When you arrive at EchoDitto's international headquarters in Washington, DC, you'll immediately be struck by our wall-mounted LCD display, proudly beaming its dazzling multimedia content in all its 2400x600 @ 16-bit glory. A vast improvement from the inflatable carousel, you might say -- but it wasn't always that way.

Our first shot at the lobby LCD display was actually a series of 3 Metro Express newspapers designed as placeholders. This actually persisted for several weeks, but failed to stimulate us with its non-interactive nature. It also failed to display the latest news in reverse chronological order as desired. (Somehow, it seemed permanently stuck on January 9, 2007.)

Not long after (and $600 lighter), we found ourselves with three 19" flatscreens but no way to affix them to the wall. This wasn't much of an improvement.

Bolts had seemed like a good idea, but, as you might suspect, there was a setback. While stringing our XM Radio antennae in the kitchen, I got a peek inside the wall at the steel frame of the building. No studs meant no bolts, no bolts meant no LCDs, and no LCDs meant one unhappy CTO.