February 26, 2004

Iraqi Cleric Yields on Elections Washington Post - Iraq's most influential religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, declared Thursday that he would sanction a six-month delay in the nationwide elections that he had demanded be held this summer, giving the U.S. civil administration crucial leeway in its plan to formally end its occupation and transfer power to an Iraqi government by June 30.  9:53:27 PM

P-to-P Vendors Say Let the Music Play PC World -A representative of five peer-to-peer software vendors are calling on the US Congress to force the entertainment industry to license content to P-to-P vendors if music and movie companies don't voluntarily license their products. 9:47:29 PM

Gates says Microsoft to address growing cash pile Forbes - Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates said on Thursday that the world's largest software maker would craft a plan to deal with its growing cash balance, which now stands at nearly $53 billion. "There will come a point ... where we probably will change the balance sheet of the company, and make it more pure," Gates told a student audience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, suggesting that Microsoft would increase its buybacks or dividends. 9:45:45 PM

Microsoft considering update dubbed 'XP Reloaded' CNET News.com - Microsoft is considering updating Windows XP before it releases Longhorn, the code name for a major overhaul of the industry's dominant operating system that is not expected for about two years. Issuing an update to XP would represent a significant shift for the software maker, which for months has insisted that it had no plans to create a separate version of Windows before Longhorn. A company executive confirmed to CNET News.com on Thursday that Microsoft is now discussing a product internally referred to as "Windows XP Reloaded." 9:43:53 PM