SECURITY...

• Microsoft Preps Five Windows Patches - In an advance notice, the software giant said the maximum severity rating for the five updates is "important." Some of the security updates may require a restart. The next batch of patches is due Tuesday, Dec. 14.
• Playgirl virus peels off political payload - An email virus disguised as a nude picture of a glamour model has been intercepted by security experts. The Maslan-C worm (W32/Maslan-C) spreads via email with the subject line "123" and carries an attached file called 'Playgirls2.exe'. It is designed to launch a series of denial-of-service (DoS) attacks on websites run by Chechen rebel separatists.
• One in five buy their software via spam - The BSA claimed that over one in five British people buy their software via spam. It bases that on a survey conducted by Forrester Research. According to the BSA, "many online consumers don't consider the true motives of spammers. In addition to profiting from selling goods and services... organised crime rings use spam to gain access to personal information".
• DirecTV hacker sentenced to seven years - A Canadian man was sentenced to seven years in a US prison this week after admitting he led a sophisticated satellite TV piracy ring that produced and sold thousands of hacked smart cards in the US and Canada. Martin Mullen, 50, was also ordered to pay DirecTV and its smart card provider NDS Ltd. $24m in restitution. Mullen pled guilty in a federal court in Tampa, Florida last September to conspiracy to violate anti-piracy laws, and to entering the US illegally after being deported on an unrelated matter years earlier.
• Microsoft replaces pirated versions of XP for free (?) - In an effort to catch mass pirates in the UK Microsoft has set up an interesing measure: the Windows XP Counterfeit Project. Anyone who is unsure of the legitimacy of their Windows XP software may submit their product to Microsoft Ltd for analysis. Software that is found to be counterfeit will be replaced according to the terms and conditions of the offer. The Windows XP Counterfeit Project will run until 31 December 2004 and is the latest initiative from Microsoft Ltd to target the illegal software market. The project will allow Microsoft Ltd to collate intelligence quickly and work with the authorities to act decisively against illegal traders.
• In-game buffer-overflow in the Gamespy cd-key validation SDK - In fact the problem is a buffer-overflow caused by a too long response string sent by the client to the server, so a game is not vulnerable "only" if its developers have inserted a limitation in the length of the string received from the client (but I doubt that someone did it).
• HOW TO BREAK XP SP2 POPUP BLOCKER: kick it in the nut - Internet Explorer 6 on the gadget commonly known as Windows XP SP2 enjoys a fairly robust "popup blocker". This little 'thing' has been a major irritation to date. Nothing gets past it until now. Chatter exists that some sites have defeated it on the causal default setting.
• Apple Web hole still open - Apple has still not properly fixed the HFS+ filesystem named fork vulnerability discovered last week, according to the company that first noticed it, NetSec. The fix put out by the company at the end of last week will only address the security flaw for OS X systems running the Apache web server which is shipped by default. Customers using other web servers such as 4D WebSTAR remain vulnerable the managed security specialist has claimed.
• IM Glitch Blocks as Many as 10,000 - An America Online Inc. error that began locking out users of its instant-messaging service earlier this week affected no more than 10,000 accounts, the company said Friday. The company continued to scramble to restore the AOL Instant Messenger accounts by Monday, and an AOL spokeswoman told eWEEK.com that the fix would include reinstating access to IM data such as buddy lists for blocked users.

OFF-TOPIC...

• Laptop Use Can Damage Male Fertility - Researchers at the State University of New York at Stony Brook showed that prolonged laptop use heated men's testicles on the order of 5 degrees Fahrenheit, within the 1.8 degree to 5.2 degree range found to impair the production of male sperm. The test sample was relatively small - 29 people, according to reports - and the test subjects used an undisclosed Pentium 4-based laptop for an entire hour.
• Doctor Offers Assurances That Astronauts Won't Go Hungry - Cutting calories in space is more about sorting food packets than eating a little less and saving the rest for later. In space, there are no leftovers. On Thursday, NASA officials asked the two astronauts aboard the International Space Station to stretch their food supplies until a cargo ship arrives in a couple of weeks with fresh groceries. But this does not mean strict dieting or listening to the rumble of hungry stomachs, a NASA doctor said Friday. The astronauts can eat less and still be well within the margins of nutritional adequacy," the doctor, Sean K. Roden, the astronauts' flight surgeon, said in a telephone interview from the Johnson Space Center in Houston. "They still have plenty to eat."
• War of the Worlds trailer is upon us - The Spielberg (The Director with no first name) remake that is The War of the Worlds is coming soon, and the trailer has arrived, and an anti climax it certainly is, for me at least.

