Seriously – they’re only a massive multi-billion dollar company. Who can blame them from excluding Tasmania from the drop down menu to select what state you live in on the order form? What’s more, who can blame them for replying to tipster Ben’s email with a generic response saying that the cause was probably the fact that he didn’t have cookies enabled? And who can blame them for not actually fixing the issue after a couple of weeks?

And because this is the internet, I should probably spell out that I was being sarcastic, and that this lack of service (and recognition of Tasmania) is atrocious from the Big M. Sure, there may not be anywhere near as many students in our southernmost state, but it’s really an issue that could have been resolved quickly and easily with a minimum of effort.

Here’s a copy of the response from Microsoft tipster Ben had after informing Microsoft of their mistake:

Dear bclea,

Thank you for ordering from the Windows 7 Student Offer online store.

We apologize for the delay. Please attemp a new order.

The message that you received indicates that there are no items in your shopping cart.

Commonly, this is due to your browser not accepting cookies. A cookie is a small file written to your hard drive by some web sites. We
require that a cookie be set on your computer so that you can access our secure server for processing your credit card transaction, downloading your software, and checking your shippable order status information.

For information on setting your browser to accept cookies, please visit:

http://www.microsoft.com/info/cookies.htm

Once you have updated your settings, please close all windows, and restart your browser.

To attempt a new order, go to:
http://windows7.digitalriver.com/store/mswpau/en_AU/ResetShoppingCart

Any other Tasmanian students suffering this issue?

[Microsoft Student offer]

TV Tonight is reporting that Southern Cross 10 has today announced that they’ll be flicking the switch on July 2 at 7pm for the new One HD channel in regional NSW, Queensland, ACT and Victoria. They’ve also stated that Tasmanian viewers will get the channel at the same time. It will be broadcast on channel 50 (weird) and will be subject to digital coverage.

TV Tonight also has a series of regional coverage maps for each of the eastern states (and territories) except Tasmania, so if you’re wondering if you’ll get the new channel, make sure you check out the TV Tonight post.

[TV Tonight]

[Streetview - Thanks Jack!]

The filters are designed to filter out those net nasties that could possibly harm your children, like porn and swear words, and are originally planned to be operated in a closed environment by Enex Testlab. The closed test is expected to be completed by June 30, with Live trials to happen after that.

If you do happen to be a Tasmanian, the news gets a little bit worse. The trials aren’t opt-in – you’ll need to opt out if you want to spend your days watching pornotube the freedom to choose what you want to experience online.

The Government has decided to go ahead with the trial, despite the fact that a report by the Australian Communications and Media Authority conceded that the filtering would probably be ineffectual against Web 2.0 services, and that education was ultimately the best way to protect children from online nasties.

But I think Ars Technica put it best when they said:

The pilot program in Tasmania will undoubtedly expose the flaws in the
program, but there is no guarantee that lawmakers will listen. The
Australian government’s complete disregard for the prior studies on the
inefficacy of ISP-level filtering make it seem clear that this
filtering plan is politically motivated rather than inspired by
legitimate concerns.

Don’t you just hate politicians?