Wednesday Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 02:38 PM CEST - Jul,28 2004
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- MyDoom opens door for attack on Microsoft -
MyDoom.M, a new variant of the prolific worm, came to life Monday and
quickly wreaked havoc on Google and other search sites, thanks to a novel
method the worm's creator devised to propagate the pest. But security experts
said Tuesday that the worm was quickly dying out, with infections peaking a
mere 12 hours after the worm was released. MyDoom.M leaves behind significant
potential for collateral damage from infected and unrepaired PCs, however.
Besides propagating itself, the worm's main purpose apparently was to open a
"back door" so that infected PCs could be used to host other malicious
programs, according to researchers at security giant Symantec. The first of
those parasites, dubbed the Zindos.A worm, was released Tuesday with the
intent of crippling Microsoft's main Web site.
- US Navy preps "Gestapo" server removal - The US Navy has
a real battle on its hands in the form of a proxy server named Gestapo.
Last month, one Edward Campbell - an independent reporter - discovered a proxy
server of dubious distinction lurking in the Commander Naval Reserve
Recruiting Command (CNRRC) in New Orleans. It seems that the server named
"gestapo.cnrrc.nola.navy.mil” has been pinging various websites, including one
of a fellow reporter who had been looking into "cyber-stalking of Muslim
journalists". And, in fact, there is evidence of the Gestapo server popping up
in a number of places.
- Are P2P networks leaking military secrets? - The "See
What You Share" site has been online for a week and has published photos
ranging from a crashed military jet to a screenshot of a spreadsheet file that
appears to include names, addresses and telephone numbers of marines. The
site's operator, a 30-year-old named Rick Wallace, wrote in a blog posting
that he is trying to help the military understand how serious a security risk
unmonitored peer-to-peer file sharing can be. (CNET
News.com)
- Hackers attack advertisers -
According to the Washington Post, DoubleClick's Internet servers began to
receive a flood of bogus Web page requests, creating a bottleneck that blocked
many major sites from displaying ad images. This meant that it became harder
for users to reach certain pages, such as the Internet's 40 most-visited Web
sites.
- Fake e-mails fool users 28 percent of the time, study finds -Anti-spam
firm MailFrontier Inc. showed 1,000 consumers examples of so-called "phishing"
e-mail as well as legitimate e-mail from companies such as eBay and PayPal.
About 28 percent of the time, the consumers incorrectly identified the
phishing messages as legitimate.
One very
well-distributed PayPal look-alike e-mail, which claimed credit card
information needed to be updated, fooled 31 percent of users surveyed, she
said.
- Judge blocks sales of unlicensed DVD chips - California judge
has ordered a multimedia chipmaker
to
stop selling versions of its products that were used in DVD-copying devices.
The Motion Picture Association of America said Monday that it had found chips
from ESS Technology, based in Fremont, Calif., inside a device that allowed
DVDs to be copied. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Maureen Duffy-Lewis
issued an order Friday that blocked the manufacturer from selling its chips to
any other device maker producing similar products.
- Off-topic: Researchers seek simpler software debugging -
Funded by $1.2 million from the National Science Foundation, Whyline --
short for Workspace for Helping You Link Instructions to Numbers and Events --
is designed for programmers of all kinds, from hard-core professionals to
weekend Web designers. Their work is part of a larger, nationwide project --
called End Users Shaping Effective Software, or EUSES -- to make computers
friendlier for everyday users by changing everything from how they look to how
they act. Ultimately, perhaps, error messages will be easier to understand
than "general protection fault" or "fatal exceptions."
- Off-topic: Hitchhiker's Guide Trailer Online - The 2005
Hitchhiker's movie trailer is available in
AVI or
RealMedia formats. The movie trailer doesn't reveal anything, but looks
cool. (thanks Slashdot.org)
- Off-topic: Space images show relentless Bangladeshi floods -
Satellite images have revealed the devastating impact of recent flooding in
Bangladesh,
with two thirds of country submerged in water. Pictures taken by the NASA
satellite Aqua on 22 July show water covering areas of Bangladesh and eastern
India. Three weeks worth of torrential rain have resulted in the worst
flooding that the impoverished nation has seen for 15 years. So far, 400
people have been killed by drowning, collapsing buildings and disease
resulting from the floods.
- New S.Korean Cell Phone Lets Parents Track Kids - Parents in South
Korea
will now be able to track their children by using a device in a new mobile
phone that has been designed for kids. SK Telecom Co. began selling Wednesday
colorful cell phones with antennas that look like human ears and a built in
tracker using the global positioning satellite (GPS) network. The firm, the
top mobile operator in a country where three-quarters of the people carry at
least one mobile phone, put a price of around $86 on the handset. The phone
has four buttons to save phone numbers of key contacts, such as Mom and Dad.
