The company Microsoft Rus together with Intel and Volnoye Delo Fund intends to double the number of school PC in Russia in the near future. The software installed on computers within the charity project launched by the fund will cost four-fold less than within the existing education projects, i.e. MS Office + Windows XP will be supplied for $3.

Could Free-Reading offer a glimpse of the future, when big, bulky -- and expensive -- textbooks go the way of the film strip? Adam Newman of Eduventures, an education research and consulting firm in Boston, thinks so. "This is a shot across the bow for a lot of people," he says.

Free software is about freedom from control. This article discusses how the free software ideals should be applied to hosted personal health record software and how Microsoft's newest PHR, HealthVault, is a threat to free software.

CCID Consulting, China's leading research, consulting and IT outsourcing service provider, and the first Chinese consulting firm listed in Hong Kong (Hong Kong Stock Exchange: HK08235), recently released its article on China's Linux market, which grew by 29.2% and has great prospects for its new Linux Desktop.

A six-person startup is readying a modular, open source hardware/software system resembling a set of electronic Legos. Bug Labs claims device developers can build "anything" using "Bug," which comprises an ARM11-powered base and various modular add-ons.

"The most important thing the hacker community does is write better code. Our deeds are the best propaganda we have. Most of us, most of the time, shouldn't be distracted by worrying about beating Microsoft's PR or countering their political moves, because writing good code is in the long run a far more potent weapon than flackery."
-Eric S. Raymond

wice in recent weeks open source projects have surprised me with their lack of openness. In both cases, developers acted or spoke out in such a way as to intentionally push other developers away from their work.