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MSFT thanks Linux Programmer for paying $35 Fee
Quite a number of people have been writing recently in regards to the recent Hotmail outage. As we reported before, a Linux programmer wanted to get his mail - and paid the $35 fee to renew their domain registration. News.com has picked up the news story, complete with thanks from MSFT to Mr. Michael Chaney.
http://slashdot.org/comm ents.pl?sid=99/12/25/114201&cid=90
Microsoft of all companies should be able to afford their own $35 DNS fees!
There's no reason for a sig here.
That's not the only thing a Linux programmer could fix over at Microsoft.
Sheepdot: Open Source good, Closed Source baaaaaaad!
Since he paid for the domain registration, wouldnt he have a final say on the domain? If he refuses to accept any payment microsoft made ($35), wouldnt he be the owner of this domain? And have a final say as to where it should point?
:)
I believe M$ owes this dude more than $35. A personal check from BillG would be most appericated.
--
yet another example of how helpful linux and other free software users/developers/admins can be compared to their windows counterparts.
would a windows person think to pay for linux.com's domain? (or other linux related domains)
US Citizen living abroad? Register to vote!
Do you think Micro$oft would have given Linux.com back for $35? I think not. I'm just glad he's decent enough not to try to squat the site and inconvenience all those hotmail users (not really a good PR move).
F.O.Dobbs
ps- a redirect to www.hotmale.com would have been interesting though...
I bet you they still wouldn't buy back an OEM copy of Windows from him if he wanted Linux on a name brand PC.
I find it rather amusing that one linux progammer managed to beat out an entire team of M$ employees in diagnosing and fixing a problem. It only adds to it that the problem was that M$ forget to pay a #$35 dollar fee.
...if Chaney just wanted his 35 bucks back and said "Hey, no problem, glad to do it." As it is, he comes off like a glory-hounding jerk. It rubs me the wrong way when people think that they have a right to a reward of some sort for doing a favor, as this guy seems to (the article doesn't quote him directly, but implies that he thinks that M$ should cut him in on a share of the Hotmail revenue). Whatever happened to doing something nice just for its own sake?
I'd say the value of what Chaney did was more than just the $35 - he covered Microsoft's ass. But really, if I were him, I don't think I'd be saying that to the news. Make it seeeem like you were just being generous, because Linux people are so gosh darn nice, and then hope that MS sends you a big fat check.
Yeah, I went and paid for granitecanyon.com myself -- they're the ones who do a *free* DNS service. They take donations, and I figured this would be a great way to donate to their cause. Has anyone else experienced DNS lookup failures because granitecanyon.com hadn't paid to renew their domain name?? Hux
I'm glad that he is enjoying his fifteen minutes of fame. For $35 dollars, he got a lot of attention for doing something simple, and at no long term cost to him.
However, at the end, he indicates that he would like them to consider the advertising revenue that they saved by his registering it.
I don't know if that is his actual statement or a journalist trying to make the story more controversial, but if he really feels that way, it's kinda silly. He wanted to get his mail, he paid their registration fee, and they are paying him pack.
They also figured out the problem, he just beat them to it. While I'm certain that this administrative slight is really embarassing to Microsoft, the whole situation is silly.
This wasn't a win for the community. This was a silly situation to happen and a potential PR mess. I'm glad that it was resolved, but this is getting blown out of proportion.
Alex
As it may seem that Microsoft has everything to lose from this scenario, to the consumer, they redeemed themselves by paying back Mr. Chaney.
Look at it this way: How have you heard Linux described in the press? "Linux, an alternative to Microsoft's Windows Operating System..." is one of the many incantations of the phrase. Most of the television watching, Time magazine reading public sees "alternative" == "competitor". Meaning, financial competitor, because that's what people see - money.
Now, what people see the Hotmail/Passport situation as being is that some guy from the Linux camp gave money to their worst enemy. Sure, for the most part it looks bad for Microsoft. But Microsoft redeems themselves immediately in the eyes of the consumer by giving that money back.
All in all, approximately 26 Million people couldn't access their e-mail for a few hours and everything else is normal to most people. Microsoft wasn't hurt too badly by this situation when you think about it.
You should never take life too seriously - You'll never get out of it alive.
