Sawtooth problems

I have two separate problems:

1.) The DVD-ROM has died in my sawtooth (when reading a cd/dvd in either x or 9 the drive will read just fine for a few minutes, then the read light on the drive will burn constantly, the spinner will come up on screen requiring a restart.) My question is this: Which brands and models of dvd-rw are supported out of the box in os x? i have been looking for an excuse to upgrade anyways...

2.) I recently downloaded YahooPOPs for os x. It dl's as source code with a makefile and needs compiling. The readme file is very vague, and since i am not a programmer and am quite new to UNIX, i have no idea how to compile the software. Please give me some instructions or point me to a url that can help...

TIA-

CM