I found the most interesting thingy at Mike Quinn Electronics, a nifty surplus electronics store the next town over from where I live. It's an adjustable potentiometer, with a digital display on top to show the resistance. We tested it with a meter, and not only does it work fine, it is as advertised, with a linear tolerance of 0.1%. But, best of all, it's genuine Borg technology!

The George W. Borg Corporation of Janesville, WI made this fascinating object, the Model 205 Micropot Potentiometer, but not much information is available about the company online that I can find. Jody says that they are related to the Borg of Borg-Warner (as in transmissions), but I haven't yet found out when the company operated and shut down, and when this might have been made.

The only links I found so far were references to a circular knitting machine that Mr. Borg adapted to work with synthetic fibers, a reference to the Borg scale of intensity of sensations, and how another Borg potentiometer is used in avalanche hazard forcasting.

Probably the best part of the whole thing is the metal thumbwheel/dial and display on top. The gearing inside that make the numbers change (as well as the electrical resistance) are smooth and feel oh so good to turn. There's even a latch to lock it at any specific setting. I dont have any plans to use it for anything other than a paperweight and fidget-toy, but at $2., it was a bargain no matter what.

I'm going to see what else I can find out about this George W. Borg Corporation. Resistance is futile. GAH! Sorry.

As part of my ongoing campaign to own every single piece of Apple merchandise and ephemera, I have adopted the most ungainly of all one-piece Macintoshes, the Power Macintosh G3 All-in-One. It is in the shape of a translucent and somewhat lumpy molar, but provides the missing link from the classic Macintosh to the iMac.

It's actually not a bad little machine, with the same motherboard as the beige G3s of the day, a 24x (!) CD ROM drive (no burning, no DVD), a Zip drive (handy!) a floppy drive (more so!) and a built in 15" CRT. It was sold only to educational markets, and included other soon-to-be-obsolete technologies like ADB, SCSI and serial ports. It did, however, include a video out port, and had stereo speakers and a mike built-in.

As far as I can remember, it's also the last one piece Mac to have a striped logo. These days a 233 G3 doesn't get you very far, so I am starting to think about what I could do to juice it up a little. It will run 10.2.8 as it is now, but the processor and motherboard can be upgraded. It could make for an interesting and very usable machine with a couple of G4s in it and a faster bus...

Well, I have become one of them. I have cut all ties to AT&C or SB&T or whatever the hell they are pretending to be now. My landline- gone. My DSL- no more. In their place, I have my untethered cellphone (same number as always, fret not) and cable broadband (4x faster). No longer will I pay a monthly fee so that telemarketers can call me and waste my time, nor will I have to have any further interaction with the clumsily recently rebranded telco-glot-opoly. But, for a last communiqe, this one was a doozy.

I especially applaud their ploy to drive me off for good by making me wait on hold for thirty minutes after first speaking with me, until I reached some guy in India with an impeccable American accent. I was told that my DSL and telephone service were on differing billing cycles, with the phone expiring 15 days before the DSL. Phone service can be pro-rated if you cancel before the end of a billing cycle; DSL service cannot. In other words, I have to pay for the full DSL cycle, no matter how much I choose to use.

So, I told the minion of the evil telco, disconnect each when their cycle runs out.

No, I was told by the minion of the evil telco, your DSL will not work without phone service.

If I extend my phone service through the end of the DSL, I have to pay more. But if I cancel my DSL at the same time as the phone, I pay for service I can never use. So, I said, that means, basically, no matter what, I am being screwed out of about $50. How is this fair?

If you choose to look at it that way, I was informed, and left to wonder which other way I could possibly look at it.

So enjoy my $50, SBC, at&t or whatever you call yourselves (and paste all over the Giants ballpark) tomorrow. Parting is sweet, with no sorrow to complicate it. Take the money you've stolen from me and buy a real logo, or actual customer service, or better yet, just fucking choke on it.

Well, the idea of making my own with a laptop has failed miserably. Even a sub-notebook would be too big to easily mount and stow in the cabin. So, after doing some research, I settled on the Garmin i5.

It's a tennis-ball sized unit with a button on either side of the screen and a scroll wheel that also presses in. The screen is about the same size as any cell phone, and is nice and crisp. There's a socket in the back where a universal ball joint with a suction cup can be attached. Since CA law prohibits attaching the unit to the windshield, I have found a good place for it is on the sunroof- the antenna gets a clear path to the satellites, and I can see it easily in the upper right corner of my field of vision.