- SlySoft Acquires Licence on CloneDVD - The software producer
SlySoft announced that it
acquired the licence of CloneDVD 2 which is restricted to distribution via
the Internet only. The version sold by SlySoft, is totally identical to the
original by Elby and will complete the range of products by SlySoft.
- Motorola-led team unveils technology to link GSM, Wi-Fi - Motorola,
Avaya and Proxim have
announced network equipment and software they said will allow users to
roam seamlessly between GSM and Wi-Fi networks without dropping voice calls.
- Microsoft Delays 64-Bit Windows - Windows XP 64-bit Edition for
64-bit Extended Systems and Windows Server 2003 for 64-bit Extended Systems
now will not be available until the first half of 2005, a Microsoft
spokesperson has confirmed. The 64-bit Windows XP client was originally due in
early 2004 but had already been delayed; the server software was scheduled for
late 2004.
- Microsoft prepares SQL Server 2005 for AMD64 - Microsoft has
unveiled a beta
version of its forthcoming SQL Server 2005 database featuring support for
AMD's 64-bit Opteron with Direct Connect Architecture. The company said that
running its database on AMD's 64-bit platform would offer customers a
cost-effective alternative to enterprise Unix-based systems.
- Does Intel Lindenhurst chipset have DDR-2, PCI Express problems? -
According
to various sources, Intel's "Lindenhurst" chipset, scheduled for
introduction next week, is proving problematical.Lindenhurst, which comes in
several varieties and is formally named the E7520, supports the EM64T "Nocona"
microprocessor. System integrators and vendors claim that there are problems
getting both DDR-2 memory and PCI Express to work with the 800MHz chipset,
scheduled for launch on the 1st of August.
- AMD Unveils Low-Cost Processors -
AMD based six of the new Sempron desktop chips on the seventh-generation
Athlon XP core and one on its eighth-generation technology. The six chips
using the seventh-generation core support a 333-MHz frontside bus and include
256KB of Level 2 cache, half the amount of Level 2 cache found on the Athlon
XP chips. They range in clock speed from 1.5 GHz to 2 GHz and will carry model
number ratings of 2200+ to 2800+. The 2200+ and 2300+ target only emerging
markets and will sell for $39 and $45 in quantities of 1000; the remaining
chips will ship globally and will sell at prices from $61 to $85 in
quantities.
- Motorola E398 GSM900/1800/1900 Triband Phone review - OCWorkbench
has posted
a review of the Motorola E398 GSM900/1800/1900 Triband phone.
- Sony U-70 review- is that a PC in your pocket? - The Sony comes in
two flavors, the U-50 & U-70. There are three differences between the two
models which are otherwise identical. The U-50 comes with a Celeron 900 MHZ
processor, 256 MB of RAM, and Windows XP Home Edition. The more powerful U-70
comes with a Pentium M processor running at 1 GHZ, 512 MB of RAM, and Windows
XP Pro Edition
- HP Compaq nc4010 review -
The model on review is the DY883AA but HP offers a wide range of different
models with various processors speeds, hard drive sizes and connectivity
packages to suit any and all needs. The nc4010 DY883AA is placed towards the
top end of the range - with a 1.6GHz Pentium M processor, 512MB of DDR SDRAM
and a 40GB hard drive this is a pretty reasonable configuration. There is also
a spare memory slot for future upgrades and you can add up to 1GB of
additional memory.
- AMD's Socket A Sempron 2800+ and the Socket 754 Sempron 3100+ review -
AMD has just released its latest processor line, the AMD Sempron. The
Sempron is designed to replace the Duron line of lower-performance,
inexpensive processors aimed at home and business desktop users. Available in
both Socket A and Socket 754,
the Sempron offers good performance for its price, and has good potential
for overclocking. Another review can be found at
TechReport,
HotHardware
- AOpen Aeolus 6800 Ultra DVD256(E) review - To be quite honest,
the noise of the Aeolus 6800 Ultra was absolutely dreadful. Sounding like
a quartet of Rolls Royce RB211 turbo-fan engines producing the full 60,000lbs
of thrust - and that's just in 2D mode - the Aeolus was in real danger of
turning my entire street deaf.
- MSI PCX5750-TD128 PCI-E videocard review -
The MSI PCX5750-TD128 is a PCI-Express x16 solution based on the venerable
nVidia GeForcePCX 5750 core, and comes with 128MB of standard DDR memory
running at 500MHz.
- HIS Excalibur 9550 VIVO review - Even though you may be able to buy
that new 6800 or X800 video card, not everyone can afford it or even needs
that kind of power. That's why, the ASE Labs has checked out the
HIS
Excalibur 9550 VIVO video card.
