It's horrible when truth finally comes out. Microsoft really does want to take over the world. Are we sure that Steve Ballmer isn't just a large suit inhabited by Brain (and Pinky) for just this purpose? All joking aside, Microsoft now wants to put their Windows on the OLPC. I can see why they would want to "educate" the world's children on the finer points of using Windows (the bottom line, community goodwill), but it doesn't seem feasible or cost-effective. Windows has certain requirements that are a bit above what the OLPC can support, and isn't the whole idea to use something that works well for the hardware, the form factor, the user? I'm not saying that Linux is the best choice for a beginner to start using right off the bat unless it is extremely dumbed down and pre-configured, which it would most likely be. Would windows be a good thing for the OLPC, you tell me. On one hand, I feel like Microsoft should leave well-enough alone, but on the other hand, isn't Windows the thing all these OLPC kids will be using in the future when they grow up anyway?

We prefer to leave the gadget news coverage to the pros so we haven't been covering every little development in Microsoft's no-longer-mysterious Origami "ultramobile" handheld tablet PC buzz campaign, but we are user interface nerds, so Engadget's coverage of Origami's novel "Touch Pack Interface" piqued our interest. The core of the Origami Touch Pack Interface is a virtual keyboard in the form of two quarter-circles that the user controls with his thumbs. It looks pretty cool, but will it work? Or should we preemptively add "Origami thumb" to our medical vernacular?

For lots more Origami info and lots of photos of Origami devices from Samsung, Asus, and more, head over to Engadget, where the CeBIT coverage is fast and furious. This post is a good place to start.

ExtremeTech is running an article that poses the question, "What if I wanted to build a solid Winows Vista machine today?" and, naturally, answers it. It's a fairly good summary of the kind of power you're going to need in a machine when Vista is released less than a year from now. They give four different configurations, from the basic office machine to the high-end gaming machine, and they end up ranging from just over $1,000 to nearly $3,000. Of course, by the time Vista's release rolls around, Moore's Law and the likes of Dell will have adjusted those prices in our favor.