About the duplicate bootloader- I gained more confidence with the programmer and board so I tried to get the verify to work. I performed an erase (doesn't most programming do this?) and verified the erase. Everything was filled with ‘FF’ and it worked without reporting any errors. So I reprogrammed the bootloader and again the verify failed. Again I dumped the contents and again found the bootloader in two locations. 0001E000 and the correct one 0003E000. The board tested and worked without fault. I don’t really care because the board works but it would be nice to better understand this stuff.
On an earlier post you found the bootloader in an unexpected address- could your board also have a duplicate bootloader?
Your right about programmers and from what I’ve read the firmware in the USBasp can be upgraded (program the programmer), it would just prevent a whole lot of trouble if avrdude or something could test the limitations of programmers and inform users. But this ordeal was really my own silly fault.
Anyway I’ve learned lots from the experience. Thanks again Nick.