SECURITY... 

• Microsoft prepares 'critical' Windows patch - Microsoft is scheduled to release two patches for its Windows operating system on Tuesday 13 December. At least one of the patches has a security rating of 'critical' and requires a system reboot, the company said in a security bulletin on its website. In addition to the security patches, Microsoft also plans to release two high priority non-security updates for Windows and three non-security updates for Windows Server. The patch release will be followed by a webcast on Wednesday 14 December at 11am US Pacific Time (7pm BST).
• First Firefox 1.5 expoit made public - Security experts at Packet Storm have published proof-of-concept code that exploits an unpatched flaw in the Firefox 1.5 browser, making the application vulnerable to a denial of service attack. The published code will add a large entry to the 'history.dat' file of the browser, causing the application to freeze or crash the next time it is launched. Mozilla plans to repair the hole when it releases its next regularly scheduled stability build of Firefox. That should happen in late January or early February.
• Sober worm algorithm cracked by F-Secure - F-Secure said that it has cracked that algorithm, allowing it to figure out the URLs the worm variants will attempt to download from. This should allow the hosting providers involved to block the sites, as well as give system administrators a list of sites they should block at the corporate firewall, Hypponen said. The worm uses a list of 15 sites with names that are merely character strings, registered with free Web site providers, one example used being Jan. 5, according to F-Secure. Every 14 days the list will change to a different 15 sites, with the first change on Jan. 6, Hypponen said.
• Airport passcodes leaked from virus-infected PC  - Passcodes needed to enter secure areas at 16 Japanese airports and one in Guam have appeared on the Internet after a virus infected a computer belonging to a Japan Airlines Corp. (JAL) co-pilot, the airline said today.
• Intel Working on Rootkit Detection Techniques -  Intel is working on a research project that would immediately notify PC users if they inadvertently download a rootkit such as the XCP (extended copy protection) software found on certain music CDs shipped by Sony, researchers said Tuesday.
• Oops -- New Sony DRM Patch Insecure - Just one day after jointly announcing a patch to correct a security flaw in the SunnComm MediaMax copy protection included on 27 CDs, Sony BMG and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are urging users not to install it. The update includes a vulnerability similar to the one it attempted to fix. SunnComm's MediaMax version 5 software does not properly protect a directory it installs, opening the door for a privilege escalation attack. Thus, a restricted user account could replace the executables within the MediaMax directory with malicious code, which would then be executed by an administrator upon inserting a CD.
• Google Desktop Tweaked to Avoid IE Flaw - Google Inc. has made an "adjustment" to its Google Desktop application to protect users from an unpatched design flaw in Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer browser

CRIME/LAW...

• Clogger of P2P networks to shut down - A leading service that attempted to dissuade people from using file-trading networks like Kazaa, by planting millions of fake files online, is being shut down.
• Microsoft tackles pirate software firm - A Microsoft investigation into the sale of counterfeit software on eBay has led to the closure of an online operation responsible for the sale of over L3 million worth of fake Microsoft software. The activities of internet trading outfit Zoobon first came to light after Microsoft received a number of complaints from Zoobon customers unhappy with the quality of the products they had been sold.
• Hacker Tries To Sell Excel Flaw On EBay - An unknown security researcher tried to sell a vulnerability in Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet program on eBay, but the online auction site pulled the listing late Thursday.

OFF-TOPIC

• Earth's Magnetic Pole Drifting Quickly - At the present rate, the north magnetic pole could swing out of northern Canada into Siberia. If that happens, Alaska could lose its Northern Lights, which occur when charged particles streaming away from the sun interact with different gases in Earth's atmosphere.

TECHNOLOGY...

• Microsoft launches Xbox 360 console in Japan - Microsoft is selling only the premium Xbox 360 package in Japan. It is priced at 37,900 yen and includes a removable hard drive that lets owners play games written for the first Xbox.
• Microsoft Introduces Windows Server 2003 R2 - Microsoft has announced Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 R2 is an update release of Windows Server 2003 operating system. R2 includes Windows Server 2003 + SP1 as well as several new components. It will be available in Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, Small Business Server and Storage Server editions for x86 and x64.
• $20,000 DVD player makes Xbox 360 look affordable - The New York Times covers a super-hi-def DVD player that costs $20,000. When the Times asks the co-founder of the company that makes it why the heck anybody would want to spend that much money on a DVD player, the chucklehead responded, "In a sense, you should ask, 'What do you get for so little?'"
• IBM Reveals Details of Xbox 360 CPU Design - IBM has made public a Fall Processor Forum 2005 paper that explores the customized IBM PowerPC processor designed exclusively for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system.
• Scratch-Less Disc - If one puts a disc data-side down on a hard surface such as a table, top of the PC or anywhere besides a protective sleeve or jewel case, this makes the disc very vulnerable to scratching. To overcome this, the Scratch-Less Disc uses 'Aero Bumps', with 20 of these placed around the bottom of the disc at the outer and inner rims. As a result, if one of these is placed data-side down, these bumps will prevent the surface from touching the surface below, thus avoiding any scratches from taking place.
• Sony unveils portable music player with 305 hour battery life - Well, Sony is aiming to revive its MiniDisc format yet again with the XM-C37 Hi-MD player, which features a 305 hour battery life in LP4 mode, the longest runtime ever for a portable audio device. This provides enough playback time for close to two-weeks continuous playback. (Ed.note - I bet the player will not support UMS (Universal Mass Storage - plug it in and it is seen by the system as a hard drive) and will require Sony software to load and unload tracks. Anyone who has ever used Sony software knows the kind of garbage it is...)
• AMD stops production of Socket 939 Opterons - According to TheInquirer, the company has decided to stop production of Sempr0n 2500+, 3100+ and Athlon 64 3000+, 3200+ and 3500+, all in Processor-In-Box (PIB) format, and Opterons using Socket 939. Is this a preparation for early Socket M2 launch?

