CCCalc is a very simple calculator that outstands for its original interface, more similar to a school notebook than to a standard PC calculator.

You can customize the background, the text font type and other customization options. As for the mathematical capabilities of the program in itself, we must admit they're pretty simple – they're limited to the basic arithmetic calculations such as adding or subtracting.

In a way we could say that CCCalc is more focused on creating a more user-friendly interface to the standard calculator than on providing more functionalities in order to make it a more complete tool.

If you're looking for a nicely designed calculator, CCCalc is for you; if what you need is a powerful scientific tool, you should look somewhere else.

Guitar Chords could save many guitar players time as it is a comprehensive database of the chords on your guitar and all their possible combinations.

Leaving aside the salmon-pink background, which is a little difficult to cope with, the way it works is that after pressing the Start button, you have to choose which type of chord you are looking for: Major & Minor, Augmented, Diminished Suspended, of 6th, of 7th and so on. At this point just click on the name of the note you want and view all the available combinations for creating that chord on the central window.

View the ‘How to read the chords’ sections if you have any problems understanding what ‘X 0 2 2 2 0’ means. This represents which cords you have to play, and where you have to put your fingers. That said, I’ve found it strange that the most common way to play chords is not the first solution available, but instead appears in the middle of a nearly endless list. I don’t really understand the logic behind this, although I hope there is one. If you want, you can also export the list of combinations as a text document by clicking on the Printable Format button.

Guitar Chords is a useful database of all the possible chords you can create with your guitar. It also features all the possible combination of notes you can use to create that chord, although, as the list is very long, it can be confusing to find the most common way to play a specific sound.

WorldWide Telescope could be regarded as Microsoft's direct competitor to Google Sky, but I wouldn't agree with that.

WWT does contain space imagery that enables you to observe starts, planets, constellations and other celestial elements without having to buy an expensive telescope, that's true. In that sense, it's similar to Google's space browsing tool. But in my opinion, this app is much more intended for professional astronomers – or at least serious astronomy fans – rather than for people who just want to take a sneak peek at our planet as if they were taking a ride on a NASA shuttle.

Don't get me wrong here: there's nothing wrong with being a serious astronomy app. I'm just warning you in case you expect something else. Other than that, WorldWide Telescope is a great tool that all astronomy fans are going to love. It includes loads of information and also lets you download guided tours from the program itself to learn more about a certain topic.

You can freely move around the sky with your mouse, but I found this a bit confusing and soon preferred to use the image galleries under the Explore menu. These galleries were a bit disappointing though, because you can perfectly see the boundaries of the image you're viewing and so it doesn't feel like a real telescope anymore.

Worldwide Telescope is not a space browser like Google Sky; rather than that, it's a comprehensive astronomy atlas with loads of data, photo galleries and freely downloadable guided tours.

Fractals have always been fascinating for their characteristic of never ending and rebuilding themselves each time you zoom in on them. It’s a never ending journey and a never ending world. With Fraqtive you can play with fractals, creating and editing their parameters, changing tones and shades.

If you are a mathematician you will probably understand what all the parameters stand for and what you can obtain by changing the X and Y values, the zoom factor and the rotation angle. If you are just curious like me, change the settings and see what happens. I managed to create a perfect pink rectangle which doesn’t really look like a fascinating fractal!

There is also a 3D rendering feature which is very nice, you can rotate it with the mouse and zoom in and out. Unfortunately, unlike the 2D rendering where you can zoom in infinitely times, in the 3D mode, you only have a section of your fractal to play with, but it doesn’t recalculate itself if you try to enlarge the image.

Fraqtive allows you to create your personalized fractals. The full screen mode lets you immerse fully in this psychedelic world and take screenshots for your mathematical studies or, more commonly, for beautiful wallpapers.

TCExam is an assessment software system that enables educators and trainers to author, schedule, deliver, and report on surveys, quizzes, tests and exams. The software is used all over the world by universities, schools, companies and independent teachers. TCExam is open source and completely free to use.

TCExam screenshotAn e-exam (or CBT - Computer Based Testing)is an electronic exam that can be executed by using a personal computer or an equivalent electronic device (e.g. handheld computer).

The use of e-exam systems, instead of traditional paper-based tests, allows you to simplify the entire exam cycle, including generation, execution, evaluation, presentation and archiving. This simplification allows you to save time and money while improving exams reliability.

