Nightly Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 02:38 AM CEST - Sep,30 2004
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- Summary of Security Items from September 22 through September 28, 2004
-
This bulletin provides a summary of new or updated vulnerabilities,
exploits, trends, viruses, and trojans. Updates to items appearing in previous
bulletins are listed in bold text. The text in the Risk column appears in red
for vulnerabilities ranking High.
- JPEG exploit could beat antivirus software - According to Mikko
Hypponen, director of antivirus research for F-Secure, antivirus software will
strain to find JPEG malware, because by default, it only searches for .exe
files. "Normal
antivirus software, by default, will not detect JPEGs," Hypponen said.
"You can set your antivirus scanner to look for JPEG, but the trouble is that
you can change the file extension on a JPEG to so many things." There
are about 11 file name extensions to which JPEGs can be changed, including
.icon or .jpg2. Hypponen said this would make finding malicious JPEGs even
more difficult; searching could take up a significant amount of valuable
processor power.
- Chinese IT student jailed for running XXX site - A 22-year-old
Chinese computer student has been
jailed for four years for running a porn site. State media reports that
the student - known only by his surname Xie - was arrested in July for
flogging XXX flicks. The court heard how Xie, a student at the east China's
Zhejiang University of Technology, had earned more than 160,000 yaun (L10,700)
from his porn site which attracted some 1,500 subscribers.
- File Traders Could Do Hard Time - Users of internet peer-to-peer
networks, already dodging lawsuits from the recording industry, could face up
to three years in prison under
a bill passed Tuesday by the U.S. House of Representatives. The House
voted to enlist the government to a greater degree in the entertainment
industry's fight against those who trade copies of its products over the
internet.
- Windows 2003 - Freezes at "Applying Computer Settings" -
There's currently a bug in Windows 2003 server which causes the computer
to essentially freeze at the "Applying Computer Settings" screen when logging
on.
- Off-topic: SpaceShipOne makes second flight into space in hunt for
X-Prize - SpaceShipOne dramatically rolled more than two dozen times as it
rocketed towards its target height of nearly 62 miles. Controllers and
spectators watched in horror as the craft, piloted by Mike Melvill, appeared
to spin out of control over California's Mojave Desert. But after reaching
sub-orbital space, Mr Melvill regained control and piloted the ship safely
back to Earth. SpaceShipOne was carried high into the air anchored beneath the
twin-engine White Knight craft. The two craft separated at around 50,000ft and
the space ship rocketed into space. It was the second time that SpaceShipOne –
the inspiration behind Richard Branson's dream of commercial space travel –
has reached sub-orbital space.
- Off-topic: IBM claims supercomputer speed crown - An IBM
supercomputer still under development has set an unofficial new world speed
record during testing, the company announced on Wednesday. IBM says its Blue
Gene/L, sited in Minnesota, US, attained a sustained performance of
36.01 teraflops when performing the standard benchmark used to test
supercomputers, known as the Linpack test.
- Microsoft gives official stance on next gen DirectX - Microsoft
has confirmed that the specification is almost completed, but as WGF will be
part of Longhorn
it is
definitely not finalised as a software product. Knowing Microsoft it needs
18 months from a beta until gold, and it still hasn't showed any beta. Bill
Gates said once that this beta will arrive in 2005.
- Sony Redesigns Network Walkman - Sony has
updated its hard drive-based Network Walkman with some design tweaks and a
lower price. The new model that will go on sale in October, the company says.
There are four main differences between the NW-HD2 and its predecessor, the
NW-HD1, although none of them are substantial. Sony's switch to blue and pink
follows a local market preference. Sony also changed the backlight color used
in the 1.5-inch LCD of its NW-HD2, from green to blue. The biggest technical
change is the ability to charge the player from the power cord by using a
small interface adapter.
- Scientists Invent 1TB Optical Discs -
The 1TB disk would be double sided and dual layer, but even a single
sided, single layer, MODS disk could hold the Lord of the Rings trilogy 13
times over, or all 238 episodes of Friends. MODS disks will not be the first
to challenge DVDs domination of the audiovisual optical disk market. BluRay
disks, which have five times the capacity of a DVD at 25GB per layer, are
expected to be released towards the end of 2005 for the home market.
- HD-DVD Standard Earns Approval - The DVD Forum has
approved the physical disc specifications for the rewritable version of
HD-DVDs (High Definition/High Density-DVDs), taking the format an important
step nearer to mass production. At a meeting in Taiwan on September 22, the
association approved version 1.0 of the HD-DVD-RW physical specification,
which covers a single-layer disc with a capacity of 20GB, Junko Furuta, a
Toshiba spokesperson says.
- Chip set pushes powerline networking rates to 85 Mbits/s - Intellon
is pushing up the data rate of home powerline networks with the release of a
new chip set
that delivers 85-Mbits/s throughputs. But, to date, the HomePlug crew has
still not adopted a formal HomePlug AV spec.
- ATI get dirty on GeForce 6600GT - Gamers-Depot recently
got their hands on some internal ATI documents that show how they really
feel about NVIDIA's 6600GT. These kinds of marketing materials aren't anything
new, and it should come as to no surprise to anyone that the sub-$200 dollar
market will perhaps be the most competitive between the two rivalries.
