Goto Youki’s toy reviews.
Great pictorial reviews with some helpful pointers. I really like his reviews (1, 2) of the interchangeable Ultraman Nexus Chrome Chester vehicles.

The Megatron.
If the name is any indication, it should only begin running when the Autobots gain the upper hand.

My Little Pony: Where are they now?
My Little Twelve-Step Programme.

LEGO Mindstorms NXT. [via]
“We wanted to create robots with more personality … We wanted them to go from being more mechanical to more human.” It’s heartening to see the company collaborating with fans during product development.

WMF vulnerability patch released.
Here’s why Microsoft sensibly (if belatedly) decided to release it early.

Windows XP Home users screwed soon.
“For Windows XP Home Edition, there will be no security updates after 12/31/06.” But confusingly, Service Pack 3 is tentatively due in the second half of 2007.

Dangerous ideas.
Big thinkers with provocative thoughts.

Doctorow FUDs the PSP.
“… if you buy authorized games to play alongside of it, expect some of them to sneakily re-break your device and lock it out … buying your games new from Sony is a one-way ticket to tech-support hell.” As far as I know, you have to initiate the firmware upgrade yourself and you only have to do that if a game requires it.

WMF vulnerability scope widening.
A more comprehensive third-party hotfix is available. Use it at your own risk. The Microsoft patch is expected January 10. In the meantime, take precautions and back-up your critical data.

Rooney, Rooney.
“… schoolchildren in Britain rate Rooney more famous than Jesus, the Queen and – surely not – David Beckham. Apparently only God beats the 20-year-old from Croxteth for fame.” Apart from Rooney’s abundant talent, the two things about him that stand out to me are his obvious love for the game and his will.

Pivotlog: web publishing system.
“The first release appeared in June 2001, and subsequent releases are named after Transformers characters … the current beta version is 1.30 ‘Rippersnapper’ …”

The epidemic that never was.
The Wired article mentions there was one death from the swine flu and 32 deaths were attributed to the vaccine for it. However, CDC reports 29 deaths were not influenza-related and it wasn’t proved the vaccine caused the deaths of three elderly people. Be sure to read how media sensationalism was a part of the problem.