Best of the blogs: Although its not here yet, Vista is close enough to being widely available that IT shops should consider it when planning hardware purchases. Oliver Rist outlines what hardware to buy for Windows Vista, and begins by examining the hardware specifications Microsoft officially recommends . “Okay, no offense Microsoft, but after playing with this OS for a while, [the specs are] a fairy tale,” he writes. Hardware: An Intel executive admits that the chipmaker was surprised that Dell would use AMD chips, but claims that Opteron is ‘not even in the same game’ as Intel’s own Woodcrest. Apple, meanwhile, is said to be pushing Intel in new directions. The news beat: Microsoft details PerformancePoint Server 2007, an addition to its Office roster that brings a business analysis engine to the suite. A shareholder suit calls out Vonage for allegedly recommending that they buy presold shares. And HP offers a new iteration of its NonStop fault-tolerant servers. Technology Industry