NuCode is based around a set of lessons that includes the whole Morse code alphabet and other characters. If you can successfully complete the lessons then you will ace the FCC 5WPM code test.

No previous knowledge of the Morse code alphabet is assumed and you are gently introduced to a few characters to start with in the early lessons. Then you work through to the final lesson at your own pace. Right from the start you practice at your final target speed of 6 WPM with just a few initial characters.

Once you have learned to reliably copy this small group of characters a few more characters are added and you will again practice until you can copy them all reliably at full speed.

If you're a big fan of the Solar System and staring into Space through your telescope, then you'll absolutely love OpenUniverse.

Open Universe is an exciting project that brings the Solar System to you - in realtime. Most similar programs simulate or recreate the solar system from static models but this program attempts to show you exactly what is going on at any one time. The program existing in a former state as Solar System Simulator (Ssystem) launched in 1997 and has expanded and advanced so much, that it's now come to encompass the entire universe. The word "Open" has been added to to encourage open source users to improve and enhance the project. This is a million times better than the Space Exploration option on Google Earth with highly detailed images of Earth and the planets. For example, you view the Earth from the Sun, zoom in and out and even zoom in on stars. It labels everything too so no more looking up in the sky and wondering what that constellation is. The graphics are not exactly brilliant - it's a bit block and some of the stars look like blobs of white ink. However as a learning tool, it's a brilliant little resource.

For space exploration fans and those that are trying to teach other about the Universe, OpenUniverse is an exciting and powerful project.

TuxGuitar is a full featured music composition tool that can be really helpful to musicians, whether they use their computer to compose music or not.

The program looks really complex at first sight – at least for a music newbie like me – so I have the feeling it may overwhelm more novice users. But the amount of available tools, along with an extensive help section and documentation really encourages you to give it a go.

TuxGuitar features a nicely designed interface with clear, simple lines that turns your music composition tasks into a lighter work. Besides composing right on the tablature, you can also have a virtual guitar fretboard or piano keyboard to make composition even easier. What's more, the program lets you play the songs you just composed, using one of the many instruments included in it.

In spite of a confusing first impression, TuxGuitar well deserves a chance from all music composers: it's nicely designed and features many interesting tools.

ESET SysInspector is a through malware scanner which allows you to see what kind of bugs and rootkits may be causing problems on your PC.

It searches for just about anything you can think of that might damage your PC and checks with the ESET database for any irregularities. SysInspector starts by performing an analysis of your computer including the most important components - Windows registry, network connections and drivers. Each time the program is run, it determines the state of your configuration to ascertain whether anything has changed or not. This can take a while depending on how many programs you have installed and how big your hard drive is.

The program presents the results in a GUI and particular attention needs to be paid to the "hazards" field. Not all of these things are malicious usually but the good thing is you have a certain amount of control over what you delete. The best thing however is that it's great if your seeking help on forums because it generates reports and allows you print logs of exactly what going on inside your system and what's on there. This enables experts, either in your local PC clinic or on a forum, exactly what might be causing the problem.

Although EST SysInspector doesn't provide real time protection, it will certainly get you a lot closer to finding a solution.

Harmony Assistant is a all-in-one software product with digital audio capabilities. Its harmonizing capabilities enable the composer to build quickly and efficiently tunes that include accompaniment, multiple instruments and drum patterns. Its full page edit and engraver modes will ease editing and page setup of your scores.

A wide range of music symbols will enable to edit scores of great quality: notation capabilities are immense. Using the page mode, you will edit the score just as it will be printed on paper. The Engraver mode will make look it nice. Score input can be performed through the mouse, computer keyboard or an external MIDI keyboard.

Harmony Assistant comes with its own embedded software synthesizer (SoftSynth), which provides high quality output on basic sound cards, even without any external MIDI device, and includes hundreds of different instruments. Harmony Assistant can load and save in many formats (MIDI, WAV, AIFF, MP3, OGG, TAB, ABC...).

