You know, if I could get my hands on a legitimate copy of Microsoft’s Visual Studio for around $100 I would probably try my hand at some of their .NET stuff. Yeah, I have access to the software at the office but we don’t have the licenses to place it on everyone’s machine and the projects I’m working on don’t require it. The thing is that I might find myself working on a project that required it if my skills were there.

Well, it looks like a cheap version may be in the future:

“Basically they’re going to price certain versions of Visual Studio, so even hobbyist types can get on the action,” said one person familiar with Microsoft’s plans. “I think the idea is that if you get the tech in front of “low-end” developers, they can grow and get exposure to it to someday play in the big leagues.”

I’m not sure why MS hasn’t understood this all along. Involve the hobbyist with your product and you are going to build a bigger following.

I am so pleased to discover that the SC still holds our right to a day in court precious.

Congress did give the president authority to hold Hamdi, a four-justice plurality of the court said, but that does not cancel out the basic right to a day in court.

I personally feel so much more personal freedom knowing that I can’t just be grabbed off the street without at least being given access to the court to protest my detention. Not that I think that would ever happen to me but I don’t want to think my country can do that to anyone.

It came two days early. Iraq is now officially a sovereign nation again. My take on it is that the early handover has probably foiled the Iraqi insurgents in any ideas they may have had in marking the day of handover with coordinated attacks on the new government. Aljazeera is reporting another take on the early handoff.

Critical of the early handover, editor of the London-based al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper, Abd al-Bari Atwan, said: “The Iraqis have been shortchanged.”

"It will not make any difference … why is Blair and Bush not there?" he asked. "Where are the celebrations?"

It is clear, Atwan added, that the the occupation is afraid of attacks. "If the Iraqi police cannot protect their own stations, how are they to protect on a day of ceremony like this?"

"They wanted to have the show as soon as possible … so everybody can go home," he stated.

This, Atwan added, will be seen "as a victory for the resistance".

"They will rejoice. It is clear the coalition forces are not in power. This will be seen as a sign of weakness by the coalition."

Personally, I see this early handover as a good thing. I don’t believe we will see an end to the violence but it should be easier for an Iraqi government to get better cooperation from the Iraqi citizens in stemming this violence than it was while the U.S. led coalition was in full charge.