Desktop Screenshot for Lifehacker

Fresh from a reboot, so not much running. Usually go weeks without rebooting - I just use stand-by mode and never power off.

Start button in top left - seems to be the easiest corner to fling the mouse to for getting to it quickly.

Taskbar 3 blocks high - seems to be enough for when I have lots of stuff open, without using up *too* much screen.

Tray icons set to never hide - not much point in letting them hide for the tiny bit of space it frees up on a 3-block taskbar.

Ink Desktop, from the Tablet PC Experience Pack, lets you scribble directly on the desktop in virtual ink, hence the scribbled notes all over the place.

Yahoo! Widgets clock

Yahoo! Widgets - Weather

Yahoo! Widgets Battery Meter

Recycle Bin. On the left, so it's more likely to show around open windows, and next to 'tmp', which I'm more likely to be deleting things from.

Yahoo! Widgets Kitchen Timer - good for doing all Merlin's hacks. Yeah, I'm that saddest of creatures - a Windows-using 43 Folders junkie.

General scribbles on stuff to do today.

General scribbles on stuff to do this week.

These 3 areas are for work-in-progress - anything I'm actually working on *now* - I can drag all related files here, scribble notes, then put them away again later in another folder or in Outlook.

Using the Ink Desktop, a mix of files relating to this project, and scribbled notes and sketches - this is the rough outline for this desktop design, scribbled over the first rough version of it - still fits on this one ;)

Can't work on more than three things at once, but that's about two more than *my* limit ;)

The idea of the 'tmp' area here is mainly as somwhere to drag files to for moving them to or from one of the three areas in the middle, so I can gather them from folders taking up most of the screen, then move them into the middle. Also works as a quick dumping ground for other quick stuff.

NekoMiho - I'm a Megatokyo fanboy.

Desktop Screenshot for Lifehacker by pigpogm.

*** The scribbled notes are *on* the desktop, they're not explanations - it's a Tablet PC. ***

A screenshot of the desktop of Moog, my Toshiba M200 Tablet PC, for the Lifehacker Desktop Show and Tell pool.

It's a bit on the self-referential side, because I only got the idea to do this after browsing the other desktops in the group.

It's using the internal LCD panel, 1400x1050 resolution.

See notes for most info.

Main software used...

Windows XP Tablet PC Editon 2005 - catchy name. The only choice on a tablet, really. I'm a wannabe geek, so I really *want* to be a Linux user, but Windows does work pretty nicely, really.

Outlook - 2003 at the moment, but I may end up switching back to 2002 at some point, as it's all I'm really licensed for these days. Running NewsGator at the moment to put all my RSS feeds in there too, but I usually end up switching back to Bloglines pretty soon after trying anything else.

Internet Explorer. I know, I can't be *any* kind of geek if I'm not using Firefox, but 1.5 was using over 370Mb of physical RAM - I've only *got* 512Mb, and it wouldn't give any of it up, so I've had to dump it again. Shame, really, it had just got going nicely on the tablet, with the new extension for tablets.

(Screenshot was converted and compressed with The GIMP - I use it for all my photo editing.)

Workflow...

The idea is this - keep anything relating to an active project or action (GTD style stuff) in the Outlook task for it, as attachments. When starting to work on something, drag the attachments out into one of the three numbered areas in the middle, and work on them. When done for the moment, drag 'em back to where they came from and erase any scribbled notes relating to them.

How well does it work? Dunno - only just set it up, not tried it yet.

This photo has notes. Move your mouse over the photo to see them.

To take full advantage of Flickr, you should use a JavaScript-enabled browser and
install the latest version of the Macromedia Flash Player.

Comments

Mike Danko says:

I've always wanted a tablet, just haven't had the time or the dough yet.

I tried using your GTD method for Outlook, and foudn that I had a really hard time following things once I started attaching email threads and other documents that were referrential in nature to other documents. I ended up switching to using OneNote and just putting a "hey, go look at onenote" note in the task.

I'm really hoping that Office12 has better OneNote integration, all I know is that OneNote is getting a lot of Journal features, but I'd really love to be able to put a OneNote anywhere.

Also, I've found that I'm putting off a tablet because of some confusion with how Journal compares to OneNote, does Journal do you well?
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

pigpogm says:

Hi Skord. I'm at a bit of a love/hate point with the tablet now - not quite one of the 'YABHTU's like Eric Mack and JK, but I don't regret buying one.

