[img dapa_adapter.jpg||left]I pretty much worked on learning about the hardware for Arduinos and various AVR chips yesterday. I built a parallel port adapter, known as a dapa (Direct AVR Parallel Access) type that connects to the arduino. I had a little trouble at first since I didn't realize the USB cable needed to be plugged in too at first, in order to provide power. After that, it worked fine. Another option for programming the ATmega chips is to use the arduino itself to transfer the code from the computer to a chip sitting on a breadboard. I'm not certain if the Arduino software sets fuses and unlock bits (required for programming the bootloader), but I do have the commands to do it through the AVRdude software in case, so I should be able to upgrade to the ATmega328 when it comes, which I'm excited for.