Well I’ve scoured the internet for you to find the best and most inspiring desktop backgrounds.

Listed in order of excellence:(all links open in a new window)

1. Vladstudio – Clean, cool, artistic brilliance. Awesome artist and designer.

2. Desktopography – Awesome artwork. Subtle mixing of graphic elements with natural settings.

3. DesktopNexus – A community based site with a large variety of great quality Wallpapers.

4. PixelGirlPresents – Great quality desktops, icons and iPhone Wallpapers.

5. InterfaceLift – Great selection of natural and artistic designs.

6. BestGamesWallpapers – Images and artwork from Games on the net.

7. SpaceTelescope.org – While not a dedicated site, their Wallpapers section is stunning.

8. DigitalBlasphemy – Not all free but very high quality with a CG and animation style.

9. MyBestDesktops – Mostly natural backgrounds. Animals and landscapes.

10. FlickrWallpapersPool – This is not a website but rather a section on Flickr for desktop backgrounds.

11. HongKiat.com WallPapers Category – very high quality collection of wallpapers for your desktop.

• fantasyartdesign.com – Great artwork and designs.
• visualparadox.com – Computer generated and fantasy art desktops.

Some other Wallpaper sites worth a look…

• pixelhigh.com - Babes on backgrounds.
• dowwallpaper.com – Great selection, good navigation even though too many ads.
• cool3dwallpaper.com – More spacey and 3d style themes.
• coolwallpaper.com – Weird chintzy looking site but a good assortment of celebrity, space and landscape style themes.
• search.ra-gu.net – Strange name and lots of ads but some out of the ordinary desktops.
• fantom-xp.com – Site can be annoying but their are some good backgrounds to be found.
• wallpaperstock.net – Ads and confusion but some good desktops.

Any other great Wallpaper sites I have missed?

Please comment and let me know.

Shelfari is a sharing site that allows you to create a slick looking bookshelf with pop-up information, and buy now links that use your Amazon afilliate ID.

The great thing is that apart from this, Shelfari is a great looking website that’s fun, and it gets you excited about books, both the ones we’ve read and yet to discover.

To create your own bookshelf, with Amazon commissions you will need to:

1. Create an Amazon account here: http://www.amazon.com

2. Joint the affiliate program here: https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/join/landing/main.html

3. You will receive an Amazon ID that will look something like: astrorecor_20

4. Create an account at Shelfari here: http://www.shelfari.com5. Create a list of books that you want to display:

To do this you will have to browse Shelfari and designate categories for them. The rest of this guide assumes you have already done this.

After logging in to your account, go to Home nav at the top and select My Shelf.

Next find the Shelf drop-down and select List View.

This will open a list view of all the books you have selected that will look something like this:

6. Start creating the widget here: http://www.shelfari.com/widget

Choose the Javascript widget for the most options and uses.

Select a list from the menu.

Click the customize your widget button,

Select the sort order for the books and enter your afilliate ID.

Click Save and Continue.

7. Copy the code Shelfari gives you into your website so that when published it will render your beautiful bookshelf.

WordPress users: Switch to HTML mode in your Edit Post screen, paste in this code and then press Update Post. If you switch back to Visual mode it will mash the code and it will not display properly on the front end. i.e. do this last.

When you update the books on a particular list it will automatically change the ones in the widget.

And this is what it all looks like:

I recommend pasting this code into a simple text doc to keep it for later. This code can be entered anywhere on the web where Javascript is allowed.

Here is the video Screencast just in case you just have to listen to my voice and SEE how to make this happen.

With the help of Apple they essentially toppled Microsoft off their perch and created an ever expanding suite of search and discovery tools.

Google Apps is one of their lesser know free services and has the following benefits:

1. You can use anyname@yourdomain.com
2. Its Free
3. Up to 7GB of space.
4. Send 20MB attachments.
5. Fantastic Google spam filtering.
6. Access your account from your computer or from a browser anywhere in the world.
7. Sync with your Mobile.
8. Comes with other cool apps like Google Documents and Google Calendar.
9. Create up to 200 user accounts!
10. Allows you to sync and/or access the same account from more than one terminal or user!

Create a Google apps account for free right here.

Try this most excellent color picker and themes display from the masters at Adobe. They have an excellent rating system and a huge collection of themes you can page through. Once you have found one you like you can export the numbers for use in your web design, photoshop file, or css style sheet.

Its fun, flexible, stylish and, you’re sure to find a scheme that fits with the look and feel you want. Check it out now. Go to – http://kuler.adobe.com/

Also, If you sign up for a free account, you can save and even submit color schemes to the site.

Animoto is a web application that collects your images and music and creates an awesome media experience. Created by professional movie makers, this tool can create a clean stylish movie for your product or service. It’s free for clips under 30 seconds, and for $30US per year you can create as many as you like with unlimited time. Go to http://animoto.com/ to try it out.