Since the widget tutorials/explanation links in the sticky in this forum are broken, I'm posting this, posing a single question:

What the hell are widgets?

I'd like to make my own widget (to fetch content from my site), but I don't even know what it is! A .js file? Information obtained from an XML document? What are they?

I don't know how they work, but to add one to your profile go to personal>edit profile>add content>widget. Perhaps the Subetalodge widget page will give some more information.