What does this thing do?

The link you need is on the part. moates.net Search for Burn2, it'll tell you all about it. Its for programming chips.

Its a programmer for making your own custom tuned chips.

http://www.moates.net/product_info.p...roducts_id=197

how'd you stumble across that?

I bought a complete kit from a company that has seemingly disappeared. It came with an ECM, complete wire harness, the moates programmer that's pictured, all the sensors, and a USB cable. I'm trying to learn how to program the chip but have zero direction from the guy I bought it from. He said I could install it and it will run pretty good as he sent it to me. BUT then at the last minute he told me to return the Venom injectors I had purchased from Jeg's and he sent me some Ford injectors instead. He said I or he would have to re-flash the chip to match the Ford injectors and then he fell off the earth. I'm at the point know where I'm close to being able to start it for the first time and hope that it will run as is. I'm also trying to figure out how to use the pictured item. Anyway in a nut shell that's how I obtained it. Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

The information you need is on the Moates site use the search with "burn 2" then go from there.
If your ECM uses an EPROM you'll need a UV Chip eraser.
You may need adapters to allow the burner to read, and or write to the chip.
This setup requires a spare chip which you'll reprogram with existing Binary files, or files made from reading your existing chip.
If you want to cut down the time it takes to burn, erase, and reprogram you'll need extra blank chips.
Once a chip is programmed and you're satisfied with it save the file you used so you can erase and reprogram that chip if needed. Then you can go back to that tune if you need to.
You might what to keep a spreadsheet to log all the files with good Tuning, or tunes for different conditions to make it easier to track and find what you need.