My Undying Rage Against Windows
Last night, I rekindled my eternal hatred for the Windows operating system and Dell hardware. Now, I know I have a Dell, and I know that Dell machines run Windows, but here's the thing: the Dell I currently own is a temporary fix for a lack of computing power in my home machine. The machine itself ran me around $1,000, it's tiny, it can be easily converted to a DVR when I upgrade past it, it's a little underpowered in the graphics processing arena, but for now, it works for the most part.
The catalyst for my rage came last night when I was trying to sync my iPhone with the Dell after about two years of being synced with my aging G5 iMac. I figured it was time to make the switch, back everything up on my current daily-driver rather than the living room media iMac. I went about everything the right way: backup the phone on the iMac, document the apps that I had on the phone so I could replace them after the wipe, etc.
Queue Windows and it's inability to do simple tasks like read hardware that's plugged into the machine…
I found out early on that there was some sort of issue with plugging my phone in while iTunes was running, so I decided to figure out why that was happening. Turns out my iPhone wasn't able to be recognized by the system as an iPhone, but instead, it was an Unknown Device. I thought, no big deal, I'll try another port… no dice. Again and again I tried a new port until I tried all six on the box itself and the two attached to the screen. The last port I tried (the one that worked, obviously) was one on my USB hub – attached to one of the ports that didn't work.
Whatever, ended up getting it connected and rebuilt (feels strange saying I rebuilt a phone). For some odd reason, my Dell won't rip Siamese Dream past Soma, but the CD was skipping on the last track anyway; I just downloaded a new copy from iTunes.
tl;dr I can't wait until I get a new Mac, and the new Mac Minis are looking pretty promising 
.
If by chance or circumstance we should fail, don't be too sad.
Print This Post
NOOTH on 07 Jun 2009 at 5:05 pm #
Install Linux
David Elyea on 28 Jun 2009 at 5:04 pm #
Weird. I got one of the new Mini’s and i had the EXACT same problem. My OS X Mac Mini wouldn’t detect my iPhone. After i hacked iTunes using the persistent ID stuff from my Dell Laptop the iPhone was finally detected. I can’t believe how much of a hassle it was to change my main iTunes from my Dell laptop to my Mac Mini, though. Hopefully, now that all the DRM free stuff has come to iTunes, they can make the process a little easier to do.