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…been thinking a lot lately about re-focusing my priorities. Free time had become a time for zombie-like trances in front of the TV for the past few months. Finally started picking my lazy butt off the couch, turning off the tube, and getting back to work on things. My dad and I are working on some film projects that are starting to get attention, my buddy Ron and I are starting to collaborate on “new media” ideas, and I’m still building sets for a stop-motion video for the band Cars & Trucks.

With all the film (okay, technically video) projects planned & in process, I’ve decided that Smarfy.com is an unnecessary diversion. From this point forward all projects will funnel through the production company and be related to films & new media.

Smarfy…signing off.

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For instance, the phrase “platecollector” took me to a site that led me to another site where I found the place settings my family used when I was a child.

More often than not however, I end up at useless landing page that’s solely used to make money off folks that don’t know any better. You know, those link ridden pages with somewhat-related words that take you to who knows where in the web universe.

Today I landed on just such a page when I typed “stopthewar” on the PCnames site. I had a good chuckle when I saw that stopthewar.com has the following links from which the site’s owner is attempting to capitalize:

• Hot Babes (for our boys overseas I’m guessing)
• Paris Hotel (for the in-transit terrorists thinking of quitting the trade?)
• Play Boy (yes, with the space)
• Celebrity Photos (even the Paparazzi is trying to cash in)
• The War in Iraq (oh good, relevance)
• Jessica Simpson (fighting injustice with her famous…smile?)
• Pamela Anderson (see above)

Oh, and the reason for this post…”iLiveInMyCar”. I just finished watching “Into The Wild” (great movie by the way) in which the guy lives in a bus for a while. Anyhow, I was surprised to see the domain iliveinmycar.com was registered. After all, if someone lived in their car, would they really want to be spending their money on managing a domain name to talk about it?

Funny thing is, when I went to see who was behind “iLiveInMyCar.com” I noticed a message on the site saying “This Domain is Parked for Free.” Get it? Parked. Car…

Sigh.

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Then imagine you end up seeing yourself in a Yahoo! Personals ad, learning your name is now Megan and you live n Ann Arbor, MI. Oh yeah, and they prompt people to “Seize It” — whatever that  means. It could happen…

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I’ve got it, do you? As I mentioned in my previous post, Apple launched their “January Software Upgrade” for the iPod Touch on Tuesday, January 15 to a resounding thud for many folks.

I was one of the “lemmings” as one commenter noted that bought into the hype and tried to buy the software soon after it was announced. I, like many others, clicked the “Buy Now” button in iTunes multiple times and am now trying to get a refund from Apple for all but the one set of apps I wanted to purchase. They sent me this nice message today:

“Dear Corey,

I understand you purchased the item “January Software Upgrade” twice. I know this can be very upsetting and I would like to further assist you regarding this matter.

The order containing this item is currently processing. Your request is flagged for follow-up and I will contact you once I have more information about your order. Please note that processing can take up to five business days from the date of purchase. Thank you for your patience in this matter.

Sincerely,

Pavel
iTunes Store Customer Support
http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/ww/”

Since I figured out how to get the applications to load on my iPod Touch I’m happy to wait a few days until Apple sorts out their accounting. What I found quite interesting is the fact that today, Apple removed the purchase option for the iPod Touch applications. I think that the voices around the web were heard and Apple wisely stopped selling the apps while they work out the kinks in their system.

They did add this bit of red text to the iPod Touch applications page in iTunes:

“Synch your iPod touch and click Check for Update to get up-to-date before buying the January Software Upgrade.”

Wish I would have seen that before I purchased the software more than once but hey, I should have known better having bought Apple products before. Early adopters beware.

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I bought into the hype and tried to buy the software today…to no avail. Here’s what I did:

1. Upgraded iTunes to version 7.6.0.29
2. Upgraded the iPod Touch to software version 1.1.3
3. Went to this iTunes Store link and purchased the software
   UPDATE 20081016: Apple has removed the “Buy Now” option for this software. Read more >
4. Followed Apple’s instructions and clicked the “Synch” button in iTunes and disconnected the iPod Touch
5. Waited for my iPod Touch to automatically update…
6. Tried steps 1-5 a total of three times

Now, nothing ever came to my “Purchased” folder in Itunes, and I never received and invoice from Apple for the $19.99 software upgrade fee, so I’m hoping I wasn’t charge three times.