I use it as a laptop almost all the time, and I really don't think the 'tablet' features are well integrated. It feels like a Windows XP machine with a few added bits to *try* to make it work without a keyboard, but it just doesn't make it.

The only app I've found yet that works well in both tablet *and* laptop modes is OneNote - nothing else does. I hear good things about Outlook with the Tablet Enhancements for Outlook installed, but when I tried that it just caused errors every time I opened or closed Outlook, so I gave up on it.

You can find all the posts I've written about the tablet here...

PigPog Search for 'Tablet'

...but it's all a bit out of date now.

Journal is very nice to use in tablet-mode - the ink is really natural-feeling (OneNote feels a bit odd to me - you scribble something, and it changes a bit when you pause) - but it's nearly useless in laptop-mode. You can only put text in a text-box, and text boxes don't get scroll bars, so it's like trying to do work in an Outlook Note.

All Journal is really good for is scribbling, but it does do that well. If you need to do a bit of brainstorming or sketching, Journal can do that nicely, and I think the results are searchable - it recognises the text in the background - so if you use desktop search stuff you should be able to find things again (*if* they support indexing Journal files). Trying to work with stuff from elsewhere is awkward, though, and you can't orgainse anything in there - it's just numbered pages.

I keep leaving OneNote, and then returning to it - It's the best thing there is for getting the best out of a tablet - especially a convertable - but it's still not what it feels like it *should* be, if that makes sense.

When I made this wallpaper, I was working on the idea of attaching things to tasks, and dragging them onto the desktop to work on them, then putting them away again afterwards, but that's starting to feel like too much work already. I'll have a go with it by putting tasks in folders, so a task becomes a folder, maybe inside a folder called '@Computer', etc. I'll probably end up back in OneNote by the end of the week, though, then back in Outlook the week after ;)

In the end, though, the tablet features *do* give you some nice extras on top of the usual laptop stuff, and means you can fold the screen around for sitting up reading in bed and such like. I still think the M200 is a nice little machine, and I love the hardware. Shame about the OS integration and apps. The result isn't *compelling*, but it is really very good.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

pigpogm says:

Hmm. It's gone again already - last night, Ink Desktop hung, and blanked out the wallpaper completely. Rebooting didn't fix it, uninstalling and reinstalling didn't fix it, and uninstalling, deleting all I could find left behind in my profiile and the registry didn't do it.

So Ink Desktop is gone for now, and I'm back over to OneNote.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

MabzEll says:

please feel free to post your Desktop at
www.flickr.com/groups/weloveorhateyourdesktop
Posted 31 months ago. ( permalink )

kiki follettosa says:

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Let's Screenshot!, and we'd love to have your photo added to the group.
Posted 30 months ago. ( permalink )

ZLamperti says:

I hope you never miss-click and enable icons automatic sorting or things like that! I'd stick with the good ol' folders and a clean desktop.
Anyhow, it's a creative way of using the desktop, you get all the juice from it!
Posted 12 months ago. ( permalink )

blog.immmooo.com says:

Wow, I think only you can read it!! :P
Posted 11 months ago. ( permalink )

Would you like to comment?

[?]

	pigpogm's photostream
		3,162 uploads

This photo also belongs to:

	Lifehacker Desktop Show and Tell (Pool)
		0

13 people call this photo a favorite

Additional Information

Some rights reserved Anyone can see this photo

Taken on December 22, 2005
Viewed 9,632 times

Add to your map

Yay location removed

...

(Some formats are OK.)

Or, remove it from the map.

Go to the map

You	Sign in \| Create Your Free Account
Explore	Places \| Last 7 Days \| This Month \| Popular Tags \| The Commons \| Creative Commons \| Search
Help	Community Guidelines \| The Help Forum \| FAQ \| Sitemap \| Get Help

Desktop Screenshot for Lifehacker

Comments

Mike Danko says:

pigpogm says:

pigpogm says:

MabzEll says:

kiki follettosa says:

ZLamperti says:

blog.immmooo.com says:

Would you like to comment?

pigpogm's photostream

Lifehacker Desktop Show and Tell (Pool)

Tags

Additional Information