One of the more strange traditions at Yahoo! is Vendor Splendor, where the many companies that we interact with to come and set up tables and give us tchotchkes. If you want things like Avis squishy cars, stuffed animals, yo-yos, pens, underwear (thanks W hotel), and even Y! shaped bubble loops, this is the place for you.

Having gone to them in year past, I didn’t really go for the tchotchkes this year. Every winter they get tossed out anyways, but going to gawk is still fun. There actually are some pretty good deals at the tables in the past like discounts on Costco membership, discounts on wireless service, and the employee discount for Apple (10%).

While at the Apple table I got to play with the iPod Nano. It was pretty slick. It wasn’t terribly new or anything other than it would be smaller in my bag and no spinning hard drive. I would also be curious about battery life. It seems like it would use less power, but my 40 gig has a battery probably about the same size.