I have a few business magazines, a picture of an island off the coast of New Zealand, a picture of a Porsche 911, vitamins, a stack of biz cards, and a small fan.
Hmm.... A small desk lamp, a scotch tape dispenser, two unused staplers, two unused hole punches, two vertical wire-files for the bits of loose paper that won't go away (one of which is completely empty, the other half-so), two stainless steel water bottles, my sunglasses, the wrist watch I never wear, my keys, a couple of smaller writing pads, and three VOIP phones (for testing). There's also a couple tech books that I never open (because I use the eBook versions on my iPhone, exNook, etc., now instead), along with the latest squarebound corporate policy tome that says I shouldn't post this.
All that and a small model bus with my hometown on the destination board to remind me that if I fail I'll be back on that bus going somewhere I fought to get out of.
Legal pads. With all the technology I deal with on a regular day, nothing beats having a legal pad handy to jot notes on. Something about handwriting really seems to help me remember interesting things from Hacker news, or odd notes from phone calls.
You are looking at the cubical of an average systems administrator. You notice a few items scattered around the desk (the computer is locked down and cannot be taken)
Random Books:
Pointers on C
C Programing Language
Unix Power Tools
Sed and Awk
Classic Shell Scripting
Unix in a Nutshell
A set of index cards (half size 2.5x3) with lists for next tasks for each project/issue being tracked.
sweeping from left to right, excluding imac, kbd, mouse, cell phone, extra monitor:
- despair.com "Potential" desktopper
- graph 8.5x11 notepad
- small form diary/calendar
- sunglasses
- my keys [ironically, to a 911 turbo s cabrio]
- delcom usb led 904005-SB http://www.delcomproducts.com/productdetails.asp?productnum=...
- two ipads and two ipod touches
- book for financial exam
- lego police set [police minifigure collection] and lego helicopter
- cars from a few lego train sets
- cufflinks
- pencil holder with staedler 0.3 drafting pencils
- american express
A few business cards, various papers, glass of water, mug of pens/pencils etc., postcard received from a friend visiting Amsterdam, small buddha statue kind of like this: http://bit.ly/iO2Iy5
I do believe that you've picked up what I put down.
Seriously though, my desktop is essentially bare. I like the space to spread my arms out as I think, and I find that a large clean surface allows me to concentrate better than a desk full of books, knickknacks, and office supplies does.
All that and a small model bus with my hometown on the destination board to remind me that if I fail I'll be back on that bus going somewhere I fought to get out of.