"After months of touting Vista's geekier side, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates on Wednesday highlighted features designed to convince the average consumer that they need the next version of Windows. During his keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show, Gates showed new photo-editing tools and a revamped media player designed to improve the way that Windows tackles the types of media files that are most used by consumers. Gates also showed the improved remote-control experience that will be part of the Media Center edition of Vista." Be sure to check the video on Windows Vista, it's a lot better than that crappy one I put up a few days ago.

Just as the discussion surrounding the Pegasos II and AmigaOS4 is settling down, a new possibility for hardware for AmigaOS4 has arisen. PPCNux reports about an Amiga-branded G5 board- which is basically the motherboard of the iMac G5 without the AirPort slot, but with an Amiga sticker slapped on. Another reason why this is a fake is that the board lacks legacy ports, heresy for Amiga fans. PPCNux speculates that with the switch to x86, Apple might be left with excess stock on PPC hardware, and will be licensing them as Amiga hardware. This is supported by Hyperion's statement that they "are working with several hardware companies that want to provide hardware for AmigaOS4.0." Another possible indication is that Hyperion states that AmigaOS4 runs on the PPC 9xx series-- the G5 is the 970. Speculation, and probably a prank at best, but an interesting idea nonetheless.

The December pre-beta 2 release of Windows Vista offers the first true glimpse of the OS but is missing key elements. More information and screenshots can be found at Desktop Pipeline.

The saga around the WMF flaw in Windows continues. "A cryptographically signed version of Microsoft's patch for the Windows Metafile vulnerability accidentally leaked onto the Internet late Tuesday, adding a new wrinkle to the company's round-the-clock efforts to stop the flow of malicious exploits. The MSRC (Microsoft Security Response Center) acknowledged that a slip-up caused 'a fast-track, pre-release version of the update' to be posted to a security community site and urged users to 'disregard' the premature update."

As many had already predicted, the LA Times rumour about Google entering the PC market has been squashed by both Google and Wall Mart. "Reporters calling Google's public relations staff about the rumor were told it is 'wholly inaccurate.' Similarly, Wal-Mart's rather busy PR team classified the Times speculation as 'a rumor without any truth to it at all.' And why would a high-flyer like Google want to enter the death match that is the PC industry? Slugging it out with the likes of Dell and HP for a few dollars doesn't seem appealing when you've got a high-margin ad business humming."

Like a lot of people who have worked in the business, I find myself in conversations about computer security with people who are having problems or know people who have problems. I wrote this to save me from explaining the same thing over and over again to different people, and to save them the trouble of having to make notes as we talked. It was meant to be something you could give to a 'naive user' and have them be able to read and follow it more or less unaided, and while not being a complete guide, at least be something that made them more secure than before they got it.

"With Opera recently releasing their web browser completely free of Ads, it is a good time to let the truth be told. Not only is Opera faster then Firefox in all performance areas, it is much more secure and more compliant."

"After a lot of hacking behind the scenes, a new initiative to improve KDE's interaction with network and hardware devices has been launched. Solid will provide a robust basis for the dynamic modern desktop in KDE, which needs to be aware of available hardware and networks, paving the way for innovative functionality. Users should see KDE applications taking advantage of Solid in KDE 4, from the most basic Plasma applets and complex applications to desktop-wide awareness. Developers will be able to take advantage of a robust, flexible and portable API and will be integrated into the Plasma engine. It will make use of existing technologies like HAL."

"The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team released its year-end summary of computer vulnerabilities. While Windows is regarded as the most insecure operating system, the US-CERT found four times as many vulnerabilities specifically related to Unix and Linux. Of 5198 reported flaws, 812 were for the Windows, 2328 for Unix and Linux, and 2058 more affected more than one operating system. Notably missing from the list of Windows vulnerabilities is the recently discovered Windows Metafile issue. No vulnerabilities were listed for Apple's Mac OS X, however several had been disclosed during the year. Also, since OS X is based on Unix, it is vulnerable to some of the flaws associated with its core operating system." Note: The link is fixed. I have no idea what happened there, sorry guys!

Paul Thurrot continues losing his religion by switching his wife to the Mac: "This conversion deserves a bit of background. I am, as you might know, one of the more prominent Windows-based writers on the Web. This simple fact makes the notion that I'd buy a Mac for my wife seems like an April Fools joke, I know. But the truth is, I've owned one or more Macs since summer 2005, and I'm a big fan of Mac OS X, albeit one who is perhaps more honest about the system's shortcomings than the typical Mac fanatic. That said, Apple's computer systems are viable for a wide range of users, including graphic artists, photographers, and other creative types. And a truly simple system like the Mac mini is perfect for the mass market, those people who simply need email, Web access, and word processing."

"Only a few blog entries ago it was my sad lot to report that Massachusetts CIO Peter Quinn had resigned, leaving the fate of his effort to mandate use of the OpenDocument format (ODF) hanging in the air. Tonight, I'm pleased to report, definitively (and exclusively), that the Massachusetts administration has confirmed that it will stand not only by open format standards in general (as earlier reported in the press), but behind ODF specifically as well."

"Don't have a shiny new iMac G5? But you want to make a Mac the center of your home entertainment system? Don't despair. Instead of shelling out thousands for a system, use this guide to connect an existing Mac to your home stereo and television."

Microsoft has updated its advisory today on the critical Windows flaw to state that development of the patch is complete, and they are now in the process of testing it. The expected release date for the patch is currently set for January 10, which will be included as part of Microsoft's monthly release of security bulletins. In the meantime, Microsoft advices against using a third party fix which appeared.

Linux 2.6.15 has been released after two months and a week of development. You can check the comprehensible changelog or grep the full changelog. There are some new features like shared subtrees, UDP fragmentation offload, PPP MPPE encryption (VPN), NTFS write support (except for creating files), PPC64 thermal improvements, support for the late-2005 powerbook series, SATA passthru support (for SMART), console rotation for fbcon, nf_conntrack subsystem, some scalability and performance improvements, and lots of other changes. As always, download it from Kernel.org, or wait for your distributor to ship it.