SECURITY...

• FBI hack Wireless Networks in 3 mins - At a recent ISSA (Information Systems Security Association) meeting in Los Angeles, a team of FBI agents demonstrated current WEP-cracking techniques and broke a 128 bit WEP key in about three minutes. Special Agent Geoff Bickers ran the Powerpoint presentation and explained the attack, while the other agents (who did not want to be named or photographed) did the dirty work of sniffing wireless traffic and breaking the WEP keys. This article will be a general overview of the procedures used by the FBI team. A future article will give step-by-step instructions on how to replicate the attack. (thanks NeoNSX)
• New Smartphone Worm Spreads Via MMS, Bluetooth - A variant of a previous smartphone worm is now spreading not only via Bluetooth, but also via Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) messages, anti-virus vendors reported Monday. According to security vendor F-Secure, the Mabir.A is actually a variant of a previous worm, Cabir, aimed at smartphones based on the Symbian platform. The new worm appears to be written by the same author using the same source code as Cabir, according to F-Secure.
• Gaim Buffer Over-Reading and Code Injection - A programming error in gaim_markup_strip_html() causes a buffer overread when stripping a string containing malformed HTML tags. This problem can be used to cause to a denial of service and crash the program with "access violation" error message and can be executed by remote users.
• Severe Microsoft Vulnerability Awaits Patch - Security firm eEye says it has notified Microsoft of a pair of severe vulnerabiities in its software, the details of which won't be disclosed until Redmond has time to act. eEye posted both vulnerabilities to its upcoming advisories page, but offered little comment on them beyond noting the affected software, Outlook and Internet Explorer, and how many days have passed since it notified Microsoft of the vulnerabilities (16 days since the first vulnerability, 9 since the second). According to eEye, both vulnerabilities allow for remote execution of code on a vulnerable system. Affected systems include all NT 4, Windows 2000, and Windows XP systems. The company has not yet determined the vulnerability of Windows 2003 systems.

OFFTOPIC...

• Black holes "do not exist" - George Chapline thinks that the collapse of the massive stars, which was long believed to generate black holes, actually leads to the formation of stars that contain dark energy. "It's a near certainty that black holes don't exist," he claims.
• Car that runs on compressed air - The engine, which powers a pneumatic-hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV), works alongside an electric motor to create the power source. The system eliminates the need for fuel, making the PHEV pollution-free. Cheol-Seung Cho, of Energine Corporation, told CNN the system is controlled by a computer inside the car, which instructs the compressed-air engine and electric motor what to do.

TECHNOLOGY...

• Google ups Gmail storage to 2GB - As first reported on Friday, to celebrate the one-year birth of Gmail, search engine giant Google doubled its member email storage space from one gigabyte to two. Bravo Google! :)
• Google to Expand Video Search - The company plans to begin accepting digital video submissions, a Google co-founder says, in an effort to broaden its experimental video search engine.
• New Technique for Tracking Web Site Visitors - According to Jupiter Research, 58% of web surfers deleted cookies from their system in 2004. This has sent a loud message to marketers in regard to consumer's preference as to tracking their online activities. The marketers have responded with PIE. Persistent Identification Element (PIE) is a technology that uses Macromedia's Flash MX to track you even without using cookies. Macromedia has created a page to instruct users on how to disable this. (thanks Slashdot.org)
• Adobe PhotoShop CS2 / GoLive CS2 - The latest incarnation of Adobe's flagship image-editing application, Photoshop CS2 ($599 direct, $149 upgrade) is packed with a variety of dramatic and practical enhancements. Perhaps the most exciting new feature is Vanishing Point, a filter with simple tools for drawing grids to define perspective planes in your image. Once Vanishing Point understands the image's angle of perspective, it can automatically distort a layer to match the scene. This makes it a cinch, for example, to map text or images onto the sides of buildings perfectly. GoLive CS2's new features probably won't do much to cut into Macromedia Dreamweaver's market share, but in this release Adobe splits the program's focus between the Web and an emerging field: content creation for portable devices. In related news, PCWorld has posted their previews of Adobe InDesign CS2, GoLive CS2, and Adobe Illustrator CS2.
• WinXP 64 Bit - First Look - check it out.
• Hitachi aims for 1TB desktop - Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (HGST) plans to begin selling hard-disk drives based on a new recording method that could allow for 1TB desktop drives by 2007.
• Magnetic heat exchanger will cool down your CPU - A Japanese company has developed a way of exchanging heat that will use a magnetic fluid and will be used to cool down your microprocessor without needing electricity
• MIT developing $100 laptops for children - MIT Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte and some MIT colleagues are hard at work on a project they hope will brighten the lives and prospects of hundreds of millions of developing world kids. It's a grand idea and a daunting challenge: to create rugged, Internet- and multimedia-capable laptop computers at a cost of $100 apiece. The laptops would be mass-produced in orders of no smaller than 1 million units and bought by governments, which would distribute them.
• Gateway offers sub-$600 gaming PC - The eMachines T6212 is powered by Advanced Micro Devices' Athlon 64 chip and has a built-in ATI Radeon graphics card and 512MB of dual-channel memory, expandable to 4GB. Other features include a double-layer DVD+/-RW multiformat drive and a 160GB hard drive with 2MB of cache. The eMachines T6212 is priced at $579.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate.
• Expiring offer: Best Buy will stop rebates - In response to customer complaints, Best Buy Co. Inc. promised Friday to eliminate mail-in rebates within two years. Best Buy's rivals, including Circuit City Stores and CompUSA, are expected to follow suit. Mail-in rebates exploded onto the retail scene in the 1990s as a way for retailers to stimulate sales without lowering their sticker prices.