You know you're a monopoly when you have the brass balls to piss off a giant like Microsoft over a stupid $35 monthly fee. This is just typical of the arrogance that is Network Solutions.
Well, hotmail still isn't working, at least for me. When I try to access www.hotmail.com I get the error "Unable to locate server lc1.law5.hotmail.passport.com. Is it possible my DNS cache still isn't updated? It's been several days now...
There's no reason for a sig here.
Unfortunately Microsoft can't reciprocate. Open source doesn't speak their language.
Maybe Microsoft would consider donating something worthwhile in-kind for the gesture, like some code.
I think Microsoft could be able to share in some of the positive relations to stem from this if they reacted with a code donation, rather than just looking like fools, reimbursing the programmer and looking sheepish and humbled.
I don't need large brains to have a good time.
. . . "I didn't get to be the richest guy in the world by writing a bunch of big checks to people". (Granted, he only said it in an episode of the Simpsons).
The guy makes a good-faith effort to restore service to some company (who cares which one, really?) because he values the service they provide.
:)
It's mature, it's unselfish, it's not what I'd have expected from many of the more childish posters I've seen reply so far.
THIS makes me proud to be a Linux user. If we could all be as mature, maybe I wouldn't mind being lumped in a "community" with the rest of you so much.
The big guys get even their domain names paid by volunteers... who's gonna pay for mines after disconnection?! You know what I mean? Life sucks... :)
...if for nothing else than the notoriety, dont'cha think?
If I had to guess, I'd bet that the comment about "deserving" more because he did them a favor was probably something just said idly, or even in jest, that the reporter seized on... they do have a tendency to do that in the news, to add a twist to a story. Never say something you don't want quoted in front of a reporter, eh?
"He who breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom." --Gandalf the Grey
Don't be such a butthead. Read his original post.
"Merry Christmas, Microsoft." It appears that he did it to be nice, and feels (rightly) that this service was worth more to MSFT than $35. It's not like he hijacked the domain and held them for ransom.
What have you done lately for someone else who you don't necessarily like, spontaneously and gently?
Remember that what's inside of you doesn't matter because nobody can see it.
a Linux programmer save a Microsoft service running BSD... The world is smaller that you realize
Some posts are implying that after having paid for passport.com, that Chaney owned it.
I don't see how that is true.
Just paying for it doesn't change or give you the authority to change any of the contact or DNS information.
What I wonder is what the passport.com internic records looked like before Dec 27. That is, was the Billing Contact Carolyn Gudmundson...or was it someone else who may no longer work at MS?
Doug ---- Co-host of Ghostly Talk
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
If I were him I'd call up my credit card company and tell them to cancel payment. :) That might cause the server to be held up in another fiasco while they sort out Internic trying to charge late fees as well as handling cancellation fees.
Joseph Elwell.
I read the article and it seemed not to say that he got paid back yet, nor did it say that the amount he got paid back was only $35.
The guy says he'll frame the check "unless it's a huge amount."
Why would he say that? My guess is, he's not going to see a dime. What's he going to do? Sue Microsoft?
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
http://www.doublewide.net/passport.htm
If memory serves me right, when M$ came down and helped out apple, the "community" response was bloody M$, don't stick your wallet where it isn't wanted. Now... when a linux person does it for M$, the response is "Look, we saved megacorp from drowning, aren't we swell". Irony?
-I just work here... how am I supposed to know?
It's not like he called a press conference, or something like that. The press is coming to him to get his side of the story. Would you prefer a mumbled "no comment" as he shuffles back to his pizza, Jolt, and Perl scripts? :-)
And that "cut of the revenue" comment at the end reeks of pseudo-journalistic spin. I'd bet that comment was a joke taken out of context.
Keith Russell
OS != Religion
This sig intentionally left blank.
it's worth way more than that! m$ should express their gratitude in no uncertain terms and give him $1M+ for saving the /real/ embarassment a competitive registration would have caused.
You would think with all thier money Microsoft would buy a good accounting program to track their account payables. Perhaps they might even try to write some software to track bills.....
:^)
Who owns your data?
