A different way to grid

When designing on a grid, Subtraction's Khoi Vinh sidesteps the snap-to annoyance of Photoshop guides by creating a semi-transparent grid layer of color blocks. "This allows me to toggle the grid on and off, and also to swap variants on the grid—different combinations of units and columns—at will. Much, much easier..." He's talking about web design, but surely this idea potentially applies to other grid-based efforts.