SECURITY...

• Fast-Acting Hackers Put Out Trojan Attacking IE - It took hackers less than a week to produce a working exploit that attacks a new, unpatched vulnerability in Microsoft's Internet Explorer, security firms said Tuesday. Phel.a, a Trojan horse discovered Monday, attempts to exploit the flaw in Internet Explorer 6.0 dubbed "Microsoft Internet Explorer HTML Help Control Local Zone Security Restriction Bypass" that was first made public less than a week before, on December 21.
• Microsoft Chastises Security Groups - As Microsoft continued to investigate three recently reported vulnerabilities in multiple versions of its Windows operating system Tuesday, it delivered a message to security groups anxious to publicly report bad news: It does more harm than good. Less than a week after Chinese security group Xfocus publicly released proof-of-concept code, claiming that among other high-risk vulnerabilities there were flaws in the Windows LoadImage API function, Microsoft was urging security groups to follow practiced industry standards for reporting potential breaches. A spokeswoman for the company said Microsoft was disappointed that Xfocus released the information before sharing it with the company and security vendors. She also said the actions put computer users at risk.
• New Cabir Worms Target Mobile Phones - Two new versions of a computer virus that affects mobile phones were discovered this week with new features that allow them to spread more quickly between vulnerable devices, according to antivirus company F-Secure. Cabir.H and Cabir.I are the latest versions of a worm that was first identified in June and affect Symbian mobile phones. There are no reported infections from the new worms. However, F-Secure says that the new viruses fix a problem with earlier versions of Cabir that prevented that worm from spreading quickly between mobile phones.
• McDonalds China IIS 5 Server defaced - The Chinese-language Web site of fast food giant McDonald's Corp. was broken into twice at Christmas by a hacker protesting against its listing of Taiwan as a separate country, the Beijing Youth Daily said on Monday.
• Feds convict warez pirate - The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa said that Jathan Desir, 26, of Iowa City, has pleaded guilty to charges related to his role in a criminal enterprise that distributed pirated software, games, movies and music over the Internet. Appearing in the U.S. District Court in Des Moines last week, Desir pleaded guilty to a three-count felony that charged him with copyright infringement and conspiracy to commit copyright infringement. Desir will face a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison when he is sentenced on March 18, 2005.
• Cyber crime booms in 2004 - The count of known viruses broke the 100,000 barrier and the number of new viruses grew by more than 50%. Similarly phishing attempts, in which conmen try to trick people into handing over confidential data, are recording growth rates of more than 30% and attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated.

OFF-TOPIC...

• Quake may have altered Earth's rotation - The deadly Asian earthquake may have permanently accelerated the Earth's rotation--shortening days by a fraction of a second--and caused the planet to wobble on its axis, U.S. scientists said Tuesday. Richard Gross, a geophysicist with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, theorized that a shift of mass toward the Earth's center during the quake on Sunday caused the planet to spin 3 microseconds, or 3 millionths of a second, faster and to tilt about an inch on its axis. A second article says the quake moved undersea tectonic plates by up to 98 feet, shifting islands near Sumatra out to sea an unknown distance.
• The Coming Atlantic Mega-Tsunami - It's not news at all that scientists predict an eventual "mega-tsunami" that will sweep across the Atlantic that will still be anything from 60 to 150 ft high when it hits the U.S. Eastern seaboard. This Old News, however, suddenly seems fresh. (thanks Slasdot.org)
• Quake's power = million atomic bombs? - Scientists describe Sunday's devastating earthquake off the island of Sumatra as a "megathrust" -- a grade reserved for the most powerful shifts in the Earth's crust.

TECHNOLOGY...

