It's not so much that the sky is falling as that things are falling out of it.

Normally I don't agree with Steve Guttenberg. The author of the audiophiliac, part of the CNet blog network, is a class-A audiophile and routinely rails against mp3s, iPods, indeed pretty much every digital music device and standard because it just doesn't sound as good a vinyl. The fact that it is portable, cheap, and convenient just can't seem to make up for even the slightest hint of compression or D/A conversion artifacts. If Guttenberg had his way, we'd all be taking out second mortgages to fit out our homes with $100 000+ stereos complete with tube amps and 8-foot-tall speakers. As nice as that is, that's too much of a financial hit for most of us and Guttenberg doesn't seem to suggest any solutions for those of us who like our music on the go.

One thing I do agree with Guttenberg on is that satellite radio sounds like crap. I've had a Sirius Sportster 4 for over a year now and while I love offerings like Left of Center, Classic Vinyl (weep, ye audiophiles) and the BBC World Service (sans short wave), the sound quality is piss poor. Basically the service has more channels than the available bandwidth can comfortably accommodate, and the compression required does a number on the sound quality. Since Sirius prides itself on variety, as evidenced by its television commercials, I can't see them scrapping channels to improve the quality at least on the 60 music channels. This is the tricky part of satellite communications is that you put up your satellites and you're stuck with that equipment for 10 years or more. We can only hope that either the next generation of satellites are better or that the merger with XM goes through and Sirius uses the extra bandwidth to allow for less compression.

Having said that, one thing that the three operational Sirius and to XM satellites are not doing is falling out of the sky. It seems a US spy satellite was DOA after launch and is now coming down in late February or early March. Although it is notoriously difficult to predict such things due to the quirky dynamics of the upper atmosphere, there is a chance that it will literally come home for a rest, crashing in the continental US. This flying debris brought to you by USAF Space Command. Enjoy!