Thursday Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 01:59 AM CEST - Jun,24 2005
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SECURITY...
- MSN Hotmail Adds Safety E-Alerts for E-Mail Authentication -
Microsoft deployed Sender ID e-mail authentication alerts via a new
"safety bar" in the Hotmail user interface to further protect e-mail users
from malicious spam and scams.
- Microsoft starts pushing AntiSpyware updates to some - If you
are running the Microsoft Antispyware Beta software to fight against trojan
and spyware programs you probably know that
the first version will expire 31 July 2005. "This morning I was surprised
to see a notification on my desktop informing of an updated version being
available. I immediately downloaded this update and installed. The new version
is Microsoft AntiSpyware 1.0.613 and it
now expires in 31 December 2005. The latest spyware definition file
available is version 5727."
- Microsoft's anti-piracy program cracked -
An
Indian researcher has breached the much-touted "impenetrable" Windows Genuine
Advantage of Microsoft. Bangalore-based Debasis Mohanty has cracked WGA
through an "easy-to-exploit" weakness in the software for generating illegal
copies of the Windows XP programme. Mohanty has posted a detailed
proof-of-concept programme on the high-profile security mailing list of the
software giant, showing how the WGA validation check can be tricked to
generate key codes for use on illegal copies of the software.
- Mass TCP Port Attack Could Be Imminent, Analyst Warns - Researchers
at Symantec Corp.'s DeepSight Network have
detected a surge in scans on Port 445, an indication that malicious
hackers may have already created exploits for a flaw in Microsoft Corp.'s
implementation of the SMB (Server Message Block) protocol. In Windows 2000,
Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, Microsoft uses TCP Port 445 to run SMB
directly over TCP/IP to handle the sharing of files, printers, serial ports,
and also to communicate between computers. The vulnerability, which was rated
"critical," was patched one week ago in
Microsoft's MS05-027 bulletin, and the increased noise on that port could
be the first sign that a password brute force attack is imminent, Symantec
DeepSight warned.
- Spoofing Flaw Haunts IE, Firefox, Safari (updated) -
A newly discovered flaw in all the major Web browsers could allow Internet
scammers to successfully launch phishing attacks, according to a warning from
security research outfit Secunia Inc. The vulnerability, confirmed on
fully patched versions of Microsoft Corp.'s dominant Internet Explorer
browser, can be exploited by malicious hackers to trick surfers into
disclosing confidential information, including credit card and social security
numbers. The only two browsers in which the flaw has now been fixed are
Opera version 8.01 and the iCab version 3.0.
- Veritas Patches Flaws in Enterprise Data Backup Products -
Multiple security flaws in Veritas Software Inc.'s Backup Exec data storage
product could put users at risk of privilege escalation and denial-of-service
attacks, the company confirmed Thursday. Affected products include Veritas
Backup Exec 9.x and 10.x, Veritas said in
an
advisory.
- Microsoft Tool Blocks Windows Server Update - As it did with
Windows XP Service Pack 2, Microsoft is offering businesses
a tool to block their machines from being automatically upgraded to Windows
Server 2003 Service Pack 1. The software tool, available from Microsoft's
Web site, will block the software upgrade until March 30.
- Bank details sold in call centre scam -
City of London police are investigating claims that an Indian call centre
worker sold personal information on 1,000 UK bank accounts for L4.25 each. The
worker told an undercover journalist from The Sun that he could copy more than
200,000 customer accounts a month, containing passwords, addresses, phone
numbers and passport details.
- Microsoft sues German firm over spam -
Microsoft has launched a case against a German man believed to be the
linchpin of a spam gang. The software maker's legal complaint was lodged
against an unnamed company in the North Rhine-Westphalia region of Germany and
its managing director, according to
a statement (in German) on the Microsoft Germany Web site. Microsoft
alleges that the company sent out millions of spam e-mail messages advertising
Web site design services, online casinos and pornography.
- AT&T Plans CNN-style Security Channel -
Security experts at AT&T are about to take a page from CNN's playbook.
Within the next year they will begin delivering a video streaming service that
will carry Internet security news 24 hours a day, seven days a week, according
to the executive in charge of AT&T Labs.
- Pentagon Creating A Database Of Students - The Defense Department
began working yesterday with a private marketing firm
to create a database of high school students ages 16 to 18 and all college
students to help the military identify potential recruits in a time of
dwindling enlistment in some branches. The program is provoking a furor among
privacy advocates. The new database will include personal information
including birth dates, Social Security numbers, e-mail addresses, grade-point
averages, ethnicity and what subjects the students are studying.
