If you’d like one of your Dashboard widgets to be available all the time, instead of only when you have activated Dashboard via F12, then activate the Dashboard dvelopment mode. Open the Terminal and type:
defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES
and press Return. Then logout and log back in again. Now debugging mode is activated. To get a widget off of the Dashboard and onto your desktop, just do the following:
1. Activate Dashboard by pressing F12 (or whatever key you’ve assigned to Dashboard).
2. Begin dragging the widget.
3. Press F12 again, before letting up on the mouse button.
4. Drop the widget wherever you want it.
You can do the same thing in reverse to drag the widget back onto the Dashboard. Also of interest: while a widget is frontmost, you can press Command-R to reload it. (This may be necessary if a widget is buggy and gets messed up somehow.) There’s even a nifty Core Image-based twirl effect to accompany the reload.