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You're not alone. Microsoft is aware of the issue and they are working to fix it. Zune service status from their website:

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!

I'll post an update when one becomes available.

UPDATE: Instructions from Microsoft on a fix:

My Zune 30 is frozen on the boot screen, now what do I do?

You will need to reboot your device after noon GMT on Jan 1, 2009.

Please unplug your Zune (no AC or USB cables).

Because your Zune is frozen your device battery will begin draining, this is good.

The battery will eventually be fully depleted and the screen will go black.

After noon GMT on January 1 (that's 7 a.m. Eastern or 4 a.m. Pacific time) connect your AC power or USB cable such that the battery can begin charging again.

Once the Zune has enough battery to boot it should do so normally and you can go back to enjoying your Zune!

My Zune 30 has been working fine today, should I be worried?

Nope, your device is fine and will continue to work as long as you do not plug it into the PC before tomorrow.

If you plug your device into a PC before noon GMT Jan 1, 2009 your device clock will be set to the last day of the leap year and you will experience the freeze issue.  If this happens, see above.

The PC that you plug into does not have to have the Zune software installed in order for your device clock to be set and the leap year bug to occur so you should avoid plugging your Zune 30 into any PC today.

What if I have DRM content on my Zune?

Your DRM content will most likely not be affected by this issue.  However, it is a good idea to sync your device with your PC once the freeze has been resolved in order to ensure that all of your licenses are up to date.

What if I took the advice on the forums and hard reset my device by disconnecting the battery?

This is not a good idea and we do not recommend opening your device up yourself.  However, if you already did it…

If you have DRM content on your device, your DRM store is now out of sync with your secure clock. 

You will need to wait 24 hours from the time that you reset the device and then resync your DRM licenses from your PC.

Alternatively you can format your device and resync the content.

Told you I wouldn't recommend removing the battery :) Hopefully this will get everyone back up and working.

A vulnerability has been identified with MD5 hashing that would allow an attacker to basically impersonate any SSL-secured website on the Internet. This is going to have serious and far-reaching implications. Combine that with the number of computers out there that are compromised by some virus or malware that has hijacked the hosts file, and it would be pretty easy to start collecting credit card numbers, bank account info, etc. You can read the full details here.

Even if you don't read the whole thing, check out their PlayStation Lab.

ISS is reporting a vulnerability in the way that IE handles span tags that could allow an attacker to execute code on compromised machines. The exploit affects these versions of IE:

UPDATE II: The patch is being released tomorrow.

I updated Java on a Vista machine yesterday to Version 6 Update 11, and once again I have the dreaded popup for ssvagent.exe every time I open a new IE window or tab. Can Sun not afford to staff a QA department? How do these things keep slipping through? Here's a bug report on SDN for an earlier version:

http://bugs.sun.com/view_bug.do?bug_id=6635144

And the bug was fixed in 6u10(b09). Well, that's all well and good, but when you release the very next version (Update 11) with the same unsigned file, that's just unacceptable.

Come on Sun, get it together and stop releasing unsigned code.

From the "Cool Things You Can Do With Live Mesh" file comes this entry from Sondre Bjellås. Sondre has written an app called Flickr2Mesh that will allow you to sync your Flickr photos to your mobile phone.  Of course you have to be in the Live Mesh beta and be allowed to use the Windows Mobile client to use it, but if you meet those requirements, it's a sweet way to make sure your Flickr photos travel with you in your phone. It's free to download and use, and you can even download the source code!

I've always been a fan of Microsoft keyboards and mice. They're usually rock solid and last forever. I still have a working scroll mouse that's at least seven years old. Microsoft has now released two new mice, the Microsoft Explorer Mouse and the Microsoft Explorer Mini Mouse. What's new about them? These mice feature a new tracking technology from Microsoft called "Blue Track":

The Microsoft® Explorer Mini Mouse, with revolutionary Microsoft BlueTrack™ Technology, works more places than ever before, including on granite countertops, carpet—even on a wood table or a rough, unfinished park bench.

Plus, I'm a sucker for things that emit blue light.I can't wait to get my hands on one of these and test it out.  That being said, I'm not so sure this is the way I'd go with the advertising campaign.

Microsoft has announced that the next version of Office, in line with various other cloud computing initiatives, will offer lightweight versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote that will be available for use in web browsers, called Office Web applications.

This is likely a result of the huge popularity of Google Docs. Microsoft will be playing catchup in this market, and from the press release, it looks like there will be both ad-funded (free) and subscription services. The question I'm wondering is where the docs will be stored. There will surely be some storage attached to the service, I'm guessing around 2-5G. What would really be great would be a tie-in with Live Mesh. If I could have a Mesh folder to store all my Office Web documents in, I could open them not just on any of my own PC's, Macs, or Windows Mobile phones, but on any computer with a web browser anywhere in the world. So keep that in mind Microsoft.

Below are some initial screenshots of the offering. Click for hi-res versions.

