SECURITY...

• Security Patch Watch: Apple Plugs Mac OS X Java Holes - Apple Computer Inc. late Tuesday posted a Java security update for Mac OS X to plug five vulnerabilities that could cause system hijack, security bypass, data manipulation and privilege escalation attacks.
• Windows XP Firewall Bypassing (Registry Based) - Microsoft Windows XP SP2 comes bundled with a Firewall. Direct access to Firewall's registry keys allow local attackers to bypass the Firewall blocking list and allow malicious program to connect the network.
• Counter Strike 2D DoS (Exploit) - By sending crafted packets will cause Counter Strike 2D to enter to a DoS condition.
• Microsoft Windows 2000 SP4 Rollup 1 Updated (KB891861) - This update resolves earlier issues with Rollup 1, enjoy.
• MR Tech's Recommended Mozilla/Firefox Blocking Ads Methods - check it out!

CRIME

• Fake DVDs worth £1m seized in raid at west London home - They took away £400,000 worth of counterfeit stock and equipment as well as more than 50,000 CDs and DVDs which included Bollywood hits Salaam Namaste and My Wife's Murder. Also seized were 24 multi DVD burners, three photocopiers, three computers, a labelling machine and thousands of blank CDs and DVDs, said police.
• Mass. teen pleads guilty in ISP, telecom hacking case - A Massachusetts teenager has pleaded guilty in federal court to hacking into the networks of Internet and telephone service providers, stealing someone's personal information and posting it online, according to a statement from Michael Sullivan, U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts.

TECHNOLOGY...

• Bill Gates takes on Google - Gates said: "So Google is not offering development capabilities yet. Of course, I expect they will. But they're not in that game at all today. In fact, they have this slogan that they are going to organize the world's information. Our slogan is that we are going to give people tools to let them organize the world's information. It's a slightly different approach, based on the platform-ization of all of our capabilities and not thinking of ourselves as the organizer.
• Microsoft gets into the gadget business - Microsoft announced at PDC today that it is getting into the "gadget" business putting it in direct competition from a feature stand point with Apple's Dashboard and Yahoo's Widgets (Konfabulator). Gadgets, like widgets, are mini-applications that typically provide useful information or perform very simple desktop functionality. However, unlike widgets, they do not require a widget enabling program (i.e. such as Konfabulator, DesktopX Standard, Kapsules, etc.). They are stand-alone programs requiring on additional downloads.
• Microsoft Demos with 'Expression' Design Tool Suite - Developers get a look at the Expression Studio Suite, which includes 'Acrylic' for graphic design, 'Sparkle' for animation and 'Quartz' for Web design.
• New Yahoo Mail beta to be unveiled - Yahoo was set to unveil on Wednesday a limited public beta of its new Yahoo Mail service, featuring a new interface more like that of a desktop e-mail application and faster response time.
• Google Launches New Blog Search Tool - The new search service, called Blog Search, went live on Wednesday in test (beta) form. Users can access it through various Web addresses, including one through Google and one through Blogger.com.
• AMD64 Longevity Program - AMD has announced the addition of two new processors to its AMD64 Longevity program for embedded systems. The AMD64 Longevity program guarantees processor availability for five years, and currently covers several single- and dual-core Opteron processors.
• TiVo 7.2 OS adds content protection, blocks transfers, and auto-deletes some shows - PVRblog has a story about TiVo's addition of content protectionin to its latest OS update.
• AnandTech's R520, RV530 and RV515 Pre-NDA Extravaganza - Despite rumors that R520 may have as many as 32 pixel pipelines, AnandTech maintains that cards will launch with 16 pipes. These R520 cards will carry a Radeon X1800 moniker, and high-end XT and XL variants will be equipped with 512MB of memory. For the mid-range market, cards based on the RV530 will be known as the Radeon X1600 series. Equipped with 12 pixel pipelines, a 128-bit memory bus, and between 128MB and 512MB of memory, these cards are purported to have very low power consumption.
• Intel gets licenses for both SLI and CrossFire - Intel's forthcoming high-end 975X chipset, which is expected to be launched in the first quarter of next year, will support both Nvidia's SLI and ATI Technologies' "CrossFire" dual-graphics technology, according to sources at Taiwan motherboard makers.

HARDWARE... 

