Creative Implementation Of GeekTool And Yahoo Widgets

Posted on 06 October 2009 by Tina Brunner

Todays article is about the creative implementation of GeekTool and Yahoo Widgets by Zack. He has done an excellent job implementing these tools into everyday scenes. Check these out.
GRAFFITI
GraffitiOn this desktop, Zack chose to use Graffiti as part of his customization. He used several fonts in GeekTool for the clock, date, month, weekday, CPU, RAM, Uptime, Top Processes, to do list and calendar. He used Yahoo widgets for the battery and weather. Blending it all into the background. This design was also featured in Lifehacker.

Wallpaper:
http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper_beta/details/949/train_with_graffiti.html
Dock Information:
www.bresink.de/osx/TinkerTool.html

Font Information:

Degrassi http://www.dafont.com/search.php?psize=m&q=degrassi
Time 65pt
Date 36pt
Uptime Text 18pt
degrassi
Searfont http://www.dafont.com/search.php?psize=m&q=searfont
Month 48ptsearfont
Vandalismhttp://www.dafont.com/search.php?psize=m&q=vandalism
Weekday 36pt
RAM Text 24pt
vandalism
Garage Shock (Condensed)http://www.dafont.com/search.php?psize=m&q=garage+shock
Calander 17ptgarageshock
Turntablz Bold http://www.dafont.com/search.php?psize=m&q=turntablz
To Do List 14pt
Uptime 13pt
Top Processes 12pt
turntablz
Graffiti Treat http://www.dafont.com/search.php?psize=m&q=graffiti+treat
RAM 24pt
CPU 24pt
AM & PM 36pt
graffititreat
Graffonti 3D Drop http://www.dafont.com/search.php?psize=m&q=graffonti
CPU Text 24ptgraffonti
Geek Tool Commands
Top Processes
top -FR -l2 -o cpu | grep -v 0.0% | cut -c 7-24| sed -n '15, $p'
Time date "+%l:%M"
AM & PM date +%p
Date Number date +%d
Month date +%B
Weekday date +%A
Calendarcal
To Do List Create a text file with TextEdit but make sure you click Format>Make Plain Text before save. Then select the file in path in GeekTool.
Uptime uptime | awk '{print "" $3 " " $4 " " $5 }' | sed -e 's/.$//g';
RAM top -l 1 | awk '/PhysMem/ {print "" $8 " "}' ;
CPU top -l 2 | awk '/CPU usage/ && NR > 5 {print $12, $13}'
Text, Uptime, CPU, RAM Another text file, remember have to Make Plain Text before saving
Yahoo Widgets
Weather Widgetwidgets.yahoo.com/widgets/widescapeweather
Battery Widget widgets.yahoo.com/widgets/wdscp-battery
Icons
iCalwww.blocksoft.net/iconical.html
Foldershttp://jr050680.deviantart.com/art/Pry-System-95517859
Hard Driveshttp://thvg.deviantart.com/art/Slick-Drives-95235862
Others
http://rimshotdesign.deviantart.com/art/Milkapp-26790473
http://kano89.deviantart.com/art/iPhoto-08-93032097
http://interfacelift.com/icons-mac/details.php?id=1980 (alumi icons)
Coversutra for iTunes integration – www.sophiestication.com/coversutra/

SPIDERMAC
spidermac

On this desktop, Zack made it in Lifehacker (2nd time) & Gizmodo!!!  On Flickr, Zack states that from reading what his viewers had commented on the Graffiti Desktop, viewers would rather have everything easier to read, so he came up with this idea, which is ingenious. All of the text bubbles have information such as CPU, RAM, Uptime, a To Do list, & Hard Drive. He used GeekTool along with Yahoo Widgets and a few other cool tools. See below for the goodies ;-)

