Macos – Add Unix Executable to Mac OS X Dock

Double click safari to open it. Then, when it's open, right click on it's icon on the dock (which you call the system tray), and say `keep in dock' (or options -> keep in dock on snow leopard).

No.

The dock badging style is not changeable by the user, and also (I believe) not changeable by the application unless it extends the dock badge.

One option would be to keep the dock size small but put a large magnification on it so you can simply flick your mouse down to the Mail icon and it will magnify enough to read the badge.