Quick-Look-Type Stuff...

iStat Pro is the famous Dashboard Widget that gives you a beautiful display that shows all sorts of information about the current status of your Mac. This iStat is a stand-alone application that does essentially the same thing.

I like it for two reasons. The first being: I have de-activated Dashboard (with the help of TinkerTool.) to regain some resources — and because most of Dashboard's widgets fetch information from the web, which can be a pain when you're on dial-up. The second reason is that I only have to launch it when I'm having a "What's going on?" moment.

There are several appearance themes to choose from, and the transparency and shadow of the displayed information can be adjusted as well.

When iStat is running, the various modules can be toggled on and off, using the Cmd-1 through 8 keys.

Learn more about iStat