Reduce Konfabulator widgets' CPU usage

Nov 18, '04 10:03:00AM

Contributed by: TigerKR

I love the cool application Konfabulator, but sometimes I think that its widgets eat too much of my CPU. In thinking about how to solve this dilemma, I started to think about whether or not I really need interface items that update every second. I also use MenuMeters, and I decided that once a second updates was too often for that.

The reality is that if I was watching the widgets / meters / interface-elements all the time, every second, then I would want them to update every second. Otherwise, I asked myself, is it really critical to have something update every second that I only look at once every 5 minutes?

So, I decided that I was wasting CPU I wanted to have available for RealWork™, and for noble causes, by having every interface element update every second. I decided that an update every five seconds should strike a nice balance between accuracy and CPU load. It was easy to fix in MenuMeters, as there's a slider to set update intervals. However, not every Konfabulator widget has update interval settings in their prefs. Problem?

No problem. One of the great things about Konfabulator widgets is that you can Hax0r them to your preference, and even create new widgets from pieces of other widgets. So read the rest of the hint for instructions on how to change the update interval for widgets.

Here's how to do it...

That's it. Now that widget will update less frequently, and eat less CPU.

Bonus tip: mini iTunes Remote stomach stapling. In the miniRemote.kon file (after changing the interval as described above): Your mini-remote is now much more CPU friendly, and works better to boot!

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