Platforms: What with the recent buzz about how Windows Vista is slower than its predecessor, XP, Randall Kennedy points out that, "Microsoft has saddled this latest incarnation with layer upon layer of Windows Services." Some are vital, others are not. But figuring out which are necessary is a downright daunting task. "Fortunately, there's help to be had," he writes in this Enterprise Desktop post. The folks at blackviper have prepared a guide outlining which services it's safe to disable and potential consequences, though it's mostly geared for home users and gamers. "Enterprise support personnel might still find a few buried nuggets in the mix. When you consider how far behind the performance curve Vista is vs. Windows XP, every little bit helps."

The news beat: A Nokia cell phone battery exploded in the night and burst into flames while recharging. Yahoo and Adobe team up to put dynamically-generated ads into PDF files; prior to this partnership only static ads could be used in PDFs. Apple says its Boot Camp beta ends on December 31 but vows that Windows partitions already installed on Macs running Tiger will remain operational after the cutoff. And Google expunges malware sites from search results, in effect eliminating thousands that wiggled their way into legitimate search results.

Best of the blogs: SeeToo is an Isreali startup that just might be onto something with its variation of instant messaging and file sharing. "Instead of music, SeeToo customers will be able to share home videos with a friend, or maybe a group of friends, instantly, using only a browser and a tiny client," Bill Snyder explains in Build it and they will watch. "There are a number of companies building out the IM model (Meebo comes to mind), but I don't think any of the others offer the same type of functionality. That could change, of course."

Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 29, 2007 11:05 AM