Re: connecting machines.
 

My father-in-law finds USB pens dead easy. It's just like a large floppy with drag and drop the files.

What to look for :-
Slim 7mm width USB pens. The one's with a fatter bodies are annoying as they get in the way with anything else plugged into the adjacent USB port. Slimmer is better.

A nice to have, are ones that allow you to password protect the files on the USB (Very useful if you lose these things)

A must have is a device that is USB 2 as it will be a helluva lot faster than USB 1.1 and is backwards compatible with USB 1.1. (techie stuff left out here)

Finally, if it's a bit fiddly plugging these things in at the back of your computer, (because your PC doesn't have ports at the front) get a USB extension cable.

I use these things a lot and you are right it saves wasting CD's

For the boys who like toys. These USB devices have moved up a notch. So instead of buying just a USB pen how about a USB Pen and MP3 player combined.

When you are not using the device to transfer files you can slap a few MP3's onto it and plug a pair of headphones in.

http://www.engadget.com/entry/0376274416327141/
http://www.advancedmp3players.co.uk/...sort=4a&page=3

Re: connecting machines.
 

Err why wate CDs for this sort of stuff have 1 or 2 rewriteable CDs knocking around. When they get full just reformat them and start again.

Re: connecting machines.
 

Cos one of my PCs is an old thing.

Re: connecting machines.
 

If your computer is old, and doesn't have a USB port, then you can get cards to slot onto your motherboard (if you have a spare slot on your motherboard.)

Here is a quick link to illustrate the type of thing available.
http://www.nisis.com/Products/PCComp.../ComboCard.asp

(You may be able to do better than the quick site I found to illustrate the point.
I hope that helps)