SECURITY...

• How Dangerous Is Using Kazaa? - Kazaa's on going trial in Australia is revealing many hard facts that might shock the file sharing generation. Kazaa are currently being prosecuted for copyright violations by a variety of media companies. Prof. Leon Sterling from the University of Melbourne made an appearance in court today, providing evidence against Kazaa. He asserted his belief that although Kazaa might be usable for other purposes, its prime purpose was as a music file sharing tool.
• Security 'Honey Pots' May Snare Private Details - Setting up an unprotected server or network invites attackers to infect or examine the system. The honey pots are then used to track the hackers and collect data on the way the intruders operate. Information collected in honey pots is typically used to power early warning and prediction systems.
• Banking site hijacked by fraudsters - Fraudsters have used a clever web-programming trick to turn a legitimate banking site into a tool for stealing account information. Suntrust, a bank based in Georgia, US, has fallen foul of the deception, according to web security experts who received emails designed to swindle customers. Researchers at UK-based web-monitoring firm Netcraft received emails claiming to come from Suntrust that ask customers to verify their account information using a link embedded in the message.  But the email was not sent from the bank's own servers and the web page it linked to contained extra characters in the URL address line - added on to the bank's legitimate web address. So, while the page was hosted by the bank's servers, hackers had overlaid it with altered elements to give the appearance of a legitimate "Account Verification" page.
• Judge warns of online auction fraud - A judge has warned that is "extremely easy" for fraudsters to take advantage of online auction sites, after convicting a woman of selling bogus Glastonbury tickets on eBay. Sara-Louise Hambridge pleaded guilty to selling non-existent tickets for the festival, and netting over £3,000 for fewer than 20 tickets.
• Sprint sued over alleged vice hacks - A Las Vegas adult services operator is making a federal case of his longstanding claim that cyber security weaknesses at the local phone company have permitted hackers to hijack calls intended for his stable of in-room entertainers - reprising a complaint that state regulators rejected in 2002. Eddie Munoz is seeking $30m in damages from Sprint of Nevada, accusing the company of unfair business practices, in a lawsuit filed in federal court last fall
• IE6 Vulnerability - Local File Detection - This security vulnerability in Internet Explorer allows remote attackers to discover what software is installed on the remote computer, by testing for the existence of certain files.
• Broadcast client crash in Battlefield 1942 1.6.19 and Vietnam 1.2 - Like any multiplayer game, Battlefield contacts a master server to know
  all the available online servers and then automatically queries them to collect informations in the in-game browser. The problem is in the parameter "numplayers" of the server's reply that if is a too big number causes an immediate freeze of the client followed (after some seconds) by a crash caused by the access to a NULL pointer. This is a broadcast client crash so a single attacker visible in the master server list is able to passively exploit the bug versus any
  vulnerable client online.
• Online Script Decoder - Windows Script Encoder is a Microsoft tool to encode scripts so that "Web hosts and Web clients cannot view or modify their source". It encodes the content of script tags using a very simple encoding algorithm and renames the scripts "language" attribute from "JScript" or "Javascript" to "JScript.Encode" and from "VBScript" to "VBScript.Encode".

OFF-TOPIC...

• Spend Your Life on the Phone for $999 -  For customers who either love to plan ahead or hate monthly bills, a small Massachusetts telecommunications firm has launched a $999 offer of unlimited Internet-based telephone service for life. The deal includes unlimited calls within the United States, Canada and 20 countries, as well as an additional 21 foreign cities. Privately held RNK said the deal includes a two-month money-back guarantee, and that customers still unhappy after five years could get half their money back minus charges for some calls. The $999 fee does not include taxes or surcharges.
• Guru predicts machines will rule the world - Software Guru Grady Booch is predicting that machines will rule the world by 2030. Booch, who is in a unique position to make this happen, is the chief scientist at Rational Software which was recently bought by IBM.
• Blade: The Art of Gore - Trinity, the new installment in the movie franchise about the human-vampire hybrid, doesn't get high marks for plot plausibility. But if you're looking for impressive scenes of on-screen carnage, the film delivers in full. By Jason Silverman.

TECHNOLOGY...

