Lots of stuff happened while I was gone. For one thing, I had about 500 unread emails in my inbox, and I’m still catching up. In other news:

• Microsoft launched Windows XP.
• Microsoft redesigned MSN, and as part of the redesign, intentionally locked out browsers other than Internet Explorer. I had about 5 billion email messages in my inbox from discussions of this on various mailing lists, but I can’t get worked up about it. Is anybody smart enough to use a browser other than IE dumb enough to use MSN?
• The completist in me wants to make sure to point out that Phil Agre released another set of attack-related links in my absence.
• The USA Act was signed into law. John Dean has written an excellent rundown of the problems with the law for MSNBC.