I'm going to ask technical questions here. If anyone knows anything, any help would be appreciated. And remember: details matter. I'm largely unversed in technical things, and I'm behind the curve on lots of things others have learned about earlier. So imagine you're explaining things to a first grader. Walk me through step by step. As I used to say to students: be specific and give examples.

1. I have a large-ish number of songs on the Psyduck iPod. Most I've loaded from CDs. I've also bought a couple of hundred songs from iTunes. But I've only and ever been sent two mp3s to download and then put in my iTunes library. (And I was walked through the procedure via IM) I know that I have friends--- e.g., Ginny at ginny_mccoo and Lissy at emigree and Umi at ivich ---who have a couple of thousand songs on their respective iPods. There are a couple of questions for people who are serious music fans. And let's remember: I'd never downloaded any music at all until last week.

---People with thousands of songs on their iPods: are you getting those songs from your own CDs, buying them, or getting them from friends/mysterious sites out there? Where do you find your music? From where do you get most of what you download?

---Do I need something like Limewire? If so--- which software do you think I need? What works best for you? Why?

---If I have a song in my library, and I want to send it to someone, what do I do? Is there a way to take a song from my iTunes library and send it to someone? If I put one of my CDs into the Tare Panda laptop, then...I can download it to a folder in My Music? Is that true? Can I then send those songs to someone?

---What is the whole last.fm thing? Is it useful? What does one actually do at last.fm?

2. I'm seriously thinking of getting a camera and taking up photography again. That's something I used to love doing, and I do miss it. I used to love architectural photos, and I miss clambering over buildings or through ruined graveyards and churches. If you do photography yourself, I hope you'll tell me---

---What kind of camera do you use? Why did you choose it? What features does it have? Which ones do you use? Tell me about the camera you carry with you--- does it travel well? Is it portable enough--- small enough ---easily to take inside, say, museums or buildings? How physically big is it? What made you prefer a particular brand?

---Film or digital? Why?

---Assuming that you have a digital camera, what can be done with it once you connect it to a laptop? What do you mostly do with your photos? What made you decide to start taking photos?

---What accessories have you found to be key?

---What made you decide to get the camera? What do you most enjoy doing with it? Where are the best places you've taken it?

---Is it difficult in the Year Eight to travel (i.e., by plane) with a camera?

---If you have photos on digital camera, is it easy to post them here? Do you need a Flickr account?

Any thoughts would be most appreciated. Details--- technical specs, brand names, models ---do matter. And please do remember that in telling me what to do that I've never downloaded anything, that I've been tech-averse for years, and that I need to have my hand held and be walked through things step by step by baby step.

Thanks much, darlings.