Oh and guise, check out this server: lostshard.com
Ip: minecraft.lostshard.com
It's epic, there's spells and magery, unique abilities like swords and tracking, greifing, stealing, pvp, plots, dungeons, clans, factions, and much more!
No, soul. 11/11/11 is the full on release for the final mc. Notch said himself that 1.8 would be coming out after PAX, which is sometime this month/next month.
He never stated that. He might have stated that 1.8 was the final BIG update, but that's about it. There will still be updates even after the final release.