SECURITY... 

• Security expert Steve Gibson claims WMF exploit is a deliberate back-hole - Microsoft has patched the WMF vulnerability in Windows 2000 and XP, but in his research for a fix for Windows 95/98/Me Steve has come up with a blockbuster (check out this podcast) It is his considered opinion that the WMF vulnerability could not have been a mistake. It was an intentional backdoor inserted into Windows by Microsoft for reasons unknown. Gibson , who has come under harsh criticism on Slashdot, a news comment web site, isn't surprised that people call him a conspiracy theorist or even paranoid.  "I completely understand them," he said in an interview. "We will never have proof one way or the other because we will never know for sure what Microsoft's intentions were."
• No 'rootkit' vulnerability in Kaspersky Anti-Virus - Mark Russinovich, an independent researcher, has recently been reported as suggesting that Kaspersky Lab makes use of 'rootkit' technology in its Kaspersky Anti-Virus products. According to Russinovich, this makes Kaspersky Anti-Virus products potentially vulnerable to abuse. Kaspersky Lab wishes to state that using the term 'rootkit' to describe technology implemented in Kaspersky Anti-Virus is inaccurate. It seems that Russinovich's concerns arise from the use of Kaspersky Lab iStreams technology. Kaspersky Anti-Virus' use of iStreams technology is not a vulnerability. Referring to this technology as a rootkit is incorrect as it cannot be exploited by a malicious user to attack a system.
• Apple QuickTime Player StripOffsets Improper Memory Access - Apple QuickTime has a vulnerability in parsing the specially crafted TIFF image files. This is due to application failure to sanitize the parameter StripOffsets value while parsing TIFF image files. A remote attacker could construct a web page with specially crafted tiff file and entice a victim to view it, when the user opens the TIFF image with Internet Explorer or Apple QuickTime Player, it'll cause memory access violation, and leading to potential Arbitrary Command Execution. Apple Computers has released a security update for this vulnerability, which is available for downloading from Apples's web site under security update.
• Anti-spyware guidelines get final version - The Anti-Spyware Coalition, whose members include Microsoft, Symantec, Computer Associates, McAfee, AOL and Yahoo, said on Thursday that it has finalized its spyware detection guidelines.
• Malware - Future Trends - This publication (PDF) is in no way intended to be a complete future prediction or a reference, as future can never by fully predicted, that s the beauty of it. Instead, its intention is to discuss the possible future trends backed up by a little speculation, and also use some of the current ones as a foundation for future developments.
• Symantec Caught in Rootkit Controversy - Symantec has been forced to fix a "flaw" in Norton SystemWorks which could possibly allow malware authors to hide files from users. While the feature is designed to prevent SystemWorks users from accidentally deleting files vital to the software package's NProtect feature, weaknesses in the technology could be exploited by opportunistic developers of malicious software. Users of 2005 and 2006 versions of SystemWorks and SystemWorks Premier are urged to run LiveUpdate to patch the flaw, which will then allow the directory to be seen and scanned by antivirus software.
• Symantec Competing Unfairly Against Spybot? - Symantec has been claiming for months that the anti-spyware program Spybot-Search & Destroy corrupts Norton Ghost images. Spybot has tried to convince them this is a false positive. After having been ignored, and this is the second time Symantec has claimed a false positive against Spybot, the makers of Spybot have gone public. Ed.note: Yet another reason to stay away from Symantec products...Norton Ghost? Well, I recommend you to check out Acronis True Image.
• Phone Records Easily Purchased By Anyone - Americablog, a political weblog, recently purchased one month of General Wesley Clark's cell phone records from a private company for $90. In doing so, they brought to light a security hole which has only recently gained media attention
• iTunes Includes "iSpy" Feature - Apple recently launched iTunes 6.0.2, what appears like a minor version update of iTunes 6.0.1. However, besides their announced stability and performance improvements, the new version actually includes an iTunes MiniStore, which monitors the user's listening habits and recommends music and artists based on this gathered data.
• [!] Microsoft Security Bulletin MS06-002 - Vulnerability in Embedded Web Fonts Could Allow Remote Code Execution - download patch! (Win2k/XP/2003)
• Security Update for Office 2003 -  Security Update for Office 2003 Multilingual User Interface Pack (KB892843) / Security Update for Office 2000 Multilanguage Pack (KB892842) / Security Update for Outlook 2000 (KB892842).
• January 2006 Security and Critical Releases ISO Image - This ISO-9660 CD image file contains all security and critical updates for Windows released on Windows Update on January 5th and January 10th, 2006.

