SECURITY...

• Firefox add-on lets surfers tweak sites, but is it safe? - A new Firefox extension that lets people customize their experience of the sites they visit is stirring excitement among Web surfers and consternation among security experts. That capability has gained the extension an avid following of Web surfers who want to customize the sites they visit, removing design glitches and stripping sites of ads. But the extension comes with substantial security risks, and could stir trouble among site owners who object to individual, custom redesigns of their pages.
• Symbian Trojan attacks anti-virus protection - Malware authors have created a Trojan that targets Symbian smart phones and attempts to remove any anti-virus protection it finds. The Drever-C Trojan attacks mobile anti-virus packages from F-Secure, Kaspersky and Simworks running on Symbian devices. Targeting security protection is common in mainstream Windows PC malware but this is a recent innovation for mobile viruses. Drever-C poses as a security update and tries to damage the boot loader and application binaries of F-Secure Mobile Anti-Virus. F-Secure says the attack is impotent because its software contains protection against any attempts to modify its files. The code of the malware contains a message to F-Secure, as follows.
• Hackings Subject Universities to Potential Data Theft - On March 17, Boston College acknowledged a security breach on a campus computer managed by a third-party vendor that housed a fundraising database. The school alerted the approximately 120,000 alumni on the list, which contained names, addresses and Social Security numbers. California State University Chico informed students March 14 that hackers gained access to a University Housing and Food Service system containing names, addresses and Social Security numbers for as many as 59,000 people.
• Cyber criminals hack their way to fortune: report - Releasing its latest Internet Security Threat Report, Symantec said more than half the major Internet threats targeted personal information, Xinhua reported. The report said identity theft features were found in 54 percent of the top 50 malicious codes detected between July and December 2004, marking an increase on the 36 percent found during the same period in year 2003. This represented a clear trend that attackers had gone from seeking fame to seeking fortune, said Oliver Friedrichs, senior manager with Symantec Security Response.
• Anti Brute Force Resource Metering - This whitepaper discusses how resource metering on the client-side (PDF), i.e. making him work to make brute forcing computationally feasible, works and the security advantages it can bring.
• Microsoft tests new patch program - Microsoft on Tuesday began testing Microsoft Update, which it says will help users keep up with the latest versions of Windows, Office and other programs. The free program, which is slated to be in final form later this year, lets users of the Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows Server 2003 operating systems download all updates automatically or manually choose which patches to get.

OFFTOPIC...

• AOL offers English language lessons - The entire language course features 96 recorded online sessions with visual and audio components, the companies said Tuesday. Weekly classes can be played back and used repeatedly for review and reinforcement. In addition, consumers can install an offline collection of more than 100 hours of learning material on their computers, so that they can learn at their own pace.
• First membrane-free alkaline fuel cell built - The first membraneless alkaline fuel cell has been built by exploiting the way liquids do not mix in ultra-narrow channels. It could offer cheaper and more efficient fuel cells. Doing away with membranes not only simplifies a fuel cell's design, it has also enabled the first alkaline fuel cells to be built. These could potentially be 40% more efficient than the acidic units used today, says Paul Kenis of the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Illinois, US, who has developed the system.
• Global warming could trigger ant invasions - Global warming may lead to an unexpected threat from the insect world - swarming invasions of tiny ants - suggests new research. The study of 665 ant colonies in environments ranging from tropical rainforests to frozen tundra suggests that in warmer environments the ants' body size shrinks, on average, while the number of individuals in the colony booms.
• The solution to saying thank you while on the road - The mechanism wags and moves like the tail of a pet robot dog. It's an automotive accessory that serves as a communication tool. Cars should have some means of communicating besides signal lights. The Thanks Tail lets the car say, "I'm going first," or "Thank you," or "Sorry."
• Hell YES! - Nice videoclip - check it out :)
• Black Author Wins The Matrix Copyright Infringement Case - This little known story has met a just conclusion, as Sophia Stewart, African-American author of The Matrix will finally receive her just due from the copyright infringement of her original work!!! Stewart filed her case in 1999, after viewing the Matrix, which she felt had been based on her manuscript, "The Third Eye," copyrighted in 1981. In the mid-eighties Stewart had submitted her manuscript to an ad placed by the Wachowski Brothers, requesting new sci-fi works.
• Alien Apocalypse - This Saturday is a day that all Bruce Campbell fans should rejoice! He's in another feature. This time it's Alien Apocalypse a Sci-Fi Channel Original movie. Alien Apocalypse will air 9/8c on March 26th (thanks AQFL)
• New teaser trailers @ ComingSoon - Valiant, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (TV spot), The Island, Red Eye (Wes Craven thriller), Kung Fu Hustle (two clips from the Asian comedy), Sahara, War of the Worlds, Sin City (11 minute behind-the-scenes)

TECHNOLOGY...

