.::output >> /dev/null::.

Though I acknowledge that OS X is the best operating system that I have used compared to the others, it has its shares of annoyances. Usually I can safely ignore them. However, these few days I was more irascible and lost my temper over some simple things:

• The green + button that appears on all windows. This is a very weird button. It does not maximize the window as suggested. In fact it does not even behave as expected. Well, unless you consider the fact that it "remembers" what its last previous state is depending on whether you have opened this window before or not and which was your last window and,... and.... and... to be highly predictable for the human mind. This behavior finally pushed me to the limits when my web browser had a weird resolution. One way I fixed this and maintained my sanity was to use a javascript command to maximize Safari's windows to their maximum size. That really helped out somewhat. Moreover, it appears that I am not the only one that finds this behavior of the green button annoying as can be seen from various posts on the internet about it. I did not use OS 9 so I am unsure of its behavior then (was there even a + button for OS 9?).I do not recall having this problem in windows though.
• Services menu. I am still unable to figure out how useful those services are. There are few shortcut keys for them. And though you can configure them through the universal keyboard access preference pane, their presence is also rather elusive. For instance, sometimes all the services are not available. And some services do not even seem to work properly. But the thing that irks me the most is the fact that I have to either remember some shortcut key or hover my mouse there to activate a service. I realize that this feature has a lot of potential but its cumbersome accessibility makes it a pain to use. I have tried some contextual menu plug-in that is supposed to enable me to access some other "services" but not those on the services menu. I have also tried to get rid of some of the services that I do not use but I cannot even find where they are stored. Most of them come bundled with the application and cannot be removed unless you uninstall the application; there is the option of tweaking the .plist files but that can be dangerous. All in all, I feel that much more can be done to the services menu to make it that much more enjoyable to use.
• Not using the full 700MB for CD-R This always bugs me because with that extra 30 MB (the Finder only burns up to 670MB) I can easily stuff another anime episode in. Now, they seems to be a solution using the wonders of hdiutil. The instructions were given in the February 2005 issue of MacWorld. For those who rather not use this rather convoluted method, Roxio Toast Titanium does a fine job of utilizing almost all the space on the blank CD-R and even performs verifications for you.