SECURITY...

• Fake Microsoft Patch Triggers Virus Attack - The file is actually an executable for a variant of W32.Pinfi, a memory-resident polymorphic virus capable of replicated via mapped drives and network shares. The Pinfi virus, also known as Pate or Parite, has been programmed to infect every PE and SCR file on every drive and network share.
• Microsoft confirms TCP/IP flaw - Microsoft on Wednesday issued one of its first Microsoft Security Advisories, responding to reports of a flaw in Windows that could allow DoS attacks. In the advisory, Microsoft acknowledges the issue. The software giant also says that the problem was fixed with a patch it released in April and that systems running Windows XP with Service Pack 2 and that Windows Server with Service Pack 1 are not vulnerable.
• Government says Wi-Fi networks not secure - A hacker on a park bench could log onto dozens of U.S. government computer networks thanks to slipshod security standards at many agencies, according to a congressional report released on Tuesday. The report by the Government Accountability Office found that few government agencies can ensure that their wireless networks are protected from unauthorized access.
• Securing Wireless LANs with PEAP and Passwords - This guidance provides step-by-step instructions for deploying wireless local access network (LAN) security for Microsoft Windows XP, and Pocket PC clients using the Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol (PEAP) and password authentication

OFFTOPIC...

• Cloned human embryos deliver tailored stem cells - Woo Suk Hwang, of Seoul National University, South Korea, and colleagues, used an improved technique for cloning embryos to create stem cell lines for 11 patients with various diseases or injuries. The lines exactly match the patients’ nuclear DNA and immune system.
• The most accurate clock of all time - Now Hidetoshi Katori and his colleagues at the University of Tokyo have come up with an elegant solution that combines the advantages of both systems. Katori uses six laser beams to create a pattern of standing electromagnetic waves. This creates a series of energy wells, each of which supports one strontium atom, in much the same way as each dimple in an egg box holds an egg (see Diagram). This prevents the electromagnetic fields of individual atoms interfering with those of their neighbours, and allows the oscillating signals of many atoms to be measured at once.
• New Star Wars Movie "Episode III - Revenge of the Sith" leaks out onto the internet - WinBeta.Org has learned that a workprint copy of the new movie Star Wars Episode III - Revenge of the Sith has leaked out onto the internet several hours ahead of it's debut in theatres across North America and the UK

TECHNOLOGY...

• Microsoft Developing Windows for Low-End Machines - Microsoft Corp. is working on a new Windows-based operating system designed to help companies make older machines run better. The software, code-named Eiger, will look and feel like much like Windows XP and will be equipped with Service Pack 2, a major security upgrade released last summer, said Barry Goffe, a group product manager for Microsoft's Windows client unit.
• Microsoft wins email technology patent - Microsoft has won a patent that could give the company control of certain essential features found in multiple email applications.  The company was granted US patent number 6,895,426 on Tuesday. The patent covers, "treating electronic mail addresses as objects". Among other uses of this patent, Microsoft claims the technologies lets email addresses be added to a contact list easily: it also covers situations in which a user copies an address to a clipboard or double-clicks to access contact information that is relevant to an email address.
• Game Boy Micro revealed - Nintendo has also revealed a tiny new addition to the Game Boy family. Measuring just four inches wide, two inches tall, and 0.7 inches thick, the 2.8 ounce Game Boy Micro is designed to fit comfortably into the pocket of your "tightest jeans."
• Google introduces personalized home pages - The feature, which has not yet been named, lets people with Gmail and other Google accounts create a home page with different modules that they can drag and drop across their page, giving them one place to go for e-mail, headlines, weather reports, maps, movie schedules and, of course, Web search.
• Google Launches Enterprise Desktop Search Tool - Google has released an enterprise-oriented version of its desktop search tool. Unlike the consumer version of Google Desktop Search, the enterprise version will not transmit any search information to Google.
• TDK develops 2X, 100GB Blu-ray Disc prototype - The disc, unveiled at a TDK exhibition in Tokyo this week, can record data at 72Mbps (bits per second), double the 36Mbps rate for current Blu-ray Discs. TDK increased the write speed by using a more powerful laser and making some changes to the material of the disc’s recording layer, said Nobuyuki Koike a spokesman for TDK. The first generation of Blu-ray discs can already record data faster than it is transmitted in high-definition TV broadcasts, so the faster recording speed isn’t needed there. But it will be advantageous when content is copied from a hard-disk drive to an optical disc for backup or archiving, said Koike.

HARDWARE... 

