Happy Saturday, y'all!  I'm still buzzed from the Olympics' Opening Ceremony last night, wow.  And this morning started with a nice little 60 mile ride out to Santa Paula and Fillmore.  Is is a beautiful day, light breeze, little puffy clouds...  what more could you ask for?

Stuff happens...  and I blog about it :)

While you're hanging out watching the Olympics, out near Saturn little Cassini remains busy; now it prepares to swoop by Saturn's geyser-spewing moon Enceladus.  "Cassini will zoom past the tiny moon a mere 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the surface. Just after closest approach, all of the spacecraft's cameras -- covering infrared wavelengths, where temperatures are mapped, as well as visible light and ultraviolet -- will focus on the fissures running along the moon's south pole. That is where the jets of icy water vapor emanate and erupt hundreds of miles into space. Those jets have fascinated scientists since their discovery in 2005."  Cool. 

For you in case it is of interest, and for me to find later: Kottke links a great resource: how to find free topographical maps.  I could have used this when I hiked climbed Mt. Whitney! 

AppleWatch wonders, should you pay twice as much for a Mac?  So I don't know if the premise is accurate, but I could easily see paying twice as much for something, why not?  Who says a Windows laptop is the equivalent of a Mac?  At some level a Buick is the equivalent of a Maserati, but many people would gladly pay twice as much for the Maserati...  

The same theme recurs in this article from TTAC, about a review of the Hyundai Genesis.  Yeah, at some level it is equivalent to a Lexus GS460, but then again...  not. 

And finally in the same vein here we have the Aston Martin 1077, which is rumored to cost $2.3M (unseating the Bugatti Veyron as the most expensive [or depending on your point of view, preposterous] car).  Well I must admit, it is pretty... 

Dave Winer wonders could Vista fail?  "Vista has the smell of death. I don't believe Vista will be around much longer. I don't want to be one of those people who has a computer that runs Vista, anymore than I wanted to use OS/2 when Windows 3.x was in its heyday. I remembered too well what it was like to use an Apple III when it failed to take over, as expected, from the Apple II. Operating systems can fail, and Vista shows every indication that it is one of those operating systems."  Could it fail?  Should it?  Yes, please!  It would make my life so my easier if I could ignore this inferior piece of crap. 

You might ask, what should Microsoft do instead?  Glad you asked.  They should release a new version of XP which is faster and more stable.  That's it.  No new features, just faster and more stable.  That alone would sell millions of copies.

Congratulations to Samuel Sanchez who won the gold medal in Bejing, in the men's cycling road race this morning.  Sounds like it was a brutal course, long (245km), hot, and smoggy, with a bunch of climbs.  The Spanish are winning everything at the moment... yikes! 

Today also saw the start of Olympic sailing...  one of the more interesting stories concerns the Dutch Tornado team, which have created a new kind of sail that helps them go to weather faster in the relatively light air found in Qingdao...  some of the other teams are crying foul, but the U.S. and Australian teams just went ahead and copied them.  Hey, innovation happens! 

It is all part of the games; as Wired reports, gadgets boost Olympic performance - legally.  "Technology has helped push the boundaries of athletic achievement since the first time a caveman selected a lightweight birch branch for his spear instead of the usual heavy oaken staff. This year's Olympic Games will be no different, with swimmers, cyclists and even gymnasts making the most of tech -- and legal -- performance enhancements."  It is what it is...