SECURITY...

• Microsoft Plans Restrictions on Fixes - Microsoft Corp. plans to severely curtail the ways in which people running pirated copies of its dominant Windows operating system can receive software updates, including security fixes. The new authentication system, announced Tuesday and due to arrive by midyear, will still allow people with pirated copies of Windows to obtain security fixes, but their options will be limited. The move allows Microsoft to use one of its sharpest weapons - access to security patches that can prevent viruses, worms and other crippling attacks - to thwart a costly and meddlesome piracy problem. (FYI, they already launched the scheme first at the end of October 2004 for Czech, Chinese and Norwegian versions).
• BlowSearch to Offer Encrypted IM - BlowSearch  plans to launch early next month the BlowSearch Secured Messenger, an IM service that offers different levels of encryption to prevent malicious hackers from intercepting the communications. BlowSearch Secured Messenger lets users aggregate into its interface buddy lists from the four main public IM services: America Online's AIM and ICQ, Yahoo's Yahoo Messenger and Microsoft's MSN Messenger.
• Cisco patches IOS - Cisco has released a fix for a denial-of-service vulnerability affecting versions of IOS software. According to a security advisory found here, the bug affects all Cisco devices that are configured for IOS Telephony Service, CallManager Express or Survivable Remote Site Telephony services.
• Alabama Spammers Settle Case - Two members of an alleged spamming ring paid Earthlink an undisclosed amount to settle a lawsuit, agreeing also to stop sending unsolicited e-mail, the Internet service provider said Tuesday. The two, Damon DeCrescenzo and David Burstyn, were sued last year by Atlanta-based EarthLink Inc., which claimed they were part of a multi-state spamming operation that spewed more than 250 million illegal e-mails.
• Malaysia plans jail for disc peddling pirates - Malaysia's government is proposing mandatory jail sentences for producers, distributors and vendors of bootleg movies and music compact discs. A high level meeting to review the 17-year-old Copyright Act will be held next week. It will decide on whether to incorporate the mandatory jail clause and a range of other new penalties, Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Shafie Apdal said.
• Cctde - Covert Channel and Tunneling Over the HTTP Protocol Detection - The main goal of this project is to provide a way to register and disclose informations leading to the detection of unauthorized tunnels and covert channels embedded into the HTTP protocol but the concepts could also be applied to the detection of arbitrary data flows inside other high level protocols. Located between a mandatory HTTP proxy server and the HTTP clients (or before the NACS if no proxy exists), cctde is trying to detect if someone on the internal located network is using a CC|T (Covert Channel OR Tunneling) tool to bypass the NACS.

OFF-TOPIC...

• Do game designers burn out like rock stars? - Take Doom III. Like every Pink Floyd album after The Final Cut, it is a technical masterpiece, utterly devoid of verve, invention or the sheer folly of youth. Could it be that John Carmack's obsession with amazing graphical effects is similar to the way in which middle-aged rock stars start to "experiment" with the latest technology and trendy genres - Peter Gabriel with world music, David Bowie with Drum N Bass, Dave Stewart with, oh god, don't even go there.
• Watching brain waves could quantify libido - Monitoring the change in specific brain waves could be the first quantitative method for measuring libido, new research suggests.

TECHNOLOGY...

• Patent reveals secrets of Xbox 2 - A patent has shown up at the US repository (patent) of such thing$ that gives us some more clues as to the nature of the technology that Microsoft and ATI will employ with its next generation Xbox and the R520 component. The patent is for a method and apparatus for determining a processing speed of an integrated circuit.  The patent appears to confirm that the R500/R520 part will be something substantially different to anything we've seen in the past.
• What's next for next-gen consoles?  - We may not know when they will be released, what they will be called or even what they will be able to do but one thing is certain - they are coming. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are all expected to release new machines in the next 18 months.  The details of PlayStation 3, Xbox 2 (codename Xenon) and Nintendo's so-called Revolution are still to be finalised but developers are having to work on titles for the new machines regardless.
• Nanobot could fashion microprocessors - According to nikkei.net, AMS and the Pennsylvania State University startup, Micromechatronics, will create a three centimetre square robot which it says will be able to move in nanometres. And the report adds that AMS is contemplating creating nanorobots which could be used to build microprocessors.
• Samsung Starts Mass Production of XDR DRAM - The Samsung 256Mb XDR DRAM incorporates Rambus' Octal Data Rate process that transfers data at eight bits per clock cycle, while cranking up the transfer speed to an industry-leading 8GB/s per XDIMM. To transfer data in a stable manner at the extremely high speeds, Samsung is utilizing Differential Rambus Signal Level (DRSL) technology.

HARDWARE... 

