SECURITY...

• Who Wrote Sobig? - As the one year anniversary of the Anti-Virus Reward Program bounty for Sobig approaches, we felt this was an appropriate time to publicly release the current state of our Sobig forensic investigation (PDF). Appropriately, the authors of this document have chosen to release it anonymously for many reasons.
• Bagle.BC sparks red alert - IT security experts have increased the threat rating of the newly discovered Bagle.BC infection to 'Red Alert' as the worm continues to spread rapidly worldwide, causing more and more incidents. Panda Software reported that, just a few hours after Bagle.BC first appeared, it has entered the top half of the ranking of the most frequently detected viruses by the firm's online antivirus scanner.
• Netsky-P and Zafi-B dominate virus charts - Although security experts have issued a red alert over the Bagle.BC worm, the most prevalent and damaging viruses in October continued to be Netsky-P and Zafi-B, viruses which have topped the chart since June.
• Google Plugs Gmail Hole - Google has fixed a security flaw in its Gmail Web-based e-mail service that allowed attackers to hijack users' e-mail accounts. "Google was recently alerted to a potential security vulnerability affecting the Gmail service. We have since fixed this vulnerability, and all current and future Gmail users are protected," Google spokesperson Nathan Tyler says.
• Oxford Students Suspended for Hacking School Network - Two Oxford students have been suspended after admitting to gaining unauthorized access to the university's IT network. Patrick Foster, 20, and Roger Waite, 21, claimed they had carried out the hack to expose security flaws. But at a disciplinary hearing Friday, it was decided that both students should be "rusticated," or suspended--Foster until May 2005 and Waite until January 2005
• China shuts 1,600 cybercafes - The Chinese government confirmed this weekend that it has closed 1,600 internet cafes and fined operators a total of 100m yuan ($12m) since March, when it began its crackdown on violent or pornographic content, and other material it considers harmful to public morality. Government inspectors have checked up on 1.8m cafes since the campaign began, seeking out those letting kids play violent games or access subversive foreign sites. In addition to the 1,600 cafes that have been closed permanently, 18,000 have been shut down for "rectification", according to reports.

OFF-TOPIC...

• Girl with rare disease doesn't know pain - In the school cafeteria, teachers put ice in 5-year-old Ashlyn's chili. If her lunch is scalding hot, she'll gulp it down anyway. On the playground, a teacher's aide watches Ashlyn from within 15 feet, keeping her off the jungle gym and giving chase when she runs. If she takes a hard fall, Ashlyn won't cry. Ashlyn is among a tiny number of people in the world known to have congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis, or CIPA -- a rare genetic disorder that makes her unable to feel pain.
• Organised chaos gets robots going - A control system based on chaos has made a simulated, multi-legged robot walk successfully. The researchers behind the feat say it may have brought us closer to understanding how people and animals learn to move. Standard robots control their leg motion either through complex computer programs or by using so-called genetic algorithms to “evolve” a successful walking strategy. Both these options are time-consuming and require a lot of computer power.

TECHNOLOGY...

• Windows XP "Reloaded" FAQ - Windows XP Reloaded is a planned interim marketing push for Windows XP that will more widely broadcast features that have been shipped since the initial XP release in 2001, including XP SP2, a new Windows Media Player version, and other exciting consumer-oriented features.
• Toshiba Recalls Memory Modules on Laptops - Toshiba Corp. has announced a voluntary exchange program for memory modules in some of its notebook PCs after identifying a module problem that could cause the PCs to exhibit blue screens, lock up, or experience corruption of memory data.  Under the voluntary exchange program, customers can exchange the memory components in the affected PCs any time from November 1, 2004 until April 30, 2005. Customers can download a utility from Toshiba's website that analyzes their PC's operating system to determine whether or not it contains the subject components.
• Nokia 9500 Communicator receives Wi-Fi certification - The Nokia 9500 Communicator has been granted the IEEE 802-11b and WPA (Wireless Protected Access) certifications by the Wi-Fi Alliance.
• ATI Technologies Vows to Bring Shader Model 3.0, Multi-GPU Technology - "ATI will support Pixel Shaders 3.0 when it becomes readily available in games and applications. Currently, this feature is not readily used by the developer community and today’s top titles still largely rely on Pixel Shaders 2.0. As this trend starts to change ATI will incorporate PS3.0 into its feature set," said John Carvill, who is public relations manager on Integrated and Mobile Products for ATI, in an interview to an Asian web-site OC WorkBench.
• Bands debut dual-sided CD/DVD hybrid - The Donnas and Simple Plan, two rock bands under the label of the Warner Music Group released this week the first two albums on a new, so called DualDisk. The Dual Disk is a new hybrid CD format that offers standard CD audio on one side and the enhanced media capabilities of a DVD on the other side. The disk was designed to be compatible with most devices, including game consoles and personal computers.

