Saturday Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 10:44 PM CET - Jan,03 2004
- Post a comment / read (2)
- Belgian watchdog sues record biz over copy protection - Belgian
consumer watchdog Test-Achats (Test Aankoop), known for its crusade against
Nokia's "unsafe batteries", starts the new year with a fresh assault on the
music industry. It
is taking the music giants EMI, Sony, BMG Music and Universal Music to court
for installing anti-piracy systems on their audio CDs.
- IE Flaw Processing '.lnk' Shortcuts Lets Remote Users Execute Arbitrary
Code -
A vulnerability was reported in Microsoft Internet Explorer in the
processing of shortcuts via scripting code. A remote user can create HTML
that, when loaded by a target user, will execute arbitrary code. It is
reported that if active scripting is enabled, the 'Shell.Application' ActiveX
object can be used to modify a known shortcut ('.lnk' file) and then execute
the modified shortcut. The report indicates that the shell link (i.e.,
shortcut) can invoke 'mshta.exe' to execute arbitrary HTA code located at a
remote site. The Microsoft HTML Application Host process (mshta.exe) will
reportedly execute the remote HTA code on the target system. A demonstration
exploit HTA file that will apparently create an executable on the target
system can be found
here. And
the demonstration HTML file that will trigger the flaw is available at
here.
- Off-topic: NASA attempts a return to Mars tonight -
Whether the NASA's solar-powered, six-wheeled craft survives the dangerous
trip, or becomes scrap like many of its predecessors, will not be known
until it sends a radio signal home -- and that could take hours or days. It is
scheduled to land Saturday night. If it succeeds, the new rover could be the
first of several on Mars. There is a slight chance that the $400 million
rover, named Spirit, could contact Earth minutes after it undertakes the most
complicated part of its seven-month journey -- going from 12,000 mph travel
through space to a complete rest on the surface. In addition, NASA has
released Maestro, a
public version of the primary software tool used by scientists to operate the
Mars Exploration Rovers from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Anyone can
download Maestro for free from
mars.telascience.org
and use it to follow along with the rovers' progress during the mission
(thanks Slashdot.org)
- Off-topic: Ancient site hints at first US settlers -
Stone-age people lived in the lands north of the Arctic Circle before the
peak of thelast Ice Age - much earlier than had been thought, suggests new
findings. The discovery of the site in eastern Siberia also hints that people
might have moved from the Old World into the Americas at a much earlier date
than believed. The site along the Yanu River, carbon-dated as 30,000 years
old, is twice the age of the oldest previously known Arctic settlement, report
Vladimir Pitulko of the Institute for the History of Material Culture in Saint
Petersburg, Russia, and colleagues.
- Corsair XMS PRO 3200LL review - SubZeroTech has posted
a new review of Corsair XMS PRO 3200LL.
- Actiontec Wireless 802.11b+g Kit review - HardwareHell has posted
a new review
of the Actiontec Wireless 802.11b+g Kit.
- AMD nForce2 memory timings explored - The Madshrimps
clear the confusion that might be there with memory timings on your
nForce2 setup.
- The ATI Radeon Cooler Mod Guide -
Andrian Rojak has posted a new guide called "The ATI Radeon Cooler Mod
Guide" Here is a bit: "Modding a CPU cooler onto my Radeon would be the best
alternative in my opinion. It is easily available and very cheap, especially
if you have that aluminium AMD stock cooler lying around. That makes it
practically free! Such coolers would work very well with graphics cards since
they were designed to handle much hotter processors. But not all CPU coolers
are suitable for your graphics card. Sticking to a cooler with heat sink
dimensions of 6 x 6 cm is highly recommended"
- Windows XP Service Pack 2 Info - In
Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2, Microsoft is introducing a set of
security technologies that will help to improve the ability of Windows
XP-based computers to withstand malicious attacks from viruses and worms.
- WinXP - National Security Agency Security Recommendation Guides -
NSA has developed and distributed
configuration guidance for Microsoft Windows NT and Windows 2000 in the
form of configuration guides. These guides are currently being used throughout
the government and by numerous entities as a security baseline for their
Windows systems. To assist our Windows XP user community, NSA has developed
security configuration guidance for Windows XP, with the cooperation of other
government agencies and industry partners who provided their expertise and
extensive technical review.
- Microsoft Portrait 2.2 -
Microsoft Portrait is a research prototype for mobile video communication.
It supports .NET Messenger Service, Session Initiation Protocol and Internet
Locator Service on PCs, Pocket PCs, Handheld PCs and Smartphone. It runs on
local area networks, dialup networks and even wireless networks with
bandwidths as low as 9.6 kilobits/second. Microsoft Portrait delivers
portrait-like video if users are in low bandwidths and displays full-color
video if users are in broadband.
- phpMyAdmin 2.5.5pl1 -
phpMyAdmin (changelog)
can manage a whole MySQL-server (needs a super-user) but also a single
database.
- RightMark 3D Beta 3 -
RightMark 3D
is Independent DirectX 3D Benchmarking Project with support for API DirectX 9.
- X-Setup Pro 6.5 beta 1 -
X-Setup Pro is the ultimate in system configuration or tweaking as some
people would say. It covers all types of options and has many useful features
- for more information please read the rest of this section or browse to the
authors hompage link. X-Setup Pro is not yet another Windows Hacker; it is the
ultimate tool for black belt system tuning and tweaking, running on Windows
95, 98, NT 4.0, 2000, ME, XP and 2003 Server.
- CleanCenter 1.33.28 -
CleanCenter (download
demo) is a user-friendly application developed to clean hard drive by
deleting junk files that are no longer used by any software on your system.
- DSCALER v4.1.18 beta -
DScaler (download)
is a piece of software that captures video, processes it, and scales it for
presentation on a projector or computer monitor. Unlike most existing software
that processes video, DScaler implements highly sophisticated algorithms that
work in real-time, providing PC owners with a level of image quality unknown
up to now.
- ChrisTV Professional 3.55 (SHW) -
ChrisTV (download)
was created due to a need for a better software, than the one delivered by
Pinnacle Systems with their PCTV (Pro) Tuner card. Their software has no
features like: On-Screen-Display, Channel Settings for each channel, MSP
Settings & other necessary features.
- RAM Idle Le 1.46 -
RAM Idle LE
is a smart memory management program that will keep your computer running more
efficiently, faster, and longer. The program's intelligently manages the free
RAM that is available to Windows, and prevents your computer from running
progressively slower over time.
- Game XP -
GameXP is a free tool that optimizes the performance of your computer,
corrects problems and helps you to set up your system to match your gaming
needs. Game XP extends your operating system's capabilities and makes Windows
faster and comfortable for maximum gaming experience.
- Fresh UI 6.80 -
Fresh UI (download)
is the fresh solution for configuring and optimizing Windows. Loaded with
hundreds of useful hidden settings, this software covers the customizing and
optimizing technique that you'll be glad to know: Customizing Windows User
Interface, Optimizing system settings, Optimizing hardware settings,
Customizing Windows application settings, and Control user environment with
policies.
- Adobe Reader Speed-Up 1.12 -
Adobe Reader Speed-Up significantly decreases the amount of time required
for Adobe Reader 6.0 to start by disabling most of the least used plugins.
Plugins can be freely enabled and disabled, if required. Currently supports
free and full versions of Adobe Acrobat v3.0, v4.0, v4.0.5, v5.0, v5.1, v5.5,
and Adobe Reader v6.0 and v6.0.1.
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Updated:03:22 PM CEST Jun,21
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