SECURITY...

• [MS patches - July 2005] Vulnerability in Microsoft Word Could Allow Remote Code Execution (903672) (critical) - A vulnerability exists in Word that could allow an attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerable to take complete control of the affected system.
• [MS patches - July 2005] Vulnerability in Microsoft Color Management Module Could Allow Remote Code Execution (901214) (critical) - A vulnerability exists in the Microsoft Color Management Module that could allow an attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerable to take complete control of the affected system.

• [MS patches - July 2005] Vulnerability in JView Profiler Could Allow Remote Code Execution (903235)  (critical) - A vulnerability exists in JView Profiler that could allow an attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerable to take complete control of the affected system.

• zlib Buffer Overflow Vulnerability - By creating a specially crafted compressed data stream, attackers can overwrite data structures for application that uses zlib. The result may cause the application to perform a denial of service by crashing, and may also allow attackers to execute arbitrary code. For more details check out this article at eWeek
• Longhorn following Unix on security? - Microsoft's delayed Longhorn operating system appears to be taking a page from the Unix management book by curbing user's administration rights.
• Microsoft denies its antispyware favors Claria - The beta version of Microsoft AntiSpyware previously recommended that users quarantine several products from Claria, but this changed last week. According to a statement published by Microsoft, the downgrade in threat level merely represents an effort to be "fair and consistent with how Windows AntiSpyware (Beta) handles similar software from other vendors."
• Dutch file-swapper case collapses - The Dutch Protection Rights Entertainment Industry Netherlands (BREIN) has lost its case against five Dutch ISPs who refused to hand over the names of 42 suspected song swappers. BREIN knew these individuals only by their IP address. The court ruled that BREIN made a crucial mistake in collecting evidence against the individuals. BREIN hired US company Media Sentry, which monitors popular online forums and P2P services for copyright infringement and tracks unauthorised online distribution. Apparently the company only looked at shared folders of Kazaa, but these folders may also have contained files for personal use, the court argues. There is not enough proof that these particular files were uploaded.

OFFTOPIC...

• In the Beginning There was DOS: A History of Windows NT - Microsoft first previewed NT in early 1992 to several developers, and they were enthusiastic about the product. It used the standard Windows 3.1 Program Manager, making it very easy to use (or at least as easy to use as Windows 3.1). NT also included support for most Windows applications and text based OS/2 applications. NT also had a DOS virtual machine (or an emulator for non x86 machines) so it could run DOS applications as well.
• GTA sex scandal expands - The Australian Censor is examining whether Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas contains graphic sexual content. The Office of Film and Literature Classification is planning a thrusting examination into claims that the game's content reportedly becomes sexually explicit if players download and install a mod. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, if the claims were true, then the game would be banned.
• Harry Potter's 'Half Blood Prince' Leaked - The Canadian publisher of the Harry Potter series has filed a court injunction barring anyone from leaking the plot of the latest book after a store accidentally sold copies ahead of the release date. Raincoast Books of Vancouver discovered last Friday that Real Canadian Superstore in Coquitlam, B.C. had sold 15 copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. So on Saturday, it sought the injunction from the province's Supreme Court.

TECHNOLOGY...

• Antitrust Regulators Raid Intel Offices - European antitrust lawyers raided Intel offices across Europe merely two weeks after its chief rival, Advanced Micro Devices, filed a multi-billion dollar lawsuit in a Delaware federal court. A statement from the European Comission explained that it was merely inspecting offices of companies that make and sell computers. Another article can be found on ZDNet.
• Microsoft Testing New Hotmail Interface - Microsoft's MSN business unit is trying to hook customers onto 'Kahuna'. Kahuna is codename for an upcoming version of Hotmail that will sport a new style of interface, automatic inbox refreshing and a preview pane that will enable Hotmail users to read and respond to e-mail without ever leaving their inbox. Microsoft has reason to be testing such additions: Many of these features are already out of testing and in production among its competitors.
• Cell phones get .mobi domain - ICANN has approved the new .mobi TLD after an industry group successfully lobbied for the new domain. Expect to see the first sites using .mobi next summer.
• Quantum computers hit 'fundamental limit' - Next-generation quantum computers that store information in so-called quantum bits, or 'qubits', will be confronted with a fundamental scientific limitation on the life of data stored on the devices, scientists have warned.
• HP Invents A New Way To Print - Forbes is reporting that HP is introducing new technology in its inkjet printers that should help the company and consumers save time and money

HARDWARE... 

