Dashboard Widgets

Post by **saturn** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 8:39 am

They really hoard memory in Tiger. I have the weather, Wikipedia, Dictionary, Translation widgets and they use 40 megs or Ram each!

I use them a lot, but I can notice after using my mac for a while that it's slowing down the system. I have 768 mb Ram btw.

There's no way to force quit the Dashboard from time to time?

Post by **bag0shite** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 12:25 pm

DO you need them open all the time? If not I'd suggest closing them (or at least closing the leaset used ones) if memory use is a concern, or at least regretting not having bought a 1g stick for that 12"... Just a pity 1g SODIMMs are so expensive outside the US :/

Post by **codey-** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 1:44 pm

Haven't I told ya already that Versiontracker is your friend? :icon25:

I went there, search for Dashboard and from the first page list I saw these two:

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/26692

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/26899

(There might be more and I don't use Tiger yet meself so no idea how well these work)

cheers

Post by **saturn** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 2:33 pm

bag0shite wrote:DO you need them open all the time? If not I'd suggest closing them (or at least closing the leaset used ones) if memory use is a concern, or at least regretting not having bought a 1g stick for that 12"... Just a pity 1g SODIMMs are so expensive outside the US :/

Most of them come in handy while surfing the internet. It's just when they're fired up, they stay open till you put the powerbook to sleep. And they leak memory.

getting another 256 mb would have set me back 200 euro's extra so, neh.

Post by **saturn** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 2:36 pm

codey- wrote:Haven't I told ya already that Versiontracker is your friend? :icon25:

I went there, search for Dashboard and from the first page list I saw these two:

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/26692

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/26899

(There might be more and I don't use Tiger yet meself so no idea how well these work)

cheers

I check versiontracker a lot

It's a nice widget manager, just for removing or disabling widgets from the list. But the activated widgets still hog memory ;p

Tiger is working fine, except from some quirks from time to time. I've used Shapeshifter to get rid of all that brushed metal, and it's all Panther Aqua again.

Post by **saturn** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 2:52 pm

oops, there's a Reload Dashboard option. My bad!

Post by **bag0shite** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 5:07 pm

I'd avoid shapeshifter too since there's a slight hit with that plus none of the themes (IMO) look any better than the default aqua look. And AFAIK all of the themes have some fault/quirk, nevermind the fact they need updating when Apple *fix* things through software updates.

The only customising i find essential is taking that god-awful background off the dock and being able to pin the dock anywhere other than dead centre on the left/right/bottom.

Post by **4g3nt_Smith** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 7:09 pm

I used Shapeshifter for awhile after getting Tiger, mainly since I bought it and felt like I needed to get my money's worth. Then I realized I was switching themes every 2 days, because none of them were as perfect as Aqua; they all missed skinning some things, or just broke entire UI styles. Back to Aqua, paired with cleardock and Candybar.

Post by **saturn** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 7:24 pm

I have Shapeshifter with Aqua, though the XiDG_Albook theme+icons is very good. Also Cleardock idd, Candybar and Pixadex for all those icons I've downloaded. Deskshade for easy wallpaper changes.

i'll just post a screenshot I guess :>

Post by **saturn** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 7:30 pm

[lvlshot]http://www.xs4all.nl/~divid/images/powerbookdesktop1.jpg[/lvlshot]

Post by **Geebs** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 7:32 pm

I hadn't noticed the memory hit, but then again I have 2 gigs of RAM.

Dashboard widgets are supposed to put themselves to sleep when you're not using them; and "top" seems to agree with that.

Post by **SplishSplash** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 8:13 pm

40 megs?

Excuse me? I thought they were supposed to have a "smaller footprint than a full-grown application" or somesuch? Ugh.

Post by **bag0shite** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 8:26 pm

saturn wrote:[lvlshot]http://www.xs4all.nl/~divid/images/powerbookdesktop1.jpg[/lvlshot]

Well if you like that, fair enough

Plain fucking ugly if you ask me...

[lvlshot]http://www.gfxdesign.eclipse.co.uk/may0805.jpg[/lvlshot]

And yes, 'top' does confirm geeb's comment.

Post by **saturn** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 10:08 pm

taste differs, cause yours is just plain....boring.

wtf is 'top'?

Post by **saturn** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 10:09 pm

SplishSplash wrote:40 megs?

