SECURITY...

• MySQL worm hits Windows systems -  A worm that takes advantage of administrators' poor password choices has started spreading among database systems.  The malicious program, known as the "MySQL bot" or by the name of its executable code, SpoolCLL, infects computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system and open-source database known as MySQL. The worm gets initial access to a database machine by guessing the password of the system administrator, using common passwords. It then uses a flaw in MySQL to run another type of program, known as bot software, which then takes full control of the system. Update: the worm had essentially stopped spreading on Friday, after the systems infected with the program were cut off from the control of several central computers.
• New Bagle Worms Making the Rounds - Two new versions of the Bagle e-mail worm are spreading on the Internet and through peer-to-peer file sharing networks, according to warnings issued on Thursday by antivirus software companies. The latest Bagle variants, Bagle.AX and Bagle.AY, are the 50th and 51st versions of the original Bagle worm, which appeared in January 2004. Like the first Bagle, sometimes spelled "Beagle," versions AX and AY spread in executable files and infect machines running Microsoft's Windows operating system, antivirus companies say.
• Microsoft Preps Next Windows Update - Microsoft is preparing to beta test the next revision of Windows Update dubbed v6, or version 6 of the technology. Testing of Windows Update v5 ended late last year and is now operational for all Windows users. Newsgroups for v6 are expected to open within the coming weeks
• Microsoft to axe Windows 2000 security upgrades - Microsoft has confirmed that there will be no equivalents of its Windows XP Service Pack 2 to boost security on earlier operating systems.The announcement leaves the 50 per cent of Microsoft customers not currently using XP with the choice of upgrading or relying on platforms that will become increasingly less secure.
• Winamp Squashes Critical Security Bug - America Online Inc.'s Nullsoft unit has quietly rolled out a new version of the popular Winamp media player to plug multiple critical flaws that put users at risk of code execution attacks. The fixes were included in Winamp version 5.08c after a warning was issued last November by private research firm Security-Assessment.com.
• Norwegian Student Ordered to Pay for Hyperlinks to Music - The AP reports that Norway's Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a student whose Napster.no homepage (no relation to the U.S. Napster, apparently) had links to free Internet music files must compensate the music industry. The around 170 links to mp3s will cost its creator $15,900.
• Teen Sentenced for Unleashing Blaster Worm - A federal judge sentenced a teenager to a year and half of prison on Friday for releasing a variant of the Blaster worm that was used to attack more than 48,000 computers. Jeffrey Lee Parson, 19, appeared in U.S. District Court in Seattle, where he was also ordered to perform community service, pay restitution and be placed under supervision for three years following the sentence.
• UK police arrest tsunami donations hacker - The Metropolitan Police has arrested a 28 year-old man from east London over alleged attempts to hack into the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) tsunami donations website. The alleged attempt took place on new year's eve and was identified and blocked by BT, which runs the site's secure payment system. Police arrested the man in London's Bishopsgate and stated that they are currently examining his computer equipment for evidence.
• Man sentenced over banned game - A New Plymouth man has been sentenced for copying and distributing a banned computer game where the player takes on the role of a convicted murderer .Christopher William Jones has been fined $2,400 and had two computers destroyed after pleading guilty to selling the Playstation 2 game, Manhunt.
• Man raided by armed cops for using wrong browser - Londonder made a tsnuami-relief donation using lynx -- a text-based browser used by the blind, Unix-users and others -- on Sun's Solaris operating system. The site-operator decided that this "unusual" event in the system log indicated a hack-attempt, and the police broke down the donor's door and arrested him.

OFF-TOPIC...

• Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Screening Reviews - Initial reviews are up at Ain't It Cool News from a "work-in-progress" screening of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in Pasadena, CA. Reaction seems mixed-to-positive, mostly due to some uneven performances.
• Episode III Opening Crawl - Here's  the opening crawler text for Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, currently scheduled for a May 19th, 2005 release." In related news, here's a link to a 6.5 minutes funny parody of Star Wars: Episode III.
• MGM's DVD Class Action Settlement - "Apparently all of MGM's 'theatrical wide screen' DVD releases for the last few years have been the pan-scanned versions with the top and bottoms cut off. I checked this against my copy of CQ, and it's true. The list (PDF) of butchered movies includes almost every Woody Allen film, Silence of the Lambs, and Ghost World, just to name a few. If you own any of the eligible movies, you have until March 31 to either opt to exchange your copy for $7.10, or a new DVD from MGM, presumably in its proper aspect ratio." (thanks Slashdot.org)
• Microsoft has a record quarter - For the quarter ending Dec. 31, the company reported $10.8 billion in sales, a 6.5 percent increase from the previous year, while profit more than doubled to $3.46 billion, or 32 cents a share after factoring in stock-compensation expenses.
• Unusual Arctic cold raises fears for ozone hole - The seasonal hole in the Arctic ozone layer could be the worst ever this year if the current cold conditions persist, scientists are warning. Temperatures in the Arctic ozone layer are now the coldest for 50 years and have been consistently low for two months. The ozone layer blankets the Earth at an altitude between 15 to 30 kilometres. It is part of a zone called the stratosphere, and absorbs ultraviolet light
   

TECHNOLOGY...

