SECURITY...

• Latest phishing scam silent but violent - Security experts are warning of a new phishing technique designed to capture online banking details without requiring users to click on a website link. According to security firm MessageLabs, all potential victims have to do is simply open an email, which then silently runs a script that attempts to rewrite the host files of targeted machines. The next time the user attempts legitimately to access their online bank they will be automatically redirected to a fraudulent website, enabling their log-in details to be stolen.

• Serious IE Hole Opens Pre XP SP2 PCs Up to Attacks - US-CERT on Wednesday warned of a fresh hole in Internet Explorer that could allow attackers to take control of a PC via an HTML e-mail message or a malicious Web page. The flaw is all the more serious because exploit. The flaw, a heap buffer overflow, is in the way IE handles two attributes of the "frame" and "iframe" HTML elements. An exploit currently circulating uses overly long SRC and NAME attributes to cause IE to execute an attacker's shell code, according to US-CERT.

• IE exploit is top of the hacks - The London-based security company said that the No. 1 hack was Exploit.HTML.Mht, which attempts to download and install a malicious program on a computer by using a security breach in Microsoft's IE browser software. The exploit was used to target almost twice as many organizations as other exploits, ScanSafe said.
• North Carolina man sentenced to 9 years for spam - A North Carolina man was sentenced to nine years in prison for sending hundreds of thousands of unwanted e-mail messages, Virginia prosecutors said Wednesday. Jeremy Jaynes of Raleigh was found guilty under a Virginia state law that sets limits on the number of e-mails marketers can send in a given time period and prohibits them from using fake e-mail addresses, Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore said.
• Psst...now it's Cisco source code up for sale - The group of self-identified hackers has posted files online that it claims contains source code for Pix security firewall from Cisco Systems. The price for the proprietary software: $24,000. "SCC is proud to announce the general availability of Cisco Pix 6.3.1 source code. This release is significant because Pix is vital to the security of many ultra-secure networks," read a Google group posting marked as a Source Code Club newsletter.
• Presumed Guilty: Paying for Piracy in Advance - Should prices for blank media and recording products include a royalty fee to copyright holders for presumed losses to piracy?
• Hollywood lawsuits to target illegal file sharing - The trade group that represents Hollywood's major motion picture studios is expected to announce Thursday that it intends to file as many as 230 lawsuits in coming weeks against individuals who have illegally shared copyrighted movie files over the Internet, according to two people involved in the proceedings.
• "Computer characters" shot man -  Court has been told two men dressed as characters from a computer game shot a man dead in front of his family during a home invasion in Sydney. Twenty-one-year-old Sophear Em is standing trial in the New South Wales Supreme Court charged with the shooting murder of Josef Logozzo at his Cecil Hills home on January 7, 2002. He has also pleaded not guilty to assaulting Mr Logozzo, a wholesale fruit distributor at Flemington markets, and shooting his wife, Marianne. Crown Prosecutor James Bennett SC, told the court Mr Em and another man invaded the Logozzos' home shortly after midnight, dressed as characters from the computer game Counter Strike.

OFF-TOPIC...

• Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith Teaser Trailer - As promised, there's the first trailer (mirror1 ~ mirror2 ~10 MB; 480 x 206, QuickTime required) for the upcoming Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith movie.
• Crime scene DNA puts names in the frame - Forensic scientists in the UK are developing a method of linking DNA evidence from a crime scene to the surname of the perpetrator. This might enable investigators to narrow the scope of an investigation by focusing on suspects with certain names. But some experts question whether such an approach would be feasible in practice.

TECHNOLOGY...

• P2P for cell phones: Reach out and share something - Cell phones are learning to share files, but the earliest efforts don't nearly resemble the peer-to-peer renegades like Napster and Kazaa that the designers have in mind.  FoneShare, an application introduced two weeks ago by NewBay Software, does let people share their collections of ring tones, graphics, games, songs, movie trailers and other wireless extras with strangers. FoneShare will debut next year as a subscription service, running over privately owned and operated cellular networks, and the sharing will be done via Web sites controlled by a wireless operator, said NewBay Chief Executive Paddy Holahan.
• TrustyFiles offers multi-P2P downloading without Spyware - TrustyFiles run by RazerPop inc. aims to overcome the main problems of existing multi-network P2P, by remaining freeware without unwanted spyware or software and combining various P2P networks to make it appear as one huge network.
• Hotmail Begins 250MB Storage Upgrade - Microsoft has kept their promise when a few months ago they announced that hotmail accounts would be upgraded to 250MB of storage
• Office 12 Details Begin to Trickle Out - Microsoft's next Office System release is set to ship by the summer of 2006, sources say. Expect new desktop apps, servers and services in the mix.
• Pics from the Unreal 3 Engine -  MaximumPC released a special edition Fall 2004 3D Tech Guide featuring a highly defined picture of Malcolm. This edition includes some exclusive photos of the capabilities of Unreal Engine 3. (thanks BeyondUnreal)
• Inkjet printing promises cheaper circuits - Electronic devices could be made more cheaply and with less of an impact on the environment using a circuit-making technology based on inkjet printing, says Japanese electronics firm Epson. The technique is based on the method used by inkjet printers to apply ink to paper. Instead of applying ordinary ink, Epson's inkjet circuit printer either fires droplets of conducting "ink" or insulating "ink" onto a circuit board.
• Intel's 2005 desktop chipsets will feature wireless technology - Intel’s next generation of desktop-use chipsets, to be introduced in the second half of 2005, will support wireless technologies such as 802.11a/b/g, said Sunil Kumar, director of chipset and software marketing at Intel, yesterday in Taipei.
• ATI tapes out 90nm R5xx chip - ATI has completed its design for the upcoming R5xx series of graphics chips. The chips will be the company's first to support Shader Model 3.0, and may be the company's first 90nm parts.
• Processor Fabrication: How a CPU is Built - Sudhian take a look at just how a processor goes from essentially sand to a fully functioning integrated circuit, and all the steps in between.
• Audigy 4 info - Creative Japan has released some info about upcoming Audigy 4 sound card.

