You're comparing 3.5" drives with 2.5" drives. Not the same thing at all. Besides being a lot smaller, a 2.5" external USB drive can run with no AC power supply.

This is great. No DRM on the paid downloads, DRM on the subscription tracks. Sounds like a fine deal to me.

Now for those who hate DRM in any form, yeah, I'm with you in philosophy. But let me tell you what DRM lets me do. I can listen to nearly any track in the Napster library, of course, but there's more than that.

I play harmonica at our church, and when our worship leader emails out a song list, I pull up multiple versions of each song in Napster and listen to them. If they're in the wrong key (as they usually are), I download them and open the WMA files in Transcribe! (www.seventhstring.com) to transpose them to the right key and even see what notes are being played.

All that without paying for the tracks.

If they didn't DRM the subscription tracks, there wouldn't *be* a subscription service, so I couldn't do that.

And now, when I want an non-DRMed copy, 99 cents and it's mine. What's not to like?

@Michael LaFramboise: The sluggish response is because they come from the factory set way too slow.

To make a TrackPoint really easy to use, open the Mouse control panel and go to the TrackPoint tab (or if there is an UltraNav tab, go there and then click the Settings button in the TrackPoint section). Move the slider all the way to the right for Light Touch.

Then go to the Pointer Options tab and slide the Motion slider almost all the way to the right (Fast). I like it just one notch from the right edge, but experiment with it to see what suits you. Also on this same tab, make sure the Enhance Pointer Precision checkbox is checked.

The TrackPoint may feel too sensitive with these settings if you've gotten used to the slow factory settings, but give yourself some time to get used to it.

While we're talking TrackPoints, let me put in a plug for a free program I wrote for ThinkPads and other notebook computers, JKLmouse:

http://www.jklmouse.com/

JKLmouse is a "mouse keys" program that's designed to work seamlessly with the TrackPoint or touchpad, so you can use the pointing device for large movements and the keyboard for fine pixel-by-pixel control.

It's not a car, but it does need a driver.

Aaron, which Marantz did you test - the PMD660 or PMD620? Thanks!

Don't worry about the 3.1.2/3.1.3 discrepancy. If you know you want the half-price deal on 5.0, just go to the "request a registration key" link shown above. And don't worry that it says version 2, either. You can request a key on that page even if you don't download 3.anything, and then it will take you to a page where you can order the 5.0 upgrade.

How does a machine "defiantly not play doom"?

"I defy you! I won't play doom!"?

You mean you don't like SUXWGA++- displays?

I read my novels and Analog Magazine using Mobipocket on my Verizon Pantech PN-820 Smartphone, with its little two-inch display. I prefer it to paper. I don't try to cram the display full of text in a tiny font; I use a nice big font. Not very many words per page, but I don't care - it's trivial to hit the Down button.

I have the phone in my pocket anyway, so my books are always there when I have a few minutes to read. Wouldn't work for a mathematical text like John Derbyshire's _Prime Obsession_, but for the pure text in the SF I read, it works great.

Don't feel bad about mixing up the tax deduction vs. tax credit. A lot of people do. Be thankful that you don't have to worry about it yet. :-)

A tax credit works the way you were thinking: A $200 tax credit means you get $200 back.

A tax deduction reduces your taxable income, so it may reduce your taxes, but only according to your tax rate. Suppose your marginal tax rate (the tax rate you pay on the next dollar you earn, federal and state combined) is 40%. Then a $200 tax deduction would be worth $80 to you ($200 x 40%).