All UNIX systems (including Mac OS X) have a set of maintenance scripts that automatically run every day, week, and month. On old mainframes that were always left on these scripts were sure to run without fail, but on a Powerbook that’s on and off, open and closed, these scripts may miss their schedule. MacJanitor will run these scripts (manually) so you can be sure the maintenance gets done.

0xED has a horrible name (how do you pronounce this), but it’s actually a slick application for its class. 0xED is a hex editor. This means it can edit files at the “byte” level — byte by byte. You may not know why this is useful until some website or situation calls for it. But if you ever find you need a hex editor, 0xED is a great option.

Rsync is a great Unix utility for copying files and directories. Better than just copying, it can “synchronize” two sets of folders, making them equal to each other. I use it everyday for keeping my home and work Macs synced with each other.

RsyncX brings Mac beauty to the Unix utility. You can choose a source, a destination, choose a few options, and then RsyncX will do its magic. Great for backing up to an external hard drive or to another computer. (To backup to another Mac you’ll need “Remote Login” turned on in the Sharing Preference.)

If you use SSH, SSHKeyChain may become your new best friend. Like JellyFiSSH, it brings Mac OS X ease of use to a the Unix utility SSH.

SSH is used to connect to another computer to operate it or to copy files. You can save SSH “keys” so you don’t have to type your password, but these keys usually sit in your home directory with little protection. SSHKeyChain brings security and convenience to the mix, intregrating the SSH keys into the Mac OS X Keychain. It can also remove the keys after a set amount of time or after the screensaver turns on. SSHKeyChain makes it much easier to work with SSH, a must for any Mac programmer.

It can also manage SSH tunnels.

Based on Unix utilities psync and cron, PsyncX is a utility for doing automated backups. You simply choose what you want to back up, where to backup to, and then a time for the backup. PsyncX sets a cron job to run the backup at that time. If you have an external hard disk connected to your computer, or your iPod with disk mode enabled, this is a great way to backup regularly.

JellyfiSSH is a GUI frontend to the ssh utility. In the Terminal, ssh allows you to connect to and operate other computers. With JellyfiSSH you don’t need to memorize all the command line options; you can choose them within JellyfiSSH and then launch a Terminal session. With JellyfiSSH you can also create ssh tunnels. A couple of uses of ssh tunnels are to relay mail through your server even if your hotel network blocks outgoing mail and to control another computer with VNC over a secure, encrypted channel.

There are a lot of tools out there to keep your mac running smooth and effective, IceClean is a good option. Download the app and take it for a spin. There are a lot of different tasks you can do.

(Another similar option (and my favorite) is MainMenu. I love that it sits up in my menu bar ready to answer to my commands.

Sloth shows you all of the open files on your Mac. Have you ever tried to eject a CD or external hard drive but it wouldn’t because a file was in use? With Sloth you can tell which files are being used by which processes (applications.) You can filter and search the list, and you can even kill any processes that shouldn’t be running any more.

MainMenu allows you to perform several maintenance tasks and system tweaks from the convenience of your menu bar. You can repair disk permissions, rebuild your Spotlight index, rebuild your locate database, clean up system or browser caches, show invisible files in Finder, relaunch the Finder or the Dock, remove DS_Store files, or disable Dashboard (and a few other things.) If that last sentence sounded like a bunch of “bee boo bop” then MainMenu may not be for you, but for many Mac users this will be a powerful tool.

If you don’t mind being on the cutting edge, here’s a brand new application that developer Richard Hughes let us know about. SmallDVD is a very simple DVD authoring application — actually a front end to the Unix application dvdauthor. You can select a menu background and font types and sizes. Then select the MPEG-2 videos you want to author and hit Create. SmallDVD creates an ISO image that you can easily burn to DVD.

SmallDVD also requires a free application call iMagine Photo.