HARDWARE... 

• CPU - AMD Dual-Core Challenge - Intel No Show!
• Motherboard - ABIT AN8-SLI / Abit AN8 SLI / ASRock 939 Dual Sata2 / ASRock 939S56-M AMD Athlon 64 Socket 939 PCIe / Asus P5ND2-SLI Deluxe nForce4 SLI / DFI Ultra LANParty UT nF4 Ultra-D / ECS KN2 SLI nForce4 X16 / Foxconn NF4SK8AA / Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI
• Complete / SFF Systems -
• Memory - Corsair XMS vs. Value Select RAM Comparison / Corsair Twinx2048 4000 DDR500 / Corsair PC4000 DDR500 TWINX2048-4000PT 2GB / Corsair PC4000 DDR500 TWINX2048-4000PT 2GB Dual Channel / OCZ EL DDR PC-3200 2GB Gold GX XTC(1) / OCZ EL DDR PC-3200 Gold GX XTC 2GB Kit(2) / OCZ EL DDR PC-3200 Gold GX XTC Dual Channel(3) /OCZ EL DDR PC-3200 Gold GX XTC Dual Channel Memory (4) / OCZ PC-3200 Gold Voltage eXtreme Dual Channel DDR / OCZ Technology EL PC3500 GX Gold Edition Dual Channel Memory Kit(1) / OCZ Gold EL PC3500 GX (2)
• Storage - 2.5" Momentus Hard Drives / Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 HDD / Infrant ReadyNAS X6 X-RAID Network Storage / X-Micro DisGo Portable Hard Drive || Enermax Laureate Series Enclosures 3.5HDD and 5.25 CD/DVD || CompactFlash Card Roundup: 1GB Models | Corsair Voyager 4GB Thumb Drive / Crucial Gizmo 2GB Flash Drive / PQI Cool Drive U339 USB Flash Memory || Sony DRX-810UL Dual Format / Dual Layer DVD burner
• Video - Seven of NVIDIA's Latest and Greatest Cards Tested @ THG / ASUS EAX1800XL 256MB & HIS Excalibur X1800 XL 256MB PCIe Graphics Cards / ATI X800 GTO AGP / ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 GPU(1) / ATI Mobility RADEON X1600 (2) / BFG Technologies GeForce 7800 GTX OC 256MB PCI Express / Connect3D X1800XT / EVGA e-GeForce 7800 GTX 512MB / Gainward PowerPack! Ultra/3550PCX GeForce 7800 GTX 512MB/ GeForce 6800 GS / Gigabyte Geforce 6600 GT Silent-Pipe II GV-NX66T256DE / Gigabyte GV-3D1-68GT Dual-GPU Video Card / HIS Radeon X1800 XL 256MB PCIe / Leadtek GeForce 6200 128MB / MSI GeForce 7800 GTX 512MB / MSI NX7800GT / NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT / PowerColor Radeon X1800 XT 512MB / SLI Quadro FX 4500 / XFX GeForce 6800 GS XXX Edition(1) /XFX GeForce 6800 GS(2) /XFX GeForce 6800 GS 256MB XXX Edition (PCIe) / XGI Volari 8300
• Monitor/TV - HP F2105 LCD Monitor / Samsung 970P LCD Display / Samsung HP-R4252 42 Inch Plasma TV / ViewSonic VP930 19" TFT monitor
• Cooling - Arctic-Cooling Freezer 7 Pro / EverCool Copper Man Intel LGA775 Pentium 4 Heatsink / Gigabyte G-Power Pro GH-PDU21-MF Heatsink / NV Silencer on GeForce 7800 GTX 512MB / Thermalright V1 Ultra / Vantec MP4-7015-CF Mach 1 CPU cooler / Zalman Fatal1ty FS-V7 VGA Cooler
• Watercooling - Asetek WaterChill KT03AT-12VX Water Cooling / Big Water SE... The Evolution of a System / Cooler Master Aquagate Mini R80 Water Cooler / PrimeCooler AMD, Intel Water Cooled Heatsink / Swiftech Storm G4 CPU Water Block / Swiftech Apogee - Universal CPU Waterblock
• Case - ABS Stealth ATX Chassis / CoolerMaster CM Media BTX-B260 Case (video-review) / Either Way ATX or BTX Cases / GlobalWin YCC-S27 HTPC Computer Case
• Mods - Logisys Remote Multifunction Panel
• Sound - Believe the Hypex, Class-D DIY Amplifier / ESI MaXiO XD audio / MIDI interface / Turtle Beach Montego DDL Sound Card
• PSU - Antec ATX 12v Power Supply Tester / Antec NeoHE 550 550W PSU / I-Star Nitro AX Full Tower Case / Seasonic S12-330 330W PSU / Thermaltake PurePower PST520W
• Peripheral - A4Tech X-710 4 DPI Shift Gaming Mouse / Bluetake BT510 VS Logitech V400 - Laptop Mouse Comparison / Hiper Cavier Aluminum Alloy Keyboard / Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard / Logitech G5 Laser Mouse (1) / Logitech G5 Laser Mouse(2) / Razer Diamondback (Salamander Red)  / Razer Copperhead / Saitek Pro Gamer Command Unit || Func Industries sUrface1030 Archetype / IceMat 2nd Edition Black Mousepad / QPADR Gamer LowSense AIM & The LowSense Masterpad
• Network - AirCruiserG Game Adapter (GN-MD01) / Freecom FSG-3 Storage Gateway / Infrant ReadyNAS X6 X-RAID Network Storage
• Printer - Canon Pixma MP170 Inkjet Printer / Primera Signature Z1 CD/DVD Printer / Samsung SPP-2040 Photo Printer
• Notebook - Alienware Area-51 m5500(1) / Alienware Area-51 m5500 (2) / Asus V6VA 8004P Notebook (in German) / Fujitsu LifeBook P1510 | Sharp M4000 Laptop || A secret drawer for your laptop / Targus Urban Series Messenger Notebook Bag
• Cameras, MP3/DVD players/recorders - Kodak EasyShare V550 / Nikon D50 + 18-55mm Lens || Dream'eo Enza 20GB Portable Media Center / iRiver H10 / Vantec AVOX Jukebox Multimedia Player / X-Micro Video MP3 400 || LG LRM-519 Digital Media Recorder / NeuNeo HVD2085 high definition DVD player || Four Days with Xbox 360 / Xbox 360 - First Two Weeks Experience
• Misc - Artic Silver ArtiClean
• Phones/PDAs - Palm Z22 PDA

