Microsoft's answer to iTunes isn't pretty, doesn't have that great a selection, and won't sell songs that play on an iPod. But it'll still probably take over the world of online music.

How could Salon possibly suggest that Microsoft is anything other than completely evil? Readers respond to Farhad Manjoo's "One Music Store to Rule Them All."

This tiny machine is stylish, silent, cheap and innovative. If engineers work out the kinks, it could be revolutionary.

The great Welsh poet reads stories by Djuna Barnes and Sean O'Casey, and poems by Yeats and others.

Adios distractions, hello single-task focus, thanks to word-processing programs that re-create the simplicity of blank paper and ink.

Sometime this year, the DVD rental service will offer Apple fans a chance at unlimited online movies.

Download an hour of recordings including the poem "If I Were Tickled by the Rub of Love" and the story "In Country Sleep."

Windows 8.1 will be released to the general public later in the year

Meanwhile, Robin Thicke maintains that his song is a feminist anthem

Romney says Obama hasn't raised taxes; Obama locks on Ohio; and other top Wednesday stories

Thomas reads poems by Robert Graves, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Louise Bogan and others.

What you need, how it all works

It was a hot Chicago summer. My stripper year. My heroin year. I had a new college degree and nothing made sense. I was having the best time of my life.

The Welsh poet reads from the works of Shakespeare and from Milton's "Paradise Lost."

From his early stand-up, to memorable roles in both TV and movies, a tribute to the man who made us laugh and cry