SECURITY...

• Windows 2000 moves into Extended Support after June 30th - There are two important events that will happen to the support policy for Windows 2000 after June 30th of this year. First, support for both IE 5.01 SP3 and IE 6 SP1 on Windows 2000 SP3 will expire. Users running IE 5.01 or IE 6 SP1 on Windows 2000 should upgrade to Windows 2000 SP4 in order to continue to receive security updates. Second, Windows 2000 SP4 moves from mainstream to extended support. We will of course continue to keep our Windows 2000 SP4 customers secure with security updates through the life of Windows 2000 (through 2010).
• Luigi Auriemma's advisories - Crash in Stronghold 2 1.2 / Buffer-overflow and crash in Terminator 3: War of the Machines 1.16 / Endless loop in Halo 1.06 / Format string and crash in Warrior Kings 1.3 and Battles 1.23 / In-game server crash in War Times 1.03 / Gamespy cd-key validation system: "Cd-key in use" DoS versus many games (Halo, Battlefield 1942 and Vietnam, Men of Valor, Painkiller, Star Wars Battlefront, Star Wars Republic Commando, Tribes: Vengeance and many others)
• Sweden bans illegal downloads & photocopies of whole books - Sweden passed a law banning the sharing of copyrighted material on the Internet without payment of royalties, in a bid to crack down on free downloading of music, films and computer games. The law, which was approved by a large majority in parliament, will go into effect on July 1st. Those who violate the law will be ordered to pay damages.
• China to Register all Internet Sites - Chinese-run websites have until the end of May to register their sites or face being shut down as part of a new government campaign to police the Internet, a leading portal announced. The registration drive is an effort by the Ministry of Information Industry to clamp down on fraud and other "unhealthy" activity on the Internet, the portal Sohu.com said.

OFFTOPIC...

• Steering Wheel Checks Alcohol Consumption -  If the car doesn't start, you are too drunk to drive. That is the premise behind a $600 sensor that can be installed in a steering wheel or in gloves and will test a driver's skin to determine alcohol consumption. Inventor Dennis Bellehumeur, 54, says his device prevents a vehicle from starting or running if the driver is over the legal alcohol limit.
• Spielberg & Lucas Approve Indy 4 Script - According to an article on ComingSoon.net, the script for the fourth Indiana Jones movie is moving forward. Lucas and Spielberg have agreed on the writing, with only Harrison Ford still required to sign off on the project before it can go into pre-production. Ford has yet to read the script
• Start working the first telescope searched for alien life - The Allen Telescope Array, named after its most generous donor, Microsoft`s co-founder Paul Allen, will be made up of 350 or more small silver aluminum dishes spread across 90 acres, tells the Washington Times.
• Molding a Nebula From a Star - Looking for a good show? You could do worse than directing your gaze to the Carina nebula in the southern sky, a maelstrom of creation and destruction some 10,000 light-years from here. There, in the swirl of gas and dust and starry detritus, are some of the hottest and largest stars in the galaxy tipping the scales at a mass 50 to 100 times as great as the Sun. Astronomers estimate that there may be as many as 100,000 stars in the cloud, which is roughly 200 light-years across

TECHNOLOGY...

• Next-gen Microsoft Web server details emerge - The next version of Microsoft's Internet Information Services Web server (IIS7) will integrate the ASP.NET development technologies and turn many core features into optional modules. In addition, the software's admin tool has been completely revamped, allowing more secure and complete Web-based remote administration. Details of the upgrade are gradually emerging as Microsoft gives key industry partners access to sneak previews of IIS7, which is due to be released with the company's next major operating system -- dubbed Longhorn -- late in 2006.
• Sony sells over 1 million CDs featuring "sterile burning" DRM - Since March the company has released at least 10 commercial titles -- more than 1 million discs in total -- featuring technology from U.K. anti-piracy specialist First4Internet that allows consumers to make limited copies of protected discs, but blocks users from making copies of the copies. The concept is known as "sterile burning." And in the eyes of Sony BMG executives, the initiative is central to the industry's efforts to curb casual CD burning.
• SuSE 9.3 Professional review - Of course, if you are new to Linux, you may have a few hurdles, but that's part of the fun. Installing programs, understanding the file system, and my favorite, getting DVD movies to play (Damn copyrights), are things you will have fun figuring out. However, once you figure things such as these out, your road ahead is easy. If you are already familiar with Windows, especially the command prompt, you are a step ahead.

