SECURITY...

• Stolen Laptop Exposes Data of 100,000 - A thief recently walked into a University of California, Berkeley office and swiped a computer laptop containing personal information about nearly 100,000 alumni, graduate students and past applicants, highlighting a continued lack of security that has increased society's vulnerability to identity theft.
• Security Flaw Found In Trillian IM Client - The popular Trillian instant-messaging client contains a security flaw that could allow a hacker to gain control of a person's computer, a software company said Friday. To take advantage of the vulnerability, the hacker would have to use an advanced technique called DNS cache poisoning, which redirects PC users from real sites to spoofed copies, said Matt Hargett, director of development for Pittspurgh, Pa.-based, LogicLibrary Inc. The tactic involves a hacker first compromising a DNS server, which is used on the web to direct computers to websites.
• Anti-hacker movement gathers force with Arbor’s Alliance - Anti-hacking firepower now gets more ammo with 18 major network providers and ISPs pooling together in an alliance initiated by Arbor Networks.  On Monday, Arbor, which specializes in network threat detection and monitoring tools, announced the Fingerprint Sharing Alliance. This group will share a technology with which they would automatically share real-time data on cyber attacks.
• Microsoft To Test MSN Messenger 7 Security - Microsoft is planning to block all hotlinks, Winks and Dynamic Display Pictures from being sent or received for a testing period starting today until Thursday 31st. An MSN spokesperson creditted the additional testing to the recent virus attacks which attempted to use MSN Messenger as a way to spread harmful code. Over the 48 hour testing the period the MSN Messenger team will be testing different methods of blocking malicious code from being transferred on MSN Messenger.
• Legal fears halt Apple virus competition - DVForge, which builds Apple accessories, had offered $25,000 to the first person to infect two G5 PowerMac computers running OS X 10.3 Panther connected to the internet without firewalls or antivirus protection.

OFFTOPIC...

• New movie trailers @ ComingSoon- Domino (Tony Scott's next film) | Dust to Glory | Fantastic Four | Ice Age 2: The Meltdown | Off the Map (drama) | The Edukators (drama)
• New 'golden rice' carries far more vitamin - Claims that genetically engineered "golden rice" can help prevent blindness by boosting vitamin A intake have been bolstered by a new strain. Compared with the original golden rice unveiled in 2000, "Golden rice 2" contains up to 23 times more provitamin A, the substance converted in the body into vitamin A. This vitamin is vital for preventing childhood blindness, which affects 500,000 children worldwide each year.

TECHNOLOGY...

• Windows XP Home Edition N - Microsoft has bowed to pressure from the European Commission to name a new version of its Windows XP software, Windows XP Home Edition N. It is the US software giant's latest step in complying with the EU, following a record anti-trust fine imposed on it last year. The 'N' in the new name stands for "not with media player".
• The Showdown: Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD - Both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD discs enable HDTV reproduction because of their massive storage capacities. Using dual-layer techniques, HD-DVD can store as much as 30 gigabytes of data while a Blu-Ray disc can pack in a whopping 50 gigabytes. In the lab, techies already are working on several-layered discs that could allow more than 100 gigabytes of storage on one disc. That's enough for several HDTV movies, special features and compelling interactive content. Or a content provider could put more than 100 hours of standard-definition quality programming on one DVD. All 180 episodes of Seinfeld on one disc, anyone?
• Dead PSP pixels will be handled by Sony - There were reports earlier in the week that Sony may not deal with dead pixels on their new device. But, slowly, the truth has come out that they will.
• Sony loses force feedback patent infringement suit - US District Court judge has ordered Sony to pay over $90 million in damages and interest to settle a patent infringement case with Immersion, a developer of force feedback technology. The Dualshock controllers that Sony ships with its PlayStation and PlayStation 2 consoles apparently infringe on Immersion's patents, and Sony has also been ordered to pay licensing fees for hardware already sold in the US.
• Photoshop CS2 Press Release Leaked - This press release for Photoshop 9 is scheduled for April (thanks Neowin.net), but it came thick and fast when I searched for this anticipated App. Improved file browser, HDR image support and firewire preview look cool for us digital video fans, but there are changes to the layers pallete, instancing etc. Not everything i wanted/wished for or even heard rumoured, but good none the less.
• World's Smallest Linux Box Fits in RJ-45 Jack - "Picotux" has a 55MHz ARM processor, 2MB of Flash, 8MB of RAM, a serial port, and five lines of GPIO. It measures 0.75 x 0.75 x 1.4 inches (19 x 19 x 36mm), and weighs 0.64 ounces (18 grams), packaged in a metal housing.
• Atsana processor gives Samsung's SCH-M309 phone MPEG4 video without wasting power - Atsana's J2211 processor is powering the multimedia features of Samsung Electronics' SCH-M309 feature phone, according to an announcement from the Canada-based developer of multimedia processors for mobile devices. Samsung announced the new 800MHz CDMA2000 1x phone in China on March 16, during the launch of its new "M" series of phones.

