Right, so Justine has a new job; this new job means she’ll be travelling into the city via train instead of driving.  After a little bit of “umming” and “ahhing” we decided to get an iPod Nano (8GB).

I like iPods, from a hardware point of view.  They’re small, nicely designed, feel pretty robust and are extremely easy to use.  However, that’s about where it ends.  Being forced to use iTunes just so I can put music on my device is silly.  Ford may as well tell me I can only use Caltex Premium in my car.  I’m planning on using YamiPod anyway since it sounds like it’ll work how I want it, but first I need to sync once with iTunes.

I’ve never used an iPod from an owner’s point of view — I’ve listened to them, I’ve helped people install iTunes and have helped people sync their units when they weren’t syncing.  However, I’ve never had the whole end-to-end iPod experience, until now that is.

We ordered the unit on Wednesday morning, and it managed to arrive here all the way from Shenzen, China in under 48-hours.  Pretty good so far.  I picked up the unit from our mail room on the way out from work today.  While driving home (when stopped at lights!), I opened the box — about the size of 3 or 4 DVD cases — and inside was a tiny little case about the size of a packet of cigarettes.

The case opened easily and though the iPod was wedged inside tightly, I notice the diagram indicating that I bend the plastic to get it out.  I did and it worked.

I’m surprised at the diminutive size of the unit, it’s tiny!  No wonder, since it’s just flash storage.  Still, it’s light and looks nice.  The engraving on the back (”If you can dream it, you can do it” — ’twas Justine’s choice to put this Walt Disney quote on the back) looks quite reasonable too.

Right, so I get home and unpack everything.  I configure all the settings to my liking (no doubt Justine will change them, since it’s her iPod) and plug it into the computer.  Why didn’t Apple simply make it a USB “B” cable like almost every other device I have?  Now I have to take care of this cable — which probably costs an arm and a leg to replace — instead of simply using a cable available for fifty cents anywhere.  Oh well, it’ll stay in the one place anyway, I bet.

I can’t find a setting on the iPod to make it just a “data storage” device simply allowing me to transfer files across.  Also, it seems that no software was provided.  I suppose I’ll download it… 75MB?!  Oh well here we go.  Why not include a 128MB USB stick in the box, they’re ludicrously cheap now.  I guess I’ll install iTunes… on my work laptop.

I need administrative priveleges just to install *iTunes*?  Software I buy for work that costs thousands of dollars and installs device drivers all over the place doesn’t do this.  Whatever, it’s a non-issue since I know the password anyway.  Here we go, iTunes is installing.

“You cannot install iTunes as a newer version of Quicktime is already installed.”  Huh?  No one said anything about iTunes, and why can’t the newest version of iTunes work with the newest version of Quicktime I already have installed?  Fine, I’ll uninstall Quicktime, I never use it anyway, although I suppose I now will since iTunes needs it.  Here we go (again), iTunes is (again) installing.

Success!  iTunes is on.  Bugger restarting.  Time to run it for the first time.  “Configuring… Please wait.”  Shouldn’t any configuration have happened when, say, it was installing?  Especially if it has to do it once the first time I run it.

Uh, oh, I’m going to miss my hairdresser’s appointment, this is taking a lot longer than I expected…

…OK, now my hair’s shorter but I still don’t have a working iPod.  Time to see where I was at.

“iTunes Setup Assistant”  I guess installing, then configuring, means that it wasn’t setup.  Maybe it’s different for each user so I’ll give it a break this time.  “Find Music”  No thanks, I know where they are.  No thanks again, I’ll organise my music the way *I* want it, not Apple.  No thanks yet again, I already have music, that’s why I bought an iPod.  By the way, can I use my iPod yet?

Alright, I can see iTunes.  Does this mean I can listen to music on the device that’s not the computer?  Guess not.  No thanks, I don’t want a mini store.  What’s that in the background?  Windows is telling me my hardware is ready to use, but the iPod still doesn’t have any music on it for me to listen to.

Wait, iTunes has changed again.  I don’t want to register, license agreement?  Haven’t I already answered “Yes” to two of those so far?  Cancel.  Wait again, I see iPod in Windows Explorer, maybe this means I can put music files on it after all!  Oh, no.  There’s an “iPod_Control” folder, and within that a “Music” folder, but there’s a bunch of “F00″ type folders.  I might be able to delete them but nothing has told me what to do yet.  I guess I’d better leave that alone for now.

I’ll try dragging a song onto iTunes to import it, since YamiPod tells me I just need to have one song on it anyway.  Muse, you’re the lucky first.  Ahh, there it is in iTunes.  And I can play it.  Now, how to get it onto the iPod?  Right-click?  No.  All, there’s a “Sync” option under “File”.  But it’s disabled.  What do I have to do to get that enabled?  The iPod says it’s Connected.  Maybe it already copied across?  I can’t use the “Eject” button that the manual told me to, so I’ll just unplug it.

