Show My Desktop - See How a Nerd Works!

[GeorginaS]

You know, I've seen this thread topic several times on gaming boards, and the responses generally stick to which uber image lives on someone's desktop. Only on PF would "Show us your desktop" devolve into a conversation about seeing icons of applications we do and don't like and about icon and file management, priority trees, and hierarchical organisational systems.

I heart this place.

 

[turbo]

For me, the nightmare scenario, one which I have been through too many times, is when I arrive on the scene after some salesman has sold the customer on the technology required for a given project. Often this will include some niche third-party device operating in conjuction with other standard platforms. This forces me to use the software for that technology or device. If things don't work properly due to software incompatibility issues, it can end up in court. I've never had to go to court [I choose to eat whatever time I have to in order to get things working, and get out as fast as possible!] but I've seen it happen in other situations.

Using anything but Windows is just begging for additional complications.

The worst niche software, IMO, is medical practice management software. It is huge and horrendously expensive, and it always lags development of normal office software, so if you're the network administrator (I held that position in a very large multi-location ophthalmic practice) you have to fight compatibility issues constantly. When I took that job, the practice had standardized on Alcon Ivy. All of the practice's medical station PCs (including registration, billing, etc) were running DOS, as were the servers, but we needed Windows so we could have access to decent graphical programs, imaging, etc, and Windows was incompatible with the old version of Novell NetWare that Ivy required. What a mess. Some of the kludges were ugly, and left me feeling like I'd had to use rolls and rolls of duct tape to keep my car together.

 

[rhody]

leap to Windows 7

Ivan,

This may be of small consolation to you, but I have been running Windows 7 now for almost a year and a half with no major incidents, it has some new features, I call them quirks, but by and large, I use selective startup, and disable about 70% of what could load from the services and startup menu, the thing boots in about 40 seconds, and I have an external USB backup drive twice as big as my hard drive.
Of course this is for home use, in the business world of IT it may be a different story.

Rhody...

 

[cronxeh]

I ditched Win 7 and installed Mac OS X on my PC

Now I run Win 7 from VMWare whenever I want to play in Matlab

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Ivan,

This may be of small consolation to you, but I have been running Windows 7 now for almost a year and a half with no major incidents, it has some new features, I call them quirks, but by and large, I use selective startup, and disable about 70% of what could load from the services and startup menu, the thing boots in about 40 seconds, and I have an external USB backup drive twice as big as my hard drive.
Of course this is for home use, in the business world of IT it may be a different story.

Rhody...

That is good to hear! We do have 7 on our entertainment computer and it seems to be pretty stable, but that is light use. The real question for me is, how does it do with, for example, Rockwell or Siemens software - all of their supporting software, various networking platforms [about six or seven to worry about just for those two brands], and specialized device configuration platforms. The problem is not just the stability of Windows 7, the problem is the compatibility of the software from everyone else. I seem to recall that Rockwell was patching things for XP for several years. This is all money out of my pocket when things don't work. It can literally destroy a business.

 

[cronxeh]

ONE MORE! I can't resist. Mac OS X is so much better on my PC than Windows 7, its not even funny. Win 7 used to crash ATI drivers randomly, and without so much as a sorry. Oh and not to mention how IE injection bug took down my networking interface, and there were random trojans being installed from sites on a daily basis - even with an antivirus running. Its just so annoying and stupid, I truly, really, hate Windows. Its not for hardcore workstation users

But now I have so many more apps and stability (and its all freeeeeeee )

I keep all my apps and mp3s and movies and books and pdfs and all texts/docs/pictures on encrypted drives. Even all supercomputers in the world put together would take about 20 years to crack those volumes

 

[nobahar]

Mines not as cool as some of yours, nor as nerdy!
But this was my background up until the last day or so, I went to the trouble of changing it back just for you!:

It's part of the Roman wall that enclosed Londinium. I think it was built taller in the medieval times, though.

Here's my new one. I hope it doesn't come across as too mawkish!:

A little inspiration! Although it's hard to do!

 

[lisab]

A little inspiration! Although it's hard to do!

Very nice, nobahar, inspiring indeed!

 

[nobahar]

Very nice, nobahar, inspiring indeed!

Thanks! I can't find who it's attributed to.

 

[lisab]

Thanks! I can't find who it's attributed to.

It sounds like something a grandma would say.

 

[mugaliens]

My current favorite, albeit in a much larger format.

