![]() The static title on this was more troublesome that expected but with a little toying around I found that linking to a plain text file from Nerdtool was the most effective method. Once that was complete it was just a matter of serving the files locally, linking to the HTML file with Nerdtool, setting the refresh rate, and adjusting the window transparency to match that of the date/time stamp. CalendarView seemed like the perfect candidate for attaining my goal, so I set my skills to reworking the CSS and removing some of its dynamic functions from the Javascript file. Now it was just a matter of locating a configurable web based calendar that had the the right feature set for my needs. What next? I almost gave up on this one and used the GeekTool method, but then I stumbled across Nerdtool - and found something attractive in its feature set: it can display web content. Both of the above are solid, high-quality apps and are definitely recommended if you have the need to run several Widgets on your desktop. There are however, third party apps, Amensty Singles and Amnesty Widget Browser, that can do the heavy lifting and display Widgets at the desktop level in exchange for a little of your folding money. One big problem with this method: the Widget hovers over the top of all other application windows, not really conducive for prolonged use. The next idea was to run the iCal Dashboard Widget on the desktop using a well known developer’s workflow and some making some alterations to its CSS code to make it fit my style of choice. Not very stylish and colorizing the various parts proved to be too much of a challenge for my abilities. I started with a GeekTool calendar but was discouraged with having to use a fixed width font. This was, by far, the most challenging section to nail down. The font is Archer Bold, colors were borrowed from the iCal Dashboard Widget. All, with the exception of the background, are terminal based commands set to refresh at regular intervals. ‘Day’, ‘Date’, ‘Time’, ‘am/pm’, and the transparent background are individual code snippets arranged as a cohesive unit. Let’s break this down by section by section… Date and Time StampĮverything in this part is powered by GeekTool. While there are other methods of attaining a similar arrangement, these items, in tandem, provided the best features for my needs and sense of style. Here’s a screenshot showcasing the results of my efforts: a combination of elements assembled from GeekTool 3.0, Nerdtool 0.8, and CalendarView 1.2. Not a huge bother in the overall scheme of things and perhaps not an insurmountable problem, but I went with the thought of trying some alternative ideas since that was the one and only widget I had in place. The trade-off was my embedded desktop calendar served up by Yahoo!® Widgets didn’t move from one space to another. The plus side of this arrangement allowed me retire an ancient, bulky monitor and keyboard from my workspace less clutter makes Scott a Happy Boy™. You can find out more about the parameters for the date function in the man pages for date (in the terminal enter ‘man date’ or visit one of the online man pages for ‘date’.I recently started using Spaces on my iMac at the day job to create a dedicated environment for accessing my Windows systems via Microsoft Remote Desktop. To create the clock, follow the same sequence, except use this script: date +%I:%M. You can set the update interval to something relatively long. One thing to note is that you will want to use a monospace such as Monaco so that the dates in your calendar will align properly. Enter this script into the text area under the command tab: cal | sed “s/^/ / s/$/ / s/ $(date +%e) / $(date +%e | sed ‘s/./#/g’) /”. Follow the documentation to create a new entry and locate it where you want on your desktop. Once you have installed GeekTool, open System Preferences and click on the GeekTool icon. To create this clock and calendar combo, you will need GeekTool and a couple of shell scripts. However, Bill Israel’s entry had just what I needed. While Mike’s entry was intriguing, all that information was a little over the top. A number of desktops made extensive use of GeekTool such as this entry from Mike Harris. Recently, over on the excellent blog, there was a post showing off some tricked out Mac desktops. I don’t want to have to bring up Outlook or even iCal just to see what the date is. While I use Mail as my email client, because there is no integration with Exchange and iCal, I use Outlook for calendaring. Since I can *never* remember the date, I frequently need to be able to glance at a calendar. One thing that has been missing from the Mac OS is a readily accessible calendar. ![]()
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