When you minimize a window (Command-M in most Mac OS X apps), you're somewhat restricted by the Dock's preferences panel on how the windows slip out of sight. For that, you have either the Genie or Scale effect. Boring.

While attending a MUG meeting at Tufts Univ. last night, someone (Loren?) showed me a little trick to change the minimize effect by using the defaults command that would truly make my Aqua windows suck.

Just follow these steps:

1. Open the Terminal (/Applications/Utilities; or if you're like me, it's already in your Dock).
2. Enter the following command:
    
   defaults write com.apple.Dock mineffect suck
    
   
3. Kill the Dock's process to restart it:
   • Issue the top command.
   • Find the Dock's process number.
   • Issue the following command:
      
     kill -9 dock_process_number
      
     The Dock will disappear and then reappear after it has restarted.
4. Minimize a window to see the changed effect.

When you minimize a window, the sides of the window get pulled inward (slightly) as it heads off to the Dock.

See also: Chapter 4, The User Interface for other hacks.