BBC: “Some critics have been less than impressed with Google’s news service.”
NY Times: “Google’s automated editors appeared to match the work of human competitors.”[Scripting News]

News.Com: At the center of the patent storm. Q&A with Danny Weitzner, W3C. The critical concern that has led us to push so hard for a royalty-free policy is that for all the different Web software implementers it would be terribly hard to negotiate with the parent holders. They don’t have their own patent portfolios or intellectual property lawyers. [Tomalak’s Realm]

Scoble: “I’m just not that excited by much that Microsoft is doing.” [Scripting News]
And other comments about microsofts MVP community work.

UN urges peace in Ivory Coast. A UN special representative calls for a peaceful end to Ivory Coast’s five-day unrest¸ as US troops head to there to rescue trapped American children. [BBC News | WORLD]

Israel rejects ‘biased’ resolution. Israel dismisses a UN Security Council vote calling for an end to the Ramallah siege¸ hours after nine Palestinians died in raids on Gaza. [BBC News | WORLD]

Given the level of interest, I thought that I’d share with you a document, entitled “Software Platform Dynamics“, that I’ve used in the past to help associates get up to speed with the nature of the software platform business. It’s a fairly dense collection of thoughts gathered over many years; I hope that it serves to further the discussion… [Ray Ozzie’s Weblog]

Know thine enemy
In Slate, Michael Kinsley makes a cogent, and characteristically pragmatic, argument against Bush’s war-on-terrorism rhetoric. If you just keep repeating that your enemy is “evil,” and don’t explore his motivations, you’re going to do a lousy job of preventing other enemies from proliferting. Meanwhile, in Salon Premium, Josh Marshall explores the quandary Bush administration hawks find themselves in now that the president has chosen to work through the U.N. and its resolutions. Latest twist: Rewrite Bush’s speech. “Maybe the president said that the issue was making Saddam live up to the resolutions, but in fact whether he does or not is really beside the point, because the real point is that Saddam can’t be trusted and must be ousted.” [Scott Rosenberg’s Links & Comment]

MS design switch thwarts Xbox mod chips. Mod vs mod… [The Register]

The Sunshine Warrior. Paul D. Wolfowitz sees war with Iraq as a region-transforming opportunity. By Bill Keller. [New York Times: Politics]

Some Experts Fear Political Influence on Crime Data Agencies. Criminal justice experts are concerned that the Justice Department may exert political control over previously independent agencies within the department that collect crime statistics. By Fox Butterfield. [New York Times: Politics]