TECHNOLOGY...

• Google offers a suggestion - Google Suggest quietly debuted this week on the company's Labs site, which showcases Google features that "aren't quite ready for prime time," according to a message on the site. When a user starts typing a request into the search box, a drop-down menu appears with possible suggestions as to what the user could be looking for. For instance, typing in "Mi" generates a list starting with "Microsoft" and continuing with "miniclip," "Michael Moore" and "miserable failure," among other suggestions. Google uses "a wide range of information" to predict queries, according to an FAQ, including data about the overall popularity of various searches. The company does not use individual search histories to help generate the prompts, it says
• Paypal and iTunes link-up - Online payment system Paypal can now be used for purchases by US customers of Apple's iTunes music store. Until now, iTunes accepted credit cards, gift certificates and account balances as forms of payment.
• New file system has long road to Windows - Although Microsoft hopes to ship a test version of WinFS in late 2006, it could be several more years before the revamped storage mechanism finds its way into Windows Server. The software maker has already decided that WinFS will ship separately from Longhorn, the new desktop version of Windows that is due in 2006. On Friday, Windows Server Chief Bob Muglia said that WinFS will also not be a part of the server version of Longhorn that ships in 2007.
• Microsoft Readies Windows Server 2003 Update - Windows Server 2003 R2 is an interim release of Windows Server built on top of Windows Server 2003 SP1. It will include most of the feature packs Microsoft released since the initial Windows Server 2003 release in 2003, including Active Directory Application Mode, Windows SharePoint Services, and Automated Deployment Services. This first beta test is scheduled to start this month, but will be limited to about 1000 specially selected testers, a Microsoft spokesperson says. A second, public beta is planned for the first half of next year, she says.
• Teeny Module Runs New '.NET Embedded' Software Stack - A mall startup in Microsoft Corp.'s backyard is poised to begin shipping a tiny, 32-pin chip-like computer module that runs ".NET Embedded," a new Microsoft embedded software platform developed for use in watches and other "smart personal objects."

HARDWARE...