• IBM preparing to build ATI R500 for Xbox 360  - ATI would have had to help Microsoft with tape outs and with design tweaking, as those guys at ATI designed the R500 Xbox 360 GPU. But developers are now getting the "Real" hardware still based on G5 MACs but this time with real R500 graphic cards inside. This means that R500 chip is taped out and that it is working but we don’t know whether this is the final chip that Microsoft plans to ship at later date.
• ULi Fights Back - M1695 Athlon 64 Chipset - TweakTown take a look at the ULi M1695 chipset, fresh from the Computex 2005 floor in Taiwan. We have received this reference sample direct from ULi for some extensive tests and we will pit it against the VIA K8T890 and nVidia nForce 4 Ultra to see just how well this baby can perform against its established competitors.
• AOpen OpenBook (BareBook) 1559-JL Mobile Barebone System - As for disadvantages, the OpenBook isn't the best solution in terms of mobility, having a weight of about 3kg and a relatively small time of autonomous operation. The number of USB 2.0 ports is insufficient, infrared and Bluetooth interfaces are missing. The quality of the built-in audio subsystem is rather low, and the Audio DJ technology is practically useless.
• Crucial Ballistix PC2-5300 2GB Dual Channel memory - They probably have the best value and most future proof DDR2 kit for the moment, the BL2KIT12864AA664 kit, which consists of two 1GB Ballistix PC2-5300 modules. 2GB of RAM should be enough to last for years to come for most people and the performance is supposed to be enough for many generations of CPUs to come.
• Corsair 5400UL DDR-2 675MHz Memory - Corsair's 5400UL memory is quite quick and when you start to fine tune the memory on a motherboard which it is designed for, such as the Gigabyte 8N-SLI Royal, you do begin to see performance increases in games such as Half Life 2 and Doom 3. Even though the performance increases are small, every bit of performance counts.
• Corsair XMS2 DDR2-1000 Memory - With timings of 3.0-3-3-8 at DDR2-667 speed, this module will be an excellent choice for users demanding best performance at stock speeds. Lastly, people wanting to invest in a module that will probably survive the growing memory multipliers for the rest of this year and probably next year will also be satisfied
• Mushkin 1GB Dual Channel PC3200 'Redline' DDR Memory - One item of note is for those who may have an OEM system and are looking for a memory upgrade. In this case I would not recommend this kit as it is unlikely you will have the option of raising the VDIMM to a level where these modules will work well. At the standard VDIMM setting of only 2.5v, this memory kit offered no stability even at 200MHz speeds. As long as you can keep voltage levels at a minimum of 2.7v you'll do fine, but the higher the better for these babies.
• OCZ EL PC-3500 Gold Gamer Extreme Ed. Memory - All in all if you're a gamer in the market for some memory upgrades you can't really go wrong with picking up a couple sticks of the OCZ PC-3500 Gold GX under $200. Overclocking seems to be lagging behind a bit, but this RAM is fast enough for most right out of the box, so you won't need to deal with the hassle
• OCZ PC4800 Dual Channel Platinum Limited Edition Memory - Retailing for $330 CDN ($265 US), the OCZ PC4800 DC Platinum LTD Ed kit represents the fastest memory you can buy right now without having to use insane voltages. With a default clock speed of 300 MHz (2.5-4-4-10 timings) and a voltage of 2.85V, there simply isn't anything faster on the market at this moment.
• ECS KN1 Extreme - In the end, the ECS KN1 Extreme feels like a product unsure of its place in the market. It offers more than what you'd expect from the average board at a price that you just can't beat
• PowerColor RADEON X800 XL 512MB - The second reason why PowerColor's card is worthy of consideration lies with the care and attention paid to cooling and quietness. ATI's had the X800 XL GPU fabbed on a 110nm low-k manufacturing process. The XL's 400MHz core speed is slow enough (read cool enough) for a card partner to introduce a quieter cooling solution. Another review can be found on Bjord3D.
• HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon X850XT PE IceQ II Dual DVI VIVO 256MB PCIe Video Card - The review would not be complete without mentioning ATI Crossfire Technology which this card supports, in a nutshell what it is is the answer to nVidias SLI project but the Crossfire solution in my opinion has a better overall plan than nVida does. By taking the X850XT video card and installing it in one of ATI's soon to be released motherboard you will be able to pair it with another X800 or X850 to have your very own SLI system.
