SECURITY...

• Microsoft Virus removal tool TITAN - Starting from January 11th, 2005, Microsoft will provide Windows customers with Malicious Software Removal Tools. New versions of these tools will be available monthly (second Tuesday of every month on the same schedule that Microsoft already delivers other security updates) or more frequently if necessary. Microsoft will provide new versions of this tool updated to remove malicious software that is found to be prevalent for that month. The first version of the tool available in January will be able to remove Blaster, Sasser, MyDoom, DoomJuice, Zindos, Berweb (also known as Download.Ject), Gailbot and Nachi viruses / worms.
• McAfee Calls in Google for Anti-hack Drive - Details such as financial records, passwords and personal information can often accidentally appear on public pages, the firm warned. It believes its new software will help cut down on the problem. It uses Google to conduct a series of searches on a company's website, flagging up any potentially private information as it goes.
• Cell phone virus turns up the heat - Writers have released a virus, known as Lasco.A, that spreads both through wireless connections and by attaching itself to files, antivirus company F-Secure said Monday. Until now, malicious cell phone programs have spread using one mechanism or the other.
• Spammers' New Tactic Upends DNS - One troublesome technique finding favor with spammers involves sending mass mailings in the middle of the night from a domain that has not yet been registered. After the mailings go out, the spammer registers the domain early the next morning. By doing this, spammers hope to avoid stiff CAN-SPAM fines through minimal exposure and visibility with a given domain. The ruse, they hope, makes them more difficult to find and prosecute.
• Software pirate sentenced to 18 months - A Maryland man has been sentenced in Northern Virginia to 18 months for distributing pirated software over the Internet, the Justice Department said Friday. Singh operated a pay-for-access Web site through which he offered pirated copies of business software altered by the removal of copyright protection devices, the department said.
• BeCrypt acquires Data Sentry from Serco - Serco today sold the rights to its Data Sentry security software to BeCrypt, a UK encryption specialist. BeCrypt is an established provider of encryption software to UK police forces and will used Data Sentry to offer higher security for government and defence contractors' mobile devices.

OFF-TOPIC...

• UGO's Top 50 DVDs - check it out
• World of Warcraft Shatters Sales Records - Blizzard Entertainment today announced that World of Warcraft has sold through more than 600,000 units to customers in North America, Australia, and New Zealand. The fastest-growing massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) has also shattered all previous concurrency records in North America, achieving over 200,000 simultaneous players during the holiday period.
• New plastic can better convert solar energy - Researchers at the University of Toronto have invented an infrared-sensitive material that's five times more efficient at turning the sun's power into electrical energy than current methods. The discovery could lead to shirts and sweaters capable of recharging our cellphones and other wireless devices, said Ted Sargent, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the university.

TECHNOLOGY...

