Is participating in social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook just a “phase” that people seem to go through? A new video by user “Super Josh” on Current.com claims just that. In his satirical animated short “Networking Wars,” cartoon representatives of MySpace, Facebook, Friendster, and Second Life vie for the attention of an average user. Very funny, and perhaps, very true.

Sometimes, running a brand new, top-of-the-line operating system isn’t possible. Systems made to run Windows 2000, for example, will not be able to properly support Firefox 3.0, as one of our commenters has already figured out. But fear not. Don’t let those old legacy systems die in the basement. Get WattOS instead. Based on Ubuntu Linux, WattOS is designed to get the best out of older, more “time tested” machines. It can do almost anything that its bigger brother can do, just in a smaller package. WattOS is completely free to use and is covered under the GNU public license.

Moving to the world of telecommunication devices for a moment, there’s TokBox. Powered by Adobe’s innovative “Air” development platform, TokBox is a Skype-esque way to keep in touch with family and friends. TokBox can be used from a variety of diverse places, from their website to Facebook. While the little upstart might not have the features of Skype at the moment, it is definitely one program to keep your eye on.

Those who own an iPhone are no doubt familiar with Apple’s MobileMe, a handy little service that syncs up all of your media devices. If you like the idea of everything working together, but don’t think that perfect harmony is worth $100, give Mail2Web LIVE a try. Mail2Web does everything that MobileMe does, from playing nice with your Blackberry to updating Outlook on your PC, only it’s free. And the kicker? The service is built upon Microsoft’s Hosted Exchange Platform. So give Mail2Web LIVE a try. We promise not to tell Steve Jobs.

These days, staying mobile doesn’t mean that you have to leave your social networking habits at home. For example, check out Moblog. It works kind of like Twitter, except it allows you to post pictures and video you’ve taken with your phone as well as text. And the best part? The Moblog team builds your private space for you. All you need to do is send a text message. Moblog makes networking on the road simple and easy.

Democrats took the battle for presidency online by creating an attack Wiki. Dubbed McCain-Opedia, the website is based on the famous Wikimedia software, the same software that runs Wikipedia. The whole purpose of this website is to act as a tool for opposing the candidate. It gives arguments against McCain on everything from his stance on healthcare to his Supreme Court Justice picks. Unlike most other Wiki’s, anyone can’t just walk in and edit a page, spurring some technologists to criticize it. They say that it is against the spirit and ethos that drive wiki’s.

Fans of the real Wikipedia can finally have their cake and eat it, too. You can now take the free encyclopedia offline using the eReader known as the iRex Iliad. Much like the Sony eReader and the Amazon Kindle, this bite sized book machine uses E-Ink technology, to give you a clear and crisp book like experience. Now Wikipedia can go anywhere you want it to go.

And if you find the iRex Iliad out of your price range, the One Laptop Per Child project just might have the ebook reader for you. They announced their next generation One Laptop Per Child computer, the XO2. Designed to be an ebook reader first and a computer second, it contains two LCD touch screen displays and is loaded with tons of free software.

In other electronic book news, Microsoft has just closed the virtual doors on its Live Search for Books. They will no longer be scanning in books digitally, and will be turning off the Live Book Search web pages within the week. Although we are sad to see it go, it should be noted that similar initiatives are still continuing with Google and Scribd’s free book scan project.

And just in time to cover this small blow to online text, we have Microsoft announced a new incentive to get people to use Live Search: paying them. That’s right, Microsoft is dishing out the cash to get users to click on paid advertisements in their search engine. They call this initiative the cashback service, and can save users between 2 and 30% off select retailers.

民主党最近通过使用攻击维基把总统竞选擂台搬到了网上，并发布了麦凯恩百科，这个网站是建立在著名的软件Wikimedia之上的，它也是Wikipedia所使用的软件，而整个网站的目的就是去反对麦凯恩。它反驳了麦凯恩主张的各种政策，从医疗保险到最高法院人员的指派问题。不像其它维基，不是所有人都可以加入并编辑它的页面的，这也遭到了很多人的排斥】。他们认为这是对维基精神的严重违反。

而维基百科的真正粉丝现在却很值得开心，因为你现在可以通过iRex Lliad 把这本免费的百科全书搬下线了。就像索尼的eReader和亚马逊的Kindle一样，这个书一般大小的阅读器可以给你清晰的阅读体验。现在你可以带着维基百科到处在了。

如果你觉得iRex Llid比较贵的话，那么OLPC【项目将给你最适合的电子书浏览器。他们刚刚宣布了其下一代的笔记本电脑，XO2，它首先是一个电子阅读器然后才是一台电脑，它搭载了两个LCD触摸屏并随机附赠无数免费软件。】

另一则关于电子书的新闻，微软刚刚关闭了它Live Search的图书搜索功能。【他们将不再扫描数字书籍，并会在本周内关闭Live Book Search的网页】。不过虽然微软离开了，值得庆幸的是Google和Scribd‘s今后还将继续这样的工作。

除了在电子图书政策方面有所变化，微软宣布将采用一种新的策略去吸引人们使用Live Search：金钱诱惑。【没错，微软要为那些在它的搜索引擎中点击付费广告的用户们支付现金。】他们在这种创新叫做回扣服务，它可以为用户们节省2%到30%的费用。

Magnify.net has created a plugin for all the multimedia junkies out there who use Moveable Type or Wordpress as a blogging platform. The plugin is called Magnify Publisher, and it allows you to easily search and embed media from over a dozen sites like YouTube and Flickr, all from within your blog’s admin panel.

