SECURITY... 

• Unpatched IE Flaw Extremely Critical  - Instead of being just critical, Secunia says that the unpatched hole is now 'extremely critical' which means that Microsoft were extremely stupid to sit on it for six months.
• Code exploits Windows flaw in image file handling - The exploit code takes advantage of a flaw in the way Windows handles certain graphics files. Microsoft provided a patch in October with security bulletin MS05-053 and warned that the vulnerability could create an opening for spyware and Trojan horse attacks
• Sony CD spyware installs and can run permanently, even if you click "Decline"  - Previously, Princeton researchers revealed that the MediaMax software installed itself even if you declined the EULA (the pop-up license agreement). However, the researchers concluded that if you declined the EULA, the software was only active until you restarted Windows. Now Princeton's Alex Halderman reports that if you insert another MediaMax-infected CD (or the same CD again) and decline the EULA a second time, the software can activate itself permanently.
• MSN Messenger Authentication DoS - Any person can try to brute force a victim's MSN messenger password, until MSN temporarily suspends the account. While the account is temporarily suspended, not even the real owner of the MSN Messenger Passport account can login (even if the correct password is used).
• Hard drives ship with worm - Japanese storage vendor IO Data has dropped a bit of a clanger by shipping a batch of external hard drives complete with a Windows worm.

CRIME/LAW...

• Illegal file-sharing three times as popular as iTunes - A report from analyst house JupiterResearch discovered that consumers are three times more likely to get their digital music from illegal file-sharing networks than pay to download the tracks from online song shops such as iTunes and Napster, with 15 per cent of consumers using P2P sites and five per cent using the legitimate online shops.

OFF-TOPIC

• DRM boycotts hurt Sony's music sales - musicians frustrated - Overnight, Get Right with the Man dropped to No. 1,392 on Amazon's music rankings. By Nov. 22 -- after the news made headlines and Sony was deep into damage control, pulling some 4.7 million copy-protected disks from the market -- Get Right with the Man was even further from Amazon's Top 40, plummeting to No. 25,802.
• The GMAIL Song - Yes folks there is now a GMAIL song and Video.

TECHNOLOGY...

• 300,000 Xbox 360s go to Europe - According to Spiegel Online, this Friday will mark the arrival of 300,000 Xbox 360s in stores across Europe.
• Farstone VirtualDrive 10 Pro claims to support Starforce 3 - Farstone claims on their product description of VirtualDrive 10 Pro to have beaten the Starforce 3 copy protection. The software is a CD/DVD drive emulator and allows you to use images made from CD or DVD discs on your hard disk but with the behaviour of a CD/DVD reading capable device
• Nokia Makes Enterprise Play with 9300i Smartphone - Looking to gain a stronger foothold in the enterprise, Nokia today took the wraps off of its latest smartphone , the 9300i, essentially an update to the 9300 model, which did not come with built-in Wi-Fi connectivity.

HARDWARE... 

• CPU - Dual-core desktop - AMD vs. Intel
• Motherboard - Abit's Fatal1ty AN8 SLI / ASRock 775Dual-915GL / Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe - x16 SLI  / DFI Infinity NF4 Ultra (1) / DFI LanParty NF4 SLI-DR Expert  (2) / ECS PF22 Crossfire / Epox Socket 754 SLI board / Foxconn Winfast 6150K8MA-8EKRS / Gigabyte 955X Royal
• Complete / SFF Systems - Dell XPS 600 - SLI Gaming PC / Shuttle XPC M1000 Home Theater PC
• Memory - Corsair TwinX XMS PC4000 2GB DDR Memory Kit  / Corsair TWINX 2048-4000  / Crucial Ballistix PC2-8000 / G.Skill Extreme 3200DSU2-1GBFX / G.skill F1-3200PHU2-2GBZX (2x1GB 2-3-2-5) / OCZ Dual Channel PC-3200 Gold GX XTC
• Storage - Seagate 7200.9 500GB || Vantec Nexstar GX USB Drive Enclosure and Hub Inbox || LG GSA-4167B Super Multi DVD-Writer
• Video - Mid-Range Graphics Card Round-Up || ATI All in Wonder Radeon X800XL Multimedia PCI Express /  ATI RADEON X1600 PRO and XT / ASUS Extreme N6600GT Silencer (1) / ASUS Extreme AX700 Silencer (2) / e-GeForce 7800GT OC and HIS X800GTO  / GECUBE ATi X550 256Mb DDR2 RAM / Matrox DualHead2Go / MSI NX6800GS-TD256E (GeForce 6800 GS, PCIe) / PowerColor X800 GTO VIVO / XFX GeForce 6600 DDR2
• Monitor - Samsung SyncMaster 740B 17" LCD Monitor / ViewSonic VG920 19" LCD monitor
• Cooling - Asus Extreme AX800 Silencer / Cooler Master Centurion 531 / FrozenCPU ATX 2.0 PSU Tester / Thermalright V-1 VGA Cooler / Thermalright XP_90C & Antec Tricool 120 fan tested on 4800+ / Zalman CNPS9500 LED Heatsink / Zalman VF700-Cu LED at Maximum CPU
• Watercooling - 5-Way Radiator Round-Up (Part 2) / Swiftech H20-Apex "Extreme Duty" Series Liquid Cooling Kit
• Case - Antec P180 / Nitro Ax Full Tower Server Case / Hiper Aluminium HCK-1S18A-XX / Lian Li PC-V880 HTPC Case / Nikao Black Dragonfire Case / NZXT Lexa case / SilverStone LC16M HTPC Case / Thermaltake Swing ATX Mid Tower Case / Vantec Stingray - STG100  / XG Ninja 2 Case
• Modding - mCubed FanAmp
• Sound - Creative Labs X-Fi Platinum || Altec Lansing AHS602i Gaming Headset
• PSU - SilverStone Strider ST60F PSU
• Peripheral - Bluetake BT510 Mini Mouse and BT009Si Bluetooth Adapter / Logitech MX5000 Laser Cordless Desktop / Logitech MX610 Laser Cordless Mouse / Logitech diNovo Cordless Desktop Kit for Notebooks / Razer Green Copperhead Gaming Mouse / Saitek P3000 Wireless Gamepad / Saitek ST90 Joystick / ZBoard Call of Duty 2 || fUnc 1030 Archetype mousepad / Icemat 2nd Edition Mouse Pad
• Network - SonicWALL TZ 170 SP Wireless
• Printer - Lexmark E342n Mono Laser printer
• Notebook - SONY VAIO VGN-T2XRP-S Notebook
• Cameras, MP3/DVD players/recorders - Canon Digital IXUS 750 digital camera
• Misc - Hawking Technologies HKS112AU 2-Port KVM Switch / Panasonic KX-FC235E - Fax Answerphone
• Phones/PDAs - Asus MyPal A636 - an absolute battery life record / Nokia 770 Internet Linux Tablet / Mitsubishi M430i GSM phone / Motorola V3i GSM phone / Samsung E330N GSM phone / Samsung X200 GSM phone / Wi-Fi enabled Nokia 9300i Communicator unveiled

