Sunday Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 11:03 PM CEST - Aug,17 2003
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- Next-Gen Windows Worms Will Be Smarter - Despite infecting tens of
thousands of computers worldwide,
the recent W32.Blaster worm is poorly written and inefficient, blunting
its impact, according to security experts. However, future versions of
the worm could correct Blaster's flaws and spread much more quickly, resulting
in service outages on infected networks and causing far greater harm to
businesses and individual users on the Internet, experts warn.
Blaster, which is also known as the MSBlast, the Lovsan Worm, and the DCOM
Worm, surfaced on Monday and quickly spread to computers worldwide by
exploiting a known security vulnerability in Microsoft Windows.
- New Blaster worm variants on the loose -
New variants of
the Blaster worm are spreading rapidly because of poorly patched home
users.
Blaster B and Blaster C are very simple tweaks on the original blaster code.
Virus writers have changed the name of the infection application from
MCBlast.exe to Teekids.exe or penis32.exe respectively. The code compression
format has also been changed and new messages have been added taunting
Microsoft and antivirus companies. The Blaster C worm can also include a
Trojan that allows hackers to take control of infected PCs. Antivirus vendors
have already identified the Trojan, called Lithium, and a scan should remove
it.
- GNU servers 'owned' by crackers since March -
Crackers owned the primary file servers of the GNU Project from mid-March
until two weeks ago, the Free Software Foundation admitted this week. The
attack raises concerns about whether malicious code could have been inserted
in the software available for download, including some Linux applications
- MS fixes WinNT patch RAS knock-out glitch - As if hard pressed
Windows sysadmins didn't have enough problems dealing with the effects of the
Blaster worm, Microsoft has warned that
an unrelated security fix it supplied to NT 4 users last month was faulty.
The security patch, issued in July and designed to guard against a potential
DoS risk, causes Remote Access Services to fail when a system is rebooted
after applying the patch, Microsoft has admitted.
- ATI wins bid for next Xbox - Graphics chip underdog ATI
Technologies said Thursday it has signed
a contract with Microsoft to produce components for future versions of the
Xbox game console, beating out market leader Nvidia.
- Chinese launch wristphone -
The Chinese announcement won't be seen in Europe; it's designed to work on
the CDMA standard, found mostly in North America. There are three
solutions. There's the Seiko, which uses the wrist module as an alert and as a
display, and provides simple control for accepting and terminating calls. A
Bluetooth headset deals with the audio, and a belt-mounted personal mobile
gateway does the GSM wireless work. The other famous wrist-watch phone is the
Japanese model, the Wristomo, was announced by NTT DoCoMo in March this year.
To talk on that one, you take it off, opening up the wrist-clip to make it
look like a reasonably neat phone. The buttons on the inside of the band are,
presumably, a minor discomfort for the tough-guy nerds who wear it.
- T-Mobile, RIM Launch Color BlackBerry -
The BlackBerry 7230 is a tri-band Global System for Mobile
Communications/General Packet Radio Services (GSM/GPRS) device. It lets users
access e-mail along with the Internet and voice networks around the world, and
supports 900-MHz, 1800-MHz, and 1900-MHz bands. It was launched in Germany and
Austria on June 2 through T-Mobile International, but is now available in the
U.S. for $400.
- New HP Device Converts VHS to DVD - A device to convert those
stacks of cherished but now rarely watched videotapes to DVD is a highlight of
the dozens of new Hewlett-Packard products announced this week.
The $399 DVD Movie Writer dc3000 is among the 158 new products launched by
HP. All of the consumer devices, which include cameras, printers, and
scanners, were unveiled in New York on Monday by HP CEO Carly Fiorina.
- Sony Unveils 8-Megapixel Digicam - Sony's digital camera line hits
new resolution levels with the
unveiling of the 8-megapixel Cyber-shot DSC-F828, which sports a new
four-color CCD, imaging processor, and a high-end Carl Zeiss lens. The new
digital camera is aimed at sophisticated hobbyists, not strictly for
professionals, according to Sony. Suggested retail price will be $1200 upon
its release in early November, according to Sony.
- Sony polishes up flash memory card - The Japanese consumer
electronics and entertainment company announced on Friday a new version of its
Memory Stick Duo card, called the Memory Stick Pro Duo. The
new removable flash memory card has a capacity of up to 512MB, up from a
maximum of 128MB in the previous version. It will theoretically be able to
transfer data at a rate of up to 20 megabytes per second under optimal
conditions, according to Sony.
- Phantom console unveiled - The
Phantom games console comes with a 100GB hard drive, 256MB DDR RAM, the
latest iteration of nVidia's video card and runs on the Windows XP kernel!
With the Phantom SDK, you can port Xbox and PC games over extremely easy, they
provide the SDK at no cost.
- Camera Round -up -
PCMag has tested 15 cameras, each of them has some sort of lens protector
that opens automatically when you turn the camera on, and all have optical
zoom lenses, LCD viewfinders, and removable memory cards.
