Question: Can anyone point me to a tutorial for electronic noobs that 
explains how to use op-amps and what I can do with them, besides
amplification?

Answer: 
There are a couple of very good tutorials at Analog Devices and Texas Instruments.
The TI one is called "[Handbook of Operational Amplifiers](http://focus.ti.com/lit/an/sboa092a/sboa092a.pdf)".
This one helped me a lot for a Devices class which included op-amps. Really good animations, and covers most types (inverter, differentiator...) needed for a starting point.[link text]

<http://electronics.wisc-online.com/Search.asp?search=op+amp>

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