Evening Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 01:39 AM CET - Feb,22 2002
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- Microsoft under fire over 'DVD lookup' - Microsoft came under fire from
privacy advocates and security watchers yesterday when it emerged that Windows Media
Player (WMP) for XP was capable of tracking which DVD movies were being watched and
sending the information back to Redmond. Using a packet sniffer, Smith discovered that WMP queried a Microsoft server
via the internet protocol HTTP every time a DVD was played.
- Caldera case expert to review Windows XP source code - Judge
Colleen Kollar-Kottely has followed up her interesting decision that Microsoft should
allow Windows source code to be independently reviewed by appointing someone characterised
by Microsoft as a professional anti-Microsoft expert witness to review it. Which is possibly even
more interesting.
- Antimatter Atoms Captured?! - Researchers at CERN think they
have created and stored thousands of antiatoms in a particle trap. The researchers first used
powerful magnetic fields to trap antiprotons then exposed this to a beam of positrons.
Initial results indicate that at least some of the antiparticles have bound together to
become neutral antihydrogen atoms. How cool is that?
- Phobia List - If you're looking for a phobia name that's not
on the list...........Sorry, but I don't have it :P
- When Will TV Come to a PDA or Cell Phone Near You? - Despite all
the hype about convergence and the push to combine many devices into one,
manufacturers are not likely to see value in merging the portable TV with the mobile phone
and the PDA - even though such a device is technically feasible. Design problems would
very likely derail those plans from the get-go.
- Nigerian Money Scams Thrive On The Internet - The arrival of
Internet cafes in Nigeria a few years ago has given new life to an old scam that's
been bleeding millions of dollars annually from gullible Americans and Europeans, experts
say.
- Old-school hacker Mitnick sees new tricks - Labeled
a 'computer terrorist' by the FBI, Kevin Mitnick hacked into the networks of Sun and
others in the early 1990s. Now he's checking out the new wave at the RSA
security confab.
- Tripod account hijack risk patched - Lycos has patched a gaping
security hole with its Tripod homepage service which would have allowed crackers to
bypass authentication checks and control a victim's homepage.
- SNMP exploit causes printers to jam - A denial of service
vulnerability has been reported
in some versions of the firmware for Hewlett-Packard JetDirect printers.
- Mass ICQ 'hack' baffles world+dog - A Register reader
last week discovered that both of his accounts had suddenly become disconnected and
the passwords no longer work. The email addresses for both accounts were changed to '[email protected]'.
- Game makers tie up for graphics board - Sega Corp., Namco Ltd.
and Nintendo Co. announced Monday they have teamed up to
develop a computer graphics board for commercial use based on Nintendo's popular
GameCube console. The Triforce board will be able to run three-dimensional graphics
software for home entertainment video games and similar products based on the technology
that powers Nintendo's console, they said in a joint statement.
- Socket-A Chipset Roundup - Guys at TechReport
rounded up as many of the KT333's competitors as they could muster, and they have
tested no less than seven different chipsets-including the SiS 745 and NVIDIA's nForce-in
nine different configurations. So which chipset is the best match for that shiny, new
Athlon XP processor you've been eyeing?
- Athlon XP unlocking - not so easy - If I should ever come to
unlock a second CPU I would probably complete the job in well under an hour, but anyone
undertaking this process for the first time will undoubtedly be risking their precious
chip. For these people I feel that a more measured perspective is required.
- PC3000 DDR366 RAM Review - AMD Athlon processors received a huge
boost in performance when the motherboard manufacturers transitioned from SDRRAM based
systems to DDR. Regardless of the gains PC1600 DDR and PC2100 first brought to the table,
the performance market craved more, and shortly thereafter PC2400 and PC2700 rated DDR
began to pop up. Sooner or later, even the mighty PC2700 DDR333 would be surpassed by
something better and faster. The next level in DDR memory was met by PC3000, or
DDR366. Priced at about $90USD for a 256MB stick, it's some of the least expensive
high performance DDR DIMM's available.
- LaCie 60GB External FireWire HDD Review - Tweakers Australia has
posted a review of the LaCie 60GB External FireWire HDD.
- Emergency Management Services 1.0 - Windows .NET Server also
provides Emergency Management Services (EMS); this service allows the
administrator to interact with a system that might not be available through the usual
network mechanisms.
- SQL Server 2000 Security Update For SP2 - Unchecked Buffer May
Occur When You Connect to Remote Data Source, download patch.
- SQL Server 7.0 Security Update For SP3 - Unchecked Buffer May
Occur When You Connect to Remote Data Source, download patch.
- Update your Antivirus! - There's still plenty of virus around,
so don't forget to update your Kaspersky (AVP), Norton
Antivirus, McAfeeVirusScan
and others.
- GNOME 2.0 Beta - The first public beta release of the
GNOME 2.0 Desktop is ready for your testing pleasure! It is available for immediate
download here.
- Mandrake 8.2 Beta 3 - Mandrake
Linux is a powerful operating system that is available for many platforms: 32 bit
processors such as Intel Pentium, AMD Athlon, PowerPC; and 64 bit processors such as Intel
Itanium, SPARC, AXP.
- Google Toolbar v1.1.53 - 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.
- PowerStrip 3.12 Build 255 Beta - PowerStrip provides advanced, multi-monitor, programmable hardware
support to a wide range of graphics cards - from the venerable Matrox Millennium I to the
latest Radeon 8500DV and GeForce3 Ti500.
- Hot CPU Tester v3.1 Lite - Hot CPU Tester Pro is a system health and stability tester. It tests
CPU, chipset and virtually all parts of motherboard for errors/bugs, defective parts and
components. It is a burn-in test with uniquely designed state of the art DefectTech
engine.
- WinMX v3.0 beta 5 - WinMX is a file-sharing
program. In addition to letting you share MP3s and other types of files.
- Trillian v0.725 - This latest release fixes the recent AOL outage and a few other
things. We've also improved auto-update a bit more; we can now trigger download
notifications on a per-DLL basis.
- WinStyles 0.97 - WinStyles is a program that lets all of your Object Desktop components
work together to create a single super theme. A WinStyles theme (known as a .xptheme) can
contain WindowBlinds skins, IconPackager packages, DesktopX themes, ObjectBar themes,
CursorXP cursors, wallpapers, screensavers, media player skins, WinAmp, and much more.
- CPU Toast - Toast is a utility used to torture test and burn
in your CPU. Before using this software you should have a decent temperature monitor
and a good cooling system in place otherwise you could risk damaging your CPU.
- WinLauncherXP 2.0.4 Beta - WinLauncherXP is a free
application launcher for Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
- Asus Bios Updates - Asus has released the follow
bios updates: Bios TUV4X 1004 - 07A Beta, Bios A7V266 1007 - 02 Beta, Bios A7V266-E
1007 - 02 Beta, Bios A7V266-EX 1007 - 02 Beta, Bios A7V266-M 1007 - 02 Beta.
- Sparkle Nvidia Detonators v27.30 - Download Sparkle Nvidia Detonator 27.30 for 9x/ME / Sparkle Nvidia Detonator 27.20 for XP/2k
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Updated:09:29 PM CEST Jun,22
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