How about NFC readable store discount cards? A bit of a privacy issue maybe, but no money really changes hands with those, so no harm if they're static.

Yes, turns out Software Update is under General (like on iPhones/iPads). I found an example of scripting the activation of menu items. do_menu is from http://www.macosxautomation.com/applescript/uiscripting/ with the addition of a delay statement that seemed necessary (adjust as needed); this does exactly what I wanted. Indeed, the menu approach is better than faking keystrokes as I was doing before with the App Store part, because the ⌘R never worked but just caused an alert sound. on do_menu(app_name, menu_name, menu_item) try -- bring the target application to the front tell application app_name activate end tell delay 2 tell application "System Events" tell process app_name tell menu bar 1 tell menu bar item menu_name tell menu menu_name click menu item menu_item end tell end tell end tell end tell end tell return true on error error_message return false end try end do_menu do_menu("System Settings", "View", "Software Update") do_menu("App Store", "Store", "Updates") do_menu("App Store", "Store", "Reload Page")

Clever if more complex than my limited AppleScript experience would have led me to. :-) But I don't recall System Settings (or some other choices) being in the sidebar, only in the View menu. If there's a way to add those to the sidebar, I haven't found it yet, although it will temporarily appear if searched for.