The conversation Consumerist's Laura Northrup had with an AT&T customer service representative after confirming that iPhones could not be purchased online when using any New York zip code almost plays out like an SNL skit:

Daphne: Welcome to AT&T online Sales support. How may I assist you with placing your order today?

Laura: Hi, I was looking at the iPhone 3Gs and the system tells me that I cannot order one in my ZIP code. My zip code is 11231. (Brooklyn, NY) Is this true? Are iPhones no longer available in New York City?

Daphne: I am happy to be helping you today . Yes, this is correct the phone is not offered to you because New York is not ready for the iPhone.

Daphne: You don't have enough towers to handle the phone.

Laura: Thank you for your help. So the phone is not available to people anywhere in the city?

Daphne: Yes this is correct Laura.

Yikes. Turns out Laura then went to try and buy an iPhone online and was shut down using any NY zip code she tried.

Then we tried it and were similarly shot down but not with the same message Laura got from a customer service rep.

We know that AT&T's aware that it sucks in NY, but is the solution to a localized network strain from heavy data usage to stop online sales of a particular phone? Doesn't exactly seem like the most sensible of ideas, especially since there are plenty of iPhones in AT&T's brick-and-mortar New York stores.

Something else that's peculiar about this "sales ban" is that folks in San Francisco, another spot where data puts a huge strain on AT&T's network, are still able to purchase the iPhone online:

A possible explanation to things comes in the form of whispers regarding some kind of New York-based online sales fraud, but somehow the answer to the old ""Is it the network?" still seems to be a loud, angry "Yes!" After all, how can a bit of online sales fraud prompt refusing to sell one particular phone model to an entire market? Then again, if it really is the network, why are they still selling iPhones in stores?

Whatever the real story here, I'm definitely curious to hear if AT&T makes an official statement on this odd issue. Hell, I'd be happy with just another Luke Wilson pep talk. Instead, we're waiting for a AT&T media rep to write us back and further clarify the situation. [Consumerist]

Update: According to the folks at TechTrackr, AT&T told them that the reason for the mysterious lack of iPhones for New Yorkers is because AT&T "periodically modif[ies] [their] promotions and distribution channels." AT&T refused to go beyond that statement, so this is still a bit of a head scratcher.

Let's get this straight right away: We didn't test dropped voice calls, we didn't test customer service, and we didn't test map coverage by wandering around in the boonies. We tested the ability of the networks to deliver 3G data in and around cities, including both concrete canyons and picket-fenced 'burbs. And while every 3G network gave us troubles on occasion, AT&T's wasn't measurably more or less reliable than Verizon's.

It was measurably faster, however, download-wise, in 6 of the 12 markets where we tested, and held a significantly higher national average than the other carriers. Only Verizon came close, winning 4 of the 12 markets. For downloads, AT&T and Verizon came in first or second in nine markets, and in whatever location we tested, both AT&T and Verizon 3G were consistently present. If you're wondering about upload speeds, AT&T swept the contest, winning 12 for 12.

The Cities

Last year, we did an 8-city coast-to-coast test, and called Sprint the big winner. This year, we have results from 11 cities coast-to-coast, and even got to test (during what was otherwise vacation time) on the Hawaiian island of Maui. Also, unlike last year, we were able to test T-Mobile's new 3G network, active in all the markets we visited (except, at the time, Maui). For being such a latecomer, T-Mo did well, and the numbers show even more promise from them.

We tried to spread the love around this year, geographically, hitting cities we didn't get to last year (at the cost of losing a few from '08). Besides Maui, we hit Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix, Portland, Seattle, San Francisco/Bay Area and Tampa.

The Methodology

Our testing regimen was based on the same scheme as last year: We picked five locations in each city, including at least one "downtown" location that was considered a suburb. The selections were arbitrary, or fixed but logical—landmarks, residences, etc. (Note: Due to timing constraints, Chicago and Maui only had three test locations.)

Our hardware consisted of two identical stripped-down Acer Timeline laptops running Windows Vista, and four 3G wireless modems requested from the carriers. We allowed them to make the choice of hardware, simply asking for their "best performing" model. Once up and running, here are the tests we ran:

• Bandwidth & Latency: Speedtest.net - Reports upload and download bandwidth in megabits per second, as well as ping latency in milliseconds. We performed this test five times at each location on each modem.

