Strange volumes show on my desktop

[fastmichal]

So recently I made my mac show all the hidden files and now I see two volumes on my desktop which I don't know where they came from. When I open them there are empty. Maybe it's nothing but they kinda pissin me off since i don't know what it is

Does any of you have an idea what that might be?

here are the screenshots of what i'm talking about:
volumes on my desktop - http://cl.ly/1r1g02111z2t1N1Q0g3k
volumes info - http://cl.ly/1f2a3h130n3m0s3C3a26

any help greatly appreciated

 

[r0k]

So recently I made my mac show all the hidden files and now I see two volumes on my desktop which I don't know where they came from. When I open them there are empty. Maybe it's nothing but they kinda pissin me off since i don't know what it is

Does any of you have an idea what that might be?

here are the screenshots of what i'm talking about:
...
any help greatly appreciated

I can't see the pictures you posted but I suggest you turn hidden files back off. If those two files on the desktop bother you, you are in for a lot of bother. The unix filesystem, and therefore the OS X filesystem is strewn with unexplained hidden files. Some are containers for "meta data" like what color you have set for a folder. Some are system files that if you mess with them, your Mac might not boot any more. This is why I suggest you go back to hiding hidden files if they bother you.

There is also a wealth of information available simply by typing the names of the hidden files or folders in a google search.

Ok I found a way to view the icons you are asking about. One is called "home" and one is called "net". Take a look in your finder at the top of the sidebar on the left and see if there are items there called "net" and "home". Those icons refer to network drives you are connected to. It is hard to tell from the screen shot you posted, but they appear to be greyed out like hidden shared volumes. If you connect to a windows server, there are sometimes hidden shares. Any network or usb drive you are connected to will show an icon on your desktop when it is mounted. Now that I see your second file, it says localhost home and localhost net.

In your second screenshot the icons say localhost home and localhost net which means your Mac is sharing them and you have them mounted. I'll take a look when I'm in front of my Mac but right now I don't have any ideas.

 

[Makosuke]

/home/ and /net/ are standard system directories in OSX. They are usually hidden by the OS, but since you turned on show hidden files, you're seeing them as if they were mounted network disks (which, from the perspective of the OS, is how they're treated).

The locations (localhost/net and localhost/home) are just telling you that they're mounted from the local host--the computer you're working on.

Frankly, if you don't know what those are, you should probably not have turned on viewing of hidden files--they're one of dozens of things that the OS hides from you because they are not used directly under any normal circumstances and if you mess with them you will break things. If your goal was just to un-hide ~/Library in Lion, there are tweaks that will just do that without making all the other hidden stuff visible.