• Lenovo buys IBM PC division - Industry giant IBM has sold its PC division to Lenovo, China's largest IT enterprise!
• Siemens Develops 1 gbit/sec Wireless Link - Siemens has developed mobile wireless technology with transfer rates as high as 1 gigbit per second.
• Dual DVD, HD-DVD Disc Developed - The newly developed ROM disc has a single-sided, dual-layer structure. The upper layer, closer to the optical head, stores data in the DVD format, and the lower layer stores HD DVD data. The DVD layer has a 4.7GB capacity, satisfying specification of current DVD discs, while the HD DVD layer can store 15GB capacity. The DVD layer can be played back on currently available DVD players.
• Adware cannibals feast on each other - According to the Nov. 24 complaint, DirectResponse's software detects Internet Optimizer and then sends a command to "kill" the program, a process that deletes its files from the PC registry and from the computer altogether. Avenue Media said DirectRevenue's tactics have caused it to lose about 1 million customers--about half its installed base--and as much as $10,000 a day in revenue.
• RC1 for Windows Server 2003 x64 edition, Win XP Pro x64 edition - It's not just Windows Server 2003 SP1 that reached the Release Candidate 1 (RC1) milestone on Tuesday. Microsoft also posted for download the first release-candidate beta versions of Windows Server 2003 x64 Editions, as well as Windows XP Professional x64 Edition. Windows Server 2003 SP1 and the aforementioned 64-bit versions are all slated to go gold by mid-2005.

HARDWARE...

