Category: Rant

Ok, that was iPod number 5, bring on number 6

So my replacement iPod arrived yesterday while I was at work. First thing when I get home, I plug it in and start updating it. But as it’s loading 4,000 songs, after two or three hours I noticed that I accidentally selected the Punk playlist instead of the Classical one to auto update on it, and I wanted Classical this time. So I attempt to change it, first by changing the iPod settings in iTunes, then by selecting “Update iPod”, and finally by ejecting it. Oh, I should mention that by this point, the iPod is scorching hot to the touch. By this time, though, iTunes is not responding, so I attempt a “Force Quit”. It won’t quit. I try a few more times. Still no luck. I try ejecting the iPod icon on the Finder, and now the Finder isn’t responding and won’t do a “Force Restart”. Then I notice that the clock on the menu bar hasn’t updated since I started loading the iPod. Time for drastic measures, I think, and restart the computer.

When it restarts, iTunes comes up but doesn’t see the iPod, and the iPod is display an icon of a folder with an exclamation mark. I try using iPod Updater to “Restore” the software. Then iTunes says that my iPod software has to be updated to 1.3 and launches the iPod updater again (I have several different versions of the iPod Updater on my system, and I guess I didn’t use the most recent one when I did the “Restore”). It tells me that the update is complete and to unplug and replug the iPod to continue, and when I do it tells me that it needs to update to 1.3, and then that the update is complete, and to unplug and replug the iPod to continue. Somewhere along the way iTunes then tells me that there is a 1.4 update available, and I go to the Apple web site to download the latest updater (and I delete all the other updaters), which tells me that it’s installing 1.5. I do so, and that leads to another cycle of iTunes and Finder hangs. I try using the “Restore” option in the iPod Updater again, with no different results, but eventually it tells me that it’s loading songs, and then after loading one song and starting on the other, iTunes and the Finder hang again.

I go through a bunch of different combinations of software restores, reboots and plugging it in with or without iTunes or the iPod Updater already started. Eventually I’m at the situation I’m at now, where the computer won’t see the iPod at all, and the iPod is showing a new icon, that of a disk with an exclamation point.

You know, this is the 4th time that Apple has send me a faulty iPod if you count the time they sent me back iPod #3 saying there was nothing wrong with it and I sent it back because they hadn’t read my letter on how to reproduce the problem. I don’t know if they’re making any money off of this purchase, but I suspect that it’s a major profit center for DHL.

Freecycle continues to piss me off

I got through the Word document hurdle I blogged about earlier by sending the moderators a complaint, which was responded to with a “All you had to do was ask, no reason to get so huffy” response. I guess learning is not something they do well, and suggesting they do something in a way that benefits everybody is not the nice thing to do. All has been well and good, I’ve gotten rid of three things and gotten one thing through the service. Today I thought I’d put out a “WANTED” looking for a filing cabinet. Now, it’s normal on Freecycle to put your location when you offer something, because then if you want that something you can decide whether or not it’s worth your while going to that part of the city to pick it up or not. But it doesn’t make sense to me to put the location in a “WANTED” message, because surely it’s up to you, as the wanter, to decide whether whoever has it is too far away from you or not. But the damn moderator rewrote my subject line to include my location. So now I just know that people on the other side of town are going to say “I won’t bother offering him this file cabinet, because it’s not worth travelling cross town to pick it up”.

Update: The response from the group moderator is “I just enforce the rules, I don’t make them up”, however I looked at both the Word document with the local rules and the Freecycle’s main FAQ and neither of them has it as a rule that WANTED items should have a location. One ettiquette pointer suggests a location on all posts, but it’s not a rule. One thing that is stated as a rule, however, is that moderators should not moderate every single post for ettiquette violations.

I want my iPod back

It’s been 6 days since I sent my iPod in. I haven’t killed my cow orker in the next cubicle yet, but I’m feeling a tiny bit stabby. The Apple (lack-of-)support site has a status of “Dispatch Sent”, whatever that means. The Repair Status Details page says that they received it on the 19th, and nothing further. How long does it take them to charge it up, hit “play”, and look 3 hours later and see that it’s not playing any more?

You know what’s even more annoying?

You know what’s even more annoying than having to reburn a DVD and spend two hours preparing a test? When you go to burn the DVD and it hangs up your entire computer, flashing the caps lock and scoll lock keys on your keyboard, forcing you to power cycle the computer. And it happening not just once, but four times with your last two DVD blanks. THAT is annoying.