RANT DAY Today's vicim is Micro$oft for their launch of Hailstorm. Yes, the day that MS has dreamed of for years has finally arrived. The day that they insert themselves into each and every single transaction online. Every bit of your personal profile will be soon (man)handled by the beast of a component to Micro$ofts .NET services. Here is a sampling of your information that will be kept by this entity: myAddress - electronic and geographic address for an identity - myProfile - name, nickname, special dates, picture -- myContacts – electronic relationships/address book -- myLocation - electronic and geographical location and rendevous -- myNotifications – notification subscription, management and routing -- myInbox - inbox items like email, voicemail, etc., including existing mail systems -- myCalendar – time and task management -- myDocuments – raw document storage -- myApplicationSettings - application settings -- myFavoriteWebSites – favorite URLs, etc. -- myWallet - receipts, payment instruments, coupons, etc. -- myDevices – device settings, capabilities -- myServices – provisioned services for an identity -- myUsage – usage report for above services Just say NO to bad ideas!