Darren Straight's Live Space

09:15am:

Just turned my PC on and eek for some reason my domain name "darrenstraight.com" is coming up with this message:

This Account Has Been Suspended
Please contact the billing/support department as soon as possible.

I hurry up and load my Billing Page for this domain hosted at HostGator and within minutes I find the problem, it seems that my account has been suspended because I have an unpaid invoice of $179.40 for a Hosting Package (hosting another domain) I had already previously cancelled and had my money refunded for after it was auto-renewed back in January.

09:36am GMT (04:36am EST):

Time to submit a support ticket to the sales department!

10:36am GMT (05:36am EST):

Ok so only an hour has passed since I submitted the support ticked with a priority of "Critical" and it's still early morning in the US, but I really do hope someone reads my message soon, as my visitors are really going to be wondering what's happening soon! :(

12:11am GMT (07:11am EXT):

Great News, my site's back online!

Hello,

Your account is now online. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Regards,
James McHugh
HostGator.com

Representatives from nine of the world’s most reputable non-profit cause organizations gathered today to announce their involvement in the i’m Initiative and to discuss the role technology is increasingly playing in their efforts to reach new audiences.

This new initiative connects nine of the world’s most effective organizations dedicated to social causes to Windows Live Messenger customers. When joining the program at http://im.live.com/, customers will be asked to select the cause organization they are most passionate about to benefit from donations generated from their conversations on Windows Live Messenger.

Every time a customer has a conversation using i’m, Microsoft shares a portion of the program’s advertising revenue with the participating i’m Initiative organization of his or her choice. While there is no set cap on the amount each cause can receive, Microsoft will make a minimum $100,000 guaranteed donation to each of the nine organizations during the first year of the program.

Designed to empower people to make a difference without spending a dime (only open the the USA at the moment), the i’m Initiative will help support causes that are confronting some of the world’s most urgent social issues. The i’m Initiative aims to help the organizations involved to broaden their reach in a sustainable and new way, allowing the millions of people already using Windows Live Messenger today to be a part of the solution.

To join the i’m initiative today, follow these steps in Windows Live Messenger 8.1.

1. From your Contacts window, click the arrow next to your name and select “Options”.

2. Next to your name, type one of the following codes, including the asterisk, for the cause you’d like to support.

3. Click “OK” to complete the sign-up process. 

So I know quite a few of you have already put the i’m Initiative emoticon  in your name but I also know that there’s still plenty of you that haven’t joined the i’m Initiative cuase and don’t have the i’m Initiative emoticon  in your name, so let’s see if we can change that by tomorrow morning.

I’ll be checking tomorrow that you are making a difference!

The Windows Live Butterfly program, formerly the MSN® Butterfly program, is designed to recognize beta testers who excel at testing our Windows Live programs by submitting valuable feedback, validate and vote on others feedback and assist other users in the Microsoft beta newsgroups. Butterflies help out each individual product group, choosing to focus deeply on one particular program as it moves from Beta to Release and back to Beta again. Butterfly Experts go a step above and beyond, testing multiple products, time and time again, providing feedback where ever they go