The Ole filter makes a pass...

I got a nice chuckle from this Slashdot thread, discussing an image billed as the "largest digital photograph in the world".  It is a mere 7.5GB!  Of course my little company Aperio routinely creates virtual slide images which are 40GB or more...  (Check 'em out here.) 

This is cool: Nasa's X-43A Scramjet breaks Speed Record.  "NASA's X-43A research vehicle screamed into the record books again Tuesday, demonstrating an air-breathing engine can fly at nearly 10 times the speed of sound.  Preliminary data from the scramjet-powered research vehicle show its revolutionary engine worked successfully at nearly Mach 9.8, or 7,000 mph, as it flew at about 110,000 feet."  Useful for commercial travel?  I don't know.  I believe at that altitude there isn't enough air to cause sonic booms, anyway. 

Tim Bray considers Garden Walls.  "In 2004, America Online doesn’t matter much any more."  Amazing how true that is - I can definitely remember the time, not so long ago, when CompuServe, Prodigy, and AOL were all bigger and "more important" than the 'net - in approximately that order.  How the might have fallen.  And Tim puts his finder on the reason - open vs. closed. 

Powerbook Central reviews the EyeTV, a software/hardware PVR for Macs.  Looks pretty cool.  I wonder if these PC/Mac-based PVRs will really take over from dedicated boxes like Tivo.  You still have the "last 30 feet problem" (the distance from your office [where your PC is located] to your family room [where your TV is located]).   [ via Matt Haughey ] 

And this is bad news - Tivo to add banner ads when fast-forwarding.  Links this LATimes article, which reports "By March, TiVo viewers will see 'billboards', or small logos, popping up over TV commercials as they fast-forward through them, offering contest entries, giveaways or links to other ads."  I might have to get a PC/Mac-based PVR.  My instinct is that if this is true, it is the beginning of the end for Tivo. 

Matt also reports on WM Recorder, an application that formalizes the "analog leak" by letting you capture streaming windows media to a file.  He notes "Seems like they'll be on shaky legal ground as many pay-only audio and video services use the windows media format solely to get around people doing this."  Yeah, like CinemaNow and MovieLink.  But isn't it too bad that building software which does something useful like this could be illegal? 

You're all big  fans, right?  (You're not?  Well then please please please check out my RSS cookbook.  But I digress.)  Okay, so if you like RSS, do you like  ?  Do you even know what it is?  Dave Winer thinks "lurking in OPML is another big idea".  I agree, stay tuned for more... 

Looking for love?  Then perhaps you should visit the Apple Store.  Is this a great time to be alive, or what?  [ via Cult of Mac ] 

Okay, now I've heard it all: David Lee Roth is a paramedic in New York.  I am not making this up.  [ via Xeni Jardin ] 

And speaking of Van Halen, here's a website which will sing any lyrics you want!  [ via collision detection ]  More proof, if any were needed, that you can find anything on the 'net!