I’m about to start season 3 of Show Me Your Desktop, but as any good interviewer I spent quite some time researching.

In my “research” I contacted Scott Beale from Laughing Squid. I wanted to interview him. This is what he replied.

Honestly, I never actually see or even use my desktop anymore. It seems like a dated concept at this point.

That made me think. I regularly change the background on my desktop, but I rarely see it. So why do I change the background or even ask people to share their’s if it’s a dated concept?

We had a small mail conversation and Scott suggested that I renamed the entire series. He suggested “What’s On Your Computer”, inspired by the flickr’s What’s in your bag.

So from now on “Show Me Your Desktop” is called “What’s On Your Computer” or “The Interview Series Formerly Known As Show Me Your Desktop”.

How often do you see your own desktop? How often do you change your background?

Again, thank you very much for the input Scott Beale from Laughing Squid.

Did you remember to read last week’s interview with Shoemoney? This season’s last interview is with Fake Steve Jobs.

Most people know Steve Jobs (creator of the iPhone), but not everybody read Steve Job’s secret blog/diary.

Some say it’s not written by Steve Jobs himself, but by Fake Steve Jobs. Some even say that Fake Steve Jobs actually is Forbes senior editor Dan Lyons.

Fake Steve Jobs aka. FSJ has nicknames for many things. Microsoft is The Borg, people who work at Microsoft are Borgtards, twitterers are twittertards, WSJ tech-journalist Walt Mossberg is Goatberg and Sarah Lacy is hot.

FSJ writes why Apple is so cool, and why Apple’s products are so damn innovative and awesome. He finds most people annoying and is upset by negative people.

FSJ like turtlenecks, black, white, trees, zen and is a benevolent dictator.

This video from TechCrunch’s Crunchies says it all:

And now the interview with the great Fake Steve Jobs

What is your background picture?

Solid blue.

Why did you chose that picture?

I’m boring. And easily distracted. Solid color lets me focus on what I’m doing.

If you have a personal and a work computer, which program do you use the most on your personal computer?

Firefox.

Which program do you use the most on your work computer?

Firefox.

Internet Explorer or Firefox?

Firefox.

Why do you use IE or FF?

I hate IE. I hate all the new Microsoft apps. Too cluttered and bloated.

What is your favourite program?

Firefox.

Which program is the worst?

If you mean what’s the worst program I use, I’d say it’s Quark CopyDesk. If you mean what’s the worst program in the entire known universe, it has to be Lotus Notes.

Do you have any tips and tricks on how to get the most out of your computer or blog?

Spend as much time as possible working on it.

Mac or Pc and why?

Mac. The OS is better.

Thank you very much Mr. Fake Steve Jobs. I’m really thrilled that you took the time, out of your very busy and innovative life. I know it can be hard to communicate with the man on the street.

Peace out!

This is the season finale (I always wanted to say that) of Show Me Your Desktop, but unlike certain other “shows”, I don’t cancel something, just because people don’t watch it. (Take that Fox, CBS, ABC and SciFi).

Season 3 will be back very soon with brand-new questions and more interesting people.

Unfortunately Lisa Brewster didn’t make it into the Mahalo VLOG Idol final, her interview is still here though.

This week it’s Jeremy Schoemaker aka. ShoeMoney’s turn to show us his desktop. It’s almost impossible to describe Shoemoney in a few lines. I’m still going to do it though.

Regular readers of Shoemoney.com know that he lost 240 lbs in 15 months, never read an entire book and that he became famous for his $132,994.97 Adsense check.

ShoeMoney is known for his posts about affiliate marketing, CPC, PPC, CPM-stuff (and other 3 letter terms) and see new schwag T-shirts.

ShoeMoney co-founded AuctionAds (now ShoppingAds, check this blog’s right upper corner) and sold it to MediaWhiz.

The very successful and exclusive Elite Retreat, which brings the best entrepreneurs in SEO, SEM and internet marketing together, is also co-founded by ShoeMoney.

He also runs ShoeMoney Media Group and hosts the weekly podcast “The ShoeMoney Show” on Webmasterradio.fm.

As always when ShoeMoney is involved it’s brief and honest. The same goes for this interview.

A few days after I mailed ShoeMoney the questions, he posted this How To Get That Interview.

What is your background picture?

Its the factory one that comes with Macosx

Why did you chose that picture?

I just never really get into background pictures.

If you have a personal and a work computer, which program do you use the most on your personal computer?

