SECURITY...

• Microsoft Patches Windows 98, ME Flaws  - The software giant on Tuesday updated two previously released bulletins (MS05-002 and MS05-015) to add critical security fixes for customers running Windows 98, 98SE and ME. The decision to release patches for Windows 98 and ME users is described as a "bonus" because of the critical nature of the vulnerabilities being addressed, a Microsoft spokeswoman said. "Those products are out of lifecycle, but we made a commitment to provide critical updates, and that's what you're seeing."
• Denial-of-service glitch could threaten Windows - Posting to the SecurityFocus industry forum site late Monday, an individual identified only as Dejan Levaja first described how the threat, known technically as a LAND attack for the type of code that triggers it, could affect Windows users by needlessly occupying their computers' processing power.
• Virus writers exchanging information - Virus analysts at Kaspersky Lab have been investigating the recent Bagle outbreak, and come to the conclusion that the authors of Bagle, Zafi and Netsky are working hand in hand with each other.
• Virus writers start new flame war - The Fatso.A worm (also known as Crog and Sumom) spreads via MSN Messenger by sending an instant message with a URL that, when clicked, causes the PC to download the virus. It also spreads as a file on eMule peer-to-peer systems. It contains a message from a virus writer called 'Sky Devil': "Hey LARISSA f*** off, you f****** n00b!.. Bla bla to your f****** saving the world from Bropia, the world n33ds saving from you!"
• DNS cache poisoning bugs hits Symantec shops - Crackers are using a security vulnerability in Symantec's enterprise products to redirect surfers to websites hosting malicious code. The main vector of the DNS cache poisoning attack, detected by the SANS Institute's Internet Storm Centre on 4 March, has been traced back to a vulnerability affecting Symantec firewalls with DNS caching. Symantec has issued a hotfix for its Symantec Enterprise Firewall and Enterprise Security Gateway appliance products.
• Design flaw limits spread of MMS mobile virus - Analysis of the CommWarrior mobile phone virus has revealed that the infection is not spreading rapidly because of coding flaws in its design. Researchers at F-Secure who have been analysing the code reported today that, while the infection does send itself on to other phones using the multimedia messaging service (MMS), it does so very slowly, leaving a time delay of anything from 15 minutes to several hours between propagation attempts.
• Hackers 'poison' search engine results - Hackers are increasingly using websites rather than email attachments to spread malicious code, security watchers have warned. In its six-monthly Web Security Trends Report, Websense noted that online criminals may be subverting search engines in a bid to direct unwitting internet users to web pages containing malware.
• "Robin Hood" pirates plead guilty - Three men whom prosecutors dubbed the "Robin Hoods of cyberspace" pleaded guilty Tuesday to putting copyright computer games, movies and software on the Internet so people around the world could make copies for free. All three said they made no money on the scheme and did it just for the sport of it. Seth Kleinberg, 26, of Los Angeles; Jeffrey Lerman, 20, of New York; and Albert Bryndza, 32, also of New York, pleaded guilty to federal copyright charges.
• Harvard Rejects Applicants Who Hacked Site - Harvard Business School says it will reject the applications of the 119 applicants who hacked into the school's admissions Web site last week.
• Aus. Govt moves to ban websites promoting suicide - The Australian federal government is once again showing its cluelessness regarding the workings of the Internet. The short article tells us how, under legislation to be introduced this week, corporations would be fined up to AU$500,000 and individuals AU$100,000 if they use the Internet to incite or promote suicide methods. In Australia it is illegal to commit, or attempt to commit suicide.

OFFTOPIC...

• Human Out-Muscles Robots - Six years ago, Jet Propulsion Laboratory researcher Yoseph Bar-Cohen challenged scientists to create an artificial arm that could beat a human in an arm-wrestling match. The catch: The arm must be made of a pliable plastic material controlled by electrical impulses. In other words, no motors allowed. Monday, in front of a battalion of TV cameras and an audience of hundreds, three groups of scientists took on Bar-Cohen's challenge -- and failed. One of the robot arms seemed to flop helplessly, while the other two quickly fell to a 17-year-old high-school student.

