SECURITY...

• Windows 2003 Outlook Web Access URL Injection Vulnerability - A vulnerability in Microsoft Windows 20003 Outlook Web Access allows malicious attackers to redirect the login to any URL they wish. This allows the attacker to force the user to the site of the attackers choosing enabling the attacker to use social engineering and phishing style of attacks.
• McAfee AntiVirus Library Stack Overflow - ISS has shipped protection for a flaw X-Force has discovered in McAfee AntiVirus Library versions prior to 4400. The McAfee AntiVirus Library is widely relied upon to provide antivirus capabilities to desktop, server, and gateway systems. Also, several large vendors and ISP's implement McAfee's AntiVirus Library in their products. By crafting an LHA file, an attacker is able to trigger a stack overflow within the
  process importing the McAfee AntiVirus Library. Desktop, server and gateway versions of McAfee's anti-virus scanners all need patching but this will happen automatically as anti-virus signatures are updated. Several large vendors and ISP's use McAfee's AntiVirus Library in their products or services, which likewise need an upgrade.
• Rootkits leave antivirus systems powerless - An increasing number of virus writers are using so-called 'rootkit' technology to create malware that is invisible to existing antivirus packages, IT security experts warned today. "Windows rootkit is a stealth technique for hiding files. But does it at the kernel level, rather than at the application level," explained Patrick Runald, senior technical consultant at F-Secure. Two recent viruses, Myfip.H and Maslan.A, both had stealth features borrowed from rootkits, according to Runald.
• International hackers attempt massive heist - The National High Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) has foiled a gang of hackers aiming to steal L220m from a Japanese bank in London. After gaining access to the IT systems of Sumitomo Corporation's London offices in October the gang installed key-logging software to record log-in codes and company documents. They had been planning to transfer the money to 10 bank accounts around the world. But the gang's movements were picked up and the NHTCU launched an investigation. In a joint operation with police forces around the world the hackers were stopped before any funds could be transferred.
• House is pirate DVD factory - Police have discovered a massive DVD copying factory in a raid on a house in Haringey. Officers seized more than 50,000 films, including many not yet released in British cinemas. Dozens of DVD copiers and thousands of labels were also removed. Movies found included The Magic Roundabout, Are We There Yet? and Shall We Dance?

OFFTOPIC...

• Star Trek replicator one step closer - Dr Adrian Bowyer, of the University's Centre for Biomimetics, said that he has adapted a fast prototype generator used in the car industry to make simple household objects. After picking them on a computer the device uses metal and plastic to make shapes from a few millimetres to 300 millimetres in length, width and height. The device currently costs a whopping £25,000, but Bowyer believes that the machines could be built to replicate themselves and thus drive down the cost.
• Sea levels likely to rise 25cm this century - No matter what happens, sea levels and temperatures are going to rise over the next century, according to a pair of reports out of the National Center for Atmospheric Research.  Global warming will likely cause the sea level to rise by about 25cm, or close to a foot, by 2100, while average temperatures will rise by at least a half degree Celsius, according to Tom Wigley, a researcher at the agency and an author of one of the studies released today. Researcher Gerald Meehl wrote the other.
• Giant space-time ripples may cause cosmic expansion - Dark energy is not necessary to explain the accelerating expansion of the universe observed by astronomers, suggest controversial new calculations. Instead, gigantic ripples in space-time - larger than the observable universe - may be the cause.
• Movies news/rumors/etc - X-Men 3 characters news | Spiderman 3 Villain revealed? | Quentin Tarantino reveals Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair! | The Star Wars Roundup @ ComingSoon | Lucas to Release Star Wars Films in 3-D.

TECHNOLOGY...

• Hey, Don't Toss Those Fishy Chips - Chip manufacturing is currently very wasteful. Between 20 percent and 50 percent of a manufacturer's total production is tossed or recycled because the chips contain minor imperfections. Defects in just one of the millions of tiny gates on a processor can doom the entire chip. But USC professor Melvin Breuer believes the imperfections are often too small for humans to even notice, especially when the chips are to be used in video and sound applications.
• EU Commission: Microsoft Offer Inadequate - Microsoft Corp.'s latest offer to comply with sanctions imposed by the European Commission is insufficient to meet the concerns of customers and consumers, a Commission spokesman said on Friday.