If the hero in this situation wants to make a few pointed statements about the negligent party, he deserves no criticism for it. He's just doing everyone a favour by drawing attention to a serious problem with the management of the passport.com domain.
...does anyone with out the proper account information pay for a domain name they don't own.. Does this mean I can go pay for the renewal of ibm.com if I felt like it? or some one pay for my domains? Isn't this a security issue also? last time I messed with this kinda stuff I needed to have a working e-mail address to modify and verify changes. hmmmmmmmmmm
-- Jason...
that because a Linux user paid for the domain that it now be called GNU/Hotmail, because while Hotmail is the operational part, without GNU it would not be complete.
Leave it to be bunch of GPL freaks not to understand the spirit of a free gift, one that demands nothing in return.
It's not like MSFT was on the verge of bankruptcy and was saved by Cheny the angel investor... They had a service outage. For a couple of hours an *estimated* several million folks couldn't check their spa- er, hotmail accounts. Then it got fixed by a nice guy, and MSFT is paying him back. Key points: Hotmail != MSFT's core business. It isn't like folks the world over will go "Oh! Now we have to give up Windows because MSFT made a mistake in some (to the general public) vague area." If MS was gonna tank over a public display of ineptitude, the GPF during the demo of Win98 would have been the time, eh? This story is more like one of those human interest spots on nightly news about how a dog and a cat are best friends and isn't that just so cute. Seems like lots of folks here are making it out to be more along the lines of Watergate.
Take it for what it's worth. Would you have done the same?
Don't know if I would, I more than likely would have just bitvhed about it and done nothing.
If nothing else, it's keeping Linux in the headlines, and that for sure is worth 35 bucks.
More race stuff in one place,
than any one place on the net.
I doubt that his intentions were purely altruistic (genuflects) SIC? or greedy. It was probably done in jest so don't get bent out of shape, just laugh.
Hypothetically, anything hypothetical is possible.
A lot of people seem to be assuming that Chaney expects some sort of monetary reward for this act, apparently because of this from the end of the cnet.com article:
... Chaney suggested that his Christmas charity is arguably worth more than a simple thanks.
"In a perfect world, I wish they'd take that into account," he said. "But I'm not relying on it. It's their choice."
Now, personally, first time through reading that, I was thinking he'd like a job at M$, maybe. Yeah, I know working for the Evil Overlord(tm) may not be your cup of tea or mine, but elsewhere in the article, it describes him as having started "in Unix and Microsoft Windows", and "he only got serious about it with the emergence of commercial Linux provider Red Hat", so he doesn't sound like a hard-core penguin-mascot-toting Linux coder to me. He just might go for such a thing.
Good... bad... I'm the one with the gun.
ProofReading Markup Language - and yes, I find typos.
I don't know. To be honest, having read his original post (he posted to /. when he paid the thing), I think it was more done to be funny. Why not? They're dumbasses, it's only 35 bucks, hell - I'd have paid for it if I'd been in that position. Would've been funny. *grin*
Yes, it was a nice thing to do, simple as that. It was also very amusing. And made for an amusing conversation on slashdot when he did it, and again later (though I don't think he could have realized that he would get actual _press_ for that).
Having done it, I would also be wondering if they could pay more than 35 bucks. He isn't asking for it, he isn't pushing for it even. He commented that it would be nice, but he seems to understand that it isn't likely, especially knowing the greed in ms. So? Seems like just another average joe to me, who happened to notice the problem and do something about it, and get amused by his own actions. Nothing major, and certainly not greedy.
A greedy person would have tried to transfer ownership, or something like that. I see no indication that he even considered that, it seems more like a 'heh, I fixed their screwup for em, too bad they can't fix themselves' sort of thing.
-Elthia
What's a frist??
More race stuff in one place,
than any one place on the net.
Free publicity for your company, and whatever else you want (the guy is saying "I'm a linux programmer")
Maybe some money.. Maybe if Microsoft gives the guy some money, there's nothing wrong with it..
I'm not assuming that Michael payed the domain because he wanted money from microsoft. I just think there's nothing wrong with that.. After all, who forgot to pay?
--
--
Stay tuned for some shock and awe coming right up after this messages!
I notice many responses to the effect that Microsoft was too Stupid/Arrogant/Lazy to pay their bills.
