ITinfo: Linux Programmer Saves Microsoft's Hotmail System

Linux Programmer Saves Hotmail

Holiday outage curtailed by good Samaritan

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Linux Programmer Saves Microsoft's Hotmail System

by Dave Murphy
ISSN 1535-3613

It's a bit ironic when you think about it, but because of Linux, the great thorn in Microsoft's side, Microsoft still has a free email system.

A lone Linux programmer from Tennessee, Michael Chaney, graciously paid the registration fee for the passport.com domain when it expired over the holiday weekend.

The passport.com site is used to verify usernames and passwords of Hotmail users. Hotmail is Microsoft's hugely popular free web-based email service. And the advertising revenue generated by Hotmail is staggering.

Tux, the Linux Penguin Chaney noticed a problem with the Hotmail site, and using his technical skills, tracked the problem down to the passport.com site. He checked InterNIC's website and found the registration fee for passport was expired, and he put the $35 registration on his personal credit card.

Way to go, Michael! We need more people like you in the world. If I can every help you, drop me a note, good Samaritans like you deserve a public pat on the back and a big thank you.

I hope the IT staff at Microsoft recognizes that they really screwed up. Missing the payment on an important domain is inexcusable. Mistakes like that should be overlooked only once. Online domain payment takes less than a minute, and at 35 bucks, it doesn't require a committee to authorize payment.

Now, all you IT managers out there who work with Linux, think of Michael and his consulting practice the next time you've got a job out for bid. Nice guys deserve recognition; nice consultants deserve work.

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References

Michael Chaney Consulting
Hotmail

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updated December 28, 1999
http://dgl.com/itinfo/1999/it991228.html