- Yahoo! Shuts Chat Rooms After Sex Allegations -
The Yahoo!
website portal has discontinued user-created chat rooms after a news
report in Houston revealed that some of the chat rooms were being used to lure
minors into having sex with adults.
OFFTOPIC...
- Bionic' Arm Brings Back Sense of Touch - Two way communication with
prosthetic devices
allows man who lost both arms in an accident to feel hot and cold, to sense
objects and to actually move the prosthetic device to pick things up and
put them down.
- Robot guards for shops and offices -
The 109-cm tall robot will alert human guards via radio and by sending
camera footage if it detects intruders, fires or even water leaks.
- Will Cell Phone Video Be A 'Wireless Babysitter?' -
Streaming video on cell phones could become a babysitter, helping parents
keep kids content while they're traveling, a researcher predicts.
- Jennifer Aniston resides in everyone's brain :- - Researchers
at the the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena have found that
single neurons in people's brains react to the faces of specific people.
- Free downloads of Beethoven receive over 600,000 requests - Live
performances of Beethoven's first five symphonies, broadcast as part of The
Beethoven Experience on BBC Radio 3, have amassed
an
incredible 657,399 download requests during a week long trial..
- MPAA accused of slander -
A company raided by
entertainment cartel pseudo-cops and accused of being an "illegal DVD/CD
replicating plant" vehemently denies the charge. "False allegations" have
"slandered our name and reputation and damaged the business that my husband
and I spent 14 years to build," says Jennifer Yu, owner of New Century Media.
TECHNOLOGY...
- Intel-Based Macs May Run Windows - Apple's decision to abandon IBM
PowerPC chips in favor of processors from Intel
raises the possibility of new, affordable Apple computers that could boot both
Mac OS X and Windows. "Apple will not do anything to prevent it," says
Michael Gartenberg, vice president and research director with Jupiter Research
in New York. But if you're hoping to load Mac OS X on an existing Windows PC,
though, you'll be disappointed.
- Longhorn Preview -
PCWorld tested the 64-bit version of the latest code released to
developers (Longhorn build 5048) and have also viewed demonstrations of a
subsequent build. The first beta version of the operating system is due for
release
- Company offers workaround for Sony's CD copy protection -
A simple mechanical way for Windows users to defeat SunnComm's MediaMaxx copy
protection scheme, used widely in audio CDs produced by Sony BMG, is being
offered on request via e-mail by SunnComm itself, the company's vice president
of marketing and sales, Scott Stoegbauer, told Tom's Hardware Guide today.
The scheme was developed by SunnComm through its MediaMaxx division in order
to prevent listeners on Windows-based PCs from easily making copies of audio
CD-based music as MP3 files. Other software currently produced by SunnComm
does enable legitimate copies to be made in Windows Media format (WMV), which
cannot be (easily) burned to CD.
- Microsoft Readies Web-Based Communicator - Microsoft is looking to
extend the reach of its
Office Communicator 2005 instant-messaging (IM) client via a new version
that will be completely Web-based. Microsoft is set to kick off on July 15 a
first private beta release of what it's currently calling the "Office
Communicator Web Access" client, company officials said on Tuesday. The
company expects to ship the final version before the end of calendar 2005,
officials said.
- P2P still rules the download scene - According to
NPD, P2P (peer-to-peer) downloads are still ruling the net despite increased
interest by users in the pay-to download market. To give you an idea of just
how skewed the landscape really is,
in
March of 2005 243 million songs were downloaded from P2P services compared
to only 26 million songs that were actually purchased online.
- DoubleClick Warns Against Ad-Blocking Browsers -
The end of free Internet content will come when Web browsers start
blocking online advertisements by default, a DoubleClick executive has warned.
-
Google CEO Confirms Online Payment System - Web search leader Google is
developing an online payment system but not a direct rival to eBay Inc.'s
PayPal, Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said on Tuesday. Schmidt said
Google does not intend to offer a "person-to-person stored-value payments
system" like PayPal's, in which money briefly resides in PayPal's control
during the transaction, but he did not give details of how the Google system
would differ.
HARDWARE...
-
Asus cancels dual-chip GeForce 6800s -
Asus has cancelled the dual-chip GeForce 6800 graphics cards it has been
showing off at recent trade shows.
-
FX57: What you need to know - The two main differences between the FX57
and the FX55 will be the speed difference and the price. The FX55 currently
costs $855 in 1000 pieces while
the FX57
will cost around $1040. AMD now has two parts above the $1000 price
barrier. The second is the smallish speed bump of 200MHz to 2.8GHz. Note that
the FX55 will continue to be sold and not discontinued as it was the case with
the FX51 and the FX53. So the FX57 could be seen as the "Extreme Edition" of
its chips. Another more interesting and potentially controversial aspect is
the fact that AMD is going to actively promote the FX processor as an
overclocking processor.