GUIDES...

• Holiday Gift Guides - The Under $100 Techie Holiday Gift Guide / Holiday Buying Guide 2005 @ ShackNews / Christmas Gift Guide @nVNews / Top 10 Holiday Gadgets 2005 @ FiringSquad / December Value Buyer's Guide @ SharkyExtreme
• Digital Camera Buyer's Guide - 7 Insider Tips - Whether you go the feature/function route or not, there are 7 insider tips that can help save you money and avoid buying the wrong digital camera for your purposes.
• Desktop Graphics Card Comparison Guide Rev. 9.6 - Currently covering over 240 desktop graphics cards, this comprehensive comparison will allow you to easily compare 15 different specifications for each and every card
• How To Connect Your PC to Your Home Stereo or Home Theater - Learn how to hook your PC to your stereo or receiver in order to enhance you audio experience while playing games, watching videos, listening to music or even editing audio.
• SATA v PATA - DVD Writing Burn-off - Is there any tangible benefit from moving to a SATA optical drive? Bit-Tech decided to find out by pitting the SATA Plextor against a venerable stalwart of the DVD burning club, the Pioneer 110D on PATA: "We've found that the Plextor was slower in almost every test - it's one thing to be faster and more expensive, but it's rather another to be more expensive and slower. The one thing the Plextor has going for it is the SATA connection. This connection is undoubtedly more stylish and practical than IDE, but does it justify worse performance and a higher price? We don't think so, unfortunately for Plextor. The Pioneer has great performance, and an astounding price - we wouldn't recommed you look anywhere else. "
• Chipset Serial ATA and RAID Performance Compared -  The nForce4 looks like a superior RAID platform for desktop systems. The nForce4's performance in the majority of their FC-Test and iPEAK tests is better than that of the ICH7R, and in single-user tests, NVIDIA's RAID 5 implementation is less crippling than Intel's.
• Xbox 360: Ripping CD's only way to store music on HDD - GameSpot has posted a short overview of the digital media experience one can have with this device: "Get used to ripping tracks from audio CDs because that's the only way we could get music onto the 360's HDD. The console could recognize and play MP3 songs from USB devices like memory sticks and portable media players, but we couldn't transfer songs over to the HDD. Similarly, the system could play songs from a data CD that contained MP3s, but we couldn't transfer the music directly to the system's HDD. The 360 can stream music from USB devices and data CDs, but it won't let you copy any songs from those sources."
• Windows XP: WXP CC User Guide - This document is the Microsoft Windows XP Evaluated Configuration User Guide that was used in the completion of the Windows XP and Server 2003 Common Criteria Evaluation
• Catalyst 5.12 Comparison - check it out (in German)

