When I say discounted, I don’t just mean a cute little 10% off of several hundred-dollar copies. If you bring your RIC ID up to any of the registers, you can get one copy of each for $15. The highlights include:

• Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate, Windows Vista Business, Windows XP Professional editions (32-bit and 64-bit copies available. Specify which one you’re looking for)
• Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus, Office 2007 Ultimate
• Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac OSX
• Full list can be found here.

These are the kinds of Microsoft programs that are frequently hacked and shared around the Internet, since Microsoft charges a high price for a copy. Windows 7 Ultimate edition costs $319 retail (!!!), and the Professional Plus edition of Office 2010 is going for upwards of $300 too. It may be tempting to turn to the dark side (especially if you’re a repeat offender/rebellious pirate and have been cracking Windows since XP), but consider this: $15 bucks is a respectable price to pay for having a legit, fully licensed version of Windows or Office and not have to dodge any sort of “genuine advantage” propaganda crap.

Each copy of Windows (7, Vista or XP) is valid for one installation. However, the license key you receive is an Upgrade key, meaning that you need to have a prior version of Windows installed. If your laptop is currently running Windows Vista and you buy a disc for Windows 7 in order to upgrade, you’re all set. In fact, you’re awesome because ponying up the cash for the upgrade versus a large pizza and drink from Golden Crust is going to save you hours of headaches from Vista. If you’re planning on installing Windows on a new, blank hard drive, or a totally new computer (like, say, running it on your Macbook via Bootcamp), you’ll need to do a funny trick described here in order to activate.

If you buy a copy of Office from the Bookstore, the installation can actually be done TWICE legally. Microsoft expects that you’ll install it once on your desktop computer at home, and then once more on your laptop (assuming you have one). Technically, there’s no mechanism forcing you to install on specific types of computers, or giving your mom a copy.

So realistically, RIC student, you can spend $30 at our bookstore and come away with a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate ($319 value) and two installs of Office 2010 ($349 value x2), and breathe a whole new couple of years into your poor academic computer. It’s totally worth it, and you get to jip Microsoft out of $600 or so because you get a Poor College Student exemption. Win/Win!

For further details, check out Anchor Staff Writer Andrew Massey’s piece last month about the bookstore.

Not everything is about the academics. The Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii are very important to student life/sanity, and so we’ll have commentary, tips and reviews for gaming systems. We’ll also focus on smart phones, which are becoming an increasingly important piece of student life with the iPhone, Blackberry, and the new Windows Phone 7. Many students use their smart phones for email sync, calendars, messaging and, of course, apps.

We’ll keep you up to date. Stay tuned!