You may have had problems …

Image via Wikipedia

installing Windows 7 if you got through a promotion.

College students who took advantage of a “deal too sweet to pass up” have run into a bit of trouble.

The $29 electronic version of Windows 7 Home Edition sold for Microsoft (MFST) through Digital River (DRIV) doesn’t seem to install properly on some 32-bit Vista machines.

Apparently the download files weren’t properly packaged and when some users tried to “unload the box” they got an error that read:

“We are unable to create or save new files in the folder in which this application was downloaded“

If you were one of the unlucky ones there is a fix available that can be found here.

Kudos to Microsoft for acknowledging there was an issue.  Kudos as well for a fix being provided, though some would claim the fix is difficult.

Microsoft acknowledged the problem Thursday evening and by Friday was reportedly offering refunds. Meanwhile, however, Microsoft technicians are pointing users to a five-step Download Squad workaround (pasted below the fold) that might be enough to send students screaming to the nearest Apple Store. (Source: Windows 7 student upgrade hell – Fortune Brainstorm Tech)

But in all seriousness making an ISO really isn’t that hard.  Unless you’re Microsoft apparently.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Digital River makes total hash of Windows 7 upgrade offer (theregister.co.uk)
• More Windows 7 SNAFUs Appear (lockergnome.com)
• Windows 7 is impressive (robbiz1978.blogspot.com)
• Windows 7 upgrade paralyzes some PCs with endless reboots (infoworld.com)

Messaging innovation from Mozilla Labs

Recently Mozilla Labs introduced an exploration known as Raindrop.

Today we’re introducing Raindrop, an exploration in messaging innovation being led by the team responsible for Thunderbird, to explore new ways to use Open Web technologies to create useful, compelling messaging experiences.

We hope to lead and spur the development of extensible applications that help users easily and enjoyably manage their conversations, notifications, and messages across a variety of online services. A central principle behind Raindrop is that messaging should be personal — we want Raindrop to be people-centric both in how we process messages, and in how we can help give people control over their personal data and experiences.

When a friend’s link from YouTube or flickr arrives, your messaging client should be able to show the video or photos near or as part of the message, rather than rudely kicking you over to a separate browser tab. Notifications from computers and mailing lists should be organized for you, not clutter your Inbox or require tedious manual filter setup. It should be easy to smoothly integrate new web services into your conversation viewer entirely using open web technologies. (Source: Introducing Raindrop – Mozilla Labs)

The mission of Raindrop and how it works:

Raindrop’s mission: make it enjoyable to participate in conversations from people you care about, whether the conversations are in email, on twitter, a friend’s blog or as part of a social networking site.

Raindrop uses a mini web server to fetch your conversations from different sources (mail, twitter, RSS feeds), intelligently pulls out the important parts, and allows you to interact with them using your favorite modern web browser (Firefox, Safari or Chrome).

Raindrop comes with a built-in experience that bubbles up what conversations are important to you. You can participate in the experience by writing extensions that use standard open Web technologies like HTML, JavaScript and CSS. Or, use the lower level APIs to make your own experience. You have control over your conversations and how you want to play with them.

Sounds interesting.  Perhaps it’s time to head over to Mozilla Labs to check it out.

As with all explorations hosted by Labs, Raindrop is an open source project and everyone is welcome to participate in its design, development and testing. (Source: Raindrop – Mozilla Labs)

Related articles by Zemanta

• Raindrop – Mozillas new messaging experiment (slumpedoverkeyboarddead.com)
• Mozilla Raindrop to absorb Web conversations (vator.tv)
• Mozilla Raindrop Keeps Messaging Personal [News] (lifehacker.com)

The top blogging platform …

Image via Wikipedia

when the choice is WordPress or Typepad:

On Monday we asked all of you to vote between WordPress and Typepad in order to figure out which blogging platform should reign supreme. The fight wasn’t even close, though.

3,102 votes were cast, and with 87% of vote, WordPress destroyed Typepad. WordPress garnered 2,714 votes compared to Typepad’s mere 267 ballots (9%). 121 of you decided to call it a tie. (Source: Poll: WordPress overwhelms Typead in Reader Vote – Mashable, Social Media Guide)

I’d be curious if the results would be similar in a poll involving WordPress and Blogger.

Related articles by Zemanta

• What are Your Favorite 10 Blogging Tools? (problogger.net)
• 1 Essential Plugin for Your WordPress Blog (ariwriter.com)
• Best Least Known Blogging Tool (staygolinks.com)