Geeksquad to the rescue

It turns out that I did not waste 200 bucks on the Best Buy extended service agreement for my laptop. I thought the coverage lasted two years (which expired a few days before my laptop power source did), but I was wrong; it lasts three! It appears that my laptop will be repaired at no cost to me.

I'm thinking I might go ahead and have them fix some other things that are wrong with the old jalopy while they're at it.

Electronic Resurrection (part 2)

It was too good to last. My darling mp3 player is taking the long lonely road to oblivion. My daring reformating initiative worked for a few days, but the problems returned. When I try to power the unit up, it immediately shuts itself off. I've been able to get it playing by whacking it... not something that one should do to an expensive electronic device. But, from what I can gather from the internet message boards, the device is a goner anyway. Abusing it in this fashion may let me enjoy tolerate a few more weeks.
So now the question becomes:

• Do I send in my beloved Rio for reconditioning at the tune of $124?
  
• Do I join the herd and purchase an i-pod?
  
• Do I take the cheaper route and purchase a portable cd-player that decodes mp3 files?
  

The nice thing about not having money is that I don't actually have to make this decision right now. I will without music on my daily commute [25 minute walk from apartment to office].