I set up a simple shell script to ask Mail and NetNewsWire for their current unread counts, then I display it in a tiny GeekTool window. Here’s a small screenshot (where you can also see a similar set up for iTunes, which I’ll write about soon I describe how to do over in the iTunes Monitor article) in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen:
Handy for Dock-hiders and plaintext lovers. ;) Here’s the shell script that I have GeekTool running with a “command” window and a 30-second refresh.
And here’s a second one that presents it even smaller, and on one line.