Recap of the purpose and rules of the contest:

What: Original design of desktop wallpaper for Windows based pc's.

 

How: The design is up to you, but the theme of course MUST be based on/around/about TotalChoice Hosting!

 

To Enter: Submit to this forum (Xbox Giveaway) your wallpaper entry as an uploaded file. Include a link to your website in your entry (required).

 

The Catch: While there are many purposes to these contests, one big reason is for the promotion of TCH. So, all entrants MUST have a Link to TCH on their site's homepage. You can get linking instructions here. TEXT LINKS are preferred!

 

Judging: There will be three judges for this contest - lstover, sicilychick and dsdemmin. Judgement will be based on the following attributes (among others):

1. Relationship of wallpaper to TCH - how well the entry portrays TCH and its offerings and beliefs.

2. Aestethic appeal and usability of the wallpaper design.

3. Creativity, originality

 

The winning entry must agree to relinquish all rights to the wallpaper design to TCH and it becomes the sole property of TCH! Credit will be given to the designer, of course.

And the winner of either an X-Box or Handspring Treo is Borfast!

His entry was chosen because the judges felt that it best represented the TCH company and family, it is VERY *usable* as wallpaper, and is VERY original (to the point that each person that choses to use this wallpaper can further customize it without losing any of the TCH design elements). I'm using it now on my desktop with the solid yellow background image chosen. Very slick! Congratulations, Borfast! Please PM me for instructions for claiming your X-Box or Treo.

Of course, the judging was not easy. There were a lot of really great entries. One of those entries in particular drove us to ask HG for a *Runner-Up* prize. So...

A $25 Amazon gift certificate is awarded to deranged-brain.com. We liked the functionality, simplicity and *tech* look of this one. Congratulations, deranged-brain.com! Please PM me for instructions for how to receive your gift certificate.

Well, this was fun... stick around the forums. You never know when Head Guru may get a new contest idea! Rock Sign

Anyway, here's my site: My Webpage . A link to TotalChoiceHosting IS provided.

Keep in mind that I'm posting this screenshot just to give a little taste of my wallpaper. You have to download the .ZIP file and use it on your desktop to be able to view the animations, change stuff, etc...

This is a screenshot of my Desktop. It was 1024x768 but I resized it to 800x600 so it would weigh a little less.

Here's the link for the ZIP file with all the goodies: http://borfast.com/tchwallpaper.zip

And my website, where I have the link to TCH: http://borfast.com - I just copy/pasted the HTML code from the "Links to Us" page.

Good luck eveyone!

Oh, by the way, there's a bug in the "control panel" - the first time you go to the "Options" tab, the image will appear stretched. It will be fine after you select another image from the drop down list.

I couldn't find a way to correct it but if I do, I'll post an update (if I'm still on time Head Bash)

There's also another "bug", which I know what it is but didn't have the time to fix it: when you click the tabs, the bubbles will be reset. They all disappear and new ones start appearing again from the bottom.

EDIT: The image attatchment was gone. This is probably because of the move to the new server. Anyway, I posted it again.

-=[ readme.txt included in the ZIP file ]=-

Wallpaper for the TotalChoice Hosting "Xbox / Treo90 Giveaway" contest

by Raul Pedro Santos

http://borfast.com

This wallpaper is a bit different from the usual ones.

This is not just an image, this is an HTML file with some images, lots of JavaScript and Flash animation.

------------------

* 0 - Download

If you're reading this, you probably have already downloaded the .ZIP file.

If not, get it at http://borfast.com/tchwallpaper.zip

* 1 - Requirements

I've tested this wallpaper on Windows XP with Internet Explorer 6.

Unfortunately, I didn't have access to other versions of Win/IE but as far as I know, this should work without any problems with any Windows version newer than 98 and any IE version above 5.0.

You also need Macromedia Flash Player 6, which can be obtained for free at:

http://macromedia.com/shockwave/download/d...=ShockwaveFlash

At last, you need to enable JavaScript and cookies.

* 2 - Instalation

Unzip the "tchwallpaper.zip" file into a directory where you want to keep it.

Just go to "Display Settings" as you'd do to set up a regular wallpaper.

Click the "Browse..." button and navigate to the folder where you have these files and select background.html".

* 3 - How it works

On the right side of your screen, there's a flash animation.

You'll see some bubbles going up to the top of the screen.

On the top left corner, you'll see a little round button with an arrow inside.

If you click it, it will open a "control panel" with 3 tabs.

The first one, "TCH", will show you some information about TotalChoice Hosting.

The second one, "Links", will present you with quick links (they work, you can click them) to some of the most important areas of TCH's website.

The third one, "Options", let's you change the background image for the left side of your desktop.

The list of background images is stored in an XML file, "backgrounds.xml".

Don't worry, XML is a lot more simple than it's name might lead you to believe

The file already has 4 background images (prepared for 1024x768 resolution), so if you take a look at it, you'll understand immediately how it works.

Basically, each image to go into the list is represented here by a line with this format:

><background file="FILENAME">DESCRIPTION</background>

So if you want to add a background image to the list, you just have to copy the file to the same directory as the rest of the wallpaper files and add a corresponding line to the "backgrounds.xml" file.

