If you're looking for an unobtrusive alarm clock and reminder for your Mac, Pester should probably do the job. The application, presented in an elegant and clear interface, allows you to set timely reminders and multiple alarms. Enter your reminder message, if you want it to repeat and when it pops up. You can choose what sound will play to alert you, even selecting a voice to speak the message out to you.

Facebook’s mission is to “give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.” This all sounds very worthy and far out, but on the flipside the social network can also be a tool for causing a nuisance and generally upsetting the cosmic order of things.

There are plenty of ways to become a menace on Facebook if you’re that way inclined. Here’s a guide to what to avoid doing on the network (or, alternatively, to do them if you’re feeling bored and destructive).

1. Quit with the tags!

Facebook allows you to tag (label) people who appear in your photos, regardless of whether they want to be identified in it or not. But it’s not recommended to tag your friends at random.

The person who uploaded this picture to Facebook has tagged his friends as characters from the Mr Men books. This is a big no-no and is in effect spamming people’s message boards with a silly picture that they probably don’t want to be associated with.

Worse still are those programs that tag your friends as random objects, such as Friends Tagger. If someone tagged me in one of these I would immediately sever all ties with them.

2. Can you keep a secret?

The Facebook wall is a fun way to keep up with your friends, but it’s easy to forget that it’s not confidential. Common sense states that you should send a private message for anything with confidential information, phone numbers, passwords or gossip.

"One of these days I'm gonna get organizized". Like Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, you've promised it to yourself, this year you're going to stay on top of things and stay productive, whether at work or at home. You want to make a good impression and prove to yourself that you can be organized, manage your time well and try to keep stress off at bay.

You've probably decided to learn the Getting Things Done (GTD) technique to keep your inbox uncluttered. If this method works for you, then I'd recommend using OmniFocus for your everyday projects. You'll be able to manage your notes and projects in a GTD way in a flexible and lightweight interface. Not looking for something that advanced but just want a simple and sleek note taker? Then you should go instead for Anxiety, with its dark transparent interface and smooth animations.

Starting the new year on the right foot not only means having your battle plan ready, but also staying on top of deadlines and upcoming projects. Use Pester to get alarms and reminders right on your desktop. If you're a frequent flyer and find yourself in different time zones often, then Meridian is a good clock to have. Not only can it show multiple time zones but you can also set alarms, whether you have to wake early in Bangkok, New York or anywhere else in the world.

In your quest to stay organized this year you've also promised yourself you're going to keep good track of all your contacts. With tools like Plaxo, Facebook or LinkedIn on the web this is easier than ever. If you're looking for a Mac desktop solution though, I'd recommend going for Contactizer, which keeps your contacts in smart lists and allows you to quickly edit details like phone numbers or addresses.

But yes, staying organized means decluttering, and that often sounds more scary than anything. Luckily, with Spotlight on Mac, you don't really have to worry anymore about where your files are stored. You can find any of them in seconds. Still, it's a good idea to have an information organizer like Together or Yojimbo around. These applications will put any one of your files within reach and keep them tidy and sorted by type or collections. You can also flag and label those urgent new year matters. If reorganizing your music, movies and books is what your looking at, then Delicious Library is your weapon of choice.

Last but not least, have something like MenuStrip installed, so all your files and applications are accessible from your menu bar.

Fed up with your boss ringing you on a weekend? Annoyed that your ex keeps calling to pester you? Tired of unwelcome sales calls? Then you need Call Firewall, an excellent Windows Mobile application that gives you the power to block unwanted calls. There are a wealth of filtering options, including black lists, white lists, and even a complete call blocker.

Some years ago, working environments were completely different: smaller, more familiar, with a kind of charming air surrounding desks, water coolers and meeting rooms. Internal communication was just a question of leaving your place and joining the quick chat beside the water cooler for just five minutes, before going back to your daily tasks.

However, things have changed quickly over the last few years. Companies have grown really fast, not only in financial terms, but also in number of workers. New people join the staff everyday and it's harder to make new friends. Those five-minute breaks begin to be scarcer, until one day there's not a single one during a whole working day.

When communication reaches a non-existence level, you know it's time for a change. Most office managers reject the idea of using traditional instant messaging tools such as MSN or Yahoo, mostly because workers end up chatting with friends outside the office instead of answering the dud from accounting. This is why local network based IM applications like Neos have become a more popular solution: they allow workers to exchange messages, files, even media streams... without the temptations of the outer world.