• AMD Quietly Releases New Opterons - The 90nm version of the Opteron and Athlon 64 processors will consume 67 watts of power under maximum operating conditions, AMD said during a presentation to financial analysts at a conference sponsored by Lehman Brothers Holdings. The 130nm Opterons consume 89 watts of power under maximum operating conditions.
• ATI Plots to drop X700XT - Yep - the strategy seems to be to replace its X700XT - a competitor to NVIDIA's well received GeForce 6600GT - with a 12-pipeline RADEON X800 (possibly a RADEON X800 XL variant) featuring a 400MHz GPU core and 500MHz memory clocks, and ship it at an aggressive price-point, thereby enabling its AIB partners - such as Connect3D and GeCUBE - to supply to the channel at $249 or, probably, much less.
• MSI's nForce4 SLI board has Creative Audio - The upcoming MSI nForce4 Diamond mothebroard will feature a Creative chip for 7.1 channel onboard audio. What we know right now is that its labelled "Creative Sound Blaster Live! with 24-bit/96KHz audio quality, up to 100dB SNR and Doly Digital Ready.
• Philips 755 Tri-band Mobile Phone - While the Philips 755 certainly did not impress us much, we still want to applaud Philips for conceiving and implementing features like graffiti scribbling and interface navigation via a stylus. These are indeed cool features to have and we strongly believe Philips will have an excellent successor to the 755 if they can get their act together to improve on the few complaints we have with the 755.
• The Apple iMac G5 – the World's Flattest Small Form Factor PC? - So, assuming you're not a hardcore gamer and you aren't worried about the limited upgrade options with an all-in-one machine, the last remaining issue most have with an Apple computer is its price. Apple has a reputation for being expensive compared with its PC competitors and at first sight this remains true of the new iMac. At $1300 for the basic 17" model and $1900 for the 20" model, (or $1200 and $1800 with educational discount) many argue that you could get hell of a lot of PC for the same money. It's perhaps not so simple and there are various counter arguments to this claim
• Five AMD Athlon 64 Models – Which One to Choose? - The chaps over at Digit-Life have tested how the speed in various applications depends on frequency, L2 cache capacity, and memory controller by the example of AMD K8 series processors.
• Kingston HyperX 1 GB KHX3200UL DDR review - Controlled-Insanity has posted a review of Kingston HyperX 1 GB KHX3200UL DDR memory.
• Micron Rev5B "C" Memory Module review  - Adrian's Rojak Pot has posted a review of Micron Rev5B "C" Memory Module.
• eVGA e-GeForce 6600 GT 128 MB DDR3 PCI-E Video Card w/ HDTV Support (video-review) - This particular product comes standard with 128MB of DDR3, 2ns memory. The default core speed is 500MHz and the memory speed is 1GHz. While these are high default speeds, the core and memory can be overclocked even higher for added performance. Also, an included adapter enables easy hookup of S-Video, Composite and Component Video out.
• XFX 6600GT 128Mb AGP 8x Video Card - What was interesting to see with XFX's AGP 8x model was that the memory is clocked higher than other manufacturer's GT models. A lot of GT models from other manufacturers are clocked 500Mhz core and 450Mhz memory(900Mhz DDR). The XFX comes stock 500Mhz core and 500Mhz memory(1000Mhz DDR).
• Seagate Momentus 5400.2 2.5” Hard Disk Drive review - The ST9100823A supports the UltraATA/100 interface, can sustain an operational shock of 250 Gs for 2 milliseconds and a non-operational shock of 900 Gs for 1 millisecond. The acoustic characteristics of the drive can be considered good: the sound pressure level is 2.9 bels in the performance seek mode, 2.6 bels in the quiet seek mode, and 2.4 bels in the idle mode
• Two DVD Drives from LG and Samsung - The LG GDR-8163B has a slightly higher declared CD read speed, but it was not always better than its opponent in this parameter on all media types. It is, however, very fast with Audio CDs. The drive features an efficient C2 error correction mechanism and thus can successfully handle damaged media. The Samsung TS-H352 has a slightly lower declared CD read speed, but would sometimes outperform its rival in the tests. It offers a better performance with CD media overall. Undeclared by the manufacturer, the ability of this drive to support DVD+R/RW media was revealed during the tests.
• Ultra 500W Titanium ATX PSU review - The Ultra 500W Titanium ATX Power Supply may not have a modular cabling system, or flashy fans or windows, or even sleeved cabling for the most part, but it does have an excellent titanium mirror finish and good performance. Voltages are pretty much spot on, its quiet and bottom line it does its job.
• Ultra Products 600W ATX PSU (ULT31638) review - Already known for their award winning X-Connect line of power supplies, Ultra Products follows up with a brand new 600W power supply to deal with the power demand of today’s high end components. Let's find out if this new power supply can live up to the reputation the X-Connect has already made for Ultra
• Thermaltake 350W PurePower Fanless PSU review - OCModShop has posted a review of Thermaltake 350w PurePower Fanless PSU.
• Zalman CNPS7700-AlCu Heatsink review - PimpRig takes a look at the Zalman CNPS7700-AlCu Heatsink.
• ATake Laser LED review - It seems everybody is trying to add a little extra flash to their case. This is usually done by adding cold cathode light tubes, and fans with LEDs. These tend to light up the entire case very well. Wisetech's ATake brand of Laser LED lights help you achieve a unique look by lighting up only a section, or putting a spotlight on a specific component, instead of lighting up the entire case.
• A.C. Ryan Mod Roundup - Viper Lair has posted an A.C. Ryan Mod Roundup
• A4 Tech Wireless Battery Free Optical & Easy Go Mice review - No Battery is because the Wireless mouse is working in tandem with a mouse pad supplied which is power by USB connection. Using Cross Induction Power and RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) the mouse is energized, and communicates at 121-128 KHz. Induction associates with magnetic field. it is recommended that the mouse pad to be kept a distance of 20 cm or about 8" from any CRT; the same reason it is advised not to use the pad on steel surface or an inch (20-50mm) thick book of some sort placed beneath the pad.

GUIDES...

• Securing Wireless LANs with Certificate Services - The Securing Wireless LANs solution provides Planning, Implementation, Operations and Test guides, as well as additional resources including installation scripts, security templates, monitoring scripts and implementation planning resources.
• Microsoft Office XP to Microsoft Office 2003 Migration Issues - This document discusses the possible problem areas administrators might encounter when moving from Office XP to Office 2003.
• Basic System Buyer's Guide - Holiday Season 2004 - Mikhailtech has posted a Basic System Buyer's Guide.

SOFTWARE...