CRIME/LAW...

• Attacks mounting on 'Million Dollar Homepage' - The wildly successful pixel-powered webpage of a British university student is coming under increasingly intense distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks trying to knock down the profitable brainstorm. Another article can be found here.
• Annoying Online Posts Could Be Illegal - Writing annoying, anonymous online posts or e-mails could land you in jail for as long as two years. That's according to the Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act of 2005, which was signed into law last week. According to a section of the act, anyone who uses the Internet anonymously "with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass another person" can be tried for violating federal telecommunications law and face fines or jail.
• FBI warns of sick Sago disaster spam - The FBI has issued a warning that spammers are exploiting the Sago mining disaster in which 12 miners lost their lives. The emails purport to be raising funds for an operation to save the life of Randal McCloy, the only survivor of the disaster. McCloy is currently in a critical condition in hospital after spending nearly two days trapped underground.
• Detroit spammer faces slammer - A US spammer likely faces at least two years in jail next week after he admitted using networks of compromised PCs to distribute junk mail messages.

OFF-TOPIC

• NASA Mission Will Explore Solar System's Frozen Edge - On Tuesday, a powerful Lockheed Martin Atlas 5 rocket is scheduled to send a spacecraft called New Horizons on a journey to the dim outer reaches of the Sun's realm for the first close-up look at Pluto. If successful, the mission will complete the initial exploration of the nine planets that defined the solar system at the beginning of the space age.
• Taiwanese breed fluorescent pigs - Researchers at the National Taiwan University Department of Animal Science and Technology have bred pigs that glow in the dark. Three male piglets, born three months ago, have green eyes, teeth and trotters and their skin glows green under blue light. The researchers said that the fluorescence continues through the piglets' bodies including their internal organs.
• Sci-Fi channel to show new Doctor Who in US - According to the two media organisations, the show's first 13-episode run will air Friday nights at 9pm next March, a year after they were shown in the UK and around the time the second series kicks off in Britain following the Christmas special's successful introduction of the tenth Doctor, played by David Tennant. The Sci-Fi Channel has the option to show the 2006 season too.
• Fast-spinning neutron star smashes speed limit - The fastest-spinning neutron star ever found is discovered in a crowded star cluster near the centre of the Milky Way, a new study reveals. The star rotates 716 times per second – faster than some theories predict is possible – and therefore may force researchers to revise their models

TECHNOLOGY...

