SECURITY...

• New Antivirus-Firewall Combo Protects XML Traffic - Two vendors on Monday will try to reduce such threats by combining antivirus software for XML with firewall protection at the edge of the network. Forum Systems Inc. will integrate Computer Associates' eTrust Antivirus software with its Forum XWall Web Services Firewall to fight viruses, worms, and other malware entering networks via XML, Simple Object Access Protocol, and attachments. The vendors hope to cut down on the threats that can damage IT infrastructure, degrade network performance, and hurt business apps that use XML as a standard data format.
• Anti-porn scanner adds clients - First 4 Internet's software intelligently analyses the whole picture. It can even detected 'suggestive' poses even if the subject is partially clothed. Apparently the development team had to struggle to stop the engine rejecting pictures of Japanese Sumo wrestlers. [Nearly naked, big tits and legs apart!]
• Virus pits itself against music pirates - A hacker has created a virus that targets music lovers by deleting MP3 files on infected computers, according to antivirus company Sophos. The worm, dubbed Nopir.B, spreads over peer-to-peer networks and appears to have originated in France, security researchers at Sophos said Friday.
• Credit card firms push cybersecurity - Large online merchants will have to abide to a new, stricter set of standards from credit card firms after June 30. The stricter guideline from MasterCard, Visa, American Express and other major credit card companies are designed to improve the security practices of online merchants and guard against fraud.
• RealNetworks fixes 'highly critical' flaw - RealNetworks has released a security patch aimed at plugging a flaw in its multimedia software that could allow hackers to run their own code on people's computers. The flaw, rated a "highly critical" risk by security company Secunia, affects most recent consumer versions of the RealPlayer media player software, for both Windows and Macintosh operating systems. Also at risk are some, but not the most recent, versions of the software for Linux. The flaw exists in some RealOne Player versions too, RealNetworks said.
• Windows Server 2003 SP1 Breaks 14 Apps - Like Windows XP SP2, which initially broke more than 50 applications, Windows Server 2003 SP1 creates problems in some server-based applications. Among the 14 which failed the tests were some with the Microsoft nameplate, including Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2004 Standard, Exchange Server 2003, and Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003. Other vendors' applications are also affected by the update, ranging from Computer Associates' Brightstor ARCserve Backup 11.0 to Citrix's Metaframe XPe FR3.

OFFTOPIC...

• Human Hibernation on the Horizon? - Mice have been placed in a state of near suspended animation, raising the possibility that hibernation could one day be induced in humans. If so, it might be possible to put astronauts into hibernation-like states for long-haul space flights - as often depicted in science fiction films.
• Emails more damaging than cannabis - Researchers at the University of London Institute of Psychiatry have found that the constant distractions of email and texting are more harmful to performance than cannabis. Those distracted by incoming email, phone calls and text messages saw a 10-point fall in their IQ, more than twice that found in studies of the impact of smoking cannabis, according to the researchers.
• British engineer gets $10,000 from Intel - A British engineer has picked up a $10,000 windfall from Intel after the chip firm bought a magazine he'd been storing under his floorboards. The 1965 copy of Electronics magazine contained the original article by Gordon Moore predicting that the number of components on a processor would double every year and that costs would fall commensurately.

TECHNOLOGY...

• Microsoft's New Mantra - It Just Works - Windows guru Jim Allchin talks to FORTUNE about Microsoft's next version of its operating system, Longhorn, revealing some of its features for the first time.
• Forgent sues Microsoft over JPEG patent - Forgent Networks has added Microsoft to the list of companies it has sued alleging infringement of a patent for a data compression technique it claims is used in the JPEG digital image standard. The lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, comes after Forgent was unable to negotiate a licensing agreement with the Redmond, Washington-based software maker, said Michael Noonan, director of investor relations at Forgent.
• .EU will be live by Jan '06 - For the first four months of 2006, registrations will be limited to public bodies and registered trademarks. The idea is that this will prevent cybersquatters from nipping in first and registering www.microsoft.eu, www.easyjet.eu, www.benedictXVI.euand so on.
• Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 SP1 Beta announced - Steve Ballmer has announced the beta release of Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 Service Pack 1 at the Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) 2005
• Company claims holographic disk breakthrough - InPhase Technologies reckons it can squeeze 200 gigabits on a single square inch of optical disk. This company showed off its holographic prototype at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention in Las Vegas this week InPhase said is uses a patented polytopic recording method to squeeze 300 gigabytes (GB) capacity on a single disk. It says that by 2009 it will be selling disks with up to 1.6 terabyte (TB) capacity.
• 8Mbps broadband promised by Christmas - ISP Thus and BT are trialling a new broadband service that will offer 8Mbps connections straight to the home. The first tests will begin in April and the company hopes to roll out the service nationwide by the end of the year. No details have yet been released on pricing, but Thus insisted that costs will only increase incrementally.
• AGEIA radio interview this Sunday afternoon - The ChatterBox Video Game Radio show will have an on-air interview with Mr.Keane of AGEIA (the company behind the new PhysX physics processing unit) this Sunday afternoon. ChatterBox is a weekly talk radio show dedicated to the gaming industry. It airs out of Phoenix, Arizona on 1100AM KFNX, but is streamed live over the internet so anyone can listen in. Listeners are encouraged to call in using a toll-free number so they can participate in discussions with the hosts or talk to guests.

