(ILM ABUSE FOR PERSONAL VINDICATION!) Music-related topic: F*CKING iPOD--!folder anyone??

Sounds like the disk is indeed going paperweight, but if the ipod will mount, try wiping it and reinstalling the firmware.

Some good info can be found...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61003

You may need to manually set your ipod to disk mode to troubleshoot.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93651

You can also try doing a search on "exclamation" here: http://forums.ipodlounge.com/

The folks at ipodlounge can be pretty helpful.

In fact, most folks just want something nice that works. This is why Apple wins.

Hand a PC user an iPod and they scratch their heads. Hand them an iRiver, which mounts like a USB hard drive, and they go "ahhhhh, I get it."

So yeah, iRiver wins.

Apple Computer share of PC Market: 85%
Apple share of total DAP market: >75%

What's the number-two hard-drive-based DAP? Oh right, iPod+HP. That's a lot of clueless PC users who seem to have found a way to muddle through.

I'm not even all like "ooh ipod!" but jeez, man, haterz=looneytunez.

That should read...

Apple Computer share of PC Market: 85%
Apple share of total DAP market: >75%

Carry on. It'll be so much fun if this turns into an ipodbashing/trolling thread.

One mo' time...

Apple Computer share of PC market: less than 5%
Apple share of hard-drive-based DAP market: more than 85%
Apple share of total DAP market: more than 75%

I am now leaving this thread in shame...

In a few years though, I'd expect the whole PDA/phone/DAP market to look pretty different as the distinctions between devices get blurrier.

I'm not wasting any more money on gadgets until it is fairly common and standard that PDA/DAP/Cellphone/Walkie-Talkie/Wap-Web/Text-Messenger are all fused into a single block roughly the size of the current color screen PDA phones... and are under $500 with a "pay as you go" cellphone minutes plan. We all know that's the final goal, anyway. The companies who develop this shit are just stringing us along to make more money in incremental upgrades. The first few of these full-featured devices will be overpriced and widely accepted to be worthless piles of shit after a few years that only the suckerfish early adopting assholes had to have to impress their friends. Remember the first cell phones? The didn't work and were big as a baseball glove, but every asshole who was any asshole had to have one. Pretty soon, our ultrahip status symbols that stupid niggas actually kill each other for will be just as worthless as those first piece of shit cell phones. And can you imagine how many people niggas will kill for the full-feature devices of the future? Middle aged niggas will be laughing about how foolish they were back in the old days when they beat a kid to death with 11 of their buddies for the coveted iPod, which will be about as much of a status symbol in the future as a pair of old tennis shoes.

So, I'm looking at about 2010 and I'm perfectly fine with that. I've had a PDA and it was basically a waste of $300. I've had a cell phone and it was a waste of several hundred dollars in overages and overall usefulness/uselessness. I have a Sony Discman that can play mp3CDs if I want and that's all I need. I'm an old man that listens to music in his spare time; it's not as if I need a jukebox in my head to entertain my imaginary friends when they come over to party. An iPod would be worth it to me if a 60 gig model was about $100. Otherwise, I'll need a whole lot of features crammed into one pocket-sized object to make me happy. A travelling entertainment center/command station is one thing, an overpriced, overhyped nuissance that is the iPod is another.

Haha, some incredible loser went and registered "Andy Rooney!" Yeah, that'll really botch my whole plan, genius. If there's one thing an old man like me has come to realize, it's that a famous face is more important than a name. Names tend to slip people's minds, but you never forget a face. Especially a face as old and funny as mine. Another thing I learned from signing autographs is that as long as I write "Andy Rooney" near a photo of my face, nobody gives a shit what else I write. So take a look at this post. Study the signature. Analyze it. And realize that a dumb shit like you will never beat an old fucker like me.