SOFTWARE...

• AVG Anti-Virus Free 7.1.371 Build 699 - AVG Free Edition (download) is the well-known anti-virus protection tool. AVG Free is available free-of-charge to home users for the life of the product! Rapid virus database updates are available for the lifetime of the product, thereby providing the high-level of detection capability that millions of users around the world trust to protect their computers. AVG Free is easy-to-use and will not slow your system down (low system resource requirements).
• Rootkit Revealer 1.6 - RootkitRevealer is an advanced patent-pending root kit detection utility. It runs on Windows NT 4 and higher and its output lists Registry and file system API discrepancies that may indicate the presence of a user-mode or kernel-mode rootkit.
• Software and Tools roundup - On ocinside.de is a new roundup with dozens of small Tools and programs to tune the PC hardware.
• 7-Zip 4.31 - 7-Zip is a file archiver with high compression ratio. The new version improves speed and adds support for # LZH, # CHM, # Multivolume CAB.
• phpMyAdmin 2.7.0 final - phpMyAdmin 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.
• BitTorrent 4.2.1 Final - A new BitTorrent client v4.2.1 is available for download (changelog) and there's the latest beta 4.3.1
• WinMerge 2.5.0.3 Experimental Build - WinMerge (download) is a Win32 tool for visual difference display and merging, for both files and directories. Unicode support. Flexible syntax coloring editor. Windows Shell integration. Regexp filtering. Side-by-side line diff and highlights diffs inside lines.
• SpamPal 1.73c  - SpamPal (download) is a spam filtering system whose main aim is to separate spam from the mail you really want to read, by filtering the spam into a separate spamtrap folder. SpamPal works as a POP3/IMAP4 mail proxy server, in other words, SpamPal sits between your email program and your ISP's server.
• FreePOPs 0.0.96 - FreePOPs is an easily extensible program, which allows access to the most varied resources through the POP3 protocol.
• Fasterfox 1.0.0 - Fasterfox includes performance and network tweaks for Firefox. It will Prefetch Links, Tweak Networks, Block Popups and includes a Page Load Timer.
• Real Alternative 1.46 - Real Alternative will allow you to play RealMedia files without having to install RealPlayer or RealOne Player from Real Networks. Supported are: RealAudio (.ra .rpm), RealMedia (.rm .ram .rmvb .rpx .smi .smil), RealText (.rt) and ReadPix (.rp). It also supports RealMedia content that is embedded in webpages. The very user-friendly installation is fully customizable, which means that you can install only those components that you want.
• QuickTime Alternative 1.67 & 1.55 - QuickTime Alternative 1.67 is based on QuickTime 7.0.3.50, which adds support for H.264 and more, but it does not support Windows 95, 98, 98 SE, ME and NT any longer.
• Winamp 5.120 - Nullsoft Winamp (download full / lite) is a fast, flexible, high-fidelity media player for Windows.
• Mp3tag 2.34d - Mp3tag can rename files based on the tag information, replace characters or words from tags and filenames, import/export tag information, create playlists, and more.
• VideoLAN 0.8.4 - VideoLAN is an excellent multimedia player with it's own plugins for playing different formats, so it doesn't need any codecs to be installed. It works great for previewing partially downloaded files too.
• FFDShow MPEG-4 Video Decoder 20051208 - FFDShow MPEG-4 Video Decoder is a DirectShow decoding filter for decompressing DIVX movies, picture postprocessing, and show subtitles.
• HyperSnap-DX 6.01.00 (shw) - HyperSnap-DX 5 (download) is a screen capture and image editing tool for MS Windows. It captures screens from standard desktop programs and even those hard-to-grab DirectX, Direct3D, 3Dfx Voodoo and Glide mode games.
• Hmonitor 4.2.3.1 - Hardware sensors (download) monitor utilizes sensor chips on smart motherboards to track system and CPU temperatures, voltages and cooling fans.
• EVEREST System Diagnostic Tool v2.5 - The new release ($14.50) includes support for HD DVD-ROM drives, the IA SSE4 instruction set, chipset information for Intel i975X, and many other advanced technologies. The Corporate and Ultimate Editions can be purchased at a discounted price through January 31, 2006.
• BenQ 1640 firmware BSNB -  BenQ has released a new firmware for BenQ 1640, version BSNB.
• Nvidia Unified (nforce 2/3/4) 8.22 (Remix)  - A remix set is a collection of NFORCE files that are are publicly available on the internet somewhere or another.
• The Catalyst Uninstaller - This tool is used to uninstall ATI related files from your system.
• Radeon Omega Drivers 2.6.87 (Cat 5.12) - Omegadrive has released a new version of his popular modified driver. These drivers are based on ATI's catalyst drivers 5.12 and they include a customized version of ATI Tray Tools instead of Radlinker.