HARDWARE... 

• AMD Readies 2.20GHz Dual-Core Chips for Mid-Year, Targets 3.0GHz in 2006 - The top speed of AMD’ Opteron processor with two cores will be 2.20GHz this year, whereas single-core AMD64 chips for servers will reach 3.0GHz milestone in the first quarter of 2006, nearly three years after Intel’s Xeon products attained the landmark, according to slides that presumably come from AMD’s roadmap. The probable prospective plan of AMD suggests that AMD will launch AMD Opteron 200- and 800-series dual-core processors at 1.80GHz, 2.0GHz and 2.20GHz already in the second quarter of 2005.
• Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.73GHz - In terms of raw performance, the chip is altogether incredible, as one would expect from a chip selling for ~$1,200. The chip dominates AMD's rival Athlon64 FX-55 processor in content creation apps and multimedia applications, although still fails to overthrow AMD's flagship chip in the all-too-important gaming arena.
  VIA K8T800 Pro (Socket 939) Roundup : ABIT AV8 - Currently, the AV8 is the only board in ABIT's Socket 939 line-up to use the VIA K8T800 Pro chipset as they have steadily updated their product line with VIA K8T890 and NVIDIA nForce4 series motherboards. Thus, the AV8 fills in the role of the entry level Socket 939 solution.
• EPoX 9NPA+SLI Motherboard - EPoX 9NPA+SLI mainboard is based on the NVIDIA NF4 SLI chipset supporting 2 x PCI-E graphics card for best gaming performance. This mainboard supports the Socket 939 Athlon 64FX processors. It supports 1GHz HTT FSB, Dual Channel DDR400, 8 Channel Audio, 10 USB ports, 2 x PCI-E x 8 (or 1 x PCI-E x 16), GbE LAN, 6 SATA II RAID (4 by NV chipset, 2 others by Siliconimage) and 1394. Embedded Firewall with Active Armour comes with the chipset and it can be enabled for a more secured computing environment.
• Gigabyte's GA-K8VT890-9 motherboard - Despite the fact that GA-K8VT890-9 offers a fair bit of value at its bargain-basement price point, enthusiasts will no doubt be frustrated by the BIOS's lack of a PCI Express clock lock and temperature-driven fan speed control. Those features could perhaps be added in a BIOS update, as Gigabyte has done with more extensive memory timings, but they're not available yet.
• Leadtek PX6600GT TDH  - It's low cost vs. high performance ratio are everything we look for in a video card.
• HIS X850 XT Platinum Edition IceQ II dual DVI 256MB PCIe - Superb performance, and thanks to HIS's outstanding cooling technology, stable performance. In addition to being fast and having a great stock cooler the X850XT PE comes with a great bundle of accessories to really help broaden the list of possible uses. VIVO, HDTV, and dual digital outputs makes this card a great option for video enthusiasts as well. But, yes the dreaded 'but', this card comes with a very hefty price tag ($580) even by today's standards.
• ATI X850 XT Platinum Edition PCI Express - The X850XT PE from ATI is an enthusiast's dream card. No other card has more performance on the market unless you purchase a SLI system. In that comparison, the X850XT PE is the better buy, as an SLI system will require 2 6800GT cards to outperform the X850XT PE and cost $250 more. On the other hand, the card is also $550, the highest current manufacturer suggested retail priced video card of the bunch.
• Chaintech 6600GT SE6600G PCI-E - With 128MB of fast DDR3 memory and a PCI Express interface, the 6600 GT will handle about any task, including some hard core gaming. Some of the standard features included o­n this card are TV-out and DVI-I, which are excellent features should you want to run a display to a larger screen or High Definition TV.
