Gadget Update
Based on alynch's recommendation, I picked up the Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro. It has completely eliminated the noise I was hearing from the motherboard's sound card, and it worked with Linux without any reconfiguring. Well, almost. KDE switched over to it very gracefully, but Flash wouldn't switch until I disabled the motherboard's sound device. I'd seen ddmerillat go through something very similar on his Gentoo box, so I wasn't terribly surprised by that.
A week and a half ago, I ordered a Gyration Ultra wireless keyboard and mouse combo. I wanted the wireless mouse to navigate among slides when I'm teaching at barbershop camp. Getting a mouse and keyboard for $35 seemed like a real bargain. When it arrived, it turned out to be better than I could've hoped. The mouse can be used as a flying mouse and a grounded mouse. Best of all, it even worked with my 1998-vintage laptop. This was my first purchase from woot.com, so I think I'd best express my joy as "woot!".
A week and a half ago, I ordered a Gyration Ultra wireless keyboard and mouse combo. I wanted the wireless mouse to navigate among slides when I'm teaching at barbershop camp. Getting a mouse and keyboard for $35 seemed like a real bargain. When it arrived, it turned out to be better than I could've hoped. The mouse can be used as a flying mouse and a grounded mouse. Best of all, it even worked with my 1998-vintage laptop. This was my first purchase from woot.com, so I think I'd best express my joy as "woot!".