• ATI Radeon X700 Monster Graphics Card Roundup - TweakTown has compared 11 Radeon X700 cards from 8 different companies including ATI, GeCube, PowerColor, HIS, MSI, Sapphire, Gigabyte and ASUS.
• EVGA 6800 PCIe 256MB Video Card - EVGA's 6800 PCIe is a latest addition to its product line. While making the switch from AGP to PCIe, EVGA has added an additional 128MB of memory to the graphics board, making the total to 256MB. The company has also changed the clock speeds on the memory from 700MHz to 600MHz, a reduction of 16.6 percent in overall clock speed. Logically, this has also dropped the overall available memory bandwidth from 22.4GB/s to 19.2GB/s.
• Coolmax CXI-500B 500W PSU -  One area that makes the 500B power supply a very viable option for your next power supply is the fact that is will support not one but two PCI-E video cards so there is no need to go out and try to find those hard to find power cables.
• Koolance Aquian ICM-505+CPU Liquid Cooling System - The Aquian ICM-505+CPU is an all-in-one liquid cooling system designed to provide quick and easy installation inside your favorite case.
• Seagate First Generation 2.5" 10K Enterprise Savvio Hard Drive - The Savvio 10k.1 performs great when compared to the 10k.7, it's smaller size is more than made up in it's spunk, showing no significant decrease in performance in more real-world benchmarks.
• DVDR 16x Summer Roundup - The chaps over at AnandTech have taken 6 units from 6 different manufacturers and tested two brands of media on them, including DVD+/-R, RW, +/-R DL, and CDR. The drives are BenQ's DW1640, LG's GSA-4163B, NEC's ND-3540A, Pioneer's DVR-109D, Sony's DRU-720A with updated firmware, and Toshiba's SD-R5372.
• PipeCall ADSL Integrated Router - The PipeCall ADSL Integrated Router boxed solution brings together a Billion BiPAC 7402VGP router and a deal with Pipemedia that offers one month of free use of its service. Note that although the call set up charge of L14.99 is waived, you still have to sign up for a minimum of three months.
• Silex SX-2000U2 USB Device Server - Finally - a High-Speed USB sharing solution is available; though, a few glitches maybe the reason to hold off buying until the next driver update.
• Wolf Claw FPS Gaming Keyboard - Considering that this keyboard has the extra key set in place of the numerical key set but switched over to the left, the keyboard is still small and compact. The Wolf Claw is in a minority due to it being slightly bigger than your average keyboard, about 5cm wider in total. Importing your goods in the car and setting up a LAN event won't be a problem because of the size.
• Raptor-Gaming M2 2400dpi Gaming Mouse - On one hand, we have a lot of nice innovation - the weight system and the 2400dpi resolution. On the other, we have sub par tracking, occasional delays, and a poor dpi-switching mechanism.
• Flexiglow Cyber Snipa PC Gamepad -  Acting as a mini keyboard, with particular emphasis on first-person shooter gaming, a week of solid and extensive playing has moved it from a position of "interesting idea" to a place of "essential requirement" in my FPS play
• HP Photosmart R717 6.2megapixel Digital Camera - Although from the outside it doesn't look much different to many of the other compact digital cameras on the market, the R717 is packed with advanced technology designed to help you take better pictures. Considering the price tag of just L175, there's more going on behind its sleek brushed steel face than many cameras costing twice as much.
• Canon Digital Rebel XT Digital Camera -  Although you can still purchase the Rebel for $799 with a lens, we strongly urge you to spend the extra money for the XT ($999 with the lens). Not only is picture quality improved, thanks to new circuitry dubbed DIGIC II by Canon, but the D-SLR operates much faster and the battery lasts longer. Response time is almost instantaneous from the time you focus to saving the image to the card.
• Samsung YP-MT6X MP3 Player: With 512MB Memory - Samsung's YP-MT6X is the exact same player as the company's YP-MT6V as far as the specifications and features are concerned. The only thing different about this particular model is that it supports 512MB of memory onboard with a different exterior color.