Please note that these lines should always go between the

><backgrounds> and </backgrounds>

tags, otherwise the background image will not appear as an option.

When you change the background image, a cookie will be stored in your browser so that when you refresh the desktop (which reloads "backgrounds.html") or restart your computer, the background you chose is still there.

When creating images to use as a background, you should also be aware that the image will not occupy the whole desktop, since it already has a vertical bar on the right side, which takes up 250 pixels.

This means that if your desktop is at a resolution of 1024x768 pixels, your background image should be 774x768 pixels to compensate -> 1024-250 = 774

You can use an image of any size, though.

But keep in mind that if it's smaller than the area you have available, it will be stretched and will probably look strange.

On the other hand, if the image is too big, it will also look strange because unfortunately browsers are not very good at resizing images on-the-fly, but you'll also be wasting memory and slowing down your computer unnecessarily.

We'll get the post up here as soon as possible!

Anyway, which one would you pick?

I think I'd pick the Xbox. Not that I'm a great fan of consoles, I always hated them, actually.

The thing is that the Treo wouldn't help me much. It's mostly an organizer, I believe, and I already have all I need of an organizer in my cell phone.

Besides, there's Xbox Linux...

What about you, what will you choose if you win?

File Info:

Created in: Photshop, done by freehand

File Size: 1024x728, 171k (good for quick uploads)

Format: JPG

-Dave Gorrie

_________________

dave@davegorrie.com

www.davegorrie.com

Here is a link just in case: Desktop File

-Dave

-Tim

My Entry

chuck

Entries will be accepted until 11:59pm (GMT-6) on June 20, 2003.

I made a whole article and set it as the news for the day.

I already got 2 people to sign up!

So far everyone thinks you have the best prices!

cerealkeeler.net is my site, where the totalchoice link is located. It's right at the bottom next to my copyright markings.

Well, enjoy.. and let me know what you think!

My page is: BavariaSoft

What: Original design of desktop wallpaper for Windows based pc's.

How: The design is up to you, but the theme of course MUST be based on/around/about TotalChoice Hosting!

To Enter: Submit to this forum (Xbox Giveaway) your wallpaper entry as an uploaded file. Include a link to your website in your entry (required).

The Catch: While there are many purposes to these contests, one big reason is for the promotion of TCH. So, all entrants MUST have a Link to TCH on their site's homepage. You can get linking instructions here. TEXT LINKS are preferred!

When: Entries will be accepted until 11:59pm (GMT-6) on June 20, 2003. That's a whole month to design your wallpaper and get it posted, so take care and do a really good job!

Judging: There will be three judges for this contest - lstover, sicilychick and dsdemmin. Judgement will be based on the following attributes (among others):

1. Relationship of wallpaper to TCH - how well the entry portrays TCH and its offerings and beliefs.

2. Aestethic appeal and usability of the wallpaper design.

3. Creativity, originality

The winning entry must agree to relinquish all rights to the wallpaper design to TCH and it becomes the sole property of TCH! Credit will be given to the designer, of course.

We hope that these rules will help to promote your site as well as TCH. So have fun with it and GOOD LUCK!

Oh, yeah and did I mention this: The winner gets an XBox courtesy of TotalChoice Hosting!

(best viewed at 800 x 600 resolution)

Hope judges like it .

Site is www.webgameshq.com. It is under construction so you guys are only link .

p.s. Rock Sign

www.tpff.com

I made the world and network cable going around it from scratch (well, I used a real network cable for reference and a few maps of the earth) in a program called Cinema 4D. The background and text was then added in Photoshop.

My site (and the link) can be found here:

http://www.desktopmag.com

- - Entry Removed - -

Mr. Bill woooot

www.greatfolios.com

The file here is 800x600. It was designed for 1024x768. So, it is available in those dimensions also. This version is also saved as "high" quality instead of "maximum" quality for the purposes of download time for viewing.

Now it's time to get back to some "real" work I suppose...with that PHP Bible that finally arrived... Whip

My website is here and the link to TCH is on my links page.

My site is http://twistedweb.net link is on there as well.

My site is Project Wonderboy and your link is on the main page, in the links box.

My website can be found in my signature, or you can click here.

Also, there is a 1024x768 version available to the people with larger resolutions, but seeing as the 800x600 is smaller in file size, I uploaded that version here. Enjoy!

[EDIT: The PhotoShop PSD file is available to the TCH Administration should they choose to want to use it as all layers can be edited through that PSD file. Just thought I'd let everyone know...]

-y2k-

Here's my page with the TCH link: www.thinkdigitally.com

My website is located here. The Total Choice Link is at the bottom with the XHTML, CSS and other buttons.

I hope you like it.

The wallpaper can be found here. You'll notice there are 2 files. It was originally a PNG, but I also made a jpg to save some KBs. The PNG should be better quality.

Daydreamer's Designs

I've had the link up on my index page since my first day here I just added a second one on my main page.

I drew all the images myself except for the eyes.. they are a brush I have in Paint Shop Pro

TCH will be giving away a free XBOX.

Contest details to be posted in the next 24 hours.