Of course, once it's programmed, I don't have to look at it much, it talks to me. To match the MINI, the voice is British. She's very good too, her reminders are not overbearing, and her suggestions when to turn are well-timed. The best feature is that the unit immediately recalculates your route if you stray off the intended path. If you choose "no U-Turns" in the preferences, you will get a new route that is easy to adjust to. The routes are calculated by algorithms, not by someone who knows the area intimately, but the choices are sensible, if not the absolute best choice.

The unit is surprisingly easy to program-- the Garmin folks have taken their lessons from the iPod's interface, all you do is scroll and click. The left button serves to take you back one level in the menu, and the right button is for power. You start by choosing state, then city, then street address, and it zooms in on your choice as you type. Generally you only need to enter the first 3-4 characters before you see your choice in the list, much like Google Suggest.

This unit, unlike its little brother the i3, has all the maps for the entire USA, as well as Canada and Mexico preloaded. There are also 6 million points of interest programmed in, like ATMs, restaurants, gas stations, etc. These choices are also easily navigated and are pretty up-to-date. I could see throwing this in my suitcase when visiting a new city, and using it to find things while walking around downtown. Did I mention it was small? It sits in the palm of your hand.

I would have to say on the whole, I am very happy with the Garmin i5. It stows easily in the glovebox until I need it, and is far easier to use than a map, and so far has not let me down. Considering I picked it up for about $375 including tax, this one is a no-brainer, and a great addition to the MINI for about 1/5 of the factory version.

zulu_as_kono: speaking of which, i bought a nano this weekend, to replace my 4G 20GB iPod which i sold to a friend
s*****: Nice?
zulu_as_kono: like a jewel
zulu_as_kono: i got iPod socks too.... i must own as much useless Apple branded crap as i can possibly get my hands on
s*****: So I see...
zulu_as_kono: some of us have higher callings in life than others...
s*****: It's the circle of life or something...
zulu_as_kono: Hakkuna Mac-tata

No, not the iPod that plays video. It's this:

Apple has finally signalled that they are serious about creating a home media center. It's the new Apple Remote for FrontRow, that is not only included with the new iMac, but also works with the new Universal dock for iPods. Suddenly, all that media we've all been storing on our Macs are easily available, with butt firmly planted on couch, with the click of a button. No special OS, and it works with all the familiar i-Apps. Bravo!

The other big announcement was the availability of TV shows, the day after they were broadcast, to be downloaded at $1.99 a pop. Now you can catch up on shows you missed while you take public transportation to work. The specs say that the video size is 320x240, but I don't know if it upscales when you use the video-out function on the iPod, or when you watch it on a computer.

The new iPods are nice, too, by the way... but I have iPod lust fatigue after the nano.

When I bought my MINI Cooper S, I decided that I did not want the built in Sat-Nav system, because it displaced the speedometer from its rightful place at the center of the dashboard. Now that the technology has advanced further, it's possible to buy all kinds of self-contained units; my sister and my step-mother both have added on devices, while my mother's Sat-Nav system (Henrietta...) came pre-installed on her Volvo. Most of the units available are single-purpose and self-contained, and generally sport 320x240 screens and pricetags well over $750.

I always like finding different (read hopefully cheaper) options, so I am putting together together a system and installing it in the MINI. Basically, The Blue Meanie is getting its own laptop.

By basing it on a laptop (a refurbished IBM T-22 that i picked up for less than $400), I can not only use it as a Sat-Nav, but also as a multipurpose in-car entertainment and communication center. I can watch DVDs with it, or play music via iTunes, and with the wifi card, I can use it to get on the net anywhere there is a signal. I'm also getting a combo USB2 and FireWire card for it for easier interoperability.

The GPS antenna is a small puck made by Garmin that attaches to the roof of the MINI with magnets. Then, combined with MS Streets and Trips software, I'll be able to find my way around anywhere. One additional piece I need to get is either a power adapter to run the laptop from the socket or a power inverter. Other than figuring out a secure way to mount and quickly unmount the laptop, the only other piece I might need is this PC to car adapter

You may be wondering, knowing me, why I'm using a Windows-based system. Two simple reasons- price and software availability-- there's not much available for Mac OS X, and even less that accepts GPS input. Altogether this project should cost me less than $700 for a full car-based navigation and entertainment system, which is comparable to a stand-alone Sat-Nav-only unit.

Adobe announced an upgrade to the Creative Suite, a group of their design programs including Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat and GoLive. Full price for version one? $1099.97. Price for the upgrade from V1 to V2? $549.99! Unbelievable.

