Buy a new Windows 7 Machine get a (not so) Free Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 4GB is totally free once you realize that you have to spend over $699 on a windows 7 PC and be a student. Just think, that $4,000 grand a year tuition is REALLY starting to pay off! The specifics come from the Windows Team Blog
Get a free Xbox 360 4GB console with the purchase of a Windows 7 PC $699 or more, at participating retailers in the US from 5/23-9/3 or while supplies last. Verification of student status required. See participating retailers for full details.
You can use the PC scout to figure out what you want, but I wouldn't expect a top of the line gaming rig (or even a mid level one for that matter). If you are looking to get a gaming machine on a budget, I'd recommend Newegg.com and going the do it yourself route; it's really easy!.
If you are a poor college student and looking for some Microsoft hookups, I would totally recommend Dreamspark and hitting up your college's tech department. More often than not, the tech department will have free copies of windows products that they will install for you.
Kinect Hacks and Modding Potential
Who would have known that a motion controller ad don for the Xbox 360 would turn out to be such a hit in the hacking community? I think I have heard more about the mods than the actual game play with the Kinect. It's also good to see that Microsoft has changed it's initial hardliner stance on hacking the Kinect and will hopefully embrace the goals of the modders with some official XNA support.
The best part is that it only took a week for hackers to break down the Kinect's security and offer it up on a silver platter to everybody to enjoy. I went from thinking it was going to be another dumb motion control gaming gimmick to seriously considering picking one up to play with. It may not be as a gaming device, but as an artist it would make for a cheap way to work into a fairly sophisticated interactive art piece. It's great to see that something like the Kinect has much more use and potential outside of being an Xbox gaming peripheral and that modding can be very beneficial to the community. The community also comes up with some pretty interesting things like the Minority Report interface for your Windows 7 computer. Would befun to control your computer like that for a little bit, but I'm not sure it would be all that comfortable after awhile.
If you are looking at the nuts and bolts of how to hack the Xbox 360 Kinect, Endgadget has a pretty good writeup on it. Make Magazine also has a neat article on how the infrared camera works in the Kinect. Now I've just got to convince the SO that I NEED a Kinect for my Xbox S, If only she would let me buy this one.