Hi peeps, just popping my head in to mention the March boycott of the RIAA that’s been talked about over on Gizmodo.

Having read various horror stories about the RIAA on Digg and elsewhere across the net, it’s obvious to me that this profiteering pack are only interested in serving their own interests. The way that they are using the legal system to attack people is nothing short of shocking, and I want to voice my opposition.

The RIAA has the power to shift public policy and to alter the direction of technology and the Internet for one reason and one reason alone: it’s totally loaded. Without their millions of dollars to throw at lawyers, the RIAA is toothless. They get their money from us, the consumers, and if we don’t like the way they’re behaving, we can let them know with our wallets.

I want to echo that sentiment over here on Interweb World. I also came across an excellent post suggesting ways to support non-RIAA artists, which I recommend to you.

Both the Gizmodo article and the Unofficial RIAA blog recommend RIAA Radar, which helps you to research whether an album has been released by an RIAA record label. I also recommend switching to an Internet radio program like Pandora or Last.fm.

I don’t think realistically you’ll manage to shut these people down, but more people need to send out a message to the RIAA and major record labels that bullying consumers is wrong!

On the heels of a standard feed icon being published for RSS feeds by Matt Brett, some clever folks have got together and created one for OPML files too.

It’s not terribly different from the feed icon (rounded corners, smooth gradients, very Web 2.ugh).

I still don’t think OPML has quite the immediate benefits of RSS, except perhaps when transferring your list feeds to a new feed reader service. What else is it useful for?

That whoooosshhh sound you heard earlier this week was the sound of countless Apple zealots simultaneously wetting their pants about the iPhone announcement.

Having witnessed the frenzy across the web, I’m moved - for once - to write about Apple. But only to say that I don’t care. Not about Apple. Not about Steve Jobs. And as for the demented community that can turn a blind eye to corporate bullying, well…words fail me. And don’t even mention DRM…

You just wouldn’t see this kind of mass hysteria over a BlackBerry or Windows Mobile device, yet I’m still not sure what makes the iPhone so damned special. Cameron Moll explains why the iPhone won’t revolutionise the mobile phone industry.

Personally, the iPhone doesn’t offer enough benefit to justify the price tag. Anyway, who wants to pay that kind of money over to be contactable all the time? Not me.

Update: Mike’s gushing is making me feel sick:

It is so fulfilling to watch technology unfold like this, in the hands of the most indispensable and world-changing CEO of our lifetime. It makes all other work you may be doing in the technology world seem like peanuts.

I’d be remiss if I ignored The Guardian’s list (yes, another bloody list) of most useful sites.

It’s actually quite funny, they seem in places to be wide of the mark, or the information is slightly off. Admittedly, I had a sneer to myself - as you do, I knew about most of these sites already. Elitist old me.

That said, I did discover two new sites in the shape of Megite and Findory, both aggreator sites after a fashion. Megite is very similar (from a quick glance) to techmeme. Findory seems interesting - I’ve added a couple of my feeds to it to see what happens. Might be an interesting resource.

Anyway, based on useful sites discovered, The Guardian’s article was really only 2% effective. Findory had better be good, because unlike most of you, I actually bought the damn paper today!

Jon Hicks of Hicksdesign recently posted about the state of illustration on the web, citing A List Apart and a music site called Daytrotter as examples of illustration being used to great effect.

I’ve done a limited amount of illustration for websites, a mix of vector artwork and things I’ve drawn on my graphics tablet. However, I can see what Jon’s saying: stock photography is everywhere, but the beauty of stock photography is that it’s quick and easy. Finding the time (and the talent) to create original artwork is difficult. I’m not sure how expensive it is to hire an illustrator, but how many are willing to part with the money for pretty posts?

All the same, the extra effort of creating original artwork for your posts seems to really pay off. Kevin Cornell’s illustrations for A List Apart really stand out, and they are tied thematically to the content of the article. All of this gives a professional sheen to a website that we see in magazines, but rarely on the web.

Certainly, original illustration might be better suited to periodical-style blogs. Ad-hoc blogs or bloggers who post frequently may not have the time to wait on an illustration being created. Nice idea, though and I hope we start to see more original illustration in future.

eBay have this week added Google Checkout to the list of online payment methods that eBay members cannot use to pay for their eBay purchases.

In this latest Microsoft-like move, eBay has effectively forced most of its personal users to use Paypal if they want to make or accept online payments, hardly a surprise since Paypal is an eBay owned company.

A spokesperson for eBay said it has no restrictions regarding marketplace use. “We want to work with everybody,” she said on Wednesday.

eBay’s Safe Payments policy states that a payment service must have a “substantial historical track record of providing safe and reliable financial and/or banking related services.”

Google’s spokesperson said yesterday, “Google Checkout is not a beta product. Google has a long history in billing and payments for AdWords and for premium services, such as Google Video.”

So it looks as if all us active eBayers are going to have to put up with Paypal’s extortionate fees, hideous customer service and poor protection policies for the forseeable future!