SECURITY...

• Bagle Is Still Biting - McAfee's Antivirus Emergency Response Team spotted its first sample of Bagle.bb, one of the new variants, at 11:30 p.m. Thursday Pacific Coast Time. Since then, the company has received about 200 reports of the virus and intercepted two more variants, dubbed Bagle.bc and Bagle.bd, according to Vincent Gullotto, vice president of McAfee AVERT.  McAfee rates Bagle.bb and Bagle.bd "medium" threats, based on the number of submissions they received for each, Gullotto said. The new variants are almost identical to each other, but use slightly different versions of a compression program, known as a packer, to shrink the size of the virus, creating a different profile or "signature" that can fool some antivirus programs, he said. Another article can be found at CNET. (download Win32/Bagle cleaner)
• Security hole found in Google Gmail, claim - So you've got a Gmail mail account? Or maybe you've just received an invitation? Well, we have some bad news for you: Your mail box is exposed. A major security hole in Google's mail service, allows full access to user accounts, without the need of a password.
• PuTTY Buffer Overflow Vulnerability (SSH2_MSG_DEBUG) - The vulnerability specifically exists due to insufficient bounds checking on SSH2_MSG_DEBUG packets. The 'stringlen' parameter is given a user-supplied value by reading in an integer from an offset in the packet data. The 'stringlen' value is incorrectly checked due to signedness issues as seen below.
• Bulgarian allegedly fakes Bill Gates' credit card - A 22 year old Bulgarian student has been financing his education by making a fake credit card in the name of Microsoft supremo Bill Gates, it is alleged. According to Bulgarian Interior Chief Secretary, General Lieutenant Boyko Borissov, the student was arrested as part of a "swoop" on an international crime gang, dealing in counterfeit driving licences, passports and "Euro" banknotes.  Bulgarian officers allege the youth, named only as 'Alexey K' produced fake credit cards and played a key role in the ring. Another story can be found here.
• Microsoft Just Wants a Little Look - Do you want to let Microsoft check if your copy of Windows is legit? How about if they promise it's anonymous? How about if they give you some free stuff?

TECHNOLOGY...

• The internet turns 35 -  Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles are celebrating the anniversary of the first message sent over what would eventually become the internet.
• High-Tech Japan Aims to Stop Counterfeit Banknotes - Holograms and kaleidoscopes of shimmering colors will be part of Japan's latest hi-tech response to the growing number of banknote counterfeiting cases troubling authorities. New banknotes will go into circulation on Monday with sophisticated security features and new designs as the central bank hopes to reverse a 25-fold rise in the number of forged notes discovered in the country in the past five years.
• Retailers still not prepared for Chip and PIN - Thousands of retailers are calling for more time to adopt Chip and PIN guidelines, despite an extensive campaign by the government to boost awareness, a new report claims. Although many small businesses have already adopted the new technology, recent research shoes that around half of retailers are doubtful they will make the 1 January 2005 deadline. The system will replace signitures with a four-digit PIN number as the main way of proving customers' identities.
• P2P Not Dead, Just Hiding - Contrary to media reports, P2P is not dying (PDF); it's just becoming harder to detect. In a paper for CAIDA, the Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis, researchers present evidence that the supposed decline in P2P traffic is actually due to a decline in easy-to-track protocols as those that change port numbers on a regular basis become more popular. (thanks Slashdot.org)
• Super-tough coating for cellphones and discs - The colour LCD screens on cellphones and PDAs can get badly scratched in pockets stuffed with loose change and keys. And CDs and DVDs become unplayable in no time when children use them as indoor frisbees. Now a tough, transparent polymer coating developed by chemists in Japan is set to make scratched phone screens and scuffed discs a thing of the past.

HARDWARE...