HARDWARE...

• Sony Ericsson P910i Triband GSM 900-1800-1900 PDA Camera Phone  -The P910i is the enhanced version of the P900 PDA phone. If you are familiar with the P900, you would have noticed that the major difference between P910i and P900i is the additional of a keyboard which can be used for text entry. Based on the Symbian OS 7.0 UIQ, this PDA phone comes with a stylus for pen based or key based operation. Being Symbian based, there is no lack of applications which you can install onto the unit. As it is a PDA phone, you can turn off the phone function during power on by turning on Flight mode. As claimed, the Flight mode will not interfere with navigation systems or life saving equipments in hospitals.
• Iogear launches Bluetooth mini mouse - Iogear today announced a rechargeable mini mouse with bluetooth interface. The mouse can be opoerated up to 66 feet away from the computer, making it a practical tool fro presentations, the company said.
• Voodoo offers Athlon 64 gaming system with SLI - VoodooPC has thrown its hat into the SLI ring with a RAGE SLi system featuring dual PCI Express NVIDIA graphics card. Unlike Alienware's current SLI system, which is based on a dual Xeon processor platform, the Voodoo box is built up on an Asus A8N-SLi motherboard that supports 939-pin Athlon 64 processors.
• Intel Xeon 3.6 GHz CPU review - At 3.6 GHz clock rate, performance between this new Xeon and AMD's top Opteron 250 processor is pretty close all around. There is no clear winner between the two, as both chips excel in their respective categories (Intel for multimedia and content creation, AMD for number crunching and gaming), but the new 3.6 GHz Xeon puts up very respectable numbers even in areas where the Opteron typically dominates. Rest assured, these Xeon chips will run most modern applications buttery smooth. It's likely we will see clock speed boosts for both the Xeon (3.8 GHz) and Opteron (2.6 GHz) families in early 2005 before the introduction of dual-core technologies from both companies.
• Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.46GHz CPU - all reviews can be found here.
• Kingston HyperX PC2-5400 DDR2 Memory review - MadShrimps take a closer look at Kingston's DDR2 offering, this 1gb kit is clocked by default at 675Mhz (PC2-5400 / KHX5400D2/512) and will give any DDR2 powered platform quite a boost.
• Mushkin PC3200 DDR 222 BLack Hi Perf LII V2 review - Mushkin certainly has a winner with this memory. Anyone with an Athlon system, whether it be an XP or a 64 should put any memory with these chips on their shortlist. Mushkin wants your business and backs their product with a lifetime warranty. Only a handful of manufacturers offer this type of warranty, so that should narrow your choices.
• ABIT AV8 (K8T800 Pro socket 939) Motherboard - This new ABIT board is based on the VIA K8T800 Pro chipset and has a plethora of features including 1000 MHz Hyper-Transport, Serial ATA Raid, Firewire and onboard Gigabit Lan. This motherboard can be found at Directron.com for a mere $111 (pricing current as of 10/31/04), lets take a look at the Specifications of this affordable motherboard then get right into the performance testing results.
• PC AirCon PAC400 review - Probably the best part about the PC AirCon PAC400 is its ability to "hotswap", you can unplug it and plug it back in again without having to worry about opening the case or shutting down the system, giving you full control on when you want this device active. This is handy as I'm sure most people would prefer to only use it when necessary due to the bulky external nature.
• Akasa AK-954D - If you're a diehard overclocker and always interested in achieving the best overclock, then it would be in your interest to examine the Akasa AK-954D due to its slightly improved results. However, this cooler is quite noisy, not making it suitable for any enthusiast who only is interested in mild overclocking success or no overclocking at all.
• Silverstone Nitrogon P4 Heat Pipe Cooler -  The Nitrogon is impressively effective in a fanless setup given the right amount of consideration to airflow. I'll certainly have to bug my contact over at Silverstone to see if I can get my hands on a SST-TJ06, the case this heatsink was really designed to be used with. On the bad side, I was rather disappointed to have to give up my exhaust fan to use this unit, even though it is very obvious the engineers on this project were trying to get the cooling fins as close to the power supply fan or exhaust fan as possible. Hopefully this clearance issue will be something that Silverstone will take into account on their next heatsink. If you are looking to get your PC as quiet as possible, I would definitely give this heatsink some serious consideration as long as your physical setup can accommodate it.