HARDWARE...

• NTT DoCoMo Debuts Credit Card Phone - NTT DoCoMo Unveils its new phone allowing a simply wave to pay for items at the supermarket, rent movies, get airplane tickets and more.
• LG to launch GSA-4163B: 16x DVD±R, 5x DVDRAM, 6x DVD-RW -  Plextor PX-716A has 8x DVD+RW. Several manufacturers have 4x DVD+R DL. Matsushita introduced 5x DVD+R DL writers some time after Hitachi-LG's GSA-4120B release. P-CAV 16x DVD+R recording was first announced by Toshiba-Samsung two months ago. 16x DVD-R is even less unique. However, GSA-4163B is the first of all to support all of the above.
• Imation Adds 2GB Drive to its Line of USB 2.0 Swivel Flash Drives - Imation Corp. today announced it is extending its line of Imation USB 2.0 Swivel Flash Drives with the addition of its latest 2 gigabyte (GB) drive. The new Imation 2GB USB 2.0 Swivel Flash Drive features a unique "never lose" swivel cap design that business users and consumers can trust to protect their important files. The high-capacity drive is ideal for transporting and sharing large business documents and presentations, thousands of songs and photos, and multiple video files.
• Holly Computers S939 AMD64W pre-modded and watercooled FX53 PC - Even at default settings though, specifications wise, the Holly certainly has it going on. The system is powered by an Athlon FX-53, which until recently was the fastest AMD processor you could buy. That honour is now taken by the slightly upgraded Athlon FX-55, which has clock speed of 2.6GHz compared to the FX-53s 2.4GHz. The good news is that the Holly system is now shipping with a FX-55 for the same price, which can't be bad.
• EM64T Server Round Up - With it's 64-bit Opteron, AMD has taken the fight to Intel in an attempt to win market share in the server space. Now Intel is fighting back with its new Xeons featuring 64-bit extensions. TrustedReviews has posted a round up of Intel EM64T Servers.
• Intel Pentium 4 3.46EE (1066MHz FSB) review - If you are looking to upgrade an older system, then this is probably the way to go, but if you already have a 3GHz+ system, then there is little point in grabbing up a 1066MHz FSB based system yet. At this time, the 3.46GHz Extreme Edition is not worth the upgrade With higher processor speeds and getting the FSB up to speeds like what the Athlon64’s run at, Intel would stand a chance at perfecting a gaming processor. Until then, we must wait for bigger and better things.
• OCZ PC2 4200 Platinum Edition Rev 2 review - DriverHeaven take a look at OCZ's new 533mhz 4200 Platinum Edition Rev 2 LTD DDR2 8-2-2-3CAS rated modules.
• Low latency PC3200 memory roundup - MadShrimps have tested a new batch of PC3200 and PC4400 rated memory from known and lesser known manufacteres on our Intel P4 test setup.
• ASUS K8N-E Deluxe review - Hexus.net has just posted a review of the K8N-E Deluxe, a socket 754 motherboard running NVIDIA's nForce 3 250Gb chipset. It looks like a pretty nice board, with a great feature set and good performance.
• MSI K8N Neo & Neo2 Platinum (s745 & s939) Nforce3 250 Motherboards - MSI has delivered two excellent products in the K8N Neo and Neo2 Platinum. Both provide a ton of options, good overclocking and very nice performance all at a fairly reasonable price. If you are looking to upgrade to a new Athlon64 system, and want one of the fastest boards available take a good look at MSI's K8N Neo Platinum and K8N Neo2 Platinum motherboards.
• Gigabyte’s Radeon X800 XT 256MB review -  Gigabyte’s Radeon X800 XT is certainly a fine graphics card in every regard, combining a sleek board design with a low noise cooling system and a powerful graphics core. The card runs every modern game at high frame rates, even if you crank up the resolution and visual quality settings. There's certainly no denying that the Radeon X800 XT is one of the fastest graphics processors on the market today
• FlexiGlowHK xRaider Illuminated Mouse Pads review - The FlexiGlow xRaider Mouse Pad has been designed for the hard-core gaming enthusiast. With a maximum comfort low profile surface, the pad glows brightly, illuminating a funky design around the edge. A dimmer switch, located on the USB wire, allows easy selection of your level of brightness. The slick surface works well with Ball or Optical mice.
• ADS' new DVB-T Wireless USB TV - With ADS Instant TV DVB-T USB, you can capture programming off the air and import it directly into MPEG2, and also listen to free digital radio with the luxury of a remote control that can also remotely power off the PC. If you have a powerful enough signal, you can find out whats on by tuning into the DVB Electronic Program Guide and receive teletext signals.
• Nextbase Portable DVD Player review  - Pyroport has posted a review of the Nextbase Portable DVD Player.
• Modding: Single-Layer to Dual-Layer - Legit Reviews has posted an article about modding a single-layer burner into a dual-layer burner

