This is a web-based utility which accesses various information and displays it in a compact window on the screen. It is intended as a way to constantly show useful information which can be seen at a single glance, and uses very little screen real estate.

The information changes depending on what I might need, but includes weather, aurora forecasts, the state of the computer (free memory, CPU load, public IP address, etc), the status of my servers (checks that web sites, etc are running), and a lot of other stuff.

Some of the data is generated through shell scripts triggered through PHP and the remote data (weather, etc) comes from automatically downloaded web pages (using curl, mainly) followed by some complicated string processing to extract the information I want.

The importance of the data is indicated using variations in font style and colour, so if the CPU gets too hot (which it never does any more since I got an Apple Silicon Mac) the temperature will be displayed in bold red and flashing, which is usually enough to attract my attention!

I am currently (2026) not using this system because I am trying to get the information I need in various "widgets" in the menu bar instead, but I might get back to it in future if I decide to go with the "summary window" approach again.

I usually write a blog post about once a week. The latest post can be viewed here: Think for Yourself: In the end, everything is just an opinion. Be skeptical, and think for yourself! (posted 2026-04-25 at 21:12:02). Or go to the Home Page of My Blog to choose a post to view.

I do podcasts too! You can listen to my latest podcast, here: OJB's Podcast 2026-04-25 Think For Yourself: In the end, everything is just an opinion. Be skeptical, and think for yourself! Or subscribe to my podcast RSS feed, on my RSS Feeds page.

If you're not sure what to view from the thousands of pages on my site, here are some suggestions: My Latest Airshow Report (photos and movies from Warbirds Over Wanaka, 2026), My Favourite Wines and Beers (tasting notes for some of my favourites), An Interesting Astronomical Observation (learn a bit about astronomy from these observing notes), See Some Photos (A short rail journey through the Taieri Gorge), Read Some Mac Tips (Learn about how to use your Mac, and fix some problems).

Latest Site News and Notifications (Desktop): You are currently viewing OJB's web site, version 2.4 which has some major changes, and possibly errors! Please report any problems to ojb@mac.com.