SECURITY... 

• Windows security at risk again - Microsoft admitted Windows XP and Windows 2000 are at risk again. But although it's not a big risk, it's still a risk.
  Holes in XP SP1 and W2K SP4 can be exploited by the malicious, Microsoft told the magazine
• Apple iTunes Security Flaw Discovered - A critical vulnerability has been found in some versions of Apple's popular iTunes that could allow attackers to remotely take over a user's computer, according to a warning issued Thursday by a security research firm.
• Google Base launched with security hole, now patched - Google has patched a security problem with its Google Base that allowed attackers to steal sensitive information from users of the new content-hosting service.
• Password-stealing keyloggers skyrocket - Hackers are on target to release more than 6,000 keystroke loggers in 2005, a 65 per cent increase from the 3,753 keyloggers released last year, according to security intelligence outfit iDefense.

CRIME/LAW...

• Sony BMG offers MP3 files and disks for unsafe CDs - In an attempt to make up with consumers whose PCs have been exposed to unsecure copy-protection software which acts like malware, music publisher Sony BMG said on Friday it would swap unsecure CDs for new unprotected disks as well as unprotected MP3 files.
• Sony's rootkit infringes LAME GPL licence and breaks copyright - Close examination of the rootkit that Sony"s audio CDs attack their customers" PCs with has revealed that their malicious software is built on code that infringes on copyright. Indications are that Sony has included the LAME music encoder, which is licensed under the Lesser General Public License (LGPL), which requires that those who use it attribute the original software and publish some of the code they write to use the library.
• Copy protection an experiment in progress - Factor in lawsuits that Sony BMG could face, and it's worth wondering whether the costs of XCP and its aftermath might even exceed whatever piracy losses the company would have suffered without it.
• RIAA, MPAA force shutdown of i2Hub file swapping network - A file-swapping network popular with US students that used a superfast internet research network has closed down. It follows repeated legal pressure from the entertainment industry.  The i2Hub network took advantage of the Internet2 research network which connects some 207 US universities. Earlier this year, the Motion Picture Association of America said users had swapped films amounting to 99 terabytes in a single day, the equivalent of an entire video rental store.
• Pssst, wanna '3.6-GHz Pentium 4' chip for $78? - Shenzhen Chuanghui Electronics Co. isn't shy about offering remarked Intel Corp. processors for sale: The company is openly selling them through a major Chinese Web site and brags that its remarked Pentium 4 chips look just like the real thing. The remarked processors Chuanghui sells are actually 1.7-GHz Celeron chips and are currently available for $78 each, including a motherboard, in quantities of 100 or more, said James Zhan, a company representative named online as a contact for potential buyers.
• Boeing Says Laptop with Employee info Stolen - A laptop computer containing names, social security numbers and other sensitive information of 161,000 current and former employees of Boeing Co. was stolen recently, the U.S. aerospace manufacturer said.
• Jail for would-be pirates -  People who attempt to copy music or movies without permission could face jail time under legislation proposed by the US Justice Department. Outlined by US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales at an anti-piracy summit, the bill would widen intellectual property protection to cover those who try but fail to make illicit copies of music, movies, software or other copyrighted material. It would also enable investigators to seize assets purchased with profits from the sale of illicit copies, as well as property such as blank CDs that might be used for future copying. Those found guilty of a copyright violation could be forced to pay restitution to the owner of the material in question, and repeat offenders would face stiffer sentences.

OFF-TOPIC

• Is Earth in a vortex of space-time? - We'll soon know the answer: A NASA/Stanford physics experiment called Gravity Probe B (GP-B) recently finished a year of gathering science data in Earth orbit. The results, which will take another year to analyze, should reveal the shape of space-time around Earth--and, possibly, the vortex. Time and space, according to Einstein's theories of relativity, are woven together, forming a four-dimensional fabric called "space-time." The tremendous mass of Earth dimples this fabric, much like a heavy person sitting in the middle of a trampoline. Gravity, says Einstein, is simply the motion of objects following the curvaceous lines of the dimple.
• Dung shows dinosaurs grazed on grass - Traces of grass found in fossilised dinosaur dung proves that grass grew on Earth much earlier than previously thought and changes beliefs about dinosaurs' diets, a study published on Friday showed.
• "Resident Evil 4" video game of year: Spike TV Awards -  Capcom's Resident Evil 4, Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie from Ubisoft and Oscar-winning actor Charlize Theron were among the winners at the 3rd Spike TV Video Game Awards held in Los Angeles on Friday. A partial list of winners from the awards follows.

