You can sign up your self. Just click Sign Up in the top right corner and register. I havent had time to try it out, but it looks fine.

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If there is anything that bugs me the most about Web2.0 is sites like this that proclaim a product but utterly fail to explain what it does. It's as if some garage geeks halfway work up some "new" idea and assume the world can read their minds.

If the battlecry of Web1.0 was RTFM then it looks as if the cry for 2.0 should be W(rite)TFM.

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oh
heres a screenshot

http://serv4.imagehigh.com/imgs/3484395_desktop 2.JPG

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I don't want to sign up. I hate signing up just to look at something on a site I don't know or trust. But that is beside the point. Why can't they tell me what the site/service/software actually does? How will it make my life better? What problem does it solve? What does Desktoptwo do that I can't accomplish with an established company (Google, Yahoo, etc.) I'm over 40 and pretty shiny things just aren't enough anymore. I love new stuff but before I dive in and waste half and hour I want a decent idea of what I'm getting into. If I want to play mystery computer I'll dig out an old Infocom game.

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hehe
shiny things are good enough for me
anyways, the product works fairly well
you can IM though, only on MSN. There is a built in mp3 player for any music you have stored on their site
yuoedit your blog, i hvent checked this feature out cause i odnt have a blog
you can check your email
you make folders in your hard drive
the uploading speed isn't bad

all in all, i'd say its a good back up

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I wrote a rather in-depth entry about DesktopTwo earlier today, if you'd like to read it you can here:

http://www.andymelton.net/nucleus/softblog.php?itemid=253

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Pretty sweet web based desktop
and I have tried;
http://www.goowy.com/
http://www.eyeos.info/
and at least 5 more, this looks the most promising

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Andy Melton: Thanks for the link. I enjoyed scanning your blog. I appreciate the liberal use of screenshots. From reading your entry I have a better idea of what DesktopTwo does (or wants to do).

But back to my point: why do I have to go to Andy's blog to find out what this program is about? Why can't the creators just explain it on the site? It's not just this site, it's a bunch of them. Earlier DLSquad had a proposal for a sandbox for new programs. Great idea. But I want more. I want to know what I'm getting into, what the program is designed to do, what needs it meets.

Attention developers: If your first language is C+ then get that unemployed English major friend of yours to write up a brief description of your project. Pay them with a bottle of merlot. Let them provide a written interface to the world.

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With all due respect Shep Eddy, you're an idiot if you can't figure out what it does, not to mention you're one whiny little SOB (anger management, anyone?). After having read this blog, I went to the site and before signing in (since you evidently have some preternatural oppostion to that) went through the homepage, clicked on the various images and even went through the Feature Highlights. It seemed fairly obvious to me what it is - web OS as some people called it or a "web-based desktop" as they call it - and, guess what? I can even see it's value. For those of us who are on the road or on the move and don't want to rely on one machine (we rely on many different devices like PDAs, etc.), like yours truly, I can have my "desktop" by using any machine with an Internet connection. Once I signed up, btw, the desktop looked precisely as it should and just as it was described on their homepage. It's not rocket science, although it might be just that to angry troglodytes like you. I think it's great and it's the future of computing and, oh, btw... I'm 49!

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Yes, I agree about the signing up part - I hate creating an account on sites just to check it out. Wish that all sites would do something like www.30boxes.com; they give you a fully operational demo version of their product right there on the main page of their website. Very professional IMHO. Also, I wish all sites would give you a way to DELETE your account if you would like to.

Sorry this if kinda off-topic.

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Yes, I agree about the signing up part - I hate creating an account on sites just to check it out. Wish that all sites would do something like www.30boxes.com; they give you a fully operational demo version of their product right there on the main page of their website. Very professional IMHO. Also, I wish all sites would give you a way to DELETE your account if you would like to. Sorry this if kinda off-topic.

BTW, I don't know if they updated their site after this post was originally published but they have an excellent slideshow right there which shows you some if their product's main features. That's even better than a written piece I would think.

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Beanbag wrote: >>With all due respect Shep Eddy, you're an idiot if you can't figure out what it does, not to mention you're one whiny little SOB (anger management, anyone?).

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Beanbag wrote: >>With all due respect Shep Eddy, you're an idiot if you can't figure out what it does, not to mention you're one whiny little SOB (anger management, anyone?).

First of all, when I went to the site, the flash tour was not there. That has been added. When I went to the site there was no brief description of what the service does. There was a FAQ section but it reads "A FAQ about Desktoptwo will soon appear here." I'll be sure and check back later.

This site is a classic example of Web2.0 user-hostile design. For example: in the bottom right there is a box which tells me all the components the site requires if I want to find out what desktoptwo does. Why can't they use their web OS skills to accomplish this on their own "desktop" without making me jump through the hoops.

Java: I use FireFox NoScript. I'm not going to allow Java for an unknown website.
Acrobat Reader: I don't even have that on my system. I use FoxIt.
Flash 9: I've still got some older version. I'm not upgrading just for this.
Cookies: I hope they have reasonable expiration dates.
Pop-ups: I don't do Pop-ups. Firefox.

Beanbag, I'm sorry if I upset you. Now go take your pills and get back to cruising MySpace.

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I find appropriate your use of the term "hostile" ShepEddy. And, indeed, since you've evidently identified me as a lasciviouis and inveterate pill-popper, might I take this opportunty to correctly identify you as an anti-social curmudgeon and precisely the type of character upon whom the usefulness of such a product as Desktoptwo would be lost. That you fail to see the utility of such a product for 99.9% of the world, i.e. the "real people" of the world who don't sit around all day trying to outwit everyone and everything with illusory guile, is not surprising given your extreme computing asceticism. For those of us peasants who don't feel compromised by using free software, even if it means having to dowload additional freeware, It's an incredibly useful tool and, since I must make myself clear...FREE!. Now please, for the sake of humanity and decency, go stick your head back in the sand and allow the millions, nay, billions to appreciate the creativity of the ingenious among us.

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