• Xandros Desktop OS 3 Deluxe Edition review - With the release of version 3, the Xandros folks have finally come up with a full-blown replacement for Windows on the desktop. New stuff in this release includes a VPN wizard, a firewall wizard, encrypted home folders, DVD burning, and a number of other goodies.
• Dragon Naturally Speaking gets close to perfection  - The software comes with a headset which includes a microphone and earphone, and integrates with Windows software. Amongst its features is a dictionary of 300,000 words, and the ability to surf the web using voice, and use other voice commands to control a computer. I watched the ability of a first time computer user to come to terms with the software.
• HOC Half-Life 2 Benchmark v1.1 - This is a new program that allows you to benchmark your system with today's most popular FPS-game, Half-Life 2. The program does not modify any registry-entries or configuration files, so it is completely safe to use. It contains 5 built in demos; you can set filtering methods, resolutions and much much more. In order to use HardwareOC Half-Life 2 Benchmark, you need an ORIGINAL CD or DVD and a working Steam-account
• Half-Life 2 Enhancer 1.0 - A nice tool for Half-Life 2 with the following features: Special scripts and fixes,Apply Bullettime mode with "t" key,  Apply elevator fix with "v" key, Disable auto-save feature, Enable cheats and unlock all chapters, Fix A.I. Disable, Fix sound stuttering problem, Force enable console (Shift+~), Improve graphic or game performance scripts, Change game language, Run game with launcher wizard and Setup data transfer rate.
• Kyodai Mahjonng 20.00 Beta 1 - Kyodai Mahjongg (download) is a great version of the famous Mahjongg Solitaire (or Shanghai) oriental game. The purpose of the game is to remove all the tiles from a board. The tiles must be removed by pairs. They have to be free on their left or right side, otherwise you can't remove them. The rules are simple and the game is extremely addictive.
• Excel Viewer 2003 - With Excel Viewer 2003, you can open, view, and print Excel workbooks, even if you don't have Excel installed. You can also copy data from Excel Viewer 2003 to another program. However, you cannot edit data, save a workbook, or create a new workbook. This download is a replacement for Excel Viewer 97 and all previous Excel Viewer versions.
• Gmail Notifier 1.0.24.0 - The Gmail Notifier (download) is a downloadable Windows application that alerts you when you have new Gmail messages. It displays an icon in your system tray to let you know if you have unread Gmail messages, and shows you their subjects, senders and snippets, all without having to open a web browser.
• Crap Cleaner 1.16.082 Final - CCleaner (Crap Cleaner) is a freeware system optimisation tool. That removes unused and temporary files from your system - allowing it to run faster, more efficiently and giving you more hard disk space.
• ACDSee 7.0 Build 61 (shw) - ACDSee digital photo software (download) makes it easy to import, view, organize, print, enhance, share and archive your digital photos.
• Fraps 2.5.0 (shw) - Fraps (download) is a utility for DirectX and OpenGL games. It can best be described as: Benchmarking software - see framerates on screen and log them to file. Calculate the average framerate between any two points.
• CloneCD v5.0.4.5 - SlySoft has today released a new CloneCD version 5.0.4.5. According to the changelog there have been no major changes other than support for 4.85GB DVDR media.
• WinPatrol 8.1.20 - WinPatrol (download) uses a heuristic approach to detecting attacks and violations of your computing environment. Unlike traditional security programs, WinPatrol doesn't scan your hard drive searching for previously identified threats.
• AVG Free Edition 7.0.296 Build 409  - AVG AntiVirus offers maximum virus protection, product customization, and free virus database updates and technical support. The core of the testing engine is a Virtual Device Driver which loads into memory on Windows startup.
• MemTest 3.0 - MemTest (download) is a RAM reliability tester. It evaluates the ability of your computer's memory to store and retrieve data. A correctly functioning computer should be able to do both these tasks with 100% accuracy day in and day out. By running MemTest, you can ensure that your computer's RAM is correctly functioning. You can assign a number of megabytes to test.
• SONY DRU-700A/700UL firmware - SONY has released VY08 firmware update (download official ~ nonofficial unscrambled) for the DRU-700A/700UL. Word is: "Supports a total of 222 DVD media codes, up from 214 in VY06, including support for MCC004".
• ATi Catalsyt 4.11 (8.072) WHQL - A newer set of Catalyst driver was found on the web by station drivers. It's based on version 4.11 WHQL (6.14.10.6490) with control panel 6.14.10.5131 for Windows XP/2000! Dated 24/11/2004. All cards are supported including the new RADEON X850 Series. Although WHQL these drivers need to be threated as BETA.
• Volari 1.10 WHQL Driver - VolariGamers has a new set of drivers available for the Volari V3 graphics cards.