 

[JaredJames]

That is good to hear! We do have 7 on our entertainment computer and it seems to be pretty stable, but that is light use. The real question for me is, how does it do with, for example, Rockwell or Siemens software - all of their supporting software, various networking platforms [about six or seven to worry about just for those two brands], and specialized device configuration platforms. The problem is not just the stability of Windows 7, the problem is the compatibility of the software from everyone else. I seem to recall that Rockwell was patching things for XP for several years. This is all money out of my pocket when things don't work. It can literally destroy a business.

I'm sure you're aware of it, but you can set Windows 7 to run programs in compatibility mode.

Windows Live Messenger for example, when run 'for' 7 is permanently in the taskbar and doesn't have a notification icon, so you can't just let it run in the background 'out of sight, out of mind' style. If you right click the program (in the directory) and set it to run in compatibility with XP it then has the notification icon and doesn't stick to the taskbar any more.

So I don't see how compatibility should pose too much of a problem. If anything, I've foundt the upgrade to 7 rather smooth, given its ability to run software for previous windows versions.

 

[Borek]

Compatibility mode is nothing new - it was already present since at least XP. And since XP it happens to not work in some cases.

 

[JaredJames]

Compatibility mode is nothing new - it was already present since at least XP. And since XP it happens to not work in some cases.

Yeah, but it seems to be working fairly well in 7. Not sure about with everything though.

 

[JesseC]

Not surprised to see a load of space based desktops from the physics forum! Here's mine for the lulz

[PLAIN]http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/8783/desktopdtx.jpg

 

[The legend]

wow! that's lotta programs you have on...JesseC...i usually have just 5 on..no more.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

So I don't see how compatibility should pose too much of a problem. If anything, I've foundt the upgrade to 7 rather smooth, given its ability to run software for previous windows versions.

Unfortunately, the compatibility mode has never been very helpful for what I do. I think it might have worked once in the last fifteen years.

By far the worst of times was when Windows first changed from an environment to an operating system. I'm hoping the transition from XP will be relatively painless.

 

[waht]

Here's a bit of my desktop. I usually keep things clean, but sometimes the desktop can get crowded. I still prefer linux over windows, but I'm currently forced to run programs on windows. But I must say after using win 7 for a while, I'm impressed with its quality, performance, and stability.

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/8929/desktopshot.png

 

[OmCheeto]

Here's a bit of my desktop. I usually keep things clean, but sometimes the desktop can get crowded. I still prefer linux over windows, but I'm currently forced to run programs on windows. But I must say after using win 7 for a while, I'm impressed with its quality, performance, and stability.

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/8929/desktopshot.png

Tis a sad state of the state of our hardware when our CPU's are only using 10% of 10% of their owners capacity...


[URL]http://home.europa.com/~garry/pfsuyd201012051305.jpg[/URL]

Actually, what is worse is that I don't know how to see that on my Mac. The only way I know it's thinking is when the fan comes on.

 

[Monique]

Actually, what is worse is that I don't know how to see that on my Mac. The only way I know it's thinking is when the fan comes on.

I use MenuMeters to monitor my CPU and Network activity, a very handy utility.

 

[waht]

Tis a sad state of the state of our hardware when our CPU's are only using 10% of 10% of their owners capacity...

Depends what your doing. Sometimes when I'm running a simulation, or playing games all the bars go up. Then I say, 'ahh, I need a faster computer'

Actually, what is worse is that I don't know how to see that on my Mac. The only way I know it's thinking is when the fan comes on.

You can get istat on your mac. It's free.

 

[Topher925]

I run World Community Grid on my machines just so I always know the CPU is pegged at 100% and I'm getting my $/flop's worth.

 

[HeLiXe]

Not surprised to see a load of space based desktops from the physics forum! Here's mine for the lulz

 

[Danger]

The only way I know it's thinking is when the fan comes on.

Doesn't it talk to you, like Elvira does with me? There are settings to correct that oversight.

 

[GodPlaysDice]

these are 3 of my top 15, but i change it nearly every time i use my comp. :)

 

[QuarkCharmer]

Taking calc II atm, I usually just put up whatever comes in handy with what I am working on.

 

[mishrashubham]

Here You Go.

 

[GregJ]

Here is mine. Massive cleanup before taking this shot ;)

Getting tired of Windows 7. Might switch to Linux permanently soon.

 

[ArcanaNoir]

No icons for me! Must have clean desktop. Currently sporting a pic took by Andre of some butterflies.

 

[Char. Limit]

PREPARE TO BE ASTONISHED, at the BEST desktop you've ever seen!