The Google employees that make our favourite cool Google services often go unrecognised. But that’s not the case with Google Street Views. In a rare Google display of self-acclaim. the Google Street View team posed in the back of the company’s Googleplex headquarters in Mountain View, California in–you guessed it–a Google Street View.

Once again a great post by Oddee. This time finding a selection of amazing buildings designed by talented (and very creative) architects. Click the photo below to view the full article.

Source: Oddee - World’s Most Creative Buildings

If you’ve started to get bored with the general Windows XP desktop then the following might be for you.

Step 1 - Replace the desktop theme

Microsoft has put out a really sharp-looking XP desktop theme based on Windows Media Player 11. It simply installs as another desktop theme in your Display Options; no need for any third-party applications.

Update! You might also want to try out Royale Remixed by “~oddbasket”. Less bugs and and a very beautiful theme indeed. Thanks to Balu for sharing!

Step 2 - Add a new background image

If you haven’t replaced the background image already you could visit Deziner Folio and get the set of 74 Hi Res Windows Vista Wallpapers.

Step 3 - Live it up a little

Install Google Desktop and add live search and all the gadgets you can fit on your desktop. After a minute or two your Windows XP could look something like this:

There you go, 3 simple steps to make your welcome screen less boring. Feel free to add more steps through the comments below if you know of any other eye-candy’s worth having!

Picnik is a website that allows you to make your photos fabulous with easy to use yet powerful editing tools through your browser. Tweak to your heart’s content, then get creative with oodles of effects, fonts, shapes, and frames. It’s fast, easy, and fun.

Features

• Fix your photos in just one click
• Use advanced controls to fine-tune your results
• Crop, resize, and rotate in real-time
• Tons of special effects, from artsy to fun
• Astoundingly fast, right in your browser
• Awesome fonts and top-quality type tool
• Basketfuls of shapes from hand-picked designers
• Works on Mac, Windows, and Linux
• No download required, nothing to install

You can also import your photos from Flickr, Facebook, photobucket, Picasa and Webshots with just a few clicks. Very impressive and easy to use. Your perfect companion when you are away on holiday and want to send a few photos to the people at home.

For those who don’t already know, the Gimp is a powerful, open source image editing application. For more info on the Gimp visit gimp.org. GIMPshop is essentially the same program with some cosmetic changes.

If you’ve never used Photoshop before, you may not appreciate the GIMPshop hack. What Scott Moschella’s done is renamed and reorganized GIMP’s tools, options, windows, and menus to closely resemble Adobe Photoshop’s menu structure and naming conventions. Many of the menu options and even whole menus were recreated to faithfully reproduce a Photoshop-like experience. After running this GIMPshop hack, you’ll find that Photoshop and the GIMP are strikingly similar.

The latest version is available for Linux and Mac, and there’s also an earlier release available for Windows users. Updates are frequent so a Windows version should be available soon. So for all of you designers and photo enthusiasts that can’t afford to buy Adobe Photoshop this is a fantastic solid and free alternative.

For more information, screenshots and downloads visit plasticbugs.com.