I got a sorta dead iPod (10GB second gen) for free.

It was dropped in water.

It does turn on, the screen is missing a few lines. The drive comes on and doesn't sound dead. (no head crashing)
It gets to the Apple logo stays there. I have googled for info, and have tried the full restart, forced firewire, and diag mode - none work aside from restarting and that does nothing but take me back to the apple logo.

I have my old Performa 550 which is upgraded to a Performa 575, System 8.1 with 66MHZ Apple PPC upgrade card, 20 MBs of Ram and a 500MB harddrive.

Also I have two of the very early clones made by Cutting Edge, The Quatro 850 (towers) as seen here on Applefritter for Sale or trade

I really need to start teaching myself a language, and I more or less settled on C or C++. I got Codewarrior Learning Edition 4.1, but I'd like a book as well. What would people recommend as far as something thats easy to read, but teaches you what you need to know. I want to build a basic understanding before I learn more advanced stuff.