If you're a student (or your child is), you can buy one copy of RETAIL (not student edition) Windows 7 for $29.99.

All you need is

1.  An email address with a .edu extension.

2.  Proof that you're taking at least one class.  If they ask and you can't supply the proof, you're immediately liable for the cost of the retail product.

I say "software offers" because you can also get retail Office 2007 Ultimate for $59.99 in the same manner.

On more thing: Microsoft's Dreamspark.com is quite interesting, where students can get many of the Microsoft developer products for free.  You'll also find a link to Dreamspark from the link I provided.

Arlen Specter might be impressed by how health insurance (and care) has allowed these two rags to riches urchins to prosper in business:

Newspaper publisher Gannett CEO returns after back surgery - AP October 15th, 2009
McLEAN, Va. -- The CEO of Gannett Co., the country's largest newspaper publisher, returned to work Thursday after a medical leave this summer for back surgery.

"I am glad to be back and returning to the day-to-day responsibilities at Gannett," Craig Dubow, 54, said in a statement. "I feel very good about my personal health and the company's."

Gannett, which publishes USA Today and dozens of other newspapers, announced in June that Dubow would be taking a medical leave after "major" back surgery. Gracia C. Martore, executive vice president and chief financial officer, took over his duties.
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And how about Dick "Patches" Cheney? You'd hardly recognize the strapping lad as the lame, angelic, soot-covered chimney sweep whose gubmint-funded pinko cholesterol meds allowed him to prosper as the much feared Baby-Eating Bastard of the Beltway.
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Cheney flies in briefly - Former VP attends think tank retreat
By CHRIS KNIGHT and JESSICA COLLIER, Adirondack Daily Enterprise Staff Writers; Sept 25, 2009

... "I heard we were expecting him," [Town of Harrietstown Councilman and Airport Committee Chairman Barry] DeFuria said. "I was basically told not to go hunting, if that tells you anything."

DeFuria was jokingly referring to the February 2006 hunting accident in which Cheney shot Texas attorney Harry Whittington while taking part in a quail hunt on a ranch in Texas. Whittington was injured in the face, neck, and upper torso. He was discharged from the hospital six days after the shooting.

Cheney, 68, has maintained a public profile since leaving office and has repeatedly criticized the Obama administration's national security policies.

The former vice president underwent spinal surgery last week in Washington; several people at the airport Friday saw him walking with a cane.

Considering how ubiquitous the surly Cheney was in media just prior to his surgery, you have to give his surgeons high marks for their thoroughness. The news archives are strangely clean of news related to Dick Cheney's elective surgery to relieve lumbar stress -- and back pain -- in our hero. Don't fret, though! He'll be back to devouring poor people in time for the holidays!

Should sudden cardiac arrest occur in a scenario involving a Taser discharge to the chest area, it would place the law enforcement agency, the officer, and Taser International in the difficult situation of trying to ascertain what role, if any, (the device) could have played...  (Associated Press)

However, for me, there is a troubling red flag.

He sidesteps any criticism of Obama.

Grayson has done this with respect to Obama's non-presence in the push for healthcare reform legislation which features a "strong public option".

Perhaps even more importantly, Grayson shunts criticism aside when asked about Obama's move toward escalating the war in Afghanistan. Grayson has called the war pointless. He says we should be out of there now - yesterday.

We will find out about Rep. Grayson's "guts" when and if Obama chooses to send ever more troops into this disaster. He will either denounce it, or he will back off and reveal himself to be another "good democrat".

To me,  a "good democrat" is one who seeks to ingratiate him/herself with the democratic party in in order to use the party to advance their political ambitions. A ripe example of this is Obama endorsing, praising and campaigning for Lieberman. That was not a good sign. It told us something about Obama - something that is unfolding before us.

* A little-known shift in the language on the Baucus health care bill from the Senate Finance Committee would base coverage subsidies on modified gross income instead of adjusted gross income, basically reducing the credit for most families and put the credit out of reach for some families that otherwise would have received them by putting others over the 400% federal poverty level and eliminating their subsidies. A dirty trick, to be sure, and an example of how these bills must be watched closely.

Bold is mine.

He said: "I am here because of a conversation I had last June, when I was voting.

"The woman at my polling place asked me, do I believe in equality for gay and lesbian people.

"I was pretty surprised to be asked a question like that. It made no sense to me.

In 1980 I clipped out a Mike Royko column titled 'Governor Moonbeam has landed'  in which Royko basically apologized for sticking the Governor Moonbeam tag on Brown, and went on to describe how Brown was the only candidate that year with the farsightedness to see the impact of immigration and predicting the haves vs have not society that we have seen come to pass. I'll add that I never cut out clippings from newspapers. That one just seemed prophetic to me - I dug it out a few years ago, so I may still have it. I will post quotes from it later on at home.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-medical-marijuana21-2009oct21,0,5479815.story

What more than one person stated and no one contradicted was that the voice quality on the iphone stinks!

I guess the features more than make up for that glaring problem.  High voice quality is achievable, so why didn't they do it?

Somewhat related.
I noticed a lot more honking in rush hour traffic than I remember.  The kind of honking that means "The light is green, GO already!".  Is this a new, cell phone/texting phenomena?  Do people now sit at red lights, poised to hit their horns if a driver in front of them doesn't react when the light changes?

Well, that's what you think, right?

;-)

One question. I just got back from a trip via Delta/NW and have decided that America has become grungie. I have never seen so many guys needing a shave wearing dirty jeans and gals with dirty hair and unkempt clothes.

And that includes First Class.

Maddow Calls Out Americans for Prosperity President: `Parasite Who Gets Fat On Americans' Fears'

MADDOW: And I have to tell you, because we're making this about you and me, is that I personally think that you and the folks who do what you do are a parasite who gets fat on Americans' fears.

Roman Polanski might be willing to return to the United States to resolve his sexual assault case if it could be done quickly, one of his attorneys said.

Georges Kiejman told Europe 1 radio that Polanski, 76, in not in the best health and wants to bring the case to a swift conclusion.

"Time for emotion has passed, and everyone will understand that it's necessary to bring this affair to conclusion with just and balanced proportions," he said.

This year, I'm going to Photoshop our pictures onto the Great Wall of China and send them out on Christmas cards.  Next year it will be a beach in Tahiti.  Our families will have fun wondering where we'll take our next "virtual" vacation ;-).