• US game sales hit record $10.5 billion in 2005 - The NPD Group reports U.S. game retail sales hit a record $10.5 billion in 2005, breaking the previous record of $10.3 billion set back in 2002. And get this; software sales for the GBA, Nintendo DS and Sony PSP increased by 42 percent over 2004. Nintendo's five-year-old GBA comprised a whopping 52% of total handheld sales. 
• 600,000 Xbox 360 consoles sold in US - Reuters reports that Microsoft has sold 600,000 Xbox 360 consoles in the United States since its November 2005 launch. Data comes from the NDP Group which measures and projects nearly two-thirds of all US retail sales. In case you are still interested, Amazon.com and Wal-mart finally have some Xbox 360 bundles in stock.
• Playstation 3 might cost $500 - A CNN Mone article projected that Sony's PS3 might cost $500. The strongest argument behind the $499 price point is the PS3's inclusion of a Blu-Ray drive.
• Microsoft nearing ad system for MSN searches - Microsoft said Thursday that by the end of June it would begin selling advertising alongside its MSN Web search results. It previously relied on a partnership with rival Yahoo! for those ads, but has been testing its own system in the U.S. since October.
• LCD Monitors to Take 80% Share in 2006 - Displaybank have brought out an interesting report on the projected market share that LCD monitors will have this year. "LCD monitors are expected to account for more than 80%", stated CEO Peter Kwon. They also expect LCD Monitor shipments to hit 125 million, 20 million more than 2005. If true this will equal a impressive 80.4% share.
• CES 2006 Coverage @ X-bit Labs - check it out + Extended64 has 151 pictures from the show. Highlights include some awesome Microsoft products, huge plasmas, and rollup displays.
• Sky Available Through Wires - skybybroadband - Sky TV has launched a broadband only service which allows users to download films and programmes legally. Customers who are on Sky's Digital package and have either Sky Sports or Sky Movies will be able to access a wide range of videos, at no extra cost. The videos are encoded at 860kbps and are at a resolution of 540x432. Sky reckons a 2 hour movie will be about 750MB. Windows XP is needed to watch the videos according to Sky. They hope to offer over 1,000 films through their back catalogue, whilst Sky Sports subscribers will be able to watch sports clips. Films will usually be viewable for 30 days until the license expires.
• New Network Could Compete With Cellular Phone Service -
Mobile Satellite Ventures (MSV) fired a shot across the bow of American Cellular carriers, announcing it has placed an order with Boeing for three satellites. The company intends to launch the satellites by 2010 in order to provide mobile voice and data to customers across North and South America.
• Free VOIP USB Phone - Bargain electronics store Computer Geeks has a great deal on a USB VOIP Handset. It sells for $39.99, but you get a $39.99 mail-in rebate (valid until 1/31/06), making it a for free deal. The generic brand AU-100 Voice Over IP USB Phone connects via USB 2.0 and features full duplex communication, noise reduction and echo cancellation. It is for sure not the best VOIP PC handset, but its free, just do not forget to mail-in the rebate form
• Nvidia is shipping 6800 AGP - The cards are clocked at 350MHz core and 1000MHz GDDR 3 memory and in the UK they cost around L187 including VAT. In Euroland, at least in the German part of Euroland, the cards will cost EURO249 including VAT. In Austria it will cost you a little bit more as you have to pay more VAT in Austroland. The 6800 GS AGP is a twelve pipelines part powered with 256 bit memory interface and it is more or less declocked Geforce 6800 GT, for much less money. It does support Shader Model 3, something that Nvidia has been preaching so long and ATI just jumped on its bandwagon. It is AGP, so it will fit into your AGP upgrade systems and won't cost you a fortune to change the whole PC to get a faster graphic card.
• GeForce 7900 Reportedly Coming in March - HEXUS.net appears to have received confirmation that NVIDIA's next graphics processor, codenamed G71 and its first using the 90nm process, will be launched this March at CeBIT 2006 as the GeForce 7900. The flagship 7900 GTX will sport 32 pixel pipelines and have a clock speed between 700 and 750MHz.
• ATI R580 will do 1.1 teraflops - TheInquirer reports that when ATI launches its R580 chip on the 24th of January next, the beastie will perform at a staggering 1.1 teraflops.

HARDWARE... 

