CPU

Apr 27 2009

System Stats at a Glance

menumeters System Stats at a Glance

Have you wondered what your CPU usage is? Have wondered if that installer is doing anything at all, or if it’s stuck? Is it too difficult to open Activity Monitor? Well, never fear. You can keep all vital system stats at a glance with Raging Menace’s freeware champion, MenuMeters. MenuMeters allows you to keep track of your CPU, disk, memory, and network usage via your menu bar. The output of these statistics is widely customizable (Personally, I prefer to use “Graph and Percentage” for the CPU Meter and “Arrows” for the Net Meter). You can also click on the stats output at any time to view a more complete drop-down list of stats and links to applications which will help you further investigate and/or control the device(s) you are monitoring.

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Apr 27 2009

Aqua GUI for Unix Commands

A powerful Unix underbelly is part of what makes OS X the world’s most advanced operating system. But, some of that power goes unused – hidden away in cryptic backend commands.

Even if the backend commands aren’t difficult to learn, most Mac users simply don’t make a habit of firing up Terminal on a regular basis.

Thankfully, the freeware community has stepped up with quick, easy applications that give a face to the Unix utilities they control.

Process Wizard

processwizard Aqua GUI for Unix Commands

Unix has a cool program called renice that can tell the system how many CPU cycles to dedicate to a running application (try doing that in Windows). There are several Aqua wrappers for this command. Process Wizard lives in the menu bar, and once fired up lets you graphically allocate CPU priority to running applications, hidden applications and even processes running on your Mac. The Wizard is perfect for on-the-fly CPU allocation. Other renice utilities include BeNicer and Carl’s Renice Scripts.

MainMenu

OS X is kept tidy by maintenance routines scheduled behind the scenes. If you miss a scheduled task because your Mac was off, you can run these tasks manually. MainMeni makes this easy by putting an icon on your menubar that gives you quick access to these tasks.

MainMenu also includes some other handy chores built-in to an easy to use interface, and is a must for quick Mac maintenance.

Man Handler

manhandler Aqua GUI for Unix Commands

If you’ve wandered into unfamiliar territory in Terminal before, you might be familiar with the man command. This Unix program digs up documentation on a Unix program. These ‘man pages’ can be a lifesaver when using a cryptic command line utility. Unfortunately, man is itself a bit of a cryptic command line utility.

So Man Handler comes to save the day. This Aqua app browses man pages for all your favorite obscure Unix applications from an easy desktop interface. It also allows you to save out man pages to text for easy reading or emailing.

ChronniX

Unix keeps things moving by scheduling tasks behind the scenes. It does this with a scheduling process called cron. CronniX is an Aqua app that lets you add your own tasks to cron. You can set up repeating schedules to execute Unix commands, AppleScripts and even launch applications.

File Compare

filecompare Aqua GUI for Unix Commands

Ever seen the MD5 hashes on your favorite Open Source download site? MD5 is a method unix uses to compare files to verify them as identical. File Compare provides you with a GUI to browse for two files and compare them. File Compare will let you know if you have duplicates or not.

As you can see, the command line holds some pretty powerful utilities most of us never use, but anyone could find useful. Thanks to our great programming community, they are just a few clicks away.

Brian

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Jun 5 2008

TubeStick hybrid from equinux

Fast processors have allowed PVR makers to shift video crunching back to the CPU. Digital television signals have made it even easier to crutch quality TV on your Mac. The result? Tiny TV receivers with HD power.

The TubeStick, paired with its software sidekick The Tube adds flexible and powerful video capabilities to your Mac. Hybrid decoding means you’ll be able to record video from digital cable, digital over-the-air (including HD) and analog cable and broadcast. There’s an adapter for recording S-Video and RCA video too.

tubestick1 TubeStick hybrid from equinux

Hardware

The TubeStick has a build one cut above a USB flash drive, which sounds bad but is pretty typical for this product segment. They are all made of plastic. The unit heats up during use, which the manual says is normal. The included antenna does very well, and has a conveniently magnetic base.

tubestick5 TubeStick hybrid from equinux

The hardware isn’t where these adapter’s shine, though the TubeStick is very Apple-white and is generously equipt with adapters and cords. With the Elgato Hybrid roughly the same size and form factor, the software is the real differentiating factor.

Software

First, a complaint. The Tube installs with a trial version of MediaCentral. The application sounds interesting – pulling in online media with your own, managing them in one place. What annoyed me is that there is no way to opt out of the install. To ad insult to injury, the installer adds this demoware to your dock. That’s personal space.

The application (The Tube) itself has a cool interface, and is pretty easy to use. Recording TV, scheduling recordings and managing recorded clips is easy. The dark look has a very Front Row feel. it also has all the major features – nice on screen display, full-screen, a sometimes-automatic programming guide and Closed Captioning.

I was impressed with a few of the unexpected features. The Tube exports clips to all of your favorite Apple portable devices and syncs with iTunes, but it also allows you to export clips to a web-based TubeToGo account for remote access and sharing. You can stash your recordings on .Mac or an FTP server and access them from your iPhone (or touch). You can also schedule recordings from your iPhone or iPod touch.

tubestick2 TubeStick hybrid from equinux

The other new and unexpected feature didn’t blow me away personally, but others will find it cool: integrated chat. TubeTalk allows you to chart with other The Tube users watching the same show. The social integration doesn’t stop there: rankings help you chose programs popular with other viewers and of course, your buddies. You can even ‘watch together’ with your buddies, even changing channels in sync.

What’s missing? I didn’t like the programming guide as much as Elgato’s TitanTV. TitanTV is much more visual. Also, missing is an easy way to edit out commercials. To edit you have to export your recordings to iMovie.

Conclusions

Going up against a very mature and very Mac-centric EyeTV is tough, but The Tube makes up for some software shortcomings with unique and very Web 2.0 features like online clip sharing and buddy integration.

The TubeStick is as flexible as it gets when it comes to inputs. If the software shortcomings don’t bug you, you’ll dig this easy TV receiver. You’ll need an Intel or G5 Mac and a hundred-some bucks.

Pick up the TubeStick at Amazon with free shipping.

Brian

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