This month will be the launch of the Creature Creator for Will Wright's Spore, and the evolution simulator is set to touch two thirds of the PC population: Windows and Mac. What we have here are for gamers on both segments, though several Linux players might be interested as well. Are your Windows (emulation or non-emulation) and Mac rigs ready? The system requirements to run EA Maxis' masterpiece follows at the full story.

Kampo Interactive's Balance is similar to the board game Labyrinth where players steer a ball through a maze to a target by tilting the board.

It is a revolutionary game which takes advantage of motion sensors built into some laptops, such as the Lenovo Thinkpad, and uses it to control the game. Players can also use the upcoming ActionXL PC Motion Controller which is a handheld USB motion sensing game controller, or the more traditional mouse.

The game has online leaderboards which allow players to post their top scores. The game has 75 levels and will have downloadable updates through Oberon Media.

This game looks to be very interesting to play and can be quite addicting if it accurately mirrors Labyrinth.

Microsoft tried to light a fire a few days back, saying free software like Linux violate 235 of their patents. Without fear, Linux creator Linus Torvalds stepped up to the challenge and say a few things.

Torvalds threw the allegations back at Microsoft, saying, "It's certainly a lot more likely that Microsoft violates patents than Linux does." With big M not stating specifically which patents the Linux OS violates, there's no reason for Torvalds to back down.

"Don't you think that if Microsoft actually had some really foolproof patent, they'd just tell us and go, 'nyaah, nyaah, nyaah!'" said Torvalds.

If given the same review about violating patents, Torvalds believes that Microsoft would find itself infringing patents from various other companies.

"Basic operating system theory was pretty much done by the end of the 1960s. IBM probably owned thousands of really 'fundamental' patents," says the Linux creator, which would mean Microsoft is as culpable in violating patents as much as Linux.

Microsoft is reaching out its hand of global domination once more - the worldwide software company claims that free software like Linux violates their patents.

It's pretty clear that Linux users enjoying their free operating systems at home would be affected, but corporate users like Wal-mart, AIG, and Goldman Sachs will be in quite a pinch. Microsoft responds through CEO Steve Ballmer that it is a matter of principle, that everyone should play by the same rules and what fair is fair.

Furthermore, Microsoft Counsel Brad Smith reveals that these free software infringes at least 235 patents. If they can push this through, the software developers will diminish and Microsoft will continue to spread its influence to those that use open-source programs.

In defense, master legal strategist Eben Moglen of the Free Software Foundation explains that software is a mathematical algorithm and thus, not patentable. Free software have always been running in this premise, they're not afraid of whatever Microsoft comes up with. 

For more info about this news, check out the link below.

The non-profit association One Laptop Per Child has a mission of developing a low-cost US$ 100 laptop, and has a vision of revolutionizing -  with the laptop's help - how the world's children are educated. The goal is to distribute an OLPC Children's Machine XO laptop to every child in underdeveloped nations around the world.

Nice and sweet for sure, but the kids won't just be using the cheap lappy for educational purposes. They get to play god with it too.

OLPC News reports that their call for games on their first laptop – the OLPC Children's Machine XO is starting to be heard, and they're now going to get an Open Source version of SimCity for the OLPC, thanks to Electronic Arts and Will Wright.

While allowing kids to rain down disasters and send alien invaders to destroy their Sim-filled custom metropolis, It is reported that the goal is to eventually have the open source community renovate SimCity and take it in new educational directions. Seymour Papert's ideas about constructionist education will definitely apply here.

OLPC is at the Game Developers Conference 2007 by the way, and they've got an early build of SimCity on display at their booth.

It probably won't replace the keyboard, but it can certainly speed things up. CNN reports on the growing trend for voice recognition technology in tech, and how this trend is starting to get even big players like Google and Microsoft vying for a piece of the pie.

According to CNN, the market's starting to become a billion dollar industry, with everything from the call center industry to the mobile phone and automobile sectors. This next generation of voice recognition is meant to be implemented in just about everything. As they note:

The market for server-based voice-recognition technology to power call centers and the like reached nearly $600 million in 2006 and is expected to double by 2009, according to Opus Research....

The market for speech technology embedded in devices such as phones and auto dashboards - worth about $125 million in 2006, according to research firm Datamonitor - is expected to quadruple to $500 million by 2010... Ultimately, some experts say, voice-recognition systems are likely to be built into almost every gadget, appliance and machine that people use.

