Geeklets / matt / All

Current network transfer rate (in and out)

matt — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 09:56:16 -0700

This displays the current network transfer rate, using a script obtained from a comment on this MacOSXHints page.

If you want to monitor an ethernet connection instead of the Airport, you can change the first line to en0 instead of en1.

5 Vote(s)

Show latest xkcd comic (with alt text)

matt — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 10:35:10 -0700

This geeklet will display the latest xkcd comic and the alt text that you normally get when you hold your mouse over the comic.

The alt.glet geeklet finds the image address for the latest comic from the RSS feed, downloads it to your Pictures folder and saves it as "latest-xkcd.png". You can change this name and location if you want by editing the last line of the command. From the RSS feed it then also gets the alt text and displays it.

The xkcd.glet geeklet just displays the image at /Users/matt/Pictures/latest-xkcd.png. Unless your username is matt, you are going to have to change this to match your username.

You need to have both of the geeklet files running, even if you don't want the alt text. To hide the alt text, either delete the line echo $alt from the command, or just set the text opacity to 0%.

With a bit of tweaking this script should work pretty well for most webcomics. If anyone modifies it for another comic, it would be awesome if they could submit it here.

7 Vote(s)

Display recent items from any RSS feed

matt — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 11:18:51 -0700

This Geeklet displays news on your desktop from an RSS feed. You can specify the address of the feed, how many recent items to show, and a maximum length for each item.

Creating a script to parse a specific RSS feed is quite easy, but creating a script that will work with any feed is much more difficult. This is mainly because each feed often has its own subtle differences. I've tested the script in this Geeklet with loads of RSS feeds, and it works with pretty much all of them. There are bound to be some that don't work, so if you want me to take a look just post the feed address in the comments and I'll try and make it work. Also, if anyone can suggest any improvements, add them in the comments and I will update the script.

Download the Geeklet linked below and open it up in GeekTool. The first three lines of the command are:

URL="http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk/rss/newsonline_uk_edition/technology/rss.xml"
maxLength="500"
start="3"
end="9"

The first line is to specify the RSS feed. "maxLength" is to set a maximum length to each item in the feed. "start" is to set how many paragraphs at the start of the feed you want to hide. This is useful for hiding the main title and description of the feed. "end" is to set how many items you want to show.

5 Vote(s)

List Currently Online Skype Contacts

matt — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 12:44:09 -0700

This Geeklet displays a list of your Skype contacts that are currently online. It requires that you save an AppleScript file on your Mac before it will work.

Download this AppleScript and save it in ~/Documents/Scripts. You can save it elsewhere, but you will need to modify the path in the Geeklet script to match it.

Next, download the Geeklet file (linked below) and double-click it to open it up in GeekTool. If you have saved the AppleScript somewhere other than in ~/Documents/Scripts/ you will need to modify the address in the script.

The script fails to run the first time, when Skype asks for permission for AppleScript to access your contact data. Select "Allow this application to use Skype" and click OK. You may need to restart Skype and GeekTool after doing this before the script will run properly.

The script displays the names of your contacts and their "mood messages" if they have any. If you want to disable the mood messages, you can modify the AppleScript. Double-click SkypeOnlineUsers.scpt to open it up in AppleScript Editor. Near the end find the line that says:

set end of onlineusers to aUser & " (" & amoodtext & ")"

change this to

set end of onlineusers to aUser

then save the script.

I originally found this script via this LifeHacker post that links to the original author's blog. Unfortunately that blog no longer exists but you can view an archive of it at the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

8 Vote(s)

Display ping time to a particular server

matt — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:15:05 -0800

This Geeklet displays the ping time to an address that you specify. If the connection fails, an error message is shown. It works for both computers on your network and web servers. Some examples are shown in the screenshot.

Command:
HOST=typehostnamehere
PING=`ping -q -c 1 $HOST`
if [[ $? -eq 0 ]] ; then
TIME=`echo $PING |tail -1 | cut -d/ -f 5`
echo ${TIME}ms away from $HOST
exit 0
else
echo $HOST could not be reached
exit 2
fi

You need to replace typehostnamehere with the address of the machine you want to ping.

11 Vote(s)

Facebook News Feed, Status Updates and Notifications

matt — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 02:02:43 -0800

There are a number of different Facebook feeds you can display on the desktop with GeekTool. It's pretty complicated so here are some instructions:

1) Get your Facebook feed address
In Facebook, go to your notifications (Click "See all notifications") and find the "Subscribe to Notifications" section on the right. Right-click on the link, choose "Copy Link" then paste it into TextEdit (or some other text editor). You will see the link has the following format:

http://www.facebook.com/feeds/notifications.php?id=1234567890&viewer=1234567890&key=1b2a34543a&format=rss20

Where it says notifications.php you can replace it with one of the following:

notifications.php - Your notifications
status.php - Your own status updates
friends_status.php - Your friend's status updates
notes.php - Your own notes
friends_notes.php - Your friend's notes
share_friends_posts.php - Your friend's links

Some people report problems with some of these feeds. It could be something to do with privacy settings, I'm not sure. An alternative is to use a Facebook app called RSS News Feed Reader. It only produces a feed address for your news feed though and not any of the other feeds.

