Di ing into the Utility folder: Co ole.a

Ahh, the inaugural post in a new series, what can be more exciting? Gather round, readers, as we take a tour of the wonders that lurk in the Utility folder on your trusty Mac (in OS X). These a don't get the glory, but they are the quiet dutiful friend that every Mac user tur to at one point or another.

The first a in the otlight is: Co ole.a . What is it, you ask? Co ole.a is a one trick pony, but it is a useful trick: reading, searching, and di laying all the logs on your Mac. Many a , and OS X proce es, write to a file, called a log, whenever they perform certain tasks (like, crashing). This is a great way to figure out what is going on with your Mac when things go wonky, or if you are just curious as to what is ha ening on your system.

The preferences (seen to the right) aren't voluminous, but they are pretty useful for those that like to be in the know. You can have the Co ole icon bounce whenever the currently open log is written to, which could come in handy when you're trying to troubleshoot an intermittent problem. You can also interrupt your workflow and have Co ole become the front window when a log is written to.

These logs aren't for the faint of heart, but with a little digging (and use of the 'Filter,' which is just a search box) these arcane logs will make se e.