Posted over at the HeliOS Project Blog is a news story about a middle school teacher who saw one of her students showing off an install of the HeliOS linux distro, as well as handing out copies of the OS.  We all know Linux is as free as air, but apparently this teacher did not.  The teacher (Karen) then contacted HeliOS and said that what they were doing was illegal, that software was not and could not be free and that (after researching more) if she found any illegal activity that she would call the police.

Well, the guys over at HeliOS were quite upset over this and replied back with an equally scathing, although very honest and truthful responce.  Below is a brief quote…

And please…investigate to your heart’s content. You are about to have your eyes opened, that is if you actually investigate anything at all.  Linux is a free as-in-cost and free as-in-license operating system. It was designed specifically for those purposes. Linux is used to free
people from Microsoft. The fact that you seem to believe that Microsoft is the end all and be-all is actually funny in a sad sort of way. Then again, being a good NEA member, you would spout  the Union line.  Microsoft has pumped tens of millions of dollars into your union. Of course you are going to “recommend” Microsoft Windows”. To do otherwise would probably get you reprimanded at the least and fired at the worst. You are only doing what you’ve been instructed to do.

You’ve been trained well.

You can read the whole thing here.

Hello everyone.  Just wanted to give all of you a heads up that the TGM server will be down for about an hour tonight (friday morning) between the hours of 2:00 AM and 3:00 AM EST (11PM – 12AM Pacific).  During this time we will be clearing out some old content, consolidating other content as well as updating our CMS software.  We will keep you updated via our Twitter feed at http://www.twitter.com/thegeekmedia.

The micro-blogging and messaging service, Pownce, has closed it’s doors and the development team have joined Six Apart, bring with them the Pownce technology and codebase.  From the blog:

We’re very happy that Six Apart wants to invest in growing the vision that we the founders of Pownce believe so strongly in and we’re very excited to take our vision to all of Six Apart’s products. Mike and I have joined Six Apart as part of their engineering team and we’re looking forward to being a part of the talented group that has created amazing tools for blogging and publishing.

As many of you may have noticed, YouTube has introduced wide format videos as well as increased the viewing size of their website to 960px (or 970px, right around there somewhere).  Here is a little taste of the new fat YouTube.
UPDATE: Okay, it looks like the embed code doesn’t make the video wide screen on third party sites. Must be some magic YouTube movie mojo.

Silicon Alley Insider is reporting that Twitter, the microblogging service that has numerous stability and down-time issues over the past year, has turned down the 500 million dollar takeover offer put forward by the social networking website Facebook.

Twitter rejected the offer due to their “high hopes for it’s own secret revenue model which will be announced next year”.

Click here to read the full article on Silicon Alley Insider.

This is quite shocking news, I don’t know anything to really say other than a few quotes from the NewTeeVee website and a direct link to the article.  About the only thing I can ask to our community and those who come to this site is to show some restraint and not search out photos or videos of the incident, regardless of how immature or morbid your personality may be.

In a striking display of the power of live video, Abraham K. Biggs committed suicide on Wednesday while broadcasting himself on video site Justin.tv. As we understand it from various forum posts, the 19-year-old Floridian was apparently egged on by commenters on Justin.tv and fellow forum users onbodybuilding.com. Biggs overdosed on pills while on camera and appeared to be breathing for hours until watchers realized he might be serious, at which point they alerted the police. The video kept running until police and EMTs broke Biggs’ door down and blocked the camera’s view.

Link to the main article