Nightly Tech Madness - tech
(hx) 03:28 AM CEST - Sep,14 2004
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- New Scam Tactic Hits Online -
The new techniques, which experts began seeing sporadically earlier this
year and in large waves in recent weeks, involve the use of a process called
steganography, or embedding or hiding text in an image. In the most recent
cases, spam and phishing messages have incorporated complex images containing
text. In some cases, the image files include hidden code designed to exploit
known vulnerabilities in e-mail clients and Web browsers.
- Symantec Goes Anti-Phishing - The antivirus software giant will
announce this week
a brand protection service that will use the company's global network of
researchers and its desktop software to help companies identify and thwart
online scams that use their names to trick unsuspecting customers.
- New Worm Installs Network Traffic Sniffer -
A new worm whose payload includes the SDBot trojan tries to install a
"sniffer," seeking to use infected computers to capture login and banking
information for other computers on the same network. While sniffers are hardly
new, the bundling of a sniffer with an auto-propagating worm is a new wrinkle,
according to security firms.
- Worm speaks to Windows users -
The Amus worm, which may be Turkish, uses the Windows Speech Engine,
embedded on Windows XP, to play the following message: "How are you. I am
back. My name is Mr. Hamsi. I am seeing you. Haaaaaaaa. You must come to
Turkey. I am cleaning your computer. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. 0. Gule gule." "Gule gule"
means "bye-bye" in Turkish. The worm, which runs after the Windows XP
boot-up music has played, also deletes certain files, causing Windows to fail.
It spreads automatically via an e-mail titled "Listen and Smile" and alters
home page settings in Internet Explorer.
- Independent Developers Fight Piracy & Lose -
The author of the Echelon decided to take his fight against software piracy
to the next level and then threw in the towel. After someone began posting new
serial numbers on a well known hacking site, the author took matters into his
own hands. With version 1.0, entering a hacked serial number causes the
software deleted the user's Home directory. Yes, you read it right, the
software completely erases it (aka rm -rf ~).
- Does Online Banking Put Your Money at Risk? - The modern-day Willie
Suttons of the world target bank Web sites for the same reason. With online
transactions, money is represented in the form of electronic records of
ownership, which means online bank robbers can steal more money, in less time,
than by stealing literal currency--and they don't even need a getaway car.
But that doesn't mean online banking necessarily has to be a riskier
proposition.
- Off-topic: Genetic Code Transmits Medical Records, Personalized
Medicine -
Acknowledging that the project began "when the DNA-augmented patient
record seemed to many to be mere science fiction," scientists Barry Robson and
Richard Mushlin of IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center now predict GMS will be
able to transmit information as a "smart DNA sequence" that contains a
patient's entire medical record along with genetic information. Even MRIs and
X-rays might be rendered into the system.
- Off-topic: Novell: Microsoft 'sucked $60 billion' out of IT -
Speaking on Monday at BrainShare Europe, Novell's annual conference here,
CEO
Jack Messman told customers and partners that Microsoft's exhaustive
license fees for Windows have prevented end-user organizations and independent
software developers from directing cash into more "innovative" software.
"I am of the opinion that innovation has been slowed because of Microsoft. It
has sucked $60 billion out of our industry that could have been used for
innovation," he said.
- Off-topic: "Beware of the End of the WWW," Says Intel - At Intel's
technical conference, CTO Patrick Gelsinger said
the Internet will begin to collapse as millions of new computer users from
developing nations begin to sign on. "We're running up on some architectural
limitations," Gelsinger was quoted as saying. Gelsinger's solution is to build
a new network over the current Internet, that would monitor and direct traffic
and better fight security threats or traffic surges.
- Step Toward Universal Computing -
A Silicon Valley startup claims to have cracked one of most elusive goals
of the software industry: a near-universal emulator that allows software
developed for one platform to run on any other, with almost no performance
hit. Transitive Corp. of Los Gatos, California, claims its QuickTransit
software allows applications to run "transparently" on multiple hardware
platforms, including Macs, PCs, and numerous servers and mainframes.
