SECURITY...

• Service Pack 2 Downloads on April 12 - Starting next Tuesday, April 12, computers running Microsoft Windows XP without Service Pack 2 installed will not be able to block the upgrade. Word is: "“Because of these significant improvements, Microsoft views Windows XP SP2 as an essential security update and is therefore distributing it as a "critical update" via Windows Update (WU) and the Automatic Updates (AU) delivery mechanism in Windows. Microsoft strongly urges customers with Windows XP and Windows XP Service Pack 1-based systems to update to Windows XP SP2 as soon as possible."
• Firefox Javascript Flaw Documented - There is a security alert over at Secunia regarding a bug in Firefox's JavaScript engine The vulnerability is caused due to an error in the JavaScript engine, as a "lambda" replace exposes arbitrary amounts of heap memory after the end of a JavaScript string. Successful exploitation may disclose sensitive information in memory.
• CA security system vulnerable to DoS attacks - A flaw has been discovered in Computer Associates' eTrust Intrusion Detection System that could make the system vulnerable to denial-of-service attacks, according to an advisory by security research company iDefense. The flaw enables a writer of malicious code to disable CA's eTrust Intrusion Detection System 3.0, which in turn weakens a company's defense against a DoS attack, said Michael Sutton, director of iDefense Labs.
• DNS Cache Poisoning Spreads Malware - As of April 4, 2005 the SANS Internet Storm Center has raised their alert level to Yellow following a rash of active DNS poisonings. The infected DNS servers are re-directing users from popular sites such as Google or American Express to malware infecting advertising sites.
• Warning on iPod threat - Portable media players like the iPod pose a significant security risk according to figures from software auditors Centennial Software. Nearly nine out of ten of the 220 IT managers questioned took no action to prevent such devices coming into the workplace even though over half of them recognised storage devices like the iPod as a threat.
• Mobile Trojan kills smart phones - Virus writers have created a mobile Trojan capable of rendering an infected Symbian Series 60 unusable. Fontal-A is a SIS file Trojan that installs a corrupted font file on the device, causing it to fail when the mobile phone is next rebooted. Fontal-A is a Trojan, incapable of spreading by itself or via Bluetooth. The small risk of infection applies only to people in the habit of installing warez mobile games files or the like onto their mobile phone.

OFFTOPIC...

• NASA extends mission for Mars rovers - NASA has given the green light for the Mars rovers to prolong their mission on the Red Planet for another 18 months.
• New Movie Trailers @ Comingsoon.net - The Ninth Day (see the trailer for the German drama), Down and Derby (posted trailer for the family comedy), The Year of the Yao (posted a new clip from the documentary), Happily Ever After (added the trailer for the French comedy), Fever Pitch (added two featurettes), King's Ransom (added seven clips from the comedy).

TECHNOLOGY...