• Vantec NXP-201 and Vantec Fans - This fan controller from Vantec is available in two versions: one with a black and one with a silver housing. The housing is made of Aluminum. The NXP-201 has 4 channels, and you can connect fans (or other devices like CCFLs) to the 3-pin connectors on the rear of the device. Lukely Vantec also ships two 3-pin extension cables and two 3-pin to 4-pin(Molex) cables with the NXP-201.
• OCLabs PlexyBlock B3 - There are a lot of nice CPU water blocks out there, OCLabs B3 is certainly one of them. This finely-tuned hunk of copper was able to do a very good job of cooling our processor even under very unfriendly conditions (FSB 250). This block was even able to do a good job of competing with one of of the most successful and efficient blocks on the market. If this was not enough the block looks very cool and installs in a snap.
• $5 VGA Cooler: At a glance -  All video card gets hot, hot, hot! Ram heatsinks on a performance video card can get 150 degrees Fahrenheit hot. The large fan and heatsink assemblies on the graphics processor chip can get equally as hot; around 130 degrees Fahrenheit. PC enthusiasts know heat is the enemy of PC stability and successful overclocking. Sure a VGA cooler could be the answer for $25-$35 USD (plus taxes, shipping and handling) but we set out to build our own for under $5.
• NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT vs. ATI RADEON X800 Pro Comparison - Adrian's Rojak Pot has posted a NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT vs ATI Radeon X800 Pro Comparison.
• Sapphire's x800 Pro review - PyroPort.com take a look at Sapphire's x800 Pro and compare it to a comparably priced GeForce 6800GT.
• ATI Radeon X800 XT PCI-E -Currently, the X800 XT PCI-E version is not available on the consumer market, but the AGP version of this card sells for anywhere between $700 and $800 CDN (approx. $550-650 USD). I will finish off with a quote that sums up the X800 XT in 5 short words; "This card knows no limits!"
• Chaintech GeForce AA6800 Apogee review - Chaintech aims to provide consumers with multiple product configurations, which is the case with their standard GeForce 6800 and their GeForce 6800 AA6800 Apogee. While the AA6800 Apogee sports a slightly higher price tag, it offers higher clock speeds on both the GPU and memory than standard 6800-class units. The AA6800's core clocks in at 358MHz, 33MHz higher than the standard 325MHz. The 128MB of DDR memory runs at 770MHz, 70MHz higher than standard speeds.
• Dual Layer and 16X DVD+R Roundup - AnandTech take a look at the 8 fastest and most capable burners!
• VisionTek Xtreme 2 Go Drive - From a price to performance perspective, it is easy to see why floppy drives and disks will be a thing of the past. We're almost there too. At Newegg, a floppy drive and a box of ten floppies will set you back 17 dollars, and you only get 14.4MBs worth there. For an additional 3 bucks, VisionTek offers you a 64MB USB2.0 Xtreme 2 Go Drive.
• UV X-Connect 500W PSU review - This product gives you all the power you need, looks awesome, and helps you keep the inside of your computer neat and clean, with their Modular Cable Connection System!
• Bluetake HI-PHONO BT460EX Bluetooth Hi-Fi Audio Station - BT460EX Audio Station is aimed at not only the audio enthusiasts, but also at those with passion for full room sound (not surround sound). This product will help you connect numerous products, or applications, and wirelessly transfer the audio to another a set of stand-alone speakers. It won't exactly give you the surround sound effect, but it will positively sound better than two speakers in a home theater setup.
• Sharp AQUOS 15" LC15L1US (wireless) - ByteSector take a look at the 15" Sharp Aquos LC15L1US Wireless LCD-TV.
• Samsung 192MP monitor review - For what the 192MP is designed for it does its job well. A hardcore gamer probably should look for another monitor but it should be ok for any casual gaming. This is a monitor that I can recommend to most day in day out users. It would work well in the college dorm room or a child's room that does not need a CRT and a TV. Believe me, with 3 kids I would love to have 3 of these hooked up to their computers.
• S+ARCK Mouse review - NeoWin take a look at "different" piece of hardware, the S+ARCK Mouse (image), from Microsoft.
• Xtrac Mouse Pads review - XtracPads' mouse surface lineup is great. There are plenty of choices and you really can't go wrong with any one (ok the Ripper XL and the Micro may be a little extreme, but there's a market for those as well). I haven't found anything wrong with any of the pads, and forking over $10-20 for a quality, no nonsense mouse pad is money well spent.
• Mid-Range Buyer's Guide  - The goal of this guide is to outline an entire mid-range computer system for around $1500. This includes the internal hardware, input devices, monitor and speakers (everything but an OS).

