Free snazzy widgets and neat gadgets that do nifty things

Have you noticed that there really are no free gadgets, except the widgets? Yes, software gadgets do so many things today that would make any prototype gadget appear lazy in comparison.

I mean lazy in the sense of process and in terms of procedure. For an example, a competent programmer could take a few minutes to code a functional widget, while an experienced hardware designer would certainly take more than a few days to produce an equivalent working prototype, not counting the periodic operational and maintenance costs.

A good practical example of the above observation would probably be what has been reported in the following BBC technology article: Antique engines inspire nano chip.

The following gadgets are my own preferences and so may be construed as being subjective. So, you are welcome to update the list below with your own choices.

What are your widget pet peeves? I particularly dislike widgets that SCREAM out, “Get your own widget at …” Is it not more subtle, and at least equally effective, to just say, “powered by…” or to put a boilerplate name tag anywhere on the widget to identify the source?

Anyway, the following selected widgets would have been displayed on my sidebars but their dimensions would have caused some dislocations and design clashes.

So, they had to be a part of this post to be a full portion on this blog site. Unfortunately, I just realized now, all the widget codes from the iGoogle gadgetry page are in JAVASCRIPT - not HTML code - and so will not and cannot display below, even if the Javascript code were to be pasted.

Anyhow, I will still list them out so that you can try them out on your own. And, perhaps, you may return here to give me some feedback?

Please enjoy yourself! These are a few of my favorite things…

1. Greetings with date and time of day displayed! Welcome to this blog post/site: the current Universal Time (UT) or Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is – you can also tell me the name of your time zone and how many hours behind or in advance your location actually is in comparison.

2. What’s your blog visiting calendar schedule like this month, how long are you staying, and how soon can you return here?

3. See your IP address and location of your computer and a few other little details, in case you were wondering and did not know already; but do not worry because only you can see it.

4. Let’s count down how many days till Christmas, shall we? We could also count down the number of days to your own birthday on this blog site, if you ask me nicely first. ;o)

5. And lastly, just in case all the above appears like Greek to you, the following Rosetta language interpreter will enable you to read me in your own language, the mother tongue of your fatherland.


UPDATE - Tuesday, August 12, 2008 @ 3:00 AM:

Things are really rosy at Google. We can all have even more fun now: Spice Up Your Blog with Google Gadgets!