We'd feel bad for the folks looking for some way to get what they want but can't talk. So long as there's a market for people who can't speak though, we're quite sure we won't be relying on voice recognition on everything we own anytime soon. Besides, if future voice recognition software can't be placed on a belt and can't turn people into superheroes, then we'll stick to keyboards for now.

Did Microsoft software got too expensive that even the French government couldn't afford it anymore? Not that they really couldn't, but they are soon switching to open-source software because they're thinking Microsoft stuff is a waste of money.

Beginning June 2007, the French government would require members of parliament and their staff to use desktops and servers running on Linux, Mozilla Firefox Web browser, and OpenOffice.org. The latter is currently in version 2.0.4, and in direct competition to Microsoft Office System.

Given the nature of open-source software, it looks like their government would indeed save some money because of the switch. However, some software research groups are advising that it may prove to be costly as well. "There has been some evidence that companies have to spend a good deal on training and support after you deploy the operating system," explains Chris Swenson, Director of Software Industry Analysis for NPD.

The total cost, Swenson added, would be dependent on which flavor of Linux the French are planning to use. "If you buy your software from a Linux vendor, you obviously have to pay for licenses, support, and maintenance. The average company or organization can probably save some money by switching to Linux, but deploying software from an established Linux vendor certainly isn't free," argues Swenson.

Okay, remember how we told you guys that with tomorrow's XBL dashboard update you'll now be able to stream WMV videos to your 360's? Well, they've just released the final Windows Media Player 11 so if you're planning on making full use of the dashboard update, we recommend that you get WMP 11 so you can stream videos to your 360's.

Also, WMP 11 will have the new media sharing feature which will let you stream not only videos, but the other data on your media library as well, to networked devices like DMRs (Digital Media Receiver), your Xbox 360 (of course), etc. Oh, and you might also want to read up on the Windows Media Encoder, because it will help you convert most other video formats into WMV, thus enabling you to view them on your 360s.

Anyhoo, most of the other stuff you'll need to know (like the technical whatnots and the other cool features that come with WMP 11) is discussed in detail at the MS site, so if you want more info on the media sharing feature and other stuff, simply click on the link below and you're all set. Alright, so just download the .exe file for WMP 11 below and you'll be up to speed just in time for when the update is released. Enjoy!


Download: [Windows Media Player 11]

Microsoft, the biggest software manufacturer in the world have filed a lawsuit against the hacker that created FairUse4WM, the application which originally appeared in August. The application reportedly has the ability to bypass Windows Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology which is supposed to restrict the use of online purchased media to ensure copyright is not infringed. The FairUse4WM program strips DRM from Microsoft's WMA (Windows Media Audio) format of all copyright restrictions, allowing users to do what they want with the audio files.

Over the past month Microsoft has issued numerous patches in order to try and thwart the FairUse4WM threat, however the hacker, known only as 'Viodentia', has been keeping one step behind Microsoft, releasing new versions of the program when Microsoft update their DRM software.  Due to the promptness of Viodenta's releases, Microsoft claims that he has access to Microsoft source code and have therefore filed a lawsuit against him.

In a post on the Internet on Wednesday, Viodentia denied using any copyrighted Microsoft source code code, and as if in an effort to provoke Microsoft even more, released an updated version of his DRM-cracking tool. "FairUse4WM has been my own creation, and has never involved Microsoft source code," said Viodentia. "I link with Microsoft's static libraries provided with the compiler and various platform SDK (software development kit) files."

Is Viodentia an innocent person wanting the free distribution of data or a strategic hacker with a personal vendetta against Microsoft - Sound off in the comments!

A lot of us spend much of our precious time (what's left of it, anyway) fixing preferences, settings, and configurations of our desktop accounts. Much to say, it's as if our very souls are tied to our desktops. We know it by heart - where the files and folders are located, your music and images, wallpapers, themes, yadda yadda yadda... What happens then when you use another PC and for a split second you're disoriented with the defaults?

MojoPac from RingCube helps you with that. All you have to do is install the software on your iPod or any USB storage device, and you can take your desktop soul with you at all times. Transfer your folders into the device, and when you plug it into another PC (has to be Windows XP), MojoPac will automatically launch itself to show you your personalized environment; all the files, music, images, yadda yadda yadda. Unplug it and there's not a trace on the host PC. Nifty, huh?

A 30-day demo is available for download, and if you buy it as soon as it's released, it'll cost you $ 29.99. No more hassles with "alien" environments in desktops at internet cafes, dorms, libraries, offices, yadda yadda yadda...