If you use smart.fm and have an iPod Touch (or equivalent), the smart.fm application is _really_ getting excellent. It feeds your practice statistics back to the web site now!
Pro tip: when setting up a new MacBook Pro, do _not_ just restore everything from a Time Machine backup—install the OS from the included system install disk. Otherwise weird stuff happens. Also, force a full format by zeroing the drive first. Otherwise, weird stuff happens.
After screwing around with it almost the entire day, I seem to have gotten my Archos 5 working again, with the latest firmware. Doing a "pinhole reset", then reformatting it as an "exFAT" drive from within Windows, and adding the latest firmware seems to have done the trick. Weird.
Heh. Turns out importing video from my Sony camera's even easier than I thought: you can transfer AVCHD footage directly from the camera into Final Cut Pro using the "Log and Transfer..." window! That save a step.