Friday Tech Madness - tech
(hx) 01:16 PM CET - Dec,19 2003
- Post a comment / read (2)
- Open source firm releases patch for IE spoofing flaw - An open
source and freeware software development
web site has released a patch (download)
to fix the URL spoofing vulnerability in Internet Explorer, which can be
exploited by scammers who try to trick people into revealing details of online
banking accounts or other private information. Openwares.org, a Vaunatian
company, with branches in Israel, the US and France, released the patch and
the source code for the same a couple of days back. The company has also set
up two pages where users can test to see if they are vulnerable to the
exploit, one a fake Microsoft Update example and the other an example of a
fake PayPal site.
- Off-topic: First private rocket ship goes supersonic -
The first piloted and rocket-powered craft to have been developed by a
private company made its maiden flight on Wednesday, over the Mojave desert in
California. The craft, called Space Ship One (SS1), also become the first such
craft to break the sound barrier, reaching a top speed of 930 mph (1490 km/h).
The flight, exactly 100 years after the Wright brothers made their historic
flight, marks a big step to winning the $10 million X Prize for private
spaceflight.
- Wal-Mart Music Download Service Launches - Wal-Mart launched their
music download
service yesterday. They are providing wma files for 88 cents.
- The big PC giveaway - UK start-up Metronomy has joined forces with
IBM to offer free
PCs to UK consumers in exchange for watching 90 minutes of advertising
every month. Users must watch three minutes of advertising for every hour the
PC is used. And households will have to use their PC for a minimum of 30 hours
per month, which equates to an average household of four each using the PC for
15 minutes every day. The computer must also connect to the internet at least
once a month to confirm that the ads have been watched.
- DVD drive marries red and blue lasers - NEC has developed
technology to record and read both current and next-generation DVDs with a
single optical head, adding to the momentum of blue-laser DVD products.
NEC said Thursday that its
new optical head combines both blue and red lasers. Red lasers are used in
today's DVD players and recorders. Blue lasers can be used to read and write
greater amounts of data on discs, according to NEC.
- ATI to mass produce R420 graphics chip in 1Q - ATI Technologies is
expected to
enter volume production of its R420 graphics chip core as early as the end
of the first quarter, according to local industry sources. The R420 will be
fabricated at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) using a low-k
process technology. The graphics chip core is expected to boast 160 million
transistors and support an AGP 8x bus and GDDR3 memory architecture. The
product name is currently unknown. Nvidia is expected to launch its comparable
product (the NV40) around the same time. Not much is known about the NV40,
except that it will also support the AGP 8x bus and be made using a
0.13-micron process.
- AMD introduces budget Athlon 64 -
The new Athlon 64 3000+ runs at 2GHz, the same as the existing Athlon 64
3200+, but it only comes with a 512KB secondary cache, according to an AMD
spokesman. The 3200+ features a 1MB cache. A cache is a pool of memory
integrated into the processor for rapid data access. In general, large caches
lead to better performance. AMD, however, prices the Athlon 64 3000+ at $218
in quantities of 1,000 while the 3200+ sells for $418. At AMD, the new chip is
known as the "A-Rod," a reference to baseball player Alex Rodriguez. The chip
was released earlier this week.
- NVIDIA to Bring Firewall Capabilities in its Next Chipsets -
NVIDIA will add firewall capabilities into its Athlon 64-supporting chipsets
due next year. The move’s key aim is to provide more security for enterprises
adopting 64-bit technology from Advanced Micro Devices. Sources close to
NVIDIA’s partners said firewall capabilities will be present in some of the
company’s core-logic products, including in code-named CK8-04 that will be
mass produced in the third quarter 2004 and the CK8S2. The former is
anticipated to be a single-chip logic that will boast with support for PCI
Express x16 (PEG x16), PCI Express x2 as well as 10 USB 2.0 ports. The latter
– CK8S2 – will be a version of nForce3 250 designed for Socket 939 processors.
It is not fully clear whether NVIDIA’s firewall technology utilises both
hardware and software means, or will rely fully on silicon, not software.
- Athlon 64 3000+ Performance Review - In conclusion the
Athlon 64 3000+ is one of the best CPUs AMD has never announced. It makes
a sub $1,000 system that is 64 bit capable easy to reach, and is able to
perform quite admirably even with half of the cache of the other AMD64 CPUs.
Will AMD make more 512kb cache Athlon 64s in the near future? How long will
Socket 754 continue? Is this 3000+ an overclocker of merit? Stay tuned. For
now if you have been craving for a powerful and cheap system with 64 bit
onboard then the Athlon 64 3000+ is your CPU. It has no competition in its
class, and likely will not for months to come.
