+2  A: 

My recommendation is to check on the UI design patterns sites, you'll find some interesting solutions there for sure:

Take a look at this floating toolbar too: http://daersystems.com/jquery/toolbars/

Ariel Popovsky
thanks for the links Ariel. interesting to read although I couldn't find anything that would describe something similar to the mini-toolbar. with the one exception of the radial menu on the uipatternfactory site.
Patrick Klug
+1  A: 
Zoe
A: 

on ZoneAlarm, the program control, you can click a program to set it's values with a left click.

alex