In the hint about moving the dock to the top of the screen, the method of killing and restarting the dock was unnecessarily complicated.

Since 10.2 there's a much simpler way:

  % killall Dock

Of course this works for all processes, not just the dock.

[Editor's note: You can use the "-d" option if you'd like to see a description of the processes that 'killall' killed. Personally, I'll continue to use the harder method, as I still fear killing an unintended process if I do something stupid like think "Dock" but type "Finder!"]