• New SiS-based boards offer an entry-level choice of integrated graphics for the AMD Athlon 64 - Of the five new SiS-based boards, three pair the SiS760GX northbridge with the SiS964 southbridge, one uses the SiS964L, and the Asustek offering uses the SiS965L. With the 760GX and 965L combination, the Asustek board becomes the first AMD Athlon 64 solution with integrated graphics to support PCI Express (PCIe) x1. This PCIe support, coupled with AGP 8x, RAID0, RAID1, SATA and on-board LAN gives the board ample upgrade options for a whole range of users.
• AMD ships 90-nano Opterons - The Register is reporting that AMD has started shipping Opteron processors fabbed using 90-nano process technology. The 90-nano chips were due out before the end of the year, so it's no surprise to see them shipping now.
• Billion Electric announces availability of 802.11g ADSL security gateway - The myGuard 7500GL supports Trend Micro's complete security solution, Trend Micro Home Network Security Services, which includes a variety of wireless security features. In addition, the ADSL security gateway offers built-in Wi-Fi wireless protected access (WPA), firewall and virtual private network (VPN) capabilities.
• Nvidia ships NV44 - Don't get confused, because Nvidia already launched card named 6200. The older one is based on the faster and more expensive NV43-V core. Actually those chips could be defined as the slowest of the NV43 series that were good enough to make slower chips by crippling the pipelines. The chip, codenamed NV44 is already in production but as you can see it hasn't managed to make it to the shops for Yule. As a matter of fact, a very few have managed to ship 6200, NV43-V based cards in retail. These cost a bit more than L100 here in Europe.
• ASUS Denies VIA K8T890 Mainboard Cancellation - The mainboard manufacturer claimed it was wrongly understood by journalists about canceling the plans to use the VIA K8T890 core-logic, reports Hard Tecs 4U web-site, and had only planned to stop sending its A8V-E Deluxe to reviewers because of lower than expected performance that was a consequence of faulty BIOS version.
• Samsung L1200 Portable DVD Player - This player is very good in terms of image quality. It delivers a strong bright image with vibrant colours and great black colour results (something Samsung is very good at with all their HD DVD players: images tend to have rich black levels rather than dull grayish blacks.). In many portable players, brightness is always an issue; we complain “It's not bright enough.
• Corsair, Kingston, and OCZ CL2 TCCD memory shootout - Priced at $265, Kingston's HyperX KHX3200UL modules are the cheapest of the three featured today, and are also the best performing. As expected with modules using the same Samsung TCCD memory chips, all three pairs of memory performed very close to one another at our set speeds and timings, but the KHX3200UL sticks by Kingston were able to get up to 284MHz FSB, 7MHz higher than Corsair's 3200XL Pro modules.
• Corsair TwinX1024-4400C25PT 1Gbyte Matched Memory - Corsair's TwinX XMS4400 1Gbyte matched memory pack is aimed at enthusiasts who absolutely know that their motherboards will run flawlessly at 275MHz and beyond. By running memory in a synchronous fashion with an overclocked Front-Side Bus or driven clock, performance, as expected, is markedly better than opting for slower, asynchronous RAM. The TwinX4400 pack will suit those users who have either have multiplier-locked, low-speed CPUs that are partial to a jump in FSB/driven clock, or to the hardcore enthusiast who's not scared of using extreme cooling on premier CPUs.
• Shuttle SN95G5 review - The XPC SN95G5 destroys the myth that bigger PCs are faster. Designed for power-hungry users, this AMD Athlon 64-based small form factor (SFF) computer delivers tower-crushing, performance in one-third the space.
• Albatron K8X800 ProII Socket 754 motherboard - The downside from the K8X800 ProII is that it does not offer that much in overclocking features. With a broken multiplier, we weren't able to do much except overclock the FSB at the default CPU ratio. There is a good selection of voltage options for the chipset and the HyperTransport bus, but only basic memory performance options. There is dual bios chips which is something enthusiasts will appreciate.
• MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum (socket 939) motherboard - The board was not without its issues though. As far as layout concerns go, the positioning of the SATA3 and SATA4 ports could have been done a bit better. Use of those ports would be nearly impossible with a large AGP card and a HSF or water block unit installed. The BIOS had some minor inconsistencies as well, specifically in the Cell Menu portion. The most glaring feature missing was the ability to lock the PCI bus FSB, or in some way control it via ratios tied in to the AGP or CPU bus FSBs. The allowed memory voltage was also a bit of a disappointment, especially in light of the voltage ranges allowed for the CPU and AGP.
• ASUS P5GDC-V Deluxe Vs. Soltek SL-915GPro-FGR - Intel 915G Doubleshot - When we look at the features of the Soltek SL-915GPro-FGR, we find a capable motherboard that has a lot to offer. This model was not as flexible when compared to the ASUS model, with no support for DDR2 and SATA RAID, but the choice to leave DDR2 out of the mix isn't a major issue in the current market. Our biggest issue with the Soltek model was the less than impressive BIOS menu system and the lack of serious overclocking potential.
• Gigabyte's GV-N68T256DH Graphics Card - Gigabyte's unique cooling solution represents a dream come true for many case-modding fans - provided the card fits on the motherboard without colliding with its components. The volume of the slightly noisy fan is easily adjusted with the included V-Tune 2 utility. Thanks to the GeForce 6800 GT, 3D performance is top notch as well.
• Inno3D GeForce 6600 GT 128MB - In summary, Inno3D's GeForce 6600 GT 128MB card is a credible effort that's based on an excellent GPU. Certainly worthy of a look if not an outright recommendation
• 16X DVD Writer with DVD+R Double Layer Writing - The SOHW-1653S was a very good optical drive in terms of performance. The drive itself is very stable during the reading/writing of any disc. The most unique of this SOHW-1653S DVD Writer is the transfer rate of DVD+R Dual Layer at 4X, unlike the previous model which is only at 2.4X. As for the noise level, it was much quiet compare to the SOHW-1633S. The LiteOn SOHW-1653S DVD Writer is a worthy solution of the new 16x Dual Layer DVD writer.
• Logitech MX1000 Laser Cordless Mouse Review - The Tech Zone has posted a review of Logitech MX1000 Laser Cordless Mouse.
• Thermaltake Silent PurePower 350W Fanless Power Supply - It is unfortunate that using the Silent PurePower caused system instability in our case, and that is why we recommend that its use be limited to a chassis that is well-ventilated, or at least fairly large. As mentioned earlier, the instability was definitely as a result of the extra heat added to the internals of the system, which pushed it over its stable operating temperatures.
• Samsung SyncMaster 710N (12ms) - The 710N performed admirably in all our tests. Display was bright and grey scale ramping was excellent with the help of the monitor's high 600:1 contrast ratio. We liked the softer look of text as well. Users who constantly need to work with text documents would find the 710N a boon. Most LCDs have overly sharp text with highly contrasted edges that turn out to be more glaring than crisp. The 710N is one of the better monitors when it comes to interpolation results. We scaled the resolution down from its native resolution to 1024x768 and even down to 640x480. The text quality remained sharp and did not show excessive jaggedness, which is an impressive feat.

