iPod reloaded

About a week or two ago I plugged my iPod into my laptop that had the newest and same version of iTunes that was loaded on my home computer. iTunes on the laptop told me that I could no longer edit the iPod music files unless I upgrade the firmware to the newest version ~ 3.1 or .2. Never mind the fact that the same iTunes version on the desktop continued to work with no problem. Since I need the laptop to fine tune the iPod playlist I decided an upgrade would be OK since it would not effect the songs on the iPod already.

First problem is that on the PC or just my laptop, the firmware updating program cannot coexist with iTunes. So I had to remove iTunes and the updater before reinstalling the updater to get it to just start up and work. I connected my iPod to the laptop using the USB cable and ran the firmware updater. The progress bar goes about a quarter the way and just stops and tells me it failed. I thought well I guess it didn't work, I'll just keep using the firmware that it had. No such thing. The Apple iPod Updater software failed and then left my iPod in a non-usable form as far as playing mp3s. I tried over and over to update the firmware and it never worked.

I decided to go back and do the unthinkable and format the iPod, then try and update it. This worked on the first day I got it. Not this time. After I formatted it I still couldn't update the firmware. So my iPod was only usable as a portable hard drive. I was without an iPod for like 2 days.

After looking at Apple's site on possibly mailing it back to them to fix it I decided to wait until the next day. There is an Apple Store in the Green Hills Mall so I took it there. After about 30 minutes one of the guys working there was able to update my iPod using one of the Mac computers there.

After bringing my working, empty iPod home I had to reformat it again for the PC and update it again. Now goes the business of refilling the iPod. Right now it is at about 1700 songs, I had 3500 songs before I had to format it. Not to mention the fact many of the songs I loaded on the iPod were put on before my external hard drive crapped out on me and I had to format that, loosing all the songs. No I have to go back and rip my collection again and extract the backed-up one to refill the iPod.

No more firmware updates for me if at all possible. And if I have to I will use the Firewire cable first. And lastly I will backup the iPod firmware using Linux dd so I can avoid all that Apple Store crap.

baseball proof of the End of Days.

Last year the Red Sox won the World Series after the longest streak without one in baseball history. Yesterday the White Sox won the World Series, the last time for them was 1917 or so. All that has to happen is for the Cubs to win next year and the trilogy will be complete and the planet can implode because the rules of probability and the universe no longer apply.