Psst can silence the startup sound, or if you really want it can max out the volume as well. This software might fall into the “questionably useful” category, especially when reading the warning on the Satsumac Software page: Important: The method Psst uses to change the volume does not work on every model… .

The good news is that it worked on a Macbook Pro without much issue, using virtually no CPU and 6 MB of memory. Perhaps if you simply remember to turn down the volume down before shutting down or restarting this app isn’t necessary. Uninstallation is a little messy, the app installs two preference files, runs a deamon file on startup and needs to be uninstalled with their custom uninstaller (or AppZapper). You can grab your copy of Psst here.

The software is not yet feature-complete, but still shows lotf of promise. New features include Spotlight searches, a combined view, cover art for feeds, full screen mode, Growl notifications, a thumbnailed tab view, show/hide subscriptions option, the ab ility to add any image to your iPhoto library, add author to your Address Book and a feed pop-up button. Ranchero suggests that you back up your preferences and data folders before instaling and running the pre-release software.

So if you’re comfortable with pre-released software, head over and download the Sneak Peek, for those of you more comfortable with official releases, you can download the latest stable release of NetNewsWire or NewNewsWire Lite.

Keyboard Cleaner was developed by Jan Lehnardt, mostly for the laptop crowd. Keyboard Cleaner blanks the screen and render the keyboard useless, making it possible to clean out any unwanted gunk from between your keys. When finished, Apple+Q gets you back to whatever it was you were doing before that food/dirt/fingernail/etc. went astray and ruined your blogging session. Anothe use could be locking down the keyboard when walking away from your computer to prevent feline or canine interference with your latest script.

It’s only a 36kb download and Keyboard Cleaner has been released as donationware. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I just lost a piece of my Tostito in my keyboard..