Wednesday, January 15, 2003

Gasp! The European OWL telescope needs to be built! The links and publications pages are fascinating. 6:42:31 AM     Much has been written, and will continue to be written, on the AOL-Time Warner merger. Of course this was driven by the unrealistic beliefs of the Internet bubble - people used to speculate that the average customer would be happy to part with up to $200 per month for entertainment and a network connection when most of the research pointed to $40 to $50 per month as common limits. Now we have cable companies loosing their natural monopoly to satellite providers coupled with a small drop in TV viewing. They have determined that video on demand is the killer app and their future is secure. I suspect they will see cannibalization of their current pay per view services and some use of video on demand - I also believe that they have dramatically overestimated the impact of the service to the average viewer. The outcome isn't clear by any means and it will be interesting to watch this unfold. 6:42:13 AM     Kodak has posted sample images from close to production versions of the new 14 Megapixel pro camera. There isn't a traditional resolution chart, but the uncompressed images are stunning for a digital camera - particularly for one that will sell for $4000 (body only). I suspect more than a few small photographers have their orders in ... this would pay for itself in saved film costs in a short time and the quality appears very acceptable for most applications. Oh yeah - it has a firewire port, a full frame CCD and works with all of your Nikor lenses. On the other end of the scale O'Reilly has a nice book for first time digital camera users. I looked through a copy in a bookstore recently and it seems to be a good introduction to digital cameras and photography. I wouldn't bother if you are comfortable with film photography, but if you have only taken snapshots this might be just the book. 6:41:48 AM

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