SECURITY...

• Microsoft Security Advisory (899588) updated for exploit - Microsoft is actively analyzing and providing guidance on a malicious worm identified as "Worm:Win32/Zotob.A", which is currently circulating on the Internet. The worm is a malicious attack which exploits the Windows Plug and Play vulnerability addressed in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS05-039 on August 9, 2005. The worm creates 16 threads to scan for infectable systems. The worm targets random class B IP addresses, sending SYN packets to TCP Port 445. When a vulnerable system is found, buffer overflow and shellcode is sent to the remote system, creating an FTP script and launching FTP.EXE to download and execute the worm from the source system.
• Windows 2000 Plug and Play Universal Exploit - A remote code execution vulnerability exists in Plug and Play (PnP) that allows an attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability to take complete control of the affected system, the following exploit code can be used to test your system for the mentioned vulnerability.

TECHNOLOGY...

• Xbox 360 may not always have a hard drive, confirms Allard - Speaking in the September issue of US magazine Game Informer, Allard said that the company isn't yet ready to announce details of possible multiple models of the Xbox 360, with the presence of a hard drive being touted as one potential difference between models.
• Windows Mobile Smartphones Get Wi-Fi - Qtek has announced two new Windows Mobile Smartphones with built-in Wi-Fi, the Qtek 8300 and 8310. The phones run Windows Mobile 5, which is the first Smartphone version to support Wi-Fi in addition to cellular protocols. In addition to Wi-Fi and quad-band GSM / GPRS with EDGE, both handsets have a 2.2" QVGA display, 1.3 Megapixel camera and MiniSD slot. The 8300 features dedicated media playback buttons, while the 8310 has 2 application keys.
• Boost Mobile Announces Two GPS Games - In Swordfish, players must use the GPS to move to schools of fish and cast the phone towards them. Once a swordfish is hooked, the game becomes a standard arcade fishing game. Torpedo Bay is more actively location based. Players move the streets hunting for enemy subs (other players) as well as other targets and bonus items. Each game costs $5.99 for the first month and 2.99 for following months.
• Google Halts Scanning of Copyrighted Books - Google has halted its efforts to scan copyrighted books from some of the nation's largest university libraries so the material can be indexed in its leading Internet search engine.
• Scientists invent pee-powered battery - Researchers in Singapore have developed a paper battery that is powered by urine. The battery is composed of paper, soaked in copper chloride, sandwiched between layers of magnesium and copper. The whole thing, once laminated in plastic, is just a millimetre thick, and 6cm by 3cm in size. The researchers report that with just 0.2 millilitres of urine the battery will provide around 1.5 volts, with a maximum power output of 1.5 milli-Watts
• Intel slashes Pentium 4 6xx prices - All five 6xx-class processors had their prices cut. The 3.8GHz 670 fell from $851 to $605, a fall of 28.9 per cent. The 3.6GHz 660 was cut to $401, 33.7 per cent off its previous price, $605. The 3.4GHz 650 now costs $273, down from $401, a cut of 31.9 per cent. The 3.2GHz 640 dropped 20.2 per cent, from $273 to $218. And the 3GHz 630 now costs $178, down 20.5 per cent from $224.
• Design issues delay R520 launch - In a recent investors Q&A session ATI’s Senior Vice President of the PC Business Unit, Rick Bergman, on the subject of R520 said "We had hoped to have that product in the June timeframe, but unfortunately due to a variety of design issues it has moved out to the September / October timeframe for launch". This is more or less in-line with the late summer launch previously mentioned by Dave Orton.

HARDWARE... 