HARDWARE... 

• EVGA SLI Twin Turbo Bracket - EVGA has announced a New stylish accessory for your EVGA SLI System, the EVGA SLI Twin Turbo Bracket. The bracket attaches securely to your EVGA 6800GT/6800Ultra SLI graphics cards helping to keep them perfectly aligned and evenly spaced on your motherboards and does not interfere with the SLI connector.
• Dell Latitude D410 laptop - The processor is a Pentium M 750, running at 1.86GHz - pretty high for a small notebook and as we'll see, the D410 turned in some pretty impressive scores. This CPU is backed with 512MB of memory and as it’s two pieces of 256MBs, it's running in dual-channel configuration.
• Intel Dual Core Pentium preview - The system included a motherboard built around the Intel 955X chipset and a 3.2GHz Pentium 4 Extreme Edition model 840. This particular version of the Pentium 4 contains two full processor cores, built around the Prescott architecture....Intel's approach, though, isn't perfect by any means. The new Model 840 and the upcoming Pentium D CPUs essentially replicate two Prescott cores on one die. That makes for a pretty hot processor, and the Pentium Extreme Edition 840 cooks along at 125W. You need a platform infrastructure with robust cooling and high-quality voltage regulation on the motherboard to keep things humming along. Another previews can be found on Hexus.net, TrustedReviews, LegitReviews and FiringSquad.
• ATI vs. NV (Silencers) -  Techniz take a look at VGA Silencer which is known as the NV Silencer 6 (Rev.2) and ATI Silencer 1 (Rev.2).
• Swiftech MCX478-V Heatsink - Mikhailtech takes a look at Swiftech’s MCX478-V, one of the few remaining high performance coolers that doesn’t use heatpipes.
• Sansun Silencer LED Keyboard - This LED lighted keyboard also features a GSM sensor which induces the number pad to flicker when it picks up cell phone signals.
• Hyundai Imagequest L90D+ 19" LCD monitor - Despite the minor downfalls, none of which greatly affect the functionality of the monitor, this is an excellent monitor. I am glad that I purchased this monitor, and for its price the monitor simply cannot be beat in its specs. It is amazingly bright and crisp with excellent contrast and can compete with monitors costing 1/3 more. Congratulations Imagequest on a monitor well-made.
• Sony PSP - One look at the PSP and you'll agree that Sony did a great job on the aesthetics. The unit has a sleek and glossy black finish. The 4.3" widescreen LCD has a 480 x 272 resolution and displays 16.77 million colors. Compared to the Nintendo DS that displays only 260,000 colors, the image quality is very rich. To the left of the screen, you'll find the directional pad and a mini thumbstick and to the right, you've got the four enter keys. Below the screen are more buttons: Home, volume, contrast, sound, Select and Start. Unlike a PlayStation controller that has four shoulder buttons, the PSP has only two. In related news, the last part in Bjord3D's Sony PSP coverage focuses on the games and Gear.IGN compare Sony PSP with Nintendo DS
• GoVideo D2740 wireless media receiver + DVD player - GoVideo has announced availability of the new D2740 wireless "G" DVD player. With it's UPnP capability, this device can not only stream content from your PC, it can be used with online sevices such as Rhapsody.

GUIDES... 