SOFTWARE...

• MySQL 4.0.22  - changelog ~ download
• Firefox v1.0 RC2 Nightly Build  - RC2 version is available in the nighly builds.
• Opera 7.60 Preview 2 build 7263 - Opera 7.60 Preview 2 for Windows is available for download. As usual, discuss the new version in opera.beta and in the my.opera.com Beta Testing forum. Due to the experimental nature of this release, upgrading a previous Opera installation is not recommended. If you'd like to test your mail from a previous release with this preview, delete the OperaMail folder, then copy your entire Mail folder from your old install to your 7.60 Preview 2 installation.
• A9 Launches Official Toolbar for Firefox - Amazon.com subsidiary A9.com on Monday released a version of its Internet toolbar for the Firefox Web browser. A9 said the toolbar, which is available for free download, will offer the same features to users of the Mozilla open-source software as it does for other browsers. Those features include the "bookmarks" function, which lets users save favorite Web sites and access them from any PC, and "diary," which lets users save notes to themselves.
• nLite 0.99.3 Beta - nLite (download) lets you choose which components to remove from your Windows 2000, XP or 2003 before installation. Removing unneeded components you gain on your system speed and security. It supports removal of almost any component and few services. You can make a bootable ISO with it and even easy slipstream Service pack with a click of a button.
• CDBurnerXP 3.0.116 Beta - CDBurnerXP Pro is a freeware CD/DVD-Writer program. The program can write CD-R, CD-RW DVD+R/RW DVD-R/RW discs.
• FirePanel XP 1.5.2.0 - FirePanel XP is an extension for the new firewall found in Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server2003 SP1. It modifies your Windows Firewall, with features not normally available to users.
• PlexTools Professional version 2.18 - Plextor has released a new version of their PlexTools software. This new version adds support for PX-716SA.
• EPOX BIOS updates - EPOX released several new bios updates the last couple of days, they included updates for EP-4SGM8I, EP-4PLMI , EP-9NDA3+, EP-4PCA3I, EP-4PGAI, EP-4PCAI, EP-8KDA3+, EP-8KDA3J.
• Forceware 70.41 Beta Quadro drivers - NVIDIA FTP has a new set of Forceware Drivers in the shape of 70.41 beta (download). This set was released for their Quadro series of cards.