[dnanian]

This isn't the problem you're having, actually, based on what you've said - I think your Mac goes to sleep before it gets a chance to run.

launchd is a "more modern" version of cron, and while more flexible (we use it for backup-on-connect), it's also not really "better" for scheduling, because it offers up nearly all the same restrictions, etc. And Apple can't (and won't) get rid of cron, because it's a very common part of Unix.