TECHNOLOGY...

• Maxell presents holographic media with 1.6TB storage capacity -  With storage capacities achieving 1.6 TeraBytes per disk and data rates as high as 120 MBPs, holographic technology is a true breakthrough in optical media. These features, along with a long archival life, make holographic media a compelling choice for storage and archival requirements.
• Xbox 360 mania slams CircuitCity.com - Minutes after Microsoft's next-generation game console went on sale Friday afternoon at CircuitCity.com, the site was hobbled by a deluge of traffic. A representative for the online counterpart to electronics retailer Circuit City said the company's site saw a "tremendous" traffic spike at 2 p.m. ET, when the company began taking Internet orders for the eagerly awaited Xbox.
• Cell production costs - So, how much does a Cell cost? Other than the fact that you can't buy one right now, and the Playstation 3 is about a year out, it does cost money to make. From what we understand, each wafer run through the fab costs $9-10K, and IBM gets about 65 good chips per wafer. This would put each raw Cell on sale at a price tag of almost $150 give or take a bit. Toss in $25-30 for the packaging, and you are at a non-trivial number for a console. Assuming $175 for a 'solder to the board' working Cell, and you are at about half the cost of the console with just the CPU. Add in the GPU, RAM and a HD, and you are in loss-leader territory...
• Sony aims at Skype with Internet-based phone service - The electronics giant is partnering with Glowpoint to offer a new consumer version of Sony's Instant Video Everywhere (IVE) service featuring free, unlimited video and voice service for consumers worldwide
• Motorola RAZR V3c in Alltel Stores Next Week - Alltel and Motorola announced today that the Motorola RAZR V3c will be available at Alltel stores nationwide starting Monday. Customers can watch live television on the new CDMA EVDO handset through MobiTV.
• Alienware introduces dual-core AMD laptop - The Aurora m7770 notebook can be equipped with an AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processor. It also has a 17 inch screen and dual hard-drives. According to the Alienware laptop ordering page, the Aurora m7700 will start shipping on January 18, 2006. A fully configured laptop with an Athlon 64 X2 4800 CPU and 2 GByte of RAM was just under $5000.
• AGP Radeon X1800 confirmed as misprint - Initial reports that Diamond Multimedia would offer an AGP version of ATI's Radeon X1800 appear to be false. A misprint on Diamond's web site caused the confusion, but the company has confirmed that it has no plans to offer a Radeon X1800 with an AGP interface.
• Yonah shipping clock speeds revealed - The Inquirer has news of Yonah's shipping clock speeds and projected pricing. Intel's new 65nm CPU will debut at frequencies of up to 2.16GHz on a 667MHz front-side bus.
• VIA starts shipping PCIe-enabled P4 and K8 chipsets - VIA Technologies has begun shipments of its PCIe-enabled integrated chipsets supporting Pentium 4 and K8 platforms this quarter, albeit in small volumes, according to company source.
• Windows Genuine Advantage now supports Firefox - Microsoft Genuine Windows Validation process now works in Firefox and other Mozilla browsers. Firefox users can manually install the Windows Genuine Advantage validation Firefox plug-in available on Microsoft's website to complete the Windows validation process.
• Microsoft Office 12 beta goes live - Microsoft has released a first beta of its Office 12 productivity suite to a selected group of 10,000 customers and partners.
• Google offers "advertise on this site" feature - Web search leader Google Inc. is offering a new private-label feature that allows advertisers to sign up directly on Web sites where they wish to advertise, the company said on Friday.
• Hyperthreading Hurts Server Performance? - ZDNet is reporting that enabling Intel's new Hyperthreading Technology on your servers could lead to markedly decreased performance, according to some developers who have been looking into problems that have been occurring since HT has been shipping automatically activated

HARDWARE... 

