[][]I use Apple Remote Desktop or a KVM
(Keyboard/Video/Mouse) switcher to administer several OS X servers and
machines. When you’re working on machines in this way you can sometimes
get confused on which machine you’re currently controlling. If you’re
lucky you won’t do anything stupid, but there have been times when I’ve
shutdown/restarted a server that I didn’t mean too!

I use Apple Remote Desktop or a KVM (Keyboard/Video/Mouse) switcher to
administer several OS X servers and machines. When you’re working on
machines in this way you can sometimes get confused on which machine
you’re currently controlling. If you’re lucky you won’t do anything
stupid, but there have been times when I’ve shutdown/restarted a server
that I didn’t mean too!

Over Christmas break I wrote a little OS X widget call Show Name.
All it does is show the name of the current machine. To start using it
you just install the widget onto your Dashboard. Once there, it will
show you the hostname of the machine you are currently using on the
Dashboard.

Where things get interesting is when you drag it off of the Dashboard
and put it on your Desktop. This way you can alway see what machine
you’re on. To drag widgets off of the Dashboard, you need to turn on
widget developer mode. On the Show Name widget, you can click the little
“i” in the bottom right and check the box to turn it on. As soon as you
click Done it will restart the Dock, so the Dashboard and the Dock will
disappear for a second. To drag the Show Name widget (or any widget for
that matter) out of the Dashboard and onto the Desktop, click on the
widget and start dragging. Don’t let go of the button and close the
Dashboard. The widget you are dragging will stay with your mouse
pointer, and you can drop it anywhere on your Desktop. To put the widget
back in the Dashboard, start dragging it, open the Dashboard, and stop
dragging it. It will now re-attach itself to the Dashboard.

[]: https://ryancollins.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Screen-shot-2010-01-15-at-12.40.41-PM.jpg