The light works really well. I actually replaced the halogen bulb with a CFL bulb. The tutorial that I followed is here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mhuk/3311771227/The reason that I have so many buttons is because I have a Canon digital camera that I use the CHDK with and a Canon Rebel DSLR camera that I built a trigger for. The DSLR trigger has a focus, shutter release and another button to put it in Bulb mode.
The U shape is actually two L shapes that are joined in the middle. They are made out of conduit pipe. I made it this way so that I could take it apart easier to store it ( My wife didn't like a big book scanner sitting on the kitchen table

).