very depressing as that was my first mt. gox transaction. spent $30 and I can't justify losing money to bitcoin. seriously considering forgetting about bitcoin entirely.
consider starting a new thread asking what happens if somebody send btc to an invalid address.... may be somebody can give light about this. may be the transfer will return, but i dint know....
It's lost permanently if the address is valid but non-existent. If invalid, the client won't even send it out I believe.