Adam,
before you incur the wrath of BJC

This is becoming one of the most frequently asked questions on the forum to date. As such, we should put it on the frequently asked questions (FAQ) sticky at the top of this forum...
Wait a minute, we have
Mark can say this so much better than me, but I'll have a go.
You will need to get a firewire card for you lappy, a 4 pin to 4 pin firewire cable. If you are running XP, then you already have a good, basic editing program in Windows Movie Maker (MM) if you down load windows service pack 2 (SP2) then it gives extra functionality to MM. What would then intend to do with your newly created master piece?
If you wanted to share it with your audience, then you might want to burn it to DVD. To do this you would want a DVD burner. (If you don't already have one) These normally come with a DVD burning program like Nero 6 (unless you get an OEM version) which, again depending on what version you get, gives varing results.
Hope this answwers some of your questions.
Brum