First be sure you know what resolution you need for your computer or phone. You can resize with software, but it will not look right if you do not know what to resize it to. Not only do wallpapers make your computer or phone look better, but you can print them, or have them made into beautiful posters.

If you do not see a download link for an image click on the thumbnail or the image to open it in a new window. To save the image right-click and select Save Image As.

Don’t forget about UNC Charlotte’s official wallpaper!

Top 10 Sites For Computer and Phone Wallpaper

Interfacelift

Interfacelife offers free high-resolution widescreen wallpapers. You find wallpaper using a variety of sorting methods or type a keyword in the search box and you will be shown links that match your search. The site also offers themes for the Mac, Windows and Sony PS3. You can also find a variety of desktop icons. Their Backdrops iPhone application ($1.99) brings a wallpaper collection to your iPhone..

DevianART Wallpaper

DeviantART is well-known for quality images and their wallpaper section is no different. Their images are more artist-centric and have a loyal following of contributors. Don’t just go for the wallpaper, be sure and look over the rest of their site.

Wallbase

Wallbase offers a collection of over 370,000 wallpapers. You can search using specific keywords or colors, view random wallpapers, or take a look at the current most popular wallpapers. Wallbase specializes in general, anime and high-resolution wallpaper

4chan

4chan is an image based bulletin board where anyone can post images. There are sub-boards with a variety of topics. The /Wallpaper/ board is where you will find a variety of wallpapers. 4chan is as much social as images. You can post comments and give feedback on images posted.

Wallpaper Abyss

Wallpaper Abyss has over 25,000 wallpapers and claim a new wallpaper is added every hour. One thing I like about this site is it gives you your monitor resolution which makes it easy to select the right image to download. They also offer mobile wallpaper, avatars, full-screen 4:3, and widescreen 16:10. All downloads are free.

Caedes

Caedes is community based site of artists, designers and photographers. They offer a number of galleries of wallpaper and image sizes. They have a tutorial gallery if you are interested in learning how to make your own wallpaper.

Desktop Nexus

Desktop Nexus features over 215,000 wallpapers in a variety of categories. A nice feature of this site is it detects your monitor resolution and when you download a wallpaper it helps tweak the image to look good on your desktop. This does not always come out well, but you can select Options and download different sizes or the original and tweak it yourself.

Vlad Studio

Vlad Studio is the work of a talented Russian wallpaper artist, Vlad Gerasimov. In addition to wallpapers Vlad Studio also features desktop wall clocks, puzzles, e-cards, and icons. There is a lot you can download for free, but you must register to download everything else. Registration costs from $29.99 for a lifetime to $9.99 for 3 months.

You can download wallpaper in low quality, high quality, widescreen, 2 or 3 monitors, and for a variety of mobile phone sizes including the iPhone. You must be a registered user to download some content.

Social Wallpapering

Social Wallpapering is a community that offers standard, widescreen, an dual-monitor wallpaper. They use a classification and community ranking system to highlight the best. You can browse their collection (now over 7000) or click on random and be surprised. Using the Browse drop-down menu allows you to select different categories.

Digital Blasphemy

Digital Blasphemy has a collection of 3D rendered computer wallpapers. They also have dual-monitor, triple-monitor and mobile versions in their collection. Some images are free to download, including most versions that offer mobile versions. To download all images you must register. Registration ranges from 90 days for $14.95 to lifetime for $79.95.

Mandolux

Mandolux is run by a self-professed “bum” in Southern California who makes desktop wallpaper. Browse the archives for a variety of dual-monitor, triple-monitor and single monitor wallpaper. If you find something you like for a dual-monitor, but only have a single monitor visit his Flicker site to download the single image.

NASA

If you enjoy breathtaking pictures from space look at these two sites of NASA photos. The Astronomy Picture of the Day Archive offers hundreds of NASA pictures dating back to 1995. The NASA Image of the Day Gallery offers the most current images as well as other types of multimedia.

Alternatives

Google Images

Go to Google Images and type in a keyword such as “wallpaper” or “beach wallpaper” and you will find LOTS of wallpaper. The wallpaper search returned 22,800,000 hits.

