iPulse —

After about a week, I’ve uninstalled iPulse. I don’t see the point in using a CPU load monitor that uses 30% of the CPU load to report that it’s using 30% of the CPU load.

And Ye Gods! What nagware! For a $10 program, iPulse comes with a suite of “buy-me” irritations that rival security measures used by large office suites, including “register me” panels that pop up once an hour, hopping Dock icons, and the worst: a spoken “register me” alert. I’d used the program for less than four days when, in the middle of the night, I heard a loud, booming voice, coming from my G4, demanding that I “REGISTER IPULSE!!”. After checking System Preferences several times to ensure I had “Spoken Alerts” turned off, I eventually decided that the application itself was simply being obnoxious.

LoadInDock and NetstatInDock may be older, uglier, and kludgier, but they’re free, and they are far less irritating.