• Multiplayer online gaming goes mobile - Mobile operator 3 today claimed to be the first to offer real-time multiplayer online gaming to its subscribers. The first titles will be No Refuge, a tank battle game supplied by Mobile Interaction, and Lock 'n Load, a shooting game from Synergenix. In addition, 3 will launch the "turn-based" multiplayer game Cannons Tournament, a shoot and fire game supplied by Macrospace.
• Yahoo upgrades email storage to 1GB - Yahoo plans to once again raise its free email storage, this time to 1GB. The rise in email storage matches the same email storage offered by search rival Google. The storage change is said to begin in late April for Yahoo's free email users, whose current storage mark is set to 250MB.
• Spamming spammers? - IBM unveiled a service Tuesday that sends unwanted e-mails back to the spammers who sent them. The new IBM (Research) service, known as FairUCE, essentially uses a giant database to identify computers that are sending spam. E-mails coming from a computer on the spam database are sent directly back to the computer, not just the e-mail account, that sent them.
• Microsoft Details Longhorn Networking - Execs in Redmond go public with some of the enterprise and home-networking changes that will debut with its next-generation version of Windows.
• AOL Unveils ICQ 5 - ICQ 5, released Monday, provides many features customers have been asking for, including more customization, upgraded security and a simpler interface. The service also provides users with several new features, including a new global walkie-talkie feature, the ability to chat with others without taking turns, and better video instant messaging that lets users adjust size and save snapshots from their video IM sessions.
• Novell Says Its Next Linux Desktop Will Surpass Windows - The current Novell Linux Desktop 9, which was released last November, is targeted not at the mass market but rather at those customers with more contained workloads. But all of that is set to change with the next version of the product, Novell Linux Desktop 10, scheduled for release next year.
• Amazon.com discounting UMD movies for PSP by 30% - Amazon.com has discounted the announced Sony PSP UMD movies by 30%, making them in some cases cheaper than the DVD version of the movie. The Hellboy, XXX, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Resident Evil movies are available for $13.97 (List: $19.95). House of Flying Daggers sells for $20.27 (List: $28.95). The first UMD movies ship April 19th.  For instance the Hellboy DVD sells for $14.96 on Amazon.com.
• Avid buys Pinnacle for $462 million - Avid Technology, the leading player in video and film editing tools, has revealed it is to buy rival video-editing maker Pinnacle Systems in a deal reported to be worth $462 million.
• Drop sensor provides laptop motion control - The latest Apple Powerbook laptops can now be controlled with a gentle shake, thanks to a clever software trick. The new model of the notebook includes a motion sensor that locks the head of the hard drive in one position if the machine is suddenly dropped, to prevent damage as well as loss of data. The sensor is able to tell when the computer is moved up and down or rolled forwards or to the side.
• MCI Adds Thousands of Wireless Hotspots - The telecommunications carrier has launched 1300 new Wi-Fi hotspots in Europe and the Asia/Pacific region, and will launch 3400 U.S. hotspots in May, the company said. Before the expansion, corporate customers of MCI's wireless service had access to about 6200 hotspots worldwide.
• Windows Mobile 2005 (aka Magneto) LEAKED! - An user named Gora from xda-developers leaked what seems to me an authentic copy of a Windows Mobile 5.0 ROM, Microsoft's next mobile platform for PDAs and smartphone. The About dialog displays the following versions: Microsoft Windows Mobile Version 5.0 OS 5.1.1700 (build 14326.0.0.0), ROM version: 1.50f.00WWE, ROM date: 02/24/05, Radio version: 1.10.00, Protocol version 1337.18.
• AMD Unveils Low-Power Opteron - At the Server Blade Summit 2005 in Santa Clara, Calif., on Tuesday, AMD announced the Opteron Model 248 HE, a low-power version of the current 2.2GHz Opteron 248. The current model has a power envelope of 89 watts. The HE model has a smaller envelope, at 55 watts.
• Got an Audigy or Extigy? Creative owes you money - Creative Labs has settled a lawsuit that alleged misleading marketing of its Audigy and Extigy sound cards. It seems they said the sound cards could handle 24-bit audio at 96Khz when, well, they couldn't. So if you bought an Audigy ES, Audigy Platinum, Audigy Platinum eX, Audigy Gamer, Audigy MP3+, or an original Extigy external USB sound module between March 28, 1999 and December 29, 2004, there's a good chance Creative owes you some dough. To placate you, they'll pony up 25% off your next Creative purchase, up to $62.50. But don't put it off too long, the offer will expire September 25th.