• Google, Yahoo Turn On Video Search - Google has officially unveiled a prototype video search that scours the closed captioning text of television shows. Results are displayed with a still image of the video, along with snippets of text that contain the search terms. Yahoo, meanwhile, has ramped up video search efforts of its own in response to Google's move.Still in early beta testing, Google Video has been indexing since December television programming from PBS, Fox News, CSPAN, as well as local San Francisco channels including ABC and NBC. Until licensing is ironed out, users will not able to view the full video clip nor read a transcript of the program.
• 8mb Broadband in UK From UK Online -  The UK Broadband market could see another high speed shake up from UK Online. The company has just announced plans to launch an 8 megabit broadband service in the UK. With a massive download speed of 8mb, the service comes with a somewhat limited upload speed of 400K yet has an impressive content ratio of 33:1. The service is capped at 500GB per month, and will cost only L39.99 per month. Cable rival Telewest offer a 4MB service for L50.00, which comes free of any caps on usage. UK Online will be offering new sign ups a free wireless ethernet router before the 21st February.
• Apple / Pepsi in 200 Million iTune track giveaway - Apple plan to give away around 200 million free music tracks with Pepsi’s soft drinks and products, the promotion will start at the end of January. As with the similar deal done with Apple last year codes will be printed on various Pepsi products and each winning code can be used to redeem a free music track.
• Sony PlayStation 3 Playable by May, Says Report - Sony Computer Entertainment Inc reportedly said its PlayStation 3 console will be functional by May, 2005, confirming earlier available information.

HARDWARE... 