• CPU - AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 (1) / AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 (2) / AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 (3) / AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 (4) / AMD Dual-Core FX 60 Overclocking / Pentium Extreme Edition 955 vs. Athlon 64 FX-60
• Motherboard - Albatron K8SLi / ASUS P5N32-SLI Motherboard - 955X vs. nForce4 IE x16 / Asus A8R-MVP CrossFire Motherboard / DFI NF4 SLI Infinity / ECS KN2 SLI / Foxconn NF4SLI7AA-8EKRS2 / Gigabyte K8N51PVTMT-9 nForce MPC 430 / MSI P4N Diamond / Sapphire Pure Innovation Mainboard
• Complete / SFF Systems - Alienware Aurora with FX-60 and 512MB SLI / ARMARI Pantheon-FX / HighSpeed PC Tech Station Large / WidowPC WidowFX Evaluation || AOpen MZ915-M i915GM System / Cebop Scope 88 i915GM System
• Memory - Corsair TWINX-2048 3500LL PRO / Crucial Value PC3200 1GB / OCZ EL DDR2 PC2-4200 Gold Gamer eXtreme XTC Edition RAM (video-review)
• Storage - Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 / WD Raptor 150GB / Western Digital Raptor X HDD || Enermax Laureate Optical Drive Enclosure / Vantec NexStar3 Enclosure || Sony MemoryStick Duo 8GB || Lite-On EZ-DUB SHW-1635SU DVD-Writer / Plextor PX-755A DVD-Writer
• Video - ASUS EN7800GT TOP (innovative SilentCool fan-less thermal technology ~ English translation) / ASUS Extreme Dual N7800GT / Club3D Radeon X1800 CrossFire PCIe (in German) / Gainward GeForce 7800 GTX 512MB / Gigabyte Radeon X1600XT Silent-Pipe II  / Gigabyte Radeon X1800XL / HiS Radeon X1600 XT ICEQ ITURBO / HIS X1800XT OC DL-DVI VIVO 512MB PCIe (video-review) / PowerColor X1600 XT & X1300 PRO / Sapphire Radeon X850 CrossFire / Sapphire Radeon line-up of videocards
• Monitor/TV - Acer AL2416WS 24in LCD Monitor / ViewSonic 19" VX924 LCD monitor
• Cooling - 120mm Fan Roundup / Aerocool High Tower Series HT-102 CPU Cooler / AMD Athlon X2 Stock CPU Cooler / Arctic Cooling Accelero X2 Cooler / Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro Cooler / Coolmax Fanless 400W PSU / Thermaltake Blue Orb II / Thermaltake CL-P0200 Silent 939 K8 Cooler / Titan Eagle (1) / Titan Eagle Aluminum & Copper VGA Cooler (2) || VoyeurMods PC Ice Coolant / Zalman Fatal1ty FS-V7 Graphics Card Cooler
• WaterCooling - CoolerMaster Mini Aquagate R80 WaterCooling Kit  / Thermaltake Bigwater 745 H2O Kit
• Case - Cooler Master Stacker CM 830 - Full Tower Aluminum Case / Newance Triplecone Case / NIKAO Dragonfire PC Case / Sunbeamtech Silent Storm ATX Case / ZIGNUM Whitestar (in German)
• Modding - Super Flower Digi-Master Fanbus  / XSPC LCD display
• PSU - Antec Neo HE 550w PSU / Levicom BlackPower SPS-420W PSU (in German) / The World's Tiniest Power Supply / Thermaltake ToughPower 550W
• Sound - Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Sound Card Family / BlueGears HDA X-Mystique 7.1 Soundcard || IceMat Siberia MultiHeadset / Sennheiser PC 160 Gaming Headset / Xbox 360 Live Headset
• Peripheral - Ideazon Zboard Keyboard / Logitech G5 Laser Mouse / Logitech G7 / Logitech MX3000 Cordless Desktop / Saitek EVO wireless joystick / Saitek P2600 Rumble Gamepad || Razer Mantis Control mousepad || Wacom Introduces 12x19 Tablet
• Printer/Scanner - OKI C5250n Colour LED Printer
• Notebook - Gaming Notebook Roundup / ASUSTeK A6JA Napa Notebook / Samsung Q30 Plus Notebook / Samsung Thin & Light Dual-Core Laptops
• Camera, MP3/DVD players/recorders - Canon EOS 5D Digital Camera / Fujitsu S9500 Zoom Digital camera - S9000 / Hasselblad 39-Megapixel Digital SRL / Nikon Coolpix S3 Digital Camera / Up to $600 Cash Back on Canon@Amazon || iPod Radio
• Phone/PDA - Motorola RAZR V3c / Palm Treo 700w Smartphone(1) / Palm Treo 700w Smartphone (2) / Sony Ericsson W900i 3G-enabled Walkman Phone

GUIDES...

