Salon is running an interview with Kurt Vonnegut (one of my favorite authors) today. I love Kurt Vonnegut’s perspective, even though I’m glad it’s not mine.

The New York Times has an analysis of an advertisement paid for by the health insurance industry attacking the “patient’s bill of rights.” Naturally, the ad warns against allowing lawsuits against HMOs, because it will lead to a trial lawyer feeding frenzy. Unfortunately, as normal people, our only recourse when wronged by a corporation is a lawsuit. Currently, we are allowed no such recourse when an HMO denies us needed medical care. That’s wrong.

Today is my lucky day … when I tried to read a news story at the Infoworld Web site, I was asked to take a survey. I went ahead and agreed to participate, and lo and behold, the survey was gathering opinions on Microsoft and one of their banner ads. I can only hope that the survey responses are read by a human.

There’s a story about covering your online tracks at the Washington Post that talks about long-time Well member and Network Solutions CEO Jim Rutt. (The guy who wrote the story is a member of the Well too.)

Two numbers in the news today: lawyers for survivors of German labor camps from World War II have rejected an offer of 3.3 billion dollars to compensate them for their forced labor and American Home Products has agreed to pay 3.75 billion dollars to settle lawsuits filed by people who took Fen-Phen to lose weight. The German grievance involves two million people, the Fen-Phen settlement will make 8,000 plaintiffs go away.

At some local high schools, they’re considering eliminating class rankings, because there are so many good students that even very smart kids can have a mediocre class ranking. Admissions officers at colleges are against eliminating rankings, mainly because it would make their jobs harder. Unfortunately, class rankings are a nearly worthless measure of a student’s performance. Why should the validectorian of a school filled with idiots have a better shot at getting into a good school than a smart kid from a school with lots of smart kids?

Bad news for Windows CE, no matter how you spin it: Phillips has cancelled the Nino. I thought it was the best looking of the Windows CE devices.

As everyone who visits this site knows, I’m less than fond of Microsoft. Unfortunately, their enemies aren’t very likable, either. (Scott McNeally and Larry Ellison, I’m talking about you.)

Microsoft’s annual report was created on a Mac.

CNN is refusing to air the Salon television ad because it considers Salon to be a competitor. How odd.