• Hackers Add Web, Chat to PSP Video Game Player - The $249 PSP handheld video game player went on sale in the United States on March 24, and it took very little time before techies added the kinds of functions to the PSP that Sony did not include -- and may never have intended. One man needed only 24 hours to get a working client for Internet Relay Chat, or IRC, an older messaging platform.
• Sony Invention Beams Sights, Sounds Into Brain - If you think video games are engrossing now, just wait: PlayStation maker Sony Corp has been granted a patent for beaming sensory information directly into the brain.  The technique could one day be used to create videogames in which you can smell, taste, and touch, or to help people who are blind or deaf. The U.S. patent, granted to Sony researcher Thomas Dawson, describes a technique for aiming ultrasonic pulses at specific areas of the brain to induce "sensory experiences" such as smells, sounds and images.
• First Look at SUSE LINUX 9.3 Professional - This release has generated a lot of buzz in the Linux world due to the new features it's sporting. Software such as Xen and Beagle are probably the main reason for the excitement, and for good reason. For those who might not have heard yet, Xen is system virtualization software which will allow you to run multiple guest operating systems on your computer.
• Google Adds Satellite Images to Maps - Google has enhanced its Google Maps and Google Local services with satellite and aerial images, letting users view digital snapshots of an area, the Mountain View, California, company announced Tuesday.
• Firefox - Say Goodbye (again) to Pop-Ups - Asa Dotzler's (Mozilla Developer) Blog: "Firefox has the capability to disable these pop-ups but it wasn't enabled by default in Firefox 1.0 because we had concerns about websites that rely on plug-in triggered pop-ups for legitimate functionality. Give that these pop-ups and pop-unders have really started to spread on the web, we're testing a quick patch that enables the Firefox pref to block them. I blogged about this earlier this month and included manual steps to disable these nasty pop-ups and pop-unders. In addition to this fix, the good news is that for sites where you need these pop-ups, you can just whitelist them like you do other "wanted" pop-ups. This looks (at this stage) like a reasonable trade off."
• Windows Server 2003 SP1 SSL Improvements - There are a few areas in the service pack that this term is realized, but I think the SSL performance is pretty cool - to the tune of a 50% increase. So, exactly how did SSL get improved in SP1 you ask?
• Windows Supercomputer Release Slips to 2006 - Microsoft Corp. acknowledged on Tuesday night that it is running about six months behind schedule with its high-end Windows Server 2003 Compute Cluster Edition product.
• 10 Features Longhorn needs - Let's face it, Windows XP is basically Windows 2000 with some fixes and cosmetic enhancements. Longhorn needs to be much more than that. Here are a few things it needs.
• Panasonic Unveils Flat-Screen TVs - The new models are expected to retail for around $1475 for the smallest LCD to $5980 for the biggest plasma display and are due to go on sale in Japan on May 1. There are no plans yet to sell the TVs overseas.
• Tomorrow's Net speeds could be up to 1,600% faster - The industry's standard-settings unit, CableLabs, plans to endorse this month technology that will let operators boost speeds 400% to 1,600%, over their existing lines. Motorola and Cisco are among the companies offering alternative methods to increase broadband speeds by linking together the bandwidth used for four or more conventional TV channels.
• Intel, AMD in Race to Dual-Core Finish - AMD, which originally was planning a mid-year release of its dual-core processor, has hinted to the media that it may make a major announcement at an event later this month to commemorate the two-year birthday of the Opteron.

HARDWARE... 

