SECURITY...

• Kaspersky AV Update Troubles Microsoft Users - Kaspersky Labs and Microsoft have recovered from an error that caused significant email troubles for some users of Microsoft's Antigen email security software.
• WinACE RAR and TAR Directory Traversal Vulnerability - The vulnerability is caused due to an input validation error when extracting files compressed with RAR (.rar) or TAR (.tar). This makes it possible to have files extracted to arbitrary locations outside the specified directory using the "../" directory traversal sequence. The vulnerability has been confirmed in version 2.6. Other versions may also be affected.

CRIME/LAW...

• MPAA targets Usenet - files lawsuit against news servers - The Motion Picture Association of America has found a new target in its war against piracy: search engines providing links to copyrighted material. Although they distribute no files themselves, such sites are a critical piece of the infrastructure that enables movie piracy, the MPAA says. Lawsuits were filed Thursday against: BinNews.com, Torrentspy.com, IsoHunt, BTHub.com, TorrentBox.com, NiteShadow.com, Ed2k-It.com, NZB-Zone.com, and DVDRs.net. The suits mark the first time the MPAA has gone after Usenet, which has largely been spared in the crackdown on illicit file sharing.
• Met Police clamps down on movie pirates - The Metropolitan Police has joined forces with the Federation Against Copyright Theft (Fact) to target organised criminal networks involved in the manufacture and distribution of counterfeit films.

OFF-TOPIC

• Harry Potter 5 Set Pictures - Expecto-Patronum.com has landed the first images of a set for Warner Bros.' Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which show Hagrid's Hut under construction for the filming.
• Vodka ad goes down badly with Russian women - A liquor company is offering a Russian bride as first prize in a vodka promotion, a gimmick Russian women in New Zealand say is offensive.  The competition offers $8000 or a return trip to Moscow with spending money, to join a "find-a-bride" tour. The promotional material includes an image of a blonde scrubbing a floor, and the words: "Let me tell you, those Russian women are awesome, they don't care if you watch cricket on Valentine's Day, hell they don't even care if you're short and fat. It's almost too good to be true."

TECHNOLOGY...

• Microsoft's Origami Project - Origami looks to be small (approx 7"), Tablet PC style device. A marketing company has a promo video for it online - see it here (click work, then 'brandtheatre', then Microsoft Origami). From the video, it would appear that these devices can play back music, connect to WiFi networks (and possibly Bluetooth devices), and has enough power to handle graphics work and games.
• ATI Preps First HDMI-HDCP Video Card - As you would expect, the card itself is PCI Express based and comes in a surprisingly low profile design which should appeal to those with SFF cases or heavily packed out systems
• Video sites blamed for web-traffic crisis - CNET News have published an article documenting how the recent explosion in online video sites has experts worried and searching for more efficient technology to deliver the goods.

HARDWARE... 

