Tim Bray, of XML co-creator fame, was just interviewed by News.Com. In the article, he gives a good overview of why XML was created and the possible solutions that were available at the time. Few other things of note:

• Positive things to say about Microsoft and XML. He likes Visual Studio .NET's easy integration with web services. I appreciate the fact that he mentions he's seen the Office 2003 XML schemas. There's a lot of FUD out there regarding the openness of the XML with regard to Office 2003. For those of you non-believers, start believing.
• Apparently feels the XmlReader API in System.Xml was a good step forward. Wait till he sees what we're doing in Whidbey. :)
• He mentions he doesn't believe that XML could be done at the W3C today. I completely agree. The various W3C WGs are bloated, monolithic beasts that can rarely agree that true == true . If you don't understand how more representation can be a bad thing, go watch Star Wars - Episodes 1 and 2. The Republic Senate == W3C.

Our very own dareo has written an article on revamping RSS Bandit. As always, a good read. I really like the ability to apply stylesheets to the feeds for a custom look and feel.