The really nice thing about this is that, since I can't get it to install at all, my wife isn't going to be able to buy any music or change the music on her iPod. Boy is she going to be mad. I certainly hope I figure this out at some point today.

If you're curious, I have other reasons to hate iTunes. Mainly: I sometimes move music around, either renaming music shares from my computer, re-organizing directories there, or simply changing physical drives on her computer. iTunes can't handle this at all and leaves useless orphan entries all over her library. When she re-imports from the new locations, iTunes happily duplicates all the “missing” songs, leaving one pointing nowhere and helpfully error-ing on the file when you click it.

Fortunately, that's a whole separate rant.

Shit I've tried so far:

1. iTunes internal updater
2. iTunes internal updater (again)
3. iTunes internal updater with everyone logged off
4. let iTunes install Safari
5. uninstalled Safari (again)
6. iTunes fresh download install
7. iTunes fresh download install after removing iTunes through add/remove programs
8. nuked the c:\progies\itunes and quicktime files
9. nuked all the reg entries under HKCU and HKLM for apple, ipod, quicktime, and itunes
10. removed the quicktime files from the system32 directory
    (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1926)
• BTW, if apple knows these things are there (regs and system32 files) ...
• ... why the fuck do they leave them there after the explicit uninstall?!?
11. rebooting, again, in case I forgot after one of the steps above
12. looking for pictures of Shirley Manson in a hat
13. screaming giberish and striking the desk
14. ran the MS installer cleanup gizmo (recommended by apple): msicuu2.exe
    • newked itunes
    • newked quicktime
15. *laugh*, downloaded a separate quicktime installer (advised by apple), file is provably identical to the itunes installer.

For pixel drawing supercomputing power, I chose an EVGA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 896MB card. You can SLI up to three of them, but since they each need two 6-pin power inputs (you can see them in the image on the left, sorry my phone motion blurs easily), you'd pretty much need three power supplies to run all that.

They're also sized in the ridiculously huge 3lb range and the monster is literally abut my hard drive bays. It's ridiculous.

I also had to reinstall parts of windows, no big shock. There was a running bet on whether I would have to call Microsoft for a new confirmation ID. I did in fact have to do this. With stolen OEM XP Pro sp2 CDs, you can just install and play, but if you pay for it, you're rewarded with having to call them in order to use your computer successfully. Nice.

Next: The IDE controller on this board is so new that no OS can recognize it unless it's really ultra modern. Linux must be at least 2.6.18 (modern ubuntu, but not older ones) and Trinity Rescue Kit must be 3.3 (to have a modern enough kernel). This means that, although I could install XP Pro off my original Holographic MS XP Pro (no service packs) disk directly onto my SATA drives (supposedly impossible); I was unable to read the ASUS DVD to install my network driver. I was reduced to using a USB key and Alcohol 52% to mount the ripped ASUS iso. Pfft.

Well, anyway, ... I'm booted to the new gaming platform and installing windows updates. I will hopefully be ready for nerdwars.