Any recommendations for USB audio input-output thingies? My Apple Cube does not have a dedicated audio output, but comes with a nice pair of USB speakers. But connecting the speakers to my stereo via the headphone jack (the only option) doesn't work too well. Also, I'd like some sort of audio in, preferably with a preamp that can handle a turntable-level input.

this looks good (although I don't know if it can handle a turntable inpute without using an additional preamp) but it's a little pricy at $179.99. Although it does handle guitar and other instrument input, in case I want to pick up guitar again....

eta: This is ugly so I won't buy it.

Maybe this?

Hi techie people! The company I do most of my freelancing for is planning to revamp their website; starting from the ground up to make it more professional looking. I think I can handle doing everything they need except for one part.

Their clients enter very complex orders on the web (background checks, information includes everything on an employment application) and it is dropped into the company's access program. It must be secure because of the nature of the information. Is there an easy way for me to learn to code something like that? Is there software that would do it for me?

My dad is cleaning out his computer room, and he has a bunch of old programs. I won't even go into the oldest stuff, and I know this is a longshot, but if anyone wants a "Build your own network: LAN and web server" for Windows 95/98, please email my profile address by Friday, Jan 7. At that point, it will go in the trash.

Tom, the links you have don't work for me, but you might want to take a look at [link] or [link]

They have software called "Final Vinyl", which is specifically for ripping LPs. [link]

From wayback, about the flash drives (memsticks, whatever) - it's probably NT. Those little sticks rely on Windows already having the drivers for them, and NT is too old to have the drivers. You can buy sticks that come with driver software, but then you have to load software onto your work computer, which many businesses frown on.

I love memory sticks beyond all reason. I want stereo manufacturers to retool from disks to sticks - lots more music on smaller media, not as annoying to store, etc. Think of how small a 10-stick changer would be! And you wouldn't have the compression you get with mp3. But I'm sure this idea threatens the RIAA (and MPAA for moviesticks), so we'll never see it.

That, and you'd have to have a really oversized package to put good cover art on.

I hope this counts as a tech question. Are different Instant Messenger programs compatible with each other? Like, if I get MSN and my friend has ICQ, can we IM each other? Which one do you guys think is best? I tried AOL a while back and it crashed my computer, and I've been leery of the things ever since.

Zenkitty ... even though ICQ and AIM are both owned by AOL, they use different servers, so they can't communicate directly with each other. However, having said that, Trillian may be able to offer a bridge between the two but I've never used it so couldn't say so for sure.

Trillian will talk to AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo, and IRC. The only catch is that you have to have your own user ID for each service you want to use. So, if you want to talk to someone who only has ICQ, you'll need an ICQ ID, too. Once you have it, though, Trillian lets you talk to all the services from a single interface. Very handy.

(However, I will note for the record that I really don't like the recent update they did to Trillian, and I'm thinking about uninstalling it and returning to my earlier version.)

Trillian is also unable to log into the Yahoo interface. Believe me, I've tried.

Reposted from my LJ: While trying to track down and eradicate some spyware, I found a cool new tool. Process Explorer is a highly souped-up version of Task Manager. It shows you not only which tasks are running, but which tasks have spawned other tasks, and what files and registry keys are associated with each task.

Using Process Explorer, I was able to figure out that evil process B was being continuously respawned by innocuous-looking process A, where each of them lived in the file system, and what registry keys were associated with each.

[link]