I’ve created a basic Vista Gadget for your calculating pleasure:

Install it from the Windows Vista Gallery site.

I personally think the gadget was pretty useful and gave it a good rating — a zealous commenter saw this and decided to “even it out” . Ah, the ebb and flow of web tools — I just hope people find it useful.

The gadget acts just like the website - you can use unit conversions (”15 feet in cm”), readable numbers (”3.3 billion”), and equations (”a = 3; b = 4; a+b”).

If you mouse over the calculator you’ll see an option to save a permalink, which takes you to the main site.

This version is my first foray into Vista Gadget development and is on a single line; the sidebar doesn’t have much screen real estate. Based on feedback and demand, I may create a multi-row version. I’m starting with the basics and expanding from there.

As an aside, I’m continuing to work on enhanced sharing features for the main site. My core design philosophy is to keep the simple things simple and not harass visitors about logins, emails or registrations. I want the site to be useful on your first visit — stay tuned.