• Seagate Barracuda 400GB 7200.8 Hard Drive - The Raptor is still faster, but buying two raptors still doesn't come close to the storage capacity of one Seagate 400GB drive. Running two Seagate 400GB's shames the raptor in storage space and just barely falls short on the speed. If Seagate releases a 16MB version of this drive, the speed is going to increase and might just take the raptor.
• Kingwin 3.5" EIDE USB 2.0 HDD Enclosure - Kingwin 3.5 external enclosures come in several different formats depending on the type of hard drive you plan on using. They have USB2 and a combo USB2 and Firewire for EIDE hard drives and they also have an enclosure for SATA drives with a USB2 interface
• Seasonic S12 430W PSU - Mikhailtech take a look at Seasonic's S12 430W power supply, combining extremely stable rails, quiet operation, and great cable management.
• A.C. Ryan RyanPower2 450W PSU - The RyanPower2 is a step in the right direction for A.C.Ryan, it's very silent, provides enough juice to keep your system stable and features a handy (slightly flawed) cabling system.
• Foxconn System Cases Roundup - X-bit Labs take a look at their exterior looks, internal construction peculiarities, ease of the system assembly, and thermal parameters
• 4 Port USB 2.0 Compact Hub - With low powered items as aforementioned, the hub worked as expected with USB. Things just work. Plug in a mouse, it works, keyboard, it works, got the idea? For the manufacturer to include a power brick, it would drive up the cost, and hurt portability at the same time, so I don't have any qualms about that.
• Actiontec HomePlug Networking Kit - PCstats is testing out one such HomePNA solution from Actiontec, called the HomePlug Ethernet adaptor kit. The kit uses the HomePlug 14Mbps technology and comes with a pair of 14Mbps power plug Ethernet adaptors, allowing users to network two PCs together, or connect a single PC to a wired router or Internet gateway some distance away.
• D-Link Wireless 108G Gaming Router (DGL-4300) - Overall, almost every aspect about the DGL-4300 GamerLounge Gaming Router was appealing one way or another. The 10/100/1000 support from a router was definitely a welcome sign when transferring large files across the network or when performing multiple network operations simultaneously.
• Genius Wireless Netscroll+ - The design of the mouse is very similar to that of Logitech's MX series, and it does a pretty good job at replicating their comfort as well. The mouse is tall and large enough to fit all kinds of hands, and can be used for a prolonged period of time without hurting the wrist.
• X-Woofer 3D Vibro Woofer Speaker - The X-Woofer provides for a unique enhancement to games but falls short for audio enjoyment. The X-Woofer does eliminate any discomfort of ear bud headphones but it's a little like wearing a horse collar. The audio quality is nearer to AM stereo than a full, deep bass enhancement. The X-Woofer "woofer" offers more of a vibration enhancement than a bass enhancement.
• Ultrasone HFI-650 headphones - If you like the idea of more bass, less fidelity, but don't want some ridiculous sci-fi object marketed to cloth-eared teenagers, then the 550s fit the bill nicely. The 650s have a more traditional hi-fi frequency response; if you don't need more low-end oomph - or actually are doing studio monitoring - then they're better.
• ABS Ultimate E2 Media Center PC First Look - The Ultimate E2 Media Center PC by ABS Computer Technologies is a home media computer powered by Microsoft Windows XP Media Center 2005. It is designed to fit into your home entertainment system, dropping the traditional desktop chassis in favor of a more vertical look similar to DVD players and audio receivers.
• Sony PSP review - The biggest disappointment with the PSP has to be the onboard speakers. They're utterly terrible. They're too quiet, and the sound is thin and tinny when you crank it up. This failure melts away when you plug a good set of headphones though.