We have a link to an interview with Brad Neuberg, one of the men behind Google Gears. He talks about the next generation of the web, and how he and many others are paving the way to a more interesting future with better integration of our online and offline worlds.

Zoho, the free online office suite, just added the ability to login with your Google or Yahoo ID. Eliminating the need to sign up or create a new account will hopefully encourage more users to try Zoho. When asked why they didn’t just add in support for OpenID and receive even more users and traffic, Zoho evangelist Raju Vagesna said that they plan to do that soon, but wanted to address users’ immediate needs.

Hot on the heels of Google Sky comes Microsoft’s World Wide Telescope. This application bears much resemblance to its Google counterpart, but while Google Sky can be viewed in your web browser, World Wide Telescope needs to be downloaded. It is rumored that the Microsoft application has a better interface, but so far that is unconfirmed due to that fact that it is Windows only.

And finally, for you Javascript programmers out there, we’ve got a cool little library from John Resig, called Processing.js. It’s John’s birthday and he’s giving you a “reverse birthday gift” — it’s a Javascript port of the API for the programming language Processing, complete with its powerful graphical drawing tools. If you have no idea what any of that means, don’t worry, just be thankful there are guys like John Resig out there making the web a better place and pushing the free line for all us non - programmers

The usual fun and general frivolity of Twitter was put on the back burner Monday, as students used the micro-blogging service to report on the China earthquake. Twitter users casper o d j and In walked bud posted eye-witness accounts of both the quake and its aftermath, providing a point-of-view not usually seen in traditional journalism. While it isn’t exactly “a hard news source,” Twitter has proven instrumental in time of tragedy and uncertainty. During the 2007 California wild fires, for example, members used a combination of Twitter and Google Maps to directs victims to emergency shelters.

Turning our attention to Redmond, Microsoft announced a new social video initiative on Monday called “Messenger TV.” The new service is centered around giving Windows Live Messenger users YouTube-like functionality at the touch of a button. The service has already launched in twenty countries not called the “United States,” such as Canada, Australia, and Singapore. Curious Americans can try out the service by switching Internet Explorer’s default language to “Canadian English” and logging into the proper Windows Live site. Not a bad tip, eh?

Ever feel a twinge of jealously at the guy on the bus watching “Chocolate Rain” for the billionth time on his iPhone? Ever find yourself yelling desperately at your media device of choice, hoping that it will “get the hint” and allow to peer into a bit of that YouTube goodness? Don’t get angry. Get CorePlayer instead. CorePlayer is a media player designed to run on nearly any gadget thrown at it, from desktop systems to smart phones to even a few GPS devices. The developers are even working on iPhone, iPod Touch and Google Android support. Arguably its best feature, however, is its capability to stream YouTube out of the box. All of that user-generated content in the palm of your hand can be a powerful thing. But please, on behalf of everyone, refrain from doing the “Numa Numa Guy” video dance while driving. It demeans us all.

In other phone related news, the digital art gallery known as deviantART has announced compatibility with the iPhone and iPod Touch. Users from around the world are now able to look at deviantART’s interesting mix of fan art, anthropomorphic animal sketches, and a host of things that normal users would be ashamed to show to their mothers. The feature set is rather “basic” at this point, but the deviantART team promises to tweak and upgrade it in the near future.

Our final stop on the tour brings us to our old friend, peer-to-peer file sharing. For all of those who have been burned by the Napster debacle and Kazaa’s treasure trove of spyware, we here at Free Line suggest giving Alliance P2P a try. Unlike the others, Alliance works on a private basis - the user shares with his or her invited friends only. Alliance P2P is a great way to transfer materials from work to home, pass around home videos to family and friends, or even give those old “Fair Use” laws a good workout. But remember: share wisely. The law is still the law.

Summize is a simple Twitter search engine.

Travis Campbell sent us a video tutorial on some free software that can search through images and videos in a snap. The software is called Picklens, and it works in almost every single web browser on the market.

AT&T launched its own streaming video service yesterday, allowing MobileTV capable cellphones access to all of your favorite television shows for just 15$ a month.

