A Peek Under The Hood: Activity Monitor

Maybe it it’s the geek in me, But I like dials, gauges, graphs, and blinking lights. Whether it’s my car or my computer I like to pretend I know what’s going on with it.
I like deciphering the blinking lights of my OBDII reader to learn that, yes, I am going to have to buy an O2 sensor for my car soon. That’s why I like The Activity Monitor on my Macs.
A-monitorEven though I’d be lying if I told you I understood half of what’s going on, the Activity Monitor at least makes me SOUND like I know what’s going on in my Mac. Just like my network is running at 2.72KB/sec right now. Is that slow? Is that fast? I don’t really care except that I know that it’s 2.72KB/sec. Wait let me check my mail and see what that does…Wow, 32.82KB/sec!
In addition to network speed I can find out how much disk space I’m using (232.76 GB), what my disk access is (Digitize some video to send that bad boy through the roof), what my Ram allocations are (I can’t believe I’m using 50 GB of Virtual Memory), and what percent of my CPU cycles I’m using, (playback a big GarageBand file to watch this one soar.)
Perhaps most importantly there’s the Process viewer, This scrolling list lets you know which process is hogging your system resources. What’s really interesting, is that this acts as a proof of the observer effect, in that by opening the Activity Monitor, it becomes an active process that is observing other processes, Fascinating Captain.
There is a sign in many recording studios and server rooms, that might apply to the Activity Monitor, it goes like this:

“Achtung!
Alle touristen und non-technischen lookenpeepers! Das machine is nicht fur fingerpoken und mittengrabben. Is easy schnappen der springenwerk, blowenfusen und poppencorken mit spitzen sparken. Das machine is diggen by experten only. Is nicht fur gerwerken by das dummkopfen. Das rubbernecken sightseeren keepen das cottenpicken hands in das pockets. Relaxen und watchen das blinkenlights.”