more bits, more pieces

1. Microsoft on Tuesday released Beta 1 of Office 12 to technical beta testers. The nearly 600MB code release is the first widespread preview of the next version of its widely used business application suite. review.

2. Latest from Wal-mart: a wal-mart village! - a new kind of Wal-Mart store that's designed to help re-build towns devastated by Hurricane Katrina . more>>

3. Nicholas Negroponte and his team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have been chipping away at a long-held dream: producing a laptop so cheap that governments could afford to link every child in the world to the Internet. more>>

4. Google Base unveiled. Upload anything. Download anything (that is uploaded).. Instead of people putting up Web pages, then quivering in anticipation until Google spots and searches them, Google Base allows anyone to type information right into Google's computers -- then tell Google what search queries should locate that content. more>>

5. Google-Yahoo News (yes, no joking!!!)