• VIA 2GHz C7 CPU to debut Q4 - VIA's next-generation x86-compatible processor, "Esther", which has been designed to take the chip family beyond 2GHz, will ship in Q4, online reports suggest.
• HIS launches overclocked Radeon X850XT card - In contrast to other X850XT cards, HIS' product comes with an overclocking software that increases the core frequency from 520 to 540 MHz. Fan speeds can also be adjusted to decrease below 20dB or provide an additional 11 degrees Celsius of cooling performance.
• HIS X700 Pro IceQ Turbo VIVO 256MB review - HIS pulled together a terrific bundle to accompany the X700 Pro, including a detailed installation manual and setup CDs. The first CD provided the necessary drivers to get the card installed and working properly. The second disk included the iTurbo software which enables the card to run at a predetermined overclocked rate and allows for manual overclocking as well. Additionally, HIS included a series of software titles, including Video Studio, 3D Album and Counter Strike: Condition Zero.
•  MSI NX6800-TD 128 - The performance of this MSI NX6800-TD128 graphics card is very good as seen in all benchmarks, running games at 1024x768 with Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering set to AA4 and AF16 is great performance for sure and definitely great image quality.
• Digest 2004: Sound Cards - Like in the year 2003, sound cards manufactured in 2004 could be divided into two categories: entertainment and professional. The first one included cards suitable for the majority of users preferring realistic 3D sound in games and downloaded MP3 files with unusual effects. The second category of experienced users that was constantly growing included owners of high-quality acoustic systems.
• JAHT 5-port Gigabit SOHO switch - Techniz.co.uk takes a look at the JS-3005GD which is five-port 10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet switch, with a 10Gbps non-blocking, 8k MAC Address table, and 802.3x, full-duplex flow control.
• BenQ M310 wireless mini optical mouse - The M310 has a couple of power saving features that help extend battery life and two AAA sized batteries are estimated to last for more than 3 months. By default, the mouse is powered up when the wireless receiver is ejected from the mouse and is automatically switched off when the receiver is stored.
• Samsung CLP-550 printer - Trustedreviews have posted a review of the Samsung CLP-550 colour laser printer.
• iRiver PMC-120 Portable Media Center review -The iRiver PMC-120 offers a 3.5in screen with a resolution of 320 x 240 and a 20GB hard disk, providing a theoretical maximum of 80 hours of video storage if recorded at native resolution at 500kps. iRiver has experience of producing portable media players with its PMP-120 and PMP-140 Linux based devices having been available for some months. The PMPs offer support for AVI, ASF, and versions three, four and five of the DiVX codec - without any need for transcoding. By contrast, this unit, the PMC-120, only supports video files encoded in WMV format.
• Samsung Releases The YH-999 Portable Media Center (UK) - The device features a 3.5" colour TFT LCD screen, video out capabilities and a built-in speaker for headphone-free viewing. The YH-999 plays Windows Media Video (WMV9) files at 320x240 resolution and 500kbps. The device allows for around 80 hours of recorded TV to be stored on its 20GB HD.
• ViewSonic NextVision N3000w -TrustedReviews have posted a review of the ViewSonic NextVision N3000w 30in TFT TV/Display which features a wide range of input options.

GUIDES...

• A mini-guide to Mac OS X for new Mini owners - As anyone who has ever switched platforms will attest, there is always a bit of a learning curve involved. Differences in how applications and the user interface behave can be great, and even when there is similarity across platforms, the small differences can be just as maddening.

SOFTWARE...

• Tenomichi 3D Edit review - Like Pinnacle Liquid Edition, Tenomichi's software harnesses the power of the system's 3D graphics accelerator. But it does so at a much more fundamental level. In particular, it takes advantage of the power of DirectX 9 Shaders. Essentially, a DirectX 9 adapter is required, which currently doesn't include any of Matrox's graphics cards. An ATI Radeon 9550 or Nvidia GeForce FX 5700 is the bare minimum. The software is best used with Windows XP Service Pack 2, although Windows 2000 is supported.
• MySQL 4.1.9 - MySQL (download ~ changelog) is the world's most popular open source database, recognized for its speed and reliability.
• NVTweak v1.7.1 - NVTweak unlocks many extra options in the nVidia control panel/driver, including but not limited to - Overclocking, AGP & Hardware settings, Fan control, Temperature settings, Debugging, Twin View, Video Mixing Renderer, OpenGL 2.0 support, 3D viewer types (for 3D Stereo drivers), and more. This tweak is intended for use with GeForce/Quadro cards and ForceWare 55.xx - 7x.xx 3D Stereo drivers. NVTweak is not fully compatible with Windows 98/Me or driver versions older than 55.xx.
• NeroVision Express 3.0.1.27 -  This new version adds support for the NeroDigital file format and MP3 files with an image.
• Ad-Aware SE Personal 1.05 - This latest version (January 25, 2005) simply incorporates the latest definition files. There is no need to download it if you already have Ad-Aware 1.05 installed.