GeekTool

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  • GeekTool lets you display various kinds of information on your desktop via 3 default plug-ins. Plug-Ins: File plugin to monitor OS X activity with /var/log/system.log, or any file that you want to follow. Shell mode to launch custom scripts or commands like 'df' to check space left on filesystems or 'uptime' to monitor load on your machine.
  • 🔥 GeekTool Scripts 🔥 Welcome! Here is a collection of scripts that I use with GeekTool. Some need to be update to be less. Tied to my desktop. This script is for running AppleScripts from the shell. It expects the AppleScript to be in the same directory as it, and it takes the script as a command line parameter.
  • This is a set of technical resources for network engineers and system administrators; includes whois and traceroute.
GeekTool

In this week’s video, I look at GeekTool, a free system utility that lets you display images, text files, and the output of Unix commands on your desktop (or floating above other windows).

GeekTool is a Mac OSX Application (or System Preference Pane) that lets you display various kinds of information on your desktop via 3 default plug-ins. GeekTool is a utility that allows you to embed objects and information directly onto your Mac's desktop. It installs as a preference pane in the System Preferences, and from there you can open use.

Download Macworld Video #106

• Format: MPEG-4/H.264

• Resolution: 480 x 272 (iPhone & iPod compatible)

Geektool

• Size: 13.3MB

• Length: 7 minutes

In the course of the video, I reference a collection of sites where you can find more powerful examples of what you can do with GeekTool. These include:

  • Hints that mention GeekTool on macosxhints.com.
  • Ultimate GeekTool Setup on Keynote 2 Keynote.
  • GeekTool and bash one liners on Mac Geekery.
  • Geek to Live: Monitor your Mac and more with GeekTool on Lifehacker.
  • Mega Roundup of GeekTool Scripts on Francesco Mugnai’s blog (which contains links to many other sites).
  • In the video, I show one GeekTool entry that displays my external IP address, which can be useful if you’re trying to debug a network connectivity problem. The Unix source for that entry can be found buried in this hint on Mac OS X Hints. To save you the digging, though, here’s the command: curl --silent http://checkip.dyndns.org | awk '{print $6}' | cut -f 1 -d '<'. Just enter that as the Unix command, and you should see your external IP address in GeekTool.

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