HARDWARE... 

• AMD Dual Core Processor Plans - Here is a very high level overview of the AMD dual core design strategy. AMD was adamant about the benefits of having dual cores on a single die based on several reasons including performance and cost.
• Fujitsu-Siemens Lifebook T4010 tablet PC notebook - Running Windows XP Tablet PC 2005, the Lifebook T4010 is the latest Tablet PC from Fujitsu-Siemens. The core specifications are comparable to that of a mid to high-end laptop, with a 1.8GHz Pentium M processor, 512MB of PC2700 DDR SDRAM, Intel 855GME chipset and Intel 802.11b/g wireless networking. Using the full set of Intel hardware also means that the Lifebook T4010 can boast a Centrino sticker.
• Tested: 64-Bit P4 - PCWorld compared two of the new chips, the 3.73-GHz P4 EE and the 3.6-GHz P4 660, with a 32-bit 3.8-GHz P4 (the fastest 32-bit P4), a 2.6-GHz Athlon 64 FX-55, and a 2.4-GHz Athlon 64 3800+. Results are mixed: You'll get a slight boost over a 32-bit P4, but you will pay about $100 to $200 more for an Intel PC than for an AMD one with similar or slightly better performance.
• DFI LANPARTY NF4 SLI-DR nForce4 SLI Motherboard - DFI really set the stage for tweakers and overclockers with this board and are now reaping the benefits of its hard work and research. As of today (March 18), fifteen of the top twenty systems in the 3DMark05 hall of fame use DFI SLI systems! With an option for DIMM voltage up to 4V, a "FSB" clock up to 456MBHz, CPU clock multipliers and plenty of memory dividers, DFI has made sure its board would come out on top and that its users' performance would as well.
• Club 3D Radeon X800XL PCI Express - Extras included with the X800XL are 3 CD's; a driver, manual and demo disk, PowerDVD 5 and PowerDirector 3 DE, and the obligatory free game of Colin McRae Rally 04.
• Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 400GB SATA Hard Drive - Bringing the 7200.8 Barracuda drive into the market, Seagate has reached a new milestone. The drive ran cool and quiet, it offered exceptional performance in every test and kept CPU load at a negligible minimum. Windows XP load times were some of the fastest we've experienced, an important factor to most users.
• Samsung 16X Dual Layer DVD±R-RW  - Samsung drive does a fairly good job at burning large amounts of data to both single and dual layer DVDs. It burned a full dual layer disc in less than 30 minutes and at 4x, which is above the rated burning speed of this drive. I found that to be fairly impressive, but I was surprised that it was still slower at burning the disc than a competitive drive. The lack of a larger buffer could be a place for improvement since Samsung has brought out CD burners with the larger 8MB cache buffer.
• Asetek WaterChill KT03A Extreme - The asetek WaterChill CPU Power kit (KT03A-SL35) can be viewed in a variety of ways. The obvious and enthusiast oriented option is around overclocking. A huge radiator, 3 fans means tons of cooling and big overclocks.
• Logitech MX518 Gaming Mouse - The MX518 is light, responsive, and offers a level of control over its features that few other mice can match. Logitech's designers have clearly thought through the design issues and come up with a winner in the game of mice. If you're a serious gamer, it's worth checking out—even if it does have a boring name.
• Razotech UFO Mouse - UFO mouse? Yeah! This little mouse makes its presence known. It has 10 blue LED's, five on each side of the mouse, that light up in a counter clockwise motion. There is no doubt that using this mouse will draw attention. Sound like fun? Sound annoying? That is your own opinion really, regardless, I'll take a closer look at what this new mouse from Razotech has to offer...
• HiFi Headphones Roundup featuring Airhead and Bithead Amplifiers - The Sennheiser HD600s are really in a class of their own. Given their price this should not really be surprising. The clarity and evenness of the sound across the board made these cans a true joy to listen to. Every track played on these came to life. Nuances previously unheard on other headphones were suddenly noticed. The only others in this review that equal the HD600s are the ER-4Ps.
• M-Audio Firewire 1814 18-IN-14-OUT Audio-MIDI Interface W/ADAT Lightpipe - The FireWire 18/14 is an 18-in, 14-out audio interface complete with ADAT Lightpipe for multi-channel communication with other digital devices. It features 8 x 4 analog I/O at up to 24-bit/96kHz, and boasts 192kHz on the first two inputs and all four outputs. Channels 1 and 2 also include high-quality microphone/instrument preamps. S/PDIF optical digital I/O provides 2-channel PCM, as well as pass-through of surround-encoded AC-3 and DTS material.
• Samsung SyncMaster 710N LCD Monitor - The Tech Zone takes a look at the Samsung SyncMaster 710N.
• InFocus LP-120 projector- To bring it down to bald measurements, the LP120 measures just 94mm front to back, is 258mm wide and 52mm thick, and weighs 0.9kg.
• hp Color LaserJet 3550 - This is a linear colour laser, meaning the four coloured toners are built up on the paper in a single pass, rather than in the four passes that a carousel mechanism takes. When you fold down the front of the machine, you gain access to four slots, each of which takes a toner cartridge,
  complete with developer drum. They slide in easily and are the only consumables you need to deal with. This integrated approach makes the  physical set up and maintenance of the Color LaserJet 3550 extremely simple.

