Crystal balls (and hacking Santa)

In today's IT Blogwatch, we look at the IT blogging world's prognostications for 2006 -- it's that time of year again. Not to mention how to hack the Wal*Mart five foot animatronic Santa ...

Crystall ball gazing or Nostradamus writings? For our last IT Blogwatch this year, let's look at bloggers' predictions for 2006. Kicking off with John Battelle: "1. Someone, and I do not know who, will make a big pile of Big Media video assets freely available on the web - and not via Google Video ... 2. Google will stumble, some might say badly, but it will be significant. How? My money is on its second or third major deal - something on the order of the recent AOL deal ... 3. Speaking of privacy, there will be a major court case involving the database of intentions that gets legislators talking ...  4. Google and Yahoo will both enter the video (nee television) advertising marketplace ... 5. Microsoft will gain five points of search share, at least ... 6. Vista will launch ... 7. 'Web 2.0' will make the cover of Time Magazine ... 8. iTunes will begin to get the speed wobbles ... 9. The massive telephony industry will begin to crush mammals left and right as its core business model continues a long and painful death dance..." [Read the article to find his other eight predictions]

» Desparoz On The Go: "In December it seems that many people put their thinking hats on and consider some likely scenarios for the upcoming year.  Already Trevor Cook has published his, and I am sure that a slew of others will too ... 1. Mozilla will release an upgrade to Thunderbird that interfaces to gmail through an API ... including gmail-specific functionality like tagging and search ... 2. Google will release the long rumoured and much anticipated Google Calendar ... 3. Dell’s woes in customer services and its relationships with customers will continue ... 4. Someone will buy Digg or memeorandum ... 13. No major telco in the US, Canada or Australia will implement Skype blocking technology ... 16. Star Trek Enterprise will be relaunched by another network who acquires the rights." [Sing with me, children: It's been a long road, getting from there to here ...]

» Dan Tynan, Tech Tuesday: "We asked Swami Salami, noted mystic and deli owner to tell us what he saw coming in the world of technology ... 1: After a brief and tumultuous relationship, Apple Computer and Intel will announce that they are separating ... 2: As part of its ongoing agreement with NASA, Google will secure exclusive advertising rights to the moon ... 3: Hollywood's Movielabs R&D center will announce a breakthrough technology that erases viewers' memory of a film ... 4:     Steve Jobs will announce the IPod Synapse, a music player so small it fits inside your brain ... 5: Later this year, Microsoft will introduce the Vista Omnivorous Media Center that will let you control every appliance in your home from one easy-to-use Windows interface." [ ... I will see my dream come alive at last, I will touch the sky ... ]

» InCode Wireless: "1. New Entrants in Mobile Music Battle the iTunes Model ... 2. First Movers Using a New Business Model Disrupt Voice Services ... 3. Mobile TV Struggles, Remains an Experiment ... 4. China Becomes Birthplace of New Telecom Leaders ... 9. 3G Takes Hold Before Fixed WiMAX ... 11. Fierce Competition Brutalizes Handset and Infrastructure Equipment Markets." [ ... and they're not  gonna hold me down no more, No they're not gonna change my mind ... ]

» Abusing my position, your humble blogwatcher: "1. More high profile lawsuits cause spammers to think again ... 4. Exchange 12 doesn't get released this year ... 6. Mobile operators in the US and UK will all but drop handset subsidies ... 7. Someone like Linksys or D-Link sells a Media Center killer based on MythTV ... 8. The Buteyko breathing technique finally recognized as a "cure" for asthma ... 9. Big punch-up at the INBOX 2006 security vendor showdown." [ ... I've got strength of the soul and no one's gonna bend or break me ... ]

» Last but not least, Paul Scarfe, All Things Blog: "Rainfall will hit record highs in Summer in the UK, prompting more fears over global warming ... Virgin Galactic will take its first load of paying tourists into space ... Osama Bin Laden will still be at large, probably sunbathing on a beach on Tenerife ... Apple will begin to make inroads into the home entertainment business with the design and sale of an 'iHome device' "

Your fearless (yet humble) blogwatchers wish everyone a merry Christmas Chanukkah Kwanza Yule Saturnalia Brumalia Solstice and a safe, happy and prosperous New Year (assuming you follow the same calendar). Next week, we're taking a break, but we'll be watching those blogs again on Jan 2nd. That's assuming we're not fired first. [You're fired - Ed.]

Buffer overflow:

• Richi'Blog: Dinner with heads of Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo! Mail
• 'Roo-minations: The Best People Will Bring Innovation
• ForbesOnTech: Seven Words That Set Me Off
• Rough Type: Is the internet too dumb to survive?
• Microsoft Monitor: Where's Mr. Gadget?
• Dave Oliver: SCA or Service Component Architecture
  
• IT Toolbox: Sad story: UI/DB interwoven design messes up $13 million company
• Ars Technica: 11 companies join effort to promote new, HD standard
• Google Maps Mania: Google Maps Guide to New York Transit Strike
• Techboard: Tough end to the year for Microsoft
• MyITForum: Santa IM worm - Invites users to a Santa site and installs a rootkit
• Chaz Blogs: Props To HP
• Martin McKeay:  A little bit of trouble for Symantec
• Pondering Primate:  AT&T Does RFID
• Frank Scavo: Salesforce.com's credibility suffering
• Douglas Schweitzer: Encryption, while not a panacea for all our security woes is still needed
• Alex Scoble: Two good blog posts on security
• Mitch Betts: Movie blockbuster or flop? The neural network knows
• Martin MC Brown: Qcodo; a PHP development framework
• Douglas Schweitzer: Looks like no one's safe from hackers
• Shark Tank: Lockdown

And finally... Wal*Mart five foot animatronic Santa hack

Richi Jennings is an independent technology and marketing consultant, specializing in email, blogging, Linux, and computer security. A 20 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. Contact Richi at blogwatch@richi.co.uk. Also contributing to today's post: Judi Dey, our very own Antipodean. Why are you still reading this?