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Today much of the tech world is sad that the iPhone 3G's launch is going so miserably. But I'm sad that it's my last day at Salon.

I've accepted a job at Slate, where, starting next week, I'll be writing a twice-weekly technology column. Machinist will go on a break for a week, after which a guest blogger will bring you the latest tech dish.

I joined Salon in 2002, and since then I've written about, among other things, Smart Cars, robotic vacuum cleaners, muffin toasters, voting machines, architecture and 9/11, Tower Seven, Bill Clinton, Terri Schiavo, Florida's elections, "The Wisdom of Crowds," Malcolm Gladwell, Linux, Daniel Levitin, the copyright industries, Lawrence Lessig, The New York Times, Martha Stewart, a mnemonic to remember the Solar System's planets, Google, garlic, stem cells, Comcast, Apple, Speedo, taxes, Social Security, Antonin Scalia, Barack Obama, the robots' plan to take over the Earth, Howard Stern, Stringer Bell, Current TV, campaign finance reform, MoveOn, Howard Dean, Nintendo, Total Information Awareness, Java, Alice Waters, "The West Wing," Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the Washington Post, Judy Miller, and Hurricane Katrina.

I'm pretty sure there's no other news outlet on the planet which would have given me such latitude, and I thank everyone here at Salon for that. I also want to thank all the readers who've read my work, not to mention praised me, hounded me, kept me up late at night swearing at the screen. Don't ever change.

-- Farhad Manjoo

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In the meantime, I thought I'd add a note about one of the more fun events related to my book's release -- the opportunity I had, in May, to speak at Google's headquarters in Mountain View.

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Apple.com

Walt Mossberg (WSJ), David Pogue (NYT) and Edward Baig (USA Today) have been using the new iPhone 3G for a couple of weeks now, and today they all dish on their experiences.

They were all fans of the first model, and they're pretty happy about the new model's new features. The reviewers say the phone's 3G network access leads to a much zippier Internet experience, that its audio quality has been dramatically improved, and that it cozies up to Microsoft's corporate e-mail system.

But there are some drawbacks, too: Mossberg finds the battery life lacking, and Pogue says that that the phone's GPS antenna is too puny to be of much use.

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In the fall of 1987, a freelance reporter named Michael Dolan learned that judge Robert Bork kept an account at Potomac Video, a D.C. rental shop. This was at the height of the contentious and ultimately failed Senate confirmation hearings for Bork's nomination to the Supreme Court -- so naturally, Dolan thought there was a story here, and he went to work on getting a peek at Bork's video rental history.

It wasn't hard work. Dolan popped into Potomac Video one afternoon and asked if he could look at Bork's movie file. "There sure are a lot of them," the assistant manager replied. "Is it OK if I make a Xerox copy?"

That was OK with Dolan; weeks later, he published Bork's rental history in the D.C. alt-weekly the Washington City Paper.

Bork's taste in movies was itself unremarkable ("First off, despite what all you pervs were hoping, there's not an X in the bunch, and hardly an R," Dolan wrote). But the publication sparked outrage from groups on the right and the left -- including the ACLU and People for the American Way, which had vehemently opposed Bork's nomination.

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The Smart's automatic transmission, too, is simply awful, shifting from first to second as haltingly as a band geek on a blind date with a cheerleader. The brakes are squishy, sinking deep into the floor before they engage. And the tiny ride's suspension leaves something to be desired -- namely, a bit of protection for your throbbing, pothole-crushed behind.

But traverse the city for just 10 or 20 minutes in the Smart and the truth will hit you like a Hummer on its way to the repo lot. While just large enough to realize, on the inside, the comforts of a sedan, the Smart is perhaps the first modern, street-legal car small enough to completely upend your relationship with the city.

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