2) Create an Automator workflow
Open up Automator (located in the Applications folder). There are three actions you need to find in the Library on the left and drag over to the workflow area on the right. They are:

Get Specified URLs
Get Text From Articles
New Text File

You need to drag these across in the right order. In the first one, double-click the address and change it to your chosen Facebook feed address. In the last one, change the file name to "FriendStatus.txt" and have it save somewhere like your Documents folder.

Click Run in Automator and check that everything works fine. If so, go to your Documents folder and see if FriendStatus.txt has been created and filled with your friend's statuses. If everything is working fine, in Automator choose Save As, change the File Format to Application and save the workflow in your documents folder with a name like "SaveFacebookFriendStatus".

3) OPTIONAL: Make your workflow run in background
This automator workflow will need to be run fairly regularly, depending on how often you want your feed to update. At the moment, every time it runs an icon will appear in the Dock for a while before disappearing again. To stop this, find SaveFacebookFriendStatus in your Documents folder, right-click on it and choose "Show Package Contents". Inside the Contents folder, find Info.plist and open it with TextEdit. Find the line with LSUIElement. On the line after it, change to . Save the file and then double-click SaveFacebookFriendStatus to check if the Dock icon still appears.

4) Set up the GeekTool Geeklet
Below are the GeekTool Geeklet files you need. The Refresh one doesn't display anything, it just runs the SaveFacebookFriendStatus script every 900 seconds. You can change the refresh rate to whatever you prefer in the GeekTool inspector.

The normalfeed one just displays the contents of the FriendStatus.txt file. There are a few things I didn't like about it, so the formattedfeed one makes it look a bit better. You might find that the formatted one doesn't work properly straight away and you need to fiddle with it a bit. For example, it strips out the +0000 time zone, but you will need to adjust that to your own time zone.

The commands are as follows:

Refresh: open ~/Documents/SaveFacebookFriendStatus.app

NormalFeed: head -n 300 ~/Documents/FriendStatus.txt

FormattedFeed: head -n 300 ~/Documents/FriendStatus.txt | tr '[n]' '~' | sed 's/~~/
/g' | sed 's/~//g' | sed 's/+0000//g'

13 Vote(s)

The Pirate Bay Collection

matt — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 10:06:32 -0800

This collection is based on a screenshot uploaded to Flickr by mcsmiles.

The desktop background is available here.

The collection includes geeklets for the date, time, weather, calendar, top processes and free disk space.

In addition, the screenshot shows Bowtie being used to display the current iTunes song, which is much easier than using GeekTool. The Bowtie theme being used is Subtile.

Commands

calendar: cal | sed "s/^/ /;s/$/ /;s/ $(date +%e) / $(date +%e | sed 's/./#/g') /"
date: date +%d
month: date +%B
day: date +%A
am/pm: date +%p
time: date +%I:%M
weather: curl --silent "http://xml.weather.yahoo.com/forecastrss?p=98109&u=f" | grep -E '(Current Conditions:|F//' -e 's///' -e 's/
//' -e 's/
//'
processes: ps -amcwwwxo "command %cpu %mem" | grep -v grep | head -11
disk space: df -hl | grep 'disk0s2' | awk '{print $4"/"$2" free ("$5" used)"}'

Note: The geeklets are arranged for a 13" display at 1280x800. If your screen is a different size, you will probably have to move the geeklets into their correct places.

18 Vote(s)

Google Calendar: Agenda, Week and Month View

matt — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:57:57 -0800

Note: If you have your Google Calendar synced to iCal via CalDAV, then this Geeklet that uses iCalBuddy is a much easier option. If you'd rather not use iCal at all, then read on…

There is a command line application called gcalcli that allows you to access your Google Calendar from the Terminal or from GeekTool. It is a bit complicated to install though.

Installation instructions:
1. Download the latest gdata python client
2. Double-click the file to un-zip
3. Open Terminal
4. Type "cd" followed by a space, then drag the gdata-#.#.# folder onto the window.
5. Press return
6. Type "./setup.py install" and press return.
7. You can now delete the gdata folder and zip file
8. Download the latest version of gcalcli
9. Double-click the file to un-zip
10. Open the file in TextEdit by dragging onto the TextEdit icon
11. Change the first line to "#!/usr/bin/python -W ignore::DeprecationWarning"
12. Save the file
13. In Finder choose "Go to Folder…" from the Go menu
14. Type in /usr/local/bin/
15. Drag gcalcli to this folder (Enter admin password if needed)
16. In TextEdit create a new text file with the following three lines:
[gcalcli]
user: [username]
pw: [password]
17. Choose "Make Plain Text" from the Format menu
18. Save as .gcalclirc in you user home folder.

