Recently, my computer's desktop has started to become cluttered up with files, icons, and all kinds of other trash. Because of my subpar organizational skills, this debris is in a state of disarray, and I often have to sift through scores of documents in order to find whatever project I'm working on.
A simple and elegant solution would be to organize my desktop alphabetically. However, this simply wouldn't work for me, because of my horrible habit of giving files names such as "sidvshfi" and "asdfdds" on the spur of the moment. Besides, strict organizational schemes don't appeal to a right-brainer such as I. Really, I would rather have a nice intuitive method of organization that relates to the world around me.
That is why I would like to have a database of wallpaper images that let you organize your files and icons creatively. For example, the desktop background could be a map of a bustling cartoon village. Word files go on top of an office building or school, email goes on top of the post office, music goes over a record store, and refuse goes into a dumpster. Or perhaps the image could be a restaurant scene. Word files go over the menus in the diners' hands, works in progress go in the kitchen, high-priority projects go on the waiters' trays, and music goes over the house band. Cast-offs go in the busboy's bin.
There are many other possible backgrounds to be concieved. What I'm suggesting is a website or database of these images for people to use, so they can just look at the wallpaper and immediately know where everything is.-- DrWorm, Nov 10 2009 GTD Wallpaper http://anabubula.co...ll-GTD-wallpaper-v3Desktop background themed for "getting things done" [tatterdemalion, Nov 11 2009] Hmmm... but I can't ever see the desktop background picture on my computer.-- pocmloc, Nov 10 2009 All the more reason to use this system.-- DrWorm, Nov 11 2009 I like it - the trouble with folders (if you ignore the labels and directory location) is that one folder looks very much like another.
I quite like the "soup" methodology where everything goes into one place, and is retrieved using keyword searches - that's fine for documents, but pictures and videos don't let you do this unless you take the time and effort to label/tag appropriately - and if you're going to do that, .
This isn't so crazy, after all - a "desktop" is already a metaphorical representation - why not extend it outward into other real-world areas? It gets my thumbs up [+]
As an aside, I'm sure this subject's been discussed somewhere here before.-- zen_tom, Nov 11 2009 Yeah, what 21 said. Stop wasting our time with these silly ideas of yours when there are far more practical, sensible ways to solve your problem. Read a help file or something.
What? Where are we? Oh. [+]-- shudderprose, Nov 11 2009 This idea shouldn't be too difficult to bake. It's easy enough to design your own icons and set them as desktop shortcuts for folders and most applications have a default folder for saving files. Shouldn't take to long to create your own village. Downloading files might be a problem but you can just set up a bus station folder or something as your default location for downloads until you get round to relocating them in their proper place in the village. +-- DrBob, Nov 11 2009 random, halfbakery