GeekTool



GeekTool is a great app for customizing your Desktop and making your workspace your own, and we’ve already covered some of the ways you can put GeekTool to work. Today we’re going to look at how. GeekTool is the MacOS alternative to RainMeter. It grants the same level of customization as RainMeter does with just a bit extra work. There is some scripting involved, but don’t let that intimidate you—GeekTool really is easier to use than it looks. Here’s how to get started.

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

Download Macworld Video #106

• Format: MPEG-4/H.264

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

• Size: 13.3MB

• Length: 7 minutes

Geektool

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:

Geektool
  • 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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