Thanks, Jon! I may do a little price comparison first, but that's good to know.

I own that camera and love it. It takes really good low light shots.

Thanks, ND. I may pick your brain about Aperture at some point.

I have the bit older Rebel XT rather than XTi, but I love mine. Super camera.

Newegg has it for $779.99 with lens or $699.99 w/o lens

There are also lots of user reviews if you want to read them.

Not sure how valuable digital camera reviews from PC magazine are, but here's their take on five current models, including the Rebel XTi: [link]

Review of the Canon EOS Rebel XTi at Steve's Digicams: [link]

One of the Macbooks at school got the port for the power cord kinda shoved in, so it won't charge. My impulse is to open it up and nudge it back out. Is this a very, VERY bad idea and I should send it to the people who will fix it and charge us money, or have a go at it?

I've yanked open a handful of Apple laptops, but I can't say that it is for the faint of heart. To get to the power port, you'll at least need to remove the top case. (Looks to be 27 screws you'll need to remove.) I personally haven't looked inside of a MacBook, so I can't really say what you'll encounter there, but before trying, I would look here first to see what you're in for: [link]

But, since you're asking... I probably wouldn't recommend it. Even if you are daring enough to open it up, I'm not sure whether or not it will be an easy fix. Another concern is whether or not the laptop is still under warranty / AppleCare. By opening it up, you'll void whatever warranty is still left. If the MacBook owned by the school, and is under warranty, I'd leave it to the professionals. If not under warranty, and you're absolutely confident you can put it all back together, then I don't see why not taking a look.

I wouldn't reccomend it. One of the things Apple is a little infamous for is making their computers physically inacessible for home/amateur repair.

I'm in the planning stages of a Mac Mini purchase. Its main use will be in the living room hooked up to the TV and playing video.

1.83GHz mini - I add memory afterwards, right? I'll need a video converter until I upgrade the TV. Any recs for a good wireless keyboard? I'll probably need a trackball, since mousing surfaces are in short supply.

I thought the Minis were difficult to add memory to? I remember someone here telling me that. I bought one on eBay that already had 2Gig.

I bought a used Apple wireless bluetooth keyboard which is good except that the spacebar doesn't always work unless I slam my thumb on it. I assume a new one would work better.

My Logitech bluetooth optical mouse works great. I can use it on the seat-cushion next to me while sitting on the couch.

I thought the Minis were difficult to add memory to? I remember someone here telling me that. I bought one on eBay that already had 2Gig.

Yeah, I seem to recall it's difficult to add memory to the new ones. (Don't you have to pull the optical drive or something first?) Which is too bad, as the with the earlier PowerPC ones it's easy to do.