SECURITY... 

• Security firms warn of new Microsoft threats - Sophos PLC reported evidence of new malware planted on Web sites that exploits a previously announced -- and as-yet-unpatched -- Internet Explorer security vulnerability. The Clunky-B Trojan horse allows hackers to install and run malicious software on users' machines when they visit sites containing the malware, said Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at Sophos.
• IE flaw lets intruders into Google Desktop - A security researcher in Israel has found a way to steal information from unwitting users of Google's desktop search tool by exploiting an unpatched flaw in Microsoft's ubiquitous Internet Explorer.
• Sober worm stalls MSN, Hotmail - A variant of Sober known as Win32/Sober.Z@mm is pummeling servers at Hotmail and MSN with "unusually high mail load," causing delays in e-mail delivery to Hotmail and MSN customers, said Brooke Richardson, MSN's lead product manager.
• Microsoft Windows Metafile DoS-gdi32.dll, MS05-053, Exploit - Remote code execution and denial of service vulnerabilities have been discovered in Windows Metafile (WMF) and Enhanced Metafile (EMF) image formats that allow remote code execution or on an affected system. The following crafted Metafile when viewed by Internet Explorer causes the CPU utilization to rise to 100%.
• MSDTC Denial Of Service (Exploit, MS05-051) -  A flaw in the way MSDTC handles malformed packets allows an attacker to hang the service and exhaust resources on the server.
• Cisco warns of HTTP flaw - The flaw could allow a hacker to view a memory dump (a record of the data in a router's memory) of an IOS router via the HTTP server and inject script code into the router through the HTTP server.
• Panda fixes flaw in antivirus products - Panda Software has fixed a flaw in its antivirus products that could have allowed an attack resulting in control over a user's computer, a company spokesman said Friday.
• Google adds virus scan to Gmail client - The firm said that when you send and receive attachments, they're auto scanned for viruses. If Gmail thinks your mail has viruses, it will attempt to clean the file or remove it. But if it detects a virus and can't remove it, then you won't be able to download it.
• Microsoft launches anti-virus service - Microsoft has launched Windows One Care Live Security beta, an anti-virus and anti-spyware service for consumers only. The service offers anti-virus, firewall, backup and recovery, as well as personal computer maintenance.

CRIME/LAW...

• Warez servers in Germany confiscated - German police have confiscated five warez servers with 6 terabytes of illegal copies of movies and games in the German town of Coburg on the fringes of northern Bavaria. The servers, with names as Temptation and Paradise Island, were accessible to over 1,200 people for € 30 to 120 per month. Police arrested at least one 26 year old.
• 180solutions sues Zone Labs - Adware provider 180solutions has filed suit against ZoneLabs (producer of anti-spyware program ZoneAlarm), alleging that ZoneAlarm improperly classifies their product as spyware.
• EA sued over feature in Madden NFL -  A video game developer has sued Electronic Arts, charging that the world's biggest video game publisher stole his idea for a game feature and incorporated it into the popular football title Madden NFL 06.

OFF-TOPIC

• First Look at the X-Men 3 Teaser Trailer! - The trailer is a montage of scenes from the film. It starts out with a voice over by Patrick Stewart. As he talks about the war of mutants (as well as angels and demons), we see a bunch of very, very brief scenes. The trailer then concludes with the X and Wolverine's claws as seen on the poster. The X-Men 3 teaser trailer will be attached to King Kong when it hits theaters, but it will debut online this coming Monday, Dec. 5th. Watch for it on Apple's website in High Definition quality.
• Robots aim to explore and build on other worlds - NASA is offering two new $250,000 prizes to stimulate advances in the use of robots in planetary exploration and automated construction.
• 6 Percent to 10 Percent of Internet Users Are Addicted - These specialists estimate that 6 percent to 10 percent of the approximately 189 million Internet users in this country have a dependency that can be as destructive as alcoholism and drug addiction, and they are rushing to treat it. Yet some in the field remain skeptical that heavy use of the Internet qualifies as a legitimate addiction, and one academic expert called it a fad illness.

