Sorry, there’s a problem with Hotmail right now…
Hotmail seems to be having an outage. Anyone else see this?
They said they have added new features, so please refresh the browser…
2/14/12 @ 10:30pm Pacific
[update: this seems to be a big massive global one.]
[update: While I have no way of knowing the cause of this, I suspect that we can help the Microsoft data center Geeks by giving them time between login attempts.]
Fixed here
[Update @ 11:56pm Pacific refreshing the page (press the F5 key) restored my Inbox (also someone in Rumania reported success).]
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• About Tech Paul
I am a Retired computer & network technician. I used to think the machines were pretty cool. Now I don’t.
They’re anything but.
I regularly posted how-to’s and tricks & tips and general computing advice here starting in 2007. (Use the Search tool to find answers. But be aware, many are rather dated.) Sometimes I answered (your) specific questions in an article if I believed the answer was generally helpful to “everyone”. All the writing you see was my own, typos and all. There always is/was an implied “IMHO” in what you see here.
Note: You are responsible for using this blog and its content. I am in no way liable for any losses caused by user error, viruses and/or other malware, hardware or software failure, or any other conceivable reason.
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Tech - for Everyone 
Yeah, is happening to me to. I’m in California.
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Sir or Ms,
Me too.
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me too. i m in dubai
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when the problem will be solve dear brother ..i need it on urgent bases !
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same happening with me..I am in Isb, Pakistan
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I am getting this garbage up in Oregon.
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This happened to me too. I am in New York, on Long Island more precisely.
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Wow…
That’s quite a bit bigger area than I expected… (more than one server, that’s fersher!)
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i am getting this notification … in hell.
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Me too
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It is happening to me too…I am in Colorado…refreshed my browser…still giving me the same message.
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Me too..I’m in Nova Scotia Canada
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Yep here in Australia
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Yes, me too. I’m in Latin America.
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Same here. On East Coast (USA).
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the same SF
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I have the same problem in Minnesota
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yes, in India too
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It is happening to me also, I am in Mexico =(
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Same here. Belgium.
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This is also happening to me on 3 different accounts. I can sign in to Messenger but cannot read my email. I’m in Mexico City by the way.
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the same, Riyadh
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It’s happening to me too. I’m in my mothers womb with a blackberry.
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very good humor!
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me too – australia, queensland
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This is happening to me too.
“Sorry, there’s a problem with Hotmail right now
Hotmail wasn’t able to complete this request. Microsoft may contact you about any issues you report.”
I’m in Northern California. What is going on?
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raquii,
Any “guess” on my part is utter speculation, but I suspect there has been a type of cascading failure (the more people try to get on, the worse the trouble gets) and it will be some time before access is restored.
I further suspect that we can help by giving them some time between login attempts.
But I really have no idea… and I doubt they’ll tell us.
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Yes Guatemala too!
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the same …in Switzerland
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Same here in Canada. What a load of shit!
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same same Vietnam
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Same here!!! I am from Singapore (Asia is not spared too).
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me to, Florida
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Same in Sweden…
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Wow (again). This really is big…
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Moscow, Russia. Same.
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same here. I am in Utah. Does anyone know what is going on?
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Same here in TEXAS
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Same here….from Mauritius….:S
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It’s the end of the world as we know it…and I feel fine… :)
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Great song.
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Outage!!!- WA State – Pandemic!!!
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Same problem…Mauritius
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Same issue in Malaysia
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Same here in South Korea.
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Can’t access hotmail in New Zealand!
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its happening to me too, I am in Brisbane
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Same issue in South Korea
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same here in Afghanistan
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same here in vancouver canada
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Happining in Ohio, too
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same in Kuwait !!
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Same here in India
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same here in Japan (Tokyo)…
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same here in ontario canada
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Same, in Vancouver, Canada.
how come I can log in with my iphone but not my computer??
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That is a very good question!
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Same here in UAE
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It is still down – status here – https://status.live.com/
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Same here, in Tennessee. 1:17am
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Happening in Athens, Greece too.
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Even in New Mexico! Go figure.
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Same here – New Zealand
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same in South Africa
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yes here in australia;.
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same in hong kong
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By looking at the IP’s of these comments, I decided this was indeed a ‘global’ outage at about.11pm (Pacific).
