Mac OS X only: Freeware utility Deeper unlocks additional settings for portions of the Mac desktop. Deeper has a tonne of great customsation options like creating animated backgrounds, changing the save location of screenshots, showing hidden files and much more. In all, your dock, Finder, Dashboard, Exposé and the login screen can all be modified with this application. Deeper is a free download for Mac OS X only.

Spend too much time planning and not enough doing? Weblog Pick the Brain suggests growing your action habit—”the habit of putting ideas into action now”—in seven ways. For example:

Use action to cure fear – the most difficult part of public speaking is waiting for your turn to speak[.]Even professional speakers and actors experience pre-performance anxiety. Once they get started the fear disappears. Action is the best cure for fear. The most difficult time to take action is the very first time. After the ball is rolling, you’ll build confidence and things will keep getting easier.

Windows only: Freeware application CD Recovery Toolbox finds and retrieves files on scratched or otherwise damaged CDs and DVDs. Under normal circumstances, a badly scratched disc might show up as completely unreadable by your computer. CD Recovery Toolbox can read the undamaged portions of the disc and display the data that’s still accessible. From there, you can extract whichever files and folders you want. The application doesn’t promise access to every file that you originally burned to the disc, but it will recover as much as it can read. CD Recovery Toolbox is freeware, Windows only. I don’t have a sufficiently damaged disc on hand, so if you have a chance to test the program’s performance, let us know how it worked for you in the comments.

Online goal tracker Joe’s Goals adds Seinfeld-style goal chains inspired by Jerry Seinfeld’s productivity secret.

Streaming online radio service Deezer is like Pandora on steroids. Search for songs, create playlists, randomly stream songs or listen to the top 10 in the US and UK. Though Deezer will not have every song you search for, it does have a very large and diverse collection, so it’s perfect for parties. Best of all, there is no need to register. I think I’m in love! Anyone know how to save Deezer streams locally? Share in the comments.

With young children, heavy workloads and odd hours, keeping in touch with your significant other can be trying at times. Jen Grant from the Official Gmail Blog uses Google Talk to touch base with her spouse. Sometimes when you get home from work and the kids are hollering about dinner, babies needing a change, and you just have time to kick off your shoes and throw something in the microwave, you don’t really get a chance to talk to your spouse. In my case, with twins and a 3-year-old, it can be days before I actually get a chance to ask him how he’s feeling or what he’s been doing. That’s where Gmail chat comes in.

You Mac users virtualizing Windows with Parallels can expand XP’s C: drive size using the free GParted Live CD. While Parallels’ Image Tool can expand your virtual hard drive, the free space the Image Tool creates must be “contiguous”—right next to C:’s used space—in order to expand C:. That’s where GParted comes in. Parallels user Declan runs down the steps of how to enlarge the C: drive using a live CD virtual machine. Whatever you do, make sure you back up your Parallels images before you start.

Track and manage purchase receipts from off and online shopping excursions using the new webapp Shoeboxed.com. At first glance an online receipt organiser may seem unnecessary, but tracking expenses your company will reimburse alone is a pain in the butt that Shoeboxed can ease. Here’s how it works: Shoeboxed gives you a unique email address that you give to online stores. When it starts receiving messages from merchants, it automatically detects and organises receipts and separates store newsletters within your Shoeboxed account, shielding your email inbox.

Google changes its Maps Street View policy regarding closeup images of people and cars; it has dropped the verification process and will simply remove any faces or license plates any user asks them to.