SECURITY...

• Worm disguised as iTunes threatens music fans - The virus-like program, dubbed Opanki, circulates via AOL Instant Messaging, or AIM. It passes itself off as an "iTunes.exe" file, leading iTunes users to think it's a legitimate file for the popular digital-media player from Apple Computer Inc., when in fact it has nothing to do with iTunes. The worm appears with the message "this picture never gets old" and includes a Web link to what looks like an image file, according to Trend Micro, the California security firm that reported it. Clicking on the link, however, downloads the iTunes.exe file, which installs itself onto the message recipient's computer.
• Spying worm spreads via MSN Messenger, AIM - The latest threat is a Trojan called Kirvo, which arrives in the form of an instant message from someone on the user's "friends" list
• Sophos Anti-Virus Zip DoS Vulnerability - Remote exploitation of a denial of service vulnerability in Sophos Plc.'s Sophos Anti-Virus engine allows attackers to exhaust CPU resources on the target system and prevent further scans.
• Firefox Extension - Greasemonkey Flaw Prompts Critical Uninstall Warning - A very serious security vulnerability has been flagged in the popular Firefox browser add-on, and Greasemonkey users should immediately uninstall the program.
• FBI and Spanish Police in biggest yet 419 raid - The FBI and Spanish police have arrested 310 people in Malaga, Spain in connection with a EURO 100m bogus (email) lottery scam run by Nigerian gangs. It is the biggest 419 bust in history, and may result in drastic reductions of scam mails.

OFFTOPIC...

• David Goyer on the Blade TV Series - SCI FI Wire caught up with David Goyer who talked about the hour-long Blade series he's working on for Spike TV.
• THQ Planning to Destroy All Humans! - According to Reuters, video game maker THQ Inc. has hired United Talent Agency Inc. to spearhead its effort to make a movie based on its recently released Destroy All Humans! title.
• Get a free Gmail account  - Go to gmail.afraid.org and enter your e-mail address. Then you'll receive an invite to open a Gmail account for free.
• Google Maps the Moon -  To celebrate the July 20, 1969 moon landing, Google has launched Google Moon as an extension of Google Maps and Google Earth
• Brazilians used Orkut as drug distribution network - Brazilian police arrested 10 people on Thursday accused of selling drugs using Google's international social networking site Orkut, which is hugely popular in the Latin American country
• Details of US microwave-weapon tests revealed - The ADS fires a 95-gigahertz microwave beam, which is supposed to heat skin and to cause pain but no physical damage. The ADS weapon's beam causes pain within 2 to 3 seconds and it becomes intolerable after less than 5 seconds. People's reflex responses to the pain is expected to force them to move out of the beam before their skin can be burnt.
• Country Ranks 2004 - pretty interesting reading
• Crazy Frog battered in net orgy of violence - Here's what the frog-battering wag down at Something Wrong - motto: "Someone has way too much time on their hands and I think it's you" - has to say about his Flashtastic online beat-'em-up (thanks TheRegister)

TECHNOLOGY...

