Microsoft is offering some of it’s higher-end developer products away for free in hopes it will boost it’s customer base in the future using Microsoft based products instead of Mac OSX and free-open source (Linux) products. It’s offering Windows Server 2003, Microsoft Expression Studio, xna Game Studio 2.0 and Microsoft SQL Server free to thousands of students around the world.

Naturally, many will be suspicious of getting anything for free from Microsoft, but in this case, there's very little to worry about. Most of the software is several years old or - in the case of Expression Studio - so unused in the wider world that using them is unlikely to actually help you get a job.

The one exception: Visual Studio 2008.

Obviously Microsoft will take an initial loss on this, and I’m pretty sure that I’m not going to complain about:

1. A very stable, XP like operating system
2. Pretty good Graphics, Web and Media creation and editing software
3. Game Development Software
4. A high class C#, Java, ASP.net and Visual Basic programming suite

all for free (note: legally). They’re calling the initiative “DreamSpark” and you can find the site here. To be quite truthfully honest, I’m surprised I haven’t seen more about this in the technology media or on social news sites (Digg, I’m looking at you), and there’s been little publicity about it from Universities and Colleges, so check it out, and annoy your College or University to get you the access logins you need!

The Apple world is buzzing about what is coming down the pipe this Tuesday. Expected to be launched or announced in a couple days at their Let's Rock event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco on September 9 at 10:00 a.m. are:

If a post on Facebook’s developer blog is accurate, you have less than a week to make your call for no change. That’s right, no change. a group of members have coalesced behind a petition, massing together “Against the ‘New Facebook’” to send Zuckerberg and the rest of them out in Palo Alto a message: “We’re not saying get rid of the new layout, just that they should keep the old one and let us choose which layout we want like skins. Color options would be good too.”

As Compete’s trendspotters made known this past week, many Facebook users have switched over to the “new” Facebook, also called “beta,” only to revert back to the old way. Yet, the company is choosing to switch the network over by default in a matter of days, not months, as I myself envisioned it would. If you’re not fond of the idea of a site-wide shift, join the gentle opposition. Their goal at present is to reach 1 million registrants. As of 7:50 PM ET Saturday, they collectively number 424k-strong. The count has been 11 42 days in the making. Thousands enter the fold by the hour. All to invoke no change, but rather, a choice. Where do you fall? Here at Live25, we kinda like the new Facebook and think it's a lot more web 2.0ey on design.

From: Mashable

Sascha Lopez and Cody Wilson, two self proclaimed geeks, decide they're fat, and are going to do something about it. Supporting each other, they share tips they've discovered on how they can slim their waistline.

This episode:

Cody and Sascha talk about "Hacking your lifestyle", using exercise and better eating to help balance out nights of boozing it up and other holiday activities.

Cody is starting to notice he's loosing some weight, but hasn't quite been able to stop his disgusting dirty smoking habit. Sascha has been slacking on his swimming routine, but is vying to get back on track. Sascha also is still smoking.

Sascha and Cody decide that they are going to quit smoking on September 15th. They discuss options on anti-smoking aids such as nicotine patches and gum, and a medication available from your physician called Chantix (US), or Champix (UK), generically known as 'varenicline', which blocks the nicotine from entering your blood stream. They also recommend encouraging your social circle not to smoke, as it helps to not have access to "bum" a cigarette from another friend, or be around the smell of the cigarette. Cody also comments that alcohol stimulates the pleasure centres of your brain, which is why one tends to smoke more, or tends to smoke at all, when consuming.

Better sleeping habits are very helpful as well. Light stimulates the body and the brain, so sleeping throughout the day will drain you. Cody has found that binaural beats (deemed "internet drugs" by Kim Commando) has been a safe and effective way for him to fall to sleep. Cody recommends http://www.healingbeats.com to find the same binaural beats he uses to fall asleep to. Sascha has tried "Somnus" tablets from his local supermarket to help him sleep better.

Late last year we discovered that MySpace cofounder Tom Anderson, arguably the most popular individual on the Internet with 240+ million MySpace friends (he is added by default to every MySpace account) was actually 37 years old, not the 32 that he continues to claim on his MySpace page.

Now we’ve learned a much more colorful part of Anderson’s history: In 1985, when he was fourteen and in high school in Escondido, California, Anderson was subject to one of the largest FBI raids in California history after hacking into a Chase Manhattan Bank computer system and subsequently showing his friends how to do it. He was never arrested because he was a minor, but the FBI confiscated all of his computer equipment and some newspaper accounts of the incident stated incorrectly (see image below from a 1986 LA Times story) that he was “convicted in federal court of computer hacking and placed on probation” (the statements were corrected in subsequent articles). Anderson used the hacker name “Lord Flathead.”

Sascha Lopez and Cody Wilson, two self proclaimed geeks, decide they're fat, and are going to do something about it. Supporting each other, they share tips they've discovered on how they can slim their waistline.

