Ewww. Good thing you didn’t taste it to see if it was soda.

Now, the question is, why did the cat think your desk looked like a litter box?

It WAS the cat! Honest!

You forgot to mention the very odd smell of the liquid. It smelled – yuck.

I am happy to report that the P1610 is OK. I let it sit for over 24 hours and it starts and runs with no ill effects so far.

Before blaming anyone (you guys are quick to judge young people heh?) taste the thing and be more enlightened.

Hmmm…
You just ditched Vista on the P1610 and went back to XP. Now you find your desk and devices ravaged by a suspicious brown goo. It can only mean one thing. Microsoft sent this through the interrwebtubbules as a little message to you…another little gift from the Vista team. Forget about ghosts. Worry about SP (sticky puddle)-1.

It was probably Coke, Pepsi, root beer, or something else similar. Key here is that you indicated it was sticky – hence, some kind of sugar/glucose/fructose containing liquid. Unless, of course, you have sort of industrial strength sealant that just happens to be lying around in your office waiting to spill.

… I like the “blame it on the cat” answer though…

If this isn’t guilt, I don’t know what is!

http://www.wordlab.com/uploaded_images/Cat-773062.bmp

“Chance has put in our way a most singular and whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward.”
– Sherlock Holmes

The answer is rudimentary. The cat did it.

What? You say you have no cat?

You do now.

My money is on this answer:

A can of coke was accidentally spilled upstairs. It was cleaned up as best as possible with no one realizing 70% of the contents wound up down the vent and into your office.

@ John in Norway: Don’t knock Columbus Day. For the first time in ten years, I got that day off too. They can give CC credit for splitting the atom for all I care, as long as I have the day free.

99% chance it was the teens. Wet your finger and dab it in some of the residue- lick it, I’m guessing it’s pop.

Go dump a beer on their xbox and cell phones, deny any involvment and call it even.

The whole time I was reading, I was thinking of the picture, and thought something leaked out of you LCD, perhaps some overheating and melting.
But, if your LCD display is OK, and all your devices are OK (what about the laptop?), I’d go with the kids and mischief.

What’s Columbus day? I hope it¨s not for that guy who claimed that he was the first to discover America when it’s now known that many others got there before him.

No, here’s the real mystery. Why do your kids get Columbus Day off?

What a nightmare!
We had a leaking air con here which produced a brown sludge when we opened it up, although this wasn’t sticky… tend to agree with the coke can theory!

I’m inclined to agree it sounds like an over-pressurized soda can was opened on that spot and not cleaned up. But if that vent is directly above the puddle, I’d seriously consider opening it up and taking a look. The splatter could be from the impact of drops falling from the vent. Condensation from the AC could be collecting and mixing with whatever muck is in there.