Given that Network Solutions has a reputation (deserved or not, I have no personal experience) could this outage POSSIBLY have not been Microsoft's fault?
Of course we should never overlook chances for MS bashing, but somehow I have a feeling this wasn't because billg's a cheapskate.
And that "cut of the revenue" comment at the end reeks of pseudo-journalistic spin. I'd bet that comment was a joke taken out of context.
Well, I'd love to believe you, but the following is from Michael's own website:
You were saying?
I think he ought to ask Microsoft to 'repay' him by helping some other company in need :-).
P.S. Are you listening, WINE?
The Matrix is going down for reboot now! Stopping reality: OK. The system is halted.
Just because it's already been said in the comments doesn't mean I wasn't the first to say it. Read the time stamps.
There's no reason for a sig here.
Any reporter who has ever found Linux to be less than 100% perfect (which means most reporters) has been subjected to the worst kind of hate mail that there is. Good luck convincing them that Linux people are "so gosh darn nice."
Many large corporations are so inefficient that they can't pay their bills in a timely fashion. This hurts their suppliers unfairly, who quite logically will resort to automatic, pre-programmed service cancellations. I've seen it numerous times, and from the outside this certainly looks like another case.
Thats not true, my mom is a crack whore!
Here is the main part of a letter I wrote earlier with some suggestions for improvements:
A recent article ("Domain Winner Loses Big") on wired.com at
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,32974, 00.html
was heavily discussed/ranted-about on slashdot.org at
http://slashdot.org/articles/99/12/11/1155244.sh tml
and left me with a distinct impression that there are some real problems with the registration system, to wit:
(1) There does not seem to be a reliable way to establish provable priority of a claim to a name, i.e., that one was first in the first come first serve process. And (1a) The act of checking a name for prior registration exposes the name to the risk of being misappropriated if the link is not secure or the registrar is unscrupulous.
I believe the way to solve this is to separate the creation of a proof of first claim from the business of the various registrar authorities.
As it stands, the registration businesses apparently can make mistakes (possibly even on purpose, some seem to suspect) which can make a domain name wind up unfairly in the wrong hands, and point to their disclaimers and say, "too bad."
A possibility would be to have ICANN run one or more entirely automatic secure and certifiably trustable servers synchronized with UTC time (see http://www.time.gov/ ) -- whose only purpose would be automatically to return time-stamped, digitally signed copies of messages sent to them by secure web form. This is simple and quick, and does not involve searching a database. If there were a unique server for each g/ccTLD, they wouldn't even have to be that well synchronized (solves the problem of sub-second ties, for which you probably would need need a tie-breaking rule otherwise).
You would enter your identification and the domain name you were _trying_ to claim, and you'd get a certificate back, which would be the proof of your time-priority in case of duplicate names. There would be three business days to complete a registration using any of the competing registration businesses, which would be bound to respect the certificate (whose signature they could independently verify).
You would be protected, because you would no longer be dependent on the performance or reliability of any particular registration business. The name could not be misappropriated, because it passed securely to the time-stamping server, and if your first choice registrar could not return legally binding proof that they had received and processed your application into pending status (again probably a transaction record forwarded through an official time stamping server), then you could go to another registrar with no risk to your claim, even from an unscrupulous registrar that as it stands now could potentially put you off with some operational delay excuse and pass the name to a cybersquatter for registration via another channnel.
Of course if the name had already been completely registered, or had a prior pending application, your application would be rejected with no charge (and you could verify that you lost fair and square). At the end of the three days, your pending status would change to completed (unless someone else in the meantime submitted an application with an earlier time stamp), and your credit card could be charged.
This would also create a competitive incentive towards good service.
(2) The transfer of ownership/title to an existing domain seems vulnerable to equipment or procedural errors or registrar misconduct. The cited discussion suggests that title tranfer was not reliably under control of the owner.
Domain name title/ownership transfer must be totally atomic and have no possibility of falling into unregistered status without the owner's informed consent. Registering businesses should not have the authority to change the status of a registered domain name except by due process of expiration or as explicitly authorized by the owner. The burden of proof of authorization must be on the registrar, and any operational or equipment error on their part should not have legally binding consequences on the status of the domain name.