- ATi's Mobile Radeon 9800 review - Admittedly, with its new mobile
flagship, which has eight pixel pipelines, four vertex shaders and a 256-bit
memory interface,
ATI manages to make technology history and once again claim the performance
crown. It's also true that with this high-end graphics chip, the 3D
performance gap between a desktop PC and a similarly equipped notebook narrows
even more than with its predecessor, the MR9700. And yes, when compared to a
notebook with the Mobility Radeon 9800, a desktop PC equipped with a
mainstream graphics card less than a year old, such as the ATI Radeon 9600XT,
clearly ends up with the shorter end of the stick.
- OCZ PowerStream 470W Power Supply - Chad looks at
the OCZ
PowerStream 470W Power Supply to see if it is worth your hard earned
money.
- HD Guard Pro review -
HD Guard Pro creates a small “snapshot” of the hard drive, BIOS and your
CMOS. The size of that file is just 1.4 MB on a 12 GB hard drive. Your
computer works as normal, and you won’t notice anything unusual. However in
the background HD Guard works to protect your computer from accidental
destruction, abnormal shutdown, Windows blue screen conditions, registry
errors, etc.
- RedOctane Ignition DDR Platform review -
This pad is well designed and provides a balance for DDR players. The hard
foam insert isn't going to wear-out any time soon and the surface underneath
the pad is non-skid so it won't be scrunching up or sliding. And the feel of
the pad is unbelievable; it's probably the most conformable pad yet.
- Logitech Quick Cam for Notebooks Pro review -
The Logitech
Quick Cam for Notebooks is a good value Camera suitable for the traveller
who wants to communicate and have a cam on his/her notebook.
- Build Silent PC Guide (updated) -
The "Build a Silent PC" guide has been updated.
- Office System 2003 Service Pack - Microsoft this week made
available for download its first
Service
Pack for Office System 2003 (standalone
installer ~
admin installer), which features fresh capabilities to its OneNote and
InfoPath applications, along with improvements to overall speed and
performance and a collection of previously announced security fixes
- Junk E-mail Filter for Outlook 2003 -
This optional update provides the Junk E-mail Filter in Microsoft Office
Outlook 2003 with a more current definition of which e-mail messages should be
considered junk. By installing it, you help the Junk E-mail Filter provide you
with a higher level of protection against junk e-mail. This update was
released in July 2004.
- McAfee Stinger 2.3.5 -
Stinger
is a stand-alone utility used to detect and remove specific viruses. It is not
a substitute for full anti-virus protection, but rather a tool to assist
administrators and users when dealing with an infected system.
- W32.Mydoom@mm Removal Tool 1.0.9.1 -
This tool will Terminate the viral processes; Terminate the viral thread
running under Explorer.exe; Delete the files; and Delete the registry values
added by the worm.
- BayesIt! 0.5.8 -
BayesIt! (download)
is the official anti-spam filter for The Bat! email client.
- WinRAR 3.40 Beta 3 -
WinRAR (download)
is a powerful archive manager. It can backup your data and reduce size of
email attachments, decompress RAR, ZIP and other files downloaded from
Internet and create new archives in RAR and ZIP file format
- ICQ Lite 4.1 Build #1801 - A new version of
ICQ Lite is available for
download.
- 1by1 1.45 - 1by1
(including mpglib.dll 0.92
) is a very small sized player which is not only small: It plays whole
directories without any playlist.
- WinAmp 5.04 -
Nullsoft Winamp (download
full
~ lite
~ pro)
is a fast, flexible, high-fidelity media player for Windows. Winamp supports
playback of many audio (MP3, OGG, AAC, WAV, MOD, XM, S3M, IT, MIDI, etc) and
video types (AVI,ASF,MPEG,NSV), custom appearances called skins (supporting
both classic Winamp 1.x/2.x skins and Winamp 3 freeform skins), audio
visualization and audio effect plug-ins (including two industry dominating
visualization plug-ins), an advanced media library, Internet radio and TV
support, CD ripping, and CD burning.
- Macromedia Flash MX 2004 update v7.2 -
An update (download)
for Flash MX 2004 and Flash MX Professional 2004 is available.
- ATi Radeon Beta Catalyst 4.8 - We really shouldn't call these
Catalyst 4.8, it's just a newer build released after the 4.7 release from
ATI, station-drivers.com leaked them onto the web. There is no word on
performance just yet, however rumors promise nice performance bumps.
- LiteOn SOHR-5238S firmware update - A new firmware for the LiteOn
SOHR-5238S ( 52x 32x 52x ) CD-RW is available for
download.
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Updated:05:35 PM CEST Jun,04
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