GUIs for Everyone [Slashdot]

The Register: Microsoft man seeks US Net Radio reprieve. A bill to protect grassroots Internet radio has been offered before Congress. The Internet Radio Fairness Act would exempt webcasters with less than $6 million in annual revenues from the additional RIAA royalty and from future royalty requirements. [Tomalak’s Realm]

Two years ago on this day: “The best standard is the one with the most users.” [Scripting News]

This Modern World. The history of the dot-com economy and the history of the war on terror — recounted in a single cartoon! [Salon.com]

Universities Collaborate with Microsoft on Cutting-Edge Technologies.  Leading universities are working with Microsoft Research to create new technologies, based on .NET-connected software, that help people do everything from predicting and responding to failed network connections to teaching abstract mathematical concepts through visualization. [Microsoft Press Pass]

Opinion – Steve Gillmor: .Net Insecurity Days

But backstage it’s a different message: Microsoft .NotYet. Trust us — we’re patenting the HailStorm schemas. Trust us — but we’re not rewriting our apps in .Net. Trust us — we’re locking you in with licenses for upgrades that will never happen because — trust us — we’re going to change our minds. [Scripting News]

Nation-Building Lite. The Bush administration is trying to reconstruct Afghanistan on the cheap. But empires come heavy, or not at all. By Michael Ignatieff. [New York Times: Politics]

It’s Republican vs. Republican on Cuba. President Bush’s senior adviser, Karl Rove, has been pressuring Republican lawmakers from farm states not to ease restrictions on travel to Cuba. By Christopher Marquis. [New York Times: Politics]

A mouse pad Couch

The economist give bush a warning