So Microsoft emailed me...

[Nick]

You gotta love it when someone sends out a circular and asks for your response... I received this the other day:

Keeping you up to date

Hi there,
I'm writing to you because you're on our database as a customer or end-user of Microsoft products. Hopefully this doesn't come as a surprise to you and you remember giving us your details. If not – and it's nearly impossible to keep track of every form you've ever filled out – then it could be for a variety of reasons, from registering a product to attending an event.
Also, I'm able to write to you because you've given Microsoft permission to contact you by
e-mail. There's been a lot of attention in the press this year about personal details being mishandled, so I want to reassure you that your data privacy and security are really important to us and your preferences about being contacted will always be respected. (And if you now want to update either your personal details or your contact preferences, just follow this link).
Unless you're a newsletter subscriber, you probably haven't heard from us recently. And perhaps you've been really happy never hearing from Microsoft, but recent feedback we've received would suggest not! We hold a six-monthly survey with end-users from across the UK and the things you've told us we need to do better include keeping you up to date, helping you get more out of the products you already own, and giving you more information about the various resources available.
Consequently, I'm going to write to you again in the next few weeks and let you know about some stuff you can hopefully benefit from as well as what's going on in the Microsoft UK part of the world. I hope you find the news in the update useful, cool or interesting (at least in parts!!) and I'd really like to hear what you think.
Talk to you soon!
Kind regards,
Gill
Gill Le Fevre
I couldn't live without... Office Communicator
Microsoft UK

So I sent this reply:

Hi Gill,

Of course I remember giving you my details. In my household we celebrate the day with a special dinner of Jolt Cola and slightly warm pizza whilst looking through old photos using the Xbox 360 as a media extender.

I’m not too fussed about MS having my personal details, after all, if you lost my email address at least it still wouldn’t be as bad as the Government losing all of our private data including my kids’ National Insurance numbers… So in the grand scheme of things, I rather think you guys having far less important details is a non-issue… provided you don’t sign me up to dubious websites of the more, shall we say ‘fruity’ variety!

On the contact front, I’m not too fussed about newsletters as I get a hundred a day from the likes of Sony, LG, Apple etc, all in a day’s work really.

That said, what would really float my boat is news that a Vista update will allow me to record to a network server… yes, yes, I know I can do it with some silly hack into my registry or I could buy a Windows Home Server, but that kinda makes the very expensive 2Tb server built redundant and the wife will kill me if I spend anymore on new hardware.

Go on, be a devil and make network drive recording possible!

Yours,

Nick Haywood
HEXUS.gaming