• All Opteron Models - A series of quick reference tables containing the main specs of all Opteron processors released to date.
• How To Correctly Apply Thermal Grease - Everything you need to know about thermal grease: learn how to correctly apply it in order to prevent your CPU from overheating. A complete guide full of pictures.
• How Many Cores Do You Need To Be "Hardcore"? -
• Screencasting: Make Your Own Tutorials! - The fact that screencasting is gaining popularity is hardly surprising. What's more, neither screencasting nor the technologies it employs are new. There has been screencasting software (i.e. - Lotus ScreenCam) for more than a decade, not to mention the existence of audio and screen capture techniques that have existed for more than twenty or thirty years.

SOFTWARE...

• Mozilla Thunderbird 1.5 Final - Thunderbird (release notes / download) is a full-featured email, RSS and newsgroup client that makes emailing safer, faster and easier than ever before. Thunderbird 1.5 now features support for podcasting, as well as improvements to how the client deals with RSS feeds.
• QuickTime 7.04 - download (WinXP/2k) / release notes
• Bart PE Builder v3.1.9  - Bart's PE Builder (changelog / download) helps you build a "BartPE" (Bart Preinstalled Environment) bootable Windows CD-Rom or DVD from the original Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 installation/setup CD, very suitable for PC maintenance tasks.
• AbiWord 2.4.2  - AbiWord (download) is a free word processing program similar to Microsoft Word. It is suitable for a wide variety of word processing tasks.
• Google Talk 1.0.0.82 Beta - Google Talk (download) enables you to call or send instant messages to your friends for free - anytime, anywhere in the world.
• PHP 4.4.2 - This release (download) address a few small security issues, and also corrects some regressions that occurred in PHP 4.4.1. All PHP 4 users are encouraged to upgrade to this release.
• PHP 5.1.2 Final - The PHP development team is proud to announce the release of PHP 5.1.2 (download)
• µTorrent 1.4 - µTorrent 1.4 (download) is finally out. This new version adds Bitcomet style add dialog, RSS Reader and Speed wizard to select your proper settings based on upload speed.
• FileZilla Server 0.9.12c - FileZilla Server (download) is a reliable FTP server.
• 1by1 1.51 - 1by1 (+mpglib.dll 0.92) is a very small sized player which is not only small: It plays whole directories without any playlist.
• FastStone Image Viewer 2.30 Beta 2 - FastStone Image Viewer (download) is a fast, stable, user-friendly image browser, converter and editor. It has a nice array of features that include image viewing, management, comparison, red-eye removal, emailing, resizing, cropping and color adjustments.
• AnyDVD 5.8.2.1 - AnyDVD works in the background to automatically remove the copy protection of a DVD movie as soon as it's inserted into the drive, allowing you then to backup the movie using a DVD backup tool such as CloneDVD. Word is: "Added support for a new version of the Sony Arccos protection as found on "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" R2 (Swiss German) to the option to remove "Protection based on unreadable Sectors" NOTE: This Arccos version is not yet supported with DVDShrink and Nero Recode. With elby CloneDVD 2.8.5.1 the quality bar will not work, but this is only a cosmetic problem. We will try to support this Arccos version better in the future. "
• aTuner 1.9.40.8198 - With aTuner (download), you can change so calles "quality features" very fast and easy. On GeForce- and Radeon-Cards you can alter the antialiasing-mode, the degree of anisotropic filtering, and the VSync-mode. That's of course far less than any other tweaker offers, but aTuner's usability is unique.
• Z-Tweaked drivers 82.12 - Z-Tweaked drivers are a modified version of nvidia's forceware graphics card drivers and are tweaked for the purpose of improved performance.
• Forceware 81.97 Win2000/XP - A new ForceWare driver is out today as released by Dell. Seems like a good quality build. This driver supports most GeForce Graphics cards available.
• ForceWare 82.65 Win2000/XP x32 -  These drivers support some new cards like a 7300 LE and 7300 GS. Among other things some users report that AMD's X2 (dual core) processor issues seem to be fixed in this release.
• ForceWare 82.65 Windows XP x64 -  These drivers support some new cards like a 7300 LE and 7300 GS. In it's current state these drivers are WHQL certified and this is why they left the .inf file intact.