Houdah Software has released a maintenance update to HoudahSpot, the file search tool that provides an alternate front end to Spotlight. Version 2.6.2 comes on the heels of the more major 2.6 release which included new Add Group toolbar items, Search Location service, the capability to narrow the search scope, adjustable icon sizing in grid view, available contextual menus in grid view, and improved integration with Mac OS X Services. The latest version refreshes the Help book, simplifies the display of file sizes, and fixes bugs related to column width. Full release notes are available on Houdah Software's Web site. ($30 new, free update, 2.3 MB)
Thoughtful, detailed coverage of the Mac, iPhone, and iPad, plus the best-selling Take Control ebooks.
Syslogd Overwhelming Your Computer?
If your Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5) system is unexpectedly sluggish, logging might be the culprit. Run Activity Monitor (Applications/Utilities/ folder), and click the CPU column twice to get it to show most to least activity. If syslogd is at the top of the list, there's a fix. Syslogd tracks informational messages produced by software and writes them to the asl.db, a file in your Unix /var/log/ directory. It's a known problem that syslogd can run amok. There's a fix: deleting the asl.db file.
Launch Terminal (from the same Utilities folder), and enter these commands exactly as written, entering your administrative password when prompted:
sudo launchctl stop com.apple.syslogd
sudo rm /var/log/asl.db
sudo launchctl start com.apple.syslogd
Your system should settle down to normal. For more information, follow the link.
Written by
Glenn Fleishman
HoudahSpot 2.6.2
by Doug McLean 
Get more productive with software from Smile: PDFpen forediting PDFs; TextExpander for saving time and keystrokes while you
type; DiscLabel for designing CD/DVD labels and inserts. Free demos,
fast and friendly customer support. <http://www.smilesoftware.com/>