PIC microcontroller

I’ve discovered an entirely new realm of geekiness in PIC microcontrollers. These inexpensive ( ~$2.00 ) computers can be programmed to control lights, motors or whatever and can also be controlled through switches or knobs. My mind is exploding with possibilities with what you can make with these. For example, the good old simon says toy, where lights flash in a random sequence which you have to remember, and then you press buttons in the same sequence back. Or a christmas decoration which twinkles. Or lights that zip in a pattern on a billboard sign. Or a robot that drives itself around towards a light source.
Help! I need some ideas of what my first project should be.
I’ve also noticed, as my friend Stacie the librarian preaches, that the internet is indeed a lousy place to find information. Thus as a public service to the world at large, I would like to publicly answer a question that took me about a half hour to figure out. With hope, Google will index this question and answer the future generations of geeks will be spared the pain.

Question: Where do you get GCC 3.1 for Mac OS X (Darwin) version 10.3 or higher?
Answer: It is in a package called gcc3.1.pkg on the XCode 1.5 disk image. You can download XCode from Apple if you set up a free Developer Connection user account.

Well, next I’m trying to use Fink to install libusb so I can build usb_pickit and hopefully get it to work with the PICKit 1 Onboard firmware version is 2.0.2. Apparently the Mac OS tools for the PICKit stopped working when Microchip updated the firmware — doh!