MSDN Going Down?
Sep
23
Written by:
9/23/2008 6:43 PM
Tried to download some software recently? Tried to figure out some coding problem by going to MSDN? Its just gotten tougher and much less private.
These days Microsoft heavies have dictated that to browse Microsoft's development information, one now needs to have their every movement tracked by Microsoft's Live.com. Basically a way for Microsoft to track everyone's movement (a la Google/DoubleClik, ADMT, Overture, and a host of newer anti-privacy companies like Phorm, NebuAd, and Frontporch), Live.com is Microsoft's new hope to track your every movement on the Internet, and to tie anonymous cookies to a definite person.
Unfortunately Live has got big problems. Like Microsoft's much maligned Passport Serve that it stemmed from, Live's tracking system is error prone, slow, and ultimately has blocked me repeatedly over the past months from getting my work done. This weekend MSDN's subscriber download service was down for days (not seconds as one would expect) due to Live.com issues - and I still can't download SQL Server 2008...
I just tried going to www.MSDN.com (which still redirects to msdn.microsoft.com) but which now gets "You do not have permission to view this directory or page." To me, this feels like Microsoft is just harassing developers. I have always been a proponent of Microsoft's well-documented, consistently designed (if not always perfectly well running) APIs - more so than their brutal corporate policies to potential competitors. I suspect the corporate culture there is taking over the old smart-thinking, innovate developer culture. Too Bad.