• Philips turns knife over Gates' failed CES demos - Speaking during CES in Las Vegas, Microsoft director of worldwide standards Patt Griffis said that there was an answer to standards problems. "We have that. We call it Windows," Griffis told delegates at the conference session about the battle for control of the digital living room. However, fellow panellist Frans van Houten, CEO of Philips Semiconductor, countered: "Not everybody wants to put Windows in all boxes. Certainly, when we are sitting on the couch and watching TV, we don't want to see that blue screen in front of us."
• A Look Inside the BBC's Network - The BBC have provided the entire internet with a look inside their amazing network. It shows everyone the almighty web power they are with over 40 webservers and 12 firewalls and their 8Gbps intersite connections. (thanks Slashdot.org)
• NVIDIA Will Not Release a New Architecture Until the End of 2005 - Research and investment firm Goldman Sachs said in its recent report it did not expect NVIDIA to release a new graphics architecture earlier than in late 2005 and any significant market share changes between ATI Technologies and NVIDIA. The company said it expected NVIDIA's handset products revenue to grow significantly.
•  Shinco shifts from DVD players to EVD players - Jiangsu Shinco Electronics in view of the continued drop in domestic retail prices of DVD players and problems of royalty payments for exports, has decided to give up manufacturing the product line and shift to production of players based on China's self-developed enhanced versatile disc (EVD) format, according to Chinese makers of DVD players.
• Sirius teams with Microsoft to deliver satellite TV to cars - At the CES Show, Sirius a major satellite radio provider has teamed up with Microsoft to bring satellite TV to the car using the same delivery method as with its satellite radio (requiring no dish). Due to very limited bandwidth on its satellite, it will use Microsoft's Windows Media Video 9 compression to fit two to three channels containing premium video content via its satellite. As the main backseat viewers are children, these channels will mainly dedicate their content to children's programming.
• Via to start India LAN gaming push - VIA Technologies is set to promote local area network (LAN)based computer gaming in India. The company has worked on a PC configuration, which is going to be what it claims is a unique offering for India.
• Samsung Develops Eight-Die Multi-Chip Tech - Samsung's new multi-chip (MCP) offers a combined capacity of 3.2 gigabits in a package only 1.4mm thick, the company says, promising a new generation of cell phones and mobile devices that can offer more services and faster Internet surfing.
• AMD unveils 64-bit mobile Turion - AMD today unveiled its latest high-end mobile processor, the Turion 64. Based on the firm's existing 64-bit technology, AMD said its Turion 64 mobile processors will provide high-performance notebook PCs with long battery life, wireless compatibility, rich graphics and enhanced security. Notebooks based on Turion 64 processors are expected to begin shipping from OEMs in the first half of 2005.
• AMD Helps Verify Authentic Chips - The holographic label will appear on the bottom left corner of the packaging for boxed Athlon 64 FX, Athlon 64, Sempron, and Opteron chips, the company says. AMD's boxed processors are often purchased by system builders and PC buyers choosing their own components. They come with a heatsink and a fan and carry a 3-year limited warranty.
• SanDisk adds USB connection to SD Card - SanDisk has developed an SD memory card that includes a built-in USB connector so the card can be directly plugged into a computer, the company said at the CES. The card has a hinge in the center and folds back on itself to reveal a thin USB connector. The card, which was designed in-house by SanDisk, removes the need for an SD card adapter and is compatible with any operating system that recognizes USB Mass Storage devices. The interface is USB 2.0.
• CES: Some Interesting Gadgets for Gamers  - So how much of CES is dedicated to gamers? Nearly all of it - if you are the kind of gamer who enjoys MP3 players, gadgets, GPS systems, cell phones, and digital cameras. But if you are looking for products purely designed to enhance game playing, you may be a bit disappointed.

HARDWARE... 

• Gigabyte's dual GPU GV-3D1 - Neoseeker is the latest web site to check out Gigabyte's dual GPU GV-3D1 graphics card. Based on the GeForce 6600 GT, the GV-3D1 contains two GPUs running at 500MHz and 256MB of memory running at an effective clock speed of 1120MHz. Gigabyte is planning to bundle the GV-3D with their PCI-Express based GA-K8NXP-SLI motherboard as a kit for around $550 USD (MSRP).
• AOpen DUW1608/ARR DVD recorder - The first point we would like to mention is the DVD+R9 DL support, the technology is quite young and it is an interesting format to experiment with. The next point is the 16x DVD+R CAV writing technique that leads to faster burns when compared with 16x Z-CLV. This AOpen drive also supports DVD-ROM booktype bitsetting on DVD+R/DVD+RW/DVD+R9 DL which leads to high compatibility on i.e. DVD standalone devices. Nero CD-DVD Speed can be used to measure disc quality/conditions with this AOpen drive. The drive is an ok reader and it can read CD-R's at 48x, DVD-Rom/Video at 16x and DVD-R/+R at 12x. Due to "two sheep" burner and the DAO-RAW writing mode - the drive can be used to backup copy protected CD's. It also supports 99 minutes CD-R's and the writing quality on CD-R's is excellent.
• Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook - The Audigy 2 ZS Notebook is designed to be a one-stop solution. You get Dolby Digital EX and DTS ES decoding, of up to 7.1 surround channels, a healthy signal to noise ratio that will have no trouble walking over an onboard sound chip, EAX support, hardware mixing to reduce the load on the CPU and high resolution DVD Audio. For gamers in particular, no other card offers this range of features, and it's potentially a perfect companion for laptops that like to take their owners to LAN parties.
• Can 19" LCDs Pass the Frag Test? - LCD vendors claim their new crop of 19" displays are up to par with their 17" wares. But THG past tests show that OEM claims in this space aren't always worth too much. THG put four of BenQ, NEC, Philips and Xerox' 19" finest to the test to see what is and what is not up to snuff for the demanding gamer and film buff.
• Samsung ML-2251n Printer  - This printer comes from the ML-2250 family of printers, with 2250 being the base model, 2251n adding built in ethernet connectivity and ability to expand with 802.11b wireless, and the 2251NP which has all the capability of the 2251N but with additional Postscript3 support, and the 2252W which comes standard with 802.11b in addition to ethernet but without Postscript3 emulation.
• Logitech's MX1000 wireless mouse - PyroPort take a look at Logitech's MX1000 wireless mouse.
• ATake EasyView 4 Port USB KVM Switch - MikhailTech take a look at ATake's 4 port USB KVM, featuring shared ports and a custom scrolling system.

