First, there are two laptop hard drive attachment standards, PATA and SATA. PATA is being displaced by SATA, but the empeg requires PATA.

If you bought a PATA SSD, you'd be good to go. It works just like a magnetic spindle hard drive.

If you bought a SATA SSD, you'd need a SATA to PATA adapter, which I don't think are (yet) small enough to fit inside an empeg case. Basically, don't do that.

If you want to go with CF cards, you just need a CF to PATA adapter, which are cheap. I got the ones mlord recommended and they work great. The resistor removal is specific to that particular adapter. Another one might have different issues, but it should all be fairly straightforward.