SECURITY...

• 13 patches on 8th February - On 8 February 2005 the Microsoft Security Response Center is planning to release  9 security patches for Microsoft Windows, and other for Microsoft SharePoint Services, Microsoft .NET Framework, Microsoft Office, Visual Studio, and Windows Media Player, and MSN Messenger.
• Windows XP SP2 Vulnerability Patch - Russian company Positive Technologies has released an unofficial utility eliminating vulnerability in SP2.
  FBI's email hacked - The FBI said Friday it has shut down an e-mail system that it uses to communicate with the public because of a possible security breach. The bureau is investigating whether someone hacked into the www.fbi.gov e-mail system, which is run by a private company, officials said.
• Huge security hole in .Net - According to Gosling, the security hole is based upon the fact that several features of the older languages are ambivalent with regards to security: "C++ allowed you to do arbitrary casting, arbitrary adding of images and pointers, and converting them back and forth between pointers in a very, very unstructured way.
• Eudora open to multiple high risk flaws - Security consultancy firm Next Generation Security Software (NGSS) has discovered "multiple high risk vulnerabilities" in the Windows version of the popular Eudora email client. According to NGSS representative John Heasman, versions affected include Eudora 6.2.0 and below. Heasman warned that the flaws permit hackers to execute arbitrary code on victims' PCs via previewing or opening a specially crafted email. Hackers can also run malicious programs by opening specially crafted stationary or mailbox files. Testing by NGSS suggested that these issues have been resolved in Eudora 6.2.1 as detailed here. Version 6.2.1 can be downloaded here.
• Microsoft Internet Explorer .ANI Files Handling ConnectBack Exploit - A remote code execution vulnerability exists in the way that cursor, animated cursor, and icon formats are handled. An attacker could try to exploit the vulnerability by constructing a malicious cursor or icon file that could potentially allow remote code execution if a user visited a malicious Web site or viewed a malicious e-mail message. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of an affected system.
• Painkiller CD-Key Buffer Overflow - The vulnerability is caused by overflowing the buffer that stores the Gamespy CD-key hash for the online server-side authorization. This buffer is 100 bytes long (the Gamespy CD-key hash is long 72 characters), therefore if an attacker uses a longer hash than 100 bytes he can cause the overflow of the buffer.
• Deceased woman named in file-sharing suit - Gertrude Walton, a deceased eighty-three-year-old woman, was named as the only defendant in a federal lawsuit filed by a group of record companies. They claimed Walton made more than 700 pop, rock and rap songs available for free on the Internet under the screen name 'smittenedkitten.' Needless to say, the suit has since been dropped.
• FBI Unable to Launch New Computer Program -Audit - The FBI has squandered $170 million on a failed computer system agents can use to instantly share information, and seems to know neither how long it will take nor how much it will cost to build one, a Justice Department audit showed on Thursday. In a harsh criticism of the FBI's efforts to fix a shortfall identified after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Inspector General Glenn Fine said the bureau still relies on an antiquated case-filing system that hampers agents' ability to properly do their jobs

OFF-TOPIC...

• Why Does Windows Still Suck? - Why do PC users put up with so many viruses and worms? Why isn't everyone on a Mac?....read on
• Terminator 4 will have no T3 cast - Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines star Nick Stahl, who played John Connor, told Sci Fi Wire that neither he nor his "T3" co-star Claire Danes will appear in Terminator 4. "None of the cast is coming back." Stahl said. "The [T4] story is changing conceptually. I believe it's a jump to the future, so my character will be quite a bit older. That's all that I know. So I'm not coming back, which is a drag." He added that the producers' current plans may not include original "Terminator" series star Arnold Schwarzenegger either.
• Chinese man grows his own chairs - A Chinese man has patented his technique for growing his own wooden chairs. Mr Wu, from Shenyang City, Liaoning province, moulds branches into shape while the tree is still growing. He uses elm trees which are pliant and do not break easily, reports the China Morning Business View.
• Global Warming Could Make Mars a Second Home - Greenhouse gases may be a problem on Earth, but injecting them into the Martian atmosphere could make Mars a second home. A team of researchers has proposed injecting synthetic "super" greenhouse gases into the planet's atmosphere to raise its temperature and melt its polar ice caps to provide conditions suitable for biological life.

