I’ve been watching the live streaming feed of the opening Formula One race of the 2008 season on ITV.

The deal with Bernie Ecclestone’s Formula One Management, includes coverage of practice sessions, and is understood to be initially for a year.

From my connection to the net the feed was struggling at times – not surprising given the speed of the cars resulting in plenty of changing picture data.

It was disappointing the original 4 by 3 aspect ratio of the pictures from Australia had been ‘squashed’ into 16 by 9 on ITV’s site.

The race itself showed the dramatic effect of the 2008 rule changes, particularly the removal of traction control – only seven cars finished, the lowest number in the history of the Melbourne race.

The race was certainly one of the most unpredictable and exciting Formula One race I’ve seen for a number of years and show the rule changes have put more emphasis on driver skills.

Bobbie Johnson partly answers my question “How did that happen?” in relation to the internet.

He says:

It’s not for nothing that the net is characterised as a time sink, because wherever it carves out efficiencies, it usually manages to create extra work, too.

Good point.

Well – not really – but this post by Matt Mullenweg needed to be said.

I agree with many of the comments to the post: Movable Type is a nightmare compared to WordPress.

I saw it again last night – a cyclist going through a red light.

I’ve almost been run down twice by cyclists going through red traffic lights.

I’ve cycled myself in the past – but it never crossed my mind to jump lights.

Cyclists are not exempt from the UK Highway Code and the legal aspect is clarified on the Department for Transport’s site.

Roy Greenslade summarises the current situation facing newspapers.

I agree with his conclusion:

Unless traditional newspaper publishers can find a way of securing substantial online revenue streams, by attracting sufficient eyeballs for their editorial content, there is no future for them.

The Guardian reports on Super Hi-Vision.

The system claims a resolution of 7680×4320 pixels, compared to the HDTV maximum of 1920×1080.

The Guardian encapsulates the one big problem “of how to transmit huge amounts of data remains”.

Speaking of 3D this looks amazing.

The Industry Standard reports on the background to the University of Bath open-source printer that can even replicate most of its own parts.

The Replicating Rapid-prototyper manufactures components by building them up in layers of plastic.

The next version will allow the machine to make its own and other circuitry, bringing it one step closer to complete self-replication.

The future is here!

At the weekend the BBC carried out trial live coverage of the Six Nations rugby match between England and Scotland in 3D high-definition.

This is the first time such an outside broadcast has been carried out in the UK.

Pictures were captured by three sets of dual high definition cameras bolted together for each 3D picture channel.

The clever stuff was carried out by The3DFirm technology, with the result viewed through polarising glasses.

The trial involved BBC Resources London Outside Broadcasts – ironic given the announcement last week of the plan to sell the department despite no agreement from BECTU.