Andy asks:
I am trying to create a small widget that would act like a portfolio for 4 products in my WordPress.com blog sidebar.
First I tried to hack the ‘authors widget’, which allowed thumbnails, then opened an inline frame (I guess) and in that frame one could see several pictures of an author and background info.
But one can replace ‘authors’ with products only as long as no one will ever write on the blog (!!).
Anyway, can I find a HTML widget that would be allowed by WordPress.com and that does this trick? Alternatively, can I hack another widget? 
It really looks great and it would really help my website/blog.
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Sadly, no. By running on wordpress.com you limit yourself tremendously. If you’re thinking about actually selling products though, dont you think it would be more professional to have your own domain? Setting that kind of wodget up, or even writing it yourself (http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-create-wordpress-widgets/) would be trivial on a self hosted install.
You could try using a portfolio theme:
http://www.pingable.org/100-stunning-professional-portfolio-wordpress-themes/
http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/?p=5795
But if I understand you correctly you just want a way to open your products pictures like the pictures in Facebook were you click on them and they open on top of the content of the page? I don’t think it should be that hard, simple HTML coding can do it.
Here are two examples of the method I’m talking about with guides:
http://www.dynamicdrive.com/style/csslibrary/item/css-popup-image-viewer/#thumb
http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex4/lightbox/index.htm
A portofolio theme could be an overkill, since the website will be mostly text,
I will try your html sugestions when I have a chance but
(1) the widget i trey to replicates actually has 2 steps (a), on click show 4 thumbnails of the item and plus a bit of text (b) on click enlarge any given item.
(2) it really looks like code that would be stripped down by wordpress.com. I’ll let you know more once I test it.