SECURITY...

• Big danger from Small Trojan - Over 120,000 emails containing a downloader Trojan named Small.bdq have been sent to a highly targeted group of UK businesses since 9.10pm on 15 July, security experts warned today. According to email security company BlackSpider Technologies, the Trojan is distinguished by its targeting specific companies across Europe during 10-minute periods, probably using spammers' directory lists.
• Hoax email says ICE contains virus - Very sick person has decided to circulate a hoax email claiming that creating an ICE (In Case of Emergency) entry in your mobile handset leaves it vulnerable to a virus. The rumour is completely false.
• Windows Flaw Reaches Beyond XP - A security flaw that could let an attacker remotely crash computers running Windows exists in several versions of the operating system, not just Windows XP. Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 are vulnerable to a denial-of-service attack that exploits a problem in the Remote Desktop Protocol, Microsoft said in an advisory on Saturday.
• Internet Explorer's Image Decoder Multiple Vulnerabilities - Michal Zalewski reporting his findings on testing MSIE for image decompression and parsing flaws.
• Bringing Spammers to Their Knees - In a novel if potentially controversial effort to fight spam, a firm called Blue Security this week begins distributing the beta of a free program that, once installed on your PC, makes it part of a community that works to cripple Web sites run by spammers.

OFFTOPIC...

• Mysterious planet baffles experts - The hefty planet is bigger than Jupiter although it stays very close to its main star; 20 times closer, in fact, than the Earth is to our Sun
• Weinstein & WB Team on Ninja Turtles - The Weinstein Company and Warner Bros. Pictures announced today that they will join forces to distribute the first all-CG-animated movie in the long and phenomenally successful history of the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" franchise. The announcement was made today by Jeff Robinov, President of Production, Warner Bros. Pictures, and Harvey Weinstein of The Weinstein Company. The as-yet-untitled picture will be released early in 2007. The movie will be directed by Kevin Munroe from his own screenplay, developed in consultation with Turtles co-creator Peter Laird.
• Doom: the Movie details - The first few details have emerged about Doom: the Movie, "loosely" based, of course, on the iconic first person shooter game of the early Nineties. Dark Horizons has ten photos from the film, due for release on 21st October in the US, and a week later in Blighty.

TECHNOLOGY...

• Coding Misstep Forces new Firefox Release - The open-source Firefox browser and Thunderbird e-mail client will be updated for the second time in a week because of code changes that have unintentionally stopped some third-party extensions from functioning correctly. The updates will take Firefox and Thunderbird to version 1.0.6, while the Mozilla Suite will be updated to version 1.7.10, wrote representatives from the Mozilla Foundation on the group's developer news blog. Mozilla oversees the software's development.
• Video iPod May Arrive in September - MSNBC is reporting that Apple is in talks with major record labels to license and sell video content on the iTunes music store. The videos would sell for $1.99 and be playable on a video iPod, which Apple has reported may come out sometime in September.
• Gates puzzled why more students don't choose computer science - Speaking to hundreds of university professors, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said Monday that he's baffled more students don't go into computer science.
• Defense Department Buys HP Computers To Design Weapons - The DoD system is based on a 1,024-node Cluster Platform 4000 from HP that uses ProLiant DL145 servers with Opteron processors from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. The cluster runs on a Linux operating system.
• End of the road for IBM's OS/2 - IBM will stop selling the OS/2 operating system at year's end, marking an end of an era for Big Blue. IBM, which made the announcement this week, said it will discontinue OS/2 products by 23 December and withdraw standard support for OS/2-related products as of 31 December 2006. Support for OS/2 will only be available under a service contract after 2006.
• $1 domains for the developing world - The developing world could soon see .org domain names for just $1 under a new scheme by non-for-profit registry PIR

HARDWARE... 

• Mus Computer Mouse From Creator of Optimus Keyboard - From the creators of the Optimus Keyboard, Mus is a radically designed computer mouse (images) for Macintosh users. It is a one-button computer mouse shaped like a cursor. However, it lacks several important and useful features that are found in most mouse today - scrolling wheel, wireless capabilities and additonal buttons.
• Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 200GB Hard Disk Drive - There are no real negatives to report on these drives. The only thing that may be worth considering when shopping for SATA hard drives is that SATA II drives have already hit the market.
• Thecus N4100 IP Storage Appliance - If you're looking for a new means of storing and protecting the vast amount of data you have somehow managed to acquire, then ask yourself whether an IP storage solution would be feasible for you. If you really need a 100% uptime, network attached storage device with access control and hotswap array rebuilds, and you don't mind the 7 hour RAID 5 build (which is only likely to be an issue once,) then the N4100 is worth considering. Just bear in mind that 900GB of protected network attached storage in a sexy black box will set you back a grand.
• HP dvd640i LightScribe DVD Writer - First things first, this is a very slow DVD writer, at least it is by modern standards. In fact it's been many months since I've seen test results as slow as those turned in by the HP dvd640i, but this drive isn't about raw performance. In fact, despite it's undoubtedly tardy behaviour it has one trick up it's sleeve that no other DVD writer I've reviewed has exhibited - LightScribe functionality.
• OptoRite TED80Y1 8x USB 2.0 DVD±RW - This is an external USB 2.0 drive and is able to write at 8x at DVD+R, 4x at DVD-R/DVD-RW/DVD+RW. The maximum read speed for DVDs is 8x.
• BenQ FP91V LCD Monitor - The BenQ FP91V+ is a great package for any user—even gamers. It provides an excellent range of contrast, brightness, colour, an excellent response rate, and deals admirably well with both colour intensity and motion display. While I do have reservations with the sound quality, it is about as much as you can expect from a 4W system; if this is a problem, just don't use them.
• ViewSonic VX724 - 4ms 17in TFT - TrustedReviews take a look at the 17in VX724 from ViewSonic, which it claims has a 4ms response time.
• Buffalo AirStation MIMO - The jewel in Buffalo's crown is undoubtedly its AOSS technology which we found takes the pain out of setting up securely encrypted wireless links. MIMO performance and extended range are also very impressive although general router features and design aren't as good as Netgear's WPN824.
• Chenbro Gaming Bomb II Case - Bjork3D takes a look at Chenbro Gaming Bomb II Case.