• AMD readies launch of Sempron 3300+ 754 - It's no secret that AMD is set to convert all of its cut down Sempron microprocessors to a 754 pin format during the course of this year. But TheInqurer's information is that a 754 pin Sempron 3300+ is rolling out this quarter, while it will also produce a Sempron 3200+ using 939 pins for certain accounts only. How imminent is the 754 pin 3300+? Some motherboard companies have already released updates to 754 board BIOSes during this week.
• nForce 4 TCQ Data Corruption Issue? - It appears there might be a data corruption problem when enabling TCQ on the nForce 4 chipset at least with the Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe.
• NVIDIA's nForce Professional preview - The 2200 MCP and the 2050 bring the latest technologies to the Opteron platform. These technologies include PCI-Express, Gigabit Ethernet, SATA-II, USB 2.0, and 7.1 AC'97 audio. Let's start by showing you which features each of these chips support.
• Shuttle XPC SN95G5 - Let's break right into the basic system specs of the SN95G5: Nvidia nForce3 250 Ultra chipset, Socket 939 - AMD, Athlon64/FX CPU, Two (2) ATA-133 ports, Two (2) SATA-150 ports, Realtek ALC 655 6 Channel Audio, One (1) PCI slot, One (1) 8x AGP slot, SilentX 240W power supply.
• Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe AMD Athlon Motherboard - The Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe motherboard comes packed with all the features you expect including: two PCI Express x16 slots, Dual-channel DDR memory, Serial-ATA 3Gb/s bandwidth, RAID, Dual Gigabit LAN, 8-channel audio and more. The nForce4 supports PC3200 (DDR400) memory in dual-channel configuration using unbuffered DDR or ECC memory. The A8N-SLI Deluxe motherboard has a wide range of overclocking adjustments to allow you to get the best overclocking performance including voltage adjustments & Asus AI overclocking software.
• DFI 855GME-MGF motherboard - The 855GME-MGF is DFI's latest motherboard creation that is based around Intel's mobile socket mPGA479M technology. DFI chose to use the Intel 855GME chipset, boasting full support for all Pentium M and Celeron M-based mobile processors, DDR RAM operating in Single Channel mode up to speeds of 333MHz officially, and onboard Intel graphics. The 855GME-MGF is feature complete, only requiring a socket mPGA479M based processor, DDR memory, and a PSU for a functional system
• nVidia SLI Technology - Introduction and 6800 Ultra Performance - You can complain all day long about the price of a top end SLI setup but there is no denying that two GeForce 6800 Ultra's in SLI is going to give you the best gaming experience around. This setup isn't for people with a 17" CRT or LCD that can only support 1280x1024. This setup is for people who own 21" CRTs that play at 1600 and above or Wide Screen LCD owners wanting to game at 1920x1200 without having to worry about having to drop to 16-bit or sacrifice a bit of image quality for a smooth frame rate. With an SLI setup you can play with it all turned on and still be smiling.
• A8N-SLI Deluxe - SLI Video Card - The A8N SLI Deluxe is Asus' latest and greatest offering for the AMD64 socket-939 platform, utilizing the nForce4 chipset. Asus worked hard to make this board one of the first to market sporting the newest nVidia nForce4-SLI chipset. They also added a huge list of features and accessories that would make anyone in the market for a new system drool. Although at the extreme end of overclocking, the Asus A8N-SLI was not the top dog, it still did allow for a great stable overclock.
• Gigabyte 3D1 - Aside from that, the question as to whether the Gigabyte 3D1 is a worthy purchase leaves us with the same question as purchasing two 6600GTs in SLI - Is it better to get two 6600GTs for your money, or a single 6800GT. From Hexus.net's benchmark results, that seems to vary on what settings you intend to game at - The 3D1 often seems to have the upper hand in scenarios where raw power is required, but throw anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering into the mix, especially at high resolutions, and suddenly the 6800GT and particularly the 256MB of dedicated memory for the GPU it offers seems a much more sensible proposition.
• MSI GeForce 6600GT PCIe Video Card - MSI's GeForce 6600GT offering comes in two flavors, the NX6600GT-TD128E, and the NX6600GT-VTD128. The only differences between the two are in price - $187 for the TD128E and $222 for the VTD128, and also in the fact that the VTD128 features VIVO capability while the TD128E doesn't.
• Maxtor's DiamondMax 10 hard drive NCQ gets 16MB of cache - Despite its strong desktop application performance and speedy transfer rates, the DiamondMax 10's performance in IOMeter is uninspiring. IOMeter is a veritable playground for command queuing, and while the DiamondMax 10's performance improves with NCQ enabled, the drive can't keep up with the Barracuda 7200.7's transaction rates or response times. To Maxtor's credit, the DiamondMax 10 consumes fewer CPU cycles than the Barracuda 7200.7 when command queuing is enabled, but the I/O performance is still a step behind, making the drive less attractive for low-end server and multi-user applications.
• Seagate Momentus 5400.2 100GB Hard Drive - The 2.5-inch Momentus 5400.2 100GB drive offers extreme storage capacities along with remarkable performance (for notebooks). The 100GB version is estimated to retail for around $200 US with the 80GB retailing for just $140 US.
• Corsair Voyager: Bouncy Flash Drive - Unlike Verbatim Store 'n' Go series, Corsair's Voyager 512MB version is priced around $57.00, which makes it 22.8 percent affordable than the Store 'n' Go Pro, which retails for $70.00. You may find another flash drive that is less than the aforementioned price, but with Corsair's 10-year warranty and their reputation in the industry, $57.00 is a superb price. Of course, if you are usually careful with flash drives, feel free to invest in a less costing model, since failure rates of flash drives are practically unheard of.
• Does Hercules' Fortissimo 4 Deliver at 24 Bits? - The Fortissimo 4 is really an update of preceding versions and it delivers no pleasant surprises. However, its performances will live up to the demands of gamers and DVD film buffs who demand high-quality sound for a $70 price point. Further, its main advantage, of course, is that it can handle applications that use 24 bit sound, which is becoming more and more indispensable. IN addition to its generous software bundle, the card does not disappoint.
• CTX INTERNATIONAL X701A 17" LCD Monitor with Speakers - Even though you may not be looking for a monitor that is reliable when gaming. This is an important aspect to a lot of people who are currently monitor shopping. This monitor has a 14ms response time, which means you can get your game on with out looking for ghosting. Because you won't find any. I have played a number of newer games using this monitor and even though the price is low, the quality is quite the opposite. CTX impressed me again.
• APC Back-UPS CS 500 - TargetPC have take a closer look at APC's Back-UPS CS 500 Uninterruptible Power Supply and surge protector.
• Socket's GPS Nav Kit - Are you planning a trip to a place you've never been before? Well, now you can add a complete in-car navigation system to your Bluetooth enabled Pocket PC or laptop wirelessly with Socket's GPS Nav Kit. This handy GPS Device uses MyNavigator software that makes trip planning quick and easy and with audible "turn by turn" instructions.
• DSC-L1: Sony's Latest Ultra-Compact Digicam - When it comes down to it, the Sony DSC-L1 falls just short of being great. There are several areas in which this camera excels. For example, it has a stylish and solid metal body. In our tests, it proved to have both decent resolution and incredible battery life. In addition, the camera is very fast. With respect to startup, write speed, and shutter lag, this camera is one of the most responsive ultra-compact digicams around. On the other hand, the L1 leaves something to be desired when it comes to image quality.
• Aigo P880 20GB MP3 Player - Aigo has created a curious product in the shape of the P880 - it has more features than most MP3 players, but the design, implementation and navigation let it down. Strange decisions like having no USB connectivity from the cradle are bizarre and take a lot of shine off the product. The P880's photo party piece is also let down by occasional failure to read SD cards, while the actual process of copying images from an SD card is convoluted at best
• Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) review - The fascia of the PSP is dominated by the 4.3in TFT screen and I can pretty much guarantee that you've never seen a display like this on a hand-held device before. The screen has a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio, making it ideal for watching movies as well as playing games, with a resolution of 480 x 272 and a full 24bit colour depth. The screen also incorporates Sony's X-Black coating, so the image is amazingly bright and vivid. The image produced by the PSP display is just breathtaking, and I've yet to show this device to anyone that hasn't been impressed by it.
• Sony launches a new portable DVD station MV-700HR - Sony Europe has announced the launch of a new portable DVD player for 2005 -  The Sony MV-700HR. Sporting a new portable concept, different from current laptop syles, the Sony screen faces out, taking up less space and provides a convenient new way to watch movies on the go. It comes in 2 colors, silver and black with a 7 inch TFT screen.

