Be aware of your processor temperature!

All electronic devices produce heat while they are in use. It is produced due to Joule’s first law, also known as the Joule effect, which is a physical law expressing the relationship between the heat generated by the current flowing through a conductor. The heat generated needs to be removed as soon as possible: if it is too hot, the device can stop working properly and can be permanently damaged. It’s plain to see that this is a problem that can’t be ignored!

Microprocessors are not an exception and, when affected by heat excess, they can get too hot internally. It is a well-known problem, so manufacturers design processors having the problem in mind, although it’s useful to know about it and to monitor the situation. Fortunately, modern programs simplify this task However, there’s always an alternative way, usually funnier than the download-install-run method: DIY!

Having said that, I tried to teach something useful to Ana whilst enjoying Linux. The result was the creation of a simple monitoring program that shows the temperature of the processor every five seconds. This is the recipe:

• Remember how to obtain the temperature of your processor: “acpi -V”.
• It’s important to refresh it every five seconds, and you’d also like to highlight the differences, so you can use “watch –differences -n=5″.
• In a parallel word, it’s good to create a separate process for this little script… Then your operating system’s teacher sits down next to you and reveals you the truth: “xterm -geometry 70×5 -e …”.
• Obviously, you prefer to have it running since the very first moment, so it’s necessary to add it to the very last login script: “~/.profile”, in a typical *Ubuntu installation.
• But… wait a moment! You don’t want to stall your login process: please, don’t forget to run it on the background “&”.

A quick way to “install” it is to execute this command in a console window:
echo "xterm -geometry 70x5 -e watch --differences -n 5 acpi -V &" >> ~/.profile

I, the author of this entry, decline all responsibility for any damage caused by this simple program in any computer. Use it “as is”, at your own risk!