It can get annoying when you double click on a jpeg from your desktop and it tries to open in Photoshop. Not only is it annoying, it can be a time waster as you close the default application and drag the file to an application on the dock.
Being involved with web design, and design in general, I find myself needing to monitor my memory usage on a daily basis. (mostly because of heavy Adobe Apps) If you are like me, you want to know how much of your precious memory you have left, so as not to launch that one extra application that crashes your machine and causes you to lose unsaved work. Mac OS X ships standard with an application called “Activity Monitor,” Located in your Applications > Utilities folder. By keeping this application in your dock, you can simply Control + click on it’s dock icon and display a number of different charts to visualize the data, without keeping the application window itself open!
Putting your applications folder in your dock enables you to get rid of icons in your dock that you rarely use, and still have 1-click access to all of your installed applications. This not only keeps your dock clutter-free, it makes it easier to navigate to your applications folder after you install an application. (For example, a recent freeware install.)
