Top Items:

MS to omit anti-virus from Vista — Microsoft will omit anti-virus protection in Vista, the next version of Windows, which it plans to ship late this year. As with previous versions of Windows dating back to Windows 2000 at least, Redmond is promoting Vista as a landmark improvement in Windows security.
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Countdown for nasty Windows virus — PC users have been urged to scan their computers before 3 February to avoid falling victim to a destructive virus. — On that date the Nyxem virus is set to delete Word, Powerpoint, Excel and Acrobat files on infected machines.

Blogs versus the NY Times in Google — In 2002, Dave Winer of Scripting News and Martin Nisenholtz of the New York Times made a Long Bet about the authority of weblogs versus that of NY Times in Google: … I decided to see how well each side is doing by checking the results for the top news stories of 2005.
Discussion:
michael parekh on IT

MacIntel Dual Boot? Fer Real? — Looks like an intrepid haxor has dumped Vista on a MacBook by fooling Vista into thinking that the MacBook has a BIOS in there somewhere. The instructions are kind of convoluted but we encourage you to try this at home and confirm that it works.

Papers take a leap forward, opening up to new ideas — NEW YORK — If you made a list of today's great media innovators you'd probably fill it with people whose dazzling ideas are shaping the Internet, television and even radio. — Not newspapers, though. The industry is famously risk-averse.

Blogtimize! — Blogging is near and dear to our hearts here at Inside AdSense. We know you want to get the most out of those posts - but how do you do it? — 1. Choose the right ad formats — Because the typical blog layout uses a narrow section for posts, the medium rectangle fits nicely at the end of each post.

MetroFi Switches to All Free — Bay Area metro-scale wireless ISP MetroFi drops charges: MetroFi offers Wi-Fi-based service across Cupertino, Sunnyvale, and Santa Clara. Its Cupertino and Santa Clara services originally required a monthly fee for mobile or fixed access.

DRM-a-go-go — I had a fun old time this morning speaking at a Digital Rights Management conference in London. My own attempt to introduce some reality on the security limits of DRM was generally well-received, aside from a couple of myopic content industry representatives.
Discussion:
Boing Boing

180solutions Dismisses Lawsuit Against Internet Security Application Company — Updated Labeling of 180solutions' S3-Enabled Search Assistant Software — BELLEVUE, Wash. - January 30, 2006 - 180solutions, Inc., a leader in online search marketing services, today announced the dismissal …

GOOGLE TOOLBAR 4 LAUNCHED, FREE GOOGLE TOOLBAR BUTTONS — Google launched a new beta version of their toolbar for Internet Explorer. — There are two fundamental points to the new toolbar: — higher average CPC — user lock in — How is the average CPC raised?

Revealing China Censorship via Google Images — Danny Sullivan just posted an SEW blog entry named A Picture Says 1000 Words About Google's Censorship In China which is show true. He shows a screen capture, side by side (Google China versus Google US) of a search on "tiananmen" at Google Images China versus Google Images.

Super RSS Tools — Today I had to dig a little deeper into the world of RSS. I'm preparing a Live.com environment for a potential customer and I needed tools to convert dynamic HTML pages (search queries) into RSS feeds so I could add them into Microsoft's feed collector.

Flickr pictures, web beacons, and a modest proposal — As I noted in the comments of the previous post, I don't have ads on the site, but I do have flickr pictures directly linked from my flickr account. — It is conceivable to me that flickr pictures could qualify as "web beacons" …
Discussion:
John Battelle's Searchblog

Verizon Wireless Introduces VZ Navigator, Providing Location-Based Service For Consumers — Media Contact Info — BEDMINSTER, NJ — Beginning today, gas station attendants can breathe a little easier, thanks to a new service that gives wireless customers turn-by-turn directions in the palms of their hands.
Discussion:
Engadget

Would You Buy a Used Dotcom from this Man? — As a corporate lawyer, Allen Morgan wore a suit every day for 20 years. But since joining the Mayfield Fund, he's gotten used to the more casual uniform of the venture capitalist - Levi's, plaid shirt, company-logo fleece vest.
Discussion:
Bubblegeneration Strategy Lab

Patent spat forces businesses to upgrade Office — update Microsoft has begun e-mailing its corporate customers worldwide, letting them know that they may need to start using a different version of Office as a result of a recent legal setback. — The software maker said Monday …
Discussion:
Alice Hill's Real Tech News

Sony BBeB and eBook formats — Josh Carter commented to ask "how do you see Sony's BBeB format splintering the market? If their store is halfway successful ... the bickering over open formats may be largely irrelevant to the average consumer." Good question!

The winds of change are blowing — I've had this phrase set on my various instant messaging clients for the past few days and it's prompted more than a fewcurious inquiries about just what is up. — This will be my last post here at The Office Weblog. I've beeninvited to contribute …

RIM rivals cash in as BlackBerry hearing looms — Competitors are muscling into the wireless e-mail market dominated by Research In Motion as the maker of the BlackBerry e-mail device grapples with a patent battle that could shut down its U.S. service. — While few analysts and none …
Discussion:
Mark Evans

Kathy posts 'Death by risk aversion' — You ever been on a team where something starts out as a fantastic idea but then gets worse and worse over time? — I've seen this happen and talked with Kathy Sierra about it last week at Search Champs (she used to work at Sun Microsystems and saw the same thing happen).
Discussion:
Newsome.Org