The helper agent for Mac OS X Lion's Resume feature; TALAgent is the shortened name (in NSNomenclature) for "Transparent Application Lifecycle Agent." It's a small background utility responsible for launching applications that were open when the computer was last shut down, and for quitting certain applications when RAM gets low.
It was assumed that by preventing TALAgent from running, one could keep unwanted applications from re-launching. In fact, it only caused more problems.
by simplebeep July 26, 2011