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Microsoft delays launch of Vista. No suprise there.

There is a cool project to map the UK’s underground pipe network in 3D.

Scott Kirsner: “This year is different, they insist, thanks to recently approved technical standards and the first faint signs of a tipping point”

BBC News: Apple tells everyone they are not happy about the French goverment’s plans for digital music. “iPod sales will likely increase as users freely load their iPods with “interoperable” music which cannot be adequately protected. Free movies for iPods should not be far behind in what will rapidly become a state-sponsored culture of piracy”.

Following up on yesterdays NYTimes link, according to the The Hollywood Reporter it seems the first steps have been taken by the National Assembly to force Apple to open the door on its remarkably popular iPod. The music industry won’t be too happy about this, after all they probably only trusted iTunes to sell their music in the first place because of this lock in feature.

What did they expect? If all BMW cars were fitted with a special device that only allowed you to refuel with special BMW made petrol, how long do you think they would last before goverments would start to smell anti-competitiveness over the smell of the fumes?

I’ve mentioned several times over the last few months how impressed I’ve been with YouTube. Judging solely on the uptake with non-techie work collegues and friends I knew this thing was going to cause a big ripple. Interesting to read an article by Andrew Wallenstein who takes a Hollywood perspective.

Andrew Wallenstein: “However, the relationship between this Internet upstart and Hollywood isn’t as adversarial as you might assume. For every corporate lawyer firing off angry letters to YouTube, there are two more executives exploring potential partnership opportunities — maybe even an outright acquisition”

Got a secret? Why not post it?

I’ve been to many gigs over the years in London. The Bloc Party gig tonight at Fabric was without a dought one of the best to date. These guys really blew the roof off. All in all a superb night.

Oh yeah and happy St Patricks day…

Harry Mathias of NEC tells Scott Kirsner over dinner “by the time half the screens in the US are converted to digital, it’ll be hard for producers of film like Kodak and processing labs like Deluxe and Technicolor to make money in that business”.

Ali Menzies has started blogging at Indigofood. Wehey! She’s a very talented web designer, a healthcare therapist and generally wonderful person. I’ve been trying to get her blogging for a little over a year now as I know she’s got such a lot to contribute. She’s full of great ideas for the alternative therapy community and some interesting business ideas too. Check out Indigobloom and the soon to be Indigoimage. Welcome to the party Ali!

Brian Krebs: “Hacking made easy: automated tools gathering victims keystrokes”. “10 million U.S. households own a computer that is infected with some type of keystroke logging program”. Looks like controling your network of zombie machines is as easy (or easier) than controling my render farm. Scarry.

Through a strange twist of fate I find myself in London’s Hammersmith Palais at the NME Awards After party. Lots people dancing and generally having a laugh. Apparently the real party is at some hotel down the road, I’m heading there.

…from my mobile

Here is a link to an article on Boing Boing today about Songbird, a desktop media player that offers an open source alternative to services like Apple’s iTunes and the Windows Media Player. Built on the same platform as Firefox it will allow to download from anywhere over the net…finally a way to break free from that walled garden that Apple have been so cleverly building, much to the ignorance of the music listeing world. Bravo.

Yesterday I met with Ali McClymont a friend I’ve known since my Uni days. Ali is an artist but has had his fingers deep into technology his whole life and is also a fantastic web and graphic designer. He explained to me that during his time at the Royal College of Art he noticed that the majority of artists there were complete technophobes. This is such a shame because these are really creative people with fantastic ideas.

I told him about Nerd TV interview #9 that Robert Cringely did with Anina who is an international model but also a blogger and mobile technology power user. Its great to see non techies using the web in interesting ways as she is with 360 Degree Fashion. What’s also great is that she’s so keen on showing others in her world that its not so hard after all. Its not that artists are rubbish with computers, its just that they need to be shown a little bit.

Ali is developing a great new site to help artists with their portfolio, biography and blog. It’s powered by Wordpress and he’s got a few tricks up his sleave that sound really interesting to me. This could really be a great community thing. Lets get these artists on the web!

On a similar note I was talking to Toby Richardson, an old School friend, while I was up in Scotland last week. He’s a great musician but has found it hard to find other artists with similar tastes and direction to team up with. It can take several months of playing together to realise that they don’t want the same thing which can be a real waste of time. It strikes me that an artist with a blog would find it much easier to find the right sort of musicians to play with. You can listen to The Summerines new track “I know you well” here.