• Pageload: Hubble images at Wikimedia - A 4.42MB web page with 200 4KB thumbnails, it was fully reloaded three times, and timed using the Firefox plug-in YSlow. The three time readings were averaged.

• Download: Wikimedia's Abell 2667 galaxy cluster photo - This single 7.48MB JPEG is a clear test of how fast you can download stuff from the cloud, and again, we hard refreshed this file three times, and measured time using YSlow for an accurate human-error-free reading.

This was a test of 3G performance. Even though Sprint and its tech partner Clearwire have intrepidly released 4G networks in half of the tested markets—Atlanta, Chicago, Las Vegas, Maui, Portland and Seattle—we only tested Sprint's 3G network. The reason should be obvious: While we performed the test with laptop cards on PCs, it's supposed to serve as a test of the network's ability to deliver service to all devices, including smartphones, dumbphones and laptops. Show us a Palm Pre WiMax edition—better yet, sell 100,000 of them—and then we'll switch it up. And while you may argue that this 3G test still doesn't adequately reflect your experience with your iPhone, at least it's the same network, and may serve to rule out AT&T's data pipe as the independent cause for all those infamous dropped calls.

(On a side note, when multiple carriers release 4G networks, we'll definitely conduct a comparative test of them all, using new parameters, and focused around laptop use.)

The Results

Now that you know how we ran the test, here are the top finishers in each market, plus some pretty bar graphs showing you how bandwidth compares.

Though we tested for uploads and downloads, we focused our additional tests on the downstream, as it's the more important direction, in the minds of most consumers and most carriers. The anomaly there is AT&T, which has dramatically good upload bandwidth, even when its download bandwidth doesn't keep up. Fast uploads are a priority for AT&T, and will soon be for T-Mobile, which recently turned on faster uploading in NYC, which you can see in our test results. Meanwhile, although Verizon technically came in second in uploads as well as downloads, it doesn't seem to treat this as a major priority.

When it came to downloads, though, the competition was markedly stiffer:

Atlanta - AT&T, followed by Verizon
Bay Area/San Francisco - AT&T, followed by Verizon
Chicago - AT&T, followed by Verizon then Sprint
Denver - AT&T, followed by Verizon
Las Vegas - Verizon, followed by AT&T
Los Angeles - AT&T, followed by Sprint
Maui - Verizon, followed by AT&T
New York - AT&T, followed by T-Mobile
Phoenix - Verizon, followed by T-Mobile
Portland - T-Mobile, followed by Verizon
Seattle - Verizon, followed by T-Mobile
Tampa - Sprint, followed by AT&T

Is That The End?

No. We've compiled the following gallery with all the data from each test location in the 12 markets, so you can see on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood level who won what. This also includes latency, pageload and download numbers, so you can track the performance in several ways. (The data above is bandwidth, though as you'll see, that was generally representative of the overall performance. If a carrier was tops in bandwidth, it was usually tops in download time.) These tests are all just "snapshots in time," as the carriers like to say, so feel free to bitch about where your experience doesn't reflect our results. We stand by them, but acknowledge that network performance is changing all the time, and experiences very regular hiccups.

Regarding latency, you'll notice it didn't appear to affect actual user experience—3G isn't really up for Modern Warfare 2, if that's what you're thinking—we will gladly show you latency averages, as well as pageload and file download averages, broken out for every market on the test.

Special thanks to all of the excellent testers we enlisted, Mark Wilson, Chris Mascari, John Herrman, Kyle VanHemert, Dan Nosowitz, Matt Buchanan and Rosa Golijan from our own team, along with Tamara Chadima and the indefatigable Dennis Tarwood. You guys were troopers, and I'm pretty sure FedEx either loves you or hates you. Thanks to John Mahoney for helping develop the initial tests that we've continually refined, to Chris Jacob for mapping all the locations, and to Don Nguyen for the mad number crunching—you truly are a spreadsheet pimp.

Note: Some of you may have noticed that San Diego is among the cities highlighted on the top illustration—and that Maui is not. The reason is that while we did testing in three great San Diego locations, one of the locations didn't get any Sprint or T-Mobile service, and the already fairly thin dataset was rendered too compromised for any kind of usable report. As for Maui's absence, Maui's just too far out in the Pacific to make for a pretty map shot.

