This weekend, Charles told me he'd like to buy an iPod.  It seems mine, which had been serving him poorly as it was, had died.  I went through all the regular repair steps, but none helped.  Even the secret, hidden diagnostic screen was useless, and the computer wouldn't recognize it when turned in.  Just a persistent ugly folder icon with a non-very-informative exclamation mark (thanks Apple, that's soooo "user friendly").  The so-called geniuses at the Apple store were happy to inform me that the hard drive was dead and I could get a measly 10% discount for it.

Well, I wasn't happy with that.  So, a few online videos later, I was armed to open up the iPod for experimentation.  It was actually surprisingly easy - the only difficult part being getting the damn thing open when there was no detectable seam, without scarring myself or the iPod (90% successful on both fronts).  I blew away some random bits (probably from my opening attempts), unplugged the HD, untaped the HD connector (said to be faulty sometimes), retaped, replugged, and voila!  It came on without a problem.  20 minutes of opening, 5 minutes of fidgeting, and I saved the $150 for an ebay replacement.