Nightly Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 03:00 AM CEST - Oct,16 2003
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- Security Flaw Found in Hotmail - The new security flaw, known as a
cross-site scripting vulnerability,
could be used to create an Internet worm that steals e-mail addresses from
Hotmail users' accounts, captures credit card numbers, or installs Trojan
horse programs, Finjan said. The vulnerability exists in the way that Hotmail
treats e-mail containing ActiveX controls, which are small, portable pieces of
software code that enable programmers to embed sophisticated user interface
elements into Web pages for use over a corporate intranet or the Internet.
Hotmail content filters do not adequately block e-mail messages containing the
controls, Finjan said.
- DoS attack warning for Windows 2000/XP - ISS warned that the flaw
affects PCs even with the most current Windows patches installed, including
computers patched against the devastating RPC flaw described in Microsoft
Security Bulletin
MS03-039. According to ISS, the DoS vulnerability exists by exploiting the
race condition,
allowing attackers to crash the Microsoft RPC service and/or force vulnerable
systems to reboot. But the firm added that "significant barriers exist"
which may prevent reliable exploitation outside controlled lab conditions. ISS
said that Microsoft has not yet released a patch for the vulnerability, and
urged network administrators to assess external exposure to vulnerabilities
associated with Microsoft services running on ports 135, 137, 138, 139, 445
and 593 on both the network perimeter and VPN connections.
- Microsoft releases monthly security fixes - Microsoft released
its
first monthly security update on Wednesday, following a new schedule that
attempts to ease the load on overburdened system administrators. The
first update consists of five vulnerabilities
824141 /
825119 /
828035 /
826232
(Win2k only)/
823182)
deemed "critical" by the software giant, the top rating that Microsoft
assigns to security flaws,
Microsoft pushes up XP security upgrade - At the Citrix iForum in
Florida on Tuesday, Microsoft's corporate vice president of content, Richard
Kaplan, who is in charge of the Microsoft.com and Windows Update Web sites,
told delegates
that
Windows XP SP2 would be available by the end of the year. The service pack
was originally planned for this year, but had been put back to 2004.
Off-topic: China prepares to welcome first space hero -
China's first ever astronaut is scheduled to return to Earth at about 0600
Chinese time on Thursday (2200 GMT, Wednesday), after 21 hours orbiting
the Earth. The parachute-assisted landing should bring the Shenzhou V ("divine
vessel") spacecraft carrying Yang Liwei to touch down in the Gobi desert.
China became only the third nation to send a man into space when 38-year-old
lieutenant colonel Yang was launched at 0100 GMT on Wednesday. His craft
entered orbit 10 minutes later.
Efficeon TM8000 processor Launched -
Transmeta today launched the Efficeon TM8000 processor, a new
high-performance low-power x86-compatible CPU. This processor is aimed at
ultra-portable deviced and mainstream laptops, they also suggest usage in
tabled PC's, ultra-presonal computers, silent computers. This processor stays
within the thermal limit of 7W, so it can be used in fanless computer system
designs. Efficeon is a high-performance, low-power x86-compatible processor,
based upon a new silicon microarchitecture and also a redesigned version of
Transmeta's Code MorphingR Software. The microarchitecture is based on a
256-bit VLIW (Very Long Instruction Word) processor that can issue up to 8
internal instructions per clock cycle. When combined with the new Efficeon
Code Morphing Software, it provides full compatibility with modern x86
software, including MMX, SSE and SSE2 multimedia instructions.
Maxtor Technique Pushes Hard Drive Capacity - Perpendicular
recording is not a new concept, and it's not unique to Maxtor. But the
announcement is significant because the company claims it can incorporate the
new technology without retooling its manufacturing process or raising costs
significantly. Maxtor is not yet disclosing plans to produce disks with the
new technology, but executives at MMC say it could occur by the end of 2004.
Initial capacities could reach 175GB per hard drive platter--up from 80GB per
platter today, says MMC vice president of research and development Ken
Johnson. (Competitor Seagate recently announced 100GB platters.) Maxtor is
currently the capacity leader in desktop-style (ATA) hard drives--using four
platters to produce a 300GB drive.
With 175GB platters, 700GB drives would be possible.
WiMax Promises Broadband Breakthrough - WiMax, also known as
802.16a, is a wireless networking standard that offers greater range and
bandwidth than the Wi-Fi family of standards, which includes 802.11a, 802.11b,
and 802.11g. Whereas Wi-Fi is intended to provide coverage within a relatively
small area, such as an office or a hotspot,
WiMax can transfer data at around 70 megabits per second over a distance
of 30 miles to thousands of users from a single base station.
Is Bluetooth Dead? -
According to EETiemes, Bluetooth is toast, finished, over. Stick a fork in
it. It's done.
