iPodding Kumar
It was expected of course, or thereabouts. My boss came to me yesterday morning and whipped out a shiny new 20G iPod from his trouser pocket.It was apparent from his grin that the wall of reason had been bulldozed by his son’s insistence on having “one of those”. No coincidence that my boss had came asking about them prior to me flying home.
In the age of consumerism and indulge-your-child-to-death, if your kid comes asking for stuff, there’s always a good chance that they will end up getting it.
So we investigated his son’s listening habits and after assertaining that it wasn’t going to be a frivolous purchase, we talked about expanding its possibilities for use beyond portable music making.
Now my boss is a man of means. So buying the iPod was more a question of ‘how long before you succum to your kid’ rather than ‘why does he need it?’
Fast-forward two weeks. We tried it out for the first time. I’ve never touched an iPod beyond listening to it and navigating with the Click Wheel.
As all iPods are initially formatted for Macintosh, it would have to be reformatted for use on Windows. My boss had purchased it a week earlier but couldn’t do anything because he was running a non-supported version at home. His son had by then, resigned himself to just polishing the shiny back of the iPod.
It wouldn't mount on my Dell via USB 2.0. Downloading and installing the latest firmware update didn’t help and with the firewire connector at home, we couldn’t connect it to the PowerBook either.
As we manhandled a possible lemon, my boss took it to the nearest Apple Centre for assistance. Even though it was determined to be in working order, they did not have a PC to reformat it.
Along the way, he went home and came back with the firewire connector, eager for another crack at a firewire-enabled PC at work. Miraculously, the firmware installer recognized the iPod and the option to reformat for PC appeared.
Then it was merely a matter of connecting it back to my Dell and transferring songs. My boss’ eyes bulged when he sifted through my three and a half-thousand song music library.
Albums from Linkin Park, Bryan Adams and Guns N' Roses were transfered. Symphonies by Beethoven and ragas by the Imrat Khan were thrown in the mix, apparently an attempt to educate his son musically. Grinning from ear to ear, my boss finally had something to show for his efforts.
Thinking back on what had happened, I was pretty sure we had missed a step somewhere. Even connecting via USB 2.0 on a PC was to have been sufficient for a reformat. We knew that to be correct as the iPod was drawing power when connected.
Not every PC owner has firewire and certainly Apple would not have expected everyone to install a PCI firewire card just for this purpose. A look through the documentation didn’t stipulate this either. So where did we go wrong?
But there was no time for reflection. This morning, my boss came with news that his son was annoyed that Jet and the almighty Metallica had been left out. Interestingly enough, I had offered these yesterday. But our all-doting father decided that his son wasn't 'that advanced yet'.
And how long before his son wants one of these to go with his iPod?
posted by Teutoburg @ 5:02 PM
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