well, maybe I'm being rude now, sorry ralph. as to your comment about not expecting any company to send out 20 free samples, acctually I can

I'm in my thesis year at an art collge in canada, and many people are getting things free. film for movie production from kodak, free cameras, etc.
artists are always on low budgets, and we try to get things scrunged , donated, and loaned as much as possible. many companies do do that. I just think there's not many artists embedding PIC's into their work so it's not even crossed Microchips mind yet.

thank you very much for the mouser link, those prices are great, I'll prob buy from there. thanks ralph