OK, I should probably know what's going on here, but I don't. Listen:

Whenever I leave iTunes unattended for a few minutes (as few as fifteen or so) the iPod source gets selected in the browser window.

Let's say I'm working in a playlist called "My Stuff". Nothing is playing, I'm just tweaking track data. Then I go and help my wife fold laundry. When I come back, iTunes has "iPod" selected in the Source pane.

Am I missing something? I don't think it did this before.

My iTunes is set to manually manage. I'm using OS 10.3 and iTunes 4.1, iPod 1.3.1 (1st gen 5GB).