Bing Images

Bing Images offers fewer hits that Google, but they have a nice interface to allow you to select wallpaper by size, layout, color, style or people.

Okay it was more than 10 sites, but there are some I did not want to leave off.

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Image Credit

In landscape photography since the contrast is lower during the golden hour the warm color of the Sun enhances the colors of the scene. Shapes and textures are highlighted and shadows do not appear to be as dark.

The golden hour occurs two times each day. During the first hour of sunlight of the day and the last hour of sunlight. The perfect time is when the Sun is 6 degrees above and 6 degrees below the horizon. Knowing just when the golden hour will occur in your area is easy to determine thanks to the Golden Hour website.

Image Credit

When you go to the Golden Hour web site it will attempt to automatically determine your location. You can adjust the map according to latitude and longitude, but it hit my location perfectly. A satellite map is displayed and your location should be in the center of the map. You can pan around to position yourself where you are now or where you plan to be. You want to location to be right in the middle of the map.

As you adjust the location the web site will adjust giving you all of the information you need to determine the golden hour at that location. The golden hour times are highlighted for sunrise and sunset. At the time this was written the golden hour in the UNC Charlotte area for today was 6:30-7:30 AM and 7:30-8:30 PM. You can also change the date and get golden hour calculations. The current date is noted with the green square.

Visit the Golden Hour web site and always know the golden hour wherever you plan to take photographs.

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“An Idiot’s Guide to Photoshop” starts with the assumption that you know nothing about Photoshop at all and walks you through the basic uses of it. The guide comes with cheat sheets and three full pages of shortcuts. It is a real steal since it is FREE.

Let MakeUseOf’s own Karl Gechlic from AskTheAdmin guide you throughout the different editing possibilities in 30 illustrated pages, and get you to know your paint bucket from your eraser.

Visit the MakeUseOf.com web site to download the FREE PDF “An Idiot’s Guide to Photoshop”. There are really a lot of good sites and guides out there. Soon I will make a list and share them.

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Worried that you may be infected with the Conficker worm and not know about it? Even though April 1st has come and gone there have been a lot of recent posts on the Internet about Conficker activity.

The Conficker Working Group has produced a quick way to check if your Windows PC has a Conficker infection: the Conficker Eye Chart. It is simple and 100% free, no kidding.

If you do find or suspect you have been infected you can download a cleaning tool from Symantec. Visit the Symantec web site for more information.

Conficker (aka Downadup, Kido) is known to block access to over 100 anti-virus and security websites.

If you are blocked from loading the remote images in the first row of the top table above (AV/security sites) but not blocked from loading the remote images in the second row (websites of alternative operating systems) then your Windows PC may be infected by Conficker (or some other malicious software).

If you can see all six images in both rows of the top table, you are either not infected by Conficker, or you may be using a proxy server, in which case you will not be able to use this test to make an accurate determination, since Conficker will be unable to block you from viewing the AV/security sites.

If your Windows PC is not infected with Conficker you should see a result like this.

Click to Enlarge - Conficker Eye Chart

This is NOT the chart you need to test with. Visit the The Conficker Working Group to view the Conficker eye chart.

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A lens hood helps prevent glare and lens flare. It’s basically a petal-shaped plastic ring that clips onto the end of your lens. In this case, however, it’s a printed piece of paper, which can accomplish the same goal. The site carries custom hoods for upwards of a hundred different lenses, including models from Canon, Nikon, Olympus and Sigma.

Printable lens hoods offer a number of advantages over their costly counterparts:

• Ultra compact – can be carried unfolded.
• No waiting to order one – simply download, print, cut-out and attach.
• Redundancy – don’t worry if you lose one; just print another!
• 100% recyclable
• Can be modified to cater for different digital SLR sensor crop factors.
• Available in both ’rounded’ and ‘petal’ versions.
• They’re absolutely free!

Find your own printable digital lens hoods at Lenshoods.net.

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1. Digital Photography – 7 Tips For Better Results

Use the Magic Hour – The “magic hour” is the hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset. The lower angle of the sun will provide rich saturated tones that you will get at no other time of the day. Photographers call this “sweet light”. You can get some amazing shots during this hour. It is a near golden glow that makes everything look better. Landscapes will seem enchanted and golden clouds make for some fantastic sunsets. If you are real lucky the magic hour can be enhanced by weather. For instance sunsets just after a rain will leave the air clear and the sunlight reflections from the water can give you refractions and water droplets can become shimmering diamonds.