GUIDES...

• Configure an IIS Honeypot - Configuring a honeypot in IIS is a simple task that you can do to reduce attacks on your IIS webservers. Now this is not exactly a honeypot, a honeypot is a host with known vulnerabilities deliberately exposed to a public network, but more of a redirector of traffic
• Read-Only USB Storage -If you've been concerned about the possibility that users in your Windows XP environment might plug in a USB storage key and walk away with hundreds of megabytes of proprietary corporate information, XP Service Pack 2 (SP 2) lets you make USB storage devices read only, removing the possibility of leaking data via a USB key. To configure USB storage for read only, perform the following steps. (thanks Bink.nu)
• The Windows XP Tweaking Companion v1.02 - TweakGuides have updated their extensive 170 page Windows XP Tweaking Companion (XPTC) version 1.02!

SOFTWARE...

• The 46 Best-ever Freeware Utilities - There are a lot of great freeware programs out there. Many are as good or even better than their commercial alternatives.
• Win98 and WinME Boot Disks - download
• Nero Burning Rom 6.6.0.5 - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.0.5 (direct link) is available! Another goodies: Nero Media Player 1.4.0.27, NeroMIX 1.4.0.27, NeroVision Express 3.0.1.18, Nero InCD 4.3.11.1
• PowerArchiver 2004 9.11.01 (shw) - PowerArchiver (download) is an award-winning archive utility for the Windows® family of products that provides support for most compressed and encoded files, as well as access to many powerful features and tools though an easy to use interface that seamlessly integrates with Windows Explorer. This new version  adds faster ZIP compression in certain situations. and improves support for HP-UX file systems accessible on a LAN.
• PowerStrip 3.57 (shw) - PowerStrip provides advanced, multi-monitor, programmable hardware support to a wide range of graphics cards - from the venerable Matrox Millennium I to the latest GeForce 6600GT and ATI X850.
• Easy CD-DA Extrator to version 7.7 (shw) - Poikosoft has yesterday released version 7.7 of their all-in-one audio software Easy CD-DA Extractor. This version adds support for Cue Sheets (.cue + audio file), fixes Freedb problems, memory leaks and more.
• AnyDVD 4.5.2.1 final - SlySoft has now officially released version 4.5.2.1 of AnyDVD. The new version adds support for a new variant of the Sony ARccOS protection which was found on "Resident Evil - Apocalypse" and much more.
• PCI Latency Tool 2.0 - Utility to set PCI Latency and prevent game stutter or simply improve FPS. This tweak is an important one, and one well worth checking into. Apparently, newer high-end video cards hog PCI latency for no known reason. This makes other components wait for access and causes stutters and lower frame rates. If you adjust the latency, users are reporting big improvements.