GeekTool

GeekTool is a neat piece of Mac software that lets you stick any image (local or remote), any file, or the output of any command line into your desktop image. Here’s what my desktop looks like as a result (click for super-huge image):

Peter's Desktop

From top-left down, you see the current The Old Farmer’s Almanac Webcam image, a graph of the load average on the Yankee webserver for the past 60 minutes, an MRTG graph of the bandwidth used at Peer1, where Yankee’s servers are hosted, and the current weather radar for Halifax.

Think “active desktop for the Mac” but less Microsofty, more geeky, and arguably much more lightweight and efficient.

Thanks to macosxhints.com for the pointer.

Comments

Dan J's picture
Dan J on July 7, 2004 - 20:44 Permalink

Complete Weather Tangent: You should really be using the radar from Chipman, NB as most weather during the summer moves from west to east or from southwest to north east. Chipman gives you a much better idea of the weather that is coming.

Rob L's picture
Rob L on July 9, 2004 - 20:18 Permalink

Dan is correct on the southwest to northeast movement, so I find the Chipman radar gives a better idea of what the future holds for us on PEI. Also, the composite view of all Quebec stations is good because it shows the big picture to our southwest (and it displays as far east as PEI). If you put the map in motion you can usually watch the swirling masses of badness coming our way.

Marcus's picture
Marcus on July 9, 2004 - 20:27 Permalink

And when you combine the dopplers from Chipman, N.B. and Caribou, Me. (why can’t Environment Canada get radars like this?), you get an even better picture…