• CPU - Athlon 64 X2 4600+ and 4200+ CPUs
• Motherboard  - Abit AW8-MAX v1.0 / DFI nF4X / ECS KN1 / Epox 8NPA SLI / Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9 AMD Athlon 64 Socket 939 PCIe / Epox 5LDA+GLI, Foxconn 945P7AA-8EKRS2, and Asus P5LD2 roundup
• Complete / SFF Systems - Dell's Open Source Desktop Systems
• Memory - Corsair TWIN2X1024-8000UL / DDR2 PC2-6400 memory showdown / GeIL ONE W BH5 PC3200 400MHz DDR memory  / Kingston HyperX KHX7200D2K2/1G (DDR2-900 SDRAM) / OCZ EL DDR PC-3200 Gold GX XTC(1) / OCZ EL DDR PC-3200 Gold GX XTC Dual Channel(2) / OCZ EB DDR PC-4000 Platinum Edition 2GB Dual Channel RAM Kit / Patriot Dual Channel 2GB DDR PC 3200 RAM
• Storage - Samsung Spinpoint 250GB PATA HDD / WD Caviar SE16 SATA HDD - WD2500KS / Seagate Pocket Hard Disk Drive || Plextor PX-740UF External DVD+-R/RW drive (video-review) || OCZ Rally Dual Channel USB Flash Drives Review Rev. 2.0
• Video - Albatron Trinity Series PC6600GT / ASUS 7800GTX TOP / ATI All-In-Wonder X800XL / EVGA's 6800 GS  / Gigabyte Radeon X1800XL / Gigabyte GV-NX66T256DE Silent Pipe II / HIS IceQ X700 128Meg AGP / Sapphire Radeon X800 GTO Roundup (PCIe) / XFX GeForce 6600 DDR2 256MB PCIe
• Cooling - Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro Evaluation / Gigabyte GV-NX66T256DE Silent Pipe II Cooler / Jetart VGA All in One Cooler / Noctua NH-U12 & NH-U9 Cooler / PrimoChill PC ICE / Thermalright SI-120 heatsink / Highspeed PC Tech Station
• Case - Antec P160W P160 Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case / Cooler Master Centurion 531 case / Sansun SN-C001 The Bat Case
• Sound - Icemat Siberia and Steelsound 5H headsets / Steel Sound 5H USB Professional Gaming Headset
• Peripheral - iONE Scorpius-P20 2.4 Ghz Wireless Keyboard || Saitek Cyborg Evo Force joystick || Sharkoon Xurface Gaming Mouse Pad / The Black Knight HP Gaming Mouse Pad
• Notebook -
• Cameras, MP3/DVD players/recorders - Fuji FinePix E900 Digital Camera || Evaluation: LG LGDVB418 DVD Player / iRiver U10 1GB Media Player
• Phones/PDAs - LG VX9800 / Orange SPV M5000

GUIDES...

• All Pentium 4 Models - A series of quick reference tables containing the main specs of all Pentium 4 models released to date.
• The Definitive BIOS Optimization Guide Revision 8.5.5 - Adrian has updated his premier BIOS optimization guide.
• Choosing the Best Compact Notebook - Part 1 - The models from Acer, Dialogue Technology, Fujitsu Siemens, IBM, LG, MSI, and Samsung boast unique personality, excellent features, small size and weight. Hope this series of articles helps you make the best choice!
• The Dual Channel Advantage - So why equip a notebook with the capability to run dual channel memory then cripple it by installing just a single piece of memory?
• High End Audio Cable Design - Part 3 - In part 3 of High End Audio Cable Design, audio engineer Adam Blake talks about noise and how to counter its effect inside the audio cable. Can you make a noiseless cable? Put on your propeller hats, this is really deep stuff.
• A Digital Photography Odyssey, Volume 1: The Digital Lens - The most exciting feature of SLR photography is the interchangeability of lenses. The quality and style of the shots taken with any SLR camera heavily depend on the lens used.
• Fall 2005 Buying Guide: Photo Printers at Designtechnica - check it out
• How To Clean Up Your MP3 Collection - The TechZone shows you how to organize your MP3 collection.
• Techie Christmas Gift Ideas - Finding the perfect gift for the person in your life can be tricky.

SOFTWARE...

