Weird stuff from Government Liquidation
Harvey writes “Where US Taxpayer’s have already bought the best equipment (Like $2,000 hammers) and you can pick up it up for a faraction of its original cost. Get electronics and test equipment, pumps and motors, battaries and computer equipment by the pallet! Buy entire pallets of parts at a time and make the impractical dream a reality! NOTE: Read the fine print and watch out for shipping costs!” Link. I’m bookmarking this for the occasional requests we get for surplus or bizarre decommissioned gear.
Makers, are you OK with paying more money for ringtone than you would for a complete song? These folks seem to think so – “According to The NPD Group, a leading provider of consumer and retail information, consumers are willing to pay more for a 30-second snippet of a song track to be used as a ringtone than to download an entire song track. In addition, consumers are willing to pay a premium (above the average $0.99 price for paid music downloads from the Web) for the convenience of downloading a full song directly to their mobile phone wherever and whenever they want.” 
News to me, the Digg folks are on it “With all the attention on the new ministore presentation, no one seems to have noticed that iTunes 6.02 enables video-sharing to your local network. Whether it’s intended for an upcoming home media appliance or not I don’t know, but it brings videos up to par with music.” 
Ian writes “This ‘instructable’ covers my new design that programs 8/14/18/28/40 pin PICs. The circuit is based on the 
“This project combines an Apple iPod with a T+A-hifi stereo system (R-system). The iPod can be plugged into the stereo system and does not only deliver the Audio-signal to the T+A-system but is also remote controllable with the T+A remotecontrol without an own infrared receiver.The following iPods are supported: All iPods with dock connector, but not the iPod Mini!” 
Chris has a how to on cleaning equipment that has water damage – “…I noticed the white calcium rings on the box and on the transformer, something had been dripping into it. Apparently it had rained quiet hard a couple of days earlier and water had dropped in from the balcony through a crack in the concrete and dropped down on the Linksys.” 
Mat_the_w writes “Everybody loves LCD monitors because they are so portable and perfect for LAN parties, but I am always afraid of something falling and damaging the soft screen when I travel with my LCD. After purchasing a nice 19 inch Dell display, I decided I needed something to protect my investment. I cut and molded a piece of acrylic plexiglass to form a cover for my LCD monitor.” Here’s the how-to on Instructables.