• CPU - AMD's Opteron 165 and 180 processors / INTEL Pentium 955 Extreme Edition - Dualcore in 65nm
• Motherboard - ASRock 775XFire-eSATA2 (Intel 945PL Express + ATI CrossFire) / DFI LANParty UT NF4 SLI-DR nForce 4 SLI / ECS PF22 Extreme / Foxconn NF4SLI7AA-8EKRS2 / Gigabyte GeForce 6150 (GA-K8N51PVMT-9)
• Complete / SFF Systems - Shuttle's XPC SN21G5 barebones system
• Memory - Corsair Twinx XMS4400C25 / Crucial Ballistix 1GB Kit PC4000 LED / G.SKILL F1-3200PHU2-2GBNS PC3200 / OCZ PC3200 Gold GX XTC Memory
• Storage - Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 500GB / Seagate Momentus 5400.3 160GB 2.5" Hard Drive / Seagate 8GB Photo Hard Drive / Western Digital Raptor X WD1500AHFD Hard Drive || Imation USB 2.0 4 GB Micro Hard Drive / Mimobot Flash USB Flash Drive || Kingston 256MB microSD Card / The Kingston TravelLite SD/MMC Reader || Asus DRW-1608P2 DVD Burner / BenQ DW1670 DVD Burner
• Video - 2006 Home Video Preview / Albatron 6600-512 / ASUS Extreme N6600GT Silencer / Asus GeForce 7300GS / ASUS GeForce 7800GT TOP / ATI All-In-Wonder X1900 (1) / ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon X1900 (2) / EVGA 7300 GS / GeCube Radeon X1800XT 512MB / GeCube Radeon X1300 256MB DDR2 (AGP) / HIS IceQ II RADEON X1600 XT iTurbo 256MB PCI-E / HIS Radeon X800GTO IceQ / Mad Moxx X800 GTO2 Burstfire / nVidia GeForce 6800 GS / PowerColor X800 GTO 16 / Powercolor X1300 128mb PCIE / Sapphire Radeon X1800 XL / Sapphire Radeon X1900XTX / XFX Nvdia 6600GT PCI-e / XFX GeForce 7800 GS AGP Extreme Edition
• Monitor - Toshiba TDP-MT700 HD Projector
• Cooling - CPU Heatsink Roundup Q1 2006 / FrozenCPU ThermalRock Dragon Alphacool / The TJS0005 Heatpipe Chipset Cooler / Thermaltake Blue Orb II / Tuniq Tower 120 Cooler
• Watercooling - Corsair Nautilus500 External Watercooling Kit (1) / Corsair Nautilus 500 (2) / Thermaltake Tide Water (VGA Liquid Cooling Module) (video-review)
• Case - Cooler Master CM Stacker 830 Case / Sansun Bat Computer Case / Silverstone LC16M HTPC case / Tuniq Symmetry 1 ATX case / XKROMA ATX Chrome Case / Zalman HD160 HTPC Case
• Modding - A.C.Ryan - Blackfire Fans / Fan Grills / Double Damage - 2-in-1 Case Mod
• Sound - BlueGears X-Mystique soundcard || Altec Lansing inMotion iM716 Portable HD Audio System / Jabra JX10 Bluetooth Headset / Plantronics Pulsar 590A Bluetooth Headset / Saitek Audio A-200 2.1 Portable Speaker System (1) / Saitek A-200 Portable 2.1 Speaker System (2) / Sennheiser HD415 Headphones / Sennheiser's New Headphone Range
• PSU - Cooler Master Realpower 550W SLI PSU / High Power 560Watt Power Supply HPC-560-A12C / Thermaltake Purepower Power Station 520W PSU / Ultra Products X-Connect 2 550W PSU
• Peripheral - Logitech G7 Laser Cordless Mouse / Logitech V500 Cordless Notebook Mouse / Sunbeamtech Solar Illuminated Keyboard || Corepad Mouse Skatez Pro
• Network - Devolo MicroLink dLAN Highspeed Starter Kit / Linksys WRT54GP2A-AT / Linksys Wireless-G ADSL Gateway with SRX200
• Printer - Epson Stylus Pro 4800 / HP DesignJet 90r Large Format Printer
• Notebook - Panasonic ToughBook CF-W4
• Cameras, MP3/DVD players/recorders - Kodak EasyShare V550 Digital Camera / Olympus Mju 700 7.1 megapixel digicam / Pentax Optio S6 || Logitech Wireless Music System for iPod/mp3
• Misc - 3Dconnexion SpaceTraveler
• Phones/PDAs - LG P7200 Cameraphone / Socket's GPS NAV Kit / SOHO Voice over IP Telephone Roundup / Top rated business phones

GUIDES...

