Over the course of the last few months we've been working hard on rewriting much of the site. This rewrite will allow us to develop features more quickly and robustly. The first round of the rewrite has already allowed us to keep our data as fresh as possible.

We're happy to say that we're very close to releasing the rest of the rewrite, including a complete revamping of the partlist. Unfortunately, in order to keep our development schedule on pace, the initial release of the partlist will remove key features. The details of your partslists will be unavailable (including folders, names, and parts categorized in each partlist); instead, we will give you access to all of the parts across all of your partlists in one global 'saved parts' list. In addition, checkout will be unavailable, as will publishing partlists (we will continue to host existing published partlists). We will maintain a record of all this data and work on allowing access to all of these features as soon as possible.

If you have any concerns about access to your partlist data, please e-mail us and we will work with you to find a solution.

About 10 years ago, I remember a friend of mine showing me a MiniDisc player he bought in Akihabara Electric Town, the electronics hub of Tokyo. At the time, the player surpassed anything available in the United States. So on a recent trip to Tokyo, of course I checked out the area.

I emerged from the Akihabara station to an overwhelming view of futuristic looking buildings and colorful signs.

Poking around in some of the stores I found lots of consumer electronics - cell phones, digital cameras and laptop computers. It seemed like a flashier version of Circuit City.

As I exited one of the stores, I noticed a small, narrow alley off to the side and poked my head in. I expected perhaps a loading dock, or maybe a dumpster filled with cardboard boxes. Instead, tiny booths filled the alley, each one displaying thousands of electronic components.

Transfixed, I entered the alley and checked out the wares of the first booth. Capacitors covered nearly the entire surface area of the booth with the exception of a tiny hole where the proprietor stood watch over his goods.

As I zig-zagged down the alley, bouncing from one booth to the next I saw the same scene repeated over and over though with a different family of components.

I witnessed an effective way to search for parts: the open market method. For some types of searches it may not be the fastest but is certainly the most fun!