GeekTool

GeekTool is a System Preferences pane for Mac OS X that allows the user to make an arbitrary number of customizable windows overlaying the Desktop, showing logs and other text files, results of CLI commands, or images (e.g. from webcams).

Users have experimented using GeekTool in conjunction with other programs to facilitate GTD project+action tracking. For a good example, see the article on VoodooPad.

It’s made by Tynsoe Projects and is available for free download on its project page.

I used GeekTool in making my mini-monitor and iTunes_monitor.

GeekTool unfortunately suffered from a Tiger-related bug and was not usable. The developer refused to update it, and so GeekTool fell by the wayside for Tiger users for a while.

To the rescue came JAW software, updating the software in an unofficial branch and removing the offending function that was causing the problem, as well as fixing other bugs. The JAW build is available from their OS X miscellanea page.