The Magic Hour - click for larger image

Force Flash Outdoors – You may not think of it, but using your flash outdoors can produce better results under certain circumstances. For instance if you a shooting a target that is in shadow the picture will come out too dark. You camera is sensing all of the sun and determines no flash is needed. To solve this problem force your flash on and it will fill in the light enough to brighten your target. It also has the effect of softening the picture which can be very flattering for facial shots.

Eliminate Shutter Lag – Shutter lag is the time between when you press the trigger button and the camera actual takes the picture. During this time the camera calculates exposure and focus. You may have the perfect picture lined up only to have the subject move in the time it takes to press the trigger and take the picture. To eliminate this problem aim your camera anticipating where the subject will be and half depress he trigger. This allows the camera to calculate the exposure and focus before you take the picture. Hold the trigger half depressed until your shot lines up, then fully press the trigger.

Blurred Background Effect – By creating a shallow dept of field you can create some amazing shots where the focus is on the subject and you get a blurred background effect. To accomplish this select the portrait mode on your camera. Have the subject move away from the background as far as possible. Move away from your subject as far as possible and then zoom in to bring the subject back close as you take the picture. This takes some practice, but when you get it right you will love the effect. You don’t want to go as far as digital zoom or the picture will be too grainy.

Exhale and Pull Your Elbows In – Unless you have a vibration control lens such as those found on higher end camera rigs pulling your elbows in and exhaling as you shot your pictures will help steady your shot. You should practice this with every picture you take so it becomes part of your natural flow. Whenever possible steady yourself by placing your elbows on a firm surface creating a tripod position.

Steady Yourself

Shoot More Candidly – It is hard to walk around with a camera pointing and not get noticed. I think posed pictures meet a need, but the best pictures are those taken when your subject is not aware they are being photographed. One way you can get candid shots is to hide by shooting around something such as the corner of a building, over a shoulder of someone in front of you or shooting through something such as a bush. While it may feel a little creepy, you will get good results from more candid photos.

How to Deal With Direct Light – Shooting in direct light can present challenges. Lens flare, high contrast and saturated colors can ruin the perfect picture. To work around this you need to create shade. If possible have your subject move into the shade and use fill in flash if needed. If you are forced to shoot into the sun be sure and force your flash on to fill in. Other ways to combat direct light include using filters such as a polarizing or neutral density filter. Polarizing filers have the added bonus of giving you some good color. You can use a lens hood to battle lens flare and if available a reflector to redirect light to your subject.

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2. Find The Golden Hour For Your Photographs

By adding email notifications and a social networking news feed, Digsby is a single application that sits in your tray and provides you with all of your IM, email and social networking updates. With the recent addition of Facebook Chat and Twitter integration Digsby just keeps getting better.

Digsby also allows you to transfer files to anyone on your buddy list. Video and audio chat is available, but higher quality video and voice chat are coming soon. Here are some highlights of the many features that Digsby has to offer.

Click on the thumbnails for full size images.

Instant Messaging

At the heart of Digsby is its powerful integrated messaging features. With one program you can use all of your favorite IM services. With Digsby you can setup and access your AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, Jabber, and Facebook Chat Accounts.

• Manage multiple conversations with tabbed conversation windows.
• Rename buddy names with an alias so you don’t have to remember that DragonSlayer89 is John.
• Send SMS messages to your friends cell phones directly from the IM window
• Check everyone’s status message in the info box.
• Log and search conversation history
• MUCH more.

MULTIPLE IM's - Click to see a larger image

Email

If you are like me you have multiple email accounts. Digsby allows you to manage and monitor them all from one place. Setting up your email accounts in Digsby in incredibly easy.

• Manage your Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL/AIM Mail, IMAP, and POP accounts right from digsby.
• Get popup notifications when new email arrives. Clicking a popup takes you right to the message with auto-login into webmail accounts.
• The email InfoBox gives you a snapshot of your unread messages with just one click
• Perform actions such as “Mark as Read” or “Report Spam” right from the email InfoBox.
• Send emails to your friends right from the IM window. The email is sent directly from any account digsby is tracking for you.

