With the new job also came a new cell phone, the HTC Desire, a brilliant piece of technological art. All iPhone owners should have a good, long look at that phone - not to try to get them to change religion, I realize that’s impossible - but rather to understand how good the competition is for us all.

I used to have an HTC Hero, which also was a good phone, but the screen was a little too small and the CPU a bit short on horsepower. It used a mini USB connector for charging, while the Desire uses a micro USB connector. Of course it would be preferable that it too used the mini USB, but as far as I understand, micro USB is now the new standard for charging connectors on mobile phones. Fingers crossed.

Anyway. I could use an extra micro USB cable to use at work. Let’s face it, the battery capacity on smart phones has something to be desired, and having a charging cable laying around is always a good idea¹.

Where to find a cheap micro USB cable? Why, Deal Extreme of course!

They have a micro USB cable for the low, low price of $2.30. With free shipping. Cool. The problem with Hong Kong based Deal Extreme is that they have just that; a lot of extreme deals. Also, if you buy stuff for less than NOK 200, you don’t have to pay import taxes when the package arrives in Norway. NOK 200 is about USD 32 at the moment, meaning that it’s possible to cram a lot of extreme deals in one small package before the import tax kicks in.

And before I knew it, I’d ordered more crap than you can imagine: One 6-Inch 2.4GHz Antenna for Wifi/WLAN/Wireless Router and Access Point (not really crap, because I actually need it), two Multicolored LED Decorative Snow Ball (these are actually really nice), a Compact USB PC Webcam (300K Pixel), one 2-in-1 LED + Pointer Flashlight (great when I do one of my many presentations and whenever the light goes out), four (4) LED Shot Cups (parties will never be the same again). And the micro USB cable of course.

Here’s to the package not being held up in customs.