Nope, still no music.  Let’s plug it back in then, maybe I can get that setup screen that was on before back.  OK, fine, I agree to whatever I agree to.  It’s just my work laptop, anyway.  Why do you need my phone number?  Are you planning to call me?  Oh well, we’re hardly home anyway and it’s the home number.

Stop forcing me to use the iTunes store.  “Skip this step.”  Right, I get to name it.  Time to shine, self, think up a snazzy name she’ll think is funny and love you forever.  Diamonds might be forever but a cool name on an electronic device, I’ll be set for eternity.  Even better, it’s appearing as a “Device”.

Let’s copy that one song across now, and sync it.  Now the eject button is working.  Hurrah, it’s only taken almost two hours (with a haircut in the middle, I feel like I shouldn’t have stopped for that haircut) but I can listen to this one song.  But I’m not finished here, oh no, I want lots of songs!

How do I get to see it again in iTunes?  OK fine, I’ll disconnect and reconnect the cable.  Which means I have to unplug the headphone.  That’s annoying but I doubt we’ll be listening to it much in this manner.  Ah ha, there it is again.

You know, this is not as bad as I expected.  I really thought I would have to sync, watch all my files disappear or be renamed and make a pact with the Devil to get this to run smoothly.  It’s not so bad considering I can just use iTunes to copy the files across without even needing the library.  I still loathe iTunes and don’t really like the iPod interface, but it’s not mine.

With the recent demise of our long-lived Pioneer learning remote, I sought out a new all-in-one remote which would also control our Foxtel — something of which the older Pioneer remote was not capable.

After some searching, I found the Sony RM-VL600 remote which is considered a great buy for the price.  With the remote unavailable in Australia, and the price of Sony remotes here exorbitant (a two-generation old remote here costs around ten times the cost of the same unit in the US) I sought out the remote on eBay.

I snapped up the unit for what I consider a good price — around $35 landed — especially considering they’re about $70 on eBay in Australia.  Earlier, I’d also ordered a replacement for the Pioneer remote, which cost quite a lot more than both previously mentioned prices; still, I need it to perform some functions on the A/V receiver.

The Sony remote arrived first — and so it should, the delivery expectation was 5-7 working days; the Pioneer remote was 3-6 weeks — and as soon as I got it home I started tinkering.

Our TV, A/V receiver and DVD player had pre-programmed codes, and it was a cinch to learn our Foxtel and Xbox remotes.  Another great feature is the volume “punch-through”, which means that no matter which component you have selected, the A/V receiver always receives the volume up/down commands.  Very nice.

The next step was to setup some macros, since the unit has room for up to 16 commands on one button (certain buttons only).  I hunted the web for “discrete codes” for all of our equipment.  Discrete codes are often used in home theatres as they can send “power on” of “power off” commands, rather than “toggle between power on and power off”.  Sending a “power on” command to an already-on device simply leaves the device on.

It needs a little more tweaking, but I now have a button for “TV”, which turns on the TV, A/V receiver, sets both to the right inputs and then sets the remote to control Foxtel.  I have one which also does the same for our Xbox so we can watch downloaded content.  A third button is an “all off” which turns all our equipment off, regardless of it’s on/off status.

I could have purchased one of the Logitech Harmony remotes, but I don’t really like the “clicky” buttons, the requirement of a charger over regular batteries, having to use a website just to change the configuration and the screen is — to me — gimmicky.  Plus the cheapest unit is more than five times the cost of the one we bought.

It’s great to have just one remote again!

The Infinite Flickr group is a silly idea, and seems to invite silly photos. For my shot today I thought I’d try and inject a bit of a Hitchcockian sinister viewer mood.

I think I do come across as a very seedy or sinister individual here. Whether it meets their guidelines or not, it’s the only shot I’m doing for today.

After a long day of working in front of a computer, I sit on the couch and… use a computer.

This almost looks like an ad for a computer, except for the fact that you can see up my shorts a little bit…

We’re sitting here watching Futurama this evening (episode: The Honking), and the number of nerdy-type jokes in such a short amount of time forced me to blog about it.

One of the characters, “Tandy”, is wearing a t-shirt with the label “Euro TRaSh-80″, which refers to the TRS-80 (also our first computer).  Later, one of the paintings in the haunted castle bears a painting of an ship’s captain, “Commodore LXIV” (Commodore 64 — also our second computer).  Shortly after, evil writing on the wall is 1010011010 which, once translated from binary to decimal is “666″.

Very clever, very nerdy.  Can’t believe I never noticed these small jokes before.

The other night, Justine and I watched the fantastic Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (for the nerds amongst the crowd, it was actually Justine’s decision).

Fast forward to a day or two later, and I was browsing IMDB (I forget why) when one of the people-related entries I was viewing had a credit for “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull“.

Huh?

Thinking it must have been a documentary, or video game, or cartoon series, or similar I clicked and viewed the entry. Nope, it’s a fully-fledged, brand-spanking-new Indiana Jones movie! Coming in May!