Samsung has released a Windows Mobile 6.1 upgrade for the the Sprint Ace (SPH-i325). If you have a Blackjack Ace, you can get started on your upgrade here. Not only do you get all the 6.1 goodness, Sprint is enabling turn-by-turn GPS navigation, so get yours today!

A few days ago, Microsoft released a few more Ultimate Extras:

• Microsoft Tinker - a puzzle solving type game
• Ultimate Extras Sounds from Tinker
• Dream Scene Content Pack 4

Dream Scene for me is a non-starter. My Vista box runs slow enough as it is without an MPEG background making my processor permanently park itself at 90+ percent. Maybe if I had a dual quad-core system I would have some spare cycles for that, but I don't.

I played Tinker for about 10 minutes. It was kind of fun, I guess. And as far as all the other Ultimate Extras go, Tinker is probably the best thing they've offered to date. Which isn't saying much.

As for the sound pack, how much more effort was it to take the sounds from the game and put them into the OS as system sounds? That's what I thought.

Microsoft has fallen way short on the promise of Ultimate Extras. How about some useful sidebar gadgets? How about anything useful? I haven't given up completely on Ultimate Extras, but I'm definitely not holding my breath at this point.

If you're sporting a Samsung BlackJack II, you can now upgrade to Windows Mobile 6.1 by going here.

UPDATE:  A patch as been released to fix this issue. You can download it at http://www.vmware.com/go/esxexpresspatches.

Just landed in my inbox:

Problem:

An issue has been discovered by many VMware customers and partners with ESX/ESXi 3.5 Update 2 where Virtual Machines fail to power on or VMotion successfully. This problem began to occur on August 12, 2008 for customers that had upgraded to ESX 3.5 Update 2. The problem is caused by a build timeout that was mistakenly left enabled for the release build.

Affected Products:

• VMware ESX 3.5 Update 2 & ESXi 3.5 Update 2
• Reports of problems with ESX 3.5 U1 with the following 3.5 Update 2 patch applied.
          1. ESX350-200806201-UG
• No other VMware products are affected.

What has been done?

• Product and Web teams pulled the ESX 3.5 Update 2 bits from the download pages last night so no more customers will be able to download the broken build.
• VMware Engineering teams have isolated the cause of the problem and are working around the clock to deliver updated builds and patches for impacted customers.
• A Knowledgebase article has been published (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1006716), but traffic to the knowledgebase is causing time outs. A new static page has been published at http://www.vmware.com/support/esx35u2_supportalert.html that customers and partners will be able to view.
• The phone system has been updated to advise customers of the problem
• Vmware partners have been notified of the issue.

Workarounds:

1. Do not install ESX 3.5 U2 if it has been downloaded from VMware’s website or elsewhere prior to August 12, 2008.

2. Set the host time to a date prior to August 12, 2008. This workaround has a number of very serious side affects that could impact product environments. Any Virtual Machines that sync time with the ESX host and serve time sensitive applications would be broken. These include, but are not limited to database servers, mail servers, & domain administration systems.

Next Steps:
VMware to notify customers who have downloaded this version and provide an update every two hours.

Resolution:

VMware Engineering has isolated the root cause and is working to produce an express patch for impacted customers today. The target timeframe is 6pm, August 12, 2008 PST.

The Windows Live for Windows Mobile team has released a new version of their software. According to the notes, you'll need to uninstall any version you may currently have on your device before installing this new one. Here's a short list of features:

• Synchronize Live contacts with your contacts on the device
• Synchronize your Live email (msn, hotmail, live)
• View graphics, web links and contact photos in emails
• Respond to emails with voice recordings
• Upload photos to your Windows Live Spaces

You can get the new version by pointing your WM browser to http://wl.windowsmobile.com.

Scobelizer is broadcasting a speech by Microsoft CTO David Vaskevitch, and I'm having trouble focusing on what he's saying. Because of the pants he's wearing:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/scobleizer/2652483935/sizes/l/

I wonder if you can get those at the company store?

I've been following Jason Langridge's blog for some time now, and it was great to get to finally meet him at TechEd this year. I went to a few of the sessions he was conducting, one being "Windows Mobile Smackdown", which is a public version of the event that they have internally at Microsoft.

Jason has been kind enough to post up the list of things he demo'd in that session, such as:

Check out his post for the full list. And check out the video too. You've likely heard that Microsoft is big on eating their own dogfood, well, in that video, some of them do, literally, to win Windows Mobile swag.

For those of you wanting to test out a new Microsoft tool for Exchange issue diagnosis, go to https://testexchangeconnectivity.com. As the presenter emphatically emphasized at TechEd today, this tool is a prototype and has not been run through the normal battery of security tests. If you want to use this tool, create an account and mailbox specifically for testing purposes, and delete it once you have completed testing. DO NOT use your own Exchange mailbox or any other "production" mailbox with this tool. That being said, check it out, it looks pretty cool.