Status-Q

CNET is starting a series of articles on Microsoft's plans for world domination via Windows XP.

Microsoft is renaming the contraversial Hailstorm to '.NET My Services'. Three times as many syllables.

At first I thought that the original codename Hailstorm must have

sounded a little too threatening. But this sort of thing seems to be a trend. I think there's a belief in marketing circles that the harder a name is to say, the more it will stick in people's brains. Do they really think people are going to sit around sipping their coffees and saying, "We should make this into a .NET My Services service"? Come on!

I suggest abbreviating it to '.NET My S' which has a more pleasingly ambiguous sound.