ipod plus

ryan gave me a good idea, he suggested putting a sliding volume control in the hole for the floppy. this got me thinking. there's a whole load of stuff i could do with that floppy hole. what i'm thinking at the moment is either a volume slider, if i can find a cool slider, or perhaps have a row of led's that light up as the volume goes higher. i don't know how to do that, though. and it doesn't really fit in with the design of the ipod or the plus. perhaps i could put a crossfade in their between the ipod dock and the rca input, hook my powerbook up and have a tiny mobile mp3 dj table. or i could even hook up a turntable, if i had one, and scratch over what the ipod's playing, if i could scratch.

still pondering...

also, optional battery power? take it to the beach, crank some tunes? anyone have any idea how i'd do this? i'm guessing i'd have to find out what the amp i get converts mains to, and, uh, i dunno, wire up some batteries to be as close to that as possible. i'm looking at getting a set of 2.1 speakers with an amp built-in, is easier.