for a lot less money than Roxio I would strongly recommend taking a look at Nero. A simple piece of software that does everything that Roxio can do for a lot less money (and it can also do some things that Roxio can not which is nice if you have an older MP3 capable player in your car). I used Roxio (and before that when it was by Adaptec) for years, but now that I switched there is no going back.

There is another program that I find very nice (and has already been mentioned). Paint Shop Pro... while it is not fully up to Adobe Photoshop (have that too!) it is a heck of a lot less bucks and for 99% of what I do it is fine.

And of course, since you have a cable modem... something that firewalls is a must have. If you do not have a hardware one, then most of the anti-virus companies (i.e. McAfee or Norton) have one that is bundled with the other must have... and active/background anti-virus scanner. Nothing worse than getting a virus or some punk ass script running kiddie trying to hack at your PC.

__________________
-Toast-
"It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit - but none to be offended by them." -- Johnny Hart ("BC", cartoonist, 2000)
"Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog: Nobody really enjoys it and the frog generally dies as a result." -- E. B. White