Monday, February 19, 2001		Lens on IT

Toy presenter Valerie Accetta shows the “Harry Potter Book of Spells,” a personalised electronic encyclopedia of facts and characters from the “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone” book, under a life-sized replica of “Fluffy” the three-headed dog that guards the Sorcerer's Stone, as the New York toy fair.

Popular singing group Destiny's Child hold various items from the Tiger Electronics “Hit Clips” line of micro music chips in the Tiger toy showroom in New York in New York. (L to R) are Michelle Williams, Beyonie Knowles and Kelly Rowland. The group signed a deal with the Hasbro Toys division to have their music featured in “Hit Clips” and then performed a concert in the Hasbro showroom during the American International Toy Fair.

Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates poses for photographers next to a computer with Windows XP, (previously code-named "Whistler") the new Windows program for home and work in Seattle. Windows XP features a new visual design and and several new personal computing experiences. Windows XP is scheduled to be available in the second half of 2001.

A World War II era IBM card sorting machine is on display at the US Holocaust Museum in Washington. A book that went on sale on February 12 charged that IBM's tabulating machinery and its German business unit were instrumental in helping Adolf Hitler systematically identify and select Holocaust victims.

— Reuters photos