So from reading all over I'm concluding that the time to acquire a USB connection with the N810 is pretty quick.

However when I boot my tablet
1) never shows up on the desktop of the PC: ( mac & windows machines tried )
2) never shows up in the flasher ( command line mac, 770 flasher mac, windows )

I've removed the battery and let the puppy sit overnight and restarted.

Any suggestions are welcome. Tomorrow I'll try to find one of these funky cables to doublecheck the cable itself. perhaps it got hammered somehow. As the USB indicator has been coming up on the Tablet i've been looking for other causes.