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The former iteration of Newer Technology used to offer a very cool little freeware utility called GuagePro, that among other things kept tabs on your computer's internal temperature. Alas, GuagePro is no longer available (although it may be archived on Websites somewhere), and in any case there was never an OS X version. However, with newer, faster CPU and video chips running much hotter these days, an internal temperature monitor is more useful than ever. Temperature Monitor is a new Mac OS X application that displays the current processor temperature of selected Macintosh computers. Unfortunately, it will only work on hardware equipped with temperature sensors, and quite a few of current and recent Mac models don't have them. 
I tried Temperature Monitor on my 500 MHz Pismo PowerBook (on which GuagePro has always worked fine), and my 700 MHz “Opaque” iBook (on which GuagePro doesn’t work). The pattern was repeated with Temperature Monitor, which worked perfectly on the Pismo, but with the iBook I got this dialog: 
It would appear that IBM did not include a temperature sensor on the PPC 750fx chip.
If your machine is supported, the temperature can be displayed in a variety of formats and styles, selectable by the user. You can choose between one or more of the following options:
• display in a history graph that shows measurements in a selectable time interval • talking thermometer that will speak the current value whenever the temperature changes • ASCII output, usable at the Terminal command line or in any script language supported by Mac OS X 
Temperature Monitor supports the following units to display its values:
Supported Hardware:
The following Macintosh models are definitely supported by Temperature Monitor:
The following models are definitely not supported and can never be supported by Temperature Monitor:
The following models are expected to work with Temperature Monitor but have not been tested on this hardware yet:
The state of the following models is currently unknown:
Well, I can confirm that it does work with the PowerBook G3 (FireWire), and that it definitely doesn’t with the iBook (Opaque 16 VRAM). You can help the developer updating this list. If your computer is in the categories "expected to work" or "currently unknown" and you see that Temperature Monitor is running / not running on your system, please submit your results via this web form. Based on this data, we can move your computer model to the "definitely supported" or "definitely not supported" categories. 
Temperature Monitor is freeware
System requirements:
For more information, visit:
Unhiding the Desktop Re: Unburying The Desktop OS X Odyssey 348 - Unburying The Desktop From John Hollinger Here is an another way to get to your desktop with out closing other windows. Just drag the Desktop folder from your Home folder to the right side of the dock. Ta da, you now have your desktop at the ready. To use you can 1) just click on it and it pops a window. 2) click and hold on the icon and it will send up a hierarchal menu for you to dig through. 3) control click the dock icon to get a hierarchal menu, and 4) if you have a multi-button mouse or other input device you can right click on the desktop dock icon for more hierarchal fun. Hope all this helps. Thanks for all the columns in Applelinks. John Hollinger
Thanks, John, and you’re welcome. :-)
Charles From Tom Wilcox Dear Charles, With regard to easy desktop access, I simply dragged the Desktop folder in my Home directory to the Dock (the side one can park documents on). Since the desktop is really just another directory, this places a desktop icon on the dock that when clicked on brings up a finder window with all the stuff on your desktop. I set up that window to show as a single column, giving me a scrollable list of stuff on my desktop. Also like any folder in the dock, you can cntrl-click on the icon to bring up a hierarchical menu of the stuff on your desktop. Perhaps you have already tried this. If so, I apologize for adding to your e-mail burden! Cheers, Tom
Not a burden at all, Tom. As you can see, great minds think alike. Thanks.
Charles
From J R Staal Interesting article, but I use a very simple way to access the Desktop. I went to Users>(me)>Desktop to open the Desktop file. I minimized this into the Dock. Now all I have to do is click on the item and an image of the Desktop appears on top of the rest of the mess that I have open. Regards, James R (CoachJR) Staal
Thanks, J.R.
I’ve got the message. It works great. ;-)
Charles
OS X Odyssey 348 - Unburying The Desktop From Dr. Jonathan Tyzack Hi Charles, another and very simple way of having "always on" access to your Desktop is to stick its folder in the Dock (drag and drop it from a Finder window showing your home directory). That way, you don't have to hide a single app or window to be able to open a file that is there. Btw, the likely culprit in your iBook freezes is the window server process, which will unfortunately cause OS X to seemingly "freeze" if it crashes (other processes are likely still running fine - you just have no way of accessing them). There is a freeware app by Ambrosia called escapepod that you might want to look into - from its blurb:
escapepod is a little application that lets you terminate the frontmost application by hitting Control-Alt-Delete, terminate the Dock by hitting Shift-Control-Alt-Delete, or do a force-logout by hitting Command-Control-Alt-Delete.
escapepod is free; if you have any questions or comments about it, please feel free to contact me at:
Andrew Welch <andrew@AmbrosiaSW.com>
WARNING: this is developmental software; use it at your own risk. While it performs as advertised on the machines I have tested it on, I make no warranty about how it will operate on yours.
Why would I want it?
There are times that Mac OS X appears to be hung (especially in some games) when it really isn't -- just the frontmost application's GUI is wedged. The Dock also occasionally stops responding under some circumstances, which can be cured by terminating it. Additionally, when the entire GUI appears to be hung, it is safer to do a force-logout than to simply reboot your machine (and it is quicker, too).
Thus, escapepod was created. Don't know if it will help, but it might be worth a shot. The alternative is for you to SSH into your iBook from another networked Mac and kill the window server from there (I'm fairly sure MacOS X Hints will tell you how to do this). It is somewhat unfortunate that command-option-escape doesn't force the "Force Quit" to come to the front under such circumstances... Cheers, Jonathan
Hi Jonathan;
Thanks for the info.
I’m wondering how one would access EscapePod when the cursor disappears refuses to respond.
Charles
The OS X Odyssey archives may be accessed here: Note: Letters to Moore's Mailbag may or may not be published at the editor's discretion. Correspondents' email addresses will NOT be published unless the correspondent specifically requests publication. Letters may be edited for length and/or context. Opinions expressed in postings to Moore's MailBag are those of the respective correspondents and not necessarily shared or endorsed by the Editor and/or Applelinks management. If you would prefer that your message not appear in Moore's Mailbag, we would still like to hear from you. Just clearly mark your message "NOT FOR PUBLICATION," and it will not be published. CM
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