Joining the flagship London store on Regent Street which announced its closure two days ago, Nokia was hit with criticisms by analysts, including this stinging remark from John Strand, chief executive of Strand Consult:

"Flagship stores are important in fashion industry: Apple is fashion. Nokia is consumer electronics"

Double ouch. [Reuters]

According to officials, the idea is to "reach younger residents who spend more time on the Xbox, PlayStation, or Wii than with television or radio" and it's actually part of a bigger program called Empire 2.0. Other things happening under the Empire 2.0 project include:

[T]he Department of Mental Health is monitoring some Facebook posts in an effort to spot suicidal behavior, the Office of Homeland Security is using Second Life to train 700,000 first responders, and senior members of the state CIO's office are using Twitter to disseminate information about technology initiatives to the public.

Basically, it feels like a good blend between the services and technology we use every day and important government programs. Now we just need a way to get emergency alerts to those of us who no longer watch live TV, listen to regular radio, and or play video games much. Or am I the only one? [Information Week via Slashdot]

The USS New York is a San Antonio-class amphibious assault vessel, which can carry 800 marines with their helicopters. The steel from the World Trade Center was used for its bow. If you are in New York, you can see it today near Zone Zero, on the south tip of Manhattan. [USS New York via Times Online]

There are four separate 3'x4' panels that represent Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx. When they're combined, you've got one gorgeous piece of wall art.

I wouldn't try and take it on a road trip though. [Dude Craft via Neatorama]

It's part of a test program on the L line, where they installed boards telling people when the next train would arrive last year. This is just the next step. If it goes well, presumably, they'll expand it to other lines as well. Like the Q! Bring it to the Q, MTA! Please! [Gothamist; pic via Kate Heffernan]

You'll see broken and unrealized dreams, that is. With Museum of the Phantom City, an public art project of an app sponsored by the Van Alen Institute, you can explore the various "images and descriptions of speculative projects" for New York City. BLDGBLOG even romanticizes the entire adventure (and justly so):

You walk past a certain corner on the Upper West Side and your iPhone starts to ring: you're being called by a missing building... Absent structures detected in a wireless blur, leaving messages for you (complete with call-back number).

Missing buildings calling to you, potential designs chirping to make themselves known. It's almost enough to make me book a flight and go for a stroll through Manhattan.

Actually, I may just have to book that flight anyway, because the app's dowsing rod-like nature demands proximity to the buildings to view any information or images. Otherwise there's a cold "Out of Range" popup. Time to pack a bag. [Phantom City via BLDGBLOG]

Read more about our Giz Gallery 09 here, follow @gizgallery on Twitter and see what else we'll be playing with at the event. And special thanks to Toyota's Prius — without their sponsorship, there would be no Gizmodo Gallery.

A veteran of over 50 events, this set has actually seen crazier installs: An outdoor event under a tent during heavy rain flooded the set's power cables in front of a brigade of very upset Japanese executives. Then again, the week at Giz Gallery hasn't even started yet. [Giz Gallery]

Read more about our Giz Gallery 09 here, follow @gizgallery on Twitter and see what else we'll be playing with at the event. And special thanks to Toyota's Prius — without their sponsorship, there would be no Gizmodo Gallery.

The settlement stemmed from complaints about Dell's service plans that promised "at home" or "on site" service, but actually left callers on hold while other callers were pressured to remove components themselves, and from complaints that Dell's financing arm "lured consumers to purchase its products" with no interest financing but switched buyers to high-interest financing without informing customers.

Cuomo said that New Yorkers who have bought Dell computers since 2004 may be eligible and that compensation could cover from the cost of a service plan, to cost of interest payments made to Dell, to cost of work done on computers that Dell was supposed to service.

I know what your thinking—Dell? No way! I Hate to break it to you, but Dell doesn't exactly have a stellar record when it comes to customer service. But there is hope for people that believe they might be eligible for compensation. New Yorkers with claims can go to nyagdell.com or call (800) 771-7755 as Cumo put it "in the case you have a Dell computer and you cannot go on the Internet." Haha...snap. [Syracuse.com - Thanks Ponies!]

This year's follow up to the original Giz Gallery is just that.

