Today, the whole shebang is completed. Pictures will be available after christmas, and I'll post the player code too.

Here's the endgame:

94. Glue down the gutted mouse. Insert and secure a dowel rod that presses against the vertical motion mechanism inside the mouse (tuner). Screw a knob on the front
95. Mount a second dowel with a screw through it such that it hits the mouse button when turned (pause). Secure both dowels at the opposite end with blocks of wood
96. Gut a pair of computer speakers. Mount the volume control inside the case, then drill a screw into it onto which the third control knob is mounted. Mount the dial face and speakers. Stick a yellow LED in the middle of the dial.
97. Glue the power switch to another dowel and mount it so that the pause knob hits it on the upswing (lefty pausey, righty rebooty). Try to work out a way to wire the speaker power to the DC supply in the computer. Fail, because the speakers apparantly run off of 9 volts AC (An AC-AC adapter? WTF?)
98. Stick the CD drive in there, power it up. Nothing happens. Take the whole thing apart to reinstall the video card and see what gives. Just a loose connection. But while I'm in here, make a last minute change to the player code
99. Secure the CD-ROM. Correct for an error in the alignment by screwing through a floppy disk (the bad one from step 23).
100. Stick a back on the thing and turn the knob counterclockwise. Thirty seconds later, and it's "Time now for... (brrrrring) Johnny Dollar."

So that's the way it went. 100 steps and a pint of blood later, I am the proud temporary steward of a somewhat awkward MP3-CD player. There's a lot of things I could have done better, but I'm on a schedule. We'll fix it all in the next version. And let me tell you, it's a fine looking machine.

Just hope it keeps working.