December 17, 2003 Mark Pilgrim I wish I didn't need to write this article. My life would be much simpler if Atom could just use existing HTTP authentication, as-is. But it can't; I'm going to tell you why and then I'm going to tell you what we're doing instead. Let's back up. Atom, in case you missed it, is a new standard that uses XML over HTTP to publish and syndicate web-based content. It is in