[via MSDN]

If you've been on Twitter for a while, you've probably seen someone with an elaborate background that's designed to work around the text elements of the Twitter layout. Maybe it's got a photo and some contact information on the side, or maybe it just frames the main text field in some creative way. When you want to make your own, though, how do you work around the layout and get the spacing right? That's where Free Twitter Designer comes in.

It's a web-based image editor that lets you view the basic layout of a Twitter page transparently, so you can figure out where to position any photos or text you want to add. You can import photos into Free Twitter Designer, and add some predesigned shapes, shadow or blur effects to your design. The text tool has a handful of different fonts to choose from, and of course you can customize the colors. While I take issue with a site that claims to produce the same results as a professional designer -- pay your designers well, guys! -- it's a simple way to get around some of the challenges of making a Twitter background.

Perhaps our fate is sealed at Download Squad. Perhaps if you avert your eyes now you can save yourselves. Abandon all hope ye who read past this point, and know, yea verily, that while the weather stinks here, the company is diverse and you're bound to find someone you have something in common with.

The Ubuntu Satanic Edition is Linux for the damned. You don't have to be damned to use it (well, we're using it, and we've been telling ourselves this). The best thing is that it is so well designed and configuration is so well documented, you won't even need to use naughty words in the installation process. (We do advise, to get the most out of your hellish computing experience, that you follow the configuration guide. Some of it is very obvious, some of it isn't.)

Unlike the (now on temporary hiatus) Ubuntu Christian Edition and (active) Ubuntu Muslim Edition, which both have religion-specific applications, the Satanic Edition is simply a collection of themes, wallpapers (some NSFW), sound effects and splash screens. We suppose that's fine, as we really don't want any Satanic applications on our computers, although we're pretty sure someone will comment on the true nature of OEM installs of certain software that comes pre-installed on many computers. We didn't say it, though, okay?

Ubuntu Satanic Edition is visually quite stunning. We mean this in a good way. The artwork is very professional looking, the themes render well (and there are hints for making them work better with applications that have issues with dark themes), and the screen savers and bootsplash screens work without issue. There are even Beryl Skydomes especially for this edition.

Ubuntu Satanic Edition can be optimized for wide screens, and can be uninstalled, should you have complaints from co-workers, loved ones, or just feel really creeped out. It'll install happily on Hardy, Feisty, Gutsy or Edgy in either the 32- or 64-bit varieties (PPC does have a few components missing). There are guides for installing and configuring both Ubuntu and Kubuntu. There are also several additional themes for Emerald, icon themes, and other assorted goodies that are not "officially" part of the Satantic Edition.

The version number of the Satanic Edition? Duh, 666.4, of course.

[via Aditya Kavoor's blog]

DeskLickr sounds like that kid we knew in first grade who would take any dare, but it's actually a neat little app with an unfortunately silly name. DeskLickr grabs desktop pictures from Flickr, making sure your wallpaper is never stale. It can change your desktop manually or automatically, and give you a little "about this photo" info, so you know whose picture it is and where to find it on Flickr.

There are plenty of options to make sure you get only the pictures you want. You can tell DeskLickr to grab from all of Flickr, from a group of your choice, just from Flickr's "interesting" selection, or from your own photos or favorites. If you don't like a picture, you can tell DeskLickr not to show it again.

Regular Download Squad readers will note that app is similar in function and effect to another one we recently reviewed, Desktoptopia. To compare: Desktoptopia uses its own image feeds, which are consistently full of great desktops, while DeskLickr offers a broader range with a little more hit-and-miss involved. Also: Desktoptopia is available for both Mac and PC, so if you're running Windows, you may want to scope out our earlier post.

Are you lucky enough to have more than one monitor on your computer? Sure it looks cool, and it's fun to show off to friends..but it's very helpful with productivity too.

What's the first thing you do when you set up a new machine or monitor? Throw up fresh new wallpaper of course! Your mom, your cat, or your wife or girlfriend (hopefully not both, awkward!).

AutoWallpaper comes from a company called AlternativeRealities Software. It solves the multi-monitor / multi-wallpaper problem.

It's out for Windows and Mac and only costs $10. It's well worth it because you can not only manage wallpapers on your monitors, you can add effects and gradients as well.

My favorite feature though? Set your wallpapers to change whenever you want. That's right, if you want new wallpapers at exactly 9pm, you can do it.

Give it a shot and drop a link to a screenshot of your hot new wallpaper in the comments!

[Hat tip to snowbear]

Desktoptopia is a utility that changes your desktop background automatically with well-designed pictures that are chosen by the Desktoptopia team. Originally created for Mac OS X, a PC version is now available in beta.

On OS X, the app installs as a preference pane where you can change the rotation time (hours, days, etc.) and select feeds from which to pull pictures. Desktoptopia offers categories like abstract, film, photography, and typography. You can also add your own feed, which greatly increases the functionality of the program.

HDRwalls offers a welcome change from hum-drum single color desktop backgrounds or the limited selection of built-in OS wallpapers. They currently have about 500 High Dynamic Range (HDR) photos in resolutions ranging from 800x600 to 1920x1200. They also provide sizes for iPod Touch, PSP, Blackberry, and iPhone.

HDR photography is the result of increasing the dynamic range of a photo through tone mapping and combining multiple exposures. The HDR group on Flickr has great examples and offers tips to create your own HDR images (and maybe even use them as desktop backgrounds).

[Thanks Michael!]

Want the top news you're interested in without opening up a browser. Well there is a way to do it in just six steps!

Toshibi over at Instructables, (a place where you can share with others what you make, and teach them how to make it) has figured out how to turn his desktop into a constantly updating RSS bulletin board. Steps include:

• Creating an HTML document with all the appropriate rows and columns
• META tag refresh tag to have the page refresh every 10 minutes
• Create HTML feeds with FEED2JS
• Save file on computer
• Set the HTML page as a LIVE web desktop (correct me if I'm wrong but this feature might only work in XP)

There you have it, all the fresh content you could ever want. Thankfully, Toshihi also proves the full source files to anyone that wants to hack around with it and easily built their own.

First, the US Postal Service planted more than 300 R2-D2 mailboxes across the country in honor of Star Wars 30th anniversary. Then they began a contest that runs through May 23rd to choose the best Star Wars stamp (Yoda's in the lead). Now the Post Office is offering three free versions of Star Wars desktop wallpaper at its website.

Let Yoda, Obi-Wan or Darth Vader grace your desktop, or download all three and change them up as the mood strikes.

A blogger called Brajeshwar has posted what looks like a complete set of wallpapers from Windows Vista. Whether they're all really from Vista or not, they're all gorgeous and, if you like greens and nature themes, are well worth the download. You can browse the set on Flickr or download zipped packs on Brajeshwar's blog. You can go forth and decorate, or you can check out a small sampling after the jump.

Looking to update your desktop wallpaper? Having trouble finding anything good. Ask Wallpapr to find something for you. It's a nice, simple Ajax app that will spit out a bunch of photo wallpapers from Flickr's Wallpapers pool on command. Just enter a tag (e.g. clouds, skyline, food, whatever you're into) and click on 20, 40, or 100 to get that many thumbnails, or leave the tag field blank and get a nice variety. Every photo in the pool is at least 1024x768, and clicking on a thumbnail will take you straight to the photo download page. Excellent!

[Via Joe's Blog]