The key is to design a sequence of verifiable transactions that guarantee execution of the owner's intent, even with a bad service apple in the barrel.
This is just what I've thought since reading the discussions, so there may be some holes in the above, or better ways to achieve the guarantees, but I believe some technical implementation changes could make for better legal protections in registering and transferring domain names.
Thanks for reading.
Regards,
Bengt Richter
I know you are, but what am I ??!
Microsoft: Thanks for paying for our domain registration. We owe you one. Oh wait... here's a "free" copy of Windows 2000(tm). Enjoy. Be sure to read the disclaimer attached below. [1]
Me: Damn it. I got ripped off. What did I expect? After all, it is Microsoft. Did they really expect me to taint my machine with that rubbish? (throws box over shoulder) Couldn't they just repay me??
[1] "Disclaimer" -- Y2K compliance not guarranteed, but you did not hear that from us. You are not eligable to recieve free upgrade patches. You will pay like everyone else. We are not responsible if your machine suddenly crashes is more way then one. We will not be held liable if you lose money due to the instability of our operating system. Better yet, why don't you just run Lin.... oh wait. (backspace, backspace, backspace) Feel like arguing? Come meet our "lawyers" in a dark alleyway next Wednesday.
Zero G
Why don't NSI allow someone to go and make a payment schedule for say 5 years, so a corporate megalith like Microsoft doesn't have to worry about it becoming due for a few years? I'd even be interested in it for my personal domains. -Anonymous
\subject.
--
It's October 6th. Where's W2K? Over the horizon again, eh?
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
A pal of mine worked in Silicon Valley at one of the companies that went public this year. He quit to start up his own company once he could sell some of his stock, but it was a friendly departure, and they were nice enough to let him use their DNS servers to point to the site we're creating. We now have our own DNS servers, so we deleted the records from the old company's servers. Well, he's back home for the holidays, and Monday morning we started getting calls from people saying that their email to us was bouncing. We check NSI, and they had changed our records to make the old company's DNS servers authoritative for us again. Now that we're doing the VC thing, my friend didn't feel comfortable asking his old company to temporarily change their DNS servers to point to us, so we had to go edit our record at NSI and just wait for the changes to propogate. Ugh.
NSI blows.
Cheers,
ZicoKnows@hotmail.com (don't have my password with me)
this is from the article
Users already logged on to the service would not have been affected. Users whose login information was available from another location through a process known as caching also would not have noticed a disruption in service. In addition, knowledgeable users could have accessed the site by writing their own login script and including their password and username.
Sanford said that because not all of the Hotmail servers were affected by the problem, not all of Hotmail's users had difficulties. She added that updates to the system frequently take hours to take effect, making it difficult to judge exactly when the problem started or ended.
So if I make my own login script, I can bypass passport? Does this mean we can get around their verification system, and use the older one that allowed you to get into any userid's account if you gave them the right url?
And does it also mean that when a hole becomes public, that that window will still be open for a few hours?
"Let him go, Ralph. He knows what he's doing." --Otto Mann (simpsons)
It's 12/28 - it shipped!
I don't know about you but I wouldn't subject even Microsoft to the horror of a confused Network Solutions :)
This is a very interesting development! Technically speaking the domain name is the property of the part who .. paid for registration. There fore Channey is now the owner of passport.com ! not Microsoft. Should he be able to repeat this frequently, whe could get legal possession of the URL by making legal claim and collecting all revenue from site from MICROSOFT! In deed MICROSOFT service asw well as their OS stink! They do not close accounts of spammers but only accounnts of people who complaint about spamming! As it happened with me!
Paul Erdos, a mathematician, did exactly what you described with a promising high-school student who wanted to study mathematics at Harvard.
Why is there such need to gloat about Microsft's mistakes? Does pointing them out make Linux or whatever operating system you use better?
In the end, Chaney did a good turn and set a good example. Enough said.
The evidence was that MICROSOFT's WIN 95 shall crash 95 times a ... month.. WIN 98 shall crash 98 times a... month So now expect WIN 2000 to crash 2000 times a .......
I wonder how long before the billing contact loses her poor little job. If I were MSFT, taking guff from the Linux community is the last priority on my list and I'd dump her, but I'm not part of or affiliated with MSFT.