Anyone have success with this software upgrade? Anyone have any ideas what I’m doing wrong? Apple doesn’t have any support docs on this…yet.

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Update 20080115 16:52: Thanks for your comments folks! I sent off my email to tech support and got the requisite “your call will be answer in the order it was received” message. I dug into my purchase history and found only two purchases of the applications have been recorded so far. Hopefully Apple will reverse one of the charges and help me install the applications.

Update 20080115 18:58: Just registered my iPod since I’d never done that. That didn’t help anything as I expected but I really wanted to get rid of that registration screen I had to click ever time iTunes started up.

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Update 20080115 19:25: Just did a reset of my iPod following these instructions. Still no applications on my iPod.

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Update 20080115 20:50: SOLUTION TO IPOD TOUCH APPLICATION LOADING ISSUE :)

UPDATE 20081016: Apple has removed the “Buy Now” option for this software. Read more >

Here’s how I got the Applications to load properly on my iPod Touch:

1. Plug iPod Touch into computer (after you’ve done steps 1-4 from the list at the beginning of this article)
2. BACK UP YOUR IPOD!!! (doing the rest of these steps will erase EVERYTHING from your iPod)
3. Start iTunes
4. Click your iPod’s listing under “DEVICES” in iTunes
5. Click the Summary tab
6. Click the “Restore” button (THIS ERASES YOUR IPOD’S DATA!!!)
7. Wait for the magic to happen…
8. You may need to Register your iPod with a different name than it used to have before the restore and DO NOT USE THE PREVIOUS SETTINGS OR BACKUPS (thanks to Natalia in the comments for that tip!)

For whatever reason, wiping out all the data on the iPod by doing a “Restore” gave iTunes what it was looking for and the applications appeared on the iPod after it restarted itself during the restore process.

Hope this helps some folks!

UPDATE 20080122: I received a nice reply from Apple customer support today, letting me know they had refunded my second purchase of their iPod applications. Here’s the email:

Dear Corey,

This is Pavel. I have reversed the charge for the duplicate purchase, which I understand was unintentional. You will see a credit of $19.99, plus any applicable taxes, in three to five business days. If store credit was used for this purchase, you should see the credit after you sign out of the iTunes Store and sign back in.

In the unlikely event that you receive a download error in the future, please remember that it is not necessary to repurchase items when downloads are interrupted, because the items should still be in your account, waiting to be downloaded. To learn more, follow the steps in this article:

How to resume interrupted iTunes Store downloads
http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n93015

You might want to use the built-in Shopping Cart for future purchases. The Shopping Cart is a convenient way to consolidate items you would like to purchase so that you can download them when it’s convenient for you. Plus, the Shopping Cart adds an extra layer of protection against unintentional purchases. Here’s how to use it:

iTunes Store: Using the shopping cart
http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n93017

When you buy items in your Shopping Cart, they are downloaded into your iTunes Library and placed in your Purchased playlist.

For application issues, I would suggest you to our Apple technical support (there may be a fee associated with the call). To find the appropriate phone number, please visit:

http://www.apple.com/support/contact/phone_contacts.html

Thank you for using the iTunes Store. Have a wonderful day.

Sincerely,

Pavel
iTunes Store Customer Support
http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/ww/

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“Vegas baby, Vegas.”

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First and foremost, I love Google and I love Gmail. However, I noticed that for some reason the built in Ads had designated me as a connoisseur of Spam. Being bombarded by spam recipe ads, I decided to dig deeper. It seems that while writing the basic Gmail interface, the programmers decided to take a shortcut to the spam inbox. Instead of actually going to a different inbox, Gmail searches your existing inbox for “in:spam”. Then your spam messages are presented and you must decide their fate.

What does this do for the user? Well, now the user is “Googling” the word “spam” on a daily basis. Gmail’s ever adapting ad software is able to determine the content of your searches and inbox. It then presents relevant ads for the user. Since a typical Gmail user is deleting their spam everyday, they are technically “Googling” for the word “spam” everyday.

So for all of the SEO’s out there, purchase your spam website and go buy some Google ads. Then cash in on Google’s shortcut in programming.

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What really sets “hulu” apart from Joost is that “hulu” is simply a web site whereas Joost is an application you have to load on your computer. “hulu” also lets you embed video on your blog like so…

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