Suddenly, these past couple of days...

For the past couple of days, it seems de rigeur for end clients to submit all of their documents for translation in PDF. Some merely delay the inevitable extraction of an editable original document by creating their PDF from something like Word, while the rest simply rely upon PDF as a convenient container in which to encapsulate worried goods in the form of contract provisions, or what have you.

I finally bit the bullet and bought a real, honest-to-goodness iPod, albeit a reconditioned 3G with 15GB of storage. When I hooked it up to my VAIO, which has a copy of iTunes installed, the software kindly offered to update my iPod, as it was not usable as is. (Based on the packaging, this was one of those iPods that came out of the factory thinking "Apple" and needed to be updated to work with a PC.)

Unfortunately, everything went smoothly until the unit rebooted, at which point it showed me the Apple logo and an illustration showing the data connector being inserted. Furthermore, my VAIO's version of Windows said some kind of malfunction had occurred in recognizing a device that had been connected to the computer.

As you can imagine, I looked hard around the Internet to see if I could find a solution to the problem, and I both did and didn't when I learned how to enter the unit's diagnostic mode. Among the choices on my unit (but not listed on the page I was visiting) was "USB Drive," which suddenly made the iPod "visible" to the VAIO, whereupon the iPod updater did its thing. The next time I turned on the iPod, there was a file with a triangle-enclosed bang ("!") on the screen.

Progress, I suppose.

Then I installed the latest/greatest iTunes on my desktop and moved the iPod there, only to be told the unit had to be updated.

Hmmm.

More later, maybe.

Cheers...

That "aha!" moment...

If I was wondering why the first restore didn't seem to "take," it was because after restoring the system, I was supposed to reattach the iPod to the power supply to reflash the firmware. When nothing happened after doing so, I rebooted the unit and was gratified to see a progress bar appear beneath the Apple logo.

In a rare moment of me-too-ism, I submitted my name to the Trust Flow II analysis. It's hard to say what it all means, as the person "closest" to me, at a distance of about 150-200, has never posted and has only two people in his friends list. There are two people at a distance of 300-350, but it's getting too late to fuss with a serious analysis of the list (out of the corner of my eye, I note that bradfitz is at a distance of 700-750).

All of the translations assigned today are done, all but one have been sent back. I should get some shuteye.

Cheers...