• ASUS Proclaims 3DMark05 World's Record - ASUSTeK Computer said its upcoming mainboard based on NVIDIA's nForce4 SLI along with NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra graphics cards and AMD Athlon 64 FX-55 processor had scored scored 10 118 points in 3DMark05.
• Nvidia's sneaky little secret unsnarfed - NVIDIA has a little secret it doesn't want to get out about the SLI bridge. It seems the current bridge, you can see it in the pics of the Alienware machines that were launched the other day, and the Boxx ones launched months ago, probably isn't the one you will end up getting. The little PCB is a rigid link between the two boards, and that doesn't play very well.
• The GeForce 6800's Video Processor is Broken - If you already didn't know, but Nvidia's GeForce 6800 AGP series of Card's may have had almost all video acceleration in hardware disabled by an internal flaw.
• Intel to debut new Itaniums Nov. 8 - Intel's newest top-line Itanium 2 processor is due to arrive Nov. 8, according to sources familiar with the plans. The processor, an upgraded member of the Madison line, boosts high-speed cache memory from 6MB to 9MB--thus its nickname: Madison 9M. In addition, Intel is expected to update the rest of its Itanium 2 family, adding a lower-end model for dual-processor servers and a low-voltage model for servers that are packed densely together.
• MSI launches nForce 4-based K8N motherboards - Micro-Star International (MSI) has launched two Nvidia nForce4-based motherboards, the K8N Diamond and K8N Neo 4 Platinum, for the Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Athlon 64 processor platform, according to a company press release.
• Intel 915 - DDR or DDR2??? - The purpose with this review is not to compare the particular two Intel motherboards, but to use them just to show the difference between the performance provided by Intel 915G/P chipset using DDR and DDR2 memory.
• Inno3D GeForce 6600 review -  For those users that wanting to get a new video card in their PCI-Express motherboard this might be something to consider. It is a next-generation card with support for the new PCI-Express connector. For these price you only get the card and not much else, not many people like getting a plain card with not much else included. If you are strapped for cash and still need the next generation video card this is something for you. If you have a little bit more to spend, there are other cards out there that have some more extras included for a little higher price.
• ASUS DRW-1604P Dual Layer DVD+/- R/RW review - This drive sports a very complete list of features, including the ability to burn DVD+R and -R discs at 16X speeds and burn dual-layer discs at 4X speeds..
• Desktop Logitech LX: Comfort and Style - Where cordless operation is concerned, gamers are the main holdbacks - they continue to believe firmly that latency time is not as good as with a corded mouse or keyboard. To address this, for its LX series, Logitech uses a technology called Fast RF. It uses the same frequency band as other wireless peripherals, 27 MHz, but takes full advantage of the bandwidth available at that frequency. This means that twice the amount of data can be sent, which means that coordinates can be refreshed twice as quickly.
• Saitek PZ09A Notebook Subwoofer review - The device itself is the size of a CD in diameter (image) but it stands about 4cm tall and looks like a classic flying saucer the kind you see in 50's Sci-Fi movies. The colour scheme is a mix of silver and blue with a lighter blue cover over the top mounted speaker - but Saitek seems to have forgotten to fit blue LEDs for a full UFO effect.
• LG Flatron L1730P review - As for the rest of the connectivity options, LG has squeezed in both a D-SUB and a DVI-D port for the price, along with both cable types. And, with a dedicated signal source button nestled within the rest of the vertically mounted OSD controls, one can easily switch between these signals. The L1730P does lack speakers, but to be honest that’s no great loss as the majority of those fitted to LCDs are embarrassingly weak.
• Camcorders-Reality DV -  Even with a budget below $500, don't compromise on camcorder video quality-you don't have to. These reviews of 17 models under $1,000 prove it.

SOFTWARE...

• Swapfile Optimization Guide Rev. 4.0 Part 1 - Adrian's Rojak Pot has posted Part 1 of his definitive Swapfile Optimization Guide Rev. 4.0
• OpenBSD 3.6 Final - The OpenBSD project (download) produces a FREE, multi-platform 4.4BSD-based UNIX-like operating system.
• Apache 1.3.33 - The Apache Foundry has released a new version of their 1.3.x HTTPD servers (download)
• Win32/Bagle cleaner - download
• McAfee AVERT Stinger 2.4.3 - Stinger is a stand-alone utility used to detect and remove specific viruses. It is not a substitute for full anti-virus protection, but rather a tool to assist administrators and users when dealing with an infected system. Stinger utilizes next generation scan engine technology, including process scanning, digitally signed DAT files, and scan performance optimization.
• Sygate Personal Firewall Free 5.6.2808 - Sygate Personal Firewall is more than an advanced, user-friendly personal firewall, it's a bi-directional intrusion defense system.
• OpenGL Extension Viewer 2.13 - This program displays the vendor name, the version implemented, the renderer name and the extensions of the current OpenGL 3D accelerator. This new version adds an Extension Verification Utility which allows you to verify the entry points for the extensions supported and reports problems like entry points missing but extension appeared to be supported, or functions found but extension string is missing.
• OCZ Memtest86 v1.00 - The OCZMemtest86 v1.00 has been built onto the core of the newly-released Memtest86+ v1.27 memory test package. OCZ Memtest86 v1.00 contains enhanced feature sets, a comprehensive support platform fully compatible with both the latest and old-generation chipsets as well as providing many unique options.
• Intel Desktop Control Center 1.3.0.63 - Intel Desktop Control Center (download) enables you to perform stress tests to verify system stability and to conduct performance testing to measure the impact of system configuration changes. The easy-to-read system gauges provide feedback so you can observe the effects of various system modifications in real-time.
• Catalyst 4.10 for Windows 98/ME - ATi have released Catalyst 4.10 for Windows 98/ME.
• ForceWare 66.77 Media Center WHQL - This is ForceWare 66.77 (NVIDIA FTP) for Windows 2000/XP which has been WHQL certified (Microsoft tested and approved). The WHQL stamp is only for GeForce 6 series GPUs as the release highlights state, we're not sure about the FX series. These drivers are intended for (as release notes state) Windows XP Media Center Edition. They should work just fine on XP though.
• Lite-On CD-RW Firmware - LiteOn have released some new DVD Dual and CD-RW firmware updates for the following drives: Lite-On SOHW-1633S, Lite-On SOHW-832S, Lite-On SOHW-1633SX, Lite-On SOHW-832SX, Lite-On LTN-529S, Lite-On SOHD-167T, Lite-On SOHC-5232K, Lite-On LTC-48161H, Lite-On SOHC-5232KX.