GUIDES...

• Volume Expansion Using Diskpart.exe (updated) - Description of how Microsoft IT regularly uses the Diskpart.exe utility to dynamically increase disk volume capacity on servers running Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Microsoft Windows 2000 Server. The Diskpart.exe utility extends disk volumes without downtime or application interruption, thereby increasing availability and decreasing costs.
• Reset lost virtual BIOS password - In a physical machine, you can often move a jumper on the motherboard or remove the battery to reset the CMOS. Obviously a virtual machine doesn't have anything physical like this, but the answer posted up was to "remove the virtual battery". You can't, although I did look through the .vmc (Virtual Machine Configuration) file for a battery setting :-)

SOFTWARE...

• phpMyAdmin 2.6.1 Final  - phpMyAdmin (changelog) can manage a whole MySQL-server (needs a super-user) but also a single database. To accomplish the latter you`ll need a properly set up MySQL-user who can read/write only the desired database.
• Spybot Search and Destroy Detection Update 2005-1-27 - Update your Spybot S&D detections without the need for the included WebUpdate.
• Unofficial Windows 98 SE Service Pack 2.0 Beta 3 - This contains all updates from Windows Update site and more. It is a self-extracting and self-installing pack. It contains only operating system updates not Internet Explorer, DirectX, Media Player or their updates.
• eXeem Lite 0.19 - Developers this week released a spy-ware free version of popular P2P app eXeem. The official version of eXeem, which entered into public beta this week, is contaminated with an adware app called Cydoor. eXeem Lite 0.19 is smaller - 1.9MB compared to 2.5MB - and promises file trading without search hijacking and pop-up ad bombardment. Unlike eXeem, eXeem Lite is also available to Linux users (who need to run the app using WINE). (thanks ally russell)
• AutoHotkey 1.0.25.09 - AutoHotkey is a simple yet powerful hotkey (shortcut key) scripting language for Windows. You can customize your keyboard, joystick and mouse with a free automation tool that is backward compatible with AutoIt v2.
• AntiVir Personal Edition 6.29.00.03 - The AntiVir Personal Edition offers the effective protection against computer viruses for the individual and private use on a single PC-workstation. In order to make possible an easy operation, the AntiVir Personal Edition is developed to the essential points.
• WinAMP 5.08d - Nullsoft WinAmp (download full ~ lite) is a fast, flexible, high-fidelity media player for Windows. This new version fixes Critical Security bugs in in_mp4.dll and enc_mp4.dll and libmp4v2.dll, n_cdda.dll, HTTP Seeking corrected for webservers that refuse to return Accept-Range.
• PCMark04/3DMark03&05 patches - PCMark04 Upgrade Patch 1.3.0, PCMark04 Benchmark (Build 1.3.0), 3DMark05 Upgrade Patch 1.2.0, 3DMark05 Build 1.2.0 (Full Version), 3DMark03 Upgrade Patch 3.6.0, 3DMark03 Build 3.6.0 (Full Version).
• CloneDVD v2.7.1.1 - This latest version 2.7.1.1 (download) support automatic shutdown of your computer and there have also been some minor changes to how the software works
• ATI Tray Tools 1.0.1.500 - ATI Tray Tools is a small utility that can be found in the windows tray which then allows instant access to options and settings.
• nForce 6.37 Beta Drivers - These drivers are the mainboard chipset drivers for all nVIDIA nForce based mainboards for Windows 2000/XP/2003 Server.
• TC NVIDIA Optimized Driver v0.5 - This driver (based on the leaked Forceware 71.50) is been created by NVIDIA Corporation and Modified by TechConnect Magazine.