TECHNOLOGY...

• Xbox2 goes core to core to core with PS3 - Microsoft's second version of its Xbox console will feature a CPU with PowerPC cores, according to GameSpy (#1 / #2) , which claims to have scooped the specifications. Expectations that the console would be formally announced at the Game Developer Conference in San Francisco this week were quashed last month. Xenon, as it's codenamed, will feature ATI's next-generation graphics card and a 12X dual-layer DVD. The system will also have a camera, to liven up online gaming, while the hard disk is optional. Sony's third-generation PlayStation will use the 4Ghz Cell processor jointly developed by IBM, Toshiba and Sony's microprocessor division. Sony is expected to unveil the PSP3 in May.
• Taiwan game producer InterServ to hunt talent at GDC 2005 in San Francisco - InterServ International plans to expand its design staff with experts found at the 2005 GDC in San Francisco from March 7-11 this year, according to company managing director Sheree Tsao.
• Microsoft Office 12 Preview 1 - As with previous Office versions, Microsoft has developed a high-level "vision" for Office 12, and this time, it's all focused on the enterprise.
• Microsoft Unveils "Office Communicator" - Microsoft has given a name to its Windows Messenger successor: Office Communicator 2005. The new communications client, formerly known by its code-name Istanbul, integrates IM, voice, video, telephony and Web conferencing capabilities into a single interface and makes them accessible in Microsoft's Office applications.
• Firm intros Mac OSX Windows emulator - MSXINC has introduced an emulator called Cherry OS (thanks TheInquirer) which it claims allows you to run Mac OS X on a Windows XP operating systems. The $50 package comes with an installer which allows both CherryOS and OS X to be installed - and allows the use of a number of Mac applications including Safari and Apple Mail. The system requires a Pentium 4 1.6GHz CPU or equivalent, 512MB of memory, and 3GB of hard drive space, but doesn't come with OS X, which can be downloaded separately from the Apple site.
• NTL Broadband Upgrades Official Information -  It is now official to collaborate on NTL's upcoming broadband speed increases. The bandwidth assumptions were not 100% correct.  The correct info is:  -From 300k To 1MB [3GB Per Month] / - From 750k To 2MB [1GB Per Day] / -From 1.5MB To 3MB [1GB Per Day]. All the speed increases can still be confirmed as a free upgrade, all existing users will be upgraded as of 14th March 2005.
• Samsung Develops 7 Megapixel Camera Phone - Samsung Electronics has set the camera phone bar higher by developing the world's first 7-megapixel camera phone. The world's No. 3 handset maker announced Wednesday it is unveiling its new SCH-V770 phone at the 2005 CeBIT expo that runs in Hannover, Germany from March 10 to 16.
• Sony unveils cheap flash memory walkmans - Sony has unveiled a line up of cheap flash-memory based walkman digital audio devices in another attempt by the company to knock Apple Computers off the top of the digital player market. The devices will sell for as cheap as less than EURO100 ($132.2) and support the MP3 format. You can now get Sony devices that store 256MB, 512MB or 1GB of music.
• Samsung Shows 82-Inch LCD - Samsung Electronics has built what it says is the largest LCD panel yet made and will show it at this week's Cebit show in Hanover, Germany. The 82-inch widescreen LCD panel supports high-definition and was built on the new seventh generation production line at the factory of S-LCD in Tangjung, South Korea, the company says.

HARDWARE... 