• CPU - VIA C7-M Processor
• Memory - Corsair Twin2X1024-8000UL RAM / Geil ONE Series RAM / OCZ DDR PC-3500 Gold Gamer eXtreme / OCZ PC-4000 1024MB Gold Edition Dual Channel (2GB)
• Motherboard - 6-way AMD SLI motherboard group test  / Albatron K8 SLI  / AN8 Fatal1ty SLI  / EPoX 8NPA SLi / Foxconn nForce 4 SLI / SiS 756: PCI Express for AMD Socket 939
• Complete / SFF Systems -Biostar iDEQ 350G SFF PC / Small Factor and 64bit CPUs?
• Storage - MSI DR16-B3 announcement (16x16 DVD Dual Drive)
• Video - ASUS GeForce 7800GTX Top / GeForce 7800 GTX Head-to-Head / Gigabyte GV-NX78T256V-B / HIS X800GT IceQII Turbo 256MB PCI Express(1) / HIS Radeon X800 GT IceQ II (2) / NVIDIA GeForce 7800GT / XFX GeForce 6200TC
• Monitor/TV - 20-inch BenQ FP202W 8ms unveiled / Samsung SyncMaster 920T 19 Inch Digital/Analog LCD
• Cooling - Cooler Master Aerogate II Thermal Controller / Scythe SCKTN-1000 Katana Universal Heatpipe CPU Cooler / Thermaltake Golden Shower II / Thermalright SI-120 Heatsink / Zalman CNPS9500 LED Heatsink
• WaterCooling - Corsair Water Cooling Kit / Titan Robela Watercooling Case
• Case - CaseBuy A.I-01 series PC Case / Ahanix MCE 601 HTPC Case / Lian-Li PC-65B / NZXT Trinity Classic Series Case / Six System Cases from Thermaltake / Thermaltake Muse 3.5" External Hard Drive Enclosure
• PSU - Coolmax CXI 400W Power Supply / E-Power Technology Silent Engine Tiger 550W Modular PSU / EZ PowerSupply Tester 2 / Hiper Type-R Series Modular 580W PSU / MGE Magnum 500W Power Supply / Sunbeamtech NUUO 550watt SLI Modular Power Supply
• Sound - Altec Lansing MX5021 2.1 Speaker System / Grado RS2 Headphones / Koss KSC75 Headphones
• Peripheral - Microsoft Laser Mouse 6000 / Saitek 1600 DPI Desktop Gaming Mouse
• Printer - Lexmark's P450 printer with built-in CD burner
• Notebook - Rockdirect Pegasus 650 laptop / Toshiba Libretto U100-S213 Notebook
• Cameras, MP3/DVD players - Axis Communications 207 Network Camera / Apple iPod nano MP3 Player / Logitech Harmony 688 Remote / Olympus µ [mju] 800 Digital Camera / Transcend T-Sonic 610 512MB MP3 Player

GUIDES...

• 64-Bit Windows' Performance on Dual-Core - For this first installation of a two-part series investigating the performance of 64-bit Windows, ExtremeTech loaded up a test system with 2GB of RAM, an Athlon 64 X2 4800+, and a bunch of applications and benchmarks in both 64- and 32-bit flavors
• Microsoft Knowledge Base article to help search the Knowledge Base! - Using keywords and query words in Knowledge Base articles may help you find the content that you are looking for more quickly. This article lists some of the most frequently used keywords and query words in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.
• MR Tech's Recommended Mozilla/Firefox Blocking Ads Methods - check it out!

SOFTWARE...

• Microsoft Codename Max - Microsoft Max (Requires WinFX Runtime Components 3.0 Beta 2) lets you make lists of your photos and turn them into beautiful slide shows to share with your family and friends. Max is the codename for Microsoft's flagship application based on WinFX and Microsoft's new user experience.
• phpMyAdmin 2.6.4 - phpMyAdmin can manage a whole MySQL-server (needs a super-user) but also a single database. To accomplish the latter you`ll need a properly set up MySQL-user who can read/write only the desired database.
• Firefox 1.6 Alpha 1 - Please note this is a nightly/test version ~ download
• FileZilla 2.2.16 - FileZilla is a fast FTP and SFTP client for Windows with a lot of features. Fixed bugs: - Fix parsing of URLs of the form ftp://user@host in the quickconnect bar; - Create empty directories if dropping files from Windows Explorer into FileZilla.
• Macromedia Flash Player 8.0.22.0 - Macromedia Flash Player is the standard for delivering high-impact, rich Web content. Designs, animation, and application user interfaces are deployed immediately across all browsers and platforms, attracting and engaging users with a rich Web experience.
• Macromedia Dreamweaver 8, Fireworks 8, Flash 8 Trials - download trial versions
• FastStone Image Viewer 2.25 Beta - FastStone Image Viewer 2.25 (download) is an image browser, viewer, converter and editor with an easy to use interface and a nice array of features that include resizing, renaming, cropping, color adjustments and more.
• PSP Video 9 1.71 - PSP Video 9 is a free PSP video conversion and management application. It can convert regular PC video files (avi, mpeg, etc) into PSP video files, as well as manage/copy these PSP video files between your PC and PSP.
• SpeedFan 4.26 - SpeedFan is a freeware program that monitors fan speeds, temperatures and voltages in computers with hardware monitoring chips.
• Rage3D Tweak CCC v1.1 - Rage3D Tweak CCC is a brand new tweak application that integrates directly into ATI's Catalyst Control Center (CCC) driver application and adds key tweak functions to the existing interface.
• Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS and Audigy 4 Pro series driver 2.08.0002 WHQL - download - Changelog? We can only guess :(
• Omega Catalyst 5.8 Drivers - After a long wait, the newest Omega Drivers for ATI have been released. For those of you who aren't familiar with these drivers, they are basically modified versions of the official ATI drivers to include more options and performance optimizations.