GUIDES...

• How to Keep Your Computer Cool - ExtremeTech is featuring a how-to article on keeping your computer cool by adopting an efficient airflow strategy for your PC case.
• Linux battle of the high-end CPUs - This also goes for those that run specific single-threaded applications and don't do much multi-taking. If you're in this category, then you can either chose top-notch or middle priced, the Athlon 64 FX-57 or Athlon 64 4000+. The Intel processors at this time don't really have a place in this category due to their poor relative performance.
• How to Manually Clean Your VCR Heads - A step-by-step guide on how to clean your VCR heads to get a better image quality.
• Analysis of a win32 Userland Rootkit - This paper describes how to build a windows user land rootkit from scratch..
• 25 keyboard shortcuts for moving faster in Windows XP -  Here are 30 useful keyboard shortcuts that can help you navigate Windows XP faster than ever.
• 50 Indispensable Microsoft Word tips - Looking for a list of Microsoft Word tips and tricks for your end users? The editors at TechRepublic have put together a collection of their favorite timesavers for using Word 97, 2000, 2002 (Office XP), and 2003. Even the most experienced users will benefit from this list which contains tips on recording Word macros, selecting noncontiguous text, using AutoCorrect to expand text, creating styles, creating document shortcuts, and much more.

SOFTWARE...

• July 2005 Update for Outlook 2003 Junk Email Filter (KB895658) - This 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. This update was released in July 2005.
• Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool 1.6 (KB890830) - The Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool checks Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows Server 2003 computers for and helps remove infections by specific, prevalent malicious software—including Blaster, Sasser, and Mydoom.
• Mac OS X 10.4.2 Update Available - Today Apple released its update to Mac OS X, bringing it up to version 10.4.2.
• PHP 4.4.0 Final - The PHP Development Team has released PHP 5.0.4 and 4.3.11 (download) These are maintenance releases that in addition to non-critical bug fixes address several security issues. All Users of PHP are strongly encouraged to upgrade to one of these releases as soon as possible.
• HostsMan 2.0.1 - HostsMan is a freeware application that lets you manage your Hosts file with ease.
• CCleaner 1.21.130 - CCleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space.
• MetaProducts Download Express 1.8 Build 331 - MetaProducts Download Express (download) is a Windows 95/98/NT/2000/ME/XP/2003 program that allows you to download individual files from the Web and FTP sites at the maximum possible speed.
• Thunderbird 1.1 Alpha 2 Release Candidate - An Alpha 2 release candidate is now available for testing.
• VirtualDub 1.6.9 - This minor update (download) fixes nasty bugs that were found since 1.6.8; most are minor except the audio compression error bug.
• PlexTools Professional Update V2.24  - PlexTools Professional software allows you to control powerful functions with an easy-to-use interface
• Realtek AC'97 Audio CODECs A3.74 - download