my desktop 
a href="http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/4493/stuff3jr.jpg"http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/4493/stuff3jr.jpg/a
and yes … i know … there are estimated 10+ cm free space on my desktop
leave a message here for suggestion as how to fill the empty space
hacktick: holy crap. How would anyone FIND something on that desktop?
I’ve heard some people say that, in the future, the whole concept of a file system or a directory tree will be marginalized in favor of an indexed, searchable history of every file, email, im, etc. File naming will become moot, and you’ll just throw everything that you create onto a timeline that you can view and search faster than you’d be able to locate a file these days.
I think this is absolutely true-- it’s coming.
hacktick:
rm -R \hacktick\c$\documents and settings\hacktick\desktop
it’s not that bad as it looks like
on my desktop are temporary items.
the most time i know exactly the filename … left click on my desktop type the first three letters and e voila … here we go…
every once in a while there is a complete cleanup of items on my desktop. items i never used again get deleted others are ordered in folder structures.
Whoa! That is a messy desktop.
Rather than dump lots of shortcuts on the desktop, I’ve started using Freelaunchbar, which is a great way to use the quick launch bar space more efficiently.
Applications like Launchy and Slickrun are also helpful to get to applications easily.
I try not to “store” things on the desktop, but I will often keep a set of files on there that I’m currently using.
The main reason for this is that too many apps have unpredictable behaviour regarding what folder they will start at when I Open/Save a file. Some apps will remember the last folder, some will default to “My Documents”, and some will open at somewhere completely different. The desktop is easy to access via Win+D for drag/drop, or as the top-level element in the common dialog folder tree.
I also send things like Internet downloads to the desktop, too. That way, I don’t forget about them and am forced to do something with them (in order to maintain a clear desktop).
See this article on Desktop Zen on how to reduce clutter: http://www.avesh.com/blog/DesktopZenReducingVisualClutterOnYourDesktop.aspx
I like the reference to “gretelman”. Very funny–in light of knowing who you are talking about.
" I’ve heard some people say that, in the future, the whole concept of a file system or a directory tree will be marginalized in favor of an indexed, searchable history of every file, email, im, etc. File naming will become moot, and you’ll just throw everything that you create onto a timeline that you can view and search faster than you’d be able to locate a file these days.
I think this is absolutely true-- it’s coming."
I think Jef Raskin will finally be happy, even if he has to roll over in his grave.
Colibri is a nicer looking SlickRun/QuickSilver rip off that means I haven’t seen my windows desktop in quite a while. I actually just looked at it there for the first time in a while. Keira Knightley is hot
I’ve installed Google Desktop on my folks’ PC, and I can’t get them to use it…
Something like. “Will I still be able to surf the internet if I run FireFox?”
People dont get it, because they dont have the time with computers as we do. They dont have the time to arrange their documents. And one week later when they need to find it again they cant remember where they put it. “10 recently opened documents” can be a real “life saver” for people not using a pc regulary.
I never understood why guidance was not more important in operating systems. Something like the office assistant was great, but implemented in a horrible way. We love intelisence in IDE’s, we love spelling checkers in word processors, we love tabbing in command shells, I love stuff like slickrun, etc… Some form of guidance that doesn’t take over control. It would be really sweet if it was even better with the file system. Something like, understanding what my documents are about, where I used to store documents of same content, tell me where it is if I work with something where I could use it…
We need to have the software and operating system understand what we do, understand the data and not only the file format. Just because it is called a desktop, it does not have to act like a real desktop.
But anyway, Google with their employed experts will probably sooner then imagined provide us with that.
Larry Page, the co-founder and president … said: “People always make the assumption that we’re done with search. That’s very far from the case. We’re probably only 5 per cent of the way there. We want to create the ultimate search engine that can understand anything … some people could call that artificial intelligence.”
Next topic in this series should be Inbox-itis. And to sorta bring the discussion around full circle, we can start by noting that certain Scott-ish developers who have a crowded desktop are in fact proponents of GTD and maintaining a very clean Inbox. Discuss.
You could have at least used my REAL desktop and not this weak simulacrum. 
I use my desktop as an organizational tool. I liken it to a toolboard in the garage. Where’s my hammers? Top left corner. I ‘instinctively’ start there and then find my specific tool in miliseconds. Where’s my cisco documentation? Bottom right corner of third monitor. Sure I can put it in a folder, but I won’t know which document out of 4 or 5 that I want by name. Search? All I remember is that the command starts with the letter “R”. I have a “physical” location to start from and I can scan the group of files I want faster than I can open another folder. My actual desktop looks alot like that too. Here’s my requirements pile, here’s my softball schedules, here’s my IDE shortcuts.
Well, sounds like SOMEONE needs to post a picture of his desktop along with the rationale behind it.
It’s a reasonable approximation. I’ll agree that using a Windows ME desktop is kind of a low blow. But that’s how I fight-- dirty, yo.
Note: I exempt baby pictures from any criticism. That would just be mean.
" I’ve heard some people say that, in the future, the whole concept of a file system or a directory tree will be marginalized in favor of an indexed, searchable history of every file, email, im, etc. File naming will become moot, and you’ll just throw everything that you create onto a timeline that you can view and search faster than you’d be able to locate a file these days."
a href="http://rchi.raskincenter.org/index.php?title=Home"http://rchi.raskincenter.org/index.php?title=Home/a
What gets me the most is that the guy in the original post doesn’t even bother to line up the icons. It is a mess with some icons overlapping others. Also, look at his system tray and task bar. He has so much crap installed and/or running that it isn’t even funny!
The guy is clearly a hack who doesn’t know what he is doing.
I used to have all my downloads on my desktop. And then I could never find anything because the desktop has no scrollbar and all the icons where off the screen.
Now I had to reinstall Windows and so don’t have anything on it. I really can’t decide anything useful to put on it. I did once write an application so you could switch between Downloads and Documents and Search and things on the desktop, but there all so easily accessable from the start menu I rarely used it.
It’s so easy to find things in Vista and OSX theres really no need to use the desktop to easily find things. So what should it be used for? Who knows?
The desktop has some special functionality - using the desktop toolbar in the taskbar, shrunk down to just the word “Desktop”, creates a menu that lists all the items on the desktop.
Maybe not terribly exciting, but what’s cool is: if “My Computer” is in this list, you can walk the entire file system via this menu. For some reason this doesn’t work from “My Computer” in the Start menu - it shows the drives, but they aren’t submenus.
You’re kidding right!?! You didn’t even show the guy’s real desktop? You just picked up some novice user’s desktop to make your point while leaving him to look like an ass?
Oh that is a really low blow. And after getting caught you didn’t even apologize!
Hmmm… I’ve lost a little respect for you Jeff. Very sad indeed!