TECHNOLOGY...

• Europe may have to wait for PSP - According to reports from Reuters and others, Sony may delay its European PSP launch until April--or later. The reports say SCE is planning to focus on the handheld's presence in America and Japan, given that processor shortages are preventing Sony from producing PSPs fast enough.
• PlayStation 3 Cell chip aims high - Tom Halfhill of the Microprocessor Report has studied patents and other documents relating to Cell, which will be unveiled Monday at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference in San Francisco. He sees a number of chip breakthroughs likely to dramatically boost computing power in everything from game machines to cell phones.
• France's DiBcom unveils first mobile DTV chip -  French fabless semiconductor company has demonstrated working silicon for a mobile TV demodulation chip. The advance comes as France prepares to begin DTV broadcasts from the Eiffel Tower next month.
• Group to Divide Linux Standards Base - The Free Standards Group has decided to move away from a single, core LSB (Linux Standards Base) specification, and is instead going to break this down into different modules that can be combined to give a server or desktop LSB standard.
• Few bugs in MySQL database - A source-code analysis of the MySQL database, a popular open-source program at the heart of many Web sites, revealed few bugs compared with the number found in commercial code, testing company Coverity said Friday.
• Photoshop Cloning Tool Automatically Corrects for 3-D Perspective - Mok3 has introduced a Perspective Clone Brush plug-in for Adobe Photoshop. According to Mok3's Jan. 31 press release, this plug-in lets graphic designers rapidly clone areas in an image with automatic correction for 3-D perspective and simultaneous correction for differences in lighting and scale in the image.
• 1TB Disks This Year? - Holographic Versatile Disc (HVD) will be capable of massive storage, as well as transfer rates of up to 1 GB per second. Optware's announced came less than a week after a similar announcement from InPhase Technologies. InPhase recently began shipping its GDS5000 HVD drives based on WORM (Write Once Read Many) technology. A newer version, the Tapestry HDS-200R will be a fully recordable 200GB drive with 20MB per second transfer – it is expected to hit markets later this year.

HARDWARE... 

• Corsair Ships XPERT Memory Modules with Advanced Monitoring Caps.- Corsair Memory said this week it was shipping its new XPERT memory modules with complex monitoring capabilities that allow users to keep an eye on various critical parameters without using special software or devices.
• AMD Athlon64 vs Sempron comparion part #2 - At the end of the day the Sempron has proved once again that it is a worthy processor at just $140 US. The final paragraph of my original article when something like this "Bottom-line is the Sempron is an excellent budget processor that is certainly capable of getting the job done. The processor is ideal for office based computers, or for those that only wish to play the odd game now and then. If you are building a budget gaming system I would recommend looking at getting a lower clocked Athlon64 processor. Furthermore if you are into overclocking pushing an Athlon64 processor that little bit further should not be a problem".
• Certain MSI GeForce 6800 GT Graphics Cards Do Not Comply to Specs - A Germany-based web-site TechPowerUp claimed late last week that at least some of MSI's retail PCI Express x16 graphics cards sold as NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT products had the GeForce 6800 graphics chips on them. The original NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT graphics chip has 16 pixel processors and 6 vertex processors, whereas the GeForce 6800 graphics processing unit employs 12 pixel and 5 vertex processors, thus, delivering lower performance. TechPowerUp! has follow-up information on the MSI 6800GT's that were delivered with degraded performance - MSI delivered 350 of the cards out to the retail chain and has offered "immediate free replacement or full refund" of those cards. The root cause is still not known, as MSI simply cites an "unknown chip problem" but the translated German press release points to the additional bridge chip of the NV45 package.
• Asus 6600GT SLI - SLI support in games is a total different story, the NVIDIA drivers work in two ways: in AFR (Alternate Frame Rendering) or in SFR (Split Frame Rendering) mode. The first method (AFR) will render the first half on the first card and the second half on the other card. The other method (SFR) splits every frame in two pieces and each card draws one piece. Which method is used depends on each game; NVIDIA selected 100 games and created profiles for each game. If there is no profile for a game then the NVIDIA driver will NOT use SLI. We didnt encounter any problems in the selected tests, but you can always create your own game profiles if there is none present.
• MSI RX600XT-TD128E - PC Modding Malaysia has posted a review of MSI RX600XT-TD128E.
• Dual-Layer DVD Burner Round-Up - HotHardware.Com posted a Dual-Layer DVD Burner Round-Up  - They've got drives from Sony, Plextor, BenQ, Lite-On, and Asus.
• MSI Mega View 561 20GB Portable Media Player  - GideonTech.com has posted a review of the MSI Mega View 561 20GB Portable Media Player

