Rechargeables - solar - and generator types

Lately, I've been exploring the world of rechargeable lights, after running across a few models in Harbor Freight tools (super cheapies)..... they seemed cool in concept, but... the strange thing is, they never seem to go "dead"..... I actually took one apart to see if it had a hidden button cell in there or something.... all 5mm white LED type... THEN I ran across one in Ramsey outdoor store- the "Wind-n-go model 7120" looks like it has the 1/2W LEDs found on some higher end lights.... this has a pretty good brightness and three choices, one LED, all three and blink all three..... Not bad... I get about an hour runtime before it starts to dim noticeably- and I crank for a minute or two and I'm back at full brightness again.

Has anyone had any experiences (good or bad) with these lights?

My thoughts on "green" rechargeables:
Solar charged... pretty good, but needs to be left out in bright sun for a few hours to get a good charge..... if it goes dead at night, you're SOL If the day before is rainy and cloudy.. you're SOL.... the crank type can be charged any time day or night as need be, but it's a tiny bit noisy (wwweeeeeEEEEEeeeeeeEEEEEeeee) and I'm not sure how long the crank is going to last... seems like a good twist in the wrong direction and it's history. Might be nice to have a USB cable connection, or a power jack to recharge it from a PC or a cig lighter jack in the car too...