Microsoft Forgets To Renew Hotmail.co.uk

Saint Aardvark writes "The Register is reporting that Microsoft forgot to renew their hotmail.co.uk domain. A Good Samaritan renewed it for them, but was unable to get a response from anyone at Microsoft. Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it."

The Obvious ObSimpsons Quote

[LittleGuy]

D'OH!

Good Samaritan..

[epiphani]

Good Samaritan my foot.

"Hey, I save this domain for you. It'll only cost you $60,000".

Is somebody gonna lose their job???

[mesach]

It seems to me that the has happened at least 2 times. I hope someone loses their jjob over this.

Then maybe I can find one, I can make sure that all the domains that microsoft owns are renewed every time they are due, I bet they own a large enough number to make it a full time job too.

Such an opportunity

[freerangegeek]

It's too bad the individuals who legally registered these domains (hotmail.co.uk and passport.com) didnt' see fit to turn them over to the EFF or FSF. Even if only $35 was paid by Microsoft to retrieve them, the irony of making Microsoft pay those organizations would have been rich and wonderous.

Why, oh, why didn't they redirect to

[Anonymous Coward]

Goatse.cx?

I mean, that would guarantee a response from Micro$oft....

Re:Good Samaritan..

[Rude Turnip]

That, or the individual has a Hotmail account and couldn't afford to lose access to his mail.

Hmm...

[JoeLinux]

I say it should have been redirected to the goatsecx guy...that'd be an interesting turn of events for some 8-year-old trying to check his mail, eh?

Re:Good Samaritan..

[EMH_Mark3]

So he pays for a domain but he's too cheap to pay for a POP3 address? Right.

Right/left?

[grasshoppa]

Right hand, this is left hand, come in, over.

Re:They're very lucky

[anonymous loser]

How could you pass up a name like hotmail for a gay porn site?

hotmale

[rf0]

Prehaps someone should just register hotmale.co.uk and point it to them

Rus

Re:why did he renew it?

[pclminion]

I don't know why he renewed it this time, but back in 1999 when this happened before, Michael Chaney renewed it because he had a Hotmail email account and dammit, he needed to check his email!

Makes sense to me!

Not a shining review...

[siphoncolder]

... for Microsoft Outlook's "Reminder" function.

Forget the goatse.cx guy..

[Shenkerian]

Imagine having rights to read all the email to *@hotmail.co.uk.

Re:They're very lucky

[Tim C]

Apparently you haven't been to hotmale.com Don't ask how I know this.

That's okay - these days, there's very little shame associated with not being able to type...

Re:Life without Hotmail

[praedor]

Actually, I think your butterfly flapping its wings will only cancel out my butterfly if it is flapping 180 degrees out of phase with mine. Otherwise, me thinks that your butterfly and my butterfly may be additive, at least during various flapping cycles (if you are slightly out of phase with mine). YOU, with your flapping butterfly's wings, mis-timed in relation to mine is causing the drought in the Western USA and leading to the wildfire danger.

I had my butterfly timed so as to increase the precipitation this year and through the winter but you went and dicked it up in an attempt to cancel mine out (leading to a normal precip year). Instead, YOU are inducing an especially dry spell.

Shut down your butterfly dickweed!

The reward...

[theendlessnow]

A free copy of Microsoft Money and MSN!! Oh boy!!

Want to know what really happened?

[shik0me]

They were trying to renew the domain, but IE kept crashing :D

Re:They're very lucky

[prof187]

Yeah, I have a friend who wanted to buy some rollerblades from Dick's Sporting Goods online. So naturally he goes to www.dicks.com. I think he's still scarred to this day.

Re:Next week on Slashdot ...

[tibike77]

Miscosoft forgets to wash hands after using the toilet?
:)

Re:How nice

[Some Bitch]

Oops, guess posting as AC was a little pointless now :D

Time for a dupe on this one :)

[Anonymous Coward]

Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.

I'm waiting for this sentence to be real funny tomorrow - when this story is being posted again.

Re:Why it's being given back to Microsoft.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Microsoft has more lawyers than God"
God has NO lawyers. They all belong to Satan (i.e. Microsoft)!

Re:Good Samaritan..

[ConceptJunkie]

Yeah, they probably lose that much money a day in wages spent for employees stuck with a blue screen of death.

Need a TODO list

[SomeOtherGuy]

Miscrosoft todo list:

1. Fix bugs in IE CSS support
2. Develop a hack proof Web Server
3. Kill Linux
4. Purchase OS X machines
5. Fire guy that photos our loading docks
6. Register all htomail domains
7. Breakfast at tiffanies
8. Laundry
9. Supplies computers to 3rd world countries that don't even have electricity.
10. Sleep

Of course...

[Anonymous Coward]

this wouldn't be a problem if Microsoft had complete control over DNS, or the whole internet.

There's a point there somewhere. Hell if I know what it is, though.

Re:Good Samaritan..

[daveashcroft]

Hey! If it wasnt for hotmail i would have NEVER managed to increase my penise size 3-6 inches guaranteed. Thank GOD for generic V!AGRA ;-)

Re:WHAT THE F$%!

[rgraham]

Part of the story is that they were trying to contact Microsoft to transfer it back to them and Microsoft wouldn't pay attention. It's difficult to be a good samaritan some days...

What a wasted opportunity for a perfect "Ask Slashdot" question. I could see it now: "Ok, so I now have in my possession a rather popular domain name, passport.com, and I'm wondering what to do with it? Any /.'s out there have a good suggestion or two?"

Re:Is somebody gonna lose their job???

[Patrik_AKA_RedX]

I hope someone loses their jjob over this.

I hope not. Makeing such a mistake would be a very good way to learn to be more carefull with your job. If they hire some one new, he might make the same mistake.

Re:They're very lucky

[geekoid]

akes you want to get www.freepornsexhereforyou.com and use it as a non-adult site.
that will teach them.

Filters?

[commodoresloat]

This brings up the question of filtering websites. There are a lot of filters available that filter out adult sites for those who want to do that. My problem is that when I am looking for porn I often get sidetracked with news, weblogs, statistics, speeches, advertising, political websites, and other insignificant things that I would like to filter out. Hasn't someone built a proxy that will filter out all this extraneous information so I can focus on the important things on the web?

Re:Why it's being given back to Microsoft.

[Anonymous Coward]

Microsoft has more lawyers than God

Only because no lawyers make it to heaven.