hayashi wrote:
I seem to have a real knack for killing floppy drives
Stop playing music on them

I built my null-modem cable with about $8 worth of parts from Radio Shack. (Though you can probably do it for about $4 if you don't care about connector hoods) it's not too hard. If you can't solder, they have crimp-type connectors too, though I've never used them, so I can't say whether they're trustworthy. I think you only need 7 wires...if you have any spare ethernet cables laying around, maybe not the prettiest solution, but they have enough wires, cheap and effective.