I've been told by one of my CS professors that while there are probably more people out there writing C++ right now, all the new jobs are in Java or .NET (mostly C#). And looking at job postings, that seems to be true. And trust me, if you can do Java, you can do C#. They're very similar. Java's...
Sometimes another free offer will come up, and if you sign up for it they'll extend your subscription. Sometimes you can even sign up for the same offer more than once. I've had the same subscription to CGW for 3 years and haven't payed anything.
I think the creating of the actual chat client itself wouldn't be too bad. It might only take you a few months if you were only going to have support for a handful of games, and minimal features. However, the client is only half the equation. You're going to have to write some sort of server...
I believe in Windows Vista you'll be able to set the output source/volume for each application you're running. That's reason enough to upgrade right there.
I've never heard the e2cs, but I do own the ER-6i's and can tell you that they do not lack any bass. Anybody who claims they lack bass is not wearing them properly. However, if you're expecting bass that overpowers everything else and makes your head vibrate like you might get from a $20 pair of...
I've got the Etymotic ER-6i's and I love them. Some people don't like them though so I'd read some reviews and see if you think you might like them, but I personally highly recommend them. I found them for $90.
It looks good to me, except when declaring x in the for loop you accidentally have a subtract instead of equals. I wish the CS classes I'm in now were still this easy.
I used foobar for a while, and I really liked it. I'm currently using iTunes though. It works easiest with my iPod and my Airport Express. Also, I can listen to everyone in my dorm's shared music. And the built in podcast management is cool.
But if not for the Airport Express, I'd probably be...