I've heard good things about Blogger, and recommended it to a friend. Blogger blogs are pretty good anyone who has something to say and doesn't want to get too technical.

Besides, Blogger is owned by Google, whose motto is "Do no evil".

I used to fear that Passport was just the first step in a progression of compromises that would end with an embedded RFID in my forehand. I dropped this paranoia to play XBOX live tho.

The only problem I have with Passport, and its a big one, is that a single sign-on password is less secure than a bunch of separate accounts. There is a single point of failure. Of course, the percieved risk of failure depends on how much you trust Microsoft. With all the exploits popping up in Windows all the time, this is a real risk IMHO, b/c XP stores the Passport password. The more you use Passport for, the worse this compromise could be.