xiph.org: MGM

one of xiph.org's somewhat less serious software projects

MGM, the Moaning Goat Meter, is the ultimate sixty-ton cast iron lawn ornament for the desktops of today's hacker set: A gorgeous, highly configurable load and status meter written entirely in Perl. Serious pink-flamingo territory. For evil geniuses only.

Above: MGM, configured the way I like it

Above: An improbable fabrication. It's unlikely the Romans ever reached this level of decadence.

"Nothing is more annoying to sophisticated people to see someone who is rich enough to know better being tacky--unless it is to realize, a moment later, that they probably know they are tacky and they simply don't care and they are going to go on being tacky, and rich, and happy, forever.
...This is all strongly reminiscent of the heyday of Communism and Socialism, when the bourgeoisie were hated from both ends: by the proles, because they had all the money, and by the intelligentsia, because of their tendency to spend it on lawn ornaments."
--Neal Stephenson

MGM will not get your whites whiter or your colors brighter. It will, however, sit there and look spiffy while sucking down a major honking wad of RAM.