I use TileWindows. It’s really useful for comparing two versions of a document side-by-side, or referring to a document while typing in another without having to constantly swap windows. If it could be made to synchronise the scrolling of 2 documents together it would be perfect. You need a large screen for it to come into its own though.
For me I only keep the currently running apps in the dock. I launch everything with Alfred. I find the dock to be super useful when it is only a list of the currently open applications, and hyperdock allows me to preview and drill down to the specific window of the app instantly. I personally cringe whenever I see people using their dock as an app icons storage space and launcher. So I think this has a lot to do with personal workflow preferences.
Where is the the difference to Spotlight? As I do what you describe on a regular basis.
Why 1Password? I personally think Lastpass is the better choice because Lastpass supports every browser and OS on this earth (ok that a bit of hyperbole but they even had a WebOS app). I occasionally have to use other computers than my iMac and 1Password has no Linux support and the android support also isn’t the best. I replaced my Nexus 7 with an ipad mini a few month ago but I stuck with lastpass because it’s more flexible than 1password (and probably cheaper too - free for the desktop and 12$ a year for mobile).
I recently bought 1password, and currently am migrating all my passwords to it. I kind of wonder why I bought it instead of just switched everything to an algorithmic phrase I could I remember that would be unique to each site.
Instead of Dropbox, try SpiderOak. Much better pricing per gigabyte, same client software across platforms and devices, but YOU control the encryption keys. SpiderOak cannot decrypt the content you store on them. Only you can.
Its called zero-knowledge privacy: https://spideroak.com/zero-knowledge/
+1 for SpiderOak; I didn’t used to like them, but with Hive they finally offer a Dropbox-like experience. Not to mention the ability to sync arbitrary folders instead of having to put whatever you want to sync in a pre-defined place.
I realize it’s not a menu bar item, but I have been happy replacing Spotlight with Find Any File for many years now. I still use Spotlight basically as an application launcher, but when I need to do things like “find that text file I made within the last month that has ‘taxes’ in the filename,” I do it with Find Any File. It’s been my mainstay since Sherlock got removed from 10.5 and later.
Re: Caffeine - I found it buggy for me. I prefer Wimoweh in part because I can set “don’t sleep” for a period of time but also in response to certain applications running. Having “never sleep while PowerPoint is running” set has been invaluable, as it’s easy for me to get to answering questions during a class presentation and have my screen saver turn on and my machine lock me out.
Care to say more about any of those?
AppTamer - Allows you to limit the processor usage of certain apps, or halt apps in the background.
Little Snitch - Firewall and App specific network access control/
Alfred - Use your keyboard to launch Apps, Unlimited Clipboard History (Quicksilver on steroids with many extra features)
PopClip - Adds a ton of features to highlighted text.
OnePass - Password Management.
TextExpander - Text Expansion, save on typing.
TotalFinder - Lots of Improvements to Finder
Growl - App Notification for many apps, Notification Center’s older bigger brother.
Skype - IM, VoIP Phone, Video Calling, Conference Calling
DropBox - Cloud Storage
The Clock - Way better system clock for the menu bar.
Fantastical - Date and awesome calendar in the menu bar.
ShellTo - Open a terminal/command line shell at any location, like the folder you are in in an open finder window.
ColorChooser - Color Picker for anywhere on the screen, converts all color formats
Caffine - Toggle if your Mac sleeps or not.
NewDoc - New empty document of any kind in the folder you are in, you can also add prefilled template documents of any kind, ie html5 boilerplate or whatever.
Cobook - Contact management, and Address Book/Social Media syncing
GasMask - Host File editor and protection.
MAMP Pro - Full LAMP stack server, Apache, Php, MySQL, Perl, Python, etc.
Transmit - Beset FTP client, can also mount and unmount FTP/SFTP/WebDav as drives.
IP in Menu Bar - Your current internal and external IP Addresses
Inklet - Use your trackpad like a wacom tablet in photoshop/illustrator/any app, works well with capacitive stylus and brushes.
Thanks for the tip, I just purchased this and am going to give it a try.
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I can’t speak for everyone, but I don’t use LastPass because I am a web developer and it f*cks with input elements. It also breaks a few sites that I regularly use. I reinstall and revisit it with each version, but overall I have found 1Password to be a much superior solution. I do like the idea of a non-mac centric solution though and I love the idea of how LastPass works, I just have never been able to use it for any length of time without it getting in the way.
…actually that is just what he takes into the bathroom to poop. 
I seriously want to use 1Password (even bought a license for v. 3) because I’m a sucker for pretty and 1Passwords seems more elegant but it has two problems why I can’t use it:
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No Linux support. I have to use (not often though) laptops with linux and windows as OS. For Linux 1Password offers no support and 1Password for Windows isn’t without problems.
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Syncing. 1Password only syncs through iCloud or Dropbox. I don’t want to use Dropbox (US based cloud solution and the recent addition of Mrs. Rice) and iCloud doesn’t allow 1Password-anywhere (web based) access. When on a computer somewhere else (friends etc.) I would not be able to access the updated password-html-file. With Lastpass it’s quite easy: download the browser-addon to have instant access to my passwords or just log in my vault at the last pass website.
I like the LastPass vault and Linux support. Those are great. LastPass has a lot of pretty awesome features, I wish that the browser plugins could be set to not alter the input elements. Maybe I’ll recommend that to their development team as a possible future option.
Funny how it is the flaws not the features that are driving both our decisions. 
I bought a copy of this one as well:
http://www.binarynights.com/locko/
Binaryknights makes the ever so awesome forklift, I’m hoping that when they finally roll out the browser plugins and ipad app that this one will be the one. we’ll see.
I can’t believe no one has mentioned Palua (99¢) yet! It lets you change your F-keys from “Apple Mode” (brightness, media controls, etc.) to “Function Mode” (F1, F2, etc.) without using the fn key. It can be set up on an app-by-app basis; very useful when using Terminal emulators or Adobe Creative Suite.
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