• JVC Develops Dual Blu-ray-DVD Disc - JVC has developed prototype read-only discs that can contain data stored in both the DVD and high-capacity Blu-ray Disc formats. They are the first discs that are able to contain data in both formats, a company spokesperson says. The discs contain three layers. The upper layer is a Blu-ray Disc layer with a capacity of 25GB. Below are two DVD layers with a combined capacity of 8.5GB, JVC says.
• Online Backup for a Penny a Megabyte - Affordable external hard drives have made local backups easy, but for many home and small-business users, off-site backups are still tricky and expensive. Acpana Business Systems' new Data Deposit Box service makes things easier, offering a Web-based backup solution with a simple interface and an affordable pricing plan. For example, backing up about 900MB of data will cost about $9 a month.
• Think Secret Predicts Sub-$500 Headless Mac - According to the article, this has been under development for almost one year and may be available towards the end of 2005Q1. The system is rumored to be based on a G4 with 256MB of RAM , 40-80GB HD with a combo drive

HARDWARE...

• Dual core Opteron speeds, power revealed - Sources told the INQ this week the likely power specifications and other specifications of dual core Opterons AMD will release in 2005.
• Adstech DVD Xpress 2.0 MPEG2 encoder review - About the size of a 4-port USB hub and powered by one tiny 110v to 3.3v power brick, it promises effortless MPEG1 and MPEG2 digitizing of an analogue video signal coming from any video playback device with RCA composite video or s-video output connectors. It handles NTSC, PAL or SECAM signals, and digitizes audio on the same device (using its own stereo RCA audio inputs, not using your computer's sound card at all).
• ABIT AV8 is under fire - There seems to be a problem with the new Abit AV8 motherboard for the socket 939 Athlon64. From what I've read in the numerous forum posts it appears to work fine with the old 130nm Newcastle core Athlon64, but if you put in a new 90nm Winchester core Athlon64 the motherboard reads "9.0." on the digital display and just sits there, not even sending a signal to the video card to turn on the monitor. What does this mean? If you ordered a Abit AV8 motherboard and new Athlon64 processor online to build a new PC it won't work. According to members of the forum a bios upgrade fixes the problem, but you can't upgrade what you can't see and Abit doesn't say a bios upgrade will fix the problem in it's description of the bios revisions and in the facts it says that POST code "90" (do they mean 9.0.?) means a failed overclock.
• Comparative CPU Benchmarks From 1995 to 2004 - The guys over at Tom's Hardware Guide have compared over a hundred different architectures dating all the way back to the Pentium 1.
• Gigabyte fanless GeForce 6800 - Gigabyte has done an outstanding job in creating a video card that, while still managing to play the latest and greatest games at very acceptable levels of performance, is completely inaudible. This product is a downright impressive addition to that silent computer you've been yearning for. Coupled with a few other products, such as the OCZ ModStream or Thermaltake Silent PurePower, and an adjustable CPU cooler like the Gigabyte 3D Cooler-Ultra GT, you'll be able to comfortably sleep at night while avoiding the pounding headache the next morning from the jet-engine computer under your desk.
• MSI GeForce 6600 GT PCIe SLI Performance - The MSI K8N Diamond used in this article will be one of the few options available today and it has been a stable and dependable motherboard from our use. Stay tuned to a review of this Diamond-class motherboard shortly for the full details. For those of you interested in the graphics card, the MSI NX6600GT-TD128E has been retailing for sometime at a standard retail price of S$385.
• Gigabyte GeForce 6600 GT (GV-NX66T128D) - Gigabyte's hardware solution does not break away from the norm at all, like their 6800 board does with its completely passive cooling solution, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. It allows Gigabyte to price this board vey competitively, even though two recently released (and good) games are included in the package.
• HIS X700Pro PCI-E Graphics Card ­ X700XT Equaling Performance - TweakTown take a close look at the HIS X700Pro IceQ Turbo including the impressive overclocking ability close to that of the Radeon X700XT which uses the new PCI Express interface and compare it against the older ATI Radeon X600XT VPU and see what is different and how it affects gaming performance in popular games such as HL2, Doom 3 and Far Cry.