• 7-Zip 4.30 Beta - 7-Zip (download) is a file archiver with high compression ratio.
• AIM Triton 1.0.2 - It's here: email, IM, text, voice, video at the click of a button. Now you can look your buddies in the eye, hear their voices or take them with you everywhere you go.
• Aim Ad Hack 5.0 Beta 14 (for AIM Triton Beta) - With this small file you can effectively remove all the ads from AIM
  you must be using Aim Triton
• KoolMoves 5.1.3 (shw) - KoolMoves (download) is web animation software that creates Flash movies and frames for animated gifs
• MAME v0.102 - MAME stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator, and currently runs 1800+ classic (and even some not so classic) arcade games.
• BitTorrent Beta 4.1.8 - A new BitTorrent beta is available for download.
• Fiddler 1.0.5 - Fiddler (download) is a HTTP Debugging Proxy which logs all HTTP traffic between your computer and the Internet. Fiddler allows you to inspect all HTTP Traffic, set breakpoints, and "fiddle" with incoming or outgoing data.
• Firefox 1.5 RC3 - A new RC release of the famous Mozilla Firefox browser has been just released to the web.
• SpamPal 1.73 Beta - The most recent beta release of SpamPal is 1.73.
• Google Earth Free 3.0.0762 Beta - Google Earth combines satellite imagery, maps and the power of Google Search to put the world’s geographic information at your fingertips.
• Google Toolbar 3.0.128.1 - The Google Toolbar (download version for WinXP/2k / Win9x/ME) increases your ability to find information from anywhere on the web and takes only seconds to install. When the Google Toolbar is installed, it automatically appears along with the Internet Explorer toolbar. This means you can quickly and easily use Google to search from any website location, without returning to the Google home page to begin another search.
• MetaProducts Download Express 1.9 Build 337 - MetaProducts Download Express (download) is a Windows 95/98/NT/2000/ME/XP/2003 program that allows you to download individual files from the Web and FTP sites at the maximum possible speed.
• xplorer2 Lite 1.4.0.1 - The lightweight version of xplorer2 (download) is not a crippled unusable salesman of the professional version.
• PhotoFiltre 6.2 (shw) - PhotoFiltre (download) is a complete image retouching program. It allows you to do simple or advanced adjustments to an image and apply a vast range of filters on it. It is simple and intuitive to use, and has an easy learning curve.
• GIMP 2.2.9 - GIMP (download) is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages.
• SyncBack Freeware 3.2.9 - SyncBack (download) is our freeware program that helps you easily backup and synchronise your files to: the same drive; a different drive or medium (CDRW, CompactFlash, etc); an FTP server; a Network; or a Zip archive.
• AnyDVD 5.5.4.1 - A new protection called 'Chapter Jump' has been spoted in Germany and AnyDVD has been updated to deal with it. Also a new protection has been found on Layer Cake" R2 (Dutch). It seems that DVD43 may cause an issue with AnyDVD, so an option is given to automatically uninstall it.
• DVDFab Decrypter 2.9.5.8 - DVDFab Decrypter (also known as DVDFab Express free) copies entire DVD movie to hard disk, and removes all the protections (CSS, RC, RCE, Macrovision, UOPs and Sony ARccOS) while copying. This new version addes support for a new protection as found on "Madagascar" (US). It's not a Sony movie, but the protection is almost same with Sony ARccOS.
• NvTempLogger - This is a simple program that is used to watch the temperature (Core and Ambient) of NVIDIA based GPUs.
• NVTray - NVTray provides some extra quality tweaks that both the default NVIDIA tray icon and control panel are lacking - you will be able to select more Antialiasing modes, as well as OpenGL and Direct3D options right from the tray icon.
• zer0point Catalyst 0.511 - The DHzer0point drivers based on the Catalyst 5.11's are here, we've made some changes to our internal optimizations, cleaned up the chaff extensive testing done with FEAR, Quake4, as well as the oldies but goodies, Source based games, UT based games, we've put them through the ringer.
• Realtek HD Audio 1.27  - This is build number 1.27 and is compatible for ALC880, ALC882, ALC883, ALC861, ALC260 en ALC262 .
• Sound Blaster X-Fi Series 2.07.0004 -  This contains an improved version of the driver found on the Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ installation CD. For more details, read the rest of this web release note.
• Chipset Installation Utility 7.2.2.1006  - The Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility installs to the target system the Windows* INF files that outline to the operating system how the chipset components will be configured. This release adds Intel® 955XM Express Chipset & Intel® 975X Express Chipset support. Mirror: Guru3D