Excuse me? I thought they were supposed to have a "smaller footprint than a full-grown application" or somesuch? Ugh.

do you even have a mac SS, you do seem to comment a lot on Mac systems all the time

Post by **Geebs** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 12:47 am

top(1) top(1)

NAME
top - display and update sorted information about processes

SYNOPSIS
top [-a | -d | -e | -c <mode>]
[-F | -f]
[-h]
[-k]
[-L | -l <samples>]
[-o <key>] [-O <skey>]
[-R | -r]
[-S]
[-s <delay>]
[-T | -t]
[-U <user>]
[-u]
[-W | -w]
[-X | -x]
[[-n] <nprocs>]

DESCRIPTION
The top program periodically displays a list of processes on the system
in sorted order. The default key for sorting is pid, but other keys
can be used instead. Various output options are available.

OPTIONS
Command line option specifications are processed from left to right.
Options can be specified more than once. If conflicting options are
specified, later specifications override earlier ones. This makes it
viable to create a shell alias for top with preferred defaults speci-
fied, then override those preferred defaults as desired on the command
line.

-a Deprecated, equivalent to -ca.

-c <mode>
Set event counting mode to <mode>. The supported modes are:

a Accumulative mode. Count events cumulatively, starting
at the launch of top. Calculate CPU usage and CPU time
since the launch of top.

d Delta mode. Count events relative to the previous sam-
ple. Calculate CPU usage since the previous sample.

e Absolute mode. Count events using absolute counters.

n Non-event mode (default). Calculate CPU usage since the
previous sample.

-d Deprecated, equivalent to -cd.

-e Deprecated, equivalent to -ce.

-F Do not calculate statistics on shared libraries, also known as
frameworks. This substantially reduces the amount of processor
time top consumes.

-f Calculate statistics on shared libraries, also known as frame-
works (default).

-h Print command line usage information and exit.

-k Deprecated (does nothing). This flag used to turn on memory ob-
ject reporting for process 0 (kernel_task), but this is now done
by default.

That's "top". It's a process viewer for nerds.

Post by **codey-** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 10:07 am

saturn wrote:[lvlshot]http://www.xs4all.nl/~divid/images/powerbookdesktop1.jpg[/lvlshot]

Hmmm ... that looks like the girl I dated last week.

Top is fine for nerds but for us muppets that know shite bout such stuff there's always the Activity Monitor app in the Utilities folder (unless it's removed in Tiger)

cheers

Post by **SplishSplash** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 6:28 pm

saturn wrote:
SplishSplash wrote:40 megs?

Excuse me? I thought they were supposed to have a "smaller footprint than a full-grown application" or somesuch? Ugh.
do you even have a mac SS, you do seem to comment a lot on Mac systems all the time

Nah, I just follow the news. I like macs.

Post by **Dave** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 9:42 pm

Now that saturn has a mac, he's getting uppity and snobish

Post by **NCG_Mike** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 10:18 pm

lol... we're elitists. I figured you'd have guessed that ;-D

Post by **Dave** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 11:37 pm

Don't have to tell me.. I have three macs

Post by **NCG_Mike** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 11:53 pm

hehe... I've just got the two (but I have three Windows systems!)

Post by **NCG_Mike** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 11:58 pm

codey- wrote:
saturn wrote:[lvlshot]http://www.xs4all.nl/~divid/images/powerbookdesktop1.jpg[/lvlshot]
Hmmm ... that looks like the girl I dated last week.

Top is fine for nerds but for us muppets that know shite bout such stuff there's always the Activity Monitor app in the Utilities folder (unless it's removed in Tiger)

cheers

Since Saturn seems to be in Holland and I'm just over the border in Belgaland, I have to say she looks like a girl I met tonight, except the picture has her wearing underwear

Post by **Dave** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 1:10 am

I only have two windows systems, but i have 3 CRTs on my desktop

Post by **saturn** » Tue Jun 14, 2005 8:17 pm

Top sounds a bit too complicated and nerdish for me. I have this iPulse app that is a bit over the top with dynamic viewings of your mem, disk, wifi, battery use. And you can also use it as clock. When you hover above a certain area it shows you more information:

[lvlshot]http://www.xs4all.nl/~divid/images/powerbookdesktop2.jpg[/lvlshot]

Btw, the App Monitor doesn't work. It loads and closes again. Weird.