Episode 001: Sascha and Cody share their tips and methods to hack their waistline.

If you have stumbled across this web page, then you are 25% qualified to own an iPhone. Now there's lots of articles out there that tell you what the iPhone has, what it doesn't have, what you can download onto it, tips and stuff... but there's two problems with all of them:

1. They're not written by me

2. They're spread all over the interwebs

So join me in this special feature (which has taken me hours to compile by the way) and bask in the glory of the iPhone's awesome fearitude!

The Republic National Commitee in the US has started a Facebook parody site called Barackbook in order to mock Barack Obama and the Facebook generation. The idea is to try and show is poor judgement.

In a statement regarding the new website, RNC spokesman Alex Conant said: "The website is an interactive way to learn more about Obama’s poor judgement. "Obama's judgement is an issue in this election, and this site will help us highlight some of Obama’s noteworthy 'friends'."

There's some YouTube videos on the site to show him up a little also. Barack Obama's official Facebook page currently has over 1.2m supporters whereas the Barackbook app on Facebook only has 650 users with a rating of 1.4 out of 5.

If that weren't enough, obviously the RNC is a little behind the times - there's a "New Facebook" encase you didn't know. You got the look wrong!

The US company Best Buy this morning announced that it had bought half of the British company Carphone Warehouse. A deal earlier last year between the two companies launched the 'Geek Squad' brand in the UK, a brand that is synonymous with Best Buy. The announcement came as a supprise to some investors, while others predicted it earlier last year.

The Carphone Warehouse is a reseller of contracts and pay as you go mobile phones from all major UK networks, including but not limited to O2, Orange, Vodafone, T-Mobile, 3 and their own 'Fresh' brand. The Carphone Warehouse also owns home Broadband and Phone company 'Talk Talk' and recently purchased AOL UK.

The full price of the acquisition came in at $11.6 Billion (roughly £6 Billion)

Clients like Digsby adding Facebook chat support helps people use the platform as a REAL chat client, which right now it's just not cut out to do. If you've ever tried talking to someone for a full conversation in Facebook chat, you'll know what I mean.
From their website:

You asked for it, you got it! Build 28 (r14688) introduces Facebook Chat support! This is our first implementation so you can expect many improvements over the coming weeks. Please let us know if you run into any bugs so we can fix those too. There are several other important updates in this release. As always, you can read the entire list of new features, bug fixes, and enhancements on our Change Log. Notably:

The people who designed the game Grand Theft Auto took a jab at Apple for their overpriced hardware. Take a look at the screen shots bellow.

Click for larger image

Click for larger image

While quite comical, it's going to cause a little spite in the Apple Fanboy community (that's right, I said "fanboy community").

As I was chatting in my regular IRC Room, someone asked the question "What is the likely hood that Apple will release iTunes for Linux, as most of my music is in DMR'ed AAC Format". This brought up a debate between the chatters. Most of which said "Never, Apple will never release iTunes for Linux".

However, I decided to debate and oppose this point. Although I'm not a Linux user, the Linux market is growing. More manufacturers than ever are releasing computers and devices with Linux (eg. Dell / ASUS), which exposes Linux to those who wouldn't otherwise try it (probably). Not to mention, the number of people who use Linux installed from CD's or other sources.

As the market grows, any business with common sense will not deny themselves access to a potential customer base. If 20% of the market used Linux, why WOULDN'T Apple release iTunes for Linux? If they didn't, they would be cutting a potential of 20% of computer users worldwide.

Not to mention the fact, there's really no competition for music on Linux. Sure there's Amazon and eMusic, but people know the Apple Name. People rely on using their Windows or Mac machines to buy DRM-Free music from the iTunes store and then copy it to their Linux machines, or use illegal sources of music such as the Gnutella P2P Network or Torrents.

Apple have also recently released Safari for Windows. If their serious about entering the Browser market, then they'll have to do what almost every other browser does (with the exception of Internet Explorer), and be completely cross platform. Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.

As with all films that make a big hit, and a big profit to follow, the studios want to make a sequel to the 2007 hit film "300". Could we be looking at a trilogy? After all the history of the Spartans carries on to include several other stories. If they were to make another film, several questions are to be asked. Firstly, will the profit be as great? Secondly, will it be a film people want to watch over and over again? Thirdly and finally, will there be another damned "Meet The Spartans" / "Epic Movie" style film?! For the love of god, I hate those.

Anyway, you can be assured that Frank Miller would be asked back for the second film, or it would undoubtedly suffer horribly. The sequel could chronologically move forward to either the Battle of Platea (pictured briefly at the end of the film) where the Spartans, at full force, crushed the Persians. The Spartans also played a large role in the Peloponnesian War and even went against, and defeated Athens, on land and at sea.

(Thanks to FilmRejects.com for breaking the story)