Operating systems: What with 4 days until Windows Vista hits store shelves, time’s a tickin’. So here’s our second tip: Brush up on Mahjong. You read that right, I mean the game. “We all thought pinball was going to be the killer time-wasting app when Windows 2000 came out. But Solitaire remained the chief bane of the pay-by-the-hour set. I think that’s going to change in Vista,” Oliver Rist writes in this Test Center Daily post. “Mahjong rules.” And, of course, there’s a little something for IT managers, too. Ongoing coverage: Plenty of nearly-eleventh-hour buzz is emerging about Vista as well. European groups claim that Vista breaks the same antitrust laws as XP and will create an environment devoid of choice for users while marking the initial step in “Microsoft’s strategy to extend its market dominance to the Internet.” Ouch. Security firm DriveSentry, meanwhile, says that half of the circulating pirated versions of Vista are Trojan horses. Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC claims that Vista won’t bolster PC sales in 2007. Partners and retailers, nonetheless, are gearing up for the Jan. 30 launch by readying financial, security and management applications. The onslaught continues in this special report Vista: the next generation. Notes from the field: It’s not all bad for Microsoft. The dour Mr. Cringely, in fact, introduces this week’s correspondence with the words “for once I think the Microsoft sloganeers have it right.” Rather naturally the flattery ends there. SCO CEO Darl McBride makes a guest appearance, this time amid rumors suggesting something about him hopping onto the NASCAR circuit. Who knows, it might be friendlier to him than open source tracksters. Vista straight ahead, is SCO dead? Podcasts: As profiling your infrastructure becomes increasingly important, Akorri’s BalancePoint Suite 1.3 is a management application that “doesn’t come cheap,” but brings “potential benefits too good to pass up.” Tune into Storage Sprawl. Technology Industry