GUIDES... 

• AMD Athlon64 3500+ Overclocking - In terms of overclocking, the air-cooled setup which was using a Thermalright XP-90 teamed up with an 80mm Vantec Tornado hit a very nice 2.66 GHz using just 1.7V. Temperatures were a bit on the high side though, with a maximum temperature reading of 55 degrees Celsius. When the Athlon64 3500+ was put under the freezer of the Prometeia we were just able to crack the 3 GHz mark with a top speed of 3.05 GHz. CPU voltage was relatively high at 1.85V but temperatures were still well below freezing.
• Installing a water cooler heatsink system into a computer case - In this case we have used the Swiftech 12cm heatsink radiator and fan along with the SilverProp SilverStorm 80 heatsink radiator with an 80mm fan.
• The Inkjet Printer Shell Game - The Tech Zone goes on a rant over the high cost of inkjet cartridge refills.
• A World of Help's notebook buyer's guide - As long as you don't just buy the first notebook you find in your price range, and instead learn about the system features and consider all your choices, you can get a great computer for a very reasonable price.
• Wireless Networking: Setup and Security - The first installment in this two-part series of Tech Tips provided an introduction to the basic capabilities and hardware involved in wireless networking. In the final installment of this two-part series, they will look at some of the basic setup and security considerations that should be addressed. The physical installation of a wireless network may be easier than a wired network, but the more difficult part is setting up the software and security to make sure everything stays up and running without incident.
• Stereo Setup Guide - check it out
• An Essential Guide to Home Theater Speaker Placement - check it out
• Installing Wine with DX9 - A short installation instruction and some more detailed information can be found at linux-gamers.net.
• FireFox on Steroids - How-To guide to speed up FireFox.
• Nvidia 7x ForceWare Driver Performance Comparison - For this comparsion we used the brand new Beta 76.41 and compared it with the 76.10, 71.24, 1.50 and the 71.84.

SOFTWARE...

• Update for Windows XP (KB886716) - When you try to convert your video production in Adobe Premiere Pro to an MPEG-2 (Moving Pictures Experts Group 2) format, the .mp2 file is not converted, and either Adobe Premiere Pro or your Microsoft Windows XP-based computer may stop responding.
• Update for Windows XP (KB885222) - After you install Windows XP Service Pack 2, some 1394 devices (such as digital cameras that use S400 speed) may not perform as expected.
• O&O Defrag 2000 Freeware Edition 3.5.562 - O&O Defrag 2000 Freeware is the "light" version of O&O Defrag 2000 Professional. It provides the SPACE method to manually defragment your drives.
• Adobe 7.0 Reader for Linux - download
• Stuffit 9.0 30% JPEG compression with no quality loss - Allume Systems today shipped StuffIt Deluxe 9.0 for Windows. With its revolutionary new photo compression technology, StuffIt achieves a level of compression no other product has been able to do, allowing users to reduce the size of their JPEG photos up to 30% with absolutely no loss in image quality.
• DVDFab 2.82 supports DVD-R Dual-Layer recording - DVDFab Express (trial version) is simply the easiest way to copy a DVD movie. Just insert the movie and a blank DVD then press Start. Your entire movie - including menus, trailers and special features - is copied to a single DVD with just one click, and everything happens automatically. This new version adds support for the latest double layer DVD-R media.
• FireTune 0.6 - FireTune for Mozilla Firefox v1.x was developed for an easy and fast optimization of your browsing experience with Firefox.
• Registry Defragmentation 7.0 Build 04.01 RC - This tool (changelog) optimizes registry by removing fragmentation, deleting unused entries, compacting the registry and re-indexing registry for maximum speed.
• DivXToDVD Converter 0.5.2.99 - DivXToDVD is a 1 click solution to convert your movie files to a compatible DVD playable on your home DVD player.
• K-Lite Codec Pack Full 2.42 - This Codec Pack is designed as a user-friendly solution for playing all your movie files. You should be able to play all the popular movie formats and even some rare formats.
• QuickGamma 2.0.0.3 - QuickGamma is a small utility program to calibrate a monitor on the fly without having to buy expensive hardware tools.
• NEC ND-6500 v2.24 booktype firmware - If your drive works as a master drive, you will need the modified 2.24 booktype firmware - while you need the modified 4.24 booktype firmware if your drive works as a slave drive.Both zip files contain 3 firmware files: X24orig.exe - Only added support for booktype setting, X24fast.exe - Including riplock patch and X24rpc1.exe - Including riplock and RPC1 patch. (thanks CDFreaks)
• Plextor 716A DVD-Writer firmware v1.05 - The update increases the speed of DVD-R Dual Layer writing from 2x to 6x on Mitsubishi Media (Verbatim media). On other brands the write speed of DVD-R dual layer media has been upped to 4x from 2x.
• Xtreme G 76.41 (ForceWare) - This is the Xtreme G driver which includes many performance and Image Quality tweaks.
• NGO NVIDIA Optimized Driver v0.7 - The NGO NVIDIA Optimized Driver is a tweaked version of the nVidia Forceware driver. The main purpose is to satisfy the users with a better performance and better image quality. The Driver has support for all Geforce cards.