From what I've been led to understand, it's even more than than. A friend in the Finance Dept. at a company I used to work for once told me that they regularly delayed payments as a matter of normal business operations. Apperantly, on top of any bookeeping juggling you can do, there's a great deal of interest to be made on keeping your money in the bank until the last possible moment. More than the late fee, at that.
Just what I heard -- He could have been pulling my chain...
Technically speaking, the domain name is the property of the part (sic) who OWNS the domain.
If I was late for my mortgage, and someone, for some weird reason, paid for it, the title is still in my name. If Channey (sic) wanted to own the domain, as you are insisting he now does, he should have waited until it expired, not until it was merely being held by Network Dissolutions.
It would do you well to get a little bit more legal knowledge (and perhaps have a dictionary or thesaurus handy when typing messages) before making incorrect, grammatically/typographically challenged posts.
Is your real name Richard or short as they call DICK ? Or Are you just mentally .... stiff ?
1st microsoft programmer: Oh shit, hotmail is down again! 2nd microsoft programmer: no way, we must have really screwed up this time! 1st microsoft programmer: Let's try to find the bug and fix it before the boss finds out and fires us ...... ...... ...... 12 hours later........ 2nd microsoft programmer: Hey, the sight is back on line! 1st microsoft programmer: And I got this weird e-mail from this linux freak 2nd microsoft programmer: THOSE BASTARDS GOT US AGAIN!!!!!!!
BEAUTIFULLY.
Sad. Very sad.
Simply changing the zone files from the previous name server won't do the trick. One must register the new name server as a host, then modify the domains to include the new hosts info. In order for the change to be real, you HAVE to do the paperwork. There is no way around it, that is how the system works.
Dave
I consult for a large telecom company that hosts thousands of domains so I get to see a good sample of the problem people have with Network Solutions. Generally speaking they send out plenty of notice before putting a domain on hold. [Hey, don't get me wrong, I really hate dealing with Network Solutions, but generally the problems I have with them are getting updates done.]
I've seen one other case where a large ISP neglected to pay for an important domain. In that case it was simply that those responible for paying where not techies (because in large organizations techies don't pay the bills, the finance department does) and considered a US$35 bill unimportant; they willfully neglected to pay. I suspect the same thing happened with passport.com. I'd bet that some accountant recieved the invoice but couldn't find anyone who could tell him who "network solutions" is and said to himself, "Well, I'm not going to pay a $35 invoice that I can't account for."
I've seen many cases with small organizations where domains didn't get paid for because the accountant was expecting an invoice for "InterNIC" and didn't know that "Network Solutions" was the Internet (in days gone by there were the same organization).
I'm amazed that these companies have such a high risk requirement to pay $35 each year, instead of, say $3500 for 100 years (perhaps pro-rated over time to cover inflation).
If I were an investor, I'd demand such an option. If amazon.com (for example) lost it's domain due to such an oversight, it could be a catastrophe.
"It's overkill, of course. But you can never have too much overkill." - Anonymous Slashdot Coward
You've confused GPL software with open source. Free software isn't about money. Free Software is about freeing the slaveware! It's a higher causes than mere money.
What could a Linux programmer fix over at Microsoft? I don't want to hear from others, just the original author.
The important thing here is that Microsoft has yet again shown what an inept bunch of guys they are.
Factoring out their money, Microsoft is an embarrassingly pathetic company.
Just my prospective...
This just goes to show that Linux people (No nessisarly advocates or zellots but the general community) want what they want and will move heven and earth to get it.. woe be it to anyone who gets in there way...
Microsoft has become the bad guy becouse the simply want everyone to use there products. They are ok but they aren't perfict and don't work for everyone. As a result Microsoft puts themselfs in direct obstruction of anyone who wants to do something Windows can not handle very well.
Microsoft has basicly the made themselfs into the techo unmovable object and Linux people have become the techno illresisable force... and they colide often...
But when a Linux programmer wants his e-mail.. and it's on Microsofts server.. and all thats stopping him is a domain name... Not even a second thought... it is done.. It matters not that it's Microsoft he helpped... He wants his e-mail and he will get his e-mail...
