Making OS X useful

This article on taming the dock looks like the solution to my frustration with OS X. I arrange my dock in much the same way shown here, with my favorite apps on one side, and the running apps on the other (though, still on the default dock), but I'm constantly hitting the wrong icon when the dock ballons up on mouseover, and I can never remember where exactly I need to point to launch an app.

I'm giving this a go and seeing how it works out. Funny how it looks a little bit like the windows start bar, isn't it?