- BeAll adds extra Megabytes to DVD recordable media with EEM - South
Korean company BeAll has
announced that it will start shipping 4x DVD-R recordable discs to which
consumers can record up to 4.85 GB of data or 124 minutes of DVD video. This
an increase of 0.15 GB when compared to regular 4.7 GB DVD recordables.
- Virtual Server 2005 available -
Virtual Server 2005 Standard Edition supports up to four processors, with
an estimated retail price of $499 (U.S.). Virtual Server 2005 Enterprise
Edition supports up to 32 processors, with an estimated retail price of $999
(U.S.). Both versions will be available within 30 days through retail and
volume licensing and will be licensed on a per-physical server basis.
- Chinese startup claims 25-Gbit/s over copper wire - Analogix
Semiconductor Inc. has introduced physical-layer transceiver ICs that lets
system designers design in 6.25-Gbit/s serial performance per copper twisted
pair and
25-Gbit/s full-duplex over a single InfiniBand copper cable at up to 30
meters distance, the company claimed today.
- Sony unveils 3LCD 6000-1 contrast ratio HD projector -
The new
VPL-HS51 model is equipped with an advanced iris function, enabling the
projector to dynamically adjust the video image according to the level of the
input signal. This results in high contrast ratio of up to 6000:1, along with
reproduction of the most subtle details. The HS51 also incorporates three
proprietary 720p LCD panels that provide 2,764,800 pixel resolution (1280x720)
optimized for HD video input.
- ATI RS480/RS400 runs Doom 3 -
Both of
those chipsets are able to run all top three games including Doom 3, Far
Cry and Half Life 2 at playable frame rates just using the power of chipset
graphics. We haven’t any specifics what playable frame rates are, but we
suspect ~24 plus FPS.
- AMD Sempron 3100+: The best value processor yet - The three main
notable differences between
the
Sempron 3100+ ($123) and the rest of the Athlon 64 family concerns the
amount of L2 cache, 256KB instead of the usual 512KB or 1MB cache, the fact
that it has a single channel DDR memory controller and a single hypertransport
Link and the fact that it has no AMD64 capabilities but will include the NX
bit and Cool'n'quiet features.
- Overdrive PC Torque.OP review - Believe it or not,
the "OP" in the Overdrive PC Torque.OP's name refers to the AMD Opteron
150 CPU inside (overclocked to 2.6 GHz). The Torque.OP's Opteron 150 processor
is installed on an Asus SK8N motherboard - the same motherboard we've seen in
940-pin Athlon 64 FX-51 and FX-53 systems. Backing up the fast CPU are two
10,000-rpm SATA drives in a RAID 0 configuration, as well as 1GB of registered
DDR 400 SDRAM.
- IBM ThinkPad T42 notebook review -
The T42 is Centrino branded, so you’re getting an Intel Pentium M CPU,
running at 1.7GHz, complete with 2MB of Level 2 cache. Backing up the
processor is 512MB of PC2700 DDR SDRAM, which is adequate for pretty much
anything you’re likely to run on a notebook computer. That said, if you do
want more memory, the T42 can support a maximum 2GB of memory, which should
satisfy even the most fanatical multi-tasker.
- AMD Athlon 2500+ processor shootout (Barton, Mobile, Sempron) -
If you're looking to run at straight out of the box stock speeds, then
going for the Athlon XP 2500+ should be a no brainer. The XP either beats or
almost matches the Mobile chip in every benchmark and can be had at a lower
price. If however you're a tweaker, a freaker, a mad cookie eater, then by all
means spend that extra four bones that is burning a hole in your pocket
and pick up a Mobile Athlon chip. Even if by some chance you get a dud in
the overclocking department you'll still have a chip that can easily run at
stock XP speeds all the while requiring _much_ less voltage which will enable
you to have a quiet if not super fast gaming system. Finally, if you're
looking at the Sempron do it only if you absolutely cannot afford that extra
ten bucks that it's going to cost you to move up to a Barton based XP
processor.
- OCZ EL DDR PC-3200 Dual Channel 1gig kit review - Xtremecomputing
has posted
a
review of the OCZ EL DDR PC-3200 Dual Channel 1gig kit.
