Measles 2.2 : A fun CPU monitor
NOTE: Measles has not been updated in several years, and does not work on recent versions of OS X.
Measles is a Mac OS X "desktop critter" that is both fun and useful. The "measles" in question are little bouncy spheres that travel around your desktop, bouncing off of windows and each other. They can have a wide variety of appearances, and they can make sounds when they bounce. You may be wondering where the "useful" part comes in; they can be configured to act as CPU monitors, changing color depending upon how busy your machine is. They can also change colors according to how much free memory you have, or how much free disk space is left on your boot drive, or how long your machine has been sitting idle without user input. But while they can be useful, they are mostly just plain silly fun!
Here are some different ways they can look:
The "CPU monitor" appearance, with the machine currently medium-busy (making the measles yellow). You can get similar appearances with any color you like, by setting the measles to be a fixed color.
This is a color scheme called "Sky" that provides a variety of blues. Measles come with ten different color schemes that color your measles in varied but coordinated colors, from "Fire" to "Ithaca".
This shows more measles of a smaller size, using a pattern called "Snake". Measles supplies 18 different patterns you can use, plus a "random" setting that makes each measle use its own randomly chosen pattern.
A pattern called "Zebra" is used here, with a larger measle size. Measles lets you choose the size of your measles, and whether they vary in size or are all identical.
This shows partial transparency of the measles, with a pattern called "Swirly". If you want to, you can make your measles be almost completely transparent, like little ghosts bouncing around your screen.All of these appearances are user-controllable, so you can make your measles suit your individual needs. Other options, from their size and speed to whether they make sounds when you bounce, are also configurable. Here's a reduced snapshot of the Stick Software-style overengineered preferences panel (click here for a full-size version):
If this seems complicated, there is an online manual to help you out (for an 88K PDF version of this manual that can be used offline, click here). But Measles is really very simple and intuitive to use, and you won't hurt anything by experimenting. Discovery and experimentation is part of the fun of Measles.
Measles is shareware (which means we rely on you to pay for it if you use it). It costs $10. Feel free to try it out for a little while before paying, but please don't forget that it is ultimately your responsibility to pay for it if you use it. For details on registration, see our main registration page. Thanks!
The measle patterns in Measles are used with permission from The 3D Studio. Visit them for many more texture images which you may use free of charge. The 3D Studio also sells CDs of textures and lots of other stuff. We'd like to thank them for their generosity.
The icon for Measles was provided by widget : widget, a Mac design site which seems to no longer exist, sadly.
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