Central America, Africa, Asia, Pacific Rim, Middle East, Scandinavia, N. America, Down Under…….. haven’t heard from S. America.. and Iceland..
Wow. How’s that for an “oopsie”?
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Same here !! I’m in Houston TX.
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same in london
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same in south korea, way to go microsoft -_-;
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same here in British Columbia, Canada…this seems to be a true world-wide event…hmm…
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Same thing in France. Should we start to be worried about it?
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Giuseppe,
That would depend entirely on the cause of the failure. (But I don’t know how worrying can help a body..)
If it is due to some new code (aka “a new feature”/update) they (Microsoft) introduced, than, no, I shouldn’t think so.
If it is due to some new code some hacker (or hacker group) put in, than yes. I think we could have cause to be concerned. To say the least.
But.. at this point, we need Microsoft to tell us. I am just a Hotmail user, like you. I have no “insider knowledge” of this.. um, er, “event”.
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same here in Switzerland
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wa state too!
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yes here in Hong Kong too
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Nothing in Nigeria either… or in New Zealand.
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Australia also –
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same here in Bosnia
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I can’t access hotmail too… I’m in Melbourne, Australia
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Same here in the moon.
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same here in the Netherlands (Holland). [expletive deleted] now I cannot check my email while being at work [expletive deleted]
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Bosnia also
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Same in Tacoma, Washington
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Yep – same problem – New Zealand
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Same in Birmingham, UK.
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Yes problem is in Cyprus too!
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Same in Montenegro
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Yep, same here, Napa, CA US
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Still happening here in the USA. I’m in WV.
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hotmail collapsed???? pff same thing which make me very angry..
temporary in moscow..
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Southern California, frustrating and very bad timing!!!!
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same here – mauritius
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Man, this so strange.Its happening also to me and my friends here in Africa.Angola
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Seattle here, and as many professionals (engineers) I know that work for Microsoft, the MASSIVE OVERTIME and projects never-ending may be finally manifesting……one big hug “*#!&#&^” !!!!!!! But on Valentine’s Day…..reallllly?
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same in France
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I m having the same problem
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here in China also!
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Same in Tacoma, Wa
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Same here im in Lima, Peru
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Ah. South America is confirmed.. thx
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why hotmail is not working anywhere in iNDA ON 14TH FEBRUARY,2013?
WE TRIED TO FIND OUT THE CAUSE BUT GOT NO ANSWER FROM HOTMAIL.
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I started having this problem right after I added the “Windows Ad Blocker” extension in Firefox.
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Osc,
That is one FF add-on I was unfamiliar with (but will look at).
(I’d be flabbergasted if the two are in any way related. I get the same in FF and IE on different machines.)
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+1 in Vancouver BC
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PS – it’s now 15th Feb here (almost midday) in Mauritius :)
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The same in Catalonia (free from spain)
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I thought I had a virus or was hijacked. Uninstalling and reinstalling Firefox didn’t help. I removed the “Windows Ad Blocker” and that didn’t help. My gmail works. I HATE HOTMAIL. Unfortunately a lot of my personal stuff is on it.
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LOL @ Buzz Aldrin (the moon) :D
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Problems here in Victoria, Canada…..
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1:40 am Feb 15th in Kenora, Ontario, still not working for me. How about a note on the main page letting us know what’s going on, hotmail??
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Sir or MS,
I assure you that if Microsoft calls, I will pick myself up off the floor, and post what they tell me.. but I’m not holding my breath.
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Same in Ploiesti, Romania
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Lima, Peru too.
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same in japan
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Soved by browser refresh indeed.
Thank you :)
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V,
Mine just came back with a refresh (press the F5 key) as well. (@11:52 Pacific)
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Thousands of accounts on web-based e-mail system Hotmail have been compromised in a phishing attack, software giant Microsoft has confirmed.
BBC News has seen a list of more than 10,000 e-mail accounts, predominantly originating from Europe, and passwords which were posted online.
Microsoft said it had launched an investigation.
Phishing involves using fake websites to lure people into revealing details such as bank accounts or login names.
“We are aware that some Windows Live Hotmail customers’ credentials were acquired illegally and exposed on a website,” said a Microsoft spokesperson.
“Upon learning of the issue, we immediately requested that the credentials be removed and launched an investigation to determine the impact to customers.”