• Samsung creates 40" OLED display - Samsung has apparently developed a 40" Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) display panel that's less than an inch thick. The display has a widescreen resolution of 1280x800, 600 nits brightness, and a 5000:1 contrast ratio, but its most notable feature is really its size
• WD ships Caviar SATA-II hard drives - The platters on these puppies spin at 7,200 RPM, and seek times are cushioned by 16MB of onboard cache. A fast PC should be able to pull data from that cache at rates up to 300MB/s thanks to the SATA-II interface. Initial capacities look to be 160GB and 250GB, with the 250GB model ringing up at $199. WD will cover these drives with a three-year warranty, and they claim "noise levels are virtually below the threshold of human hearing."
• Nvidia G70 is a 90 nanometre chip - It turns out that the G70, also known as the Geforce series 7, is going to be a very similar chip to the just announced Playstation 3 chip. Nvidia is still keeping quiet about the final spec of the chip but we know it's a 90 nanometre chip and that it's likely that it will have at least 10MB of cache memory. ATI's Xbox 360 chip has exactly the same 10MB as you need to have enough buffer to render HDTV picture quality games. That's what the new consoles are all about.
• NVIDIA SLI guide part 3: GeForce 6800 and GeForce 6600 GT SLI game play evaluation - The GeForce 6600 GT SLI is a slightly more attractive proposition, in a number of ways. The performance differences between the GeForce 6600 GT SLI and a single GeForce 6800 GT are more in the favour of the GeForce 6800 GT than 6600 GT SLI, as you are guaranteed that performance, even if the title does not support SLI.
• MSI Megabook S250 - Unlike most notebooks, there's no port cluster on the rear edge of the unit. That space is where the removable battery lies for the Megabook S250, S260 and AMD-powered S270. Ports are therefore distributed along the sides and front. Down the left you've got the DVD rewriter's tray space, an integrated media reader slot that'll do SD, MMC and MemoryStick, USB2.0 port and a PC Card slot.
• DDR roundup - LostCircuits has posted a DDR-II Roundup
• Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 840 Dual-Core CPU - This CPU has dramatic power consumption which sets additional requirements to the voltage regulators designed for the mainboards supporting it as well as to the system PSUs. As a result, Pentium Extreme Edition 840 requires special cooling solutions. Besides, this processor will not work in old LGA775 mainboards and is compatible only with the limited number of solutions based on i955X and NVIDIA nForce4 SLI (Intel Edition).
• Athlon 64 4000+ - The Athlon64 4000+ outperformed a Pentium 4 540 by a 10-20% margin in real-life applications and games, with Hyperthreading disabled. That's a pretty impressive result, and the most astonishing achievement is how quickly AMD caught up to Intel in the memory access department.
• Sapphire Hybrid RADEON X800 XL 512MB (PCIe) - From our testing analysis, we don't see how a 512MB frame buffer based product from ATI would benefit you immediately unless you belong to the niche user group who go beyond the standard 4x FSAA settings and push the graphics card to its knees with 6x FSAA. Even then, you would have to be using pretty high resolutions to have any positive benefits.
• Seagate Barracuda 400GB 7200.8 - Viperlair take a look at be checking out Seagate's newest monster, the Barracuda 400GB 7200.8. As the name implies, the drive sports a massive 400GB capacity and if that sounds like overkill, think about it for a second.

GUIDES... 

• Powering Your PC: Truths and Misconceptions A Guide To Power Supplies - The complexity and function of a PC power supply makes choosing a brand / model a very important and tough decision. High-end video cards (especially in SLI setups) require a lot of current and stable voltages to operate properly. Many video cards are starting to use a dedicated power plug for additional 12V current. Processors also require a lot of current, and with dual-core chips appearing power consumption took a noticeable jump.
• ATI Catalyst 5.5 performance analysis - As usual it will go through our normal array of benchmarking to see what the latest release has done for us in terms of performance.

SOFTWARE...

• AMD Athlon 64 General Overclocking Guide - Mad Shrimps published an AMD Athlon 64 General Overclocking Guide.
• [MS Patch] Update for WinXP/2k/2003 - Install this update to address an issue that may cause a "Generic Host Process" error message to be displayed after you install security update MS05-012, or cause attachment file names not to be displayed in Rich Text e-mail messages.
• AutoPatcher XP May 2005 - AutoPatcher is a comprehensive collection of patches, addons and registry tweaks that give you peace of mind in the knowledge that your Windows system is up to date, even before you connect it to the Internet. It's designed to quickly patch a system with the most current updates and tweaks available, and requires no user interaction once you have selected what to install.
• RightMark Memory Analyzer 3.5 review - This article will be devoted to the review of this utility.
• InterVideo Offers demos - InterVideo (WinDVD maker) offers its MediaOne SE suite for download. For a limited time you can download the three packages (Package 1 (136 MB) MediaOne WinDVD Creator Silver; Package 2 (56 MB) MediaOne Disc Master Gold, PhotoAlbum Gold; Package 3 (30 MB) MediaOne Smart Backup) from the Intervideo website. Note: 14 uses until user has to register!  
• OpenBSD 3.7 - It's official: OpenBSD 3.7 has been released.
• MySQL 4.1.12 - A new version of MySQL 4.1.12 is available for download (changelog)
• Weather Pulse 2.05 Build 21 Beta - Weather Pulse is a powerful weather display program for the Internet. Display popular Satellite images from around the globe, share images with your friends and family, stay updated on current and expected weather conditions, it's just plain fun. Displays the current temperature in your Windows task tray with adjustable colors, border and fonts and much more.
• Portable Firefox 1.04 RC2 - Portable Firefox is a fully functional package of Firefox optimized for use on a USB key drive. It has some specially-selected optimizations to make it perform faster and extend the life of your USB key as well as a specialized launcher that will allow most of your favorite extensions to work as you switch computers. It will also work from a CDRW drive (in packet mode), ZIP drives, external hard drives, some MP3 players, flash RAM cards and more.
• Yahoo! Messenger Yahoo! Messenger 7.0.0.242 Beta - Yahoo!'s Instant Messenger (download) service has been updated again.
• Netscape 8.0 Final - Netscape 8.0 (download) is based on the Mozilla Foundation's Firefox code, but includes both the Firefox and Microsoft IE engines, officials with Dulles, Va.-based, AOL, a division of Time Warner Inc., said. The upgrade automatically switches between engines on each web site, depending on user preference or demands of the site.
• WinAmp 5.091 - Nullsoft Winamp (download) is a fast, flexible, high-fidelity media player for Windows.
• CCleaner 1.19.108 - CCleaner (Crap Cleaner) (download) is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history.