• AMD announces mini-ITX motherboard - AMD has announced the availability of its Geode NX DB1500 development board and reference design. The board features an SIS 741CX north bridge coupled to a 964 south bridge in a miniscule mini-ITX form factor. The DB1500 will cost $599 per unit and is available now.
• Asetek makes Micro phase cooler  - The Inquirer has the goods on an interesting new phase change cooler from Asetek that will apparently sell for less than $40. The VapoChill Micro PCU cooler is filled with hermetically sealed gas/liquid captured in chambers and exploiting phase change cooling principles. The company claims it's much more efficient than the currently heavily used heatpipe cooler principle.
• HP IPAQ HX2410 Pocket PC - Even a Gamer needs mobility! The IPAQ hx2410 is one of HP's most recent models. It basically has all the bells and whistles that you'll ever need except for maybe a biometric fingerprint reader for enhanced security. I was trying to get my hands on the hx2750 but I couldn't find one so its younger sibling will be on trial.
• HP Pavilion ZE2000 Notebook - HotHardware.Com has posted a review of a value-priced notebook from Hewlett Packard, the ZE2000. The HP ZE2000, which is based on the Intel 855GME/ICH4-M Chipset for Pentium/Celeron-M processors, sports a 15" LCD and a great set of built-in Hardmon Kardon speakers.
• Sony VAIO VGN-S2HRP Notebook - This notebook delivers enough performance for work in office and multimedia applications as well as in 3D graphics processing suites and games (but not for the latest games which are sometimes too hard even for a serious desktop machine). With the numerous preinstalled programs the Sony VAIO VGN-S2HRP is ready to work right out of the package. You don't have to install any more programs.
• AMD Athlon64 3800+ Socket 939 64-bit CPU - The Socket 939 AMD Athlon64 3800+ that we've looked at today is clocked at a fast 2.4 GHz and built on AMD's trusty 0.13 micron manufacturing process. Compared to the older Socket 754 Athlon64 3200+ with its single channel memory controller, the Athlon64 3800+ only has half the L2 cache. However, AMD has now upgraded the memory controller with dual-channel DDR capabilities. By doing this, AMD not only increased performance, but saved manufacturing space and money as the actual silicon itself is now much smaller than before; 144mm2 vs. 193mm2.
• Intel's Pentium 4 660 Processor - The Pentium 4 660 runs at 3.6 GHz clock speed and sells for about $700. GamePC compared this processor against Intel's chief competitor in this price range, AMD's Athlon64 4000+ processor. they've also included benchmarks of both processors in today's Windows XP 32-bit and the upcoming Windows XP X64 Edition.
• Ultra 1024mb PC3200 XL Memory - Several low latency PC3200 (DDR400) memory kits are currently available running memory timings of 2-2-2-5. The tighter timings give you increased performance over standard memory at this same speed. The bonus of these memory kits is that as you relax the timings you are able to increase the overclocking ceiling of the RAM. Ultra goes so far with this as to have a table with speed and overclocks at selected timings and voltages up on their web site.
• Gigabyte K8NXP-SLI and 3D1 together - TweakTown take a look at the K8NXP-SLI motherboard based on nVidia's nForce4 SLI chipset along with the innovative Gigabyte 3D1 graphics card which places two GeForce 6600GT cores onto the single card which is able to produce some brilliant performance in current games. Another review can be found here.
• HIS ATI Radeon X800XL IceQII 256 Meg PCI Express Videocard - It looks great, it performs exceptionally well for a performance value solution and it has included cooling not even seen on more expensive x800/850XT alternatives. It didn't matter what I threw at it, even at the highest quality and 1280x1024 resolution, the card just toyed around with every benchmark and gaming scenario and taunted my to push it some more.
• ATI ALL-IN-WONDER X800 XT - Marrying the All-In-Wonder hardware with something as complex as the R420 reference design was never going to be easy but the end result is worth it. You get blistering 3D performance (almost as good as it's ever going to get on AGP) with the ability to tune TV, listen to the radio, timeshift and archive your favourite TV shows, capture video from your camcorder or games console and the ability feed audio back out to digital receivers, to name just a few of the cornerstone AIW features.
• Western Digital Raptor WD740 SATA Hard Drive - In this review, PCstats is testing out a pair of sleek 10,000 RPM Western Digital WD740 Raptors - "The first obvious conclusion is that 74GB WD740 Raptor is one fast drives. As we rather anticipated they would, the 10,000RPM Western Digital Raptor WD740s consistently out-paced the 7200RPM 80GB Seagate drives in almost every test. What was more impressive was that the WD740 Raptor drive was also quieter and didn't produce much more heat than the lower-RPM Seagate units."