• Longhorn to become Windows Vista? - According to ActiveWin's insider sources, Longhorn will be branded Windows Vista (->whois.net) . Microsoft is expected to annouce the name of Windows Longhorn in a press release that will go live at 6am PDT. (thanks Neowin.net)
• Mozilla Scraps Firefox 1.1, Looks to 1.5 - Mozilla has updated the Firefox development roadmap to reflect a decision on the next major release of the popular open-source browser. The non-profit foundation has decided to increase the version number of the next major release to 1.5 from 1.1, reflecting the sheer number of bug fixes and features that have been worked into the next version of the browser. Mozilla still plans to ship the next version of Firefox (now Firefox 1.5: "Deer Park") around September of this year.
• New York Sues Sprint, Nextel, T-Mobile on Ads - The New York City Department of Consumer Affairs said it sued three of the top U.S. mobile providers, Sprint Corp, T-Mobile USA and Nextel Communications Inc., accusing them of misleading consumers through their advertising.
• Microsoft offers glimpse at new Hotmail - Microsoft has released a beta of a new version of its Hotmail online email service. Codenamed 'Kahuna'. The new Hotmail has been rebuilt from the ground up and is "faster, safer and simpler to use", according to the spokesman. 'Kahuna' will offer 2GB of storage, a rich text editor and integrated protection against phishing scams, which attempt to steal sensitive information such as log-in names and passwords for online banks.
• Beethoven downloads on BBC site top one million in the UK - Live performances of Beethoven's complete symphonies have attracted 1.37 million download requests in a BBC trial in the UK which was offered as part of Radio 3's The Beethoven Experience.
• T-Mobile Germany reveals HSDPA plans for early 2006 - T-Mobile Germany has announced its plans to bring the HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) wireless technology to the market as early as March 2006. Using HSDPA it will be possible to achieve up to 1.8Mbps (megabits per second) via T-Mobile's UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) network
• Japan to test terrestrial digital TV recasting via Internet - Japan plans to test live-broadcast of terrestrial digital television programs on the Internet via fiber-optic cable networks starting this fall, government officials said Thursday.
• RSS tool sends out alerts for TV, radio - Search company Blinkx is set to launch a new service on Tuesday that lets consumers receive RSS alerts from a bevy of TV, radio and other broadcasters with which the company has partnered.
• LCD Specs: Not So Swift - For about a month, an ad for Samsung's SyncMaster 915n LCD monitor touted the display's 4-millisecond response time, while Samsung's own Web site indicated that the monitor's response time was 8ms. "If you look at the printed ad, you'll see that the 4ms is black to white," says David Nichols, director of display marketing for Samsung's Information Technology Division. "The specs on the Web quote the full cycle [of rise-and-fall--i.e., black to white to black]. That's where it gets to be tricky. The 4ms is absolutely correct, and the 8ms is as well."

HARDWARE... 

• Early 7800GT Performance - GDHardware have been able to secure secure some early performance numbers and picture on NVIDIA's pending 7800GT card which is said to debut at this year's QuakeCon. The card should retail for $399.00 - making it the clear winner in bang for the buck over the GTX cards
• Crossfire Benchmarks - While the increase in performance isn't quite double, the increase from a single X850 XT to CrossFire, performance is up 43% as opposed to SLI's benefit of 34% over a single card. This is very impressive indeed. It may be that the higher single card performance of the NVIDIA part means that it has less room to improve, but no matter what the reason, this first test instantly legitimizes CrossFire as a real SLI competitor. ATI definitely has something to smile about here.
• AMD to Adopt DDR2 Next Year - According to Anandtech, AMD has already developed a new processor lineup for Athlon 64 processors with DDR2.
• ATI 'enables' CrossFire on Intel 955X chipset - ATI's CrossFire multi-GPU technology may work with motherboards based on Intel's 955X chipset when compatible graphics cards ship next month.
• UItra Products 2*256MB PC3200 XL - Overclockers Online has published a new article on Ultra Products Xtreme Low Latency memory modules.
• OCZ EL PC-3500 Gold GX and PC-4800 Platinum Motherboard - With its ultra-fast performance, high quality and reliability, the OCZ PC-3500 Gold GX edition is the perfect memory upgrade for memory-hungry gaming rigs.
• Radeon X700 Pro Round Up -  Tech-Hounds.com tested boards from three different manufacturers. In alphabetical order they are the ASUS Extreme AX700 Pro 256 MB, Gigabyte X700 Pro 256 MB and the MSI RX700 Pro TD128E.
• Seagate Cheetah 15K.4 ST3146854LC SCSI Hard Drive - Although it is priced at around $1000, that should not be something that would deter an IT professional to purchase it for a server at work. It is built to last and yields the performance that a busy multitasking environment requires.
• ViewSonic VX924 19" LCD - The Viewsonic VX924 is a 19" LCD display that sports a 4ms response time. As part of Viewsonic's Extreme range of displays, it's designed for gamers, rather than image professionals or home users.
• Zboard Battlefield 2 Keyset - The Zboard is a gaming keyboard. It has interchangeable keysets, and most people have two keysets. The normal (QWERTY) one, that makes it look like any average keyboard, and the gaming keyset, with its butterfly key layout, making it easier to hit the buttons and so therefore make it easier to play the games.
• NetGear WPN824 - For most casual and demanding users, the Netgear RangeMax Wireless Router is an all-around excellent option. The adaptive internal antennas that compensate for interference provide great connectivity with excellent range. The security options are first rate, with dual firewalls, content blocking, and scheduled blocking. The box itself is refreshingly unique, and features a central porthole surrounded by blue LEDs that illuminate as the antennas adjust. This results in a constantly glistening tech gem that will mesmerize your friends for hours.
• MSI Digi VOX USB 2.0 HDTV Broadcasting on your PC - Digi VOX USB 2.0 adapter allows you to watch and listen to digital TV and radio broadcasting on your PC or notebook.
• Motorola RAZR V3 - While this phone looks like a million bucks, the functions are merely on-par with what the rest of the industry has to offer. The external display is a fair size, but the 4k CSN colour screen is disappointing, considering it is supposed to be used for picture caller ID and can serve as a camera screen when the phone is closed. For a premium phone, the lack of a 65k colour external screen really hurts.

