I recently came across the nvram(8) command included in OS X.  nvram is used to manipulate the settings of non-volatile RAM, which persists after reboots and power off.  From what I’ve seen, there are about 50 variables that are meaningful to the system, but I haven’t found a comprehensive list so far.  So what is this command used for?  That’s a good question.

One thing you can do is set arbitrary asset tags.  If your organization uses a central asset-tagging system, you can write the asset tag to NVRAM.  You can also set contact information like your name and e-mail address. Of course, none of these options are a guarantee you’ll recover a lost or stolen system. Assuming someone even thinks to look at nvram, the variables could be changed or deleted, or the whole NVRAM could just be wiped.

I asked Twitter if anyone had uses for nvram(8) and no one seemed to.  I’ll leave it open to my readers to suggest uses for this command.