HARDWARE... 

• AMD's Forthcoming Athlon 64 May Require BIOS Update - According to The Inquirer, mainboards from ABIT and EPoX will only be able to support AMD Athlon 64 revision E0 with a special revision of the BIOS. The web-site did not report which mainboards are affected and when and if the BIOS is released. AMD Athlon 64 and Athlon 64 FX processors revision E0 are those based on AMD’s cores code-named Venice and San Diego respectively. The desktop AMD64 processors with E0 revision are expected to feature SSE3 technology in addition to several performance improvements and bug fixes over those found in previous revisions of AMD Athlon 64 processors made using 90nm process technology.
• AMD Athlon 64 4000+ CPU - Obviously the Athlon 64 4000+ is a little powerhouse. It's not for everyone though, the biggest problem right now is its pricing, which is in the 500-600 EUR/ USD range. That's a lot of money people. If you want the best though well, then nothing much can match this, except the even more expensive FX-55 CPU of course.
• SkyHawk IMC6375 EchoQ SFF PC - If you want to make this a LAN Party or gaming PC then you will need to plan your component choices carefully. If you want a more powerful video card such as an ATI x800, then you will need to install a SATA hard drive or SATA optical, otherwise you will not have the needed 4 pin molex for the video card. You can run an ATI 9600XT and not worry about the video card power, since the 9600XT does not require and external power source. But of course your performance and frame rates will suffer accordingly.
• NFORCE 4 SLI Motherboard Round-up - The contending motherboards are: DFI's nF4 SLI-DR, ASUS' A8N-SLI Deluxe, MSI's K8N Neo4 Platinum/SLI and Gigabyte's K8NXP-SLI – all four are widely available at online retailers like Newegg and are pretty comparably priced.
• The Mother of All CPU Charts Part 1 - THG  have updated the benchmarks to include the Intel Pentium 600 series and Extreme Edition.
• ECS's 915-A Mainboard - Use of the Intel i915GV core logic is what really defines the 915-A's feature set. At first glance, it's hard to spot the difference between 915G and 915GV. 915GV doesn't support a 16 lane PCI Express bundle for routing to a PEG16X electrical slot, for graphics. With that electrical slot physically present on the 915-A, you'll notice the lanes routed to the slot, of which there are only two, are provided by the ICH6 I/O southbridge processor rather than the 915GV northbridge.
• Gigabyte K8NXP-SLI AMD Athlon Motherboard - The Gigabyte K8NXP-SLI motherboard is basically the K8NXP-9 motherboard with SLI and and both use the latest high performance Nvidia nForce4 chipset supporting AMD Athlon 64 socket-939 processors and are top of the line AMD Athlon 64 939-socket motherboard.
• Asus A8N-SLI Premium Allows SLI to be Enabled in Software - The Premium version of Asus' A8N-SLI motherboard allows you to turn on or off SLI in software, rather than requiring you to open your system case. Will this new feature help alleviate one of the issues that some people have with SLI?
• Leadtek WinFast PCIe PX6200TD Overclocking test - Looking for a PCIe budget card which can potentially pack a hefty punch? Leadtek PX6200TD might just have what it takes.
• Leadtek WinFast PX6600 GT TDH (Solo and SLI) - Overall, the Leadtek WinFast PX6600 GT TDH is a great little card for around $200. The included bundle adds a considerable amount to the package. The software and utilities are useful and handy while the games are very popular even if they aren't all that new. The PX6600 GT's performance is quite good and at times impressive, especially when in SLI mode
• Gigabyte GeForce 6200 with TurboCache 256MB - The 6200 TC was introduced in several configurations, such as with 32MB onboard, with a 32 bit data path, or 64MB with a 64 bit data path. I tend to think that the majority of cards being sold will be built like this one from Gigabyte; 64MB with 64 bit data path, running at 550 MHz DDR.
• HIS Radeon X850XT IceQ II Turbo Video Card - Once the iTURBO mode is enabled, the X850XT IceQ II Turbo will operate at exactly the same frequency as the X850XT PE. This is quite interesting, as once the iTURBO mode is enabled there is absolutely no difference between the HIS Radeon X850XT and the X850XT PE.
• Sapphire X800 XL Video Card - The X800 XL is a full 4 quad pixel pipeline design (16 pipelines) with 6 vertex shaders running at 400 MHz core. The memory is on a 256 bit bus and is specified to utilize 256 MB of memory running at 490 MHz DDR (980 MHz effective). The overall specifications indicate that it should be a GeForce 6800 GT killer, but in testing it appears as though the NV40 architecture is a bit faster per clock than the corresponding ATI products.