In both my personal and work computers I use terminal more then anything.

Internet Explorer or Firefox?

Firefox! Mostly because I am on a macintosh

What is your favourite program?

I favorite program or program I look forward to using would be itunes.

Thank you very much, ShoeMoney for answering my questions. Keep up the entertaining and informative posts!

If you missed Larissa Meek’s interview last week, make sure you head over there and read it. This week it’s Lisa Brewster’s turn to show me her desktop.

Lisa Brewster aka. Adora calls herself “just some girl on the internet”, but if you ask me, she is on her way to being much more than that.

Lisa is taking part in Mahalo’s VLOGIdol. She is one of the finalists and could be the host on Mahalo Daily. If you want to support Lisa, which I’ll encourage you to do, join her Facebook Fan group, send her a SASE and get a free “I want Lisa to host Mahalo Daily” sticker and give her your support here.

It’s a tough competition with a lot of talented women with both beauty and “geeky”.

Lisa is the product manager for StartUp Schwag. The Web 2.0 schwag club. Once per month they will send you a bag with schwag, usually a t-shirt and some stickers. I’d love to become a member, but it’s $25 every month because I live in Denmark. US-residents get it a lot cheaper.

If you want to learn more about Lisa and her many projects, I suggest you visit Sophistechate.com, Lisa Brewster Photography and Technarium.com.

And now for the interview:

What is your background picture?
http://www.skinbase.org/rate.php?skins=40303

Why did you chose that picture?

I’ve always been a fan of basic black, but when I got my Thinkpad I wanted something warmer and slightly feminine. My work computer, however, has a picture of a neurotic kitten wielding a chainsaw.

If you have a personal and a work computer, which program do you use the most on your personal computer?

According to Wakoopa, I mostly use Firefox and Photoshop. I recently switched from Miranda IM to Trillian Astra, so chatting in general deserves a higher ranking than what it currently has.

Which program do you use the most on your work computer?

Outlook and VMware Server.

Internet Explorer or Firefox?

Firefox, of course.

Why do you use Firefox?

Since Firefox has such a huge catalog of plugins, I’m able to customize it to fit into my workflow better. I don’t think I could live without the Web Developer toolbar and Remove It Permanently.

What is your favourite program?

I tried really, really hard to pick just one program, but I couldn’t do it. My most useful program is an open source project called Synergy, which I use to connect one keyboard and mouse to the four computers on my desk at work. My favorite program to actually use, though, is a little known video player called Light Alloy. From the very first time I tried it I could tell that the author really understands how to interact with the user while staying out of the way.

Which program is the worst?

Sprint Connection Manager. I groan every time I have to mess with it.

Mac or Pc and why?

Definitely PC. Even more socially uncool is that except for a few quirks (like pesky windows stealing the foreground) I like using Vista. On 2K and XP I always had to customize the hell out of my Windows install with visual styles and shell extensions, but Vista does more of what I want out of the box. The new start menu is so simple and intuitive that it’s practically genius. There are some great applications that are only available for Macs, and Apple has changed the world of UI design forever (I confess that I have a dock myself), but using OS X just never feels like home.

Thank you very much for the help and best of luck with Mahalo VLOGIdol, Lisa! You can always send a sticker and Mahalo greetings to Denmark

It’s time for another round of Show Me Your Desktop. If you missed Amber Mac’s interview it’s still around.

This week it’s Larissa Meek’s turn to show us her desktop. Fans of the Miss Teen USA or Miss USA pageant know her, fans of the reality TV show “Average Joe: Hawaii” know her and fans of art and interactive design know Larissa.

Larissa is a senior art director at AgencyNet. If you’ve never visited AgencyNet.com, you really missed a great website. They really put the “i” in interactive and they are hiring, if you are interested.

I can also highly recommend you visit Larissa’s personal blog. The design of her blog is just as beautiful and easy on the eyes as her artworks.

The attentive reader will also notice that Larissa is a PC-user. You don’t run across these every day.

What is your background picture?

Last week I asked Adam Ostrow from Mashable and Readburner to show me his desktop. This week it’s Amber MacArthur’s (aka Amber Mac) turn. Her blog just got a major graphical overhaul and she has promised us to write more blog posts and take over the online world. The new layout looks great and good luck with online world domination.