As for Microsoft.. far from the vile evil overlords we make them out to be.. Do whats right and thank him for his efforts..
It probably has a few Microsoft people scratching there heads.. Why would someone do something like this? More so why would a LINUX programmer help Microsoft?
The answer is simple... Microsoft is the evil bad guy as long as they stand in the way... Anyone can become evil... just try and stop the Linux community from doing something... you'll be come evil.. and very injured....
Why arn't other obstructive companys on the communitys "Evil" list? Simply becouse they don't get in the way of the Linux community.. they obstruct others...
Many obstructionists really deserve the "Evil" title.. Microsoft is better labled "Misguided".. misguided in the idea that this is the way to do busness..
Right or wrong asside things are changing and Microsoft has put themselfs in the way of that change.. Thats just an unwise busness move. At this point IF they did change most people would be wondering what Microsoft is up to.. They let themselfs be "evil" for far to long...
But this dose show that if Microsoft could show they are sereous and put themselfs in the direction of helpping the Linux community they could be accepted into the fold...
It also shows that if Microsoft belived helpping the Linux community was a good thing they'd do it..
Finnaly.. The Linux community is not as selfless as they come off.. They just think in bigger terms... Not "I" want it... "WE" want it.. and "WE" move in mass to get it... If "I" want something "I" find others who also want it and "WE" get it.. togeather.. as a community.. Selfishly helpping others achive the goals "WE" wish to achive...
I don't actually exist.
The comment about the check was a joke. I really doubt that he is expecting a really big check.
The idea is that he really doesn't care about getting paid back, if the check only covers his expenses he'll frame it and put it on the wall. If it's a huge amount of money he'd cash it beacause he'd be a fool not to.
Read for comprehension.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
Specifically, you will note that the Billing Contact for PASSPORT.COM is a person.
Billing Contact: Gudmundson, Carolyn (CG6635) carolyng@MICROSOFT.COM +1 (425) 882-8080 (FAX) +1 (425) 936-7329
Now, compare that to most other domains used by M$oft. It is often the case, that people that are part of big business FORGET that there are some very tedious details on the InterNET.
Microsoft-Internic Billing Issues (MDB-ORG) msnbill@MICROSOFT.COM 425 882 8080
This is the proper use of a ROLE. A sure fire way to screw something up is to let a SINGLE person be a Billing Contact. By far the best practice is to use a ROLE that has a email address that gets sent to several people. Since you never know who might be on a vacation or might blow away their inbox.
So I would recommend that Microsoft go here: http://www.networksolutions.co m/makechanges/reports/
Actually, a good natured Linux user could probably do this as well for them. :) All you need it the information contained in the whois lookup.
The reason this is important is that Gudmundson, Carolyn (CG6635) carolyng@MICROSOFT.COM probably hasn't paid many other things as well. Why? This person might not even WORK for microsoft now...
Think this can't happen? Think again. Her manager should have known or someone should have known but apparently nobody did or there was a billing error/oversite. Oh, but wait... what if her manager is gone TOO???
Repeat again: Think it can't happen? Thing again.
When you use a domain name make sure you put a TEAM in charge with a leader vs. a single point of failure. Even a rank newbie working for an ISP knows this much. I expect that Gudmundson, Carolyn (CG6635) carolyng@MICROSOFT.COM was on vacation or called in rich[sick].
Aren't you glad you don't work in this persons office?
http://www.mp3.com/fudge/
http://fudge.org
This is just what Microsoft needs, more bad PR. What surprises me is that they forgot to pay the InterNIC fee for a domain that handles all of their logins to places like Hotmail, MoneyCentral, etc. I hope that Microsoft gets the clue this time, and I would hope that the person who is in charge of domain registration there gets reprimanded as well. I just mentioned this story to my brother (who is a Microsoft employee in MoneyCentral), and he just rolled his eyes. As mentioned, since Passport handles the logins for MoneyCentral, my brother has already said that once he heads back to Seattle, he's planning on inquiring about this.
Really nice of that guy to pay for the domain registration though. I hope Microsoft gives him the thanks he deserves for helping to correct yet another Microsoft blunder.
