BIIG day

Argh ... this is frustrating. I post a loooong rant about whats goin on in the world not 10-minutes ago and its disappeared :-S well here is a recreation.

There are a whole slew of random events goin on in the world, New Monarch, New Ambassador to the UN, Agassi takes the win on his 60th ATP tour, and ofcourse something thats really been interesting, the possibility of a new planet on the horizon.

A chunk of rock and ice that may be a planet has been discovered in the farthest reaches of the solar system, astronomers announced Friday. The object, currently called 2003 UB313, orbits the sun and is larger than Pluto, traditionally considered the ninth planet in the solar system...
...The discovery of UB313 is likely to reignite the debate over the definition of "planet"—and over how many objects in the solar system are deserving of the name..more

This would be an interesting debate to follow. Although, like most debates I'm sure its going to be a long while before there is a large general consensus regarding the issue.

Also in other news Microsoft could be facing some serious back lash from its consumers,

Microsoft peeks into your closet
To verify that you have a legitimate copy, all Microsoft has to do is glance around your computer's living room, so to speak. There is no need to go snooping through the drawers. By simply matching the "product key" stored on your computer with the product you have, Microsoft can tell whether it is genuine or not.
But under a new policy, Microsoft has decided to hunt through your computer for a lot more than a valid product key... more

Hell! after reading this article I feel extremely violated. Wanting to validate the legitimacy of the copy of software is one this but snooping around my computer for other information for their "statistical" purposes would come close to a violation of privacy I'd say, considering the exhorbandant prices that we pay for a copy of the software so that they can make up for the losses incurred by piracy *sigh*.
Wouldn't it really make more economic sense for them to subsidize the price of the software like they do for us broke college students. This in turn would make it more affordable and easily available to the masses and would therefore provide no incentive for piracy, there by generating more in profits from the increase in numbers? I mean after all they DOMINATE like 95+% of the pc market, wouldn't this provide them with greater good/ profits or the like?