Looks like President Obama isn’t the only one in DC embracing technology:

Many faithful Googlers awoke Saturday morning to discover that any website they wanted to visit may corrupt their computer.  That of course was not the case, but for about 40 minutes Saturday morning, all Google search results returned the attention grabbing warning: “This site may harm your computer.”

According to their blog, the actual cause of the warning was human error.  While installing an update to the file that helps filter out the bad guys on the internet someone accidentally entered “/”.  That of course caused all websites to carry the ominous warning.

So it seams that even the most powerful search network engine on the planet, relyes on the least reliable entity… the human.

The inauguration of President Barack Obama has created many headline catching stories in the past week.  However, the on going quest to keep is BlackBerry addiction fed has captured more tech and media attention than most others.

The question was first raised soon after the election.  Then President-Elect Obama, was often seen feeding his BlackBerry addiction.  Whether it was in the back of his secured SUV,  aboard his jet, or in more stately surroundings, Mr. Obama is often seen with his trusty BlackBerry in the palm of his hand.  Soon after the election, however, questions about his ability to keep his link to the world began surfacing.

The primary concern seemed to stem around security and compliance with the Presidential Records Act that governs access to Presidentail records.  President Obama, known for his decisiveness vowed to not give up his link to he outside world while living in the White House.

So, after much debate, it was reported and confirmed by White House Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs at his first official press conference that President Obama will indeed keep his BlackBerry to the delight of many BlackBerry addictis who were no doubt feeling his anticipated withdraw pains.

Every coder knows that the only way to code is with some tunes.  Many coders and non coders alike had those tunes cut short early in the morning on December 31, 2008 when their 30 Gig Zune suddenly reboot and bricked itself.

Various media including: Ars Technica, The Consumerist, Gizmodo and even Microsoft’s media venture, MSNBC are reporting that owners of the Software giant Microsoft’s 30 Gig Zune MP3 player all over the world experienced the unexplained reboot and freeze.

Reportedly what you were doing with your Zune mattered less than when you were doing it.  Owners report that some were listening to music when the music stopped, the Zune rebooted and then froze at the start up logo.  Others have said that the Zune was connected to their PC when the device bricked itself.

While Microsft has not yet released details of the unexplained bricking, a spokesperson released a statement that read in part: “Customers with 30gb Zune devices may experience issues when booting their Zune hardware. We’re aware of the problem and are working to correct it. Sorry for the inconvenience, and thanks for your patience!” and urged Zune owners to monitor the Zune support site for further details and updates.

Based on reports scatter around the internet, the bug appears to only affect the 30 Gig version of the device with the latest firmware.  Some have reported that a battery pull will unbrick  affected Zunes.  However, it is unclear if the bug will repeat itself.

When first introduced on November 14, 2006 the Zune was touted as the “iPod killer”, however, the Zune has fallen short of that claim.  In addition, the Zune has been the target of criticism for Microsoft’s content management strategy that included Digital Rights Management (DRM) including privacy watchdog the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

This latest embarrassment has some wondering if this “Y2K in 2008″ glitch will be a “Zune killer.”  Only time shall tell.

Update:  Microsoft has posted more information and a potential fix at the Zune support site.  Apparently the bug was related to leap year.

As for the battery pull, Microsoft says: “This is a bad idea and we do not recommend opening your Zune by yourself (for one thing, doing so will void your warranty). However, if you’ve already opened it, do one of the following:

• Wait 24 hours from the time that you reset the Zune and then sync with your computer to refresh the usage rights; or
• Delete the player’s content using the Zune software (go to Settings, Device, Sync Options, Erase All Content), then re-sync it from your collection.”

Following on the heels of a recent DNS issue, SurpassHosting was hit with another challenge… a power outage at their offices in Orlando.  As a result, many customers are reporting longer than usual response times to tickets.  The data center appears to be unaffected and customer servers appear to be online.

Those tickets likely are increased as a result of the DNS issue which still has lingering propogation issues for some customers who ae seeing intermittent IP resolution.  Despite these challeges, most customers seem to be supporting SurpassHosting’s resolve as they work through these issues.  Talk about mulittasking!