Virtual architecture in Second Life

Someone recreated the famous all glass house by Mies van Der Rohe in Second Life. I being both an architecture geek and second life wannabe geek (not to mention being grade A vlog geek) of course am overjoyed to see the virtual tour on video. I can't believe I've never gotten down there to see this thing after spending 11 years in Chicago. Maybe I'll at least get a chance to go check it out in second life now. I wonder if this recreation of architectural wonders in second life is becoming quite the trend? I must admit my favorite video game ever was grand theft auto and it wasn't hurt to much by it's fairly amazingly accurate recreation of famous European cityscapes.



from: YouTube - Archiblog visiting Farnsworth House, Second Life (via mefeedia)

Universal to sell DRM free songs

It's happening as predicted. Since the announcement by that Apple would be selling non-drm music in iTunes from EMI other major labels are slowly falling in line.

The New York Times is reporting that the Universal Music Group is going to be selling part of its catalog sans DRM for the next few months to gauge consumer interest. This is great, but the only catch is that these DRM free songs won't be available via iTunes. Universal, in an effort to lessen Apple's dominance of the digital music market, will be offering up the DRM free music via Amazon, Google, RealNetworks, and Wal-Mart for $.99 a song (a price many accredit Apple to pioneering).

From: Universal to sell DRM free songs, but not on iTunes - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

Also

You might recall that Universal recently decided not to renew their contract with Apple to sell music in iTunes, and switched their commitment to a month by month basis. What does all this mean? I am betting that this experiment will succeed, and that Universal will reverse their decision and sell DRM free tracks via iTunes, why not sell your wares on the top online music store?

Boingboing.net has a good take on universal's inevitable move to selling non-drm music too.

The original article is on NYTimes