Best of the blogs: Banners in Japan are advertising Windows Vista with only the word ‘Wow’. “Considering we couldn’t figure out what they were for I am going to bet that the subtlety will be lost in translation. The best part is that all of the banners have the date of 1/30 for launch and every electronics store in Shibuya is already selling it,” reports Dave Rosenberg in Open sources. “I may buy it just for the entertainment value of watching a PC blow-up.” Operating systems: With only 5 days until the OS hits store shelves, let the countdown to Windows Vista begin. We’re kicking it off with a tip: Vista has a dirty little secret. Columnist’s corner: The old guard media types, i.e. those paper-based and seemingly antiquated magazines and newspapers, have in myriad ways been outdone by the Internet. So the question Tom Yager poses, and answers, in this week’s Ahead of the Curve is why does traditional media still dominate? For starters, “information and opinion are delivered the same way they have been since the 1950s.” Oh yes, and then there is the technology problem. The news beat: AMD puts its faith, and hopes of profitability, on the forthcoming quad-core Barcelona processor. Startup 30 Second Software issues a free mobile shopping application for BlackBerrys. And Norway gives Apple until March 1 to agree to change its DRM policy for iTunes. Technology Industry