.GUIDES... 

• Creating a combined install point with the .NET Framework and a service pack - It is possible to create a package that will install the .NET Framework 1.1 and SP1 at the same time (or 1.0 and SP3 at the same time).

SOFTWARE...

• Internet Explorer Compatibility Evaluator - IECE is designed to help IT professionals (download) evaluate changes in behavior of web applications and web sites caused by the new security features in Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2) and test for compatibility when moving from Windows XP to Windows XP Service Pack 2.
• 3d Traceroute 2.0.8:30 - Replace all your ugly ping plotters and traceroute programs with a full blown three dimensional traceroute program (download)
• FireTune for Mozilla Firefox v0.3 - FireTune for Mozilla Firefox v1.x was developed for an easy and fast optimization of your browsing experience with Firefox. It is based on a collection of popular and well working optimization settings used and tested by the experts.
• MSN Messenger 7.0 Build 429 Public Beta - Microsoft has released for download new public beta of their MSN Messenger 7.0, build 429.
• Messenger Plus! 3.50.124 - Messenger Plus! Extension (download / changelog) is a program that adds functionalities to the MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger chat program.
• Firefox and Thunderbird 1.0.2 RC - Download links can be found here.
• WinPatrol 9.0.0.2 - WinPatrol uses a heuristic approach to detecting attacks and violations of your computing environment.
• Fraps 2.5.4 (shw) - Fraps (changelog) is a universal Windows application that can be used with all games using DirectX or OpenGL technology. In its current form Fraps performs many tasks and can best be described as Benchmarking Software, Screen Capture Software and Realtime Video Capture Software.
• DVD Decrypter 3.5.3.0 - DVD Decrypter is a free tool which enables you decrypt and copy a DVD to your PC's hard disk. From there you can choose to watch them with the likes of PowerDVD and WinDVD or you can re-encode them to MPEG1 (VCD) or DivX. Advanced functionality can be found in the context menus.
• Windows XP Universal Tweaker v0.3 - This small wizard utility capable to do the following actions: Perform Internet Cache files and Temporary files cleanup, Tweak Windows Memory management, Tweak Connection and MTU Settings and perform DNS table cleanup, Tweak NTFS Partitions, Tweak Windows boot-time and Disable Windows ZIP Folder.
• Realtek RTL8139(A/B/C/D/8130)/810X series driver 6.21 WHQL - Realtek released new RTL8139/811x/816x/810x series drivers v6.21 WHQL.
• NGO ATI Optimized Driver v2.2 (Cat 5.3) - The NGO ATI Optimized Driver is a tweaked version of the ATI Catalyst driver. The main purpose is to satisfy the users with a better performance and better image quality. The Driver has support for all Radeon cards (both desktop and mobile platforms).
• nForce4 2K/XP v6.53 drivers - Nvidia has released a new nForce4 standalone kit v6.53 (Windows 2000/XP)