• External Hard Drives from CoolMax, Maxtor and Seagate - All three manufacturers convincingly relieve users of the irksome task of making backups - even if the range of functions craves improvement. Maxtor and Seagate also provide automatic shutdown to go easy on the drive. A package consisting of the XtremeFiles and a hard drive of your choice, however, is generally cheaper.
• Asetek VapoChill XE II case - TrustedReviews has posted a review of the Asetek VapoChill XE II refrigerated case: "Although there were limitations to how far the test system could be pushed, close to 4GHz was not a problem. Using an MSI 925XE Neo Platinum motherboard and 1GB of PC5300 Crucial Ballistix memory I managed to push the system over 4GHz but it wasn't quite stable enough to run a full set of benchmarks."
• Arctic Cooling's Silentium T2 Case - The power supply included with the Silentium is definitely not a no-name brand. Arctic Cooling has incorporated a Seasonic SS-350ATC PSU into this case. The power supply is a 350W unit and includes active PFC, which is a feature many people will be happy to see. The amperages for each voltage rail as listed on the side of the PSU are as follows: +3.3V = 28A +5V = 30A +12V = 17A.
• A4 Tech Round-up - The package contains everything you need to use the mouse. You get the mouse, a specially designed mouse pad for this particular mouse, and, last but not least, the software media. What is so special about this mouse, you will ask. As you can see, it's got its own mouse pad, something that other computer mice cannot brag about it. But this takes us nowhere. So, what about the batteries, the charger? There isn't one. No, there is no trick about it.
• Microsoft Wireless Intellimouse Explorer 2.0 - GruntvillE.com has posted a review of Microsoft Wireless Intellimouse Explorer 2.0. "While the tracking wasn't quite up to par for fast-paced FPS games such as Unreal Tournament 2003/2004 like its wired brethren, it's larger size and overall layout was a definite plus in the comfort department. "
• Samsung SyncMaster 711t 17" LCD - It doesn't take long to fall in love with this display. Some features like the pivot technology are not going to be used by the majority of the home users. The overall quality and sharpness of the display alone make this display a must have. Combined that with features like Samsung's MagicTune and digital DVI in you have a awesome piece of equipment. But Samsung did not stop there. On top of all this throw in a 3 year manufacturer's warranty on parts, labor, and the backlight.
• Samsung SyncMaster 920T - The SyncMaster 920T is a solid performing monitor that would work great in any environment of computer use except the hardcore gamer. I found even after playing Half-Life 2 for an hour, after about the first five minutes, I was able to get used to the slight ghosting, and it did not bother me anymore. Another review can be found on GideonTech.
• Hewlett-Packard ScanJet 8200 Scanner - If you need a really high-performance office machine to digitize sheet originals you may want to consider Epson GT scanners. And if you intend to spend no more than $500 and have a good device with an option of scanning slides and film, Epson's top-model will suit you best. Hewlett-Packard has long lost its leading role in this market.
• Samsung CLP-550 series printers -  If you're an impatient person and need those prints ASAP, it may be time for you to get yourself either the CLP-550 or one of the CLP-510's, capable of 26 ppm. The one thing I'd like to see improved is the No-NOIS technology. To some they may think it is already dead silent, however I feel there is a bit of room for improvement. Perhaps a more silent means of feeding the paper into the printer will be more effective in reducing the noise. The clicking I heard during warm up and the noise the paper makes while being injected back into the printer during duplex printing or while being ejected out could be muffled.
  If you don't do much printing, ink cartridges for desktop inkjet printers tend to dry up and become useless; something that doesn't happen with toner.
• Casio Exilim Zoom EX-Z50 Digital Camera - The 7-point AF system is very quick, taking under half a second to lock on, and as a result there is virtually no shutter lag. Focusing also works extremely well in low light, especially impressive considering that there's no AF-assist illuminator on this model. The control layout is fairly conventional, with a recessed power switch on the top, the usual menu and display mode buttons, a zoom rocker that also controls playback magnification, and separate buttons for recording and playback mode.