- SLI On 3DMark05! - NVIDIA announces
a top 3DMark05 score of 7229! The used 2 GeForce 6800 Ultra PCI-E cards in
SLI mode on a Intel Tumwater-System with Pentium4 3,4 GHz EE and NVIDIA
ForceWare 66.51
- Start-up OQO to launch hand-size PC -
OQO will launch its tiny computer Oct. 14 in San Francisco, according to
an invitation from the company. The upstart has created a full-fledged Windows
XP computer, called OQO model 01, that is about the same size and shape as a
Palm organizer or Pocket PC. The unit can also be inserted into a docking
station. The small size is possible, in part, because the computer runs on
1GHz Transmeta processors, which consume less energy than regular PC chips. It
comes with a 20GB hard drive and 256MB of memory.
- Intel unveils latest mobile chip -
The Pentium 4M
548 runs at 3.33GHz with 1MB Level 2 cache, and is built around Intel's
latest 90nanometre technology. It has 13 new streaming SIMD 3 extensions
designed to speed up multimedia processing.
- ABIT intros video card overclock tool - ABIT today launched its
first ATI-based graphics cards
to incorporate overclocking software derived from the code its ships with
its overclockable motherboards. The RX600 Pro-Guru, X600 Pro-HDTV and RX300
SE-Guru boards both ship with vGuru, the video version of ABIT's µGuru
overclocking utility. vGuru allows users to modify memory and core clock
speeds and voltages, and adjust fan speeds. It also provides diagnostic tools
to help fine-tune performance.
- 16.7 megapixel digital SLR with Wi-Fi preview -
Successor to the EOS-1Ds the Mark II maintains the 36 x 24 mm CMOS sensor
(full 35 mm frame size), raises the pixel count by almost six million pixels,
provides ISO sensitivity through to ISO 3200, faster continuous shooting (4
fps) with a large and improved buffer (32 JPEG, 11 RAW) as well as all of the
changes we saw between the EOS-1D to EOS-1D Mark II. Additionally Canon has
also announced the WFT-E1 Wireless Transmitter which supports 802.11b/g (WiFi)
as well as tethered LAN for transmission of images directly back to a server.
It will be priced L5,999 (UK), $7,999 (US) and EURO8,000 (Europe).
- DDR2 Roundup - Of the four modules we tested, we think that either
the
Corsair or the OCZ would be a good choice as they performed well at tigher
timings and are guranteed to work at higher speeds which will certainly help
in the longer run. However, that being said, you should probably be able to
pick the Kingmax and TwinMOS at a much lower price and considering the fact
that not much difference exists between the performance of these modules, they
dont seem to be a bad buy either. Although we still think that its too early
to jump to DDR2 and dont necessarily recommend it at this particualr time.
-
ATI Radeon 9250 shootout - So what's new in the RADEON
9250? Some people initially assumed that the RADEON 9250 is a DirectX 9
compliant VPU of the existing RADEON 9200 but that is actually the furthest
from the truth. Sadly,
there aren't any new features or for that matter, improvement in clock
speeds either.
- ASUS Extreme AX600XT vs. MSI PCX 5750 -
Each of these packages targets a different audience. The MSI PCX 5750 aims
to capture the gamer on a budget, offering a modest card and a terrific
collection of games with some new and old favorites. In contrast, the ASUS
Extreme AX600XT takes a more multimedia approach, offering HDTV and VIVO
options along with video/graphics editing software and one popular gaming
title. Depending on your needs, both cards have something to offer with their
retail packaging. Next, we'll focus on each card more closely, then we'll line
them up on the test bed to see how they compare to each other.
- Gainward 6800GT 2400/Ultra Golden Sample review -
The Golden Sample is significantly louder than the 6800GT and even a
regular Ultra. For those that are populating their cases with Tornados or
Deltas I do not think that this is a major impediment. For those who are
investing in Panaflos and are trying to quiet down their PCs, the Gainward
2400/Ultra should be avoided. Unlike some of the overclocked cards we
have seen, the clockrates are not set automatically with the Nvidia drivers
but still require the end user to overclock the card manually.
- Leadtek's A400 Series review - THG has
reviewed 3 cards from Leadtek A400 GeForce series.
- SOHW-1633S review -
The SOHW-1633S read every single CD and DVD I threw at it, and burned
flawlessly. I did not have one "coaster" produced due to a bad burn throughout
my extensive testing. The drive remained ultra quiet even at its top DVD read
and write speeds. Although there's not much of a difference between 12x and
16x DVD burning, there's not much of a price difference between a SOHW-1213S
and a SOHW-1633S either. The SOHW-1633S is however faster and supports DVD DL.
So the choice is obvious.
- Sony's SDM-234/B 23 Inch LCD Display - While other screens have
come close,
the SDM-234/B is the first truly large screen display which we can
recommend to gamers without compromise. The monitor looks truly spectacular
when paired with a card powerful enough to run the card at its native
resolution. In addition, media and DVD movie playback are nothing short of
breathtaking when viewed on such a monstrous LCD panel.
