Out of the box, the iPod is basically a one-trick pony. The games and applications found under the â€Extras†menu get old faster than Britney. But thanks to four years of work by a crafty group of programmers, you can now use your iPod´s processing power and scroll-wheel interface to play dozens of games, record voice memos, or browse Wikipedia, all without messing up the existing software or your music.

The secret is iPodLinux, an alternative operating system you can install free alongside the existing one on any iPod model.

Humans naturally have the power to remember almost two bits of information per second, or a few hundred megabytes over a lifetime. Compared with a DVD movie, which holds up to 17 gigabytes, that´s nothing. Worse, you might easily recall the 40-year-old dialogue from Hogan´s Heroes yet forget your mom´s birthday. Or memorize reams of sports stats while spacing out on work you completed just last week.

It´s a problem that´s been bothering Gordon Bell for almost as long as he can remember.