GUIDES...

• AnandTech's SFF Guide - While benchmarks were not a part of this article, there are some areas in which SFFs still can't match ATX configurations. For starters, all the high-end performance options become difficult, if not impossible, to incorporate into a SFF box. Two hard drives in RAID 0 is still possible for a small performance boost, but you'll have to sacrifice either a floppy bay or 5.25" bay for one of the drives. Larger 2-slot graphics cards are not going to fit well (if at all) in these diminutive cases, and features such as SLI are simply not possible without a major redesign of the case internals - someone out there is probably already working on such a design, of course.
• A guide to troubleshooting your PC - There are a number of solutions to this problem. Unfortunately, troubleshooting this seems to be the most difficult, since there are many things which could be preventing the system from starting. Here's a list to get you started.
• What is page cloaking and should you use it? - Cloaking can broadly be defined as a technique used to deliver different web pages under different circumstances. There are two primary reasons that people use page cloaking: 1) It allows them to create a separate optimized page for each search engine and another page which is aesthetically pleasing and designed for their human visitors. When a search engine spider visits a site, the page which has been optimized for that search engine is delivered to it. When a human visits a site, the page which was designed for the human visitors is shown. 2) It allows them to hide the source code of the optimized pages that they have created, and hence prevents their competitors from being able to copy the source code.
• ForceWare 66.93 vs. ForceWare 70.90 - TechConnect have done some benchmarks with both Forceware drivers, version 66.93 and version 70.90.

SOFTWARE...

• List of Live Linux CDs - The purpose of this page is to provide a comprehensive, easy-to-search list of all available Linux-based Live CDs.
• Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) - RC1 - Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP1 (FAQ) provides enhanced security, increased reliability, and a simplified administration to help enterprise customers across all industries.
• NetSend GUI v0.60 - NetSend GUI (download) now supports the sending of messages on PCs that don't have the Messenger service as it implements its own internal Net Send protocol. This also has the side-effect of telling you if a message was actually sent successfully or not. Download it either via the Software - Misc section of the site or via the link underneath the calendar.
• SpyBot-S&D 1.4 Beta 1 -  SpyBot-S&D (download) is an adware and spyware detection and removal tool. utilities. In addition, it also securely removes PC and Internet usage tracks, including browser history, temporary pages, cookies (with option to keep selected) and more.
• Adobe Reader SpeedUp 1.31 - Adobe Reader SpeedUp (download) is a simple application that was created to help make the loading time of Adobe's Acrobat/Reader software bearable for everyday use. AR SpeedUp only needs to be used once (a process taking only a few seconds) and then your 'Reader will be transformed forever.
• Serv-U 6.0.0.0 (shw) - Serv-U (download) is a powerful, easy-to-use, award-winning FTP server created by Rob Beckers. An FTP server uses the FTP protocol to share files across the Internet.
• jv16 PowerTools 2005 Beta 1 - Jv16 PowerTools (download) provides the best solutions to maximize the performance of your PC. You can diagnose, monitor and tune up your computer.
• Mozilla Launches Thunderbird 1.0 - The Mozilla Foundation has released version 1.0 of Thunderbird e-mail client (download ~ release notes). In addition to functioning as an e-mail client, Thunderbird provides users with an RSS news reader, as well as the ability to retrieve messages from internet newsgroups.
• PowerStrip 3.55.484  - PowerStrip (download) provides advanced, multi-monitor, programmable hardware support to a wide range of graphics cards - from the venerable Matrox Millennium I to the latest video cards.
• Nvidia Optimized Driver v0.4 - TechConnect have a new optimized driver v0.4 which is based on the latest leaked Forceware drivers 70.90 beta.  This new driver fixes some HL2 shimmering issues, removes few useless tweaks and improved FPS under OpenGL.
• ForceWare 70.90 beta - Station-Drivers has posted a new set of Forceware Drivers v70.90 (mirror: Guru3D)