- Abit KW7 KT880 Motherboard Specs -
The Abit KV7II
sporting VIA KT880 chipset has been replaced with the Abit KW7 for a total
compatibility with new technologies like AMD Sempron, IEEE 1394 Firewire, and
Gigabit LAN. The KW7 series also based on the VIA KT880 chipset supports AMD
Socket A K7 processor with FSB 400, and dual DDR400 that deliver up to a 50%
increase in bandwidth. With SATA RAID, LAN, and 6 channels sound, this board
can easily be the foundation for a superb system.
- Abit AA8 DuraMAX 925X motherboard review - PC Perspective has
posted
a review on the Abit AA8 DuraMAX 925X Motherboard.
- Sapphire Radeon X800 XT ViVo review - When we look at the
performance of the X800 XT in relation to the other boards, the performance
really holds little surprises,
as it nestles between the Platinum Edition and the PRO. The specifications
of the X800 XT would indicate that it performance would be closer to the
Platinum Edition, and this is indeed the case, hold a mere 6%-8% performance
differential to it.
- HIS X800XT IceQ II VIVO Special Edition review - Image quality on
the HIS X800XT card is nothing short of impressive. While playing games
such as Unreal Tournament 2004, Doom 3, and Call of Duty I was able to turn up
all the "eye candy" and effects that the designers put in the respective game
engines, and enjoy them at impressive frame rates. Being able to see all the
details of all the textures was great. Being able to crank up some of the AA
and AF settings and still get good frame rates was even better.
- Leadtek WinFast A380 Ultra review - Xtremecomputing has posted
a
review on the Leadtek WinFast A380 Ultra video card.
- Inno3D GeForce 6800 review -
The Inno3D GeForce 6800 is a high quality product that lives up to
anyone's informed expectations of what an NVIDIA GeForce 6800 video card has
to offer. Compared to the 6800 Ultra, this card is quieter although the
difference is not drastic as the 6800 Ultra noise is basically drowned out by
typical power supply fans, case fans, etc.
- ASUS V9999 GeForce 6800 Gamers Edition 256MB -
That's precisely why ASUS' 256MB-equipped GeForce 6800 behaves so much
like the more expensive 6800 GT and Ultra designs, right down to decent
performance with high resolutions and AntiAliasing/Anisotropic Filtering
applied. The gap between it and a regular 128MB-equipped GeForce 6800 can
increase from around 25% at 1024x768 4xAA/8xAF to almost 100% at our highest
setting of 1600x1200 4xAA/8xAF. Just that fact puts ASUS' card into a
different league than most other plain 6800s.
- P4 Integrated Graphic Chipsets shootout - There is the final matter
of which Pentium 4 IGP chipset is better? Obviously at this stage if you want
to build an LGA775 platform
the 915G is the only choice, as I have not seen an RS350 motherboard using
this socket. It is unlikely these two chipsets will be found in direct
competition as neither is likely to be found offering the same socket.
However, they may sway a user in a certain direction. For example, those after
an incredibly cheap integrated graphics PGA478 Pentium 4 solution will most
certainly want to get their hands on an RS350 supportive motherboard.
- XPS & Mobility Radeon 9800 -
The ATI
Mobility Radeon 9800 is simply an amazing piece of technology for gaming.
It will allow you to see gaming performance on a notebook that you have never
seen before. The "wow factor" for this thing is pretty darn high the first
time you experience it. We can only hope that ATI keeps up the breakneck speed
in which its performance focused Mobility Radeon VPUs are coming to market. At
this rate, it will be very soon that find gaming laptops at mainstream prices
instead of just being populated in mostly high dollar machines.
- Graphics Card Guide (updated) - Adrian's Rojak Pot has updated
his comprehensive graphics card comparison guide. Products from ATI,
NVIDIA, XGI, S3, SiS, Matrox, PowerVR, 3dfx, Trident and Intel are
represented.
