Milkshake Shop show how changing a user input error message for processing credit cards to be less...accusatory...has dramatically increased sales.
I spent some time trying to setup GT.M and MD/B on Ubuntu to immerse myself in key/value databases. It has been around since 1986, and shows some impressive benchmarks (compared to the CouchDB, MongoDB, Tokyo crowd), but I didn't quite get mine off the ground. More research needed. One downside, and comeback on the criticism it presents against modern day key/value databases is that whilst it is open-source, the support is commercialised.
kuro5hin proposes the greatest program ever written - a chess game for the Sinclair ZX-81, with AI, and with only 672 bytes of memory; astonishing.
The Google phone (Nexus One) is out. I'm more inclined to agree with the "two years too late" and "iPhone competitor" camps, instead of the "wow fantastic" camp. Certainly wouldn't for out £330 for one offline whilst already owning a (first generation) iPhone.
...However, I would fork out £130 for the Boxee Box; it would replace an archaic laptop plugged into the TV via VGA.