--
The real Raunchola isn't cool enough to have any imposters
why would he just not keep it ?
its m$, they dont matter
Come on people. This is just sensationalist journalism. The entire story means nothing in the greater scheme of things.
Mmmm.. Donuts
I don't think they should add stupid. Stupid is a matter of opinion after all.
There's no reason for a sig here.
Maybe you guys should lighten the hell up. This moderation stuff is really starting to suck. Just because you could have thought of the comment doesn't mean it wasn't a worthwile comment. Geez, give the man a break. Every comment doesn't have to be nobel prize winning material.
Quote from the article:
"Chaney said that John Pope, product manager for Microsoft Passport, called today to thank him for his actions, explain the problem, and offer to pay him back."
John Pope?!? Is this not a made up story?
By the way I seem coming across very strange foreign names. For example I saw a poem a few years ago and the author's family name was "Goodwriter".
Iam Skilledcoder
Lets face it, they cant do anything right. You cant even get a keyboard without that fucking Windoze key, I think I am the last person on the planet still using a keyboard that is without that branding. I think the MS Gestapo hunted down all of them and burned them like the books ala Nazi Germany. Verboten! They have traced this post! My keyboard is doomed!
- Click here to begin.
- Click here to begin.
- Click here to begin.
- Click here to begin.
- Click here to begin.
- Click here to begin.
- Click here to begin.
- Click here to begin.
- Click here to begin.
Lars -
I can't believe some people are saying this guy is coming off as greedy. He said he'd frame the check - who wouldn't playfully add "Unless it's a big one", especially since it's coming from Microsoft, one of the richest corporations on the planet. Having been interviewed a few times, reporters love to sieze on "throw-away" comments like his last one, which was probably started by a leading question at the end of the interview. Give the guy a break. Has he demanded money? Has he made a fuss? No. Some people on the previous slashdot post told him Microsoft would pay up big time - which is probably where he got the idea in the first place. I think it's a pretty neat way of getting 15 minutes of fame though :)
Paying for the domain was funny enough!! Now we have Microsoft thanking him for this!!! Something straight out of the Simpsons!!
Pointing out the value of restoring service to millions of Microsoft customers and the preservation of advertising revenues
So he not only paid their domain registor fee, but ALSO fixed some bugs in the "Channel Bar" of Internet Explorer?
Sorry, it was cheap, but I couldn't fight it.
"`Ford, you're turning into a penguin. Stop it.'" -THHGTTG
This event is worth skillions in PR value.
Me 'at's off to ya, Mr. Chaney!
You Da Man!!
--Time wounds all heels. --R.A. Heinlein
He and his wife just got a kid. Microsoft could throw in a Barney for the little one. (see it as an attempt to convert him to Windows at young age) :-)
But anyways, in my opinion Microsoft could reward him a bit more then the 35USD. In the end he was the one that ended their plight (probably way before they could have with the holidays and all.)
Use Adsense for Charity
I can wait until Microft lapses payment over microsoft.com... :-)
</DOMINATION>
Just my prospective... No nessisarly advocates or zellots heven and earth They are ok but they aren't perfict they are sereous togeather.. as a community.. Selfishly helpping others achive the goals "WE" wish to achive... Linux people have become the techno illresisable force.. Microsoft puts themselfs in direct obstruction They let themselfs be "evil" for far to long... D@mn, I've never seen so much pandering to moderators in such a poorly-worded, illiterate post. If I see the word "themselfs" I'm going to kill myself as quickly as Felinoid murdered the English language. You're preaching to the converted for the most part Felinoid. There were a dozen other ways he could have gotten his mail. He just paid for the domain registration to make MS look stupid. Funny, yes. A glowing show of kindness in the Linux community, no. I've got more good will and kindness in my ass than the Linux community as a whole. For the most part, Linux people are all talk. This guy is a Linux programmer, and the best solution he could find was paying $35??? If I paid $35 every time I came across a minor problem, I wouldn't have any money. Ugggghhhh!!! Oh well, continue fellating the moderators, everyone....
What you should do is get a life, instead of spending all your time in your basement laboratory honing your Slashdot-scraping Perl script, you dork.
http://www.whsc.vic.edu.au/home/st e06/glitch.gif