There are lots of different options for gcalcli. Detailed usage instructions are here.

Some example commands you can use in Terminal or GeekTool:
/usr/local/bin/gcalcli --width=15 calw 2
/usr/local/bin/gcalcli agenda
/usr/local/bin/gcalcli --cals=owner calm
/usr/local/bin/gcalcli agenda '11/26/2009' '11/30/2009'

Useful options:
calw 3 displays a calendar of the next three weeks
calm displays a calendar of this month
agenda '11/26/2009' '11/30/2009' displays a list of events from the 26th to the 30th
--nc for no colour (the default colours look pretty horrible in GeekTool)
--cals=owner for only the calendars you own (to remove subscriptions)
--width=20 for wider columns (useful for GeekTool on a wide screen)

The Geeklet files attached have the following commands:
/usr/local/bin/gcalcli --nc --width=25 calw 3
/usr/local/bin/gcalcli --nc agenda

13 Vote(s)

Black and Red Collection (date, time, weather, to do list)

matt — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:21:15 -0800

This collection is based on a screenshot patrickmgervais uploaded to Flickr.

The desktop background is available here.

A black and red collection with the date, time, weather and a to do list. The default position for the Geeklets is for a 13" MacBook so larger screen will have to move them into the right position.

3 Vote(s)

Uptime

matt — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:04:57 -0800

This Geeklet tells you how long your Mac has been on for (e.g. Up 3 days, 22 hours and 28 minutes).

It is quite easy to rearrange the output format to what you want. The command is:

uptime | sed -e "s/:/ /2" | sed -e "s/,/ /2" | awk '{print "Up " $3 " days, " $5 " hours and " $6 " minutes"}'

As you can see, $3 will print the number of days, $5 the number of hours, and $6 the number of minutes. You can rearrange these, for example:

uptime | sed -e "s/:/ /2" | sed -e "s/,/ /2" | awk '{print "UPTIME: " $3 " days, " $5 ":" $6}'

will give UPTIME: 3 days, 22:28 instead.

9 Vote(s)

Display current wireless network

matt — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:26:10 -0800

This Geeklet displays the current wireless network. I'm not sure if this is the most efficient way to do it, so if anyone else can think of a better command, let me know. It seems to take a little while to execute, so keep the refresh time quite high unless you want to cause performance problems.

Command: system_profiler SPAirPortDataType | tail -9 | head -1 | sed -e "s/://" | sed -e 's/^[ t]*//'
Font: Lucida Grande
Colour: White
Size: 18

6 Vote(s)

Date and Time collection

matt — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:58:43 -0800

This collection of Geeklets give you the day of the week, the date, and the time with a stylish setup.

Date: date +%d
Month: date +%B
Day: date +%A
Time: date +"%I:%M"
AM/PM: date +"%p"
Font: Helvetica Neue
Colour: Black
Size: Various

11 Vote(s)

A single line weather forecast

matt — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:12:12 -0800

This Geeklet gives you a weather forecast in a single short sentence. As with most of the weather scripts, this requires a US zip code. In the command you will need to replace 12345 with your zip code.

This service is provided by the Weather Underground web site.

Command: curl -s http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=12345 | awk '/Today is/ || /Tomorrow is/' | textutil -convert txt -stdin -stdout -format html
Font: Lucida Grande
Colour: Orange
Size: 16

8 Vote(s)

Date, Events, To Do List and Top Processes Collection

matt — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:53:39 -0800

A collection of Geeklets that go well together. The events and to do list require iCalBuddy. The list of processes is ordered by memory usage and updates every 30 seconds. The default text colour is white, so it works well with any dark background.

Events: /usr/local/bin/icalBuddy -nc eventsToday | sed -e "s/*/--/" | sed -e "s/!/!!/"
To Do list: /usr/local/bin/icalBuddy -nc uncompletedTasks | sed -e "s/*/--/" | sed -e "s/!/!!/"
Date: date '+%a %e %B'
Processes: ps -amcwwwxo "command %mem %cpu" | grep -v grep | head -13

Also included are some titles and shading. When rearranging overlapping Geeklets you may find it useful to right-click on them and click "Send to back" etc. if you are trying get to ones underneath.

iCalBuddy Installation Instructions:
1. Download iCalBuddy from http://hasseg.org/icalBuddy
2. Double-click the file to unzip it.
3. Double-click the install.command file.
4. Enter your administrator password.
5. Close the window.
6. Optional: Open a new Terminal window and type "icalBuddy uncompletedTasks" to test it works.

