My girlfriend's clamshell ibook is on its last legs. She thinks that when it dies we should turn it into a picture frame. Not electronic. Just a picture frame. I think it would be big and bulky, but of course it would be an Apple picture frame!!
This might be a little extreme, BUT you could gut it entirely, except for the handle. Create a velvet interior or something, and she will have a totally unique purse. I think your girlfriend would be pretty hot B) with that. BTW, I'm sure it would get you some points for 'ahem' .
Wouldn't be hard to make it a picture frame. Depending on how it's built, scrape the electronics, keep the frame and hinges then add some 1/8th inch plexi and any matting/backing you need and you'll have it. Worst case you'll need to fire up a dremel tool to get rid of any plastic ribbing in the LCD housing. You should be able to use most of the existing mounting points and screws to assemble it. You might want to keep the keyboard mounted to keep it looking nice but it could be a cool picture frame. Maybe hinge it and build a small storage area under it (borrowing from the purse idea)
Why not turn it into an electronic pictureframe? If it can be done with an old PB it can be done with an iBook, and the Clamshells are much cooler looking than the old drab PBs.
On the purse tangent, with the HD, MB, screen, drives and everything out of it, it will just be plastic and very light.
do the purse and take the guts and make a picture frame out of something else. Use some cool looking case and put the guts in that. Then you get a double wammy!
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"Fix it 'til it Breaks."
Jacob - EiC & Director of Technology Mac Pro Quad 2.66 - 4GB RAM 160 GB SATA RAID 1 - 650 GB Storage Quad 19" Widescreen LCDs Accessorized to the Hilt