No, nothing has to be plugged in. I visited an audacity help forum and did a search for 'source greyed out' and find that your situation is not unique. Maybe you can find an answere there. I'll post a link. Here is a link that might be useful: Audacity help forum

Jane, I purchased a cable at Best Buy to connect my iPod to my stereo receiver. It sounds like you need the same thing. Go to the department that sells iPods and other MP3s and look for a rack of cable accessories. I think that mine is made by Belden. Or ask a salesperson for help. This cable will have a mini-plug on one end (plugs into the earphone jack on your MP3 player), and then splits into to two cables, each with an "RCA" plug on the ends. These match the inputs on your Sony system, make sure that you have two Audio In jacks, a Right and a Left. If you don't, you may need another type of cable, or an adaptor to go with the cable. It would be helpful if you could see your Sony unit in the same store that sells the cables, but not necessary. Radio Shack is probably another source for such cables. They tell you to turn down the volume on the player so that you won't blow out the speakers when you turn it on. Once you get it set up and working, you can see how to best set the volume. Hope this helps, Steve

iRiver makes a lot of MP3 players, and though I haven't heard of any common problems with them, they wouldn't be the first name that comes to mind if I was looking for relaibility. If you've only had it a few days before the toggle broke, then you should be able to exchange it as defective. If you've had it a while, then you should be able to get it replaced through the iRiver warranty (as you pointed out). If that warranty is already expired, well, it may be time to buy a new MP3 player. Things break, but I will only buy 'extended warranties' on things I cannot carry back to the store or out to the trash, and even then only if it includes an in-home repair visit (for big-screen TVs, refridgerators, etc...). The cost of some of the extended warranties is ridiculous, and I figure if it ever breaks, and I'm outside my manufacturer's warranty, I can go get a newer, better whatever for about the cost of repairing my old one (it's actually kind of sad...). Home Depot tried to sell me a $25 extended warranty on a $100 shop-vac last week....geez... I figure all the money I save on extended warranties can go to replacing the small percentage of items that I buy that actually end up breaking. Send it in to iRiver for a replacement if you can, and tell your son to be careful with it, but not to worry too much. I took a photo seminar once with the Nikon School, and the speaker made a good comment - take care of your equipment, but USE it. You may have thousands of dollars invested in your camera equipment, but it's worthless if it's sitting home on a shelf because you're afraid to take it with you for any reason.

I really dont feel like his homework load is that much. The longest part of his homework is the read for 30 minutes, and I usually try to let him have a break between the reading and doing the book response. I have been teaching him to write down important things while he is reading so that he remembers them when he is writing his book response. Which, like I said is answering a question like Did you identify with the main character or What did you like about the book or dislike?.... There is sometimes another worksheet or something and sometimes more over the weekend but then you have the whole weekend to work on it. And, while I dont necessarily think homework always helps... in his case I think homework is necessary because he doesnt pay attention in class or do classwork half the time so he really needs the opportunity to think for himself and make sure he knows the information given him. And yes, he is aware that his brother will be in the same grade as him if he fails and it upsets him when we talk about it and he doesnt want that to happen. And like I said, he gets really upset and down on himself when he gets bad grades but right up until he actually gets the bad grade ... it is like is doesnt phase him at all. It doesnt encourage him to work harder or even do all the work for that matter... And, coincidentally enough last night I came home to find out that he didnt do a summary he was supposed to do the night before and apparently the teacher let bm know and that he had spring break to get it done or it would be a zero. Last night we went from him arguing with dad that he didnt have to do it for two weeks... to he did it but he left it at his moms house... to just sitting there doing nothing until I said enough ... put it up go to bed you can start again tomorrow. So, he is at work with me today sitting at the other desk in my office with no distractions trying to get it done. He spent hours and hours reading a six page short story last night. I finally sat down and told him if he didnt make the choice to straighten up and start doing what he was supposed to be doing I would not be signing him up for football and that he was grounded for the rest of the day. I don't know maybe the threat of losing football will work since that is something he really really wants to do. I do like the line of "your teacher can't tell your smart by looking at you...." He has been in summer programs through the school in the past and he was in tutoring throughout this year. But, truthfully I did not want to put him into tutoring... they didnt really do that much that was actually helpful in tutoring and I think there is a line between making sure he succeeds and just overloading him and making him burnout. It is not that he doesnt know or understand the stuff (which is what I feel like tutoring is more for) he just doesnt do it. However bm pitched a fit about getting him into tutoring... and then didnt do anything about it so I called up the county and got the paper work and signed him up just to keep the peace. And the summer program was about the same. I did talk to DH last night and regardless I am going to get the homeschooling supplies for the fourth grade (they have some really great computer programs and he loves techy stuff and the computer) and this summer he is going to work with that. It will be like part of his chores get up get dressed clean your room do what ever other chore is yours for that day do an assignment on computer ... go play and do your thing. That way we know he at least has a back up to make sure that he is getting what he needs to get out of fourth grade. Other than that I am not sure what to do. I am not even sure that I should have thrown the football threat out there but last year he really made an effort knowing his grades had to be up to get into football... So, I am hoping something will click for him.