It is a collection of the greatest gadgets and tech we could find and fit under a roof. It is not meant to throw things in your face that you don't need so you can engulf them in exchange for debt, but is here to celebrate what is great about our world of tech, commercial or hacked, new or old. And there is no other collection in the world like it for strength of display of amazing technical achievement and fun—sometimes those artifacts are commercially made but more often, not. And this year we've learned a few new tricks.

It'll be 3 times bigger in a new location and open nearly 3 times as long (from September 23rd to the 27th). And from what we learned last year, we added lots of stuff for you to play with: there's less of an emphasis on staring at old, important pieces of gadgetry in glass cases, and more chances to try things out. We have over 60 devices this year; here are just some of the things we're bringing you:

• Tesla coils. Singing. Three times a day. (Hello? Man made lightning? Check!)




• Panasonic's amazing 103-inch TV, again. With exclusive art from Bad Robot's Star Trek playing on it. When we're not playing Rock Band or Call of Duty.

• A giant 3D Etch a Sketch with a custom 3D motion controller.



• Pancake Machine running all hours of the show.



• A brief timeline of the Sony Walkman, through history.



• A smartphone testing station—all the best, side by side, for your use and abuse and evaluation.

• The world's most expensive keyboard—hovering under the world's most disgusting Cheeto.




• A blank wall of Lego plates. And thirty thousand bricks you can attach to the wall.

• An original 1984 Apple Mac, signed by the entire Mac team (and currently owned by Jesus Diaz).

• A reader party on the 25th at 8pm with prizes.

• Guest-curated items by Adam Savage of the MythBusters, former nemesis and gdgt founder Ryan Block, Phil Torrone from Adafruit and Make Mag, and none other than the great Hartmut Esslinger, founder of frog design, who influenced the original Mac designs and Apple design language.



• One of a kind tech art projects from NYU's ITP program, including the messy and fantastic Mud PC.

• Secret new gadgets being seen for the first time at the Gallery.

• And much more.

• Did I mention free pancakes?

The tech world needs the anti Best Buy*. One as great as the Smithsonian or the Museum of Natural History. For now, we have our little Gizmodo Gallery and I want to invite you to come hang out with me and the Gizmodo NYC writers for a little while. It'll be a blast.

You can follow @gizgallery on Twitter to find out more about the crazy stuff we'll showing, early announcements and special events that are happening inside the Gallery.

(*There's nothing wrong with Best Buy, inherently. We're just doing something that is the opposite of it.)

There's no admission fee, but we will be collecting money for Doctors or Engineers Without Borders. Donations are optional but recommended.

Gallery Hours and Special Events Open to the Public:

Wednesday, September 23 through Friday, September 25
12noon – 8pm
- Main Gallery
- Opening Day features Laser Etching ($25 a laptop, $5 a gadget)

Friday, September 25
8pm-10pm
- Public Party, with prizes

Saturday, September 26
11am – 8pm
- Main Gallery

Saturday, September 26
9pm - Live DJ set by Music Director Jason Bentley, KCRW, 100% independently funded radio station

Sunday, September 27
11am – 6pm
- Main Gallery

Location:
267 Elizabeth Street
New York, NY 10012

NEW YORK – On September 23rd, the Gizmodo Gallery is bringing the most impressive and fun tech in the world to Manhattan. The interactive museum will be filled with the coolest gadgets, handpicked from today and yesteryear, ranging from a one-of-a-kind model of the first Apple phone prototype and a man made lightning machines to a mind blowing gigantic Panasonic plasma TV to robots that can spit out 200 pancakes an hour.

This year's visitors will be able to get their hands on many interactive demos, including a guitar that uses lasers for strings, draw on a giant 3-D Etch-A-Sketch, use a computer made by mud, and take a bite from the world's largest Cheeto cheese snack. Some never before seen, secret gadgets are also set to be unveiled to the world at the Gallery.

Gizmodo's friends are bringing their toys, too. Adam Savage from Mythbusters, Phil Torrone from Make and Adafruit, Frog Design founder and original Macintosh designer Hartmut Esslinger and gdgt.com cofounder Ryan Block are set to be the Gizmodo Gallery's first guest curators, introducing their own rare and wonderful tech pieces to the public.

