Widgets question/observation (Konfabulator)

meeces · April 22, 2004 2:40PM

Just wondering if anyone has noticed how much, if at all their widgets software runs up the temp. on their powerbook/computer. I love them but they are just enough that the fan is almost contantly running. Quitting the program keeps the temp around 118, with them on(I usually run 3 or 4 of them) 122-123 is pretty normal, right above where the fan kicks on, which is usually 120-121. I even leave my screen brightness down a bit.

defiant · April 22, 2004 2:43PM

What kind of widgets do you talk about? Menu items in your menu bar or widgets from Konfabulator?

And btw, screen brightness has no effect on your CPU temperature.

meeces · April 22, 2004 4:28PM

Talking about Konfabulator, should have been more precise. As for screen, I thought maybe lower brightness means less work for computer. It sounds really stupid as I type it now. Although I know at lowest setting I have seen an affect when the screen is mostly black on lowest setting. That's how I got my battery to last 5 1/2 hours while playing iTunes in the car anyway.

ghost_user_name · April 22, 2004 4:49PM

The heat is coming from the extra CPU usage. Some of those Konfabulator widgets may be eating up a lot more compute cycles. Frankly, it doesn't surprise me.

Lowering the brightness won't affect temperature much because you're simply dimming the light that is behind the screen. That'll give you extra battery life just like turning off lights and appliances in your house will lower your electric bill, but it has nothing to do with the CPU itself.

Try this:

Open Terminal (in the Utilities folder) without Konfabulator running and enter the command "top -du" (without the quotes). At the top by CPU usage, take note of the percentage for idle.

Now, start up Konfabulator. With all of your widgets running, switch back to the Terminal. By how much did the idle percentage drop?

mmmpie · April 22, 2004 10:06PM

Theres a konf. widget that will show you how much cpu your other widgets are using.

Konf uses a lot of cpu because the widgets are written in javascript, and often have quite a lot of graphical candy. I found it to be too intensive to use on an ibbok 600.

ipodandimac · April 23, 2004 9:48AM

Oh I HATE Widgets. One of my pet peeves with Windows is how unorganized the desktop is, and Widgets do nothing but create chaos on my otherwise perfectly clean desktop. The layout of each one is very unique, and I'm about being organized and having a clean look to everything. Widgets are very "clunky" too. I haven't found one that I prefer to use over going to a website or opening up a program like iCal.

mmmpie · April 23, 2004 9:58PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ipodandimac

Oh I HATE Widgets. One of my pet peeves with Windows is how unorganized the desktop is, and Widgets do nothing but create chaos on my otherwise perfectly clean desktop. The layout of each one is very unique, and I'm about being organized and having a clean look to everything. Widgets are very "clunky" too. I haven't found one that I prefer to use over going to a website or opening up a program like iCal.

I agree, and I hate having these little windows that are either in the way, or out of sight, never quite where you need them.

What I do with konfabulator is have widgets that are set to desktop level, so they are below everything. I choose ones that have nice bevels so they look like they are part of the desktop. Then I use widgets that are non interactive, and provide handy information that isnt elsewhere.

Namely, a website monitor, there is a little date tab that sits under your clock, thats about it. Works really nicely with expose now.

moogs · April 24, 2004 10:54AM

Some are more useful than others. I like the "mini" versions of the weather widget and to-do list. If you float them right and make them semi-transparent, they never get in the way of real work.

Widgets question/observation (Konfabulator)

Comments