Topic: USB based mini LCD display

[Nemesis]

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Few Sideshow devices are currently available and generally manufacturers tend to slam users with a $200 price tag for a 2.5" TFT display with Sideshow capabilities... Once again, out of the left field, comes a Sideshow device that promises basic functionality for a resonable price tag of $49.95. The picoLCD-4x20 is full-speed USB device and displays Sideshow Glance Content via a blue alphanumeric LCD.  We find the device useful for Stocks, Windows Media Player companion and others.  The device, manufactured by mini-box.com,  also has Linux drives that work with LCDproc, a software package that pioneered Sideshow-like concepts by using small LCDs to display bits of information through a variety of plugins. So if you have a windows Vista PC (sorry, no Windows XP) or Linux and if you want to monitor snippets of information even when your main monitor is off, this device might be the perfect candidate for the job. Here is a step by step review containing snapshots and pictures of the picoLCD 4x20 device. 

I imagine it would be useful for some purposes. 

[Sirgod]

That reminds me, Have you seen this Nem?
Optimus Maximus keyboard
http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/input/9836/

Yep. Time to take a second mortgage on your home or break into your kid's college fund. With the singing of angels and a ray of sunlight parting the clouds, the fabled Optimus Maximus Keyboard has descended from Russian design studio Art Lebedev like an orgasm of geekiness. As you should know by now this amazing keyboard features a tiny screen on each key... that's 113 screens in all. What can you do with these tiny screens, you ask? Well, each key can change its image dynamically depending on what you're doing.  Hold down SHIFT and all keys go uppercase. Run Photoshop and you can set it so each hotkey has an image representing its function. Set a key to monitor your CPU usage or display what iTunes track you are currently playing. You can make a key into a tiny clock with moving hands and play animated gif files or even quicktime movies. Of course all this futuristic technology is going to cost you a pretty penny... but we figure you'll just expense the Optimus and tout its "incredible increased efficiency when using PowerPoint hotkeys" in your expense report summary.
Product Features

Revolutionary Keyboard Features a tiny OLED screen on each key. 113 screens total.
Each key can be individually programmed to perform a series of functions, open an application or run an Applescript (Mac only)
Various System Monitor functions can dynamically display on a key including CPU usage, CPU temperature, Network Speed, and Memory Usage
Play a GIF animation or Quicktime movie on a Key
Paint images across all keys at once in your image editor of choice
Key sets can be linked to an application, so whenever you open that app the appropriate keys come up
Powerful layer function allows you to combine existing key sets in different ways
Use any language with the appropriate key images including Cyrillic, Ancient Greek, Georgian, Arabic, Quenya, and Hiragana.
Display notes, numerals, special symbols, HTML codes, math functions or any other special symbol.
Any key (or to be exact, a unit consisting of a cap, a microchip and a display) can be easily removed by hands to be cleaned or replaced
Built in USB hub
SD Card Slot for Storing keyboard Settings
System Requirements

PC with installed OS Windows XP or Vista, with a USB 1.1 (or better 2.0) port; Mac OS X 10.5.1 or higher.
At least 20 MB of free space on hard drive.
At least 256 MB of RAM.
Product Specifications

Keyboard Dimensions: Length 537 mm, Width 173 mm, Height 38 mm
Key Dimensions: 20.2 x 20.2 mm
Display Dimensions: 10.1 x 10.1 mm viewable area on each key
Display Resolution: 48 x 48 pixels per key
Frame Rate: 10 FPS
Color Depth: 65,536 Colors
Viewing Angle: 160 degrees

That thing is just overkill, but so neat at the same time

Stephen