This is for keeps! - or University's drop-out

So, as stated in my last post, I got an iPod, now named Suki-chan, and spent 3 hours of my life getting it to work so it would ingest some music.

First, I plugged it into a wall outlet to recharge the battery, so it wouldn't be trying to recharge only from my USB connection.

The problem I ran into, and that several others have reported on several forums, is that when installing from the cd, on Windows, the program will ask to connect the iPod to the PC to reconnize it.

I did this, and the programs finds it easily. Then, it states that the iPod needs to be formatted, so I accept, and 2 hours later, it's still formatting, with the "Do not disconnect" sign flashing on the iPod's screen, while the back of the iPod is starting to feel warm.

At first, I thought it was normal for it to take a while, since it is 20Gb, but after an hour, I started checking Google for how long it would/should take, and it seemed I was having a problem.

I haven't seen anywhere a tutorial on how to get around this, so I'll type up what I did, so this will be somewhere on the web, at least.

First, to disconnect the frozen iPod. Someone on a forum said they just disconnected it and it never worked again after that, so that's a bad idea. I simply rebooted the iPod as explained in the instruction booklet (37 pages for a 300$ player seems a little thin to me) that is, switch on and off the "Hold" button, then hohld the "Menu" and "Selection" buttons down for about 6 seconds together. The iPod reboots, the Apple logo appearing on the screen. At that precise moment, Windows gave the Ding sounds to notify that the new peripheric as disapeared. So at that moment, I unplugged the USB cable from the computer. I then removed the setup CD, and killed the setup program on the PC.

So lets give this another try. Here's what worked for me.

I had a previous iTune version on my computer, which I first removed. Then, I re-inserted the setup CD to restart the setup program.

When it asked to connect the iPod for detection, I told it to skip it. That simple. The rest of the installation went fine.

After rebooting the PC, I opened iTune, and then connected the iPod to the PC. After maybe 10 to 15 seconds, iTune/iPod Updater spoted the iPod, and asked to format it. I accepted, and that took just a few seconds.

I shut down iTunes, disconnected the iPod (once it said it was safe), then reconnected the iPod. iTune automatically starts up, and the iPod is reconized!

You can now proceed to fill it up with all your music collection!

Some people have stated that they find iTunes complicated. While it's true, by default, all you do is add stuff to your Librairy, the main list, and once the iPod is connected, it will automatically download that list.

The problem I saw immediatly was that that list is gonna get huge fast, and I don't want to keep a constant backup of all music files on my laptop, I don't have 20Gb of space left anyway. My solution is to connect the iPod, and in iTunes, click on the iPod's properties button on the bottom right. You can select to manually update the iPod. That means you have to move all music files manually from your main Librairy list toward the iPod's list while in iTunes. Once the piece of music is on the iPod, it can be removed from the Librairy without affecting the iPod. The drawback is that you have to always press the unmount button before unplugging the iPod when you're done. The other plus is that this way, the iPod can also be used as storage. It gets listed as a hard drive on your computer, and you can put anything on there.

Now all I need is an iSkin to protect Suki-chan on the go...

posted by PHy @ 2:21 PM 0 comments

From the moment I saw Germaine from a Foamy cartoon episode of Neurotically Yours, holding an iPuke, listening to Morrissey, asking herself "Yeah. What difference does it make?", I knew I would ultimatly get, one day, an iPod.

I did yesterday.

This week was the first time ever I saw a store giving a discount on those things, actually on the 6Gb mini, so I did what all good shoppers should do : I went to the competition, got a discount on the 20Gb version, and to close the deal, no payments or interrest for a year. Pretty sweat.

So I went home with the pretty little cube box, opened it, marveling on the really cool packing of the thing, and took out the white little thing, holding it like it was gonna break, and finally plugged it in the wall outlet to recharge the battery while getting started on dinner.

After dinner, I decided to get it setup on Ziggy-the-laptop (I name all electronics) to put some music in there.

After almost 3 hours, I was ready to trash the darn thing.

I Google checked it, and it seems it's a pretty regular problem. Apple just won't make this easy for Windows user.

But it's working great now. I'm refalling in love with it.

Two years of electronics engineering where needed to set this up. But once it works, you feel pretty good about yourself.

I called it Suki-chan.

posted by PHy @ 1:43 PM 0 comments

Work is going good (at least, I hope so) Got my first paycheck too. That always keeps you going for a while.

I received my stuff from JList tuesday. That was fast! Might be a new record! Got my Totoro wind-up toy and magnet, along with my Nekobus stuffed knitted toy (don't bother looking for it on their site, I got the last one!) and I also got my two weiner cutters. They actually work well, making great little penguins and tulips out of sausages.

I decided to try to spend the day at home today, since I seem to have gone out everyday since finishing school. The result : I'm so bored I think I'm gonna take a nap until it'S time to get dinner started.

Summer is finaly here. It's hot, and our trees in the backyard are covered with white and pink flowers. I really should work on my Japanese CD-Rom class, but napping sounds better...

No word from university. They said correction of the exams would take ten days, and that they would call everyone with their results. I'm eagerly awaiting a phone call, to make it official I've passed and I'm accepted in the translation program. I try not to stress about it and stay zen.

Starting to work fulltime next week instead of this part time will probably do me some good. It'll keep me from being too bored like right now, and keep me away from shopping centers for part of the week. Right now, a catnap will supply to these needs...

posted by PHy @ 2:51 PM 0 comments