Three Great Apps for Your Mac

Having always been more of a Windows person, primarily due to work constraints over the years, I have been very, very happy with Mac's OS X. My Mac-Mini* is now on Mavericks, and although there are a couple of bugs I have been able to overcome these with some wonderfully simple, free or low-cost applications.    

1. Jettison ($4.95 direct, may be less through AppStore) - thankfully exists to eject any/all disks that you choose, prior to the OS entering a sleep state. This app seems to be essential for any Mac (definitely for laptops). The issue I and many others have found is the multiple sleep states (darkwake, et al) which cause the system to either not sleep or wake all too often. 

2. PleaseSleep (Donation-ware) - Seemingly counter to the whole idea of an operating system, there are several Apple apps/utilities/system processes that will prevent your Mac from sleeping. For me, this has been one of the most annoying issues when using my Mac-Mini. For example, I have deleted all the AirPlay files to prevent such issues, since I do not use any AirPlay device. Enter PleaseSleep  from DragonOne, genius! 
Summary Description from the developer:
"PleaseSleep is a utility software designed for Mac OS X that helps put your computer to sleep when you know some other app is preventing your Mac from going to sleep."
And that is EXACTLY what it does, plain and simple - it just works, with the tiniest footprint. 

3. FingerPrint - an "airprint" utility for iPad printing. It is based on Bonjour, so your iPad and your Mac must be on the same network, using the same subnet and in most cases be connected with only one switch/router (if you have more than one router on your network it will need to support Bonjour forward-broadcasts (pretty much only AirPlay stuff). 
NOTE: sadly this utility is no longer supported by the developer. They switched to Windows (to chase enterprise revenue) and a new app named Presto. I do use Presto on a Windows Home Server and it is more versatile than FingerPrint was, overall. Presto adds Google Cloud Print and other functions, such as allowing 
If you want to download the NO-LONGER-SUPPORTED version, click here. It does work well and includes both print to Dropbox and Open on My Mac (pdf to desktop).

3a. As an alternative you might want to check out Cloud Printer for Mac, which also works with Google. 

*I should mention that my issues with OS X and sleep are exacerbated by my use of the Mac-Mini as a "headless"system. While it is hooked up to an HDTV with a remote and wireless keyboard (with integrated touchpad), my main use is via an app called Splashtop (which to me is absolutely essential and the best-of-breed remote desktop software). Using this app I connect via my iPad, PC's or, occasionally my Android phone.