Quick change
Graham Cluley, consultant at security firm Sophos, told BBC News the published list may just be a subset of a longer list of compromised accounts.
“We still don’t know the scale of the problem,” he told BBC News.
Technology blog neowin.net was the first to publish details of the attack. It said the accounts were posted on 1 October to pastebin.com, a website commonly used by developers to share code.
Although the details have since been removed, BBC News and Neowin has seen a list of 10,028 names beginning with the letters A and B.
BBC News has confirmed that the accounts are genuine and predominantly originate in Europe.
The list included details of Microsoft’s Windows Live Hotmail accounts with email addresses ending hotmail.com, msn.com and live.com.
Mr Cluley advised Hotmail users to change their password as soon as possible.
“I’d also recommend that people change the password on any other site where they use it,” he said.
Around 40% of people use the same password for every website they use, he added.
Hotmail is currently the largest web-based e-mail service.
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Tim,
Uh.. this is 3 years old… (Oct, 2009)
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I DIG YOUR WEBSITE MAN.
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Osc,
Thanks. I post daily, and there’s over 1,700 articles here.
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Hey guys, my hotmail is up and running again…..first I accessed Send Mail, then Calendar, then Contacts, then Inbox. Then I signed off and signed back in and VOILA! up and running……who would’ve figured?
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Osc,
Not bad downtime, considering the scale…
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Im back up again here in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil…
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I had the same problem in Santa Clara, CA since 11 pm PST but i got it back 1 min ago Good luck to you all! I’m totally stop using Hotmail. Switching to Gmail
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zd,
Though it has been a while.. Gmail has outages too. All web-based services can/will/do.
(That’s just one reason why I am not a fan of “cloud computing”..)
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Hit F5 and worked for me :)
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:)
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same her in orlando and i got an essay to do!
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eddie rp,
Still down? Try pressing the F5 key. Many areas seem to be back online.. but yours may be taking a bit longer..
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Started working now.
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here in Afghanistan Qala i naw it works
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working now… :D
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Folks,
Here is an Microsoft explanation of (quite) recent events, which may have had something to do with tonight’s outage: What happened in the recent Hotmail outage
But this article from just a week ago blames (a different outage?) on DNS server propagation..: Hotmail, MSN outage sparks doubts about Microsoft cloud
I’ll keep my eye out for more.
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Apologies
Folks,
Some comments were marked by WordPress’ spam filter, and I accidentally clicked “delete all” instead of “approve all”.. and I cannot get them back.
My only excuse is it is quite late here and I am groggy-tired.
Sorry about that.
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Hello to everyone who visited here during the outage. This article generated a heck of a lot of comments. I’d like to see all of you around here commenting on TechPauls posts on a daily basis. Some days we get a good conversation going that opens the door to other tech questions and discussions. I know it gives our host a good recharge of his blogger batteries, and we might even learn a thing or two…
My hotmail account was also down but is back up and running again… Midwest USA.
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kstinman,
That would be neato-keen, wouldn’t it? But the reality is those folks were all “search engine referrals” – people like me who wanted to know if their login problem was happening to others, or just to them.. so they “googled it”.
Once they get the answer, they’re gone (as a rule)(Nature of the game).
On the brighter side, I did get one compliment; and several signed up for email subscriptions.. probably a half-dozen added Tech – for Everyone to their Bookmarks/Favorites (that’s a guess). Also, as I was the only one who posted anything about the outage (I still don’t see any headlines) I did, briefly, receive hundreds of “hits” per minute – which the little robotic bean counters at Search Engine Headquarters note, and that helps my “Website Ranking”.
For what that’s worth. (Aka 0.0¢)
Watching the comments come in was a good example of Web 2.0 in action, and it was kinda cool hearing from folks around the globe.. but it kept me up way past my bedtime. Ha!
I do hope your comment stimulates some thought in people, and I do appreciate your taking the time to post it. Thank you.
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Aww, man, I missed all the excitement. But then, I haven’t had a Hotmail account since MSN bought it eons ago.
Thumbs up @ kstinman.
For the next week and a half I am going to be in and out…Family stuff. I will try to comment when I can.
This is one of the reasons I support Indie developers instead of the mainstream over priced game developers…Martin Kool – Game Developer Gives 7-Year-Old Best Birthday Present Ever
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delenn13,
Pretty neat!
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