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Aug 29 2009

A Moment In Stats: iStat Menus and Snow Leopard Shoot Skyward

Category: about me,community building,lifestreaming,social media,tech opinion — jmacofearth @ 1:39 pm

Update: iStat Menus 2.0 is now available. Download.

The other night something very odd happened with the online statistics on uber.la and I wanted to write a post about it, but I couldn't figure it out. And yesterday a big traffic spike happened again, but this time I had some insights to share and muse on. Cause if we could MAKE this stuff happen we'd do it all the time.

A hint of iStat Menus Link Love

While I was working online my ONLINE USER traffic suddenly spiked to over 250. That was 250 people online at one time. A bit of sleuthing of the IP addresses showed something in Asia was taking a liking to my blog. And rather than spidering nicely it was hammering my pages. And then it was done.

I tried to look at my Google Analytics logs and see if I could make sense of what had happened, but I could not find the trigger.

And then yesterday with the release of Snow Leopard I had another breakthrough moment, this time with some data to back up what was happening. Here is a quick stat image from my last seven days of traffic.

Obviously people are interested in Snow Leopard, but the combo of iStat Menus and Snow Leopard was an instant hit. I know it was one of the first issues I ran into as I waded into the Snow Leopard upgrade. Well, obviously a lot of other folks were having the same questions and problems.

And a minute ago my search savvy wife said, what's your SERP look like for that? (SERP = Search Engine Results Page)

istat menu, snow leopard review, google stats, SERP

So as a result of being at the right SERP at the right time, my iStat Menu review was at #3 and my Snow Leopard review were at #4 on Google for "istat menus snow leopard." And while I sit here looking at the 15 – 20 people online at time, rather than 3 – 5, I wish there was some way to reach out to them. And say, "hey, thanks for stopping by, stick around, check out a different post, see over here is my RSS feed, and my Twitter link and hey, can I interest you in commenting, I've got this cool Disqus system in place…" [Actually, that's exactly what this post is. A "Hello to you istat menu fans!" Now I just have to figure out how to rewrite this review again everyday until the iStat menu buzz is over.]

Rather, I'll write about the cool moment and how I am becoming more and more addicted to my own internal statistics reports. [Man, I've got to get out more!]

Well, here's for looking out for another home run. Maybe there's a science to it, or something. ;-)

@jmacofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/istat-stats

The WordPress plug-in Wassup provides the realtime online stats. It's cool to see it happening. And WP User Online also has great realtime stats.

I've asked the iSlayer / Bjango team to allow me to give out the beta link but I have not heard back from them. So at this point you will need to contact them directly to obtain the software.H

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Aug 29 2009

iStat Menus Now Running with Snow Leopard: Everything You Need to Know and More

Category: tech opinion,tech reviews — jmacofearth @ 7:00 am

Update 3-2-09: iStat Menus 2.0 is now available. Download.

Update 8-29-09: iStat Menus is a hot button for Snow Leopard. With yesterday's release of Snow Leopard, it wasn't my review that was getting link love it was my iStat Menus update. While I am not sure of iSlayer or BJangos beta policy, I am running v.111 with Snow Leopard and it's working like a champ. The link above will get you to the beta program.

+++

One of my major disappointments when upgrading to Snow Leopard a week ago was the loss of iStat Menus. Yesterday, after writing an email to Bjango about my anticipation of their update, I promptly got an invite to their beta program and a link to download the Snow Leopard-ready version. I did just that and have been back in business with all the stats at my eye-tips and finger-clicks that I care to peruse.

So in honor of Bjango's rapid response and pre-Snow Leopard beta testing program, I thought I would give a little show of what makes iStat Pro so essential.

My iStat Menus modules in Snow Leopard

You can configure iStat Menus to your heart's content, and what you see above is my layout.

1. The Calendar icon: shows current date – I can't tell you how many times a day I look for this. I had to add the info back to my clock until iStat was back on duty. One click on the icon reveals a navigable monthly calendar and a single click will open iCal if you actually need to schedule something. This has got to be the simplest feature and the one that I bemoaned the most while I was without.

2. Fan/Temp: I guess my MBP is running cool tonight. I like the temperature at a glance. It's not like I need to know HOW hot it is when my palms are aching from the heat, but it's a good warning when the temperature rises above 150 degrees that I need to do something different. With all the information about how heat affects battery life, knowing the status of your internal core temperature is fairly important. One click and I can see all the temperature points and measurements as well as the fan speed as my machine struggles to cool itself.

iStat Pro, temperature readings, snow leopard review

iStat temperatures

3. I/O Speeds. This is a numeric and graphic readout on how fast my network is transferring data. I am using the stacked view, there are four other graphing options.

4. CPU Usage. This one shows both my COREs. And as you can see the computing power of the Core 2 Duo is well over what I need to be writing in WordPress. There are multiple display varieties for this as well. Beside the display graph is the percentage of utilization. The only time I see the processors maxed out is when I am doing heavy audio or video editing.

5. Free Ram. This final graphic shows me the usage of my available ram both in a pie chart and a free available ram percentage.

There are more options but I use a bare minimum. I was lost without these little touchstones. Some how they give me the feeling that I understand my computer performance and usage patterns better if I am dynamically aware of the feedback from iStat Menus. I don't know if there is anything like this for Windows, but with a laptop so dependent on battery life, heat and performance a little tool like iStat Menus part of my critical path.