iPod Photo Cache folder

I finally summoned the energy to figure out how to get rid of that annoying iPod Photo Cache folder that's been bugging me ever since I experimented with syncing some photos to my iPhone a while ago. Even after I switched off photo syncing in iTunes and deleted the iPod Photo Cache folder the damn thing would reappear on my desktop every time I connected the phone to my laptop. The trick is:

1. Connect your iPhone/iPod to your Mac.
2. This step is probably unnecessary but I'm paranoid. Back up the photos from your iPhone with the Image Capture utility. Not a perfect tool but it allows you to pull photos from your iPhone to a plain old directory and organize them your self which I like better than using iPhoto. 
3. Navigate to the "Photos" tab in iTunes.
4. Check "Sync photos from" and expand the drop down box next to that text. Apparently the photo cache gets re-created in the folder chosen here every time you connect your phone even after you disable photo syncing.
5. Select some other out of the way folder, even an empty one. I created an empty folder "~/Pictures/iPhone Sync".
6. Apply the changes and Sync the empty folder once and then deactivate Photo syncing.

This cured the issue for me.