How to hide notification center button in Mountain Lion? I am using Mountain Lion.

The only advantage (for me) over the gesture is that Option + clicking the button enables/disables showing alerts and banners (toggles the switch in the notifications center).

Is there a way to hide the button in the status bar that opens notification center?
I had the same problem yesterday, and found this tool called Bartender. It is paid software.

On my Mac, running Mountain Lion, the icon is gone but the other notification functionality remains.