How can I get application windows to remember my desired position for them? It's insanely annoying having the email reply pop directly over my Firefox window every time I hit reply to an email in Mail. Each time I drag it over to the vacant space on the left of my primary display, and EVERY time it returns when I reply to an email.

Finder has similar issues with Cmd+N, resize, close. Open a window, resize it, close it, immediately open another new window, and it's where the original one was.

Is there a system-wide or third-party solution for forcing applications to place new windows where I left their previous ones?
This is by no means a perfect fix, but I use Divvy as my solution to this issue - probably the single best Mac addon I've ever bought. It's not free but it has global keyboard shortcuts which would mean a badly placed window is a ctrl+something away from being perfect again.