New Internet speed record set - CERN, whose laboratories straddle
the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva,
said it had sent 1.1 Terabytes of data at 5.44 gigabits a second (Gbps) to
a lab at the California Institute of Technology, or Caltech, on October 1.
This is more than 20,000 times faster than a typical home broadband
connection, and is also equivalent to transferring a 60-minute compact disc
within one second -- an operation that takes around eight minutes on standard
broadband.
AMD sets date for son of Opteron - The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based
company
is
"working like crazy" on the K9, an underlying architecture, or blueprint,
for a new generation of chips, said Fred Weber, chief technology officer of
AMD's computational products group, during an interview at the Microprocessor
Forum here Wednesday. Chips based on the K9 architecture will likely be
released--at least in sample quantities--by the second half of 2005, Weber
said. AMD engineer Randy Allen is overseeing the project.
Microsoft adds new flavors of server OS - The software maker said
it has
started allowing some developers access to a test, or beta, version of
Windows Server 2003 for 64-bit extended systems that support the AMD64
architecture. A public beta is planned soon, although release of the final
version has been pushed back until the second half of 2004.
Bill Gates: "Longhorn is going to be late" - Bill Gates yesterday
confirmed that there is no official release date yet for the next version of
Windows, named Longhorn. "Longhorn
could be 2005 or 2006," Gates told a small group of journalists yesterday
at the TechNet/MSDN seminar in The Hague. "This release is going to be driven
by technology, not by a release date. Which probably means it is going to be
late."
IDF Taiwan : PCI Express Galore - VR-Zone has posted
a sneak peek on
some of the interesting stuffs showcased during IDF Taiwan.
ATI TV WonderT Pro Remote Control Edition Card (video-review) - 3D
Game Man has posted
a video-review of ATI TV WonderT Pro Remote Control Edition Card.
Radeon 9600 XT vs. GeForce FX 5700 - Hexus.net has posted
a new review of Radeon 9600 XT video card. The review includes benchmarks
for Nvidia's NV36 aka GeForce FX 5700 (Detonators 52.16) against ATI's 9600XT
(Catalyst 3.8 ) using 3DMark2001SE v330 , 3DMark03 v330 , Quake 3 v1.30 ,
Aquamark 3 and Unreal Tournament 2003.
NVIDIA nForce3 120 Preview -
The nForce3 120 will be featured in the new, super-cool,
every-geek's-dream-gadget, Ultra Portable Computers (UPC).
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro Volt Modification Guide -
Madshrimps take the ATI Radeon 9800pro graphic's card under their wings
and give it a few tweaks and modifications to push it far beyond any graphic's
card currently on the market to take your PC gaming over the edge.
BIOS Guide Revision 8.0 Interim Release 5 - Adrian let us know he
has updated his premier
BIOS
optimization guide to 8.0 Interim Release 5.
Security Update for Microsoft Windows (KB824141) -
A vulnerability exists (WinXP
patch) because the ListBox control and the ComboBox control both call a
function, which is located in the User32.dll file, that contains a buffer
overrun.
Update Rollup 1 for Microsoft Windows XP (KB826939) -
Microsoft
has released Update Rollup 1 (download)
for Microsoft Windows XP. An update rollup is a cumulative set of hotfixes,
security patches, critical updates, and updates that are packaged together for
easy deployment. Update Rollup 1 for Windows XP is a single package that
includes many previously released critical updates for Windows XP.
Easy CD-DA Extractor 6.2.0 -
Easy CD-DA
extractor make great-sounding direct digital copies from audio compact
discs with Easy CD-DA Extractor. Easy CD-DA Extractor includes tools for
direct digital audio copying from Audio CDs, file format conversions, and
Audio CD recording.
Mozilla 1.5 Final -
Mozilla is
an open-source Web browser, designed for standards compliance, performance and
portability. New Features and FixesMozilla now includes a spellchecker for
MailNews and Composer (what's
new)
Firebird 0.7 Final -
Mozilla Firebird is a speedy, full-featured browser that makes browsing
more efficient than ever before.
Thunderbird 0.3 Final -
Mozilla Thunderbird is a redesign of the Mozilla mail component.
Thunderbird focused solely on stand alone mail. The focus of this third
milestone release is on bug fixing and performance.
CPU-Z 1.20 -
CPU-Z is
a diagnostic tool that provides all information on your CPU, including:
processor name and vendor, core stepping and process, processor package,
internal and external clocks, clock multiplier, etc.
RAR 3.20 for Pocket PC -
Pocket RAR is a version of the RAR archiver for the Pocket PC 2002
platform.
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Updated:03:04 PM CEST Jun,20
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