EMAIL - Click to see a larger image

Social Networking

• Stay up to date with everything happening on your Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and LinkedIn accounts.
• Receive alerts of events such as new friend requests, messages, group invites, etc.
• The social network InfoBox gives you a real time NewsFeed of what your friends are up to. Everything from new photos, to status updates, to upcoming birthdays is just a click away.
• Set your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn status right from Digsby.

FACEBOOK - Click to see a larger image

TWITTER - Click to see a larger image

Notifications

Digsby will sit idle in your system try monitoring all of your IM, email and social networks. When there is an update Digsby with send a small pop-up to your screen. You can interact with the pop-up without opening Digsby so you can quickly respond to an IM or see a status update without leaving what you are working on.

POP-UP's - Click to see a larger image

Personalize

• Customize digsby with application skins to give it a personal look and feel.
• Change the way your conversations look with themes – everything from simple AIM-style windows to 3D conversation bubbles.
• Complete control over the layout of buddies on the buddy list. Change everything from buddy icon size to whether or not to show a snippet of their away message.
• Sort your buddy list how ever you want! You can organize buddies manually, by status, by service, by name or by log size to place those you communicate with most at the top. You can even choose a secondary sorting method.
• Customizable notification system lets you choose what events you want to be alerted about and how.

PERSONALIZE - Click to see a larger image

Give Digsby a try and I am sure you will also find it the best program to sit in your tray. Visit the Digsby web site to download.

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Hopefully you presently have some sort of backup system. External hard drive, DVD backup or online solution. The worse thing you can do is bury your head in the sand and think that nothing bad will ever happen to your computer. By nature all computers and hard drives WILL eventually fail.

Backup solutions range from buying an external hard drive for under $100 to online backup. Mozy is a good online alternative and best of all they offer a 2 Gigabyte service for FREE. Should you need unlimited online backup space you can get a full MozyHome account for just $4.95 per month.

Mozy is easy to setup and use. Just log on to their web site and create and account. Download and install their software and select the files or directories you want backed up.

Other features include:

• Open/locked file support: Mozy will back up your documents whether they’re open or closed.
• 128-bit SSL encryption: The same technology used by banks secures your data during the backup process.
• 448-bit Blowfish encryption: Secures your files while in storage, providing peace of mind that your private data is safe from hackers.
• Automatic: Schedule the times to back up and MozyHome does the rest.
• New and changed file detection: MozyHome finds and saves the smallest changes.
• Backs up Outlook files: Disaster-proof email protection.
• Block-level incremental backup: After the initial backup, MozyHome only backs up files that have been added or changed, making subsequent backups lightning fast.

I currently use an external hard drive to backup my important data to. It is fast and convenient. What it is not is secure and protected. Portable hard drives can just up and walk away taking all of your important data with it. Plus what happens if it goes bad or becomes infected along with your computer? Not to mention if there were a fire or theft and both your computer and external backup were destroyed.

Experts agree that off-site backups are the best way to ensure your important files are protected. While I will continue to use my external hard drive backup solution, as extra insurance (free at that), I will use Mozy to store documents and files that can not be replaced.

MozyHome supports Windows 2000, XP, and Vista, and Mac OS X (10.4 and 10.5). For more information visit the Mozy web site.

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Microsoft will also add Microsoft Visio Professional 2007 design package, Microsoft Office Language Pack 2007 and Windows Vista Ultimate Upgrade beginning September 8, 2008.

Software Specifications

Microsoft® Office Ultimate 2007 (USD$59.95): Perpetual license, which includes the following applications:

• Access® 2007
• Accounting Express 2008 *(see Obtaining Software below)
• Excel® 2007
• InfoPath® 2007
• Groove® 2007
• OneNote® 2007
• Outlook® 2007 with Business Contact Manager
• PowerPoint® 2007
• Publisher 2007
• Word 2007

Microsoft Office Visio Professional 2007 (USD$55.95): Perpetual license, which includes the following application:

• Visio® Professional 2007

Microsoft Office Language Pack 2007 (USD$9.95): Perpetual license for a single language pack, which includes the following application:

• Office Language Pack 2007

Windows Vista® Ultimate Upgrade (USD$64.95): Perpetual license, which includes the following application:

• Windows Vista® Ultimate Upgrade*

*You must be a licensed user of one of the following products to be eligible for purchase of Windows Vista Ultimate Upgrade License.

