In a quite suprising move, Microsoft have given out the first release of the xbox 2 SDK to developers - but unusually it runs a special ported version of Windows NT on the Apple Mac! In no small part due to the fact that the xbox 2 will be featuring a IBM chip - which of course forms the base of the Power PC architecture. Rumour has it at the moment that the SDK is making use of the ATI radeon 9800 on the Mac until ATI get round to releasing the graphics chip (ATI R500) and drivers that will be making it onto the xbox2. It has also been rumoured that it will be running in 32bit mode though - can’t remember the technical details of why, but it doesn’t really matter - the graphics chips will be doing most of the grunt work.

Well it has been much hyped and the hype is still going on but I still thought that it was worth writing about the album from Dj Danger Mouse because it is a good piece of work and I feel like that it is supporting a worthy cause, without going into the details about the album (you can read about them in this BBC news article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/3517661.stm or this http://www.nme.com/news/107642.htm ) but I think that movement that it is having is a positive one. Hopefully it takes us closer to a point where major record labels will begin to hear what the public wants.

http://www.greytuesday.org/
Heres the Torrent:
http://213.158.115.211/suprnova//torrents/1259/Grey%20Album-rar.torrent
And the eD2K:
Jay-Z_The.Grey.Album.(DJ.Dangermouse).rar

Well its in the papers at the moment and of course there is an article on BBC news about the possible talks over a merger of 4 &5. Well the only reason that I am commenting is that I hope that this will enable Channel 4 to have a further outlet to its more creative programming… Already we have a decent, if subscription based FilmFour service, but what about all the cool programmes that Channel 4 is well known for - they don’t often repeat them but this would be a cool way of getting more quality entertainment on 5.

Froogle looks like it has stepped up to the mark now offering a WML service which of course means, mobile phone access, which of course means shopping comparisons in store while you shop to web sites. Online retail has been held back to a short degree by the quality of preview of a product you can get - the touchy feely part that is still one of the bricks and mortars best selling points. Many purchases of course browse products in store before purchasing on the internet, but with this you can now weigh up more purchasing options whilst looking at a product..

Looks like Sony has delayed the release of the PlayStation handheld. BBC reports.. Actually I am surprised that they have delayed it to spring 2005 in the euro-american markets but then again a launch for Christmas in Japan will gain them mass market share and no doubt anyone wanting it will pay the high import prices and put up with the import restrictions. In the past consoles on import have sold well..

On the Microsoft thread again yesterday, better late than never, I came across the launch for Microsoft SQL server Reporting Tools. After watching the launch webcast, it all looks rather interesting. But be warned the requirements for testing it are: SQL server, IIS, Visual Studio .Net 2003 on top of what your OS and other bits and pieces take up - in my case of a working PC almost all the spare space.

But anyways I went ahead and I am currently midway though installing it from MSDN and it is taking a complete age. Most of this seems to be the fact that it is installing lots of individual aspx files and other bits and pieces. Wonder if they will ever stop the bloatware?

Some interesting articles coming about from http://www.wired.com and http://www.arstechnica.com about http://www.google.com, but nothing that you haven’t already heard if you have your nose to the ground. Throughly recommend googl’ing for the google weblog and taking a feed on your RSS reader.

Some interesting photos of Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond. Amazed by the size, but it is perhaps lacking a little atmosphere?
http://www.dylangreene.com/browse.asp?albumID=409&page=1

Wow! This is a great find, how Icon artist Jon Hicks did the designs for firefox and then there is the interview with Jon by Skinny J..

Wow, now http://www.skype.com is enabled for conference calling it has turned into a really mature application. If you haven’t heard about it before then you are probably about too as there has been alot recently about VOIP technologies that finally they have sorted out the compression techniques and bandwidth worldwide has on the whole improved.

Skype is by the same team that has brought about a popular P2P program and is based upon the same tech. and brings free (well at the cost of your internet connection, PC and headset) unlimited calls to friends with the same setup.

But whether it will past my killer test - getting my girlfriend to use it with no hassle to talk to her friends internationally - I doubt it in its current form. What would turn this from a decent internet people only technology to something that almost everyone that has a PC and decent internet connection to use will be integration into your home phone setup - whether completely or just seemingly seamlessly. The point where my Girlfriend can pickup the normal PSTN phone get connected though VOIP to her family in Norway is the day that this technology has truely fulfilled its role.