TECHNOLOGY...

• Microsoft tweaks browser to avoid liability - The software giant is notifying Web developers and other partners on Friday that it is changing the way Internet Explorer handles certain Web programs, known as ActiveX controls and Java applets. With the change, Web developers will need to slightly modify their pages or consumers will have to make an extra click to get to some content, such as for a Macromedia Flash-based advertisement.
• NVIDIA to intro 90-nano desktop GPUs in Q1'06 - DigiTimes is claiming that NVIDIA will introduce new G72 and G73 desktop graphics processors in the first quarter of next year. The chips will be built using 90-nano fabrication technology, and will power the GeForce 7200 and 7600 series, respectively
• Will Sonys PS3 be the last nail in the HD-DVD coffin? - We know that Blu-ray has garnered massive content support from the studios with about 80% of all of Hollywood's content locked up. But, Sony is not stopping there, it's well known that the Play Station 3 will be blessed with a Blu-ray drive.  However, the HD DVD is the only next-gen format to provide for the ability to legally make copies of optical content. Dubbed "Managed Copy," HD DVD implements part of the AACS control mechanism to allow for things such as putting digital copies of a disc on a hard drive, transferring a movie (legally) to a portable player, or streaming content on a home network. Furthermore, HD DVD makes Managed Copy mandatory: all content provided on HD DVD must give users the option of making at least one copy.
• Merriam-Webster Launches Open Dictionary - Merriam-Webster just released Open Dictionary (firefox plugin) to better take and share the pulse of language through the Web
• Company Claims Development of True AI - GTX Global Corporation announced that GTX Global Corporation has developed the first true artificial intelligence, so named Cognitive Robotics, or more particularly, a human-like information management and delivery system.
• Dot-eu domain to go live next week - With just under a week to go until companies can register for a dot-eu domain name, the European Commission is preparing for a rush of registrations when the new top-level domain goes live. The sunrise period - where trademark holders and public bodies can register their dot-eu URLs before the public are allowed to - will officially begin on 7 December.
• ICANN goes floppy on porn domain - The proposed .xxx porn domain has been mysteriously dropped from ICANN's board meeting agenda.
• Skype gets into video - Skype has unveiled the latest version of its popular internet telephony application, with free video calling topping the list of new features.
• Ericsson and NRK launch interactive mobile TV - Ericsson and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) have conducted the world's first live trial of interactive mobile TV. The trial demonstrates a new way of using mobile TV, which allows mobile phone users to vote, chat and communicate with a television presenter while watching their favorite show - all at the same time on their mobile.
• Xbox 360 Euro-launch coverage - Xbox 360 UK launch review @ bit-tech.net / Xbox 360 UK launch review @ HEXUS / Xbox 360 Ireland launch review @ XboxGamers / Xbox or not, it's a jolly gaming holiday / Opinion: Xbox 360 launches in Europe @ TG Daily / Xbox 360 review @ TrustedReviews.

HARDWARE... 

• CPU - CPU Database / Are Three Cores Better Than Two?
• Motherboard - The Dual Graphics Platform Battle, Part 1 / ABIT's AN8-SLI, DFI's LANParty UT RDX200 CD-DR / DFI nForce4 Infinity SLI / ECS PF5 Extreme Intel 945 775LGA
• Complete / SFF Systems - Biostar iDEQ 350G SFF PC / Gateway 524GB Desktop PC
• Memory - Corsair DDR1 2GB Memory Roundup / OCZ EL DDR PC-3200 Gold GX XTC 2048MB memory
• Storage - Hitachi vs. Western Digital vs. Seagate/ Seagate 500GB Barracuda 7200.9 / Seagate Momentus 7200.1 100GB / Western Digital 80GB Passport External Hard Drive || Indus Idex 400 Hard Drive Switch / Enermax Laureate (EB205U-S) || Corsair Flash Voyager 4GB / ScanDisk Extreme III Flash Cards Roundup / OCZ Rally Flash Drives || Pioneer DVR-110 DVD Burner
• Video - 5-way GeForce 7800GT Round-up / ASUSTeK A7G with ATI RADEON Mobility X1600 / ATI Radeon X1300 Pro  / e-GeForce 7800 GTX BlackPearl 512MB / EVGA e-GeForce 6800 GS / GeForce 7800 GTX 512 MB vs. Radeon X1800 XT 512 MB / HIS Radeon X800GTO 256MB / Matrox DualHead2Go / PowerColor Radeon X300 SE HyperMemory 128 MB / PowerColor X1800 XT / S3's Chrome S27 / XFX GeForce 6200 TurboCache 64 MB
• Monitor - Dell 5100P projector / Hyundai ImageQuest Q90U - 3ms 19" LCD Monitor
• Cooling - Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro Cooler / AVC Z7UB301 'AMD Reference' Athlon64 Heatsink / Coolermaster Musketeer 3 / Thermaltake Big Typhoon CPU cooler / Thermalright V1 Ultra / Zalman CNPS9500 LED
• Watercooling - asetek WaterChill Extreme watercooling kit / Danger Den DD12V-D4 Water Cooling Pump
• Case - Asys Freedom Tower Series (CK-1022-5) Eiffel Tower case / Cooler Master Stacker 830 case (video-review) / Mountain Mods Bob Slay Clear Acrylic Case  / Sansun SN-C001 BAT Case / Sunbeam Trio Case / Superpower XP01F PC Gaming Case
• Sound - Creative X-Fi Xtreme Music Sound Card || Altec Lansing XT1 Portable Speakers / Klipsch iFi iPod Speaker System / Logitech Z-5450 Digital 5.1 Speaker System || Noise Cancelling or Noise Reduction When It Comes to Headphones
• PSU - Coolmax CXI600W PSU / MGE XG Vortec 500W / SinTek 600SLI 600W PSU / Zalman ZM460-APS Ultra Quiet 460Watt Power Supply / XG Vortec 600 Power Supply
• Peripheral - Logitech G5 and G7 Laser Gaming Mice / Logitech G7 Laser Cordless Mouse
• Printer - Epson PictureMate 100 Printer
• Notebook - Alienware Area-51 m5700 laptop / BenQ S53W Centrino Notebook / The Ultralight Sharp M4000 WideNote
• Cameras, MP3/DVD players/recorders - Canon DC20 DVD Camcorder || Dream'eo Enza Portable Media Centre / NeuNeo HVD2085 DVD Player / Nu Tech Dark Shadow 256MB MP3 Sunglasses / Samsung DVD-R120 DVD Recorder 
• Misc - Jackson Armor Card
• Phones/PDAs - Sony Ericsson W600i

