From Mac Geekery: Paste as Plain Text, Dagnabbit!

I should have think about it myself. I just modified iChat and Stickies; wonderful! I even set Paste as Plain Text as the default command-v key combination :)

My iPod has resurrected. Thank God. I didn't realized how important this device has become in my life. tears

Problems appeared a few days ago when I wanted to perform my weekly songs rotation (15 GB is not enough!). iTunes refused to synchronize any song. The firmware being up to date, there was no much other thing to do than to try the scary restore function of the updater. The restoration ended with some useless error message (An unexpected error occurred., meaning I just don't have a clue what's going on with your iPod); impossible to mount the iPod on the desktop anymore.

Fine. Even though the 1-year Apple warranty is over, I fortunately paid the extra 100$ for the extended warranty, offered and coverd by my local Apple dealer, B.Mac. A few phone calls to the stores in my area; no answer. The web site is down. Google finally shed some light on the situation; B.Mac is going out of business! What's gonna happen with my iPod and my warranty? Panic and frustration.

I decided to have a deeper technical analysis at the problem. I can't restore my iPod. The display works great but I can't format the disk (Disk Utility hangs indefinitely). Why not change the drive myself? I can open my iPod and install a new or used hard drive. I must spend some money, but at least my iPod may survive. However, I was not fully confident since the hard disk test from the iPod obscure diagnositic mode returned "HDD PASS". Argh ..

Final precaution: I followed Boris' advice and visited the head quarters of B.Mac. Not only I found a sales person to speak to, but I also learned that my warranty was actually covered by another company. Wonderful! I don't have to worry about B.Mac anymore!

All my papers on my desk, I was going to call the insurance company when I decided to perform a final experience. I read comments from users having similar problems with their iPod and some of them resurrect their devices after completely draining the battery. Oh .. I succeeded in restoring my iPod! For no apparent reason, it's fully functional and I filled back the disk without any problem. Weird!

Miracle. At least for now.