Remember when 4MB of RAM and an 80MB harddrive was bleedin’ edge? Here’s a WordPress theme with some history: Retro MacOS Theme.

via Josef.

I haven’t tried this, but if you have frequent ProTools probs, you might give this shareware a go: ProTools Prefs & Database Helper (Mac 10.4.x). It finds-&-deletes Digidesign databases (.ddb) and preference files (.plist) to help debug Pro Tools perturbations.

An Ars Technica article compiles the latest illegal music download research in “A $13 billion fantasy: latest music piracy study overstates effect of P2P.” These studies conclusively show P2P sharing nets cost the industry somewhere between $0 and $13B ($US) yearly. Doncha just love research?

Another band on the free net label Comfort Stand Recordings I’ve been playing lately (like The Coconut Monkeyrocket) with an affinity for audio appropriation is Martinibomb.

Martinibomb, “The Love God” (4:54 mp3):

Martinibomb, “cha l’ectro cha cha” (5:32 mp3):

In planning our next bike trip I stumbled upon Wikitravel, “a project to create a free, complete, up-to-date and reliable world-wide travel guide.” E.g., check Route 66 or Santa Fe Trail, nice play-by-play of the route for travelers.

This week’s HV cast: The first half of A Hot & Dry Summer Special, hosted by Ben Adair of APM Weekend America: Coyotes, owls, frogs and songbirds are part of Desert Solitudes, recorded by Bernie Krause and Ruth Happel in the Sonoran and Chihuauan deserts, part of New Mexico’s panhandle. Host Ben Adair heads down to the ghost towns, Opera Houses, century-old abandoned mines, and billion-year old boulders along Death Valley’s “Mojave Road.” And Kraut-rockers Faust dial in “Long Distance Calls in the Desert,” from their album Rien. A special from Hearing Voices, “Desert Air 1- of 2″ (23:00 mp3):

Artist Jerry Iverson, a friend of HV (check his paintings for our “Counting Sheep” series), has new work at Portland OR’s Pulliam Deffenbaugh Gallery.

Nerve Block # 39, sumi ink on papers, 79″x78″ ©2007 Jerry Iverson

Jim Nayder’s The Annoying Music Show! presented an NPR Annoying Music Tribute to Elvis. Among the excrutiating impersonators and cringe-inducing covers, was this gem–

From his album Blowing Goats, the Pakistani-Chicagoan, Piranha Man, with “Viva Las Vegas” (1:57 mp3):

(Want more P-Man?: “Eye of the Tiger.”)