Disk Inserted

If you recall a previous post, I warned everyone about a website that supposedly gives you “5,000 Microsoft Points an hour”. Well, thanks to the help of everyone who reported the site, the site has been permanently taken offline and Firefox has replaced it with this…

Denied! Looks like Mr. “I Work for Microsoft” is going to be “fishing” for a new hobby.

So many people on the internet fall victim to a preventable scam. It’s becoming far too common and out of control. Last night, as I was playing UNO on Xbox Live with a couple of friends, someone brought to my attention that there is a supposed website when one could receive up to “5000 Microsoft Points an hour”. Being skeptical, I visited the site and looked at the page source. After noticing that the script on the page captures your email address and password and then saves it to a publicly available .TXT file on his website, I immediately knew to not do it. Here’s what the site looks like…

Looks innocent enough, right? Wrong, the website claims…

I was recently hired to work at the Microsoft Corporation as a customer support agent.
I was given access to thousands of microsoft point codes and I figure this company is run by the richest man in the world…
So I took about fourty codes with me and I’m offering them out to you guys for free =)

All you have to do is sign in with your windows live ID and password then the points will be loaded onto your account.

Wow, for someone being a Microsoft employee, I would think you’d know to capitalize your company’s name and that the number “40” is spelt forty. A huge giveaway right there!

People’s information is being stolen and what’s even scarier is that they probably don’t even know.

If you look at the website’s page source, you’ll see a link to money.txt which is in fact, the results of the email addresses and passwords captured by the form on the page! Don’t believe me, take a look at this. It’s current as of 8:30 PM EST today. I edited out the passwords and IP address for security reasons. Oh, and the last entry is me just to show you what the functions of the form on the site are able to do.

If you find your email address or any of your credentials on this list, PLEASE change your password IMMEDIATELY. Failure to do so could result in your email account or personal information being compromised.

Zune Marketplace will be undergoing some scheduled maintenance on the 25th of this month. Not much has been said as to why or what’s in store, but according to an official email from Xbox Live…

As part of our continued efforts to improve the Zune Marketplace service on Xbox LIVE, Zune Marketplace will be undergoing scheduled maintenance for up to 24 hours, starting 10:00 P.M. (PT) on January 25, 2010. During that time, you will be unable to rent or purchase video content.

Your existing video library will continue to be available.

We apologize for this temporary inconvenience and thank you for your patience.

The Xbox LIVE Team

We’ll just have to wait and see what Microsoft has in store!

Good afternoon to all my fellow gamers and gamerettes out there. In case you were wondering why I have not posted anything in the last few weeks, my Xbox was sitting in a repair depot in The Lone Star State, being fixed for the red ring of death. For those of you that aren’t familiar with the red ring of death and your 360, I will enlighten all of you on the particulars. Usually, the red ring of death on your 360 signifies a hardware problem of some type, whether it be the X-clamp cracking and needing to be re-soldered, your console overheating, or any other numerous problems, the causes of the ring of death are many and varied. You will usually need to send your console out for repair if this should occur. Unfortunately, the closest repair station happens to be in Texas, so you’ll be Xbox-less for a few weeks.

First, allow me to share with all of you my experience in dealing with the ring of death, as this was my first time encountering this problem on my system.  I was watching one of my favorite movies,  The Waterboy, to be exact, when, in the middle of the movie the screen froze. I had watched this movie a lot of other times and never had this problem. As I had taken the DVD out to check it for scratches, I thought the CD was bad. It turned out there wasn’t a scratch on it. I then tried to see if National Treasure 2 would work. No luck. It was then that the upper left, lower left, and lower right quadrants on the 360 flashed red. I thought to myself  “well, that does it. I’ve been cursed with the red ring of death.”

After looking for the number for the Microsoft repair center for about fifteen minutes, I placed a call to Texas and after being on hold for ten minutes, wound up talking to a middle-eastern guy named Andrew (I doubt that was actually his real name) who informed me that the ring is a problem often associated with the 360 that could be fixed, and that thankfully, my system was still under warranty. Just as an aside, the ring of death was so common when the 360 was first released, that Microsoft had to place an extension on the RRoD warranty that came with the console. When you call the service techs, they will tell you to give them the serial number on the back of the console, and your email address.

They will then send you an email with instructions that include a shipping label for you to tape to a box to mail to Texas. When you send it out, firstly make sure you use a box with no writing on it whatsoever. you will also need to remove any games or movies inside the system, as well as disconnect the hard drive and remove any custom faceplates if you have them on there. BE WARNED THAT MICROSOFT CANNOT RETURN THOSE ITEMS TO YOU SHOULD YOU ACCIDENTALLY MAIL THEM! Along with the emailed shipping label, will be a tracking number. You can go to the Xbox support website and track the status of your console repair.

For more about how to prevent and fix the ring of death, click here.

Jonathan says: If you’re console is still under warranty, you’re crazy to try to fix it yourself. Send it in!

Through our sources close to Microsoft, we can now confirm that the Windows 7 RTM build that will be chosen over the next few days will be officially announced on July 13th, 2009, the same day as the WPC09 (Worldwide Partner Conference) will take place in New Orleans.

As I just mentioned, Microsoft is still in the process of testing and choosing from the RTM candidate builds as they need to ensure that all show-stopper bugs present in the OS have been eradicated to ensure as much of a smooth, bug-free release as possible. TechNet, MSDN, and other partner connections will be getting their hands on the RTM build shortly after, if not on the same day.

Ever since many got to experience Windows 7 with many of it’s new features and performance improvements particularly with 6801 and Rafael’s Blue Badge tool, most fell in love with the OS. Stay tuned for our in-depth Inside Windows 7 series, which will highlight and discuss many of 7’s improvements over Vista, along with our RTM build review complete with benchmarks once the build surfaces on TechNet.

Courtesy of GeekSmack

I must say, this is a brilliant stab at Microsoft!

According to Apple, there aren’t any PCs with fast processors and big screens that work without viruses, crashes or headaches. But folks, this isn’t reality, this is advertising. In fact, this is Apple’s first jab since Microsoft took off the gloves with its Laptop Hunters series of pokes against Apple. So grab a Coke (or Pepsi) and check the ad after the break.

Thanks to Engadget!