BwanaDik

BwanaDik is an IP address (WAN and LAN) menu item. Yes, another IP address app. Just what the world needs. You may be asking yourself "why the heck does the world need another IP address application?" Well, it doesn't. But I did. I looked all over for an IP address app that met my needs, and never found one. So I wrote my own. Here's what I wanted in an IP app:

Small, simple, and resides in the menu bar

Monitors my network for a good connection. If the connection is lost, let me know with an alert the second it comes back online.

Quickly copy my WAN and LAN IP address to the menu bar.

The second point is the most important, which is really why I wrote this thing. See, I work at a coffee shop that has a really crappy DSL line, and an even crappier Airport Base Station. The connection comes and goes every 5 minutes. And there is nothing more frustrating than opening up Safari and typing in a search in the google bar only to be slapped with an alert sheet saying the site cannot be found. Then I have to sit around watching my Network control panel to see when I'm back online again, because a lot of times the info I need on the web is for work. Now, with BwanaDik, I can look at the menu bar and know right away if I can access the internet or not. Even better, when my network is back online, BwanaDik lets me know right away with an alert window. So now I can keep typing code and when the network is ready, I can go do my searches and whatnot. So, yes, there are a lot of IP address apps out there. I'm sure they are all great. But this one does exactly what I want it to. It probably doesn't do what you want, but that's OK with me. No more features will be added to BwanaDik anyway.

What is new in this release:

Works with Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard). No longer supported under 10.4. Ability to send email alerts removed, as Apple removed the ability to do this in Cocoa under 10.5. Thanks, Apple.