iPod

[Tips and problem solving]
iPod mini icon not appearing in iTunes source list. No fix available on iTunes for Windows Hot Tips site, except fall-back technique of pressing menu and select buttons simultaneously for about 8 seconds, which does a kind of soft reset, yielding apple logo on screen, which is some times followed by recovery of iPod icon. Same problem cited on Expansys, but without any solutions posted in reply. Also found discussion on macosxhints.com, where one person suggested: "Fiddle with the prefrences. When I first got my iPod, the same thing happened to me. Try switching on and off random things having to do the the iPod and checking and unchecking boxes. Hopefully, one of them will help, it did for me. Good luck!". Another person wrote: "Try deleting your com.apple.ipod.plist file in /Users/your_username/Library/Preferences/ . It might work...". But then a third person wrote: "I have tried both of the suggestions and a number of other things including installing iTunes 3 and trying that", but nothing helped. This was end of thread.

[Purchase information]
Apple iPod, discounted if purchased through Yale Equipment & Supplies. Best to start here, I think.