Wallpaper:
www.flickr.com/photos/zackshackleton/3406234712/
Font:
Comic Book – www.dafont.com/comic-book.font
Taskbar/Finder:
Magnifique UNO-AE Themehttp://magnifique.pcwizcomputer.com/forum/filebase.php?c=2
Yahoo Widgets:
Weatherwidgets.yahoo.com/widgets/widescapeweather
Batterywidgets.yahoo.com/widgets/wdscp-battery
GeekTool Commands:
Top Processes top -FR -l2 -o cpu | grep -v 0.0% | cut -c 7-24| sed -n ‘15, $p’
Time date “+%l:%M”
AM & PM date +%p
Date Number date +%d
Month date +%B
Weekday date +%A
Calendarcal
To Do List Create a text file with TextEdit but make sure you click Format>Make Plain Text before save. Then select the file in path in GeekTool.
Uptime uptime | awk ‘{print “” $3 ” ” $4 ” ” $5 }’ | sed -e ’s/.$//g’;
RAM top -l 1 | awk ‘/PhysMem/ {print “” $8 ” “}’ ;
CPU top -l 2 | awk ‘/CPU usage/ && NR > 5 {print $12, $13}’
Hard Drive Space df -h | grep disk0s2 | awk ‘{print $4 }’
The Text Uptime, CPU, RAM, HDD Space
Another text file, remember have to Make Plain Text before saving

TIMES SQUARE DESKTOP
timessquaredesktop
Zack used a picture of Times Square, which he photoshopped to better suit his needs.
On Flickr, he stated that his favorite part of this desktop is the calendar with a twisted look as if it were on the street (all created with GeekTool). Here are the tools and information he provided on Flickr.

Wallpaper
By Michael Shanewww.flickr.com/photos/mbshane/2450094084/
Yahoo Widgets
Weather Widgetwidgets.yahoo.com/widgets/widescapeweather
Battery Widgetwidgets.yahoo.com/widgets/wdscp-battery
GeekTool
Calendar using a picture from i61.photobucket.com/albums/h52/TheAEBeachbum/April.png (when I checked this link, it did not work). Zack did not leave any other GeekTool information for this desktop. If you have any questions though, he would more than likely give a response.


INTERESTING BOOK DESKTOP
interesting books

On this desktop, Zack used GeekTool on some of the spines of the book. (CPU, RAM, Hard Drive Space, Time, Date and others hidden in the spines.) He also used some Yahoo Widgets. He didn’t give too much detail about the GeekTool user commands on this design.

Wallpaper
By OutofPrint  – www.flickr.com/photos/22309082@N07/2157407789/
Yahoo Widgets
Weather Widgetwidgets.yahoo.com/widgets/widescapeweather
Battery Widgetwidgets.yahoo.com/widgets/wdscp-battery


As you can see, there is a ton of information listed. Some of it is duplicate information but was necessary to include so that you may know what exactly was used for each design. Zack has all of his designs on Flickr and is seen in various groups. If you have any questions for Zack, you can find him on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/zackshackleton/ and he will be happy to answer any questions you may have. Sorry this was such a long article guys, I just really like the creativity that Zack has shown using several of the available tools for Mac. You can also click on the link below the article to be directed to his information. Thanks!zackshackeltonicon
-TINA

2 Comments For This Post

  1. Huy Says:

    Wow, very nice. I love you those. Just a little question, how do you implement those custom yahoo widget ?

  2. Tina Says:

    Once you install the Yahoo Widget, and you see the widget on your desktop, you can right click the widget to open up the widget preferences. It will bring you to a screen with 3 tabs on top: general, color, and window. Under the general tab, you can change the location, display name, location and time, use metric units (check box), time format, forecast tray opens (this is if you want it to slide open to the right or left of the widget when clicked), and you can use the slider to change the size of the widget. Under the color tab, you can change the icon, text, and background colors by clicking on the color box next to the text. You can also set the opacity level with the slider to your liking. You also have the option of adding a border color and set the border opacity. Under the Window tab, you can decide if you want to leave it alone (normal), keep on top of other windows, keep below all other windows, or display on desktop (under icons)…I just leave mine as normal. Once you have changed the setting to your style, you click save and then you just use your mouse (or trackpad) to move the widget to wherever you want on your desktop. I hope this helps. If anybody else has tips for Huy, leave a comment.

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