I recently discovered an awesome utility for Mac OS X called GeekTool. The author’s site describes the software like this:

GeekTool is a PrefPane (System Preferences module) for Panther or Tiger to show system logs, unix commands output, or images (i.e. from the internet) on your desktop (or even in front of all windows).

In other words, GeekTool allows you to run shell scripts and terminal commands in the background, and output the results in visually appealing ways on your desktop. (And yes, it works with Leopard, too.) Check out the screenshot of my desktop.

I’ve used GeekTool to display date and time, as well as current weather conditions, network interface information, and current audio information from iTunes. It was a little confusing to set up at first, but I think it was worth the effort.

If you are interested in using this, here are some helpful resources:

• GeekTool Love for Noobs @ Victor World
• GeekTool Setup @ Irishstu.com
• GeekTool Scripts @ nicinabox.com

Got other suggestions? Post them in the comments!