iPod Video woes

So I finally got a replacement iPod for my poor stolen iPod. I decided to upgrade and get an iPod video 60G. And while I was at it, I picked up a nice hard shell case. Trouble is, the case does not fit correctly. The back face is supposed to snap onto the front face, but the iPod is just a little bit too big for the two faces to meet. I did not really notice this until my iPod was skittering across the floor as the case had fallen apart. Needless to say, I was quite upset to have had my iPod for only a few days and to have dropped it so soon. So as it stands, I have the front face attached to the iPod with the belt clip attached to that. That is one of the options available for this particular case. But in the end, that leaves the back of the iPod exposed to scratches and greasy fingerprints. I did try looking for another case, but few cases come with a belt clip that is detachable, and few come with a clip that is horizontal to the iPod. Most clips are vertical. Think about it, who really whats an iPod hanging from their belt that will be in the way of not only their pockets but will likely be a pain when sitting down. An iPod is no little thing to dangle off a belt, which makes it seem very strange that most manufacturers that offer a belt clip seem to all offer them in the vertical orientation. The rest must have a little bit of a clue but just not offering a belt clip.

I did manage to eventually get the iPod working under Linux. I was ahving trouble with getting read and write abilities but then I found out that Linux does not like a journalized HFS+. So I reformated to get rid of the journized filesystem and finally got read and write. I uploaded my songs then off I went. Now I find that I can't get read/write, only read, and I can't even plug it into the Mac at work. Something is wrong and I don't know what is going on. I will try to reformat the data partition again and see if that helps. Maybe the fall knocked it around too much and it is broken. I hope that is not the case. I will be at the mall tonight where there is an Apple store, so I think I will stop in and see what they have to say.