Details here .

Do you know what happens when you lose your gmail account – I mean – when it is disabled? You can’t access any other Google “products” you have registered with that account ……

Any-way – I am TRYING to get access to SOMEONE at Google/Gmail to find out what happened – It has been a resounding disaster so far.

I eventually found a link that I could send a message to gmail technical support with.

This generated a form email response which was useless in the extreme and directed me to the usual ‘help’ page .

I therefor decided to try to google the problem (ok I am slow…) There is a google Gmail problem group!

It seems I am not the only one who has developed this problem out of the blue!

A very helpful post outlines multiple possible approaches. In particular – using this page to lodge the error.

I have duelly done all this…. Now waiting.

It also seems there are a few individuals in the group with some form of recognised integrity that Gmail/Google listen to. MAYBE they will be able to help too.

NOW it seems to be a waiting game. I HAVE other Gmail accounts I have since opened BUT it is a pain changing all my registration email links to point to theses AND I have lost my Vanity Gmail address!

Next task – upload all my saved Email to a NEW Gmail archive – stay tuned!

Logged into one of my Gmail accounts yesterday – well actually I didn’t! “Account disabled“!! WTF!

Followed the link to some “help” page which was useless. non-specific – “have you lost your password” type ‘help’.
No Idea why it was disabled. No reason to think I violated the TOS. Almost all my mail is incoming, I don’t use it outgoing particularly.

Now I find ALL my Gmail accounts are disabled

As I mentioned HERE I use Gmail as my archiving system for mail and have done so since that post was published. Now it seems some 2500 archived posts are inaccessible.

NOT HAPPY

Naturally, I went looking for a solution, and that Included posting on the forums at WordPress.org.

I quickly found one other person with the same issue (so I was relieved to see it wasn’t just me!) and then a solution appeared.

Hats off to Spencerp for providing the solution.

As usual, the difference in interpretation of CSS by different browsers is a pain. Hopefully IE 7 will be more compliant.

I must admit – an advantage of open-source software is that there is usually someone who has the solution for you

I have detailed the process and the quirks on my wordpress development blog at Wetscalpel. If you haven’t tried it, give it a go. I think it was worth the “effort”.

Whilst not wanting to take anything away from the product (see below), it is a trend that has caught us out, on and off over the years. Vapour-ware is still alive and well.
Viral marketing is also part of this process, and I note that several, potentially influential, sites have now been attracted to comment on it. This includes TechCrunch and Lorelle on wordpress (yep – you influential girrrlll!)

I gather it has already been slashdotted (twice!) and repeatedly Dugg as well. Not bad for a concept that – as far as I know – hasn’t even reached beta testing

Of course, I probably wouldn’t have heard of it – or be blogging about it – without the “viral information network”.

As for the product itself? BRING IT ON! Sounds great – one of the reasons that the “information virus” is spreading I guess. In short – a firefox extension that is a full featured (?) Bittorent client.

So – all the hype pre-release – good or bad? I’m undecided. You?

Anyway, time to play with the new release

And thanks Carla!

SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT – cp.sonybmg.com/xcp
We share the concerns of consumers regarding these discs, and we are instituting a program that will allow consumers to exchange any CD with XCP software for the same CD without copy protection. We also have asked our retail partners to remove all unsold CDs with XCP software from their store shelves and inventory. We will make further details of this program available shortly.

We deeply regret any inconvenience this may cause our customers and we are committed to making this situation right. It is important to note that the issues regarding these discs exist only when they are played on computers, not on conventional, non-computer-based CD and/or DVD players.

Our new initiatives follow the measures we have already taken, including last week’s voluntary suspension of the manufacture of CDs with the XCP software. In addition, to address security concerns, we provided to major software and anti-virus companies a software update, which also may be downloaded at http://cp.sonybmg.com/xcp/english/updates.html. We will shortly provide a simplified and secure procedure to uninstall the XCP software if it resides on your computer.

Let me add my thoughts..

They say:

We share the concerns of consumers

Translation:

Bummer we’ve been found out…..

They say:

We deeply regret any inconvenience this may cause our customers

Translation:

The root kit failed to hide well enough….

They say:

we are committed to making this situation right.

Translation:

Quick – lets try to save our asses!

They say:

We will make further details of this program available shortly.

Translation:

We will hide the details on an impossible to reach site AND harvest your email address whilst infecting you with an Activex control…

They say:

last week’s voluntary suspension of the manufacture of CDs with the XCP software.

Translation:

All the bad publicity was killing our sales!

They say:

We will shortly provide a simplified and secure procedure to uninstall the XCP software

Translation:

We have a new and undetectable way to infringe your privacy AND break the law…

Sony, you really think you will re-establish trust after this?

I SAY:

Fool me once – shame on you – fool me TWICE shame on me…….

Boing Boing: Sony anti-customer technology roundup and time-line

Puts the whole business into perspective wrt the time frame. SO much has happened in a short period of time!