- DeltaChrome S8: First look -
The chips in the DeltaChrome line are all DirectX 9 compatible and include
full support for pixel and vertex shader versions 2.0. Pixel shader precision
maxes out at 96 bits per pixel, or 24 bits of precision for each of the red,
green, and blue color channels, just like ATI's R3x0 graphics chips.
DeltaChrome's pixel shaders support 128 color instructions per pass, with up
to 32 texture instructions and 16 texture lookups, but they can't branch and
loop like NVIDIA's flexible GeForce FX pixel shaders. DeltaChrome's pixel
shaders do, however, support per-pixel gamma correction.
- External Hard Disks from Maxtor and Seagate Get Mobile (And Attractive)
- The latest generation models not only look good, they are also more
intelligent - and they come with up-to-the-minute features such as one-touch
backup.
THG tested the OneTouch from Maxtor and the External Hard Drive from Seagate.
- Creative 3D Blaster 5 FX5900 review - NVNews has posted
a review on the Creative 3D Blaster 5 FX5900 video card.
- Sapphire Radeon 9600XT - For those who have been looking for
performance on a budget, the recent release of the Radeon 9600XT was a true
blessing.
TweakTown take a look at the Sapphire version of this very VPU.
- Designtechnica's 2003 Holiday Gift Guide - Designtechnica has
posted
a holiday gift guide.
Linux 2.6 kernel released - A major update to the
Linux
kernel, version 2.6.0, has been released. The new version of the
core, or kernel, of Linux has several changes that make it better suited to
powerful computers with numerous processors, a market dominated today by
servers running versions of the Unix operating system on which Linux is based.
Windows XP SP2 Beta Build 2055 Released - Microsoft released
their latest SP2 in the form of a beta this evening. Newsgroups are live
for testers and after some initial problems every tester is now able to
install and download the various bits. The build is 5.1.2600.2055 (XP SP_2
Beta 1.031215-1745).
Microsoft IE Security Patch -
This patch addresses a vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Explorer that
could allow Hackers and con-artists to to display a fake URL in the address
and status bars. The vulnerability is caused due to an input validation error,
which can be exploited by including the "%01" and "%00" URL encoded
representations after the username and right before the "@" character in an
URL. Successful exploitation allows a malicious person to display an arbitrary
FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name) in the address and status bars, which is
different from the actual location of the page.
Style XP 2.0 Beta 4 -
Style XP (download)
is theming software that helps customize the way your Windows XP, Windows XP
Service Pack 1, Tablet PC, or Server 2003 system looks. Style XP can manage
and rotate themes, visual styles, backgrounds, and logons, which are freely
available at ThemeXP.
QuickTime 6.5 -
QuickTime (11.7MB) is Apple's cutting-edge digital media software for both
Mac and Windows-based computers delivers unparalleled quality for creating,
playing and streaming audio and video content over the Internet. Besides
playing MPEG-4 and MP3 content, it supports timecode tracks as well as MIDI
standards such as the Roland Sound Canvas and GS format extensions.
Acrobat Reader 6.0.1 - Adobe has updated their
Acrobat Reader program to version 6.0.1 (download).
Adobe Reader is free and freely distributable software that lets you view and
print Portable Document Format (PDF) files. Adobe Reader also lets you fill in
and submit PDF forms online.
Windows Startup Inspector 205 beta -
Windows Startup
Inspector is a Windowst platform software that helps Windows user to
manage Windows startup applications. On www.windowsstartup.com, there are more
than 3,400 known programs in the database. Windows Startup Inspector can thus
provide a consultative information on the programs that are running at your
Windows startup process. Whether a program is necessary to the system, or is
the program a spyware.
FeedDemon 1.0 -
FeedDemon enables you
to quickly explore the world of RSS from your desktop without having to visit
hundreds of sites. Written by Nick Bradbury, creator of TopStyle and HomeSite,
FeedDemon makes RSS as easy to access as your email.
ExtractNow 3.56 -
ExtractNow lets you extract multiple archives with the ease of a singular
button. Supports ZIP, RAR, ACE, & JAR file formats.
Fresh UI 6.75 -
Fresh UI (download)
is the fresh solution for configuring and optimizing Windows. Loaded with
hundreds of useful hidden settings, this software covers the customizing and
optimizing technique that you'll be glad to know.
HWiNFO32 v1.34 -
HardwareInfo32 is a powerful system information utility designed
especially for detection of hardware.
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Updated:03:04 PM CEST Jun,20
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