1 Vote(s)

Calendar of current month with today's date highlighted

matt — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:47:07 -0800

This Geeklet displays a calendar of the current month, with today's date highlighted with ##. The font needs to be fixed width like Courier for it to display properly.

Command: cal | sed "s/^/ /;s/$/ /;s/ $(date +%e) / $(date +%e | sed 's/./#/g') /"
Font: Courier
Colour: White
Size: 13

6 Vote(s)

Top processes sorted by CPU usage

matt — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:23:30 -0800

This geeklet displays the top 12 processes sorted by their CPU usage. It updates every 30 seconds.

The three columns it shows are given by "command %cpu %mem." You can delete one of those if you don't want it. You can change "head -13" at the end of the command to specify how many processes to show.

Command: ps -arcwwwxo "command %cpu %mem" | grep -v grep | head -13
Font: Courier
Colour: White
Size: 11

8 Vote(s)

Top processes sorted by memory usage

matt — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:18:46 -0800

This geeklet displays the top 12 processes sorted by their memory usage. It updates every 30 seconds.

The three columns it shows are given by "command %mem %cpu." You can delete one of those if you don't want it. You can change "head -13" at the end of the command to specify how many processes to show.

Command: ps -amcwwwxo "command %mem %cpu" | grep -v grep | head -13
Font: Courier
Colour: White
Size: 11

8 Vote(s)

Today's iCal events

matt — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:12:37 -0800

This geeklet displays the current day's iCal events. It requires that you have iCalBuddy installed.

Command: usr/local/bin/icalBuddy -nc eventsToday | sed -e "s/*/--/" | sed -e "s/!/!!/"
Font: Futura
Colour: White
Size: 16

iCalBuddy Installation Instructions:
1. Download iCalBuddy from http://hasseg.org/icalBuddy/
2. Double-click the file to unzip it.
3. Double-click the install.command file.
4. Enter your administrator password.
5. Close the window.
6. Optional: Open a new Terminal window and type "icalBuddy eventsToday" to test it works.

7 Vote(s)

Show free disk space and capacity

matt — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:59:41 -0800

This Geeklet shows how much free disk space you have left.

"disk0s2" in the command is the identifier for the hard drive. Your's might be different, so you can check using Disk Utility (located in Applications/Utilities). Just click on the hard drive in the list on the left and choose Get Info... from the File menu (Command-I). The Disk Identifier property is near the top of the info window.

The second part of the command is awk which rearranges the output. You can change this arround. Just make sure all text is inside double-quotes, and all variables (e.g. $2) are outside. $2 gives the capacity, $3 gives the used, $4 gives the free, and $5 gives the percentage used.

By default it is set to update once daily, however you may want to change that to more often.

Command: df -hl | grep 'disk0s2' | awk '{print $4"/"$2" free ("$5" used)"}'
Font: Lucida Grande
Colour:White
Size: 14

10 Vote(s)

Display basic computer info (name, RAM, processor, OS version)

matt — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:36:59 -0800

This Geeklet displays the following basic system stats:

Computer name (e.g. Matt's MacBook)
OS version (e.g. Mac OS X 10.6.2 10C540)
Amount of RAM (e.g. 2GB RAM)
Processor (e.g. Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU T7400 @ 2.16GHz)

Command: scutil --get ComputerName;
sw_vers | awk -F':t' '{print $2}' | paste -d ' ' - - -;
sysctl -n hw.memsize | awk '{print $0/1073741824" GB RAM"}';
sysctl -n machdep.cpu.brand_string;

Font: Helvetica Neue
Colour: White
Size: 14

5 Vote(s)

Today's Date

matt — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:02:02 -0800

This Geeklet displays today's date in the format "Thu 19 November." By changing the characters at the end you can change the format.

Command: date '+%a %e %B'
Font: Futura
Colour: White
Size: 16

Some alternative format examples:

date
date "+DATE: %Y-%m-%d%nTIME: %H:%M:%S"
date +"%A %d %b"

Works well with this collection.

5 Vote(s)

To do list from iCal

matt — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:16:06 -0800

This geeklet gets your to do list from iCal and displays it. It requires that you have iCalBuddy installed.

Command: /usr/local/bin/icalBuddy -nc uncompletedTasks | sed -e "s/*/--/" | sed -e "s/!/!!/"
Font: Futura
Colour: White
Size: 16

iCalBuddy Installation Instructions:
1. Download iCalBuddy from http://hasseg.org/icalBuddy/
2. Double-click the file to unzip it.
3. Double-click the install.command file.
4. Enter your administrator password.
5. Close the window.
6. Optional: Open a new Terminal window and type "icalBuddy uncompletedTasks" to test it works.

4 Vote(s)