How to Make a Slightly Abstract Desktop Background in 60 Seconds

Well, it takes 60 seconds if you know what you're doing :D  I'll be using Blender 2.55 beta for this tutorial.

The final result of this tutorial:

So let's get started!

First, press 0 on your number pad to go into camera view, then delete the default cube by pressing X.  Add an Icosphere (Shift A - Mesh - Icosphere), and on the panel to the left, set the Subdivisions to 4.

On the panel to the right (Make sure you're in the Render tab), set the camera dimensions to match that of your desktop size.

Now in the 3D viewport, scale the sphere up (S) so that it's larger than your camera; move it if you need to (G).

Now go into the World tab, and change the background color to black.

Now go into the Materials tab, and give your Sphere a new material.  Change the type to Halo.

Change the diffuse color to whatever color you want, and drag the Add value all the way up.

Now enable the Rings option, and make it sort of a lighter version of your color.  So basically:

If you chose Blue, use Turquoise for the ring color
Red = Orange
Green = Yellow
Purple = Pink
etc...

You can sort of approximate for those colors.

That's it!  Render it out, and see what you've got!  Thanks for reading this short tutorial, and post any questions, comments, or problems below.  Remember, I need more tutorial requests, as I'm running out of ideas that haven't already been taken.