GUIDES...

• Compatibility issues with Maxtor DiamondMax 9/10 and nForce4 - It seems that there is a serious compatibility issue between some of the Maxtor DiamondMax 9/10 SATA series with an early firmware revision and some nForce4 based motherboards. Some of the effected motherboards are the ASUS A8N series, the DFI LAN Party NF4, and some MSI nForce4 based boards. The problem lies between onboard SATA controller and the hard drive. The workaround is a firmware upgrade for the hard drive.
• Optimize Your SLI Rig - You just spent hundreds of dollars to build your own SLI computer for some serious gaming. But, you are having problems trying to configure your system to work at its full capability.
• PC submerged in mineral oil video - A working PC fully submerged in liquid, running at a CPU core temp of -7 degrees and an ambient temp of -61 degrees!
• Guide To Saving Videotape Memories - The TechZone published a guide about saving videotape memories.
• High-end Gaming PC Buyer's Guide -The basic goal of our high-end guide is to give you a general idea of what kind of gaming PCs are possible with a budget of $2500.
• Moving a Beginner to Linux - Tired of fighting to keep your Windows clean? Try Linux.
• Updated Firefox Tweak Guide - From the basic to the advanced, the following 11 pages of information are sure to enhance your Firefox experience.
• How to use MSCONFIG - A nice guide for beginners.
• How To Take Control Of Your Inbox & Reduce Spam - There is a way to reduce the problem and manage it effectively using the 7 steps.
• Quake 4 Performance Optimization Guide - Disappointed with your performance in Quake 4?

SOFTWARE...

