slow access to SMB shares on Mac OS X

Access through Finder to SMB share on the newer versions of Mac OS X
(e.g., Lion) can be slow. One possibility to improve speed is to create
the following configuration file that overrides the default OS values
'~/Library/Preferences/nsmb.conf':
[default]
notify_off=yes
By doing this you will turn off using notifications for changes on the
remote share, which can slow access for shares with many files.
Disclaimer: I do not know yet if there is any adverse effect of this
setting!

access menus in Mac OS X via keyboard

To access the top menus in Mac OS X via keyboard use the following
shortcut to select the first menu entry (the Apple logo):

* Control-Fn-F2 if you use F1, F2, etc. as system control keys
(brightness, etc.)

* Control-F2 if you use F1, F2, etc. as standard function keys.

Then you can use the arrow keys and enter to select a certain menu item.

hide folders in Mac OS X

To hide folder in Mac OS X, type the following command:
chflags hidden /path/to/folder/

The folder will not be visible in Finder, but you can still access it
via the Terminal.

To unhide the folder, use the following command:
chflags nohidden /path/to/folder/

disable ready (drum) sound in ubuntu 12.04

Create (or edit) the following file:
/usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/50_unity-greeter.gschema.override

Add to it the following section and content:
[com.canonical.unity-greeter]
play-ready-sound = false

Make the OS aware of the changes:
sudo glib-compile-schemas /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/