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The BeOS Tip of the Week

 

Thank you for giving the BeOS a try on your computer! In an effort to improve your experience with the BeOS, and to help you get the most out of your computer system, we're going to be providing a BeOS usage tip every week. So bookmark this page, and come back every Thursday!

 

This Week's Tip


Minipulse and the Deskbar

BeOS Release 4 adds some cool features to Pulse.

Although few readers will have BeOS Release 4 quite yet, it will be coming to you very soon now. So in anticipation, and for those of you lucky enough to already be running R4, here's a Tip that only works with BeOS Release 4.

We've been adding small features and refinements to most of the applications that ship with the BeOS. One of the apps that everyone uses at some point is Pulse, the performance meter utility, which shows how much work your computer's CPU(s) is doing.

Pulse has some cool new features in R4. If you launch Pulse from the command line with the "--help" argument, you'll get a full listing of what's available. Just type Pulse --help in Terminal.

In my mind, the coolest new feature is that Pulse's display can be a Replicant, and can reside in the Deskbar. This lets you have a performance meter which is small enough to be unobtrusive, but always on screen for you to see. Here's a look at my Deskbar when running Chart, a demo application included with BeOS Release 4 (note that I also have the Japanese input method installed, the other Deskbar icon you might not recognize):

Deskbar with Minipulse and Chart

You can create this display very simply, by typing Pulse --mini --deskbar --width 9 & in Terminal. More interesting is to add that same line to your /home/config/boot/UserBootscript file, so that the mini Pulse is started up when you boot the BeOS, automatically. Here's what your UserBootscript file would look like when you add this:

Two Lines in the UserBootscript

Hopefully this will whet your appetite for BeOS Release 4, which you should be able to play with quite a bit over your holiday vacation. I'll provide a few more Tips for R4, just to keep you entertained the whole break. ;-)

 

Recent Tips


#TitlePosted On
61.BeOS Release 4! 11/11/98
60.Using Workspaces from the Command Line 11/5/98
59.Quoting Selected Text In BeMail 10/22/98
58.Put Help At Your Fingertips 10/8/98
57.The Be Line 10/1/98
56.Mo' Better Mail 9/24/98
55.New Mail Alerts in Mail-It 9/17/98
54.Setting NetPositive's Helper Applications 9/10/98
53.The BeOS Compatibility Tester 9/3/98
52.Install Applications Anywhere! 8/27/98
51.Look Out, Your Boss is Coming! 8/20/98
50.Fix NetPositive! 8/11/98
49.The Be Team 8/6/98
48.More Fonts and More About Fonts 7/30/98
47.Expanding Expander's Horizons 7/23/98
46.BeMail Keyboard Shortcuts 7/16/98
45.The Poor Man's Web Server 7/9/98
44.Managing Add-Ons 6/25/98
43.More Open With 6/18/98
42.Open With 6/11/98
41.Searching on the BeOS 6/4/98
40.Searching the Be Web Site 5/28/98
39.Window Management on the BeOS 5/21/98
38.Fine Tune Your Screen Settings 5/14/98
37.Adding More Attributes to People 5/7/98
36.Adding Fonts to the BeOS 4/30/98
35.ZipMe, Baby! 4/23/98
34.The MIME Police 4/16/98
33.More About MIME 4/9/98
32.Tracker's Identify Command 4/2/98
31.Screen Shots in the BeOS 3/26/98
30.Right-Click Those Queries! 3/19/98
29.Learn to Program on the BeOS! 3/12/98
28.Three More Command Line Shortcuts 3/5/98
27.About BeOS Easter Eggs 2/26/98
26.Focus Follows Mouse 2/20/98
25.More Tips! 2/15/98
24.BeMail Signatures 2/5/98
23.BeMail's Secret Menu 1/29/98
22.Three Useful Command Line Shortcuts 1/22/98
21.Time Is Relative 1/15/98
20.Finding Today's Mail 1/8/98
19.The Nefarious Baron Owns Your Files! 1/1/98

 

Archived Tips


Tip of the Week Archives -- 1997

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