Nightly Tech Madness - tech
(hx) 03:42 AM CEST - Oct,12 2004
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- New IM Worm On The Loose -A
new worm that spreads via Microsoft's instant messaging client began
badgering users Monday, several security firms said. Dubbed Funner, the worm
propagates by sending itself to all the contacts listed in the user's copy of
MSN Messenger, Microsoft's IM client. According to Symantec's alert, Funner
may also try to contact a domain -- www.78p.com -- to download additional
components. Other than reproducing, Funner's main purpose seems to be to
modify Windows' Hosts file on the compromised machine so that attempts to
contact any of some 937 sites -- many of them Asian porn sites -- will be
redirected to the IP address that matches 78p.com. That Web site, however, was
offline as of mid-morning Monday.
- FTC Sues Alleged Spyware Distributors - The U.S. Federal Trade
Commission last week
filed a legal complaint against two companies that allegedly infected
computers with spyware and pop-up advertising, then tried to sell their owners
spyware-blocking software. The FTC filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in
New Hampshire asking for an injunction against Sanford Wallace, owner or
president of Seismic Entertainment Products, based in Rochester, New
Hampshire, and SmartBot.Net, based in Richboro, Pennsylvania.
- BitTorrent menaces Hollywood's DVD profits - A radical new
technology threatens to do to Hollywood what Napster did to the music
industry.
It's called BitTorrent and is much faster than other file-swapping
software used to exchange movies and music over the Internet. In fact,
BitTorrent can transfer a feature-length film in about two hours - a fraction
of the 12 hours it typically takes with file-sharing services like Kazaa.
- Off-topic: Poll of 100 worst jobs puts IT manager third - Computing
reports on
a survey
looking for the UK's worst jobs!
- Off-topic: 3Dsolar Ltd Introduces Holographic-like 360-Degree 3D
Imaging Hardware and Screen Technology - 3Dsolar Ltd. display devices are
set to transform the way individuals experience multimedia content both at
work and home. For the very first time,
computer users
will be able to view 3D objects hovering a few inches away from a screen
that rotates 360 degrees - without wearing glasses. The stand-out feature is
the way users will be able to manipulate the virtual image directly with their
hands as they would a real object.
- MySQL To Use Open-Source Microsoft Toolset - The next release of
the
MySQL database server will include a Windows installer based on an
open-source toolset released by Microsoft earlier this year. The upcoming
MySQL 4.1 release will, according to documentation on the group's Web site,
use the latest version of the Microsoft Windows Installer (MSI) available for
the Windows 200 and XP operating systems. As part of the installation package,
MySQL will make use of the Windows Installer XML (WiX) toolset, released as
Microsoft's first open-source contribution earlier this year.
- Kazaa loses role as P2P king - According to BayTSP, a California
firm that monitors file-swapping networks on behalf of entertainment
companies, Kazaa rival
eDonkey was the most widely used peer-to-peer application last month.
- High end card shortage due to lack of GDDR3 - Sources withing
graphic industry
confirmed
that delays of high end graphics cards are being heavily affected by a
shortage of high clocked GDDR 3 memory.
- Motorola sinks TV dreams - Motorola has scrapped an alliance with
Moxell Technology to bring
Motorola-branded plasma TVs, LCD TVs and monitors to North America and
China, a nation where Motorola enjoys high recognition and brand awareness.
The TVs and screens had been expected to come out in the middle of this year.
Motorola showed off 15 different models ranging in size from 13 inches to 47
inches at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.
- AMD's 90nm Athlon 64 Have Equal Performances to 130nm Chips -
An AMD representative denied any substantial architectural tweaks of AMD
Athlon 64 processors manufactured 90nm fabrication technology on Monday,
rejecting the rumors about higher performance of AMD64 parts produced using
more advanced process technology compared to 130nm parts. According to AMD's
web-site, the company's lineup of 64-bit desktop processors include chips that
are made using 90nm Silicon-on-Insulator process technology. Currently the
company lists there microprocessors rated at 3800+, 3700+ 3500+, 3400+, 3200+
and 3000+ for Socket 754 and Socket 939 infrastructure. Such chips function
from 1.80GHz to 2.40GHz clock-speeds.
- Athlon 64 3200+ 90nm review - I have absolutely
no hesitation in recommending this CPU to anyone considering an upgrade at
this time. I feel that the stars have aligned, so to speak, to make this my
recommended CPU for most persons upgrading their computers. Finally, we have
motherboards that can scale to high HTT speeds giving the newer more
overclockable Athlon64 Socket 939 chips long legs on which to run. New
performance memory from companies such as OCZ, Corsair, Kingston, Mushkin, and
G.SKILL (a relatively newcomer to the performance scene) are providing ram
modules that allow us to not only maintain livable latency but scale to
impressive MHz levels.
- SimpleTech PC3700 Nitro Series Memory review - CoolTechZone has
posted
a review of SimpleTech PC3700 Nitro Series Memory.
- Socket 939 Motherboards - MSI and nVidia vs. ABIT and VIA - With
regard to price,
both of our competitors today fall into the same category. The MSI board
as tested can be found online for around US$139 while the ABIT board can be
had for around US$129 as shown on DealTime. Considering the pricing of most
modern motherboards (regardless of chipset and processor support), these
boards will fare well against other possibilities on the market.