• XFX geFORCE 6600GT AGP Video Card - The XFX geFORCE 6600GT provides enthusiasts and budget gamers with an upgrade path that doesn't break the bank. It was also one of few cards that was readily available in both the AGP and PCI Express configurations, and features DUAL DVI and a decent full games bundle.
• Memorex USB 2.0/FireWire 16x DVD±RW - Based on NEC's award winning ND-3500A, Memorex's new external writer is capable of 16x DVD±R, 4x DVD±RW and 4x DVD+R DL writing speeds and a maximum DVD read speed of 16x. On top of that, the drive features 48x CD reading and writing speeds, 24x rewriting speeds, and support for both FireWire and USB 2.0.
• Miniature Disk Drive: The Toshiba MK3006GAL Delivers 30 GB in a 1.8" Form Factor - With its MK3006GAL drive Toshiba offers a modern storage device that's sure to find all kinds of interesting and useful applications in both current and future products. Certainly 30 GB is not a tremendous amount of storage by today's standards, but as with the matter of performance, the capacity is a reasonable trade-off for the drive's compact dimensions and low weight.
• Storcase's DE50 Backup solution - The DE50 is aimed at environments where a fast, customisable and secure method of backup is preferred. Where tape backup systems have dominated in the past, the cost per MB in the harddrive market has plummeted making them a much more appealing option. The DE50 and DE110 harness this potential and add a USB hot-swap facility, very useful for fast offsite backup production.
• Performance Fan Comparison on XP-90 - Mikhailtech have tested 7 different fans ranging from low to extreme speeds on a Thermalright XP-90 to see which is the most ideal.
• Revoltec 520 W "Be Quiet!" PSU - Revoltec have really brought out a nice product onto the scene, with a lot more features than any other powersupply on the market, a sleek appearance, silent performance, stable voltage rails and many other features this is one well designed power supply.
• Logitech MX1000 Laser Cordless Mouse - After having used the MX1000 for some time now (playing too many hours of CS:S and World of Warcraft) I can safely say it's the best I've ever used. I've also come to the conclusion that it's not about the improved tracking. Sure it's a laser mouse and that's great, but the optical sensor in the MX engine is already powerful enough to handle almost any mouse surface. This device has two things going for it that no other mouse does: superb ergonomics and an almost limitless feature set (courtesy of the keystroke assignment ability). And of course the improved battery, battery life indicator, and charging cradle. This mouse is elite.
• BTC Wireless Multimedia USB Keyboard with Dual Mode Joystick Mouse - The keyboard comes completes with an USB powered receiver, this black matching tapered shaped box has only one lit round connect button on the face and is simply connected to any given open USB port with 1.1 or 2.0 interfaces. As you can see it is very simple in design and is really only needed to be set up once. There are small rubber feet that are on the bottom for placing the unit on any given surface, there is no real need to be inline to the keyboard for any improved performance. The adjoining keyboard also has the connect button right above the ESC button.
• Sunbeam 20 in 1 Superior Panel - Want to access everything from an arm's reach without bumping year head trying to reach the rear panel? Two many flash memory cards and not enough card readers? Sunbeam comes to the rescue once again.
• Pricom SX-3700WB - Basically if you're a business or home user that is sharing any type of USB device, especially a MFD, across a network using OS based network sharing, you absolutely owe it to yourself to have a look at one of Silex's USB device servers.
• Samsung SyncMaster 710N & 711T LCD Monitors - I'd like to argue that the 710N is a great monitor for heavy gamers and LAN Partiers. With a ligher weight, exceptional response time and better-then-average stats in all the other categories, the monitor allows a good symbiosis for the gamer on-the-go. With the 711T, we have an excellent monitor for the MMORPG gamer for games like World of Warcraft and the Saga of Ryzom. With excellent, crisp colours and a still respectable 25ms response time, the 711T performs well enough to be a good monitor for those of us not fragging on a regular basis.
• Apple iPod shuffle 512MB - Apple's first flash MP3 player drops LCD screen and complicated controls in favor of simplistic "song shuffle" style. Basically, iTunes' AutoFill randomly picks 120 songs for you during sync from your favorite playlist. iPod shuffle also recharges via USB, and doubles as a 512MB USB flash drive as well.

