More CD/RW Wierdness 
Couple of short items:
- when I booted back into Windows on the weekend, the Nero Packet Writer component didn't work -- the CD/RW kept reporting "Improper Operation" errors. The Packet Writer didn't see the drive as a valid drive.
- uninstalled the Nero component and installed the Adaptec EasyCD that came with the camera. That didn't work either.
- unistalled that, and installed the EasyCD Platinum v5 I have a 'borrowed' copy of. Still no joy.
- upgraded that to 5.35j through two convoluted steps, and somehow that worked.
Second:
- burning through Linux from the network at 16x or 8x, the buffer doesn't stay full, and in fact appears to empty itself frequently. Disks are still usable, though.
- attempting to burn from the local disk (iso in /tmp) fails with a coaster really quickly.
Third:
- found some packet writer drivers for Linux, but they require patching the kernel and we all know how much success I have with that. Still can't get the damn kernel I built to boot. At all. Obviously I am missing something.
This seems to be turning this log into a litany of CD/RW drive complaints.