Is there a way to keep Leopard Dock hidden?

[TarBzip]

I read some old threads from a few years ago, about doing this on earlier versions of OS X, but they essentially shut down the dock.

I've heard of people keeping it from ever showing up by pinning it to the top of the screen, effectively making it inaccessible and unseen while leaving the Apple menu alone.

I'd like to give this a try and use DragThing instead, but i have no idea how to accomplish it (or the equivalent).

Anybody have a clue?