In a hint of crop-circle mania, Finch seems to think Apple's doing this on purpose. It's strange, it's weird, and it's perfect for this article. Read Kahney's short report (with juicy links) at http://wiredblogs.tripod.com/cultofmac/index.blog?entry_id=540166.

Yeah, we couldn't make this stuff up if we tried.

iPod body armor
There's a Japanese guy out there with some serious machine shop skills. While I don't read Japanese, I can run pages through the Google translator and it seems our friend has a nasty commute:

Because I have lived in Kanto, pressure of that horrible commuter train has been experienced. When you take the position at inside of car of car and make a mistake, the pipe for the handrail eats to the abdomen. When exactly there is a iPod there, there is no one it is aegagropila, probably will be. But, because the stainless steel case of the iPod 1mm rank is a thickness, it accompanies and to frame does how, just it hit to something, it is probably will be?

Having access to a machine shop, our commuter friend decided to tackle the problem and built some body armor for his iPod, as you can see in Figure D.

FIGURE D

This guy has talent -- and possibly too much free time. Click picture for a larger image.

We can't help but be impressed. Even though you might not understand the language, each picture speaks volumes about this gentleman's talent with tools. To see more of this project, visit http://homepage.mac.com/sideriver/cubesite/ipodcase/ipodcase.html.

Movies on your iPod photo
Because there's not enough for the Motion Picture Association of America to freak out about, Phillip Torrone is back, this time in the virtual pages of Engadget, writing about how to play movies on your iPod photo, as shown in Figure E.

FIGURE E

You just can't escape Star Wars these days. Click picture for a larger image.

While there's no doubt the device can store the movies and certainly can play back the sound with reasonable fidelity, we have to wonder just why you'd torture yourself to watch the darned thing. That said, Torrone has figured out how to do it. What makes this truly amusing is that since the iPod can't play movies, what Torrone has managed to do is figure out how to transvert a movie into lots of teeny-weeny little pictures. To play the movie, you have to move your finger along the scroll wheel, in sort of a 21st Century equivalent of a hand-cranked magic lantern.

There's just nothing we can say. Nothing. But if you'd like to do this, you can find more about it at http://www.engadget.com/entry/3756421320807387.

Linux on your iPod
When it comes to people with way too much time on their hands, no one group qualifies more than Linux hackers. And, if there's a device, it's got some storage, RAM, and a processor, it's gonna run Linux. It's a law or something.

Since the iPod certainly qualifies as a device, has some RAM, a hard drive, and a processor, you knew sooner or later it'd run Linux, as shown in Figure F. And that, of course, is why there's the iPodLinux Project.

FIGURE F

If it processes, it must run Linux. Click picture for a larger image.