Even though the Microsoft Zune is extremely new, people are out here trying to make it do more than it does out of the box. Here is a list of hacks that I have collected:
I am usually pretty skeptical of these free offers but you be the judge! Website The Power of Together says that it will give you a copy of Windows Vista Business Edition and Office 2007 just for watching a three webcasts for each product.
It kind of has that whole “free gift for watching a time share presentation” feel to it but if you can handle sitting through the webcasts, it could be worth your time. But there is some fine print and here it is:
The Power Together Campaign consists of two (2) offers, the Windows Vista Business Offer and the Microsoft Office Professional 2007 Offer, and is open only to legal residents of the 50 United States (includes District of Columbia) 18 years of age or older. You are not eligible to receive these offers if you or your employer is a participant in the Microsoft Partner Program or the Microsoft Developer Network. To be eligible to receive Windows Vista Business, you must register at www.powertogether.com and participate in at least three (3) qualifying web casts and/or virtual lab sessions within 30 days of registration. To be eligible to receive Microsoft Office Professional 2007, you must register at www.powertogether.com and participate in at least three (3) qualifying web casts and/or virtual lab sessions within 30 days of registration. In order to register at www.powertogether.com, you may be asked to provide personal information including name, telephone, and address. All personal information gathered during registration will be subject to Microsoft’s privacy policy. Limit one gift per person per Offer. These offers are non-transferable. These offers expire on February 28, 2007, or while supplies last, and are not redeemable for cash. Taxes, if any, are the sole responsibility of the recipient. If you are eligible for and register to receive both gifts, you must complete a W-9 (Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification) form prior to receipt of the second gift. Any gift returned as non-deliverable will not be re-sent. Please allow 6 - 8 weeks for shipment of your gift(s).
I decided to do some research and looked up who owns powertogether.com. This is what I found:
powertogether.com resolves to 66.150.160.24
IP Address 66.150.160.24 is located in USA
Domain Whois Results:
Domain Name.......... powertogether.com
Creation Date........ 2006-10-03
Registration Date.... 2006-10-03
Expiry Date.......... 2007-10-03
Organisation Name.... Philip Colebrook
Organisation Address. Flat 13, Inner City House
Organisation Address.
Organisation Address. London
Organisation Address. SE14 6QP
Organisation Address. -
Organisation Address. GREAT BRITAIN (UK)
Admin Name........... Philip Colebrook
Admin Address........ Flat 13, Inner City House
Admin Address........
Admin Address........ London
Admin Address........ SE14 6QP
Admin Address........ -
Admin Address........ GREAT BRITAIN (UK)
Admin Email.......... pcolebrook@gmail.com
Admin Phone.......... 44.2086915308
Admin Fax............
Tech Name............ CBS Registry
Tech Address......... Box 3396
Tech Address.........
Tech Address......... Stockholm
Tech Address......... SE 103 68
Tech Address......... -
Tech Address......... SWEDEN
Tech Email........... registry@melbourneitcbs.com
Tech Phone........... 46.855340200
Tech Fax............. 46.855340201
Name Server.......... ns1.msft.net
Name Server.......... ns5.msft.net
Name Server.......... ns2.msft.net
Name Server.......... ns3.msft.net
Name Server.......... ns4.msft.net
Things look a bit strange with the DNS information. The server is in the US, the administrator is in Great Britain, and the technical contact is in Stockholm. To add to the strangeness, the DNS servers (msft.net) are registered to Microsoft.
I’d be interested to see if anyone signed up for this actually gets their copies of the software. Let me know in the comments.
Today, we look at configuring disks in FreeNAS. Since FreeNAS is a NAS, disk configuration is extremely important. This article walks you through all of the steps required to initialize, format, and mount your disks so that they are ready to use in FreeNAS.
One of the things that ticked me off about the latest round of Microsoft Office beta testing was that you needed to pay Microsoft to try out Office 2007 so that you could tell them where the problems were. Is it just me or does Microsoft have this backwards? I was under the impression that someone paid me to do work for them, not the other way around!
So, I said, “Forget it!” and figured that I would leave it until it came out. After all, I am just a poor blogger.
But, that wait appears to have ended sooner than I thought. And, without having to even shell out any of my hard earned money. Microsoft is letting you test drive the 2007 Microsoft Office Suite online. You can try out:
Microsoft Office Access 2007
Microsoft Office Excel 2007
Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007
Microsoft Office OneNote 2007
Microsoft Office Outlook 2007
Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager
Microsoft Office Outlook Web Access
Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007
Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007
Microsoft Office Publisher 2007
Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007
Microsoft Office Visio 2007
Microsoft Office Word 2007
So go give it a try but be sure to use Internet Explorer because the Citrix client is not too (Fire)foxy.
Since last week caused me some concern due to the sudden removal and disappearance of my website (see The Worst Hosting Experience!), I was not able to create all of the articles that I wanted to last week. So, I will be continuing FreeNAS Week this week as well so that I can get all of the information to you that I think is useful.