With MyrScript, the embedded programming language, you can add your own features to the program

More features:

• Complete score editor, with unlimited number of staves
• Page mode editing
• Automatic harmonizer
• Accompaniments & drum patterns in a few clicks
• Tablature calculation for miscellaneous string instrument
• Tablature calculation for Harmonica, diatonic accordion, wind instruments...
• Completely scriptable application. Many open-source scripts are available.
• Embedded softsynth : does not need any hardware other than a sound card.
• Midi, Kar, MOD, S3M... import
• Digital tracks (possible to import WAV, AIFF, MP3, OGG...)
• Wav-to-note pitch tracker, noise reduction, formant-compliant pitch change, ...
• Gregorian notation
• Chord diagram library for various instruments
• Enables to build custom instruments from digital recordings
• Lute tablatures
• Street organ card printing
• Karaoke and multi-voices lyrics are actually sung.
• Enable visitors of your Web site to view, transpose, play or print your scores

Rapid Typing is a fast and useful application that allows you to improve your typing skills, both in accuracy and speed. The interface is fairly clear, although maybe you will have to disable the aquarium animation set as default in the background as it can disturb you when concentrating on your exercises. You can do that, in the option menu, ticking the animation option and if you wish, choosing a background colour, although the white one, is probably the clearer.

When you start the session, simply type the letters you see on the screen, without looking at your keyboard. Exercises are increasingly difficult and test you on specific letters each time, until you are able to remember better what’s where.

If you don’t know which is the correct finger to use to press a letter, press the Show/Hide Virtual Keyboard button, on the far bottom of the main frame. You’ll get a representation of your hands, telling you with which finger you should use to press the key.
At the end of each session the program tells you how many mistakes you made and how fast you have been, showing you a graph of your improvements.

With Rapid Typing you can improve your typing speed and accuracy when using your keyboard with increasingly more difficult exercises. Although it’s very easy to use, it lacks of an initial explanation on how to position and move your fingers, so two-finger typers might have to look for an alternative training method.

LingvoSoft Talking Dictionary 2008 German-Spanish for Windows is part of a unique suite of language learning applications for your PC. It provides bidirectional word translation and advanced synthesis of German and Spanish speech.

The dictionary is easy to install and use on your desktop computer. It translates in both directions between German and Spanish and pronounces the translation aloud! The ability to pronounce German and Spanish words is the distinguishing feature of this software translator. And it does so using the most advanced BST Text-to-Speech synthesis available anywhere! Now you never need to check transcriptions: simply select a word and with one click have the dictionary pronounce it for you.

As part of a complete suite of language solutions, this dictionary is also capable of full integration with the LingvoSoft FlashCards and LingvoSoft Talking PhraseBook applications for added effectiveness.

LingvoSoft Talking Dictionary 2008 German-Spanish for Windows features:

General features:

• English, French, German, Spanish and Russian interfaces
• Overview of all the dictionary entries in the Main Window
• All translations of the selected word displayed in the Translation Window
• Quick search function: enter a few letters and words starting with these letters (and translations) are displayed
• Search function for any sequence of characters entered in the input line
• Quick back translation for proof of correct understanding
• Customizable interface, toolbar and typefaces
• Full text-editing functions: paste, copy and cut, as well as import/export texts to/from other applications
• Full integration with LingvoSoft FlashCards and PhraseBook applications

Special features:

• Pronunciation of all listed German and Spanish words based on the latest BST Text-to-Speech technology
• User vocabulary: a personal dictionary can be created by adding and editing dictionary entries
• Instant translation
• Quick paste function: merely select a word for import from another application and it automatically displays the most relevant dictionary entry.
• Part of speech filter lets the dictionary process only translations belonging to the designated part of speech you select (i.e. verbs, adjectives, etc.)

If you regularly have to translate from one language to another, then it's a pain to keep going online to find a translator which can handle the languages you need.

The big advantage of Translate.net is that it scans multiple translation sites for languages that you need to translate to and from. The good thing here is that you don't have to go online and tediously surf the net for translators and by using translators from different sources, you can much more accurate and better translations. The annoying thing however is that the program displays advertisements within the program based on the translation texts that you are searching on. However, the developers assure that Translate.Net does not collect any personal data or use any aggressive advertising techniques on it's users. One thing worth mentioning however is that this program is completely open source which means that the advertising feature may be possible to remove, or at least block, if you have some C++ programming knowledge.

A great solution for those that translate regularly although be prepared to be bombarded with adverts.

CatsCradle is an aid for language translators that provides an easy way to translate web pages. While it does not do any translation, it extracts the text out of evey page and presents it in an easy to editable overview that allows you to translate the text portions without having to deal with any HTML code or other distractions.

