Update: The 10.5.2 Update now lets you control the Translucent Menu Bar in the Desktop system preference pane so there’s no need to hack your System file anymore.
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If you’re like me, you love Apple’s latest operating system, Leopard, but one of the quirks is the new translucent menu bar, which reveals your background photo through it, making menu items a little difficult to read.

Steve Miner has posted a tip that involves changing an environment variable by editing a plist to make Leopard think it’s running on an older Mac that doesn’t support the translucency. Once done, it will make your menubar solid white:

This tip is only for experts who understand the risks of editing system config files. (Obviously, this is not approved by Apple.) By the way, make sure you preserve the permissions on this file.

Edit the following file:
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.WindowServer.plist

Add an entry like this:

EnvironmentVariables

CI_NO_BACKGROUND_IMAGE
1

Restart you Mac and you’ll get a plain white menu bar. This hack forces the window server to act as if it were running on older hardware that didn’t support fragment processing. I hope Apple gives us a configurable option (at least a dwrite) in the future so that people can rely on it. It’s a shame that law-abiding citizens like myself can be driven to commit crimes against system integrity over minor look-and-feel issues but that’s what happens when people get desperate.

You can accomplish the same thing in Terminal by using this code:

sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.WindowServer 'EnvironmentVariables' -dict 'CI_NO_BACKGROUND_IMAGE' 1

If you prefer an opaque gray menu, change the “1″ at the end of the line of code to an “0″.

Thanks, Steve, for solving this annoyance for all of us!

iContact is a leading on-demand email marketing service. iContact allows organizations of all sizes to easily create, send, and track email newsletters, RSS feeds, blogs, surveys, and autoresponders.

With iContact’s extensive features, you can easily create Email Messages, send them to your subscribers, and track their performance.

When you apply Autoresponders to your email marketing campaign, you can stay in the forefront of your customer’s mind with automatic messages based on timed sequences or customer actions.

Surveying provides you, the marketer a platform to collect data from your customers and iContact provides you with the real-time results of your data.

RSS Feeds are the latest direct online communication tool. Your customers will immediately receive your most recent messages when they sign up for your RSS feed.

I hate billing. I can’t stand all that time-tracking, fussing with calendars and difficult billing programs. But all that changed about two weeks ago.

Like most graphic designers who freelance, I prefer to spend my time creating attention-getting logos, brochures and websites. Until two weeks ago, invoicing my clients was a tedious task, involving far too many steps, and entirely too much left-brained thinking for my taste. I frequently spent half an hour or more just creating an invoice for a completed project.

I’ve been in business for nearly twenty years and over the past two decades, I’ve used nearly every type of time-tracking and billing tool available. From purpose-built desktop software to expensive online applications, I never found a tool that truly “fit” my workflow, or one that fully integrated project management, estimating, timesheets and billing. (more…)

After years of sending invoices in PDF format, attached to emails, leftlane is switching to a completely online estimating, billing and invoicing system called, FreshBooks. This new system will enable our clients to approve estimates, view project status and make payments online, through one simple interface. We hope you like the new system!

What is FreshBooks?
FreshBooks is an online invoicing and time tracking service that saves you time and makes you look professional - Fortune 500 professional. FreshBooks is easy to use and you can try it for free.

I’ve been designing t-shirts for youth groups and mission trips for years. As a youth pastor myself, I know how difficult it can be to find great-looking designs that you know your kids will actually wear! That’s why I’ve started recommending this online t-shirt company called Spreadshirt. You design your own t-shirt in minutes by either uploading your own design or building one online, using their web-based t-shirt designer. If you can use a web browser, you can design your own t-shirt!

Then, pick a style and color for your shirts, enter the quantity and your shirts will be printed—exactly as you designed them—and shipped to you within about two days!

But here’s the best part… once you’ve designed your shirt, you can also sell it online to other folks! You can even setup an online shop to showcase all your designs and make them available for purchase by other youth groups. Imagine youth groups all over the country wearing your unique t-shirt design with your message!

Ready to get started? Click here to check out their prices and see how easy it is to design your own t-shirt!

OK, so there are plenty of great products for organizing your projects, tasks and to-do lists online, but gubb is probably one of the best ones — for the moment.

What is gubb?

gubb is a free web-based application with an easy-to-use interface that enables you to create, manage and share an unlimited number of lists.

gubb is for any and all the lists you can think of: from every day shopping and to-do lists to wishlists, brainstorming notes, personal goals, group projects and more. Just about as easy as jotting something down on paper, only better. You’ll always know where your lists are; you can edit and organize them any time; and you can share with friends and co-workers in seconds.

Quick Facts

• Cost: Free

• Sign up is quick and easy (create a username and password, you’re set)
• Easiest way to keep your lists and keep track of yourself, with a very user-friendly interface
• Your lists are safe, secure and private
• gubb lists are for to-dos and tasks and shopping and ideas and wishes … and the list keeps going
• Use your lists with web browsers, mobile web browsers, email and text messaging

Click here to learn more about gubb now.

ScrubIT is a completely FREE DNS service that acts like a filter for your kids… and maybe yourself. ScrubIT is still in beta, but so far they claim to have 3 million sites “scrubbed”. They even have a DNS utility that will change your settings for you automatically. ScrubIT also blocks many phishing and other potentially harmful sites.

“ScrubIT offers clean, reliable, and speedy DNS service FREE of charge. Our filtered DNS scrubs out the bad stuff and is absolutely simple to setup and use. Try it today!“

You can’t download the product from their online store! Do yourself a favor and Google this product before you (attempt to) buy it.