GUIDES...

• The Definitive BIOS Optimization Guide Revision 8.6.1 - Adrian has updated his premier BIOS optimization guide.
• Buyers Guides - Holiday 2005 PC Case Buyers Guide / 10 easy steps to buy a new PC
• How To Prevent Unwanted Windows Programs From Loading At Startup - We all have them in our system tray, programs that load up and use precious memory resources and take up valuable space on your taskbar. Some of them you need, but most you can do without. Take charge and clean them out.

SOFTWARE...

• PHP 5.1.1 Final - The PHP Development Team has released PHP 5.1.1. This is a regression correction release aimed at addressing several issues introduced by PHP 5.1.0.
• UNOFFICIAL Windows98 SE Service Pack 2.1 -  It contains all Windows98 SE updates from Windows Update site and more.
• Mozilla takes wraps off Firefox 1.5 - Firefox 1.5, available free via download, is the browser's first major update since creator the Mozilla Foundation introduced it about a year ago. New in the 1.5 version are more sophisticated security and performance features. In addition to a more effective pop-up blocker, the updated browser is designed to ease security updates.
• FastStone Image Viewer 2.29 - 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.
• K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 1.44 - K-Lite Codec Pack is a collection of codecs and related tools. Codec is short for Compressor-Decompressor. Codecs are needed for encoding and decoding (playing) audio and video.
• VLC Player 0.8.4 - VLC (a.k.a. VideoLAN Client) is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, ...) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network.
• Media Player Classic 6.4.8.7 - Media Player Classic (download) is similar to windows media player 6.4 but with features pertained to minimalist advanced users. It also supports DirectX 9 and VFW drivers for capture. It supports viewing through ActiveX controls of Real and QuickTime files.
• Daemon Tools 4.00 X64 - Daemon Tools 4 X64 (download) has been released. It contains only small bugfixes, apart from that, the release notes from V4 32bit are valid here, too.
• AnyDVD 5.6.1.1 - AnyDVD program is a driver, which unprotects DVD movies automatically in the background. AnyDVD can be used to remove the various copy protections on DVDs and even audio or game CDs.  This new version Adds detection and removal of a new type of protection "MacroVision RipGuard" as found on "Madagascar WideScreen" R1 (US) or "Vet Hard" R2 (Netherlands) to the option to remove "Protection based on unreadable Sectors" Note: RipGuard could be copied together with elby CloneDVD2 since AnyDVD version 5.4.1.1, but this new version supports drag and drop of all files from DVD to harddisk as well.
• Unstoppable Copier v2.0 - Recovers files from disks with physical damage. Allows you to copy files from disks with problems such as bad sectors, scratches or that just give errors when reading data.
• Far Cry Benchmark v1.4.2 - Far Cry Benchmark v1.4.2 adds support for the latest v1.33 patch, instant save feature, etc
• Half-Life 2 Benchmark v1.6 - Half-Life 2 Benchmark v1.6 adds Lost Coast support, HD WideScreen resolutions 1280×768, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, HDR support, etc.
• Splinter Cell Chaos Theory Benchmark v1.1 - Splinter Cell Chaos Theory Benchmark v1.1 adds support for 1.5 patch, Pixel Shader 2.0 support, etc.
  Intel Video Drivers 14.17 - download