I love hi-tech toys,and I always said that it’s odd that there is no options for my computer to sense whenever I “leave” it and lockup…Well now there is. If you have a Bluetooth enable phone, then by using a piece of software from Pheonix you can teach your computer to lock and unlock-handsfree… http://www.phoenixfreeze.com/
To me, the sidebar was an odd feature of Vista. It reminded of the old Office toolbar(which I never used), yet as time passes it is starting to grow on me mainly to the useful gadgets people build for it. One such useful gadget is the Control System gadget that allows you to shut down(including all iterations:standby,hibernate etc.) your system from the sidebar: Download it here.