• Intel Pentium Extreme Edition dual-core CPU - Would we buy a brand new PEE-based machine? Probably not, but that's the answer we give with most new technology. We said it about Serial ATA, PCI Express, DDR memory and DDR2 memory, and now we're saying it about dual-core processors - ultimately, the price premium for the Extreme Edition will be too high.
• LR & Corsair Break The 1GHz DDR2 Memory Barrier - Using Corsair XMS2 PC-5400UL memory that was just publicaly launched today LegitReviews were able to hit the highest DDR2 frequency that they have ever seen. Using the maximum 2.08Volts that the Intel reference board offered, we overclocked the FSB up to 250MHz and set the memory to the 800MHz divider in the BIOS. The 800MHz memory option allows the end user to have a 1:2 divider for the memory. This is great considering this is on an Intel Reference board.
• Shuttle SB86i BTX SFF system - Apart from being designed in accordance with BTX, the SB86i is also sold as a quiet system, with a number of features designed specifically with noise-related concerns in mind. Foremost among these is the steel construction of the case, making this the first (and only) steel SFF system that we know of. Other noise-related features include rubber-grommeted hard drives and intake vents that are open but do not provide a direct noise path to the user.
• NVIDIA nForce4 SLI Intel Edition - The Intel Edition of the nForce4 SLI chipset incorporates all the major features found on its AMD counterpart, including GigE with native Firewall, 10 USB ports, NVIDIA's impressive storage subsystem, and even AMD HyperTransport, which links the North Bridge and the South Bridge together. The only difference is that NVIDIA has adapted the chipset for Intel's Pentium processors, this includes adding a new memory controller with support of the latest DDR2-667 memory, and of course Intel's 1066MHz FSB. From a features perspective, NVIDIA's nForce4 SLI Intel Edition chipset is in a unique class of its own, even excluding SLI support. Speaking of overheating, this is one aspect you'll definitely have to take into account when building an nForce4 SLI Intel Edition system, especially if you plan on outfitting your system with a fast processor. Under load with our Pentium 4 3.73GHz Extreme Edition CPU, the GeForce 6800 GT cards running in SLI mode would begin to overheat when running looped demos in Far Cry for more than 10 minutes, causing the system to crash and a full reboot. Another coverage can be found on Sudhian Media, GD Hardware, Bjorn3D, Hexus.net, nVNews.
• DFI LANParty NF4 SLI-DR Motherboard - The DFI LANParty NF4 SLI-DR is quick and versatile, but it also comes with a ton of features too. First off, the motherboard has two Gigabit network ports, an additional Silicon Image 3114 Serial ATA controller, IEEE 1394 and a 8-channel audio codec.
• HiS Radeon x800 XL - x850 XT - x850 XT PE - Both Radeon x850 cards will play any game to date with all quality gadgets enabled very well in acceptable resolutions. When we enable 4x Antialiasing and 8 or even 16 levels of anisotropic filtering then at 1280x1024 or 1600x1200 we still have amazing performance. Compared to the ATI's green colored friends this card is competing directly with the standard 16-pipe GeForce 6800 Ultra. That card does have two advantages though, the first being Shader Model 3.0 and secondly, scalability thanks to its SLI interface.
• H.I.S. X800XL IceQ Video Card - If you're going to do a price/performance comparison this card is going to come out on top every time. Quite a bit less expensive and yet still giving out excellent performance. By overclocking this card, you can reach equivalent frame rates of the X850XT at stock speeds, and all for no extra money.
• Gigabyte GV-NX66T128VP 6600 GT Turbo Force - Like other 6600 GT cards the GV-NX66T128VP's GPU is clocked 500MHz, however the one thing that does set it apart is that the 128MB of DDR3 memory clock is 1120MHz, 20MHz more than other 6600 GT cards. In addition to this, Gigabyte have also included VIVO on this card to set it apart from the GV-NX66T128D and include a VIVO connector for those who wish to use it.
• Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 Hard Drive - The other advantage that the Barracuda 7200.8 has over the Raptor is price. It's common knowledge that the Raptor has always been over-priced from day one - you pay a premium for getting awesome hard drive performance. Things have changed though. Seagate have been able to produce a hard drive which provides similar performance to the Raptor in a non-RAID environment.
• LG GSA-4163B 16x Super-Multi DVD±RW/RAM  - When it comes to features, the GSA-4163B is very similar to LG's previous "Super-Multi" drives. Along with support for all major CD and DVD formats, it has a 2MB buffer that is backed up by Super Link buffer underrun protection. This buffer relatively small, but even larger 8MB buffers can offer little room for error when burning at 16x. The GSA-4163B also has limited support for bitsetting. While the drive automatically sets the book type to "DVD-ROM" when writing to DVD+R DL discs, it lacks the ability to do the same with single layer DVD+R and DVD+RW media.
• Lite-On SOHW-1673S 16X DVD±RW - Apart from a slightly high pitched noise when reading CDs at high speeds, this drive is just about flawless. The drive performed all the speed tests as expected, has a compact size, and comes with a great software package. The LITE-ON SOHW-1673S definitely should be considered if you're shopping for a new DVD Writer.
• BenQ DW1625 16x DVD+-RW Double Layer DVD Writer - In terms of overall performance, the BenQ DW1625 certainly performs well and their drives continue to impress. However, you can't help but be more than a bit disappointed by the lack of next gen features it fails to offer. It seems that first generation LightScribe drives will indeed be somewhat limited in features that will normally compete well with today's latest writers...its 2.4x double layer write support being the most noticeable.
• Samsung TS-H552 DVD+RW--RW - In our Dual layer tests, the TS-H552U clearly smashed the competition due to its faster 5X writing capabilities. Both the Sony and MSI drives are limited to only a 2.4X write speed, although both companies now have drives capable of writing dual layer media at 4X so we would expect the gap to close quite a bit.
• 500 Watt+ Power Supply Comparison - In terms of recommendations, the Enermax is the winner overall, although the Silverstone is not trailing far behind. Both power supplies offered a plethora of connectors, high current rails and an excellent MBF. Where the Silverstone fell short however, was with the one year warranty. It was however, the only powersupply in this round up that was EPS12V compliant so those looking for a quality power supply for your dual CPU system need not look any further. For the entry level products, the Skyhawk is a very capable performer. Though the box was misleading, the product nevertheless worked well.
• OCZ Modstream 520W ATX PSU - There was only a small bit of fluctuation in the +12V rail, and virtually none for the +5V and +3.3V.. I would have to agree with OCZ's claims for a silent PSU -- I can't hear it over the 80mm fans in my case that are running at minimal speed on a Nexus controller.
• Saitek Gamers' Keyboard - The keyboard itself has a silver frame with extended pads on the corners. It is slightly longer than a normal keyboard, but the overall footprint stays the same because the board isn't as wide as normal boards. The Gamers' Keyboard features an LED backlight that makes all the keys glow with a pleasant blue hue.
• Oakley Thump MP3 Sunglasses - The technical design of the Oakley Thump is actually very nice. The glasses are extremely light with a weight of 52g. The iPod shuffle weighs 22g and that without polarized sunglasses. The MP3 Player components are well integrated into the temples. The casing is held together by little screws. The integrated headphones are adjustable in three dimensions. For people with a small head they might still not fit.
• Etymotic ER-6i - Etymotic is one of "the big two" in the arena of canal phones. Known mostly for the high end ER-4S cans, Etymotic decided to throw their hat into the iPod popularity ring with the ER-6i. This is slightly confusing because the company also offers a black ER-6 model, and consumers' first impressions would make them believe that the "i" is just a marketing gimmick aimed at wooing the iGeneration. But, there is a different driver used in the 6i that outputs stronger bass, and is easier to drive. This makes them perfect for mobile device use, and particularly Apple iPod and Sony PSP use. As with all canal phones, external sound is almost completely blocked, so use only when it is safe to ignore the rest of the world.
• Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z20 - Coming in at just under L170, the Z20 offers a surprisingly full specification for the price, although inevitably some corners have been cut to fit the budget. What you get is a high performance five megapixel camera with an 8x optical zoom lens (equivalent to 36 – 290mm) and a full range of manual exposure, metering and focus options. Its operating system and range of menu options are basically identical to the higher priced Z5 reviewed last week.

