Okay, so you may not think that having a beautiful picture of the moon on your desktop is a good thing. And yeah the fact that it just happens to be the exact phase of the moon at the time may not sway you. But it is kind of cool. And what if you are a Wiccan or something like that? It could be essential that you know stuff like this.

The program is basically one of those that changes the computer’s desktop based on the clock. Except in this case, the calender days are tied into some kind of moon calendar and puts the right slice of the moon on your screen. I think they call those things sidereal calendars, but I may be wrong. In any case, the pictures are really nicely done, and according to my daughter’s moon phase wallchart the slices are pretty accurate.

Cosmic.

Get the moon phase wallpaper program from the author’s web site.

Okay this is a Mac only program, but it’s really good so I have to bring it to your attention. If I had to describe it it would be that it’s a sort of offline blogging program. It sorts entries into “journals” and “entries” where a journal is like a book and and entry is like a chapter. The entries are date stamped automatically, but you can also add your own titles.

Loop Recorder is an audio application which is deigned for recording radio programs and isolating songs which are played. It loops as it records and allows you to clip the songs from the loop as you go. Once you’ve cut the song you can save it as a useful format, like MP3, OGG or ASF.

You can perform a variety of functions on the file as you record , like normalize, fading in and out etc. All the treatments you could wish for all in real time and all while still recording the loop. Genius.

For more information got to the Loop Recorder web site.

Google Pack is a suite of software, some original software and some bundled third party software, all of it designed to enhance your productivity. Google Desktop is billed as a desktop companion, but basically what it is a search facility for all your “stuff”, emails, files on your computer, your web history etc. Oh and by far the best gadget, if you’ll pardon the pun, you also get the facility to add Google Gadgets to customize your desktop and the Google Sidebar. Gadgets are a bit like Widgets on the Mac, and are little programs which do one job that are easy to access from the desktop.

Also as part of the package you get Picasa, Google’s Photo organiser and editor, Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer (for those of us who don’t have Firefox), plus you get the Google pack photo screensaver. For your fix of Google Gadgets, go here for all the details.

Writer’s block is the syndrome whereby writers are “blocked“, they can’t write. (Tell me about it) Either they can’t think of something to write, OR and this is a more common cause they have too much to write about. It’s all about information and moving it around, either to stimulate your creativity or to make the job more manageable.

Writer’s Blocks is a unique program; a word processor which also has functionality like a spreadsheet. It manages information in a group of re-sizable blocks that can be arranged in columns or topics. It’s like an Outline processor, but with big blocks of text instead of lines tabbed at different depths. It’s a cool way to organize your text. The next generation of writers software? Well not sure about that, but it’s certainly makes putting all your thoughts in a row as easy as adding up your groceries.

Go to Writers Blocks for more details.

HotRecorder for VoIP is a way to record your Skype or other internet phone conversations. This simple program installs easily and works with almost any VOIP or Voice Over IP software on the PC. You can use it with Skype (of course) even the new 3.0 Beta, also Google Talk, AIM, Net2Phone, Yahoo! Messenger, FireFly and many others. Best thing to do is try the download and see if it works before you buy it to run it with some other software.

The demo version allows 2 minutes of recording, and saves audio in the ELP format which isn’t readable by anything else. If you pay the fee the included Audio Converter Tool converts the ELP format into MP3, WAV or OGG files for storage or editing.

Other extras include what they call Emotisounds, a way to to add humorous sounds to your online conversations. Listen I make enough humorous sounds when I’m on Skype as it is. For more info and a download go to the HotRecorder web site.

Yes it’s true you can get Skype on a mobile phone. In the UK, on the 3 network, you can run a copy of Skype for mobile on your phone and make free calls to other Skype users. You can’t as yet do SkypeIn or SkypeOut calls, but then what phone network in its right mind would let you do that?

As I say it works through the 3 network in the UK, but while the Skype software and calls are free, the network and the phone are not. You have to be on a pay monthly scheme, and paying probably up to £30 a month. Oh yeah and the only phone it works on at the moment is the Nokia N73. But still, be happy; it’s real Skype on a mobile phone and that has got to be a good thing. More phones, more networks and more Skype facilities are obviously going to be rolling out in 2007 so watch this space. For more details and downloads of the software, see the Skype web site.

If you want to try one of the world’s TOP 3d programs for free you can do that right now. NewTek have released a trial version of their world class 3d modeling, rendering and animation package, Lightwave 3D in a freely downloadable 30 day trial version.

The software is fully functional so you can try out all the features of the new version 9, the same software used to make special effects for TV shows like Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, Lost, Smallville, and Stargate Atlantis. You can make 3D objects, texture them, light them on a virtual sound stage, and render them in 3D to a very high level of realism, allwithin this one program.

Okay so if you want to use it after 30 days you have to pay for it, but to get to learn how to use it for free? You got to love that price.

Go to the trial web site for details. Works for PC and Mac.

Back in the mists of time when most worthwhile music software was mostly shareware or freeware because nobody could afford the thousands of pounds for the high end stuff, packages like Rubberduck reigned supreme.

The ultimate bass synthesiser, Rubberduck had a sequencer based loosely on an ancient but still well thought of Roland product called the TB303. This was a great parping old bass synthesiser and was instrumental, if you’ll forgive the expression, in creating a lot of hit beats in the 80s and 90s.

Time passes and these things sound a little bit retro. But still the TB303 manages to fetch high prices on eBay and elswhere. You can’t get them just anywhere, so being able to download Rubberduck for free has got to be a better bet. It still has a lot to recommend it, and even in spite of its age I’d say it’s an essential tool in any computer musician’s arsenal. Get all the rubber you can handle at the new d-Lusion web site.

Quicktime is of course a core technology on Apple Mac computers, but is an add-on to Windows too. Quicktime player, has many similarities with Windows Media Player and plays a lot of the same media. So why would you bother with Quicktime? My not stick with the native player on Windows.

Well, as a predominantly Mac based writer, I will admit to a little bias, but honestly it doesn’t really matter what you use, WMP, Quicktime, DiVX Player, whatever floats your media. But I have to say that I like the quality and solidity of Quicktime. Okay it doesn’t play Windows files quite so well as WMP, but it does play them. It does however ROCK as the kids would say with QT files. There is actually no reason why you shouldn’t have many different video file players on your machine, Windows or Mac. Most of the cohabit very gracefully on any machine, and I have most of them on my Macs and PCs.

Most importantly, whatever media player you use, make sure you always have the latest versions, and that goes double for Quicktime. Check it out at the source.