GUIDES...

• DDR vs. GDDR Memories - Learn the main differences between DDR (DDR2 and DDR3) and GDDR (GDDR2 and GDDR3) memories.
• Hacking Windows XP: Speed Up Your Network and Internet Access - This excerpt from the ExtremeTech book, Hacking Windows XP, shows you how to tweak the Windows XP System Registry settings to improve network and Internet speed.
• Hacking Windows XP: Hacking Windows Explorer - This is Chapter 5 from the ExtremeTech book Hacking Windows XP, published by Wiley. You can also read other excerpts from the book about speeding disk access, speeding up your network and internet access, and speeding up your system boot.

SOFTWARE...

• Mozilla Suite 1.7.10 - This release (download) resolves several important security issues.
• HOC Half-Life 2 Benchmark 1.5 - This is a new program that allows you to benchmark your system with today's most popular FPS-game, Half-Life 2. The program does not modify any registry-entries or configuration files, so it is completely safe to use. This new version adds 2048×1536 resolution, fast z-settings option and minimize HDD usage option.
• ZoneAlarm Free 6.0.632.002 - ZoneAlarm (download) includes five interlocking security services that deliver easy-to-use, comprehensive protection. Unlike any other security utility, it incorporates a firewall, Application Control, an Internet Lock, dynamically assigned Security Levels and Zones. Combined, these elements yield the strongest security possible.
• Kerio Personal Firewall 4.2.0 Final - Personal Firewall (changelog / download) is a necessity for all desktop computers connected to broadband Internet, using DSL, cable, ISDN, WiFi or satellite modems.
• Fresh Download 7.34 - Fresh Download is an easy-to-use and very fast download manager software that turbo charge downloading files from the Internet, such as your favorite software, mp3 files, video files, picture collections, etc.
• SpeedFan 4.25 - SpeedFan can even access S.M.A.R.T. info for those hard disks that support this feature and show hard disk temperatures too, if supported.
• Overdrive Apocalypse Drivers 80.40 - These are modified NVIDIA ForceWare drivers for Windows 2000 & XP. Modified drivers simply means that the author takes official or beta drivers from the manufacturer and starts to tweak them for either better image quality and or performance
• ForceWare 77.76 Win2000/XP beta - This driver is supposed to have all kinds of improvements and bug fixes. This set has not been WHQL qualified just yet. All GeForce models are supported with this driver release.