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"They'll Do It Every Time" was the name of a daily cartoon by a fellow named Jimmy Hatlo, the kind of well-drawn, real-life social statement one hardly sees in newspapers any more. We think the would-be producers of the soon-to-be-renamed "iBox" are about to find themselves in a situation that's no cartoon but might as well carry the same title as the Hatlo creation.

You can read all about John Fraser and his "iBox" ideas at SiliconValley.com, but this is the premise in a few paragraphs:

"Fraser and his small team of Mac enthusiasts intend to fill what they see as a hole in Apple's product line. They say it doesn't sell a 'pizza box.'

That's slang for a low-slung budget Mac that doesn't incorporate a flat-panel or picture-tube display, as Apple's iMac and eMac entry-level machines do.

This would give the iBox greater flexibility because it could be paired with almost any display, new or old, large or small."

When we lived back in Maryland, we had a heating oil delivery man who was very proud of having built his own PC. It's very doable, apparently, since the various components can be purchased separately and put together in custom configurations. This kind of activity has always been popular with hobbyists and enthusiasts, and it's a great learning experience. Your editor remembers buying and assembling his own Heathkit stereo back when that was the only way to get a decent system. If Fraser is right (and we think he is) there obviously are Macintosh fans, at least a detectable minority, who would love the opportunity to buy monitor-less Mac clones and play with different monitors.

The only thing is, it ain't gonna happen, folks. Not even if he calls his computer something else (which he would surely have to do).

Yes, you can get the Apple hardware one way or another, and yes, you can find a great designer to build your case, and yes, you can assemble an enthusiastic team, and yes, you can get commitments from hundreds, if not thousands, of potential customers. You can even get financial backing. But you can't, not once, not ever, not even for a moment, expect to be allowed to proceed.

"They'll do it every time," all right. And Apple will come down on them harder than a momma grizzly on a yapping pup-dog. Remember, we're talking about a computer maker who really doesn't want you to use anybody else's monitors with its desktop machines. Whether for the sake of profit or engineering elegance, that's the way it is. The notion that they would sit idly by while you run OS X on a machine they don't sell that undercuts their cheapest model so you can use a monitor they don't make is simply not believable.

We'd like to see it happen, frankly, but all this will ever amount to is a few more news stories and a lot of activity on enthusiasts' message boards. What possible benefit to Apple Computer, Inc. could come out of this project? The article we've referenced says that Fraser "isn't aiming to put Apple out of business or cut deeply into its sales,: but unless there's an angle that makes sense to Steve Jobs, he won't even have the chance to try.

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