I just ordered the Digital Rebel XTi! Thanks to everyone who helped with advice and links!

Hey Gris - I *know* you'll be going to this:

Made on a Mac
The Making of Broadway's Spring Awakening
May 17 at 5 p.m.
Get a behind-the-scenes look at the musical Spring Awakening. You'll hear from director Michael Mayer and members of the cast about how Mac tools, such as iTunes and GarageBand, have enabled them to create this innovative new musical. You'll even be treated to a short performance by the cast

They've actually had a few of those already, Jessica. I went to the first one (which was hosted by Duncan Sheik and producer Tom Hulce, rather than Mayer) and missed the second one (which involved the lighting designers, if I recall correctly). I will probably try to go, but it was super-crowded even back in December, when the show was still on the brink of failure. Now that it's more successful, it may not quite be worth the effort for me. Though I would like to talk to Michael about the show - he was at the stage door last week, but I was talking to somebody else and missed him.

Anyway, if it's anything like the first one, it's more interesting for fans of the show than for those really interested in the Mac stuff. The questions tend to drift away from Apple products pretty quickly.

when I was in a hotel recently, it had a samsung dvd player where I could connect my USB to the DVD player and watch videos on my drive on the tv.

I thought this was the absolutely bomb. I would like to buy a similar dvd player for home. I think I know the model of the samsung player that was in the hotel room (it was a home theater system), but I am wondering how I could find various brands and players that fit this capability. Any suggestions on how I can search for this? My searching over at amazon has netted spotty results at best.

Does anyone have advice about external hard drive enclosures? I'm taking out my 80 gig drive (regular internal hard drive for a PC are 3.5", right?) and putting it into a case to use it as an external backup. Does it really matter what brand I get? What's the best online place to buy these things? I know about newegg.com, but are there others that are as trusted and inexpensive?

P-C, you do need a 3.5" enclosure (there are also 2.5" enclosures for laptop drives). Other than that, it's basically a box that holds a bit of ribbon cable, so as long as it's got the kind of connector you want -- USB, Firewire, or both -- there's really no difference worth paying extra for.

Newegg has a ton of them in the $20 Range; Tigerdirect.com will also have a wide selection. Or if you have a Fry's near you, try there. I wouldn't bother with Best Buy or the like.

You also need to know if your drive is IDE or SATA.

Yes, what Tom said.

Other than that, it's basically a box that holds a bit of ribbon cable, so as long as it's got the kind of connector you want -- USB, Firewire, or both -- there's really no difference worth paying extra for.

That's what I was thinking. The cheapest ones seem to be around $13.99, and they seem like they do the job, but the most popular ones are in the $40-$50 range.

Newegg has a ton of them in the $20 Range; Tigerdirect.com will also have a wide selection. Or if you have a Fry's near you, try there

There's a Fry's, and they say the ones they have start at $50, which, whatever.

Tigerdirect! I knew there was another one I'd seen, thanks.

You also need to know if your drive is IDE or SATA.

How do I find this out? I think it's IDE.

Okay, maybe not. I found the Quick Installation guide for my Seagate 7200 RPM drive, and it mentions ATA drives. Like, if I "already" have one ATA drive and such, so I presume I have an ATA drive. So SATA? How do I make sure?

Wait, this sucks. Nearly all the enclosures are IDE. What's the difference? All the SATA ones only have a SATA to SATA connection.

IDE vs SATA