Thanks for the replies.

Note that is isn't at all necessary to do apt-get upgrade every few days. In fact I would be very hesitant to do it too often. That's one of the easier ways to break your system.
So, what would be a "reasonable" update cycle? Once a month? Quarterly?

I need to brush up on my bash and write a script that will connect to the internet via ppp, run 'apt-get update', and run 'apt-get upgrade' automatically. I could then set it to start at midnight each Tuesday night, or once a month, or quarterly...

Thanks,

BR