• Mounting Socket 462 Coolers Onto Socket 939 Motherboards Guide - Thermalright actually modified the SI-97 slightly to make it compatible with Socket 939 motherboards. The result was a new Socket 939-compatible model called SI-97A.
• Taking the SLI Plunge - Part 2 - check it out
• A Beginner's Guide to Air Cooling Your Smokin Hot Computer - The most common method of keeping a computer cool is to use a combination of fans, heat sinks and a little bit of chemistry to move the hot air out of your computer and into the surrounding air, replacing it with cool, friendly air.
• How To Replace A Broken Laptop or Notebook Display - The old lamp base somehow broke and gave way, Murphy's Law took over, and the sharp edge of the metal lampshade found its way into the top surface of my notebook display. After that, the LCD was basically unusable. The edges of the sickle-shaped gouge in the anti-reflective film glimmered with rainbows, and markedly curbed my enthusiasm for using the unit.
• How to Build a WiMAX Network - The TechZone show you how to build one.
• Wi-Fi Hotspot Security Tips - The best defense is to implement some simple security practices and measures that will safeguard your business and personal information
• Keyboard Cleaning Guide - In this guide I will show you how to thoroughly clean you keyboard with some simple household items.
• How to Buy a Cheap Laptop Computer - When planning to buy a cheap laptop computer, you need to consider factors that go well beyond performance and memory. You need to consider many factors like size, weight, screen dimensions, battery life, keyboard quality, built-in memory, and also certain other options like wireless connectivity.
• Why You Should Not Attempt a "Do It Yourself" Data Recovery - They are some common techniques that can cause permanent data loss.
• How Safe Is Safe - The only definite way of safeguarding against the many different kinds of threats is to have a copy of the valuable information and keep it away from the computer, this is commonly referred to as back-up
• Top 10 reasons you should (not) buy a music phone - Want a new music phone but can't explain your significant other (or financial advisor) just why you deserve one? Fret not; infoSync World is here to help clear things up a little.
• Office 2007 FAQ - My Microsoft Office 2007 FAQ is now available with information about the product editions, individual applications, features, and pricing

SOFTWARE...

• AVG Free 7.1.375 Build 716 (Free Anti-Virus) - AVG Free for Windows is a free anti-virus protection tool developed by Grisoft for home use. We invite you to join the millions of satisfied customers worldwide who have downloaded the software and now enjoy the benefits of AVG Free for Windows.
• AnyDVD 5.9.4.1 - AnyDVD can be used to remove the various copy protections on audio Cd's and DVDs, CloneDVD is able to compress movies to fit them on a DVD recordable and CloneCD is able to bypass copy protections on e.g. game Cd's. This new version Adds support for a new version of the Sony Arccos protection as found on "A Killer Within" R2 (German) to the option to remove "Protection based on unreadable Sectors.
• ImgBurn 1.2.0.0 - ImgBurn is a free tool that enables you to burn CD/DVD images with ease.
• DiskInternals CD and DVD Recovery 2.0 - DiskInternals CD and DVD Recovery, as the name implies is a software solution capable of recovering data from CDs and DVDs, including multi-session ones. CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVR+R, DVD-RW, DVR+RW, DVD+R DL, DVD-R DL and DVD-RAM disks are supported. (free alternative can be found here)
• Real Alternative 1.47  - Real Alternative will allow you to play RealMedia files without having to install RealPlayer or RealOne Player from Real Networks. Supported are: RealAudio (.ra .rpm), RealMedia (.rm .ram .rmvb .rpx .smi .smil), RealText (.rt) and ReadPix (.rp). It also supports RealMedia content that is embedded in webpages.
• SyncBack Freeware 3.2.10 - 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.
• Opera 8.52 -download
• Winamp 5.2 Build 473 (2/23/06) - Nullsoft Winamp (download full / lite) is a fast, flexible, high-fidelity media player for Windows. Winamp supports playback of many audio (MP3, OGG, AAC, WAV, MOD, XM, S3M, IT, MIDI, etc) and video types (AVI,ASF,MPEG,NSV).
• WinDVD Platinum 7.0.B27.172 - WinDVD Platinum 7 is the ultimate DVD software player, providing you with the finest quality video and audio playback.
• Google Toolbar 3.0.131.1 - The Google Toolbar (download Win2k/XP / Win9x/ME) increases your ability to find information from anywhere on the web and takes only seconds to install.
• x264 Video Codec r440 - x264 is a free library for encoding H264/AVC video streams
• Drivercleaner PLATINUM - Driver Cleaner Platinum Editon is a program which helps you to remove parts of drivers that are left after uninstalling the old drivers. The program is for ATI, nVidia, Creative, Realtek, SIS, 3Dfx, S3 and more drivers.
• ForceWare 83.50 Win2000/XP (Unofficial) - This is an unofficial driver, use it at your own risk.
• Nvidia Driver Beta 87.15 Drivers for Vista - No word on whether this version includes a control panel or even the new updated Nvidia control panel. Download: Windows Vista Beta Drivers x86 - 87.15 / Windows Vista Beta Drivers x64 - 87.15.