I spent my lunch break at Best Buy, while the Geek Squad guy attempted to do a restore of the iPod Touch. Twice.

Nice guy, but I always feel very miffed when I’m in a tech support situation and it is assumed that I don’t know what I’m doing, and haven’t already done the things that they’re going to try. Several times. But, of course, this is the only reasonable assumption for them to make.

I then spent nearly two hours on the phone with Apple Tech Support, and, while on the phone, attempted the restore twice more. Once again, the tech support guy was very friendly, and genuinely seemed to know what he was doing, but we did what I’d already done, more than a dozen times already.

Finally, he arranged to have a box sent to me so that I can send it to them to repair or replace.

So, the conclusion is that the board inside the iPod is somehow shot. Or perhaps it’s angry at me for my latent belief that Linux is, in fact, a better OS. I don’t know. but one way or the other, I’m getting a new iPod, and nobody knows how to fix the one I’ve got.