OSX Defaults Hacks and General Customization

Disable dashboard

defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES

Reduce render delay

defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitInitialTimedLayoutDelay 0.25

Increase animation speed of sheets

defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSWindowResizeTime .001

Disable Spotlight

edit /etc/hostconfig to change "SPOTLIGHT=-YES-" to "SPOTLIGHT=-NO-"

Enable Safari Debug Menu

defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeDebugMenu 1

Disable xterm startup when X11 is started

defaults write org.x.X11_launcher app_to_run /usr/X11/bin/xlsclients

or

defaults write org.x.X11_launcher app_to_run /usr/bin/true

And finally, in XQuartz from macosforge X11 and X11_launcher have been integrated, so you do this

defaults write org.x.X11 app_to_run /usr/bin/true

To Renable => defaults write org.x.X11_launcher app_to_run /usr/X11/bin/xterm

Get rid of X11 quit alert

defaults write com.apple.x11 no_quit_alert true

Get rid of the .DS_Store files on share drives (specifically windows shares)

defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true

Show full path to current directory on Finder Title

defaults write com.apple.finder _FXShowPosixPathInTitle -bool YES

Mount external drives without user login (normally they only mount when a user logs in)

defaults write /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/autodiskmount AutomountDisksWithoutUserLogin -bool true

When making changes to Finder, make sure to execute a "killall Finder" or "killall Dock" 

in terminal to activate changes