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The Register reports the following story:

Microsoft has given up on trying to hawk its controversial Passport sign-on service to other companies.

Microsoft's decision to shut down its Passport partner program comes after one of its largest allies - eBay - said it would retire Passport in January and use its own service instead. Redmond will still offer up Passport as a single sign-on tool for its own services such as Hotmail. This move by Microsoft to give up on being a type of internet services middleman can be seen as a major victory for the rival Liberty Alliance, which is comprised of serious tech heavyweights such as IBM, Sun Microsystems, HP and Nokia.

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December 30, 2004 11:26 AM PST Permalink | |

I recently wrote about things I'm looking forward to. Here is some feedback on how things are going:

• Legend of Earthsea - Well, if you were a fan of the books, you probably didn't like this. I have not read the book yet, so from that point of view, the show was "just ok." It was obvious that there was a lot more going on because the screenplay seemed to skip a lot, so if anything, I want to read the books now just to get the real story. I didn't think Shawn Ashmore made the strongest Ged, but he grew on me over time. The show started weak, with some of the worst acting I've ever seen from Ged's father and lots of needless exposition to cover the parts cut from the books. I also laughed at the fact that "starring Amanda Tapping" means that she's in the show for three seconds (max) and utters one line! Talk about over promotion!

• Return of the King DVD - This was not a letdown. It was everything I hoped it would be, and more. I even took the time to watch all three extended versions back to back to back, just for the fun of it. I was also able to test my new multidisk DVD player, which made that process much easier. I haven't gotten to all of the DVD extras yet, but I will.

• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, the Sith Lords - While I haven't played it yet, the XBox version is out, as I mentioned. The reviews are good so far. I had the expectation that they wouldn't change the game play or game engine much, since it was a new development team, and I was right. So, if all you want is to play the same game but with a new plot and new characters, then that's exactly what you get. Some were disappointed that the game isn't that different from a technical point. While true, I really don't know what those people were expecting. The concept of a good role playing game is the story and characters, all of which are new. I still await the PC release with great anticipation.