I got this TQFP32 programmer and have used it to boatload ATmega328P-AU chips by connecting the pinout to the appropriate pins on my UNO, and using my UNO as the ISP. Since these USBasp's from china were so cheap, I thought I'd try one. I just figured I could plug my TQFP adapter into it and viola! But maybe not. Is there a trick to using these on a macbook 10.7, or is it more trouble than it's worth?
See the photo of what I have, and also a couple links of the items:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/171201827956?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649
did you have AVRDude 5.2+? these cheap usbisp (mine has "MX-USBISP-3.01" silkscreen on the PCB) with custom firmware only works with AVRdude 5.2+.
you need custom firmware to make it work with AVRdude, but if you plug it into ur computer and dmesg found a "USBasp" device, then you're ready to go.
else you need a software called "progisp" to upload the hex, or, update the firmware to make it usbasp compatible.
Sorry, I've only ever used the Arduino IDE to load sketches or burn bootloader to Atmega chips. I guess avrdude is a program? It sounds like it might just be easier to use jumpers from my UNO's pins to my TFQP adapter when I want to program the Atmega328P -AU chips.
I thought this usbasp. Thing would just show up as a serial port that I'd select when I want to burn a bootloader.
arduino is a IDE (integrated development environment), means it "integrates" a load of tools needed to develop a program, thus makes it an environment.
for instance, it has a text editor (built-in) to edit your code, a compiler (avr-gcc) to compile your c/c++ into machine code, and a upload tool (avrdude) to upload your hex to the Arduino device.
because it use avrdude to upload, you must have a programmer that can talk to avrdude (or vice-versa, an avrdude that is able to talk to your programmer).
since you cannot just magically cast a programmer to another (well you can actually, but requires a LOT of work), getting avrdude to talk to your programmer would be a lot easier.
as stated on the ebay page you posted, avrdude 5.2+ is capable of talking to that programmer.
SO JUST UPDATE YOUR AVRDUDE TO 5.2+...
however I dunno where you can get precompiled avrdude for mac os x, but here's the source:
http://download.savannah.gnu.org/releases/avrdude/
i believe stock arduino ide comes with rather old version of tools (such as avr-gcc 4.3 and avrdude 5.11), you might have to update individual tools by yourself.
btw, USBasp would NOT show up as a serial port, it shows up as a USB device.
I dunno if there's lsusb on mac, but this is what I get on a linux box:
Bus 002 Device 005: ID 16c0:05dc Van Ooijen Technische Informatica shared ID for use with libusb
and usb-devices shows:
T: Bus=02 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=01 Cnt=02 Dev#= 5 Spd=12 Mxch= 0
D: Ver= 1.10 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS= 8 #Cfgs= 1
P: Vendor=16c0 ProdID=05dc Rev=01.02
S: Manufacturer=www.fischl.de
S: Product=USBasp
C: #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=80 MxPwr=50mA
I: If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 0 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=(none)
look for usb device with VID=16c0 PID=05dc, if it's there, you're good to go.
Hey, i have a similar problem. I'm under linux and i have bought apparently the same programmer from ebay, in order to burn a bootloader into some empty atmega 328 chips for the Uno.
When i run lsusb i get the same message as Palatis and when i run dmesg after plugging in i get:
[24282.992395] usb 1-1.3: new low-speed USB device number 20 using ehci-pci
[24283.096045] usb 1-1.3: New USB device found, idVendor=16c0, idProduct=05dc
[24283.096055] usb 1-1.3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[24283.096060] usb 1-1.3: Product: USBasp
[24283.096064] usb 1-1.3: Manufacturer: www.fischl.de
When however trying to Burn the bootloader through the Arduino IDE and after having selected USBasp as the programmer, i get the following error:
avrdude: Warning: cannot query manufacturer for device: error sending control message: Operation not permitted
avrdude: error: could not find USB device "USBasp" with vid=0x16c0 pid=0x5dc
However, my vendor id and product id seem to be correct from my dmesg log
[24283.096045] usb 1-1.3: New USB device found, idVendor=16c0, idProduct=05dc
So what am i doing wrong, why can't i burn the bootloader?!
EDIT: After running
avrdude -p m328p -c USBasp
i would get an error:
avrdude: Warning: cannot query manufacturer for device: error sending control message: Operation not permitted
avrdude: error: could not find USB device "USBasp" with vid=0x16c0 pid=0x5dc
So i tried to sudo it and:
avrdude: warning: cannot set sck period. please check for usbasp firmware update.
I ignored it and tried to run the arduino IDE as root, clicked on tools --> burn bootloader and after some seconds when it was obviously working it threw the same error again, now through the arduino IDE. 
EDIT2: Oh nevermind, the bootloader was apparently flashed succesfully. The solution was to run the Arduino IDE as a root for some reason....