The built-in editing screen allows for side-by-side editing, as well as optional real-time browser preview of the translated page. Additional features include a built in glossary that can suggest appropriate words and phrases while you are translating, project file catalog with word count and more. CatsCradle can also handle .hhc and .hhk files for translating of .chm help files. And of course, you can also use the tool to edit text on any web page without translating edit, so it can a also handy tool for webmasters that need some quick no-code text editing.

With one easy-to-use interface, The Quiz Press allows you to make your own quizzes that you can put on the web or print out for classroom use. Quizzes can include five different question types (Multiple Choice, Fill in the Blanks, Short Answer, True or False, and Cloze), and also allows for fully customizable titles.

Making a web based quiz is as easy as pressing a button. The Quiz Press automatically commands your web browser to let you experiment with your quiz. When you are ready to publish to the web it is just as easy. Just pick a name and place to save on your hard drive and then drag your quiz to your FTP site.

Features:

• Make a quiz into an interactive web page
• Make a quiz to print out
• Unlimited Undo
• Full editing support (change size, styles, and fonts)

I'm no geologist but I know a, excuse the pun, "gem" of a program when I see one and for any rock, mineral or geologist, this surely is one.

This comprehensive encyclopedia and research base contains just about everything there is to know about rocks, minerals and gems in an easy to search format with in depth descriptions and attractive images. If you need it customised to suit the needs or focus of your organisation, it can also do that too to reduce it's huge range and depth to something more manageable.

To be precise, the developers claim it has information on 600 minerals, 300 gems, 200 rocks, around 900 glossary items and a staggering 2100 pictures. Of course, it also features the entire periodic table with detailed info on each element, isotopes, allotropes and compounds. It also saves you valuable lab time because it tells you how these react and interact with each other. To cap it all, you can also find out about the geniuses and researchers that have pioneered the geological field and those that discovered each element, rock and gem.

Perhaps it can't replace Google or a good geological encyclopedia but for a free program, this is an impressive resource.

FastChords is designed to help you improve your piano playing skills with ease. It includes a calculator to show how each chord is played on the keyboard. You can use the staff to enter the melody notes, so there is no need to read music.

Listen to the song and let FastChords find the optimal chord configuration to simplify playing one chord after another. Print the result, put it next to the piano or keyboard, and you are ready to learn a new song!

Teach 2000 is like a private teacher that helps you to memorize a foreign language, topography or even the history of Italy by date. Teachers will find it a useful classroom resource whilst students will improve test results with this free trainer.

key features include:

Easy handling of foreign symbols
Test system based on spaced repetition
A question can have multiple answers, and vice versa
Multi-line questions and answers.
Rich formatting of the questions.
Phonetic symbols

There's also twelve dictionaries included for translations and synonyms and you can even add multimedia to the questions.

You can also print flash cards, tests and crib notes and best of all, its totally free.

AstroGrav allows you to study how astronomical objects move and interact under the force of gravity. It features superb interactive 3D graphics which allow you to move around within an astronomical system that you are viewing, watching how it evolves with the passage of time.

A wide variety of sample files are provided, including Solar System, space mission, and abstract systems, enabling you to experiment with AstroGrav without having to go to the trouble of entering your own data. The comprehensive editing facilities allow you to either create your own astronomical systems, or to modify existing ones.

Quickly get to grips with the following concepts:

• Basic concepts of mass, position, velocity, acceleration, force, momentum, and energy
• Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion and Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation
• Many body systems and the n-body problem
• Orbits and Lagrange points
• Interchange of potential energy and kinetic energy in gravitational systems
• Projectiles and escape velocities
• Gravitational slingshots used in space missions

Google Earth Pro is the professional version of Google Earth. It's downloaded upon registration on its website and adds some extra features to the free version. Do these additional functions make a difference? Let's dig a bit deeper.

Making use of a vast satellite imagery database –actually the same as the free version, Google Earth Pro displays locations from all over the world, enabling you to zoom in from the image of the whole planet to the streets of any capital city. As a Pro version user, you're supposed to enjoy a faster performance, but we couldn't really notice any difference.

Another interesting feature included in the Pro version is the ability to record videos with your movements around the world, which you can use to illustrate trips or even give directions. You can choose different resolutions, but record only in WMV format.

Technical support assistance, Premium print and a GID data importer are other additional capabilities of this Pro version. However, taking into account that both versions share the same image database, which in the end is Google Earth's biggest value, you may as well use the free version.