The Computer History Museum will be taking donations again in December.

Here's their wish list:

Wish List

Amstrad PenPad PDA 600
Cartridges for Nixdorf Computer LK-3000
Casio FX-780P
DataHand Professional II
Ergodex DX1 Keyboard with user-relocatable keys
Gophercon material
IBM 3270 Terminal with display and keyboard units
Kyocera Refalo
Lomak (Light Operated Mouse and Keyboard), Opdo Limited, New Zealand
Mentor Engineering Stryder mobile data computer
Minitel or videotex related advertising and marketing materials, i.e, magazine ads, video, shirts, etc.
Minitel or videotex related software, accessories, and hardware (EXCLUDING Minitel terminals)
Motorola Delivery Information Acquisition Device (DIAD) I used by UPS
MyTobii P10 non-target eye tracking system
Nokia Model 7110 WAP-enabled phone
ORBIT X-Y™ Ball Tracker
Prestel TV adapter box and telephone line
Texas Instruments Compact Computer 40 (CC-40), circa 1983
Thomson TO7 micro computer
Toshiba LC-836MN MEMO NOTE 30
TRS-80 PC-5 (this model only)
WebVan sign or banner
Xerox PARC ashtray or other ephemera from 1970s

ETA: I may have to visit my Mom's garage....

Another dumb graphic design type question-

If I am having a multipage booklet printed, do I do the print layout spreads or does my the guy doing the printing? It is my first time doing something that is not a trifold.

I'd ask the printer how he prefers it. Normally for something like 4 or 8 pages, I do spreads, but page by page for long things. He may charge to set it up in spreads or not. Each printer is an individual, fundamentally evil, entity.

Thank you Ginger. I just have to say I found that question impossible to google!

I'm looking into Blu Ray again. I want a player that plays all regions of DVDs, since a large part of my collection is international. I've found a list here, but what I can't tell is if any of those players actually don't suck.

What's the basic bottom line for a decent, forward looking Blu Ray player in terms of stats? And what's a reasonable cost? My TV is only 720p, so that's not a big deal.

Depends - any newish Blu-ray player will generally do fine for Blu-ray playing. You might want one with a little bit of built-in storage for fancy downloadable content things, though I've yet to use that feature myself. The main difference between low-end and high-end, near as I can tell, are video/audio quality things you're unlikely to be able to see and extra features: streaming options, video decoding capabilities, and built-in wireless. I use all of the last three, so I bought a high-end player (around $300 when I bought it, similar ones are closer to $200 now) but you should be able to go cheaper.

Basically, if you don't need the streaming decoding stuff, I'd grab the cheapest DVD player on that list that fits your region needs. If you can figure out how to unlock it yourself, I'd go ahead and buy one from newegg or whomever and then do it yourself, though, rather than paying markup though that company you linked to.

If I were you, ita, I think I'd probably go ahead and get the Sony BDP-S470 or BDP-S570 and a One4All universal remote and use this region-free hack: [link] (it apparently works on BDP-S??0 remotes)

Total cost < $250, lots of streaming options, etc.

ita, for region-free hacks, you should look here. It might widen your list of possibilities.

Whoah. That's a hell of a list. Confusingly, not everything on it has a hack. Some of the hack comments are just "How do I hack this?" But it will give me a good reference.

I'm trying to bypass the onboard mic on my iSight camera, and use the Snowball mic ND hipped me to ages ago.

I hear Quicktime Pro might accomplish this.

Has anyone used QTP for video podcasting or similar? I'm not loving iMovie and will gladly pay the freight, but I'd like to know that it works for importing sound and is, in general, easier to use.

Any thoughts?