• CPU - AMD Athlon 3800+
• Motherboard - ECS KN1 Extreme nForce 4 Ultra | ECS RS400-A | Foxconn 955X7AA-8EKRS2 | MSI Socket 775 Motherboard Shootout
• RAM - Crucial Ballistix Tracer 667 DDR2 PC2-5300 memory | Mushkin DDR2 6400 Memory
• Storage - Western Digital Essential NetCenter 320GB NAS Box
• Video - AOpen 6600-DV128LP | BFG 7800 GT OC (GameSpot) | BFG GeForce 7800 GTX OC (NVNews) | e-Geforce 7800GT 256MB PCIe VIVO | eVGA GeForce 7800GT videocard | EVGA e-GeForce 6800 GT | SAPPHIRE X800 GT Hybrid 256MB PCI-Express | VisionTek Xtasy Theater 550 Pro | XFX GeForce 7800GT SLI
• Monitor  - Samsung SyncMaster 930MP 19-inch LCD Monitor
• Water Cooling - Asetek WaterChill 3/8" ID Power Kit, CPU/GPU/NB Waterblocks | Gigabyte 3D Galaxy water cooling kit | Thermaltake BigWater Computer Water Cooling System
• Cooling - Antec Vcool VGA Cooler | Coolermaster RF-5AD Musketeer 3 | Evercool PT03-9232CP CPU cooler | Evercool LGA77 CPU cooler | Jetart HCA05 HDD Guard 3.5" Bay HDD cooler | Nexus AXP-3200 SkiveTek CPU Cooler | Sharkoon Silent Eagle Case Fan | Thermaltake Golden Orb II heatsink | TTIC NPH-K8-2 Cooler
• Case - Lian Li PC-V1200 Plus Case | Lian Li PC-V2100 Full Tower | ThermalRock Eclipse ATX | Yeong Yang Aquarius YY-5604 middle tower
  
• PSU/UPS -Aerocool AeroPower II+SE PSU | Hiper Typer R 580W PSU | Hiper HPU-4M480 / 480 Watt Power Supply | Thermaltake TWV500W 500W PSU
• Sound - Altec Lansing inMotion iM3 iPod Speaker System | Chaintech AV-710 Audio Card | Steelpad Steel Sound 5H Professional Gaming Headset (videoreview)
• Peripheral - Bluetake BT510 Bluetooth Mouse and BT009Si Bluetooth Adapter | Optorite ML100 Laser Mouse | Razer Diamondback Plasma Gaming Mouse | Saitek X52 joystick | Ulti-Mat Peripherals Mouse Pad | SunbeamTech Pro Series Illuminated Keyboard
• Network - Western Digital Essential NetCenter 320GB NAS Box
• Modding - Battlefield 2 case mods
• Miscelanous - Playseat Deriving Chair
• Notebook - Amacrox NB Kit | Dell Inspiron 700m Notebook
• Cameras, MP3 players- iRiver H340 Media Player | Olympus mrobe MR-100 Portable Media Player
• Cell phones - Orange SPV C550 / Voxtel VS400 GSM phone

GUIDES...

• WiFi - Wireless networking explained - The underlying principle of WiFi is that computers communicate with one another over a radio frequency in much the same way that handheld transceiver are used by friends to chat with one another on the road. One key difference, though, is the bandwidths each uses.
• CoDecs Guide - CoDecs compress and decompress data. The word CoDec is a shortening of the term Compressor/Decompressor. Compressing a data stream or a file reduces its data rate.
• How To Reinstall Windows XP - This purpose of this guide is to give you a checklist to follow so that a reloading of Windows goes smoothly the first time.
• Catalyst 5.7 drivers: memory limited performance improvements - Another not-so-great thing about the new drivers is that some of the performance increase claims in the driver release notes are slightly misleading. While we did see a lot of the gains that they mentioned in most of the games, we found many of these increases to be with cards so limited (performance-wise) that they didn't matter.
• NVIDIA BIOS Editor (NiBiTor) Guide - NiBiTor, offers the latest in uber tweaking, gaining full control over the latest releases of supported GPU's. The latest release allows full manipulation over the Geometric Delta clocks of the latest video card technology found on supporting cards

SOFTWARE...

• Aircrack - 802.11 Sniffer and WEP/WPA Key Cracker - download
• Fraps 2.6.4 - Fraps (download) is designed as a generic tool for DirectX and OpenGL games. In its current form Fraps performs many tasks and can best be described as: Benchmarking Software, Screen Capture Software and Realtime Video Capture Software.
• DeepBurner Portable - DeepBurner Portable works straight from your removable media, whether it's a USB flash drive, compact flash card, or even a good old floppy.
• BenQ DW1640 firmware - BenQ QSuite 2.0 improves writing quality for DVD+R & DVD-R media., add SolidBurn Technology and Overspeed ability.  The download link for the firmware is here.
• Wireless Vista BETA drivers - Intel  PRO/Wireless 2100 (Release Notes / Drivers) / Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG / 2915ABG (Release Notes / Drivers)
• ForceWare 78.10 Win 2000/XP - Pieter over at laptopvideo2go found these drivers at Fujitsu Siemens, for their Amilo laptop series. Try only at your own risk.