GUIDES...

• Get a 1000 Mb Gmail account for free - Go to gmail.afraid.org and enter your e-mail address. Then you'll receive an invite to open a 1000 Mb Gmail account for free.
• ABC's of DVD Drive Abbreviations - The number of different formats available in DVD drives can be confusing to anyone in the market for one. The list is much longer, but to address a few of the common formats, we have DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-RAM ,DVD+R DL and DVD=B1RW
• MSFN's Official Unattended XP CD Guide (updated) - Through the course of this guide, you will create a CD that does all the installing for you. The CD will be fully updated with the latest hotfixes, and install all your programs for you.
• Windows XP Backup Strategies For Home Users - This article is intended to introduce the average user to the various backup methods available and to provide a brief overview of these methods.
• Networking Basics - In the article they cover all the basics terms and what they mean and look at different types of networks and how they are set up. A network is a group of computers, printers, and other devices that are connected together with cables
• Beginners Guides: Most Common Ways to Kill a PC - PCstats guides you through the list of the most popular ways by which you will eventually kill your PC, despite your good intentions. This is a good primer for "what not to do" folks. - Version 1.0.0

SOFTWARE...

• DVD2one v1.5.2 - This software is a 3 step program for putting your favorite movies on to one DVD recordable for backup. This version adds checks to verify the consistency of structures in the IFO files and to correct them if necessary. This solves problems with movie-only copy of Alien Quadrilogy. Also adds program chain analysis to detect and remove damaged parts of the DVD for ARccOS disks like Resident Evil Apocalypse, The Forgotten, Little Black Book, The Grudge and Wrestlemania.
• K-Lite Mega Codec pack 1.18 - A new version of the K-Lite Mega Codec pack (download) is available. It includes K-Lite codecpack full, QuickTime Alternative 1.40, Real Alternative 1.30 and BSPlayer.
• Real Alternative 1.30 - Real Alternative will allow you to play RealMedia files without having to install RealPlayer/RealOne Player.
• QuickTime Alternative 1.40 - QuickTime Alternative will allow you to play QuickTime files (.mov, .qt and other extensions) without having to install the official QuickTime Player.
• Easy CD-DA Extractor 8.0 (shw) - All-In-One music software (download) - CD-Ripper, CD-Burner, and Music File Format Converter.
• HDDlife 1.0.14 - HDDlife can work in the prophylactic mode when it checks the health of your hard drives at regular intervals and informs you about the results of these checks in an unobtrusive way. If you get warned about a possible hard drive failure , you will protect yourself against losing your naturally priceless personal data.
• [!] Total Commander v6.51 Final - Total Commander 6.51 (download) is now available for download. This upgrade corrects some problems, mainly with the new functions introduced with Total Commander 6.50.
• RadLinker & RadClocker - RadLinker is a tweaker/linker for ATI Radeon based graphics cards. RadLinker allows you to create a "RadLink", a special kind of shell link (a.k.a. shortcut) to your games/programs that allows you to change it's individual settings. A RadLink will look and act just like a normal shortcut except it's property settings can be custom tailored for your video settings.
•  nHancer (NVIDIA Replacement profile editor) - The programmer of this handly little tool was very unhappy with nVidia's own control panel, especially with its game profile editing module. (requires 1.1 of the .net framework)