OK, the freeware I was talking about is called Senuti. Versiontracker.com has it and it is worth checking out, if only for the ability to upload your music to anywhere you wish.
My folks also bought me an itrip for the car. It's not perfect; however, I have been able to get it to work with a clear channel right here in the heart of DC. But if you drive around in an urban area, static will cut in from time to time. I like it if only because I don't need to run an adapter to by tape deck, which I have come to loathe. Check out Griffin for details. And it doesn't need batteries!
Been having a blast loading this sucker up. I discovered I can get more space for the buck, without loss in sound quality, by importing the tracks as mp3s with 320 kbs (higher than what is shown, you have to go to custom to get this), and choose the VBS option as well. So far I loaded the Complete Larry Young, Sam Rivers, Mosaic Lee Morgan, Grachan Moncur and I only used up 3 gigs!!!!!
I finally understand a need for an additional hard drive. Are there any places on the web that have good deals?