Linux worker saved MS!! LOL!

["Sarah Owel" <sarah_owel@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hotmail Crippled Over Missed Bill


12/29/99


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LOS ANGELES, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp., the software giant worth an 
estimated $600 billion, said on Wednesday its free e-mail service had been 
partially crippled because it forgot to pay a $35 bill.
Some users of Microsoft's Hotmail service were unable to access their 
accounts over the Christmas weekend, Kathy Gill, a Microsoft spokeswoman 
confirmed.

The glitch was caused after Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft failed to pay a 
$35 fee to registration company Network Solutions for rights to the Internet 
domain name passport.com, which verifies user names and passwords for 
Hotmail and other services, Gill said.

Hotmail has more than 52 million users around the world, but Microsoft said 
it was unclear how many had experienced problems.

In an ironic twist, the missed billing was discovered and paid by Michael 
Chaney, an Antioch, Tenn.-based programmer who works with the Linux 
operating system, an upstart competitor to Microsoft's Windows platform.

On his Web site at http:/www.doublewide.net, Chaney said he paid the fee 
with his personal Mastercard on Christmas morning and had received a call on 
Tuesday from a Microsoft executive thanking him for fixing the problem.

Microsoft said it would refund Chaney the $35, although Chaney hinted his 
bailout of the world's biggest software company was worth more.



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