Notification Area for Apps such as Skype?

Hi guys,

using Natty, I really miss the ability to get to some applications that normally (normally meaning "classic desktop environment") appear in the notification area. The main apps that I cannot get to anymore because they are normally placed there are Skype and Parcellite.

Parcelilite launches on startup, but it's unreachable for me thanks to Unity. Skype, I can minimize so that it appears in the launcher, but when I close a Skype window, it disappears as well and I have to kill and relaunch Skype to get to it again.

Since Unity does not allow me to customize the notification area, do you have any hints / tips on how to get to these applications?

Thanks,
Rainer