Can you hide/change the dock ad notification bar in Sense?

[BillJr106]

I have been using LauncherPro and I love how much bigger the screen appears without the dark dock on the bottom of the screen and the dar notification bar up top. However LauncherPro has been doing some wierd things for me lately, like moving the wallpaper and not sizing the screen properly on occasion.

So basically I want to know if there is a non performance altering way to hide the dock and notification bar, or modify it? Im surprised HTC made the dock so large...