SOFTWARE...

• Inofficial Spybot-S&D version around - Since yesterday, places like BetaNews or MajorGeeks offer Spybot-S&D, version 1.3.2 beta (spybotsd132b.exe). However, the Spybot-S&D makers are not sure how this version reached them or why they do publish it, because this had been an internal test version and was never intended for public use. They strongly advise you to not use this version, as it contains debug code that will most probably fail on your computer. An official new version will be out quite soon, please look for announcements on the official site and on our support forum first. (thanks Bert Jennekens and Rob)
• Omega Radeon Driver Comparison - Adrian's Rojak Pot has posted an Omega Radeon Driver Comparison.
• Firefox 1.0 RC2 - The Mozilla Foundation today has released the second release candidate for Firefox 1.0 which can be found on their FTP server. The Firefox developers please ask that you look at the following areas: site authentication (especially over SSL), extension installation via update.mozilla.org and other sites, MacOS X builds, and software update - "we're making another attempt at this. We think we've got the bugs from RC1, so please test by following these instructions."
• Kerio Personal Firewall 4.1.2 Final - Kerio Personal Firewall (download) helps users control how their computers exchange data with other computers on the Internet or local network. Kerio Personal Firewall is a necessity for all desktop computers connected to broadband Internet, using DSL, cable, ISDN, WiFi or satellite modems.
• GNOME 2.8.1 - This release includes the latest bugfixes and other improvements such as updated translations and is the first in a series of point releases.
• Mp3Gain 1.3.2 beta - MP3Gain analyzes mp3 files to determine how loud they sound to the human ear. It can then adjust the mp3 files so that they all have the same loudness without any quality loss.
• AnyDVD 4.1.0.1 - SlySoft has recently released AnyDVD version 4.1.0.1. Besides some minor fixes and updates has SlySoft added the support for a new type of the "Puppetlock" protection.
• VirtualDub 1.6.1 - The second experimental release in the VirtualDub 1.6 (download ~ download AMD64-bit version) series has been released. This release mainly fixes a bunch of regressions in 1.6.0 and should be more stable, especially on AMD64.  VirtualDub is a video capture/processing utility for 32-bit Windows platforms licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
• EVEREST Home Edition 1.52 -  EVEREST Home Edition is a freeware system information, system diagnostics and benchmarking solution for home PC users, based on the award-winning EVEREST Technology. It has a multilingual interface (supports 30 languages) and offers the most accurate system information and diagnostics capabilities, including online features, memory benchmarks, hardware monitoring, and low-level hardware information.
• RightMark Memory Analyzer 3.42 - RightMark Memory Analyzer 3.42, the universal CPU/Chipset/RAM experimental test suite has been released.
• RadLinker 2.018 - RadLinker is a new tweaker/linker for ATI Radeon based graphics cards.
• SiS 650/651/661/740/741/760 3.63 WHQL driver - download
• NVIDIA nForce v6.14 Beta - The package (mirrror) contains: Audio driver version 4.56, Audio utility version 4.50, Win2K ethernet driver version 4.58, WinXP ethernet driver version 4.58, GART driver version 4.40, Memory controller driver version 4.40, SMBus driver version 4.46,
  Installer version 4.57 and Win2K/XP IDE 2.7 driver version 4.70. (thanks Neil)
• VIA Audio Envy24 Family Drivers 4.32B - VIA released a new version 4.32B of Audio Envy24 Family Drivers. This driver supports audio solutions integrating VIA’s Envy24PT and Envy24HT-S Audio Controllers.
• Realtek ALC AC97 Audio Driver v3.65 - Realtek released version 3.65 driver for their ALC AC97 audio chipsets.
• Intel PRO 10/100/1000 9.1 WHQL driver - There's latest driver (release notes) for the Intel PRO 10/100/1000 adapters.