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On another note, can someone enlighten me as to why they are upgrading the accounts so slowly? Shouldn't it be a quick and easy scripted task (unless they're editing the records one at a time)?

Well, I used to run this free email service[1] so I have some insights here.

The service is database-backed, with a normal CGI/mod_perl front end, so you might think that all upgrades would be instantaneous, and for many types of upgrades this is indeed the case.

However, it's not always so straightforward. Firstly, you've got the issue of multiple webservers, which have to be upgraded essentially by hand, and that takes some time.

More seriously, you may need to run scripts to move data around. One example being we used to store the emails themselves in the SQL database, but we soon realised that was a stupid thing to do and we moved to a NFS/IMAP solution for the mail, with the metadata only stored in the database. Because of the sheer volume of data involved we had to migrate each account individually. The strategy we used was to store a "migrated" flag with the user, and when they logged in first time since migration started, we would migrate their email (the process took up to 60 seconds per user depending on the amount of mail they had). In addition, we had a background process running which migrated unmigrated accounts one at a time. The whole process took several weeks to complete.

Another massive migration for us was the original migration of the code from Lotus Notes (true!) to database + mod_perl. This was horrible because it took ages to export the mail from Notes, so we had to maintain essentially two separate systems with a common front end. The custom-designed Apache front end decided whether the user was on the "old" system or the "new" system and redirected requests accordingly. Yuck.

Now I understand that Hotmail isn't the best architected system in the world. Looking at the URLs, it seems to me that each person has a "home" server, and so it's quite possible that sysadmins are now patiently upgrading each server by hand, in the process increasing the storage for that group of users. I don't envy them.

Rich.

[1] Not anymore, so don't blame me for their current failings!

Are you suggesting that the apparent absence of women in Open Source has to do with some inherent desire for a bitchy, competitive arena?! What absolute rubbish. You sound particularly bitter and I don't think that this is the right place to output your angst at the female gender.

With regards to Open Source, yes, it is a philosopy based on ideals women have fought for a long time. The issue is not "Where are the women in Open Source?" but "Where are the women in the IT industry?"
In order to get involved in Open Source we need to know about it first, and how can that occur if we aren't fairly represented in the IT industry itself?

I am a female perl developer for an internet company that develops web apps such as free email and a free service for schools which run on linux.

I had a lot of trouble breaking into the industry due to the backward, sexist attitudes of many of the traditional "blue chip" software houses. I believe that women should be socialised with computers and technology, from an early age, as is more common with boys. I found passion for computers young and it has stayed with me. I'm sure there will be increasing numbers of women in computing as we become more aware of gender stereotyping children.

With that increase, I'm sure you will see a far more vocal female Open Source contingent.

Watch us gather in number, it's already happening.