• ASUS EXTREME AX800 XT PE/2DHTV - It's hard to recommend any graphics card that costs more than a reasonable PC. £430 is an awful lot of money to be spending on a present card when a refresh is just around the corner. In that case, as comprehensive as it is, ASUS' AX800 XP PE/2DHTV package is simply too expensive to be considered by all but the very well-off enthusiast. Performance freaks should look towards SLI'ing a couple of 6800 GT cards, and for the rest, I'd recommend obtaining and overclocking the cheapest X800 XT you could lay your hands. The money you save will be better spent elsewhere.
• AMD Athlon XP Heatsink roundup - The Thermalright SI-97, Scythe Kamakiri and Spire VertiCool compared using a variety of fans and reference heatsinks. Does the new generation Athlon XP coolers deliver good value for money?
• Zalman VF700-AlCu GPU Cooler - The NVIDIA GeForce FX 5800 Ultra has already shown us how the heat generated can be unbearable, both thermally as well as acoustically. Is quiet cooling still possible? Well, Zalman has been a pioneer of silent cooling solutions, so they might just have the answer for that!
• Logisys Computer Pitbull 500W Power Supply Unit - This is a top notch power supply! You can find this power supply online at various retails such as ZipZoomFly for $43 (US) and Newegg starting around $47.00. For a 500W power supply of this quality, this is quite reasonable. A few little changes to it, and it would be unbeatable.
• LaCie 16x d2 DVD±RW review - On the positive side, the drive has some excellent built in support preventing buffer under-runs, and also has a running optical power calibration for all DVD±R and DVD±RW media. Some other highlights of the drive include a very complete set of software for either Mac or PC platforms, as well as a very intuitive guide (both printed and digital). Possibly the single best feature of the drive is the support for both USB 2.0 and FireWire. This feature allows the drive to be compatible with almost any computer system and makes it very easy to install.
• Mercury 6200W 5.1 Speakers - The power of these speakers is confusing. The packaging boasts a combined total of 6200W, and also claims 15W per channel and 25W for the sub-woofer. As is usual with cheap speakers, the 6200w figure is a highly theoretical peak figure, which is as near to an outright lie as truth in advertising laws will allow. On opening up the speakers we find they are in fact 8W, which corresponds with the information on their website. The packaging also states 25W for the sub-woofer, while their website states 50W.
• Creative GigaWorks S750 Speakers - Gamers on a budget will likely find the $150 T7700 7.1 Speakers a bit easier to justify, but true audiophiles should accept nothing less than the GigaWorks THX S750. If you’ve already got one of the new ZS sound cards then you owe it to yourself to get these speakers. Considering the rich and amazing sound quality and full support for previous versions of EAX and 5.1 and 6.1 upmixing this will be the last set of speakers you need until somebody comes up with a new sound format.
• Amptron 726A 17” TFT-LCD Monitor from Directron - Al things considered, the Amptron 726A 17” TFT-LCD Display isn't a bad purchase. The 1280x1024 maximum resolution is what you normally see 17” LCD's having, 16ms response time is a great benefit, power saving modes are helpful, and the Auto Adjust really helps out and is quite accurate. Of the detrimental features we found in the monitor the biggest two are the dot pitch and the speakers. A dot pitch that’s just a bit lower would've boosted image quality in every day use and gaming tremendously. The speakers are horrid; to reiterate what we stated before, you will not purchase this LCD for sound quality.
• Sharp LL-151-3D - 3D LCD Monitor -There is no doubt that the LL-151-3D does precisely what it claims to, and does this impressively well. But you need to work with it in order to get its best performance - not least by finding a position away from a window, and justifying its price tag without a huge army of supporting software could prove a bit of a stretch.
• Are High-End Ink Jet Printers Worth Your Money? - If you're looking only for quality, the Stylus Photo R800 is the only choice. In all areas - including black and white - it is the printer with the best fidelity of reproduction. It's closely followed in this area by the Canon Pixma IP8500, which claimed the record for printing speed and a has very advantageous cost per page. The Photosmart 8450 has only its numerous additional functions and excellent printing quality in black and white to recommended it. But these two points are offset by its mediocre printing speed and extremely high cost per page.
• OKI C3100 - Colour LED Printer - Colour laser printing used to be the realm of large businesses, where the substantial purchase price of the unit could be spread among many people in a large department. Set-up costs have fallen dramatically in the last couple of years though, and this OKI C3100 full-colour LED printer costs less than L350 on the street.