.GUIDES... 

• WinXP Tweaking: Protecting your PC from the outside world - The guide looks at which programs you should use to protect your system from viruses and spyware along with which browsers and firewalls are best and what they do along with intelligent computing practices and basic Windows XP installation tips. If you're concerned about computer security as a new or average user, make sure you read on.
• Firefox Tweak Guide - The current guide is really just a placeholder until I compile and publish a comprehensive TweakGuides-style Firefox Tweak Guide, so stay tuned for the real deal soon.
• Exchange Server 2003 Security Hardening Guide (updated) - Updated February 2005. The download package for this guide includes important security templates. These templates were updated November 2004. This guide walks you through the process of hardening your Exchange 2003 environment, including configuration recommendations and strategies for combating external threats.
• Intel's Matrix RAID explored - Intel's Matrix RAID technology allows users to combine RAID 0 and 1 arrays with only two drives, promising mirrored redundancy for important data and striped performance for speedy access.
• Basics of RAID - Bigbruin.com has published a new article posted about RAID.
• HD-DVD and Blu-ray: Do you know the difference? - These two formats are heralded as the successor to the current DVD technology. Blu-ray and HD-DVD have both been developed to enable recording, playback and rewriting of high definition video and data. The key to these technologies is the blue-violet laser that is used to write the data to the disc. This blue laser has a much shorter wavelength than the current red laser DVD system, which makes it possible to read and write smaller pits, as a result, these discs can hold up to 15 GB (HD-DVD) and 25 GB (Blu-ray) of data on a single sided single layer 12cm disc.

SOFTWARE...

• Update for Outlook 2003 Junk Email Filter (KB892236) - This optional update provides the Junk E-mail Filter in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 with a more current definition of which e-mail messages should be considered junk e-mail. This update was released in March 2005.
• Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool v1.2 (KB890830) - The Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool (homepage) checks Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows Server 2003 computers for and helps remove infections by specific, prevalent malicious software-including Blaster, Sasser, and Mydoom. When the detection and removal process is complete, the tool displays a report describing the outcome, including which, if any, malicious software was detected and removed. The tool creates a log file named mrt.log in the %WINDIR%debug folder.
• NVSG 1.0.11.4 - The NVIDIA Scene Graph Software Development Kit (NVSG SDK) is an object-oriented programming library for creating scene graph-based applications.
• CherryOS 1.0.1 Trial - With CherryOS (download trial), a G4 Emulator,  you can install Panther, Apple's award-winning operating system, onto your PC. In addition, you will be able to use many of the day-to-day applications such as Safari and Apple's Mail. Perfect for learning a new environment, expanding your PC's capabilities or finalizing your purchase decision.
• BitTorrent 4.0 - Bram Cohen's official BitTorrent client has been upgraded to version 4.
• eXeem 0.22 Public Beta - eXeem (download) is a brand new Peer-To-Peer program, which is based on the BitTorrent idea. eXeem eliminates the need for trackers as nodes in the program will be taking their role. eXeem also features easy publication of files to the network as well as a rating and comments system.
• The GIMP 2.2.4 - The GIMP (GNU/Image Manipulation Program) is a very nice graphics manipulation application that works on many operating systems, in many languages, on many file formats and is used for a variety of computer imagery purposes.
• StraightMARK 2005 v1.2.1 - The software simply examines your processor in a variety of different tests, and then outputs the findings to a text file and a graphical HTML file. The text file merely gives you the number results of your processor, but the HTML file shows you several understandable graphs comparing your processor to others on the market - both new and old.
• Forceware 71.84 64-bit WHQL - The drivers are dated the 24rd of February 2005 and are the first WHQL release for the 64-bit platforms. As they are not an official (posted by Leadtek though) release they should be treated with the same care that you should maintain when using all beta software.