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
On 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 |  |
| Searfont | http://www.dafont.com/search.php?psize=m&q=searfont |
| Month 48pt |  |
| Vandalism | http://www.dafont.com/search.php?psize=m&q=vandalism |
| Weekday 36pt RAM Text 24pt |  |
| Garage Shock (Condensed) | http://www.dafont.com/search.php?psize=m&q=garage+shock |
| Calander 17pt |  |
| Turntablz Bold | http://www.dafont.com/search.php?psize=m&q=turntablz |
| To Do List 14pt Uptime 13pt Top Processes 12pt |  |
| Graffiti Treat | http://www.dafont.com/search.php?psize=m&q=graffiti+treat |
| RAM 24pt CPU 24pt AM & PM 36pt |  |
| Graffonti 3D Drop | http://www.dafont.com/search.php?psize=m&q=graffonti |
| CPU Text 24pt |  |
| 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 |
| Calendar | cal |
| 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 Widget | widgets.yahoo.com/widgets/widescapeweather |
| Battery Widget | widgets.yahoo.com/widgets/wdscp-battery |
| Icons | |
| iCal | www.blocksoft.net/iconical.html |
| Folders | http://jr050680.deviantart.com/art/Pry-System-95517859 |
| Hard Drives | http://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
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 Theme – http://magnifique.pcwizcomputer.com/forum/filebase.php?c=2 | |
| Yahoo Widgets: | |
| Weather | widgets.yahoo.com/widgets/widescapeweather |
| Battery | widgets.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 |
| Calendar | cal |
| 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
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 Shane – www.flickr.com/photos/mbshane/2450094084/ | |
| Yahoo Widgets | |
| Weather Widget | widgets.yahoo.com/widgets/widescapeweather |
| Battery Widget | widgets.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
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 Widget | widgets.yahoo.com/widgets/widescapeweather |
| Battery Widget | widgets.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!
-TINA
