Stop the Startup Sound on OS X

The default system preferences in mac os x do not give you the option to stop the sound that os x makes when booting. This could be a problem if you were in a library or a lecture, luckily there is a 3rd party app that will mute the sound on shutdown and return it to the original volume when booted there fore stopping any sounds during boot (even the warning ones when things go wrong)
http://www5e.biglobe.ne.jp/~arcana/StartupSound/BETA/index.en.html

Graphical ftp for Mac OS X

After reading this article
http://www.oreilly.com/pub/a/mac/2006/04/13/ftp.html

I decided to try the Cyberduck as my ftp program, seems pretty straight forward and reliable so far.
http://cyberduck.ch/