WHAT:
THE GIZMODO GALLERY presented by Gizmodo – a blog about gadgets and technology. Started in 2002, Gizmodo has grown to be Gawker Media's largest blog, bringing in upwards of 100 million page views a month in traffic with posts about a variety of electronics, as well as all sorts of things gadget geeks might enjoy. The Gallery is Gizmodo's best content from the year, come to life.

WHEN:
Media Only Preview:
September 22, 2009, 11am – 6pm

Open to the Public:
September 23 – 25, 12pm – 8pm
Public Party: Friday September 25th, 8pm
Laser Etching: Sept 23rd, $25 a laptop, $5 a gadget

September 26, 11am – 8pm
Live KCRW Show: DJ set by KCRW Music Director Jason Bentley, September 26th, 9pm

September 27, 11am – 6pm

WHERE: 267 Elizabeth Street
New York, NY 10012

To attend the media preview or for press inquiries, contact:

Charlie Dougiello Lois Najarian
The Door The Door
718.383.1708 718.383.1708
charlie@thedooronline.com lois@thedooronline.com

Read more about our Giz Gallery 09 here, follow @gizgallery on Twitter and see what else we'll be playing with at the event. And special thanks to Toyota's Prius — without their sponsorship, there would be no Gizmodo Gallery.

This is the first of many in-gallery items we plan to reveal in the next couple of weeks leading up to Giz Gallery '09, and we love the $3500 ChefStack because it's both amazing and ridiculous. Basically, you just attach a bag of pre-made batter to the ChefStack and let it go to work. Before you know it, a pancake breakfast will be sitting in front of your face (at Giz Gallery, of course).

Gizmodo Gallery 2009
Groupe
267 Elizabeth Street
New York, NY 10012

Gallery Dates:
September 23rd-27th

Times:

9/22 Tuesday
Media Day by appointment only. For info please contact gallery@gizmodo.com.

9/23 Wednesday
12-8

9/24 Thursday
12-8

9/25 Friday
12-8

9/26 Saturday
11-8
9-? - Live Musical Performance

9/27 Sunday
11-6

Read more about our Giz Gallery 09 here, follow @gizgallery on Twitter and see what else we'll be playing with at the event. And special thanks to Toyota's Prius — without their sponsorship, there would be no Gizmodo Gallery.

Giz Gallery on Twitter
Why follow @gizgallery on Twitter? We'll be dropping hints about the crazy stuff that will be showing up, making early announcements and discussing event details, all from this account. Oh, and if you like pancakes, we really suggest you follow @gizgallery!

Gallery Staff Info—Help Wanted
If you (or a trusted gadget lover you know) will be in NYC and available any day from September 21 through 29, we'd love your help. This isn't some volunteer thing—we'll pay you for your time and efforts, but we need a dependable and responsible staff. There are actually three positions we're looking to fill, so please look over the information below and apply for the position that best fits you:

Set-Up Staff
9/21
7am - Late
Our set-up day is going to be a full 12 hours or more of nonstop hustling, so expect to be running errands, lifting heavy items, setting up gadgets and dealing with Chris Mascari yelling at you.

Open-Hours Staff
9/22 - 9/27
11am - 9pm daily; also need staff till midnight on 9/24, 9/25 and 9/26
Our open-hours staff will be responsible for looking after all of our gallery items, trouble shooting gadgets, helping guests, cleaning up and running any last minute errands. If you're not a people person then this job isn't for you. We're hoping to have a dedicated open-hours staff for the whole week, so if you can't work all of the days mentioned above, please do not apply.

Clean-Up Staff
9/28 - 9/29
7am - Late
Our clean-up days will be just like our set up, so expect to work hard and take orders.

If you'd like to apply for a position, please send an email to gallery@gizmodo.com with "Giz Gallery Staff" in the subject line and the following information:

Name:
Age:
Staff Position Wanted:
If applying for Open Hours Staff, can you stay late on 9/24, 9/25 and 9/26?:
Can you work the full time period need:

We'll be responding to emails next week, thanks.

Gizmodo Gallery 2009
Groupe
267 Elizabeth Street
New York, NY 10012

Gallery Dates:
September 23rd-27th

Times:
9/22 Tuesday
Media Day by appointment only. For info please contact gallery@gizmodo.com.