HARDWARE... 

• AGP May Fade Away in 2005 - There has been a lot of speculation as to when PCI Express (PCIe) will finally take over AGP for good. Even though there isn't any performance difference between the two standards, PCIe is the standard of the future where game developers and GPU makers should be able to work on to bring in more realistic, and GPU intensive games with elevated bandwidth requirements to everyone's personal setups.
• OCZ Unveils 800MHz DDR2 Memory Modules - OCZ's newly unveiled DDR2 PC2-6400 Gold Series modules are able to operate at 800MHz clock-speed with CL5 5-5-8 latencies with 1.8V voltage - more aggressive latency settings and lower voltage compared to Corsair's products rated for the same frequency. The 800MHz memory modules from OCZ are available in 512MB and 1GB sticks and in 1GB and 2GB matched dual-channel optimized pairs. Pricing of DDR2 PC2-6400 Gold Series memory products is unclear.
• AMD's dual-core Opteron processors reviews - Trusted Reviews | Hexus.net | FiringSquad | AnandTech | LinuxHardware  - Looking at the single-core Opteron 252 versus the Xeon 3.6GHz with 2MB L2 cache, we see a performance race that AMD is clearly winning. The margins get further and further apart as AMD releases new processors.
• 1GB Crucial Ballistix PC2-5300 DDR2 - The Crucial Ballistix PC2-5300 DDR2 memory is rated to run at DDR2-667MHz at 1.9V, which translates for most people as running their CPU at 250MHz FSB with a 3:4 memory divisor. It is worth mentioning that Crucial makes these modules in 256MB, 512MB (as reviewed), and 1GB capacities, both with and without the activity LEDs.
• GeForce 6800 Ultra vs. Radeon X850XT  - Both GeForce 6800U and X850XT proved that they are the best graphics cards out there in the market. Personally, I was quite impressed with the 6800U because it was able to keep up and sometimes outperform the newer X850XT. The results also shows that the 6800U is still better than the X850XT during high resolution with AA/AF enabled on games like Doom 3 and Halo. The 6800U was also able to outrun the X850XT in Half-Life 2 with AA/AF enabled!
• ASUS V9999 Gamer Edition (GeForce 6800) - Utilizing technology similar to that found on their GeForce 6800 Ultra cards, the ASUS V9999E has a standard GeForce 6800 GPU, but comes with twice the memory of the typical GeForce 6800 card. The core and memory speeds are also clocked at frequencies found usually on GeForce 6800 GT cards. Those who have seen an ASUS GeForce 6800 Ultra card could be easily forgiven if they mistook the V9999GE for it, as they sport a similar cooling system, DDR3 memory and the 10 layer PCB found on both cards. All these extra features ensure that the V9999GE maintains an edge over standard GeForce 6800 cards.
• Logitech MX518 mouse -The heart and sole of Logitech's new mouse if the updated optical assembly which still has the 15G acceleration and 5.8 megapixels/second bandwidth as the MX510, but its' optical resolution has been upgraded from 800dpi to a extremely precise 1600dpi. Double the resolution means double to precision
• Sennheiser MX500 Earphones - The Sennheiser MX500 is light-weight and comfortable. And it comes in a tightly packed, attractive and reasonably secure package. The bass was very present and the treble was clear and crisp, as we have come to expect from Sennheiser's products. The music reproduction was exquisite and it performed pleasantly in all games.
• ChiMei CT-729A 17in LCD - Aside from the monitor you also receive a 2-part AC adapter, VGA cable, and audio cable. There are two important things to notice here. First, the 729A only supports VGA (no DVI), though for most people the difference is unnoticeable (and extremely picky professionals will opt for a pricier model anyway).
• Samsung 730MW Widescreen LCD TV - The 730MW falls between two stools. It's not high resolution or speedy enough to act primarily as a work or gaming monitor, with occasional TV duties, and it's barely big enough to act as a secondary TV. However it could past muster a bedroom Media Center system or a screen for the kids to have in their room for both PC use and console gaming and the price is not unreasonable too. However, my search for the perfect all-in-one multimedia screen will have to continue.
• Samsung CLP-510n Color Laser Printer - Overall this series of Samsung CLP-500's seem to be an awesome series of color laser printers. It looks like Samsung has made a couple of speed enhancements to the CLP-510n over the CLP-550's. A processor change and perhaps some additional hardware changes to improve this already great printer series.

