Women in Technology

Article:		Dissecting a Dashboard Virtual Earth Widget
Subject:		I just don't get it
Date:		2005-12-07 07:30:34
From:		chrisrimmer
I'm afraid I've just never 'got' the Dashboard. Why would I want to switch out of the lovely Mac OS X desktop environment into another one which only lets me tell the time and read Dilbert (or whatever). Even putting it inside an ordinary application window wouldn't be so bad, but hijacking the whole desktop? I have actually installed a preference panel that lets me turn off dashboard so I can use my memory and CPU cycles for something more useful .

Showing messages 1 through 2 of 2.

• I just don't get it
  2006-03-04 02:32:43  sk2001 [View]
  
  
  I agree that the Dashboard widgets use a lot of memory, about 150 MB each for virtual memory and, surprisingly enough, almost 20 MB of physical RAM (RSIZE). Of course anyone is free to delete (not uninstall) all unused widgets from the Dashboard to reduce memory consumption.
  
  Regarding the cumbersome switching between desktop and Dashboard (I only find it annoying when switching the first time and there are some slowly initialising widgets to be started up):
  
  You may want to try this one: Open a Terminal window and enter
  
  
defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES
killall Dock

  
  If you now activate the Dashboard by pressing F12 (or your specific key), begin dragging the widget you want to use. Move at least one pixel and don't release the mouse button. Now press F12 a second time. Dashboard vanishes and you still have the widget sticking to the mouse pointer. You can now place the widget on the desktop anywhere you like. It will always be above any "ordinary" window.
  Works great for the calculator, for example.

• I just don't get it
  2005-12-07 13:36:52  hagus [View]
  
  
  There's no shame in not getting the Dashboard. It suits some people's working style better than others. I tend to use it pretty sparingly, mostly for date lookups, the clock (great for conference calls with other countries), and the calculator.
  
  I recently started working on two 20" cinema displays at home, and found this has reduced my need for the Dashboard considerably. Now if I want a calculator, I just leave one running in an obscure corner of my huge desktop ;)