Amber is co-founder of MGI Media, but you might know her from G4TechTV’s “Call For Help”, Webnation, commandN or net@night podcast, which is hosted by Amber and Leo Laporte. It runs on Leo Laporte’s own netcast network known as TWiT.tv (This Week in Tech). Net@night (previously “Inside The Net”) is published every Thursday. The topics range from Amber’s links to Web 2.0 entrepreneurs.

Amber also hosts commandN, a weekly video show with techtips, reviews, webpicks and more. It is one of the most downloaded video podcasts. It is the 20th highest ranked podcast on Digg. Net@Night is number 17. commandN has been around since 2005. It can be downloaded in various formats, including H.264 and Xbox360.

I’ve been a commandN viewer since Will Pate joined the show, its a coincidence actually. I didn’t know Will Pate before he joined the show.

Now on the the interview. You’ll learn that Amber not only dig fish, she also kicks computers…

What is your background picture?

I have clown fish on my background pic today.

Why did you chose that picture?

I dig fish.

If you have a personal and a work computer, which program do you use the most on your personal computer?

Skype on personal computer.

Which program do you use the most on your work computer?

Mailplane on work computer.

Internet Explorer or Firefox?

I am a Firefox junkie.

Why do you use Firefox?

I am hooked on Firefox extensions.

What is your favourite program?

Snapz Pro

Which program is the worst?

Apple iChat

Do you have any tips and tricks on how to get the most out of your computer or blog?

I think you can get the most out of your computer if you kick it when it’s down (I kid, I kid!).

Mac or Pc and why?

I am a Mac user because I like the overall user experience (and I sucker for a smooth user experience).

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer my questions Amber. Keep up the good work with your shows and good luck with your fish-fetish.

Last week’s interview with the sword swinging and keyboard wearing Lisa Bettany was a huge success. Especially because of Lisa’s use of twitter, flickr and Pownce.

This week it’s Editor-in-Chief of Mashable, MindSay co-founder and ReadBurner owner Adam Ostrow’s turn to show us his desktop. Many of you probably know Adam from Mashable and MindSay (one of the oldest blogging communities), but from today we’ll also know Adam as the one of the guys, who acquired ReadBurner.

In January 2008 Alexander Marktl launched Readburner as a hobby project, but within a month is became a very popular service. So popular that it took more time than Alexander Marktl had. Luckily for ReadBurner and for us Adam Ostrow, Drew Olanoff and Eric Kerr recently bought it and is making sure the service lives on. So what is ReadBurner?

ReadBurner collects the shared items from each feed. It’s similar to Techmeme and heavily inspired RSSmeme. It has a lot of potential. If they can get the attention and coverage, it’ll beat the current FriendFeed hype. Adam, if you need my help promoting ReadBurner, you can count on me.

The interview is a little taste of what season 3 of Show Me Your Desktop will offer.

What is your background picture?

Hilary Duff. Not like Lizzie McGuire Hilary Duff, that’d be kind of sketchy. But she’s all grown up and looks amazing.

Why did you choose that picture?

In addition to being really hot, Hilary seems like a breath of fresh air compared to a lot of the celebrities out there. She’s involved in a lot of charities and actually does stuff with them like handing out meals in New Orleans after Katrina. I shouldn’t know all this, but I spend almost as much time on WeSmirch as I do TechMeme, so, I do.

If you have a personal and a work computer, which program do you use the most on your personal computer?

They are one and the same. Sadly, I’d say when I’m not working, the program I use the most is still Firefox. I spend too much time on the Web.

Which program do you use the most on your work computer?

Firefox and Trillian are tied, since they are both open all day. Within Firefox, the programs I use the most are Gmail and Google Reader. Those two are also always on.

Which web browser is your preferred browser?

Firefox 2.0. I still do use IE on occasion though for quality assurance on my various side projects. It’s amazing how different the same site can look on different browsers. Usually, it’s not pretty.

Why is it your favourite browser?

Initially, it was the tabbed browsing, but IE has that now too. It also used to run a lot faster than IE, but that advantage also seems to be fading with all of the memory leaks. I guess Firefox won me over originally with their innovations, and much like Google versus Yahoo or Ask, it would take a lot more than a few shiny new features to get me to switch. I’d need to see something truly radical and innovative.

What is your favourite program and why?

My favorite has to be Google Reader. Pulling together all of the sites you read in one location is such an amazing time saver, and of the RSS readers I’ve tried, Google Reader does the best job of it. As someone that consumes and creates news for a living, it’s absolutely the most important tool that I’ve got.