We have a link to a free and informative video on WholeSaleTraffic.com that will show you how to beat Google at it’s new game. The video shows you how to get your Adwords clicks at wholesale prices, make over ONE MILLION dollars in less than 9 months and easily TRIPLE your ROI from Google Adwords. If you took a monetary hit from Google’s recent change in the way it does Adwords, you need to watch this video.

People wanting to see a fight between two web giants will be disappointed, as Microsoft walked away from its Yahoo bid on Saturday, after raising it to 47.5 billion dollars. Yahoo turned down the higher bid, and instead of taking it to the shareholders like Microsoft originally threatened, they just let the whole thing go.

The folks at StomperNet recently released a video with a look Inside StomperNet — it’s an inspirational three act story about the actual results online business owners have gotten inside the world’s leading internet marketing training organization. It passed 3000 views on YouTube and is the most watched video on Vidilife so far today. If you’re an internet entrepreneur and want a little inspiration, follow this link to watch this video.

New York Times.com design director, Khoi Vinh, said in a recent interview that they hand code every single webpage — and getter faster and better results in their cross-platform browser consistency.

We have a link to an article on Wired’s How To Wiki that will show you how to improve Amazon’s automated suggestions. It’s a cool and easy way to both save time and find more stuff you’d like — automatically.

Google recently talked with the New York Times about a new approach to visual search that could be as revolutionary for searching images as PageRank was for text based searching. They’re calling it VisualRank, and it’s an algorithm for blending image-recognition software methods with techniques for weighting and ranking images that look most similar.

The time and date has passed for Microsoft to “do something” in their attempt to purchase Yahoo. The latest Wall Street Journal article with three bylines cites no sources, specifically, but says Microsoft is considering both a move to elect Microsoft friendly directors or to take the fight directly to the shareholders.

Pingg is a stylish, web 2.0 enhanced online invitation website.  It can send out invitations via email, or through Facebook and MySpace, and the plus version even allows you to send out the same invitations through the snail mail.

Presdo is a new online web scheduling application that is simple yet powerful.

Videophlow is a new web application that gives you a live chat interface for discussing online video and photographs.

Search Engine Land has an article with a list of tools for dealing with all the social media sites. It can be very time consuming, Twittering, updating MySpace and Facebook, etc., and the applications they list can help you streamline everything and keep up with everything in less time.

Last week Microsoft revealed exactly what its new Mesh platform is like, and opened it to an invite only beta. This application allows users to easily drag and drop files and other media between Windows machines, whether they’re online, a Microsoft embedded device (like an Ultra Mobile PC, or a Zune, or a cellphone) or just a plain Windows XP or Vista computer.

Remember the days of mix tapes? Back when you could create a compilation for a friend or loved one, using just your stereo? Well, those days are back again, and pushed into the next generation with MuxTape. This handy website let’s you create Mix Tapes with MP3’s, and then allow anyone to view them in your web browser. It’s free and easy to use, all you need is the 80’s spirit and collection of MP3’s you want to share.

On Wednesday FotoFlexer released a snappy new interface to compete with it’s main opposition in the web based photo editing field, Picnik. This interface is far easier to use, looks nicer and supports many new features like typing text directly onto a photo and adding animations.

A group of monks looking to grab a record contract with Universal music sealed the deal by uploading a video onto Youtube. Universal was very impressed, signing a deal right away, with a recording set to start in April.

We’re all about free stuff here on the Free Line Report, and this week we have a link to the top free things you can get online. This list is massive, giving you tons of great tools like free office software, free file storage, free hard drive backup tools and tons of other fun stuff that should keep you busy for hours on end.

**中文版视频：

今天我们来谈谈80年代，我想知道，有多少人还记得混音磁带？回溯到那个年代我们会用一个磁带机去录下自己的音乐合集，通常是为了心仪的女孩。那些日子又回来了，不过变成了下一代的MuxTape。通过这个小网站你可以用MP3去创建混音磁带，然后发布在网上供朋友们欣赏。它免费且简单易用，你需要的只是一点80年代的精神，一些你想分享的MP3音乐，和一个女孩儿。

上周三FotoFlexer发布了一个新的程序界面，以在“在线图片编辑领域”里面与另一个主要对手Picnik相竞争。这个界面比以前简单了许多，看起来更漂亮而且多了很多新功能比如在图片上直接编辑文字及动画效果。

下面一则新闻是关于一个音乐团体如何利用YouTube去吸引最大的唱片公司环球唱片的注意的。这次是一个僧侣团体希望能和环球唱片签约，并把他们的视频传到了YouTube上。环球公司非常感兴趣，立刻跟他们签了约，并计划在4月开始录制第一张专辑。

在FreeLineReport上全部是关于免费的东西，所以这一周我们献给大家一个免费的热门网络工具大集合。这个列表应有尽有，你能找到好多有用的工具，比如免费的Office软件，免费的存储空间，免费的硬盘备份工具和无数其它你将来能用的着的和用不着的好玩的东西。