*Update*
But first, Joe z. asked: "I just do not understand that if you have a FAT32 ipod, why doesn't windows just see it as a removable hard drive where you could just copy and paste within explorer?"
Answer: If it's anything like the Mac iPOD, the songs are "hidden" on the drive, and there's an iPod-specific database the iPOD firmware used to find and play the tracks. It does show up as a disk drive, and I can drop as many songs as I like on it, but the iPOD's internal software doesn't notice them, they just look like random data on the hard drive. See some of the ipod web sites or EphPod.com for more info.
OK, now the update: Last night around 12:30AM I managed to finally start transferring songs from my PC to my iPod, through some magical combination of rebooting, switching from my motherboard 1394 (which has always worked fine for disk drives and camcorders) to my All-In-Wonder's 1394 (which has also always worked fine), and I don't know what. But it was clearly, finally, transferring songs. So I let it go at it and went to bed.
20 minutes later I heard a beeping. I go downstairs, and my iPOD's batteries are dead. It wasn't charging from the 1394 port! The batteries had run out, and the entire operation was hosed. I took it upstairs and plugged it in to the Apple-supplied charger with the apple-supplied 1394 cable, and guess what? It STILL wasn't charging! Apparently I either have a bad 1394 cable, or apple is shipping these things with cables that don't supply power! I switched to another 1394 cable I had lying around, and it started charging.
Alas, this morning things are even worse than last night - my PC sees the iPod, but the wonderful musicmatch software doesn't. So I know what I'll be working on tonight...
I'm really surprised about the cable - it was really thin, light and flexible compared to other 1394 cables, but if apple removed the power wires then there is literally no way to ever charge the iPod! I certainly hope I have a bad cable, and apple's not pissing off/confusing thousands of customers.
If I were a cynical, conspiratorial person, I might think that apple was intentionally a little slack with the quality control (ranging from mm software to the friggin 1394 cable) so they could throw up their hands and say "You should have bought a Mac!" when these sort of things happen. I honestly don't believe that's the case (Apple values the potential revenue of a huge hit like a Windows iPod more than the "I told you so" factor, but my disbelief is not as strong as it was 12 hours ago...
-Fred