GUIDES...

• CROSSFIRE vs SLI - check it out!
• Making Windows 2000 run (rather well) on only 32MB RAM - Still 95% compatible with Windows XP, The Windows 2000 OS still runs very well on very old hardware - hardware with low specs it was never even meant to run on.
• Call of Duty Dedicated Server Setup Guide (Windows Only) - The setup and install of Call of Duty and Call of Duty United Offensive on a Windows server is fairly simple. Especially for those who may have setup a game server before.

SOFTWARE...

• FastStone Image Viewer 2.17 Beta (7-18 Build) - FastStone Image Viewer (download) is an image browser, viewer, converter and editor with an easy to use interface and a nice array of features that include resizing, renaming, cropping, color adjustments, watermarks and more.
• Fraps 2.6.3 - Fraps is a tool that lets you monitor current framerates in a corner of the screen for programs using DirectX or OpenGL technology.
• MozBackup 1.4.2 - MozBackup (download) is a utility for creating backups of Mozilla, Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird and Netscape profiles. It allows you to backup mail, favorites, contacts, etc.
• ClamWin Free Antivirus 0.86.1 - ClamWin is a Free Antivirus for Microsoft Windows 98/Me/2000/XP/2003. It provides a graphical user interface to the Clam AntiVirus engine.
• Windows Post Install Wizard - Windows Post-Install Wizard is a hypertext application designed for giving users choice. While Windows XP offers many ways of customizing the setup process out of the box, its major drawback is the lack of being able to select which applications an end user may install. In the past, end users and administrators needed to either download the files manually, or create overly complex scripts that could only be used once. WPI allows you to create one image, which can then be custom configured, and optionally, automated, so that end users can install any applications.
• BitTorrent 4.0.3 Final & 4.1.3 Beta - download
• AIM Ad Hack 4.09 - With this small file (download) you can effectively remove all the ads from AIM you must be using.
• foobar2000 0.9 beta 6 - Foobar2000 is an advanced audio player for the Windows platform.
• Winamp 5.094 - Nullsoft Winamp (download lite / full version) is a fast, flexible, high-fidelity media player for Windows.
• G-Force 3.0.1 - G-Force is a music visualization plug-in (download) for media players that also visualizes auxiliary or "line-in" audio. G-Force features fast anti-aliased effects, millions of possible visual combinations, savable and scriptable effects, and unparalleled expandability.
• DVDFab Decrypter 2.9.2.3 - This new version 2.9.2.3 fixes a compatibility problem with DVD Shrink and Nero Recode when copying movies, protected with newer versions of the Sony ARccOS protection.
• Cuttermaran 1.65 - Cuttermaran (download) is a cut program for MPEG1 or MPEG2 video streams.
• nVidia BIOS Modifier (v.2.1) - This tool (NBM) is intended for modification of BIOSes of nVidia 6x00 and 7x00 cards ONLY!!! BIOSes of nVidia 5x00 and older aren't supported.
• PCI Latency Tool 2.3 - Utility to set PCI Latency and prevent game stutter or simply improve FPS. This tweak is an important one, and one well worth checking into. Apparently, newer high-end video cards hog PCI latency for no known reason.
• ATI Tray Tools 1.0.3.720 - ATI Tray Tools is a small utility that can be found in the windows tray which then allows instant access to options and settings
• NGO NVIDIA Optimized Driver 1.7772 - The NGO nVidia Optimized Driver (download) is a tweaked version of the nVidia Forceware driver. The main purpose is to satisfy the users with a better performance and better image quality. The Driver has support for all Geforce cards.
• NGO ATI Optimized Driver 1.5.7 - The NGO ATI Optimized Driver (download) is a tweaked version of the ATI Catalyst driver. The main purpose is to satisfy the users with a better performance and better image quality. The Driver has support for all Radeon cards.
• nForce4 AMD Edition 6.66 WHQL - Nvidia have just released a new set of nForce Drivers version 6.66 WHQL for Windows 2000/XP and Windows XP/Server 2003 (64-Bit).