Which program is the worst?

Adobe Reader. Loading up PDFs grinds my computer to an absolute halt. Note to PR people: don’t send us PDFs!!!

Do you have any tips and tricks on how to get the most out of your computer or blog?

To get the most out of your computer, you need to constantly delete the crap you don’t use. Similar to how a messy house can create a lethargic environment, a desktop cluttered with worthless apps can be rather de-motivating.

As for getting the most of your blog, I think one of the most important things you can do is respond to as many of your commenters as possible. Not only are these people your most important readers, but if you write for a more newsy and commercial blog like Mashable, I’ve found it’s the best way for people to get to know who you are. Similar to newspapers, with the exception of a few bloggers, almost no one remembers the bylines, so even if you write for one of the big sites, it’s up to you to build your personal brand.

From a content perspective, one tip I can offer is to constantly vary the format and length of your posts. I know I can’t stand reading big blocks of text, and know most other people don’t enjoy it either. So experiment with different image placements, shorter paragraphs, and block quotes.

Thank you very much Adam and the best of luck with ReadBurner. It’s a great service and I’m certain you will succeed. Oh and if you ever need my services on Mashable…Not that I’m waiting or anything. (Updating Gmail every two minutes and redirecting Skype, IM and twitter to my cell)

Last week I asked Duncan Riley to Show Me Your Desktop. Duncan started a new urge in me. I want to replace my two 19″ monitor with 22″. If you don’t want to be tempted, then please don’t read last week’s interview with Duncan Riley.

This week it’s Lisa Bettany’s turn to share her desktop with us. If you aren’t familiar with Lisa’s blog “Mostly Lisa”, you are missing something in your feed-reader. She has some hilarious videos, clever blog posts and takes great pictures. The media part is because of her involvement in the multimedia company Redpilot. However Lisa is more than just a blogger, actress, model, nocturnal and geek. She is also in the top 8 in Wired’s Sexiest Geeks 2007. So remember to vote for her.

I also noticed that Lisa has a thing for Mac. Yet again we meet a lovely Canadian with a Mac-fetish and great photography skills. I have to get myself one a Mac. Beautiful people use Macs.

What is your background picture?

OS Leopard theme “Aurora”

Why did you chose that picture?

In the past, I have always used my favourite photographs as my desktop, but being a bit of an Apple fangirl I couldn’t help but get into the OSX Leopard craze. Plus, I personally feel that this is the best desktop image Apple has come out with and who doesn’t like space themes?

If you have a personal and a work computer, which program do you use the most on your personal computer?

I’d have to say Safari, because I am constantly blogging or searching the www. Adobe’s Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, iTunes, iPhoto, iChat, VLC, Transmit, and Entourage are my other top applications.

Which program do you use the most on your work computer?

Work computer = home computer. I run my multimedia company from home, usually in my pajamas.

Internet Explorer or Firefox?

I only use Safari. I use FF as a default when I have browser issues with Safari, but I find Safari to be a cleaner, more aesthetic, better functioning application over-all. Plus, I was getting bogged in FF plug-ins and wasting far too much time searching for new ones. 2008 is all about stream-lining my resources and getting things done!

What is your favourite program?

A toss up between Adobe Photoshop and Final Cut Pro. Both are intensely powerful programs that allow me to create beyond my wildest dreams. I haven’t even touched the power of these programs.

Which program is the worst?

Microsoft’s Excel. I’ve done my fair share of data entry and just the sight of it makes me frustrated, bored, and slightly nauseous. I’m currently moving over to Apple’s spreadsheet program “Numbers”.

Do you have any tips and tricks on how to get the most out of your computer or blog?

What you put into your blog and the blogging communities is directly proportional to what you get out of it. I reply to every comment and email I receive about my blog. It means something to me someone has taken the time to write me a thoughtful comment, or just a “hey, I liked that post”. I also visit try and visit their blogs if they have include their URL in their comment. I have met great people and found wonderful blogging communities this way. Also, writing relevant, interesting, and varied posts with cute pictures of yourself also helps ( ;

Mac or Pc and why?

For me and the type of work I do, Mac > PC. It’s just that simple.

It might be a comfort to some, that Lisa is struggeling with some of the same problems as you are – Joining too many social networks. That’s why I’m really glad she found the time to answer my questions. Thank you Lisa and good luck with the audition.

PS: Thank you for cleaning your desktop before taking the screen dump.

