Sigh. Where does the time go? I've been surfing plenty, thought a lot about things I could post, but never got around to it and now most of what I wanted to say is ... stale. Oh well. I'll just leave it out then.

Interview with the lead designer of Apple's hardware:

• Jonathan Ive: industrial design revolution [TheMacMind]
  Q. What kind of design problems did iMac translucent plastics present?
  A. People focus on the translucency because it is so immediate but everything about the iMac is so different. Every minute detail was considered from internal structure and fixing right down to the product labels, for which we used a new printing process that has never been used on product labels before. The labels are three-dimensional and appear to move.
  
  We even had to design the shape of the circuit boards as they became an intrinsic part of the product's appearance. The translucent resin itself presented a problem because of the high volume of products we needed to produce. We had to make sure that the color and levels of translucency were exactly the same in the first computer and every one thereafter. This led us to finding a partner who does a lot of work in the candy industry, as many candies are translucent.

Speaking of the iMac, I was in Bed Bath & Beyond the other day, looking at clocks, and saw a row of multi-colored, Timex-branded clocks that were... well... iMacs. They were such cute little things... I almost bought one (even though I don't have an iMac to be its big brother), but successfully resisted temptation.

Looked for a picture or a mention on Timex's site, but found out that Timex actually doesn't make all its products, it just licenses its name to other people. Huh. BB&B didn't have them in their online store either, so I couldn't point to them there.

Looked a little further and found that they've been out for months, they're not licensed or approved by Apple, and Apple may be suing Timex. (Not without justification, I'd say, because they're clearly meant to be iMacs.)

(I'm kind of pleased, actually, that I'd missed this particular story at the time. It shows that I'm successfully withdrawing from obsessive-Apple-news-junkie mode.)

Anyway. Here are some pics and stories. You have to check out at least one of these:

• Timex "iMac" Alarm Clock Pictures! [The Apple Collection]
• More On The iMac Alarm Clock [Mac Observer]
• Bigger picture, shown next to a real iMac [Mac Observer]

Wesley Felter gives with some capital-T Truth: "The Internet was never a client-server system, you just thought it was." Yes.

Someday in the far future I envision a Gap Computer ad with women and men trading music via some descendent of Napster and Gnutella, with the soundtrack swapping between vastly different songs as they switch cameras among a group of unrealistically good-looking college kids:

Everybody With Servers.

• New Peter Gabriel album in June [jam! music]
  Gabriel is joined on vocals by a host of other singers, including long-time associate Shankar, Cocteau Twins' Liz Frazer and The Blue Nile's Paul Buchanan.

It's based on his Millenium Dome show.

In other music news, Moxy Früvous' newest bit of stuff The 'C' Album is almost here! According to the Früvous Quill and http://www.fruvous.com/, it should be available at the end of May from their website and at their shows (though not in stores). <Mr. Burns>Ihhhhhgcellent.</Mr. Burns>

It will have such long-awaited tracks as "Pisco Bandito the Bandit Fish" and "The Mitosis Waltz" as well as the disco reworking of "Video Bargainville" from their live show. Hoo hah.

They have an overly-cheesy intro track available for download off this page. (They don't normally sound that... Weird-Al-like, trust me. Not that there's anything wrong with that...) In it they mention this guy, who I guess I'd know if I were Canadian...

• Lester B. Pearson - The Man [Calgary Board of Education]

Anyway. Fun fun fun. Can't wait.

Lots of good stuff lately (Star Wars gossip, political stuff, etc.) at Ghost in the Machine. Plus he updates more often than I do. So go there, eh?

Out of time. More next week, including a long ramble about that virus thing.