With interesting models like this new T6 Roadster, the Tandem, the 3CC concept, and the upcoming c30, Volvos are getting more interesting and sexier than they have been in a long time, at least since the 1800 (I used to own the 1973 ES model) went out of production in 1973. (Unfortunately we never got the smart-looking 480 series in the US.) Volvo's even launched a new Concept Lab Volvo site showcasing the new things they are doing. I also found a detailed site from New Zealand that is a great repository of pictures of older models.

I've been keeping quiet about the whole Apple vs. dePlume et al. case because, well, it hit pretty close to home. I designed thinksecret.com several years ago and my name is featured on every page at the bottom. Although that is my only connection to the site, other than being a reader, Apple, in their pursuit of leak-stoppage, has subpoenaed me to produce the true identity of Nick dePlume.

Guess what? I have never met the guy. Almost all of our communication took place via instant message, and my payment for designing the site came from Nick dePlume via PayPal. I have to salute Nick for being smart enough to keep things pseudonymous from the start; despite being a teenager, he's put a lot of thought into his enterprise from the start.

I first contacted him when I was designing and reporting for ZDNet News, to consult about a story I was working on. We remained friendly and chatted online occasionally, even after I left ZDNet until the opportunity to redesign his site came along. Since then, again, we have communicated primarily online via instant message.

The suit against Think Secret came as a surprise to me. Like most other readers, I checked the site from time-to-time to see what Apple might be coming up with in the future, and found the reporting to be often accurate, and often inaccurate. Rumors abound on the interweb. Anyone can say anything about anyone, and before it can be stopped, the rumor has reached the far corners of the 'net. Macintosh rumormongering has been a tradition for over 20 years, ferchrissakes. People want to know what is coming in the future; we're curious creatures by nature. But much as Lisa DiCarlo explains in Forbes,

"…most of its secret product news is not published first by national, mainstream media, but by Apple advocates. These people are customers, fans and Apple-lovers."

People's enthusiasm for new products is rarely diminished by foreknowledge of the product, unless the product is a real dog. And even when people know what's coming, they show up for Steve Jobs' keynotes in droves because of his presentation. They know the big picture, but are waiting to be entranced by his explanation of the details. These are not people who are running out to create competing products, these are loyal fans and customers who are already excited.

Nevertheless, Apple and Jobs expend untold resources preventing any information that is not delivered via press release or Job's tongue. From my personal experience with new Apple product announcements I know that I arrive at every MacWorld with the same sense of anticipation, whether or not I have an idea of what will be presented. My involvement with the case is beyond peripheral, but the subpoena shows how far and wide Apple is willing to cast a net to plug these leaks. Now with the Harvard Crimson, the Washington Post (reg. req.) and the Associated Press doing feature stories and interviews with the person behind Think Secret, I can only hope my involvement with the case has ended, and this 25+year Apple owner can get things back to normal.

My take on the whole deal is that you can't put toothpaste back into the tube. I don't know anything about Apple's NDAs or how trade secrets are protected, but it seems to me that the correct predictions made on Think Secret surfaced only slightly before the actual product introductions. I do not know how much impact that has on the products, but after seeing the almost-universal acclaim for the MWSF '05 introductions, I'm not sure how this impacted the introduction. Furthermore, the products were not much of a surprise, as they were products that pundits and the general public alike have been demanding. I wish Nick the best of luck with his defense, and I look forward to his next scoops.

Well, I have been wrong about the iPod before, but as wrong as the U2 limited edition is, the photo iPod is even worse. I just don't see people taking their photos with them everywhere the way they do with music.

There is entertainment value in music, and it's something you do passively, whereas looking at photos is much more active, and personal. Besides, it's far easier to look at the photos on laptop or desktop. A screen that size doesn't seem to be worth the trouble or price.

I think they missed an opportunity too, with the color screen- why can't the iPod display visuals to go with the music? Something new and everchanging would seem to be a far more interesting use for the display than static album art. I just don't see the photo iPod being a hit. The price is too high, and the feature bloat is unnecessary- kind of like MS Word after version 5... Just my 2¢.

And, between the new iPods and the new countries for the music store, is it just me, or were these the worst kept secrets in Apple product introduction history?

For the next month, I will be guest-blogging for C.K. Sample's 3650 and a 12" blog. I own both a Nokia 3650 and a 12" PowerBook, so I know a few things about both. This should be fun, be sure to check it out.