GUIDES... 

• Can RAID Systems Fail? - RAID undoubtedly offers more data protection than non-RAID disk systems. However, the management of the disks and the data distribution across them can be complex. Complex redundant systems can suffer failure, most often not a fault of the technology used or the design of the array, but most likely because of its failure to correctly apply these systems which leads to a single point of failure causing disastrous data loss.
• Bit-tech's guide to digital photography (part #2) - One important thing about finding the right camera for you is you first need to take a zen-like look at yourself. You need to be totally honest as to what kind of person you are. This may sound a little over the top but follow me on this and it will make sense. With considerable cost of a new digital camera, knowing what kind of person and photographer you are will help you create your own list of desired features and dramatically narrow down your list of eligible camera candidates.
• Choosing The Right Paper For Your Inkjet Printer - If you want the best inkjet prints from your expensive digital camera or scanner, be sure to use the right paper. In this guide, we'll show you what to look when selecting inkjet paper and what to stay away from.
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 TCP/IP Implementation Details - This white paper contains an overview of TCP/IP in Windows Server 2003 features and capabilities, a discussion of protocol architecture, and detailed discussions of the core components, network application interfaces, and critical client components and services.
• What's New in Terminal Services for Win2k3 SP1 - Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP1 includes several new features designed to maximize both the speed and efficiency of Terminal Services administration, and the security of communications between Terminal Services clients and servers.

