Gee:

Insurer: Microsoft Is A Costly Choice [ZDNet]

Insurance broker J.S. Wurzler Underwriting Managers has started charging up to 15 percent more in premiums to clients that use Microsoft's Internet Information Server software, which the Code Red worm feasted on. [They could have added "EXCLUSIVELY"...]

In light of the $2 billion in damage caused by Code Red, founder and CEO John Wurzler's decision just before the virus hit seems prescient.

Speaking of Code Red and other MS exploits, this was a sad/funny (made up?) story about an unfortunate sysadmin and users who don't listen. Read the whole thing:

• It's baaaaaack [Computerworld]
  "The message must have contained something good if management didn't want us to read it."

All-purpose rant to send to whoever forwarded you too many e-mails this week:

• Pardon me for being forward [Anil Dash]
  That forward? I got it. I've gotten it. I do not wish to keep receiving it. I was neither moved nor inspired. It was neither clever nor funny. I was not amazed at the stupidity of that criminal, nor disgusted, appalled, and chagrined by the United States Government...

(Actually, I can't imagine sending it; nobody sends me very much fram, and I'm almost never that hostile...)

I didn't watch the Condit-Chung interview, since it's not a story I'm paying much attention to and since I figured it would be discussed enough to get a sense of it anyway. From these transcripts there doesn't seem to be anything new or unexpected, but here they are for historical-record purposes:

• Interview Transcript: Rep. Gary Condit, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 [ABC News]

Other:

Tom the Dancing Bug: Salvation Army Heads New Faith-Based Military [Salon]

Paul Gigot's pseudo-farewell column [WSJ]

I started out trying to cover Washington the way a foreign correspondent would, trying to explain the bizarre native rituals to the rest of America. But the longer one stays here, the harder that is to do. Covering the city can lead to a tunnel vision that focuses on political tactics and trivia over substance. I've sometimes found myself falling into that trap, a sign that some distance is in order.

New TMBG album coming out shortly, called Mink Car. That's going on my relatively new AMZN wishlist...

Various prominent figures say goodbye to Jesse Helms [Salon]

Paul Luebke, N.C. state rep. (Dem): With Helms gone, I think people will finally see that North Carolina is more moderate than South Carolina or Alabama or Mississippi. This is a politically diverse state. Democrats hold a narrow majority in the statehouse. We have a Democratic governor, one Democratic U.S. senator. The state is basically moderate. ... [A]ny suggestion that he's retiring because he doesn't want to be in the minority is silly. This is a man who thrived on being a minority of one.

Via whim & vinegar: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Enhancing Self-Esteem. ??!!?!?!