Caffeine

Before I can start my day, I need a little caffeine.  I guess the same could be said for my Mac.  Do you find it irritating when the display wants to dim while you are reading a long webpage or while you are watching a video?  Sure, you can hit the space bar or wiggle the mouse but why should you?  You can go to the Systems Preferences to change your Energy settings for your display but this seems like a hassle for just the one thing you are doing at the moment...  and then you have to change them back.

Well, there is another way.  A developer at Lighthead Software has written a great little utility called Caffeine which does the trick.  The utility installs a little cup of coffee on the right side of your top menu bar.  Click it and the empty cup fills with coffee and your Mac is wide awake for... you choose!  You can set it up in the utility's preferences for either minutes, hours, or indefinitely.  No more dimming screen.  No more Systems Preferences diddling - just a period of your Mac being awake.  Best of all, this little application is free either at the developers website here or you can get it at the Mac App store if you have Snow Leopard 10.6.6 installed (do yourself a favor and get the latest OS X upgrade if you don't have it).

Oh, almost forgot.  Unlike real caffeine, this digital caffeine can be neutralized as the click of the coffee cup. No more jitters. Very cool.