonus bounty if you solve this issue AND get me scroll bars on the left as well.

6). Working Track Pad. Bounty: $5
Since going to Mountain Lion, my external track pads do not work properly. I have three different ones - none work correctly. All work fine if I reboot under Lion. The tracking is slow, somewhat erratic, and, the best I can describe it, is like working through molasses or something. Anyway - they don't work. The trackpad built into the MBP I am using works fine. All things considered, it is very unlikely to be a "technique" issue. It's also so bad that I've given up and went out and bought a mouse to use.

OTHER BOUNTIES
1). Office 2011: Don't auto-open empty docs. Bounty: $15
Office 2011 opens an empty window (doc) when you just open the applications without opening a document. I think it sucks. Other applications include a simple "don't open empty document" preference - but no, not Microsoft. Highly annoying. Solutions must work under the current version of Office 2011 for Mac under Mountain Lion.

2). Omnigraffle Pro (OGP): Visio Safe Mode. Bounty: $100
If you want to do graphics using the Windows standard in the business world, that means using Visio. However, Visio sucks. So does Windows. OGP does export to Visio format, but it is not reliable and often produces stuff that don't really work in Visio, resulting in lots of re-work. What I want here is a "Visio Safe" option that allows you to only do things in OGP that WILL look good in the Visio export format, OR implementation of a Visio export format that actually works correctly. Solutions must work for OGP v.5.4.2 under Mountain Lion, and must still produce good graphics. Solutions that involve only using basic rectangles and lines, for example, will be considered non-solutions.

3). DB Visualizer (DBV): Browse all databases using PostgreSQL. Bounty: $15
Using DBV and PostgreSQL, you can only browse the "default" database. I'm looking for a way to browse ALL databases, just like you can when using it with other databases. I believe this is a limitation with the PostgreSQL Java driver, but there may be a way around it. Solutions must work for DBV 8.0.10 and later, Java 1.6 and later, and the 9.1.4 (or later) PostgreSQL JDBC driver.

4). X-Assist: Something newer. Bounty: $5
I use a little program called X-Assist to give me a menu in the menu bar for switching applications. It's old, has not been updated for a long time, uses deprecated calls and I fear is at risk of breaking at any time - which would really suck. I'd like an update, or something newer to replace it. Solution must work just the same way as X-Assist.

5). Firefox: Database for bookmarks. Bounty: $50
The bookmarks menu sucks. What I want is for bookmarks to be saved to a PostgreSQL database running on my machine. When you save a bookmark, it should do an insert in the database. When you pull up bookmarks, it should read from the database. Initial population of the menu should be done when Firefox starts, and have an option for "refreshing" the menu (rather than reading it from the db every time you click on the menu). There are some additional functionality details involved - contact me before deciding to work on this. Note: any code must include source code, so that I can verify what you are doing. Solutions must work under the current versions of Firefox and PostgreSQL.

6). Firefox: Database for saved passwords. Bounty: $50
The way saved passwords works sucks. What I want is for them to be saved to a PostgreSQL database running on my machine. It should be completely transparent and use the database as needed to store and save passwords and use them on websites as needed. There are some additional functionality details involved - contact me before deciding to work on this. Note: any code must include source code, so that I can verify what you are doing. Solutions must work under the current versions of Firefox and PostgreSQL.

TERMS & CONDITIONS
All solutions must be verified by me and solve the issue to my satisfaction, after 1 week of testing. All bounties will be paid via PayPal, or, if you prefer, cash in the mail (minus 50 cents for stamp and envelope). All solutions must be "cost free" to me (in other words, if your solution is for me to go buy software to resolve the issue, that will be considered a non-solution). All solutions must work under OS X 10.8.2 Mountain Lion, and applicable, any applications that are associated with the issue to be solved.

[hayne]

Since a large number of these are about changes to the way OS X works, I'm going to move this to the "Tweaks" section.

[onceagain]

Yeah, I wasn't really sure where to put it. Thanks.

[NovaScotian]

TinkerTool will do some of these things, I think, and it's free so worth a try. It's FAQ says this about applications re-opening upon logging in.

Quote: Although this seems to be the most hated and most annoying feature introduced with Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, there cannot really be a “harmless” way to switch this function off. Apple explicitly designed this feature not to be controllable by permanent user settings. Only manual intervention by the user on each shutdown can temporarily modify this behavior. The reasoning behind this is that Lion should make unattended restarts possible without the user noticing them. For example, an operating system update could be installed automatically at night, and when the user returns the next morning, she can just continue to work because all running applications have been magically restored to their previous state, as if nothing had happened. Unless Apple changes this maintenance strategy of Lion, it won't be possible to permanently disable the reopen-windows-on-login feature without negative side effects. Only drastic measures could circumvent this, e.g. automatically running scripts on each shutdown that delete the user's Resume data. Such destructive manipulations won't become part of TinkerTool, however.

[onceagain]

Quote: Originally Posted by NovaScotian TinkerTool will do some of these things, I think, and it's free so worth a try.

I checked out the list at http://www.bresink.com/osx/0TinkerTool/details.html - it doesn't appear to address the issues I listed. I'm kind of dumb, so maybe I missed it though.

As for the restart issue - I was able to disable it with complete satisfaction in Lion - so he is incorrect to at least that degree. Even so, I am willing to take some pretty substantial "harm" to make it happen.

[dfass]

For #1, just lock the Application Saved State (after killing everything).
Oh, and wait a few minutes...just to be sure the file updates.
I know that works in ML.
It functions for both reboots and crashes. True, you'll see the toggle option displayed.
But, it'll boot up with just what's in that file.

[onceagain]

Quote: Originally Posted by dfass For #1, just lock the Application Saved State (after killing everything). Oh, and wait a few minutes...just to be sure the file updates. I know that works in ML. It functions for both reboots and crashes. True, you'll see the toggle option displayed. But, it'll boot up with just what's in that file.

Thanks for the reply.

As noted in the OP, I did this. It worked under Lion and it doesn't seem to work for me under Mountain Lion.

d--------- 3 ObamaSucks staff 102 Jul 31 19:02 Saved Application State/

/Users/ObamaSucks/Library/Saved Application State
sh-3.2# ls -aFl
total 16
d---------@ 3 ObamaSucks staff 102 Jul 31 19:02 ./
drwx------@ 113 ObamaSucks staff 3842 Oct 1 20:09 ../

As you can see, no activity there since July 31st.

[onceagain]

All bounties still available.

[sojourner]

First, I want to say that these are paid options. I apologize for posting paid options when you said you wanted cost free solutions. I'm posting because I think that you're not the only one who might be interested in the kinds of tweaks you're seeking.

Mac Bounties
1. Unsure how Keyboard Maestro works on Mountain Lion, but I think you could set up the app so that when you press a trigger, it shuts down and it selects the don't restart applications option when you log out/restart/shutdown.

Other Bounties
1. You might find Keyboard Maestro of help here again. It may be possible to set up a trigger to close all windows in Word right after it launches.

4. You know, I could have sworn that somewhere in my software-evaluating tavels, I came across something similar to X-Assist. I'll have to ponder this one and see if I can recall the name of it.