- Roundup of 9 GeForce FX based videocards - NordicHardware have
compared nine GeForce FX-based videocards. One 5200 Ultra, one 5600, three
5600 Ultras, three 5900's and finally one 5900 Ultra. The three boards we'll
use for comparison are Radeon 9600 Pro, 9800 and 9800 Pro. (We won't use
Radeon 9200 Pro since the 5200 Ultra reviewed today is even more expensive
than a Radeon 9600 Pro and thus would make it a very unfair comparison.) Four
manufacturers are represented in the review: ABIT, Creative, Gainward and
Inno3D. Nothing new here as these are all well known brands.
- Windows XP SP2 Delayed Until Late 2004 - In a surprising turn
of events,
Microsoft has pushed back the release date for the second Windows XP service
pack to the third quarter of 2004. SP2 was long expected to debut before
the end of 2003, a year after SP1 made the rounds. The change in plans came to
light by way of Microsoft's Product Lifecycle Web site, which details future
support timelines for the company's products.
- Windows Registry Guide 2003 -
The
Windows Registry Guide is a Windows help file that reveals all the best
tweaks, tricks, and hacks for the Windows 95, 98, Me, NT, 2000 and XP
Registries. The Registry is a database used to store settings and options for
the 32-bit versions of Microsoft Windows.
- OpenOffice 1.1 RC3 - There is latest stable build (win32
~
linux) of Sun's OpenSource office suite called OpenOffice, an open
source project through which Sun Microsystems is releasing the technology for
the popular StarOffice productivity suite.
- Real Alternative 1.04 -
Real Alternative will allow you to play RealMedia files. This way you can
play RealAudio and RealVideo files without having to install RealPlayer. You
do need a player that is capable of playing RealMedia. The included Media
Player Classic supports it and works very well. Supported: RealAudio (.ra
.rpm), RealMedia (.rm .ram .rmvb .rpx .smi .smil), RealText (.rt), ReadPix
(.rp), RealMedia embedded in webpages. .smi and .smil files sometimes only
play the first part of a clip. This is a limitation of the current Media
Player Classic.
- GAIM 0.67 -
Gaim (download)
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. What's new in
this version?
- NeroVision Express 2.0.1.2 -
NeroVision Express
2 leads you comfortably through the whole process of making video CDs,
Super VideoCDs or high-value DVDs.
- Fresh UI 6.25 -
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.
- Fresh Download 6.00 -
Fresh Download (download)
is an easy-to-use and very fast download manager software that turbo charges
downloading files from the Internet, such as your favorite software, mp3
files, video files, picture collections, etc. Unlike any other similar
utilities, this software is 100% free, no charges, no banners in the software,
no spyware.
- Earth Station 5 v1.1.24 -
Earthstation 5 (download)
breaks new ground by providing fast file sharing with Windows audio and video
streaming and P2P downloading with stealth technology to hide your IP address
and prevent harassment.
- TVTool 8.2 -
With
version 8.2 the nView features were renewed completely. Now the nView
configuration works properly on systems with multiple graphics cards, too.
Also the assignment of the primary/secondary monitor is done correctly. The
problem with the resolution and refresh rate, which were not restored
correctly because of a Detonator driver bug, is solved now. TVTool restores
them manually now.
- DivXG400 2.83 -
DivXG400 (download)
was first brought to live to work around incompatibility with DivX ;-), MS
MPEG4, WM7, WM8 codecs and Matrox G400/G450 drivers/hardware. If image width
of the clips is not exact multiple of 32 (like 720x???), clip may be played
back without using video overlay. Without video overlay, clips are looking
choppy and DVDMax can not be used.
- WinAce 2.50 -
WinAce (download) is
an archiving utility with an easy-to-use interface for creating, extracting,
and viewing archives. It includes built-in compression for ACE, ZIP, LHA, and
MS-CAB formats, and built-in decompression for ACE, ZIP, LHA, MS-CAB, RAR,
ARJ, ARC, GZIP, TAR, and ZOO formats. This final version adds BZip2
extraction support, fixes a bug that sporadically produced an error when
exiting WinAce, adds "extract to directory with the same name" (XFolder) to
the context menu, fixes a shell extension problem with filenames > 220
characters and problem with ACE Sfx files on drives with more than 4GB free
space.
- Cpu-Z 1.19a -
CPU-Z (download)
is a freeware that provides some information on your CPU, Board, RAM ...
- Nvidia Detonator Drivers v45.23 (Official) WHQL - NVIDIA has
released
new official Detonator WHQL drivers (now called Detonator FX) for
Win2k/XP
~ 9x/ME
~
Release Notes
- Nvidia Detonator Drivers v45.24 - Nvidia's FTP also offers
Detonator (non WHQL)
driver version 45.24 - core files are dated: 08/05/2003.
- VIA Hyperion 4in1 v4.49p - VIA's FTP server has now offers
a
new Hyperion 4in1 drivers version 4.49p (mirror1
~
mirror2). No word yet on what's new. VIA Hyperion drivers are suitable for
any VIA chipset and all Microsoft Windows Operating Systems. Hyperion driver
sets include INF, AGP, IDE and IRQ related drivers.
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Updated:10:40 PM CEST Jun,21
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