- Why 8 New Miditower Cases Do Not Always Deliver -
There are few miditowers that also offer practical and useful control
displays. Either reading the values is difficult or the display is too small
to be read. Good-looking at first glance, they soon lose their charm, because
reading is only possible with a direct view from above. Even the brightness of
the room makes a huge difference in visibility for almost all of the miditower
displays.
- Antec Truepower 430 Power Supply review - AusPCWorld take a look at
the
Antec Truepower 430 Power Supply.
- NVIDIA & WoW Beta -To celebrate the collaboration, NVIDIA and
Blizzard will randomly
distribute 1,000 closed beta accounts. Sign-ups will be held for one week
only, starting today at NVIDIA's nZone.
- Microsoft Wireless Desktop Comfort Edition review - Hardware Pacers
has posted
a review of the
Microsoft Wireless Desktop Comfort Edition.
- SP2 Windows XP setup bootfloppies - Here're Setup Disks for Floppy
Boot Install updated for Windows XP Service Pack 2 (WinXP
Home Edition SP2 ~
WinXP Professional SP2)
- Windows Server 2003 (KB827214) update -
This update resolves problems that were found in the Exchange 2003
Transport since Exchange 2003 was released.
- Mozilla Firefox 1.0 Preview - Phronix has released
a Mozilla Firefox 1.0 preview.
- Taos Image Finder -
Taos Image Finder
(shots ~
demo) is an
application like no other in the market. It is one of the first applications
that take advantage of the bleeding edge performance and capabilities of
graphics processing units like the GeForce FX and GeForce 6800 to deliver
image processing performance never before seen on the desktop PC.
- IPCheck Server Monitor 4.3.2.385 -
Network and Server
Uptime/Downtime Monitor (download)
- monitors a network using various protocols (e.g. ping, http/https, smtp,
ftp, pop3, dns,snmp ) and notifies the staff in various ways as soon as an
outage occurs. By design IPCheck Server Monitor fills the gap between the
small freeware tools that do not monitor thoroughly enough and the expensive
management suites that are often very complicated to set up.
- Overclockulator v1.1.1b Freeware - PimpRig has posted
Overclockulator v1.1.1b for download. It's a great little app that will be
an overclocker's best friend! Various calculating functions aimed straight at
the overclocker incuding a tool to add up your systems total wattage use, CPU
and FSB calculations, Temp conversions and more.
- ShaderMark 2.1 Graphics Benchmark -
ShaderMark 2.1
(download)
is a DirectX 9.0 pixel shader benchmark. All pixel and vertex shader code is
written in Microsoft’s High Level Shading Language. ShaderMark provides the
possibility to use different compiler targets and advanced options. It also
features a picture quality comparison based on mean square error (MSE) values.
- Fraps 2.3.1 - Fraps
(download) is designed as a
generic tool for DirectX and OpenGL games. In its current form Fraps performs
many tasks and can best be described as: Benchmarking Software, Screen Capture
Software and Realtime Video Capture Software. This new version fixed crash in
2.3.0 when "Save Detailed Benchmark Statistics" enabled and still incorrect
colors recorded from games running in 16-bit color.
- K-Lite Codec Pack 2.31 - New versions of the
K-Lite Codec Pack
have been released (thanks Siegfried)
- AnyDVD 4.0.1.1 Beta -
AnyDVD
allows you to decrypt CSS encrypted DVDs on the fly. Insert your CSS- (Content
Scrambling System) and RPC (Region Code Protected) - protected DVD into your
DVD drive. It will detect it and automatically remove the protection. This new
version allowing you to remove "Protection based on unreadable Sectors".
- PowerStrip 3.54 (shw) -
PowerStrip
(download)
provides advanced, multi-monitor, programmable hardware support to a wide
range of graphics cards - from the venerable Matrox Millennium I to the latest
video cards.
- Creative USB Sound Blaster Audigy 2 NX driver v1.0.10 -
This driver (EU
mirror) update improves USB Sound Blaster Audigy 2 NX functionality with
Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2.
- GSA-4120B LG DVDRAM firmware -
The new
firmware
claims to fix compatibility problems with Lite-On DVD-ROMs. Try only at
your own risk!
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Updated:11:06 PM CEST Jun,04
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