HARDWARE... 

• Manufacturers expect NVIDIA G70 in June? - AnandTech's early Computex coverage reveals that NVIDIA's next-gen G70 graphics processor may arrive soon: "NVIDIA plans on sticking it to ATI with G70 and offering widespread availability of their new GPU very soon. Manufacturers at the show have already indicated that the first shipments of G70 boards will be in their hands by the second week of June."
• Samsung and Toshiba to supply 8Gbit NAND flash for Apple Shuffle - Samsung Electronics and Toshiba are aggressively planning to ramp up their output of 8Gbit NAND flash chips, as Apple Computer plans to roll out 2GB and 4GB versions of its iPod Shuffle this June and August, respectively, according to sources at NAND flash makers.
• Intel quietly embeds DRM in it's 945 chips firmware - Officially launched worldwide on the May 26, the new offerings come DRM-enabled and will, at least in theory, allow copyright holders to prevent unauthorized copying and distribution of copyrighted materials from the motherboard rather than through the operating system as is currently the case. While Intel steered clear of mentioning the new DRM technology at its Australian launch of the new products, Intel's Australian technical manager Graham Tucker publicly confirmed Microsoft-flavored DRM technology will be a feature of Pentium D and 945.
• Athlon 64 X2 4800+ and 4400+ - BeHardware takes a look at the Athlon 64 X2 4800+ and 4400+ dual core processors.
• Mushkin 1GB DC DDR400 Redline - These lower latency modules use major brand, tier one chips; built on Mushkin's Black PCB, and are designed to offer the greatest range in system compatibility. All Mushkin High Performance memory modules come with an installed heat spreader to eliminate localized hotspots, further enhancing lifetime and overclockability.
• NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra Shootout : MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum - Moving on towards the motherboard features itself, the K8N Neo4 Platinum covered all grounds with a decent set of components that compliment the nForce4 Ultra chipset. Marvell controllers were used to power both of the board's available Gigabit LAN ports
• The Great and Last AGP Graphics Card Roundup - ATI vs. nVidia - Tweaktown compared all eight of the current AGP graphics from ATI and nVidia including the Radeon X700PRO, X800XL, X850XT, X850XT PE and GeForce 6600GT, 6800, 6800GT and 6800 Ultra.
• Samsung HD160JJ Serial ATA2 -  This drive by Samsung is by no means a poor performer, but it only presents minimal gains from SATA drives. In my personal opinion if you are still hooked on Ultra ATA it is time to upgrade. Even if you're not big into transferring large files around or you don't think you need a new hard drive, the gains from Ultra ATA to SATA2 are pretty significant. For a price of around $150 you can't go wrong. 3D Accelerated is interested to see what new SATA2 drives will have to offer in the future.
• Hiper Type-R Modular Blue Line 580W PSU - To sum this review, I do not believe that the only negative point of the unit (short cables) can compare to all the positive points that the Hiper Type-R Modular Blue Line 580W has. Since the only negative point applies only to a few cases available on the market where most power supply units have the exact same problem.
• Saitek X52 Flight Control System - For those of us who are hardcore into flying games and simulators you're going to want a controller with the most authentic feel you can get to add to the overall effect. Individual joystick units with a small slider for the throttle aren't much like a real airplane is it? Saitek has come out with what they call their "X52 Flight Control System"
• Samsung SCX-4100 printer - Having gone through all the basic features of the SCX-4100, this is one of those products that every house hold could use. Printing is a necessity in many households and once you get use to using the scanner and copier, you'll be wondering how you lived without it. Perhaps the same can be said about the other MFPs where faxing is an option.
• Datexx Pavio PVR30T 30GB Portable Video Player and Recorder - Lastly, for you TV fanatics, the Pavio makes your viewing pleasure fun and easy. Break out the docking station, open the "bomb bay" door (docking connector) on the bottom of the PVR and set it in the dock like a glove. Now, just decide what source you wish to record from or play to.
• Nokia 3230 smart-phone review - Retreating to take a closer look at the connectivity capabilities of the 3230, we find a relatively comprehensive offering with tri-band GSM 900/1800/1900 MHz as well as GPRS and EDGE on the slate. Data transfer performance is excellent, as we've come to excpect from Nokia, as is signal reception and voice quality, with the loudspeaker also performing admirably.