Phew… Finally some time to blog again. I usually publish a Show Me Your Desktop interview on Sundays, but due to the screen writers’ strike we’ve had delays this season… Ok that’s not true, the cursed work has kept me busy, but now all important projects and presentations are done.

If you missed last week’s interview with Sarah Meyers head over here to read it. Sarah just launched Pop17.com.

This week it’s Duncan Riley’s turn to Show Me Your Desktop. If you Google Duncan Riley a lot of different articles and posts comes up. Many of them are about why he left b5media in 2006. That’s 1½ year ago, so there isn’t anything interesting in that anymore. Instead I’ll focus on what Duncan does now.

He is one of the more controversial bloggers. His posts on TechCrunch often starts a heated debate. This particular debate extended into this blog post on Duncan’s personal blog. I’m still not sure what the Australian government’s plan is, but what I gather it sounds really stupid.

Duncan also hosts a really interesting podcast show on thepodcastnetwork. Here he interviews a very mixed crowd from local Australian web experts to American money makers.

He is also a VERY active twitter. I remember Michael Arrington once told him to Wtwit less and write more.”

And now on with the interview.

What is your background picture?

The Apple store in San Francisco I took in July 2007.

Why did you chose that picture?

It seemed appropriate for my Mac Pro. The picture itself has the Apple logo on the store nearly dead middle

If you have a personal and a work computer, which program do you use the most on your personal computer?

I have two computers. A Mac Pro at home, and a Macbook Pro (17″) for when I’m on the road. As I work for myself there’s no personal or work computer as such.

Twitteriffic would get the best work out on both computers, aside from the browser and Mac Mail.

Internet Explorer or Firefox?

Until days ago I would have said Flock. It’s a great browser that in my experience at least is less of a memory hog than FF2 was. I’m now using the latest beta of Firefox 3. The first beta still had memory issues, but as of beta 2 it’s a pleasure to use, and it’s very memory efficient (even more so than Flock). It looks like Mozilla has finally fixed the memory leaks that ruined Firefox 2.Why do you use Fireox?

I was a windows user until nearly 12 months ago, and even then I used Firefox over Internet Explorer. I’m a heavy tab user and Firefox has done tabs from pretty close to the beginning. IE 7 is a vastly improved browser over IE6, but by that stage, like a lot of people, I’d switched to Firefox and had no interest in going back.

What is your favourite program?

Skitch. Being able to do 95% (perhaps more) of my image editing tasks super quickly and without having to open Photoshop has been a blessing for me, and it’s made me far more efficient in my day to day workWhich program is the worst?

Cyberduck, but to be fair FTP on a Mac just never seems to be as smooth for me using any program as compared to Windows.

Do you have any tips and tricks on how to get the most out of your computer or blog?

You need to have the right tools so that your focus is on blogging, not fighting with the software you have installed. Switching to Apple products was the best move I’ve ever made, I no longer worry about whether my operating system is getting a virus, or needs maintaining…or anything really. Macs just work.

In terms of other tools look for products that make your blogging easier. I use Skitch for basic image editing, Grammarian for US English grammar and spell check, iMovie to mix videos and Garage Band to mix podcasts. All make my life a lot easier and I think my work is better for using them. If you’re blogging for yourself, there’s a range of desktop blogging tools available as well, unfortunately for me the quirks of my main writing gig at the moment for TechCrunch means that I have to use WordPress directly, but presuming you don’t have a similar issue, use a blogging client.

Last tip: multiple monitors are a god send. I have twin 22″ monitors, on my left monitor I run Twitteriffic and Firefox, on the right monitor mail, Skitch and any other program I may want to run. This allows you to have a document or email open and visible at the same time you have access to your browser (or blogging client), negating the need to switch between windows when writing a blog post. You can go for one bigger monitor, but cost wise 22″ monitors in Australia at least are down to around the $300 mark ($275 US), much cheaper than say one 30″ at $1500-$2000, and ultimately you get more desktop with the twin monitors. Some suggest 3 works better again, but in my case I’d need a bigger desk first

Click to see a larger image

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer my questions Duncan. The dual 22″ monitor made me a bit envious. I’m pretty sure three monitors would be overkill. I’m not sure what the benefit of that would be.

Personally I use two 19″ monitors (one HP and one IBM), but an upgrade to 22″ wouldn’t be too bad.

How many monitors do you use? Which size and brand? And why do you use more than one monitor?