• FBI hack Wireless Networks in 3 mins - At a recent ISSA (Information Systems Security Association) meeting in Los Angeles, a team of FBI agents demonstrated current WEP-cracking techniques and broke a 128 bit WEP key in about three minutes. Special Agent Geoff Bickers ran the Powerpoint presentation and explained the attack, while the other agents (who did not want to be named or photographed) did the dirty work of sniffing wireless traffic and breaking the WEP keys. This article will be a general overview of the procedures used by the FBI team. A future article will give step-by-step instructions on how to replicate the attack. (thanks NeoNSX)
• 2CPU's home theatre PC - The hardware side of the HTPC equation is a relatively easy one to solve. The prices of components has decreased so much over the last couple of years that building an additional PC from scratch really doesn't involve a significant investment.
• Intel Matrix RAID guide - Adrian's Rojak Pot has posted an Intel Matrix RAID Guide.
• NVIDIA Forceware comparison (71.84 - 75.90 - 76.10 - 76.41) - Our accomplishment award in this comparison goes to the 76.41 drivers. While no single driver version triumphed over the others, this particular version always seemed to be first in line in performance tests, and offered the best overall SLI performance increases.
• Windows Server 2003 SP1 SSL Improvements - SP1 is really an interesting service pack..... not only does it do the job of a normal service pack (aggregating updates) it also incorporates added functionality like the Security Configuration Wizard and Post-Setup Security Updates. But this is something you dont hear to much when talking service packs: increased performance....but tis true. There are a few areas in the service pack that this term is realized, but I think the SSL performance is pretty cool - to the tune of a 50% increase.

SOFTWARE...

• Kernel 2.4.30 -  A new Kernel from the 2.4 tree has been released.
• phpMyAdmin 2.6.2-rc1 - phpMyAdmin (download) can manage a whole MySQL-server (needs a super-user) but also a single database. To accomplish the latter you'll need a properly set up MySQL-user who can read/write only the desired database.
• PHP 5.0.4 Final / PHP 4.3.11 Final - The PHP Development Team would like to announce the immediate release of PHP 5.0.4 and 4.3.11. These are maintenance releases that in addition to non-critical bug fixes address several security issues. All Users of PHP are strongly encouraged to upgrade to one of these releases as soon as possible.
• IEFix 1.5 - Internet Explorer Fix - is a general purpose repair utility for Internet Explorer which repairs Internet Explorer by registering it's core DLL files and through the INF file. Additionally if it detects Windows 2000/XP as the Operating System, it runs SFC to restore missing or corrupt Windows system files.
• PowerStrip 3.59 (shw) - PowerStrip (download) provides advanced, multi-monitor, programmable hardware support to a wide range of graphics cards - from the venerable Matrox Millennium.
• VirtualDub 1.6.5 Experimental  - VirtualDub (download / changelog) is a video capture and processing program. It features fast capturing, process files larger than the 2 gigabyte limit, optimized for linear editing, support for Motion-JPEG, MPEG-1 video and layer 3 audio, real-time and near-realtime video processing, video job queues, and much more.
• Koepi's XviD Codec 1.1.0 Beta 2 - XviD (download) is an ISO MPEG-4 compliant video codec.
• nHancer 1.1 - nVidia's driver is using several entries in the registry that are controlling various aspects of its work. nHancer alters these settings these entries in the same way the original control panel, but with a greater variety of options.
• Alcohol 120% v1.9.5.2802 - Alcohol 120% (changelog / download) is a combination of both Alcohol 52% and Alcohol 68%. It enables users to both copy and emulate real or virtual CDs & DVDs. Alcohol 120% can handle the creation of 31 virtual CD & DVD-ROMs, allowing the user to play discs whithout needing the physical disc. It also allows users to make copy CD & DVD to CD-R / CD-RW / DVD-R / DVD-RW / DVD-RAM / DVD+RW.
• GAG version: 4.5d Graphical Boot Manager - Allows boot of up to 9 different operating systems.
• Realtek Beta Driver 64 bit edition - download.
• Radeon Omega Drivers 2.6.12 - Radeon Omega Catalyst Drivers will provide gamers with an alternate set of drivers, ones that have more options and features than the original sets. The drivers contain optimizations, extra features (like OC capabilities), more resolutions and internal tweaks that can give them the edge in a gaming enviroment over the normal drivers, which are often tailored for synthetic benchmarks. All Omega driver sets are tested to ensure maximum compatibility and reliability.