Since I've been thinking about recording, I've wondered how to get the sound in to a computer. Having done some research over a couple of months I came to the following list of options. Some are more expensive that others, but they are normally more feature rich.
Alesis multimix 8 [1]: Nice, but only outputs one channel over USB, it's a mixer, not a multi channel recorder, but hey, that's ok.
Boss Micro BR [2]: Doesn't directly interface with the computer, so you have to record, then transfer. Would be good for recording pub sessions so I can learn tunes too though.
M-Audio Fast Track USB [3]: This looks good for recording to the laptop.
M-Audio JamLab [4]: Cheap. This is good value for recording a single channel.
Line 6 Toneport GX [5]: Another single channel recorder, slightly higher quality sound (sample rate) than the JamLab
Behringer UCG102 [6]: This is the cheapest of the single channel USB sound interfaces, also the lowest sound quality doing 16bit 44khz only.
Zoom H4 [7]: This looks like our winner. It's much more expensive that the UC102 for example, but it acts as a mutli channel recorder with built in mics for getting those pub sessions in a state where I can learn the tunes, it also works as a USB audio interface so I can record direct to the laptop.
Now I just need to not spend my christmas money on getting the heating working and I can go get one 