Yes, this works fine. I was using the transistor because I have more software than hardware experience (that's part of the reason for this experiment - I built my first ISP and prototyping board/circuit or the 420 this past weekend), and all the examples I have tracked down seem to suggest it as a safety feature to prevent overloading the pin (?). In any event, it is a free sample, so I'll go without any protection for now :), and do some more reading.

Thanks