  When I was writing my TiVo hacking book, my favorite part of
the entire project was taking apart two TiVos (a series 1 and
series 2) and trying to figure out what everything did. I tested
components, poked around inside the code, did countless Google
searches on chip manufacturers and parts numbers, looked up
patents, looked for clues in other books and on hacker
discussion forums. It was fascinating detective work that was
far more exciting and interesting than I expected.  EMS Labs
recently retired a HP Color LaserJet 2600n. Windell whipped out
his screwdriver and camera and documented the deconstruction of
the beast, in search of knowledge about how the thing worked and
usable parts. He took some 200 photos (all available on Flickr)
and offers some fascinating insight into how the various printer
components work. Here’s an example:   Here is one surprising
element from the optics package. This is a precision molded
plastic lens assembly with three lenses. The lens on the left is
a plain (near cylindrical