OK, I've been reading through all these posts and my eyes are going cross. This is all new to me,but what I would like to do is get the Ostrich. I just don't know what cables and other hardware i would need along with it? Can someone just post links to the cable needed, and whatever adapter is needed?
I would be :hail: to you.

And is a P133 laptop going to be able to interface with the ostrich and run the tuner app? (it has a USB port)

Thanks guys, I would really like to get into this, it just seems all greek to me right now.

Incase it matters, the car is a 91 Trans AM GTA(speed density)

 

If you're getting the ostrich then it has a cable. Do you want to do datalogging or just burn chips? If you want to datalog you'll need an ALDL cable. Read the stickies and you'll see that there are a LOT of free options with software and "2 transistor" or "max232" ALDL cables sold on ebay and moates.net ALL work.
Now to burn chips and/or emulate you need the following from moates.net ;
Ostrich for emulating the chip to tune in real time, Burn1 to burn chips, GP1 to make things plug and play easy, and an AT29C256 chip. You could also use the 27SF512 chips but I like the Atmel stuff better. They program twice as fast if you're a newbie.
If you're not going to burn a chip for the car and run only on the ostrich than I can only tell you don't do it... and then recommend the GP1 adaptor. That's all that's needed. The Burn1 and AT29C256 is for replacing the ostrich with something a little more "solid."