-
AMD adds 2.2GHz Turion - AMD is expanding its mobile offerings,
announcing a new Turion 64 ML-40 processor. Although AMD's press release
doesn't detail the chip's specs,
PC Watch reports that it runs at 2.2GHz and has 1MB of L2 cache. The
ML-40's 2.2GHz clock speed gives it a 200MHz advantage over the next fastest
Turion, the ML-37. Both chips have a 35W TDP.
-
NVIDIA to launch 'open driver'? - GeForce 7800 GTX has landed, adding
to the range of SLi capable products, and at the mainstream end of the market
6600s now support SLi. NVIDIA's SLi is clearly becoming more flexible,
but how can it compete with ATi's CrossFire, which supports using
different cards together?
-
eMachines offers cheap Media Center Edition PC -
eMachines is entering the media PC business with a T6520 system running
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. The system has an Athlon 64 3400+,
Radeon Xpress 200 chipset, 200GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM, dual-layer DVD
burner, and costs only $599-less than most Media Center Edition PCs.
-
Rock Xtreme Ti 3.6 Laptop - Thinking of the Xtreme Ti in strict DTR
terms, the overall impression is favourable. You can zip around Windows XP,
thanks, in main part,
to Rock's use of 2 60GB 7,200RPM laptop drives that are pre-configured in
RAID0. Browsing around in 2D mode, the machine felt faster than Dell's
Inspiron XPS Gen 2, which shipped with a single 100GB 4,200RPM drive. The
screen is a hit-and-miss affair. You'll either love the high-contrast 17-inch
(1680x1050) screen or immediately dislike just how reflective the
X-Glass-equipped panel is. Rock's got most of the performance bases covered,
too, with a fast Mobility Radeon X800 (now XT) card providing decent
framerates at the laptop's native resolution. There's also plenty of memory
and the optical drive is decent enough.
-
Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Processor - There is no question that AMD has hit
the bull's-eye with the Athlon 64 X2 4800+.
This processor offers a superb combination of high-end gaming performance,
multi-threaded speed, and desktop multi-tasking, all in a package that can run
on current Socket 939 platforms. The Athlon 64 X2 4800+ owns the media
encoding and multi-threaded tests, and is only a hair behind the 2.6 GHz
Athlon 64 FX-55 in pure gaming performance.
-
Athlon Dual Core: Overclocking the 4200+ -
The point of this article though is OVERCLOCKING the 4200+, and there is
more good news there. Our early 4000+ processors only overclocked about 11 to
12% at stock multiplier. We do have a later 4000+ (that is likely an FX55 at
heart) that overclocks about 18% at stock multiplier, which is the one we use
in memory reviews. This 4200+, a new speed grade, is doing 22.5% at the start,
reaching 2.7GHz on air. That's a 500MHz overclock, and is 300MHz higher than
the fastest x2 you can buy (2.4GHz 4800+ and 4600+). This kind of overclocking
performance makes the 4200+ a much more attractive option at the $500 you will
pay for it - since it will likely reach higher performance levels that a stock
4800+.
-
NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX -
NVIDIA's new card, the 7800 GTX, is not only faster than the 6800 Ultra,
but also requires 50% less power from your PSU. The card has more than 300
million transistors, which is rediculous and makes it the most advanced
Graphics processing unit (GPU) to come from NVIDIA so far. In some gaming
benchmarks, the new 7800 GTX showed up to 2.3x the performance of a DUAL-slot
SLI Based GeForce 6800 Ultra system. The 7800 only requires a single slot. The
card uses the new M$ DirectX 9 Shader Model 3.0 engine and the new 128-bit
floating core point which is supposed to provide film-quality vidual effects,
such as high dynamic range (HDR) lighting and real-time frame rates. For HDTV
fans, the new GeForce 7800 GTX is capable of 1080p HD output and supports both
3:2 and 2:2 pull down and advanced scaling and de-interlacing capabilities, so
you can output HD to either a computer monitor or your television.
-
Inno3D GeForce 6200A AGP -
Priced at $69, the Inno3D GeForce 6200A draws from two different
audiences. One of cost effectiveness and one out of want to get their HTPCs to
operate as silently as humanly possible.
-
Lite-On LVW-5045 HDD+DVD Recorder -
The main major
negative point is the very slow reading and writing performance when it
comes to CD-R's and CD-RW's. Although most consumers are likely going to
record directly from TV to CD anyway, it would be a very tedious task to build
up a CD collection on the player as full each disc takes around 45 minutes to
copy over and only full CDs (apart from data CDs) can be copied over.