GUIDES... 

• PCI Express technology backgrounder - Hexus.net has a new article looking at PCI Express, how it works, and there's a bit of bus history in there too!
• Poor Man's Kinesis Keyboard: The K'nexis Keyboard - These beautiful keyboards move the Shift and Ctrl keys to your thumbs, which have more power than the lowly pinkies. This eliminates the physical pain, but it does add financial pain: $240 US -- double that if you need one for home and one for work. So like any geek would, I decided to make my own Kinesis keyboard. I used a building toy called K'nex (it's like Lego but it uses rods).
• How-To: Wireless Network Security - Several different types of wireless security exist, but which one is the best for you? A simple checklist of wireless needs and available system resources should answer this question. If you have the resources and the time to learn new software, RADIUS would be a good choice. If you have limited resources, but need the security, WPA is the way to go. And if you really don't care about security or your network...WEP is your answer.
• id Software Doom 3 1.3.1302 Linux Performance - Overall, Timothee Besset (Doom 3 Linux port maintainer) has done a great job with this new patch, however, are there any performance benefits or losses from this latest patch? The id Software Doom 3 1.3.1302 patch performance is the focus of this article.

SOFTWARE...

• [MS-patch]: DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA) for WMP10 on XP - This update (download ~3.4MB) enables Microsoft DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA) of Microsoft Windows Media Video (WMV) content in Microsoft Windows Media Player 10 for video cards when the drivers of those video cards are designed to take advantage of this feature.
• NewSID v4.10 - NewSID has two new automatic run switches: /n, which omits the reboot after the SID is changed, and /d, which you use to specify a delay between the SID change and the reboot.
• 7-Zip 4.20 Final - 7-Zip (download) is a file archiver with high compression ratio. The main features of 7-Zip: High compression ratio in new 7z format with LZMA compression, Supported formats: 7z, ZIP, CAB, RAR, ARJ, GZIP, BZIP2, Z, TAR, CPIO, RPM and DEB
• Foobar 0.9 Beta 4 - Foobar2000 is an advanced audio player for the Windows platform. Some of the basic features include ReplayGain support, low memory footprint and native support for several popular audio formats
• VirtualDub 1.6.6 Experimental - VirtualDub (changelog ~ download) is a video capture and processing program. It features fast capturing, process files larger than the 2 gigabyte limit, optimized for linear editing, support for Motion-JPEG, MPEG-1 video and layer 3 audio, real-time and near-realtime video processing, video job queues, and much more.
• Ad-Aware SE 1.06 - In the launch of version 1.06, Lavasoft introduces a new extensive revision to the Threat Assessment Chart (TAC) which has been improved with a more fine grained technical analysis of the target criteria, which aids users to better understand why applications are detected by Ad-Aware.
• FileZilla 2.2.14 - FileZilla (download) is a fast FTP and SFTP client for Windows with a lot of features. FileZilla Server is a reliable FTP server
• nLite 1.0 Beta 1 - nLite lets you choose which components to remove from your Windows 2000, XP or 2003 before installation. Removing unneeded components you gain on your system speed and security. It supports removal of almost any component and few services. You can make a bootable ISO with it and even easy slipstream Service pack with a click of a button. Now added easy cd-key implementation so you don't need to enter it during setup
• NVPerfHUD 2.1 - NVPerfHUD analyzes your graphics pipeline performance one stage at a time and displays real time statistics that can be used to diagnose performance bottlenecks in your Direct3D 9 application.
• VIA HyperionPro Driver Package Version - 500A - The HyperionPro package  (download) supports 64 bit Microsoft Windows XP and 64 bit Windows Server 2003 whilst the Hyperion 4in1 package only supports 32 bit operating systems. The HyperionPro package does not contain the IDE Filter driver. For Win9X/ME/2K the IDE filter driver is needed to support UDMA 6. The IDE Filter driver is not needed for WinXP SP1 and later Microsoft operating systems. Version 500A of the HyperionPro package includes the following driver components: INF 2.40b, AGP 4.43h, RAID V4.30c, RAID tools V4.06.