Since The Last Crusade came out in 1989 (yes, it was really that long ago), there have been numerous reports of a new Indy movie coming. One I remember reading in the mid 90s (possibly 1996 or 1997) was supposedly written by Jeffrey Boam, who wrote the screenplay for The Last Crusade. His script surrounded Indy’s “son” that he’d never met as well as Marion (from Raiders). The group ended up tracking down Noah’s Ark somewhere, I forget where.

A few years later and there were many reports of the movie being back in production resurfaced. A couple more after that and M. Night Shyamalan was attached and writing a script. Later, Frank Darabont — who wrote a number of Young Indiana Jones episodes — had written a supposedly fantastic script that was also rejected.

Given all these false starts, I ignored the latest report I heard on the radio a year or two ago. Obviously this one was finally the real deal.

Not much is known about the story, but apparently there is a “son” character and the actress who played Marion has returned so it seems they’ve used some bits and pieces from lots of scripts for the final version. Apparently the final version was heavily “influenced” by the Darabont script. It’s also set in the late 50s and has the Russians as the villians, instead of the Germans.

Given the title, it’s obviously related to those crystal skulls which supposedly have magical powers. A quick Google later and it seems that some people believe that when “the” 13 crystal skulls are brought together a new era is ushered in for man, or something equally as outlandish. I expect that is the most likely scenario for the film. Obviously with some sort of madman in charge.

I can’t believe this movie has managed to keep itself hidden from me until now!

Since we returned from our holiday, I’ve been wanting to offload all our photos from the hard disk we brought with us. However, there is 80GB of shots to dump and we don’t have any way near that much space.

I bought a brand spanking new 500GB hard disk to accommodate all of the shots; since SATA disks are the way of the future and IDE (or PATA, take your pick) I opted for one. However, all my computers are IDE only. I bought a SATA-IDE adapter (which makes the new, fast hard disk run slower, but on old hardware) as well as a new wireless router.

The wireless router replaced my network switch, old wireless router and computer which routed the Internet. The unit works fantastically and worked first time; it is just as good as the old computer, except it takes less power, doesn’t have 50GB of cache and doesn’t randomly crash due to hard disk failures.

So, using the old computer, I connected the 500GB SATA disk and found I’d been sold the wrong adapter. The next day, I returned the adapter and had another one purchased from a different shop by a work colleague who was nearby. The salesperson sold him the wrong adapter, but the same type as the one I’d been sold. The next day, we both went to the shop and explained it was the wrong unit. The salesperson claimed it was the right unit and that we just didn’t know how to use it.

We returned to the office and I connected the adapter to a computer which has both SATA and IDE connectors, and has a SATA disk already working. Moving the disk from SATA to IDE it didn’t work. Big surprise! I took the whole computer back to the store and showed them it not working. They offered me another one, and when I told them it was the wrong adapter they told me they didn’t sell the right ones and gave me a refund. Back to square one.

On the way home, I took a detour to yet another computer shop and found they had the correct adapter. I bought one and spent much of Saturday morning attempting to get it to work. The computer could “see” the new hard disk but refused to begin booting after the initial device detection (known as the POST).

Sunday, I didn’t bother with all the frustration and instead went out on a photowalk.

After work Monday I returned the adapter and instead bit the bullet and bought a new motherboard, CPU and RAM which would work with the hard disk. Ironically, it was the cheapest of each I could buy, and it’s still better than my desktop. I set everything up at home and found out the power connector didn’t fit in the new type of motherboard.

It was at this point I realised that over the past week, I’d had nothing but failures in regards to computer equipment. My magical aura seemed to be failing me and instead I broke everything I touched. This is not the first time it’s happened.

Chris was kind enough to lend Justine a laptop which refused to connect to our wireless network. It worked when security was turned off but not when any type of security was enabled. The laptop, being Windows XP SP2, should have connected without issue. We swapped from a PCMCIA wireless card to an internal MiniPCI one and the problem continued.

Finally, the tide began to turn in the right direction.

I found that you can use a 20-pin connector on a 24-pin motherboard as long as the power requirements are not high (i.e. super-duper video cards). I plugged it in and finally my fancy-pants new hard disk (along with it’s new motherboard, CPU and RAM) worked! I was able to install Windows Home Server (another topic for another post) without any issue.

Next, I found a hotfix for the wireless issue I had, which enabled me to connect the new laptop at WPA2 — the highest wireless security on my router.

Yesterday at work, a computer which had — up until the day before — been working fine was emitting a high-pitched noise when the power was connected and wouldn’t turn on; the power light on the motherboard was on though, indicating power was reaching the board. Immediately I drove to a computer shop and bought a new hard disk. The salesperson there asked me what I would do if it was the motherboard and not the power supply. “Bah,” I replied, “it will be the power supply.”

And it was.

Finally, finally my mojo hath returned after a week hiatus. I know not why, but it’s good to be back.