9/23 Wednesday
12-8

9/24 Thursday
12-8

9/25 Friday
12-8

9/26 Saturday
11-8
9-? - Live Musical Performance

9/27 Sunday
11-6

Read more about our Giz Gallery 09 here, follow @gizgallery on Twitter and see what else we'll be playing with at the event. And special thanks to Toyota's Prius — without their sponsorship, there would be no Gizmodo Gallery.

This year we're renting out a street level space in the New York neighborhood of NoLita from September 23rd to the 27th, where we plan to showcase our favorite tech related items from the last year or so. Expect some of the same types of stuff as last year, but we have all sorts of new ideas for this year that we think will make this year's gallery even more noteworthy. Some of these offerings will range from DIY creations, wacky and wonderful gizmos, vintage gadgets, all the way to the latest and greatest consumer tech products. Plus we'll have tech demos you wouldn't normally see anywhere else.

And aside from the normal day exhibits, Giz Gallery 2009 expects to have a few special exhibits throughout the week including a free laser etching booth, a reader meetup event, a special musical performer lined up, as well as a few other surprises to be announced. The best part is that the week long gallery will be free to the public during the normal hours of operation, so you can pop in whenever you feel like it.

Giz Gallery 2009 will be located on 267 Elizabeth Street in Manhattan, where the Groupe Boutique currently resides. A media-only day will also happen on September 22 for any press interested in getting a sneak preview of the gallery space. Questions and comments regarding Giz Gallery 2009 can be sent to gallery@gizmodo.com. Giz Gallery hours for each day are posted below.

Gizmodo Gallery 2009
Groupe
267 Elizabeth Street
New York, NY 10012

Gallery Dates:
September 23rd-27th

Times:

9/22 Tuesday
Media Day by appointment only. For info please contact gallery@gizmodo.com.

9/23 Wednesday
12-8

9/24 Thursday
12-8

9/25 Friday
12-8

9/26 Saturday
11-8
9-? - Live Musical Performance

9/27 Sunday
11-6

Read more about our Giz Gallery 09 here, follow @gizgallery on Twitter and see what else we'll be playing with at the event. And special thanks to Toyota's Prius — without their sponsorship, there would be no Gizmodo Gallery.

According to AT&T, this upgrade is part of their plans to enhance their 3G network but, quite frankly, I'm not seeing much improvement here. At least, not in the farmer's market of Union Square on a Sunday morning, when everyone and their dogs are trying to get their email and Yelp fix in their iPhones with designer covers. I keep having exactly the same connectivity problems as before, both in Manhattan and in Brooklyn.

The reason for not seeing any obvious performance upgrades is simple. They have not turned on 1,600 new 3G cells at once. The deployment has been gradual, and they just finished it. So if you haven't noticed any improvement in reception or data rates in your area, chances are anything improvements you see are going to be slightly more gradual through the usual ongoing deployments and upgrades. That said, you might notice it's slightly better indoors, since 850MHz penetrates buildings a bit better.

AT&T told us that they're still tweaking the upgrades, however, so we may still see some minor improvements here and there.

If you live in the New York City, Long Island, and New Jersey areas, share your experience in the comments. [AT&T]

The thieving pair, Anthony Cintorrino and Tara Laburt, were the beneficiary of what those in the biz call an "inside job."

Cintorrino, a contractor who recently installed and maintained a number of the cameras, had intimate knowledge of where they were and how they could be taken down quickly and quietly. All he and Laburt needed was a cherry picker and some time, and the valuable Nikon cameras housed within were theirs for the taking. Sadly for we gadget geeks, no Nikon model number was given—anyone out there know which Nikon camera body/lens is best for snagging license plates at 50 feet? Update: It's a Nikon D2x, apparently. Thanks, snarky commenter!

In the end, the couple was nabbed by New York police, but not before they had stolen and resold $88,000 worth of hot goods with their cherry picker truck. Unfortunately for any New York drivers out there, everything was recovered, and the camera rigs were put back into place a mere 48 hours after the crimes were committed. [New York Post via Autoblog - Thanks for the pic, Derek]

The NYC Metro Cuff is an " über urban matte metal cuff" capable of guiding you a la treasure map through NYC's intricate train system. No one will take you for a tourist as you compulsively check your "watch," studying the embossed map fervently while inching away from yet another passenger who dually loves garlic and despises deodorant. Order yours for $25 shipped. [design hype via Gearfuse]