Here’s a nugget from the Microsoft Support Site… 

How and when to contact Microsoft Customer Service

For information about replacement manuals, disks, drivers and service packs, product orders, policies related to copying software on additional computers, licensing, and product registration, Microsoft Customer Service is available Monday through Friday, from 6:30 A.M. to 5:30 P.M. Pacific time. To contact Microsoft Customer Service, call (800) 426-9400.

To register your product and to find information about product registration issues, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

https://register.microsoft.com

Article ID : 295539 Last Review : June 28, 2005 Revision : 4.0

This article was previously published under Q295539

… like me, for instance, as I have an Xbox 360 on order.

News: Microsoft Expects High Xbox 360 Sales… Microsoft Corp. expects to sell as many as 3 million Xbox 360 consoles in the first three months after launching the newest version of its video game machine, the financial chief of the giant software company’s Xbox business said on Tuesday.

More available from PC Magazine today.

I posted an entry on My MSN Spaces blog posted a quick thread in response to a request for advice on setting up audio. Net net (and no surprise given my past experience and affection for Roku Labs products), I like the Roku software and hardware combination approach, although the Sonos system is very slick and well integrated.

There is some great third-party software to introduce the concept of zones with Roku devices through third-party apps running on the master PC: one way to do this is through a handy application from http://www.cidero.com/. And there’s also “Visual Media Remote” (or “VisualMR” for short) which is designed to be a compact, PocketPC controller.

Wish list: I would like to find a better-integrated solution with the Microsoft Windows Media Center PC… it’d be great to have zones control driectly from my 10′ experience. Note to self to send a mail on Monday to the awesome Media Centre team (after checking the green button).

If only this had hit yesterday (Halloween) then you could have made some great classic film noir references, back to the days of the scientist yelling “it’s alive!” Only this time it’s Windows Live… and Office Live.

If you missed it, this morning we announced a company-wide software-based services that helps to create a seamless consumer experience, and held a technology preview of two new service offerings: Windows Live and Office Live.  Some of the new Windows Live offerings are accessible on-line at http://ideas.live.com. This is a great way to see our efforts in several on-line businesses come together which shoudl dramatically impact customer satisfaction in a positive way. 

And the work in Office Live, targeted at small-business customers (sign up at http://www.officelive.com), provides new internet-based services designed to help companies break out on to the Internet, provide improved collaboration and manage several key productivity tasks through subscription-based services. Initially, Office Live is targeted at small businesses, and can be integrated with Microsoft Office.

You can read the full press release here.

Tags: Microsoft, support, Office, Live, Office Live.

Courtesy of MSNBC, the FBI, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and several private firms have launched a Web site designed to help consumers spot Internet fraud. The “Looks Too Good To Be True” site launched yesterday, providing greater consumer awareness, education and warnings of the latest scams.

“Officials say they are overwhelmed with complaints about Net crime and are trying to enlist consumers’ help to stem the tide. Last year, the Internet Crime Complaint Center received 207,000 complaints, an increase of 66 percent over the previous year. The average consumer lost $220 per complaint.”

When you consider the daily bombardments I get from fraudulent e-commerce phishing mails claiming to be from on-line services and popular financial institutions with which I have no accounts, it’s a safe bet that the 207,000 complaints are only the tip of the iceberg.