Promotion Duration

This offer commences on July 1, 2008 and all purchases must be made via the Promotion web site by December 31, 2010 at which time the offer ends.

Promotion Eligibility

This offer is good only to eligible students who attend an educational institution geographically located in the United States. This offer is non-transferable. One of each product may be purchased per eligible student (but not required).

The following conditions serve to define student eligibility for the promotion:

1. .edu: Individual must possess a valid e-mail address at a U.S. educational institution which contains the domain suffix .edu; OR
Pre-Approved School List: Enrolled in a U.S. educational institution included on the pre-approved school list; OR
Submission of school enrollment: Submit verifiable school enrollment via the validation process; AND

2. Individual must be a student at a U.S. educational institution and must be actively enrolled in at least 0.5 course credit and be able to provide proof of enrollment upon request. Microsoft or an appointed vendor may contact you to verify that you are a current student. If documentation is not provided indicating that you are a current student, you will be liable to reimburse Microsoft for the difference between what you paid and the estimated retail price of the software.

Obtaining Software

Eligible students can obtain the software by downloading or ordering a disk from the official Promotion web site. The cost for ordering disk(s) is USD$13.00. Microsoft Office Language Pack 2007 is not available on disk.
*Business Contact Manager and Office Accounting Express requires a separate download. If ordering a disk, Business Contact Manager and Office Accounting Express are each included on separate disks.

For more information visit the Microsoft Ultimate Steal web site.

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IronKey Comes In Three Versions

IronKey USB thumb drives come in a variety of sizes from 1 GB to 8 GB. You can pick from three versions depending on your need.

• IronKey Basic is the core technology platform for the IronKey family of secure storage and authentication products.
• IronKey Personal is a revolutionary personal security device designed to protect your data, passwords and online identity on any computer.
• IronKey Enterprise is the world’s most secure hardware-encrypted USB flash drive. IronKey devices are easy to use, and there is no need to install software or drivers. You can remotely administer policies across thousands of IronKey devices with the IronKey Enterprise management service. With its embedded strong authentication capabilities, IronKey Enterprise is also a scalable platform for deploying innovative secure enterprise applications.

IronKey Basic

The world’s most secure flash drive

• IronKey Basic is an ultra-secure encrypted USB flash drive, ideal for military customers. FIPS 140-2 Validated.
• Always-on, hardware-based encryption protects all data written to the device
  Cryptochip manages encryption keys, password brute force attack defenses, and self-destruct
• Supports Windows Vista, XP, 2000 SP4, Macintosh OSX and Linux without installing drivers
• Industrial-grade SLC flash chips deliver long life along with high transfer rates
  Physically hardened metal casing is waterproof and tamper resistant
• Designed and assembled in the USA

IronKey Personal

Secure your files & protect your identity

• Safeguard all aspects of your digital life with IronKey Personal. Protect your files, encrypt your web surfing, and manage all your online passwords.
• Hardware-based encryption of up to 8GB of files on the IronKey
• Optional IronKey online services protect your web surfing with the portable Firefox web browser and Secure- Sessions service
• Store and protect your online pass- words with the Password Manager
• Top-grade flash memory chips deliver long life as well as the performance to run portable email, MP3 libraries, photo managers, and other applications

IronKey Enterprise

Remotely manage and enforce policies on IronKey flash drives

• Enforce policies and eliminate the risk of lost or stolen flash drives.
• Always-on hardware encryption with no software or drivers to install
• Remote centralized administration of IronKey drives
• Enforce your security policies such as password length and strength
• RSA SecurID ready
• Full cryptographic capabilities include embedded Public Key Infrastructure and digital certificates
• A high speed and reliable platform for virtual machines to carry your desktop operating system and applications

Visit the IronKey web site for more information.

Note: Amazon prices are lower than from IronKey’s web site.

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