I use MenuMeters to display my processor performance in my menu bar. It
breaks down processor usage into three categories: System, User and Nice.
Particularly after I backup to my Firewire drive, the Nice process uses a
lot of the processor. What is Nicing?

On Wed, 01 Mar 2006 22:05:36 +0000, Spat wrote:

> I use MenuMeters to display my processor performance in my menu bar. It
> breaks down processor usage into three categories: System, User and Nice.
> Particularly after I backup to my Firewire drive, the Nice process uses a
> lot of the processor. What is Nicing?

"Nice" is Unix terminology. It means "Change the priority of a process"
(ie. be nice to others by reducing the priority of your own).

Sometimes you find that existing programs are configured to run at a
different priority to default - for example, a program which HAS to
respond in a particular time frame is likely to be set to highest priority.

On Wed, 01 Mar 2006 22:05:36 +0000, Spat wrote:

> I use MenuMeters to display my processor performance in my menu bar. It
> breaks down processor usage into three categories: System, User and Nice.
> Particularly after I backup to my Firewire drive, the Nice process uses a
> lot of the processor. What is Nicing?

"Nice" is Unix terminology. It means "Change the priority of a process"
(ie. be nice to others by reducing the priority of your own).

Sometimes you find that existing programs are configured to run at a
different priority to default - for example, a program which HAS to
respond in a particular time frame is likely to be set to highest priority.