GUIDES... 

• DDR-2 Memory Investigation Guide Making sense of memory settings - What is better - higher clock speed or super tight timings? TweakTown discuss the reasons why one is better than the other and prove our claims through a range of different system configuration benchmarks.
• Networking Troubleshooting Guide - The guide covers all three wireless issues you're likely to encounter (problems connecting initially, throughput and connection speed sucks, wireless network has too small a coverage area), and offers solutions help fix them all. All screen shots and examples shown in this guide were taken from a Linksys WRT54G Wireless Router.
• 16x DVD recording, 5-minute DVD backups? - Obviously 16x recording puts a significant amount of stress on a system, which is nothing like CDR recording at 48x and up. Recording a CDR at 48x only requires a sustained data rate to the CDRW recorder of 7.2MB/s which is perfectly feasible with even an older PC. Recording a DVD (whether +R or -R) at 16x however requires no less than 22MB/s, which is more than the sustained data rate of many harddisks. So although your DVD recorder might support 16x recording, the rest of your system might not be able to keep track

SOFTWARE...

• Guests are not happy in Zoo Tycoon - Guests in Microsoft Zoo Tycoon want to sit when they are tired, to buy food when they are hungry, and to use the restrooms when it is necessary. Guests become unhappy when their requirements are not met. If the buildings and objects are not conveniently located or if the buildings and objects are facing the wrong way to be accessible, the guests cannot use them. The Zoo Tycoon update prevents issues in new zoos, but it does not fix zoos that are already in use. Some third-party facilities may cause similar issues that you can fix by removing Zoo Tycoon, deleting the original folder, and then reinstalling Zoo Tycoon.
• Logparser 2.2.10 - Log parser is a powerful, versatile tool that provides universal query access to text-based data such as log files, XML files and CSV files, as well as key data sources on the Windows® operating system such as the Event Log, the Registry, the file system, and Active Directory®. You tell Log Parser what information you need and how you want it processed. The results of your query can be custom-formatted in text based output, or they can be persisted to more specialty targets like SQL, SYSLOG, or a chart.
• BitTornado T-0.3.12 - BitTornado T-0.3.12 (download) has been released. Changes include bug fixes to the tracker and to btlaunchmany[curses], the Windows installers' being built using older versions of Python and wxPython to fix the problem with the client sticking in the task list, and the addition of a little sneakiness to help keep ISPs from killing connections to seed clients.
• IrfanView 3.97 - IrfanView (download) is a very fast, small, compact and innovative FREEWARE (for non-commercial use) graphic viewer for Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003.
• FastStone Image Viewer 2.0.5 - FastStone Image Viewer (download) is an image browser, viewer, converter and editor with an easy to use interface and a nice array of features that include resizing, renaming, cropping, color adjustments, watermarks and more.
• CloneDVD v2.8.1.1, CloneCD v5.2.1.1 - SlySoft has released new versions of CloneDVD2, CloneCD5. They fixed many stability problems in ElbyCDIO.
• CPU-Z 1.28.4 - CPU-Z (download) is a freeware detection program base on the Panopsys hardware detection engine.
• Win32Whois 0.9.5 - Win32Whois (download) is a free, small and efficient tool that lets you retrieve registration information for a particular domain or website. It takes URL, hostname or IP address and will generate a detailed report listing all the available technical and contact information it can find.