- Thermalright XP-120 K8/P4 CPU Cooler review -
The XP-120 is an excellent performing heatsink, beating the Alpha PAL 8150
by a degree or two. While it does offer some impressive cooling, it can be a
major headache to install it.
- "Backy" review -
This particular model is the "2x Molex 2x Fan3pin UVBlue" and contains, as
per the name, two four-pin Molex power connectors (for hard drives, etc) and
two three-pin fan connectors. In fact, only two pins are present on the
connectors - the RPM-monitoring pin is not connected. The whole unit is
powered from a single Molex plug inside the PC, so there's no way to pass that
monitoring-pin signal back to the motherboard or a fanbus, short of running a
single wire from each plug.
- Eleven Card Readers Roundup: Which One Is the Best? - X-bit Labs
have
a detailed coverage of 11 brand name as well as widely spread noname
products.
- IRiver iFP- 190T 256MB MP3 Player review - Overall,
the IRiver iFP 190 is a great product for the price. Sound quality is
simply fantastic, and the feature-rich user interface is easy to understand
yet packed with all of the options of a larger and more expensive player.
- Rojak Pot's Radeon 9800 Pro to Radeon 9800 XT mod guide rev. 5.1 -
check it out!
- Phishing Prevention Guide -
The guide (PDF) is quite extensive and details ways you can prevent or, at
the very least, steer away from becoming a victim.
- Subnet masking guide -
In this guide I will cover each of these aspects starting with converting
binary to decimal and vice versa. In subnet masking you work with a series of
4 bytes each byte separated by a decimal. This makes up your IP Address.
Remember 1 bits = 8 bytes. So each Address contains 4 bytes or 32 bits.
- Application Compatibility Guide for Windows XP SP2 -
This guide will assist IT Professionals to test and mitigate application
compatibility issues arising from these more stringent security technologies.
- Defrag Manager 3.0 review - The software is installed onto the
computer
that
you will use to schedule and monitor defragmentation. Once installed, the
Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in interface is used to manage clients
and defrag rules. Comprising three main windows, the Scope window displays the
primary nodes (Schedule, History, Network and Active Directory), the Results
window displays information about the node selected in the Scope window, and
the Details window becomes visible when you select a defrag schedule.
- XP2 - Event ID 4226 Patcher (4226 fix) -
Updated patcher to get RID of that damn
10 half-open pipe tcpip.sys MS threw in with Windows XP2. Use the /L switch to
open the pipe even more!
- phpMyAdmin 2.6.0-pl1 (Patch Level 1) -
phpMyAdmin can manage
a whole MySQL-server (needs a super-user) but also a single database. This
minor update fixes a problem which prevents using 2.6.0 under PHP 4.1.x and
4.2.
- Apache 2.0.52 -
Apache 2.0 (download)
offers numerous enhancements, improvements and performance boosts over the 1.3
codebase. The most visible and noteworthy addition is the ability to run
Apache in a hybrid thread/process mode on any platform that supports both
threads and processes
- Avast! Home Edition 4.1.418 -
Avast! Home
Edition is a complete anti-virus package for Windows 9x/Me, NT/2000/XP. It
is FREE for registered home noncommercial users. It's certified by ICSA and
obtained 100% mark from Virus Bulletin in June 2002 under Windows XP Pro. /hi
Mr.Kubec! :)/
- McAfee AVERT Stinger 2.4.0 -
Stinger is a
stand-alone utility used to detect and remove specific viruses. It is not a
substitute for full anti-virus protection, but rather a tool to assist
administrators and users when dealing with an infected system.
- FarCry Benchmarking Utility v1.3.1 -
The
HardwareOC FarCry Benchmark is an easy-to-use tool, that makes Far Cry
video card benchmarking fast and easy.
- ThumbsPlus 7.0 Final -
ThumbsPlus (download)
is a highly customizable image database / thumbnails / graphics editor
application that makes it easy to catalog and locate, as well as, maintain and
modify all your graphics and multimedia files.
- ACDSee 7.0 -
ACDSee (download)
digital photo software makes it easy to import, view, organize, print,
enhance, share and archive your digital photos.
- AnyDVD version 4.0.4.1 - SlySoft has today released
AnyDVD version
4.0.4.1. This new version adds a new option that removes a copy-protection
based on unreadable sectors.
- Kerio Personal Firewall 4.1.1 Final -
Kerio Personal Firewall (download)
helps users control how their computers exchange data with other computers on
the Internet or local network. Kerio Personal Firewall is a necessity for all
desktop computers connected to broadband Internet, using DSL, cable, ISDN,
WiFi or satellite modems.
- HyperSnap-DX 5.61.00 -
HyperSnap-DX (download)
is a screen capture and image editing tool for MS Windows. It captures screens
from standard desktop programs and even those hard-to-grab DirectX, Direct3D,
3Dfx, 3dfx, Voodoo and Glide mode games.
- NVIDIA Forceware 66.51 beta - OSNN.net has
a
new Forceware Drivers v66.51 for Windows 2000/XP. Try only at your own
risk.
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Updated:09:41 PM CEST Jun,05
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