SOFTWARE...

• Unofficial Windows98 S E S 2.0 RC3 beta - Microsoft has never released a service pack for Windows98 SE. But I made a Service Pack for Windows98 SE users. It contains all Windows98 SE updates from Windows Update site and more ~ mirror.
• Microsoft USB Flash Drive Manager - The Microsoft USB Flash Drive Manager (.NET Framework 1.1 required) will help you backup and restore presentation, pictures, songs and applications from and to USB Flash Drive devices and take them with you. The application can also help you to classify and name USB Flash Drives images (for instance "My network configuration" or "The pictures for my grandma") and lets you see this name whenever the USB Flash Drive is plugged into the computer.
• Microsoft Junk Email Filter for Outlook 2003 v2 - 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 e-mail.
• Firefox 1.0.3 Final Candidates (BETA) - The bugs they fixed in this candidate (download) are 287459 and 288006. These two changes should be near-zero risk, but if you all could look over the bugs, test around those areas, and report back to them. If all goes well, these candidate builds will become the final 1.0.3 release!
• FireTune 1.0 - FireTune for Mozilla Firefox v1.x was developed for an easy and fast optimization of your browsing experience with Firefox.
• WindowBlinds 4.51 (shw) - WindowBlinds is a program that allows you to completely change the look and feel of Windows to however you want it to look like. It allows you to completely customize your desktop by changing the style of title bars, buttons, and toolbars. This new version adds support for Windows XP 64 (for both AMD and Intel chipsets).
• Uxtheme Multi-patcher 3.0 - This program will patch your uxtheme.dll file so you can use any 3rd party visual style on Windows XP/SP1/SP2 and Windows Server 2003/SP1. File protection dialogs should be cancelled and a reboot is required after using this patch.
• GX::Transcoder 2.20.2636 Public Beta 1 - GX::Transcoder (download) is a universal audio and video file transcoder. You can transcode audio files into many formats: AAC, MP4, M4A, Bonk, FLAC, LA, LPAC, MIDI, MP2, MP3, MPC, MPP, MP+, OptiomFrog, Ogg Vorbis, rkAudio, VQF, WavPack, TTA, WMA, Shorten, PCM, GSM, ADPCM, VOX, G721, G723, G726, uLaw, aLaw, DSP, Raw PCM, Monkeys Audio, AVI (Audio), MOD, Bonk and more.
• BlindWrite 5.2.13 - This Product creates 1:1 copies (download trial), it is maybe not the most appropriate for DVD movie copies as the source is often near to 9 GB, when the destination and most blank DVD media only hold 5 GB. For DVD movie projects please choose CopyToDVD. For double layer (DL) media this will do the job. This new version contains brand new burning engine.
• PuTTY 0.58 Beta  - PuTTY (download) is a free implementation of Telnet and SSH for Win32 and Unix platforms, along with an xterm terminal emulator.
• Koepi's XviD Codec 1.1.0 Beta 2 Build 04042005 - A new beta version of Koepi's XviD codec is available for download.
• LG Korea releases auto firmware update tool - LG Korea has released an utility that enables users to automatically check for a new firmware. The following list of drives is supported: CD-ROM Drive: GCR-8522B and GCR-8523B, CD-RW Drive: GCE-8525B and GCE-8526B, DVD-ROM Combo Drive: GCC-4521B, Super Multi Drive: GSA-4081B, GSA-4082B, GSA-4120B, GSA-4160B and GSA-4163B, GSA-5120D, GSA-5160D and GSA-5163D
• NGO Creative Modded Driver for SB Live! & Audigy - NGOHQ.com has released a new modded driver for Creative SB Live! and Audigy cards. Try at your own risk :)