GUIDES... 

• 64-bit computing in theory and practice - The immediate impact, in a positive sense, isn't much at all. Windows x64 can run current 32-bit applications transparently, with few perceptible performance differences, via a facility Microsoft has dubbed WOW64, for Windows on Windows 64-bit. WOW64 allows 32-bit programs to execute normally on a 64-bit OS. Using Windows XP Pro x64 is very much like using the 32-bit version of Windows XP Pro, with the same basic look and feel. Generally, things just work as they should.  There are differences, though. Device drivers, in particular, must be recompiled for Windows x64. The 32-bit versions won't work. In many cases, Windows x64 ships with drivers for existing hardware.
• Intel EM64T Technology - Intel's Extended Memory 64 Technology, better known under the simple acronym EM64T, is Intel's version of x86-64. The processors that feature support for EM64T are backwards compatible with 32-bit systems, and also capable of taking advantage of the added memory and computational capabilities of 64-bit processing. EM64T is built off of the IA-32 architecture, with additional registers, instructions, and otherwise enhanced instructions.
• NVIDIA SLI Support - Getting Better - A new driver from NVIDIA has improved SLI support and brought new features to the table. Inside this article they not only test this latest driver, focusing on SLI support and performance, but they also comment on what they would like to see in the future iterations of NVIDIA's SLI.
• Beginners Guides: Fundamentals of Upgrading a PC - If you are a PC gamer, you are already familiar with this merry-go-round. Every year or so, there is a must-play game which demands more processor speed, a faster graphics card, more RAM, etc. As a good example of this, look to some of the upcoming game releases from ID software and Valve. Given the the speed of today's average PC, these games are not just going to push the envelope, they are going to be delivering their own envelope, sealed and stamped with a single word. Upgrade.
• Driv3r Benchmark Results -  OnlyNewz let us know they have done eight benchmarks with a 2,4GHz AMD processor with 1GB memory and two PCI-Express NVIDIA Geforce 6800 videocards.
• How To Create Your Own Blog - Blogs, the abbreviation of Web Logs (online journals), are becoming more and more popular all the time. People are starting new blogs at an astounding rate so it's safe to assume that there are constantly people out there who want to know how to get a blog going.

SOFTWARE...

• UltraEdit-32 v11.00b (shw) - UltraEdit-32 (changelog ~ download) is a Windows text editor with support for unlimited file sizes, a spell checker, drag and drop, full HEX editing capabilities, user configurable syntax highlighting (pre-configured for HTML, Java, C/C++, VB, Perl), column editing, sorting, and a configurable toolbar.
• WabMail v1.0 - WabMail is a small and simple tool that makes it easy to quickly retrieve a plain list of e-mail addresses that are contained in your Windows Address Book (.WAB) file. The WAB allows you to export the content to a comma delimited file, however, this may be way too much for your needs.
• ABC [Yet Another Bittorrent Client] 3.0 - After a long wait, ABC 3.0 is now available.
• ShirusuPad v1.1b beta - ShirusuPad is a small program with a stylish interface that allows you to keep notes of any kind.
• FireTune 0.5 - 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 optimization settings collected and tested by Tweakfactor. Usually you have to optimize Firefox manually, which can be time consuming and difficult for the novice user. FireTune helps you here - it includes all the performance optimizations. The only thing you must do is: make your selection. FireTune does the work for you.
• Thunderbird 1.0.2 - Thunderbird (release notes ~ download) is a full-featured email, RSS and newsgroup client that makes emailing safer, faster and easier than ever before. More information about Thunderbird is available.
• Mozilla 1.7.6 - Mozilla (release notes ~ download) is an open-source Web browser, designed for standards compliance, performance and portability. Mozilla is a cousin to Netscape Communicator that is being developed by the Free Software Community with the cooperation and support of Netscape.
• Tray Helper 4.8 - Tray Helper is freeware program with many features (f/e: email checker, auto mail responder, anti-spam, popup-killer, event reminder and more).
• Intel Chipset Installation 7.0.0.1014 (Beta) - The Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility installs to the target system the Windows* INF files that outline to the operating system how the chipset components will be configured.