Pixels are diverse creatures with many uses. When piled properly by a professional, they can form the "wallpaper" background of your "desktop." We will ignore the fact these pixels are not on a wall or made of paper, nor is your monitor a desk, and you certainly don't look at its top. These were the terms Al Gore invented for us to use (face it, he had help from Steve Jobs and Bill Gates), and we do the best we can with them.

You'll find nine thumbnail images on each page, and below each thumbnail there's a link to a "pop-up preview" of moderate file size, along with links three different versions for the most popular screen resolutions [warning: these files are big]. You'll find instructions for how to make these your desktop/wallpaper as well as how I intend these images to be used in the "fine print" at the bottom. But you already know those things, right? So get on with picking your pixels.

To make any image your desktop wallpaper, first click the link to the image that matches your screen resolution (you can determine this in Windows by going to your desktop, right click on it, select "Properties," then click the Settings tab, and look for 800x600, 1024x768, etc.). Please be patient after you click the link, as these are large JPEGS, and may take some time to load.

Once the image is fully loaded, in Internet Explorer, right click it, and select "Set As Wallpaper." In Netscape 3.x-4.x, the procedure is the same. In Netscape 6.x, I could find no such option anywhere in the browser, likely in hopes you will use some Netscape/AOL/Time-Warner desktop image. Sorry, you'll have to wing it. If you're using some other "alternative" browser or OS, well, I'm sure you're used to figuring these things out on your own.

And while I really wouldn't care if some individual used one of these images as a background for their personal non-commercial web page, I will not be resposible for your visitors complaints that your page now loads at a glacial pace due to the 1/3 of a megabyte background image. And if you draw the image onto your page off of my server using my bandwidth, instead of saving it onto your own, you may get an ugly surprise. Again, this applies only to the images on this page, and is not an invitation to pilfer any other area of my site.

Finally, if you use any of the above images for commercial usage, or on a web page with advertising, or if you apply these generous terms to any other images on my site, before hiring a lawyer, I will hunt you down and break your mouse finger.

The bottom line: just ask. If you want to use an image, you might be amazed at the reply. Just ask. And if there's a particular Pixel Pile image you'd like to see as a desktop image that I haven't included here, let me know. Other will attest I frequently oblige. They will also tell you it might take some time.