Your Mac runs a series of maintenance scripts on it’s own to clear out various cache and log files. To see when the scripts were last run, type the following at the command line: ls -la /var/log/.out You will then see something like this:-rw-r-r- 1 root wheel 283124 16 Jun 02:15 /var/log/daily.out. Rob Grififths takes you on a tour of GeekTool, a free system utility that lets you display images, text files, and the output of Unix commands on your desktop. Download my GeekTool scripts (version 2.0): 3. Unzip the archive, and move the folder called “WKGeekToolResources” to /Users/Shared/ (If you can’t figure out how to get there, open a Finder window and hold down shift + command + G; then, paste “/Users/Shared/” and click Go) 4.
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This would be great if it also checked versions of your installed apps in Applications & ~/Applications for newer versions.
While interesting, that's certainly a complicated process to check for software updates from the command line. Type this in the Terminal to check for updates:
softwareupdate -l
Type this to install the updates (this requires admin rights):
sudo softwareupdate -i -a
Obviously there's other options if you want to gain more control over which updates are installed but that's the basics. You can even run them on a remote machine if you ssh into it first.
Geektool Scripts
http://blog.kaputtendorf.de/2009/02/22/updatecheck/
It works pretty well :)
Thou shalt study thy libraries and strive not to reinvent them without cause, that thy code may be short and readable and thy days pleasant and productive.-- The Ten Commandments for C Programmers. By extension, applies to Unix utilities as well. That said, I didn't know about the command line utility either, and am glad about the comments here often bringing out such solutions.
Is it really a good idea not to run as admin? (OK, bad phrasing--it's never a bad idea. I really mean: is it a bad idea to run as admin?) Running as normal user instead of admin was certainly a good idea on pre-Vista versions of Windows--if you were an admin, you could do anything anywhere and nothing would even try to stop you (or an executable silently running as you).
However, on OS X and newer versions of Windows, you are prompted for your password (or, on Windows, at least just confirmation if you're already an admin) whenever you do anything that requires admin privileges--e.g., modifying anything in the file system besides your profile folder, changing system-wide settings (like power management or the computer's hostname), and the like. You're prompted even if your account currently is an administrator. Even from Terminal (in OS X) you have to sudo for certain commands (and in Windows you'll have to do the equivalent right-click-and-choose 'Run as Administrator,' even if you are one, when you start the command prompt, to give it that extra level of elevation).
I don't really see how it's different, other that running as a non-admin makes you think of the username, as well.
Geektool For Mac Scripts
Geektool Scripts Calendar
softwareupdate -l from the command line whenever you're curious?