Been so buys buying smaller media companies that you haven't had time to keep up on the week's news? Here's what you've been missing, CBS, Condé Nast, and Comcast:

• Thunderbird 3 alpha 1 available now
  Firefox may get all the attention, but Mozilla's Outlook-clone/killer also shows that open source software can hold its own in the instant messaging space. This week saw the release of Thunderbird 3 alpha 1, which uses the Gecko 1.9 rendering engine, adds support for tabs, and a ton of other tweaks.
• OpenSolaris 2008.05, and other places the sun don't shine
  Sun released the open source version of its Solaris operating system this week. It's pretty, features the Gnome Desktop environment that should be familiar to Linux users, and is incredibly difficult to get working on common software. Join us for a romp through the world of OpenSolaris. You'll laugh, you'll cry. You'll thank us for trying it out so you don't have to.
• Torrent2exe turns any torrent file into a single-source BitTorrent client
  Ever try to explain to a friend how BitTorrent works and then suggest they download uTorrent just so they can download some large file from the web? Turns out there's a way to avoid that confused look on their face. Just grab the torrent file, upload it to Torrent2exe, and you'll get a single executable file that you can give your friend. When they click, the file will download just as easily as if they'd clicked a download link in their browser. You know, as long as someone's seeding it.
• Microsoft launches WorldWide Telescope public beta
  Why spend time gazing at the stars in your backyard when you could sit in front of your computer instead? Microsoft's WorldWide telescope lets you navigate they sky just as easily as Google Earth lets you navigate the earth. The software also features guided tours from astronomers and tools for controlling a telescope plugged into your PC.
• Monitor your hard drive usage with DriveSpacio
  Right click on a drive or folder in Windows and you can find out how much space it's taking up. But Windows doesn't do a great job of showing you which of all your folders are using the most space. DriveSpacio is. Enough said.
• Splashtop Linux interface coming soon to every Asus motherboard
  Imagine being able to surf the web or make a Skype call within seconds of hitting the power button on your PC. Pretty soon, you may be able to. No, Microsoft Windows 7 won't feature instant-on capabilities. But motherboard maker Asus plans to add an instant-on Linux-based OS to a million motherboards a month starting pretty soon. While you're waiting for Windows to boot in the background, you'll already be able to use your PC.

Microsoft has launched a public beta of its WorldWide Telescope software. Basically, WorldWide Telescope is like Google Earth or Virtual Earth for the sky. It's a desktop application that lets you browse astronomical photos stitched together.

There's more than a terabyte of high resolution imagery available, but you don't need a massive hard drive to access it since WorldWide Telescope connects to an internet server and just downloads the images you need. If you have a broadband connection, the downloads are quick enough to make you feel like you're scrolling across one large image. You can also zoom in and out to get a better look at the nebula of your choosing.

But WorldWide Telescope has a few more tricks up its sleeve. You can take guided tours, which are narrated by astronomers and teachers. You can join "communities," which are currently maintained by several astronomy magazines. Community members will have access to exclusive tours and other content. And if you have your own telescope, you can connect to to your computer and control it with WorldWide Telescope.

[via CNet]