The Code Dojo

The code on this post has been updated. View here to get the latest.

In my previous post I talked about what I have been doing to my desktop the last little while. I had quite a few email or IM me asking about how the GeekTool scripts I used. Just take these scripts and copy the lines you want into the command area of a Geeklet. Most of these were written by Mac Newbold. Enjoy!

CPU Usage

top -n1 -l1 | grep "Load Avg" | sed 's/.*usage: //; s/ user.*//;'
top -n1 -l1 | grep "Load Avg" | sed 's/.*user, //; s/ sys.*//;'
top -n1 -l1 | grep "Load Avg" | sed 's/.*sys, //; s/ idle.*//;'


Memory

top -n 1 -l 1 | grep PhysMem | sed 's/.* inactive, //; s/ used.*//;'
top -n 1 -l 1 | grep PhysMem | sed 's/.* used, //; s/ free.*//;'


Month

date +%B

Date

date +%d

Day

date +%A

Time

date +%I:%M

AM / PM

date +%p

Weather

curl --silent "http://xml.weather.yahoo.com/forecastrss?p=USUT0078&u=f" | grep -E '(Current Conditions:|F<BR)' | sed -e 's/Current Conditions://' -e 's/<br \/>//' -e 's/<b>//' -e 's/<\/b>//' -e 's/<BR \/>//' -e 's/<description>//' -e 's/<\/description>//'

Look for the ‘UT0078′ here and replace it with the city code you want to display. Get the city code by going to Yahoo Weather and searching for your city. Once found look in the url and you will see your city code at the end of the url.

Weather Image

Create a new Shell Geeklet and use this as the command:

curl --silent "http://weather.yahoo.com/forecast/USUT0078.html" | grep "forecast-icon" | sed "s/.*background\:url(\'\(.*\)\')\;\ _background.*/\1/" | xargs curl --silent -o /tmp/weather1.png\

Replace the city code with your city code. ( same steps to get city code as above )

Then create a new Image Geeklet and use this as the url:

file:///tmp/weather1.png

So for a few weeks now I have been playing around with a themed desktop for my mac. I have always wanted to try something like this out just never had the guts or time. I have found that it isn’t scary at all and rather quick to get going. There are some free tools I have used and some nice things I have learned along the way.

Not having a dock at all has taken some getting used to. I use Quicksilver for just about everything now. I do have a pull down docklike thing at the top middle in case I ever need it. Here is a list of tools I have used to create my new desktop.

CandyBar – Change all the folders icons and HD icons.
Magnifique – Change the folder and App nav areas to black
GeekTool – Add time, weather, and computer status to the desktop.

GeekTool was by far the most fun. You can do much more with it than what I have done here. If you come up with something good for you I’d love to see it.