Seattle Times writer Brier Dudley revealed in his 26 Feb 02003 article, "Putting Microsoft brand on a new breed: Longhorn", that the next-generation Microsoft OS codenamed Longhorn "refers to a bar in Whistler, B.C.", and that Whistler, the codename for Windows XP, is also from the ski resort, as is Blackcomb, the codename for the OS after Longhorn. I wonder if Microsoft has some money riding on Vancouver's 2010 Winter Olympics bid?

Red Herring Magazine Closes [New York Times: Technology, 28 Feb 02003]

Blogger wars?.

Next topic. On Wednesday last week at a meeting unrelated to weblogs, a Microsoft exec let it slip casually (heh) that the next version of FrontPage does blogging. I have my doubts, it's probably the same way word processors in the 80s did outlining, but the hype is already beginning.

Let's not let this be like the browser wars. I would like Google to continue to support the 1.0 version of the Blogger API for the forseeable future. This would help me encourage Microsoft to also support that very adequate Evan-designed API, so that all the momentum in wizzy blogging tools will continue even while the BigCo's are slugging it out in this peaceful land.

Of course I'd like them to support RSS 2.0 as well. And the MetaWeblog API. And I have some ideas about OPML. Please also use our feed of updates to non-Blogger weblogs. It's there for you to use. Please do.

[Scripting News, 1 Mar 02003]

IETF - Anti-Spam Research Group (ASRG).

The Anti-Spam Research Group (ASRG) focuses on the problem of unwanted email messages, loosely referred to as spam. The scale, growth, and effect of spam on the Internet have generated considerable interest in addressing this problem. Once considered a nuisance, spam has grown to account for a large percentage of the mail volume on the Internet. This unwanted traffic stands to affect local networks, the infrastructure, and the way that people use email.

The definition of spam messages is not clear and is not consistent across different individuals or organizations. Therefore, we generalize the problem into "consent-based communication". This means that an individual or organization should be able to express consent or lack of consent for certain communication and have the architecture support those desires. Expressing consent is more straightforward on an individual basis; as the solution is moved closer to the source, it is more difficult to express a policy that satisfies all downstream receivers. The research group will investigate the feasibility of: (1) a single architecture that supports this and (2) a framework that allows different systems to be plugged in to provide different pieces of the solution.

[Privacy Digest, 1 Mar 02003]

I'm testing once more to try and figure out this big bug problem with Radio where if you don't publish for a month you can't go backwards through the calendar link to the previous month. UserLand.com support said this is a known bug, but so far no response on how to fix it. I'm using the Radio to the Past feature to try and create a post to March 1, 2003.