Hi guys,
I couldn't find any help on the forums for the error: avrdude: stk500_getsync(): not in sync: resp=0x00 when i pushed upload
someone suggested that i try holding down shift as I press upload and I got the error: avrdude: usbdev_open(): did not find any USB device "usb"
I bought my board from Deal extreme and it's an Arduino Duemilanove atmega328P-PU
The fix for this is that the hardware from Deal extreme is faulty, you need to unsolder the R2 resistor.
Removing this resistor fixed the problem straight away and I could then run the blink as my first code.
I'm posting this here to hopefully help anyone else from spending hours surfing the net for how to solve these issues.
hope this helps some ppl out. 