GUIDES...

• Get videos and DVDs onto your Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) for free - This guide will show you step-by-step how to get video clips on to your PSP without having to spring for any additional software.
• Codec shoot-out 2004 - Doom9.org has posted a codec shootout that compares the quality of3ivX D4. DivX Fusion 5.9, HDX4 1.4, Microsoft WMV9, NeroDigital AVC Main Profile, NeroDigital AVC High Profile, On2 VP6, RealNetworks RealVideo 10, Videosoft Codec Pro and XviD 1.1.
• How to Set up a Source Control on Windows without spending a dime - How often have you been working on a development project and needed to get at a piece of code that was written at a certain time on a certain day? Could you build a version of your application that is 6 months old? Can you get the differences between versions of a piece of code? If you answer "no" to any of these questions, read on. We're going to show you how to solve these problems without spending a dime.
• My Favorite Tips for Windows XP SP2 - Before you do a mass rollout of XP SP2, arm yourself with my favorite tips and tricks for deploying SP2 and dealing with some difficulties you'll likely run into after you deploy it.

SOFTWARE...

• Visual FoxPro 9.0 Gold - Microsoft Developer Network subscribers can get FoxPro 9.0 now; full and upgrade versions for others will be available in February.
• AbiWord for Windows 2.2.2 - AbiWord is a free word processing program similar to Microsoft Word. It is suitable for typing papers, letters, reports, memos, etc. It is designed to integrate perfectly with the operating system it runs on. It will take advantage of the functionality provided by the system, such as image loading or printing capabilities.
• GAIM 1.1.1 - Gaim 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.
• Fraps 2.5.1 - Utility for DirectX and OpenGL games that can benchmark and capture video.
• mIRC Power Pack 7.10 RC1 - mIRC Power Pack (MPP) is a powerful script for mIRC designed specifically for gamers. It inlcudes five different game browsers - so you can pick which one you like the best. Its Multi-Server Connection Manager is one of the very best; it allows you to connect to multiple IRC networks (20 total) using different nicknames, email addresses and userid's for each connection, unlimited perform sections for each connection, and it includes VHost Login capabilities for the EnterTheGame IRC Network.
• Nero CD-DVD Speed V3.61 - This new version added option to burn Nero image files instead of predefined data.
• RivaTuner 2.0 RC 15.3 NY Ed  - The purpose of this utility is to give you access to all the undocumented features of Detonator and Catalyst drivers. Drivers have a lot of undocumented registry entries. Some of them don’t affect anything, but there are some that are very useful. In general, they cannot give you big performance boost but they can improve image quality and solve some compatibility problems.
• ForceWare 71.22 Win2k/XP BETA - This is a beta set that was released by MSI originates from the French Station Drivers. Basically we ripped out all so called starforce entries of the .inf file to make this driver compatible with most NVIDIA graphics cards. If your card however is not suppoert, then please use (read the instructions) enclosed modified .inf file. These drivers are the absolutely newest set of drivers available to this very date. Drivers within the archive show a 9 December compilation date.
• Omega Radeon Catalyst v2.5.97a (4.12) - Omega released a new version of his popular modified Radeon drivers based on Cats 4.12, make sure you see the readme for the new changes and fixes. The Omega Drivers are compatible with all ATI Radeon cards (it doesn't matter if they are DDR, SDR, PCI, PCI-E, AGP, Mobile, Retail, OEM or 3rd Party)