- Leadtek WinFast A400 Ultra TDH: GeForce 6800 Ultra review - Unique
Hardware
take a look at the Leadtek WinFast A400 Ultra TDH: GeForce 6800 Ultra
video card
- MSI FX5700 128MB DVI Graphics Card review - Aftermath Reviews
take a look at the MSI FX5700 128MB DVI Graphics Card.
- Plextor 12X SATA Drive 712SA review - HardwareHell
take a look at the Plextor 12X SATA Drive 712SA.
- 16x DVD+-RW Double Layer DVD Writer Comparison Guide - ExtremeMhz
take a look at four of the top 16x drives to hit the market, the Pioneer
DVR-108, NEC ND3500A, Lite-On SOHW-1633s and the new LG GSA-4160B.
- Adobe Reader SpeedUp 1.30 -
Adobe
Reader SpeedUp (download)
is a simple application that was created to help make the loading time of
Adobe's Acrobat/Reader software bearable for everyday use.
- Logitech X-530 Speakers review - CoolTechZone has posted
a review of the Logitech X-530 Speakers.
- D-Link Home Networking Kit review - MHW has published
a review of the D-Link home networking solution, this includes router,
wireless cardbus adapter, switch, and PCI network adapter.
- Samsung SGH-E800 / E800C / E808 Dual Band Mobile Phone review -
The phone has a LCD screen size of 1.72" with 65K colours. The camera lens
is a 300K pixel VGA camera which takes pretty good images considering it a
CMOS camera. (check out page 3 for photos taken off the camera). The phone
also comes with 20MB of memory for you to store your captured images and ring
tones.
- ATI Radeon to ATI FireGL Mod Guide Rev. 4.0 - Adrian's Rojak Pot
has posted
rev. 4.0 of his ATI Radeon to ATI FireGL Mod Guide.
- A Windows XP Optimization Guide v1.7.8 -
This guide will help you improve your overall system performance. I avoid
using or recommending "all-in-one" Windows XP Tweak programs since many
blindly adjust settings that have no affect on performance and can cause
future problems..
- Counter-Strike: Source - DirectX9 vs DirectX8 - The chaps over at
Newgenerationorder.org have
tested
the quality and performance differences between DirectX8 and DirectX9
engines.
- WindowSizer 1.4 -
WindowSizer,
intelligent window management for Microsoft Windows, now allows you to create
multiple tiled layouts and switch among them. Think of it as "Alt-Tabbing"
through groups of windows at a time. The just released 1.4 version also has a
command to quickly tile the last two, three, or four windows you were working
with. Use WindowSizer through its right-click menu or keyboard shortcuts.
- CCProxy 6.2 -
Proxy
Server CCProxy (download)
lets all computers on the LAN access Internet through one single Internet
connection. Just need to install Proxy Server CCProxy on the server which can
access Internet directly and the other PC clients can connect to the Internet
through the proxy software
- ICQ Lite Edition 4.01 Build 1837 -
ICQ Lite (release
note) has all the essential features of the full version of ICQ. You can
message people, exchange files, send SMS messages, and meet people. It also
includes multilingual support, the ability to save your chat histories, and a
typing indicator that shows when a contact is typing you a message.
- GAIM 1.0.1 -
Gaim (download
~ changelog)
is a multi-protocol instant messaging client for Linux, BSD, MacOS X, and
Windows. It is compatible with AIM (Oscar and TOC protocols), ICQ, MSN
Messenger, Yahoo, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, and Zephyr networks.
- AIM Fix 1.0 (Updated) -
AIM Fix was created to
remove all known AIM viruses in one consolidated removal tool. It is designed
to end the virus processes, delete the files, and remove registry keys created
by the virus.
- SPAMfighter Standard 3.0.6 - If you are looking for
a tool to remove spam
from your inbox, look no further. Spamfighter is the tool you are looking
for. Simple, reliable, and efficient. Spamfighter is using the power of more
than 450.000 people that instantly report if they receive a spam mail.
- BHODemon 2.0.0.19 - Think of
BHODemon as a guardian for your Internet browser: it protects you from
unknown Browser Helper Objects (BHOs), by letting you enable/disable them
individually. BHODemon is free, runs in the tray area, and works on Windows 95
or later operating systems.
- Nero CD-DVD Speed 3.40 -
Nero CD-DVD Speed is a benchmark which can test the most important
features of an optical drive. These tests include: Transfer rate, Seek times,
CPU (Central Processing Unit) usage, Burst rate, DAE (Digital Audio
Extraction) quality & Spinup/spindown time. It can also check the CD (Compact
Disk) and DVD (Digital Versatile Disk) media quality.
- CPUCooL 7.3.2 -
CPUCooL (download)
is a program that monitors temperature, fan speed, and voltages for many
motherboards. It provides Cpu cooling under Win9x/2000/XP/NT, allows
FrontSideBus changing, optimizes your memory and CPU.
- Hardware Sensors Monitor 4.1.4.5 -
Hardware Sensors Monitor
(download) allows you to
check the temperature of any component on your computer that provides a
temperature sensor, as well as fan speeds and voltages.
- 3dfx Voodoo 3/4/5 alpha 14 (SFFT) -
These drivers are Windows 2000/XP compatible and I've recompressed the
archive towards 1,7 MB. The archive has both Windows 2000/XP drivers for 3dfx
Voodoo 3, 4 and 5 graphics cards.
- nForce BETA Audio Driver 4.54 leaked -
Check it out!
(mirror)
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Updated:01:06 AM CEST Jun,06
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