> I believe the Microsoft GUID generation algorithm has been proposed for
> a public Internet standard.  And, I'm totally non-authoritative, but I
> believe it was even originally based on a proposal from someone outside
> Microsoft (from HP?).

More detail than you care to know:

The concept originated with Apollo's NCS RPC system, circa 1987.  At
around the same time, a group within DEC may have independantly
invented a similar uuid; in any event, when DEC and apollo's RPC teams
got together to form what would become DCE RPC, the original apollo
uuid, as modified by some concepts from DEC, got used in DCE RPC,
which was embraced and extinguished by microsoft.

The ex-Apollo Fellow who invented the uuid now works for microsoft.

					- Bill