November 17, 2003

Microsoft eyes music service in 2004 CNN - Software company Microsoft Corp. plans to roll out a song-downloading service next year that will rival offerings from Apple Computer and Roxio Inc.'s Napster. 10:36:14 AM

In the UN, Arabs have the ultimate revenge over Israel Telegraph.co.uk, UK  The Israeli resolution (a resolution on behalf of Israeli children) was a mirror copy of one sponsored by Egypt and passed (88-4, 58 abstentions) in the General Assembly three weeks earlier, underlining the need to protect the rights of Palestinian children.  no other group of children had been singled out for protection by the UN - not the child soldiers in Burundi, not the raped and mutilated girls and boys of the Congo, nor children in any other of the world's impoverished or warring nations. By tacit agreement, children have always been considered universally at the UN.  The Syrian delegate strenuously opposed assistance of Israeli children and said the resolution was procedurally wrong. The Palestinian Authority's lady complained that the Israelis had "copied" their resolution. The situation of Palestinian children was "unique" she said - which it may well be, since most children of the world are not used as human shields for terrorist camps or encouraged to be suicide bombers so their pictures can be put up in grocery stores as "martyrs".  9:11:24 AM

Microsoft Spot watches delayed. Microsoft's information-by-radio Spot watch technology will now not hit the market until early next year rather than this week. And some of the software giant's hardware partners may not even ship product then. Citizen, for one, may decided not to offer a Spot-compatible watch after all, ExtremeTech reports, citing company executives. Spot ('Smart Personal Object Technology') was announced by Microsoft last January, backed by watchmakers Citizen and Fossil. The MSN-branded system uses FM radio signals to broadcast weather, traffic and other information to $10-a-month subscribers' watches. The signals are broadcast from sites in 100 US and Canadian cities and can reach 80 per cent of the North America, Microsoft has said.  Need further testing, apparently [The Register] 8:50:49 AM