-
Hi-Touch 730PS - Photo Printer - This is not a normal printer.
For a start, it uses dye sublimation to produce a print with no dots - not
even under a magnifying glass. You operate it with a small, handheld
controller and it rolls sheets of photo paper backwards and forwards under its
print head four times for each print. It uses no ink and no toner, but you pay
a constant price for each print, no matter how much of the paper is covered.
Intrigued?
-
Sipura Analog Telephone Adapter (SPA-2100) -
The 2100 would be more accurately termed a VoIP router, since it has
10Mbps Ethernet WAN and LAN ports and contains a basic NAT router in addition
to its extensive array of SIP V2 functions. This means it can share a
broadband connection among multiple Ethernet devices, although, with only the
single LAN port, you'll need to provide a switch to connect more than one.
GUIDES...
- IPv6 - A Look At The Next Generation Internet Protocol -
Internet
Protocol Version 6, is the latest incarnation of the TCP/IP standard that
increases Internet Protocol's ability to scale to billions of users and
Internet appliances. IPv6 will add to the pool of available IP addresses to
provide support for a virtually unlimited number of users and devices. The
primary value of IPv6 is in its ability to support an application independent
Internet.
- Introduction to Optical Fibers - As the name implies,
optical
fibers use light to transmit data. At one end of the cable, a LED (Light
Emitting Diode) or a semiconductor laser is used as the light source. LEDs can
transmit data up to 300 Mbps and is used on short-distance fibers, while with
laser the transfer rate can easily reach the Gbps range and is used in
long-distance fibers.
- AGP Bus Tutorial - Intel launched
the first
version of the AGP bus in July, 1996. That bus worked with a clock of 66
MHz transferring 32 bits at a time, it was fed with 3.3V and operated in two
modes: 1x and 2x. The first chipset to support such bus was the Intel 440LX,
marketed in August, 1997.
- Beginner's guide to Linux distros - In a bit of a follow up to the
recent media apps for GNU/Linux post,
I
wanted to give a quick rundown of some major distro's. Even though a lot
of people have a hardcore favorite, and swear everyone should use it, I tend
to think the situation is more that there are different distro's for different
people.
SOFTWARE...
- WinPLOSION v3.0 beta demo video-
WinPLOSION
provides a fast method of getting to the window you want when you have several
applications running by showing you an exploded view of all windows which are
placed on your desktop. One of the most wanted features of
WinPLOSION
always was to have live updating windows. Now the new version of WinPLOSION
supporting live updating windows is almost ready. Those who want to take a
look at it may download the demo video. (It shows WinPLOSION V.3 Beta running
on an Acer Notebook, 1GHz PIII, 32 MB onboard graphic-card, OS: Windows 2000
SP 1.
- Windows 98 Revolutions Pack 3.6 (Build 2590) -
Windows 98 Revolutions
Pack - Add XP styles effects to 98SE only! such as xp toolbar icons
startbutton and boot logo plus much much more.
- RootkitRevealer v1.5 -
RootkitRevealer v1.5 has more sophisticated rootkit detection mechanisms,
setting the stage for the next round of escalation by the rootkit community.
- Autoruns 8.0 -
This major update to Autoruns separates autostart types onto different
pages of the main window, shows more information about images, integrates with
Process Explorer, and adds a couple more Explorer and Internet Explorer addon
locations, and improves scanning performance.
- Miranda 0.4.0.1 -
Miranda IM (download
~
changelog) is a multi protocol instant messenger client for Windows.
Miranda IM uses very little memory and is extremely fast. It requires no
installation and can be fitted on a single floppy disc.
- Skype 1.3.0.51 -
Skype (download
/
rls notes) is the next phenomenon from the people who brought you KaZaA.
Just like KaZaA, Skype uses P2P (peer-to-peer) technology to connect you to
other users – not to share files this time, but to talk for free with your
friends.
- VideoLan 0.8.2 Beta 3 -
The
VideoLAN Server (download)
can stream video read from a hard disk, a DVD player, a satellite card or an
MPEG 2 compression card, and unicast or multicast it on a network.
- FireTune 1.05 -
FireTune for
Mozilla Firefox v1.x was developed for an easy and fast optimization of
your browsing experience with Firefox
- Fresh Download 7.32 -
Fresh Download is an easy-to-use and very fast download manager software
that turbo charge downloading files from the Internet, such as your favorite
software, mp3 files, video files, picture collections, etc.
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