So apparently my wisdom teeth aren't all that wise, because they are coming out in all the wrong directions.

Dammit guys, I had such high hopes for you :(

So, I guess you're not a real mac addict until you've publically extolled the virtues of Quicksilver.

It's a hard to define piece of software, I didn't really "get it" until I'd been using it myself for a few days. Basically, it's a launcher - but as well as launching things, you can do things too.

Initially, you select an "object" - you can start typing, and it'll narrow down its index of all kinda of data - files, address book contacts, applications, you can even enter some arbitrary text. You can get plugins to index pretty much any type of data you like, but I like to keep it fairly uncluttered.

But then comes the magic. You press tab, and you move to the action panel. The default action for files is just to open them, but almost anything is possible here. If the object is an image, you can resize it or convert it to another format. Or upload it straight to flickr. If the object is a contact, you can do things like edit their details, compose an email, or send an email directly without even opening up Mail.app (it has a plugin for gmail too). If the object is an iTunes playlist, you can navigate / search it and actions like Play or Play next in party shuffle appear. All these actions are infinitely configurable, and you can change what order they appear in.

It can take a little while to configure the way you like, but once you play around with it for a bit you realise that it's not really all that complex - it's just a bit brilliant ;)

Tempted yet? this post on the apple blog should do a good job of getting you started. I was also going to list a bunch of useful tips and plugins here, but 43Folders has it covered...
Specifically, check out Plugins, and The Comma Trick.

One tip that I didn't find on the above sites:
When you're using the text entry to compose a quick email, you can specify the subject and body by formatting your text as "Subject>>Body". You can also do line-breaks with option-return.

Apologies to Windows / Linux users, I guess you'll just have to hope the http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifcompetition catches up someday ;)

In real life news, my mid-year exams are over! huzzah!

Update: Some lovely fellow has written a (PDF) User Manual and Cheat Sheet for Quicksilver.