Looking for love on the Internet? It'll cost you about $9000

You're not the kind of person who would ever fall for a "relationship scammer" on the Internet, of course, so you might wonder whether anyone actually sends tens of thousands of dollars in gifts to a romantic partner they have met only online. The answer is: yes, yes they would. And it happens far more often—and involves far more money—than you might suspect.  For more, check out this article from Ars Technica

Go to school, get a free XBox is back!

Microsoft will repeat last year's back-to-school promotion, kicking off the deal Sunday with an offer of a free Xbox 360 game console to eligible U.S. students who buy a new Windows 7 PC.

Canadian students also qualify for this year's program, which launches there today.

U.S. high school or college students with proof of status -- a student ID card or an email address that ends in .edu -- will receive a 4GB Xbox 360 when they purchase a Windows PC for $699 or more. In Canada, the benchmark PC price is $599.

Microsoft will be giving students the $199 Xbox 360, its lowest-priced console, and one that does not come with the Kinect controller.

Depending on when students purchase a Windows PC to get an Xbox, they may be eligible for a free upgrade to Windows 8 Pro when the new operating system launches later this year.

Microsoft has not unveiled a Windows 8 upgrade program, but recent rumors have pegged an announcement to the first week of June, when the company also will debut Windows 8 Release Preview, the OS's final public milestone.

Earlier this week, Windows blogger Paul Thurrott, citing unnamed sources, claimed that Microsoft would charge users $14.99 for the upgrade to Windows 8 Pro if they purchased a Windows 7 PC between the launch of the program and January 2013.

Windows Media Center no more

If you like Windows Media Center, you might not want to upgrade to Windows 8.

For the uninitiated, Windows Media Center is the Windows component that turns your PC into a robust, well, media center. It serves up photos, music, videos, and, best of all, TV, all via a gorgeous 10-foot interface that's great for controlling from the couch.

Indeed, a PC running Windows Media Center makes a killer DVR, whether you pair it with an over-the-air tuner or a cable-company CableCard. I've professed my love for WMC many, many times in this space.

But over the years, Microsoft has treated it like the red-headed stepchild, barely acknowledging its existence, acquiring and then effectively killing off one of the Web's most popular WMC forums, and, now, relegating it to a Windows 8 add-on.

Well for Windows 8, Windows Media Center is not part of the default configuration. To get it, you will have to pay for it. Microsoft has not announced pricing yet, but after years of making it part of the OS, any price is too much.

Adobe's No Solution to bad software

Earlier this week, users of Adobe products, including Photoshop CS5 and earlier, were being warned about serious security issues.

In the case of the Windows and Mac versions of Adobe Photoshop, a vulnerability exists in version CS5 and earlier that could be exploited by a malicious attacker who tricks you into opening a boobytrapped .TIF file in order to take control of your computer.

That's a very serious problem. So, you would imagine that users would be rushing to download the security patch. Right?

Wrong.

Because the only fix that Adobe is making available is for users to upgrade to the latest version of Adobe Photoshop CS6. And that's going to cost users $199 or more. (If you aren't eligible for the upgrade, it will cost $600).

Ouch.

Update: Some good news. Adobe has clearly been influenced by the angry response from its users, and has now said that it will release a patch for Adobe Illustrator CS5.x, Adobe Photoshop CS5.x (12.x) and Adobe Flash Professional CS5.x. The security patches are not available yet, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled for when they are available.

You can find more details on Adobe's blog.

This is clearly preferable to Adobe customers' only option being to pay hundreds of dollars to fix their software.

The $99 XBox is official, but does it make sense to buy?

If you buy the XBox at the $99 price, Xbox Live subscription for 2 years is mandatory and, just like your contract cell phone, you will pay an early termination fee of up to $250 if you need to get out early. The total cost of the subscription over two years is $360, making the real cost of the console under this plan $459.

Compare this to purchasing everything up front. Most retailers sell the Xbox 360 4GB/Kindle Bundle for $299, although Walmart sells a similar package online for $229. If you add in the Xbox Live Gold service, that’s another $120 (billed at $5 per month). If you go with Walmart’s deal, you’d spend $110 less over two years. Definitely not chump change.

Better yet? Buy the console straight from Microsoft and you get $15 off per year of Xbox Live Gold. There, the console is $299 but the total you'll spend is around $389, $70 cheaper than the contract plan. But there’s an even bigger reason why you will want to stay away. 

Free text messages from your tablet or iPad

I must admit that when I downloaded Google Voice for my iPad, I asked myself:  "What am I going to use it for?"  I got an answer.  Free text messages!  Google Voice for Android and Google Voice for iOS both work just fine on tablets, and both offer free text messaging over whatever connectivity is available (i.e. 3G, 4G, or Wi-Fi).

I should note that the iOS version isn't optimized for the iPad, meaning you'll have to scale it up if you want it run full-screen, but the functionality is there. The nice thing about using Google Voice (as opposed to another third-party app) is that it's tied to your Google Voice phone number and your Google Contacts, so in theory, the person who gets your text will see the text as they typically would if you sent it from your phone.