One music industry executive said his company was told that Microsoft had made a large financial commitment to market a player this year. A senior TV network executive said that Microsoft had talked to the networks about selling their programming through the online store, but that "no deals are in place."

Music and video may be so crucial to how computers are used in the future — a potentially big source of new growth in software and hardware sales — that Microsoft cannot strategically afford to let Apple continue to hold the upper hand.

Apple is reported to have a wireless version of the iPod waiting in the wings, and it is also said to be close to introducing a version with a touch screen. Those bits of consumer polish might outshine Microsoft just as it was entering the business with its own hardware.

Strategy Shift by Microsoft to Fight iPod

Why ever trust a computer model to run your investments? Because, in the real world, it seems to pay off.

How a Computer Knows What Many Managers Don't

President Bush began a new drive today to rally the American people behind him on the Iraq war and national security, declaring that the United States must stay the course in Iraq because it is a battleground in an epic struggle between democracy and tyranny.

“Every element of national power” is being marshaled in “the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century,” Mr. Bush said.

Bush Says Iraq War Is Part of a Larger Fight

The District has just launched a host of aggressive anti-crime measures following a crime wave that left 14 people dead in the first 12 days of July. Police have been put on six-day workweeks , and detectives are being added to target violent offenders ; the city has installed the first of dozens of surveillance cameras in high-crime neighborhoods ; and it has modified the time of its youth curfew, now making it illegal for anyone younger than 17 to be out on the street after 10 p.m. But do such measures really work? Jack Levin, director of the Brudnick Center on Violence and Conflict at Northeastern University in Boston , weighs in on the key provisions of the District's emergency crime bill and some other crime - prevention techniques .

To Surveil or Not? That Is the Question

Now that the dreaded words "civil war" have been officially dropped into the Iraq debate, the next word the White House should brace itself for is "partition." As Iraq spirals out of control, arguments for dividing the country along ethnic lines have begun to surface with increasing frequency among scholars, diplomats and others.

Breaking Up (a Country) Is Hard to Do

Are we winning the war? The first question to ask is, what war? The Bush administration continues to muddle a national understanding of the conflict we are in by calling it the "war on terror." This political correctness presumably seeks to avoid hurting the feelings of the Saudis and other Muslims, but it comes at high cost. This not a war against terror any more than World War II was a war against kamikazes.

In reviewing progress on the three fronts of this war, even the most sanguine optimist cannot yet conclude that we are winning or that we can win without some significant changes of policy.

We're Not Winning This War

Apple Computer Inc. said yesterday that Google Inc. chief executive Eric E. Schmidt will join the company's board of directors, creating a bond between two technology powerhouses that compete fiercely with Microsoft Corp.

Google Chief Schmidt Joins Apple As Director

A defiant Iran faced the prospect of economic sanctions after U.N. inspectors reported that the country ignored yesterday's deadline to halt its nuclear program and has been hindering efforts to determine whether it seeks to secretly develop nuclear weapons.

President Bush, invoking the same language that he used to describe Iraq before the March 2003 invasion, called Iran a "grave threat" and said "there must be consequences" for Tehran's actions. "It is time for Iran to make a choice," Bush said in a speech to the American Legion's national convention in Salt Lake City.

Iran Defies Deadline On Nuclear Program

We collect FOUND stuff: love letters, birthday cards, kids' homework, to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, telephone bills, doodles - anything that gives a glimpse into someone
else's life. Anything goes...

Napkin notes were recently featured on PostSecret.

FOUND Magazine | Find of the Day

Besides being a five syllable word suitable for tongue twisters, it is also an amazing new Flickr Feature.

There are lots of things that make a photo 'interesting' (or not) in the Flickr. Where the clickthroughs are coming from; who comments on it and when; who marks it as a favorite; its tags and many more things which are constantly changing. Interestingness changes over time, as more and more fantastic photos and stories are added to Flickr.

We've added some pages (and changed some existing ones) to help you explore Flickr's most interesting photos. Before you start though, you might want to take your phone off the hook, send your boss to an executive training session and block off some time on your schedule, because we don't think you're going to be walking away from your screen any time soon. Beautiful, amazing, moving, striking - explore and discover some of Flickr's Finest.

Explore interesting photos around Flickr