Anyone know about iPods?

Okay, so I've got an 8-month-old iPod Nano. Yesterday, it was nearly out of charge, and I recklessly listened to Radio 4 until it shut itself down in protest. So I took it home and plugged it into the computer. I wasn't too worried when it didn't react to this, because hey, out of charge. I was a little concerned when the computer called it an "unknown device", but I reasoned that, if, it was out of charge, it couldn't communicate with the computer.

That was about 20 hours ago. The iPod does not appear to be charging. The Troubleshooting section of the online manual seems to be saying it should be charging, and beyond that, its advice is "the five Rs". I've done Retry and Restart, Reinstall doesn't appear to be relevant, and Reset and Restore rather depend on the iPod being charged.

Any advice?