[oditogre]

I wish I had known about Octopart before reading this essay. I needed a part a couple weeks ago that I had no idea what the technical term for it was, my best guesses lead to things that were totally wrong, and the company that made it was now under a different name, and I could find no trace of the device or anything similar on their online catalog. Oh, and my predecessor, who bought the thing in the first place, 'picked it up at a garage sale'. The correct part from the correct (newly named) company was the first result from Octopart when I tried it just now.

[sam]

Cool. Could you shoot me an email with the part number? Just curious. (sam <at> octopart.com)

[oditogre]

Will do. And BTW, Octopart is now in my bookmarks toolbar at work, so please follow this essay's advice and don't die. :)