• Apache 2.2.0 - This version of Apache is a major release (download) and the start of a new stable branch. New features include Smart Filtering, Improved Caching, AJP Proxy, Proxy Load Balancing, Graceful Shutdown support, Large File Support, the Event MPM, and refactored Authentication/Authorization.
• KDE 3.5 - KDE 3.4.2 has been just released to the public.
• OpenOffice.org for Windows 2.0.1 RC2 - OpenOffice.org (download) is the open source project through which Sun Microsystems is releasing the technology for the popular StarOffice productivity suite.
• Sun Java 2 Runtime Environment Standard Edition 5.0 Update 6 - Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE) provides a complete environment for applications development on desktops and servers and for deployment in embedded environments. It also serves as the foundation for the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) and Java Web Services.
• Spybot Search and Destroy Detection Update 1215 - This updates the detection rules. Only needed if you do not want to use the update function integrated into Spybot-S&D.
• Microsoft's SNARF e-mail sorter - The software maker this week released a free utility that aims to sort e-mail in a new way: It can organize messages not just by how recent they are, but also by whether the recipient knows the sender well.
• i.Scribe 1.88 - i.Scribe is a small and fast email client with an intergrated contact database and calendar.
• Google Talk 1.0.0.78 Beta - Google Talk (download) enables you to call or send instant messages to your friends for free-anytime, anywhere in the world.
• µTorrent 1.2.3 Beta Build 356 - µTorrent is an efficient and feature rich BitTorrent client for Windows sporting a very small footprint.
• Powerful free Xbox360 video converter - This program convert a variety of video types into MPEG-2 files suitable for playing on Xbox 360.
• Skype 2.0.0.43 Beta - Skype (changelog / download) is a little program for making free calls over the internet to anyone else who also has Skype. It's free and easy to download and use, and works with most computers. This new version adds Skype video (webcam) feature.
• RealPlayer 10.5 Build 6.0.12.1465 - Get the latest version of this media player from RealNetworks.
• The Core Media Player v4.11 Matroska' Edition - CoreCodec and The Core Media Player Development Teams have released The Core Media Player v4.11 Matroska' Edition (download). Now includes the powerful Haali Media Splitter
• ImgBurn 1.1.0.0 - ImgBurn (download) can write most types of CD / DVD images and it supports all the latest writers (including booktype / bitsetting on many of the major ones - i.e. BenQ, LiteOn, NEC, Plextor, Sony).
• CPU-Z 1.31 - CPU-Z (download) is a freeware that gathers information on some of the main devices of your system.
• nVidia BIOS Modifier v3.2 - nVidia BIOS Modifier has been updated to version v3.0 ! This tool must be used by ADVANCED users ONLY! This tool works correctly with BIOSes of 6x00 / 7x00 series cards ONLY (including QUADRO series, built on NV4x and higher) !!! BIOSes of 5x00 and older aren't supported.
• RivaTuner 2.0 RC 15.8 - The purpose of this utility (changelog) is to give you access to all the undocumented features of Detonator and Catalyst drivers.
• Intel Pro & ProSet 10.1 Network Card Drivers - download
• Intel Graphics Accelerator Driver 14.18.0.4421 WHQL - The Intel Graphics Media Accelerator Driver contains support for the following Intel Chipsets: 852GM, 852GME, 855GM, 855GME, 915G, 915GV, 915GM/GMS, 910GML, 945G, 945GM.
• Realtek AC'97 Drivers 3.80 WHQL - This driver supports all ALC series audio chipsets from ALC101 up to ALC861. The driver can also be found on MajorGeeks.
• ATI Omega drivers v2.6.83 (Catalyst 5.11) - The purpose of the Omega Drivers is to provide gamers with an alternate set of drivers, ones that have more options and features than the original sets. The drivers contain optimizations, extra features (like OC capabilities), more resolutions and internal tweaks that can give them the edge in a gaming environment over the normal drivers, which are often tailored for synthetic benchmarks. (thanks HairBall)

SECURITY... 

• Unpatched IE Flaw Extremely Critical  - Instead of being just critical, Secunia says that the unpatched hole is now 'extremely critical' which means that Microsoft were extremely stupid to sit on it for six months.
• Code exploits Windows flaw in image file handling - The exploit code takes advantage of a flaw in the way Windows handles certain graphics files. Microsoft provided a patch in October with security bulletin MS05-053 and warned that the vulnerability could create an opening for spyware and Trojan horse attacks
• Sony CD spyware installs and can run permanently, even if you click "Decline"  - Previously, Princeton researchers revealed that the MediaMax software installed itself even if you declined the EULA (the pop-up license agreement). However, the researchers concluded that if you declined the EULA, the software was only active until you restarted Windows. Now Princeton's Alex Halderman reports that if you insert another MediaMax-infected CD (or the same CD again) and decline the EULA a second time, the software can activate itself permanently.
• MSN Messenger Authentication DoS - Any person can try to brute force a victim's MSN messenger password, until MSN temporarily suspends the account. While the account is temporarily suspended, not even the real owner of the MSN Messenger Passport account can login (even if the correct password is used).
• Hard drives ship with worm - Japanese storage vendor IO Data has dropped a bit of a clanger by shipping a batch of external hard drives complete with a Windows worm.

CRIME/LAW...

• Illegal file-sharing three times as popular as iTunes - A report from analyst house JupiterResearch discovered that consumers are three times more likely to get their digital music from illegal file-sharing networks than pay to download the tracks from online song shops such as iTunes and Napster, with 15 per cent of consumers using P2P sites and five per cent using the legitimate online shops.

OFF-TOPIC

• DRM boycotts hurt Sony's music sales - musicians frustrated - Overnight, Get Right with the Man dropped to No. 1,392 on Amazon's music rankings. By Nov. 22 -- after the news made headlines and Sony was deep into damage control, pulling some 4.7 million copy-protected disks from the market -- Get Right with the Man was even further from Amazon's Top 40, plummeting to No. 25,802.
• The GMAIL Song - Yes folks there is now a GMAIL song and Video.

TECHNOLOGY...

• 300,000 Xbox 360s go to Europe - According to Spiegel Online, this Friday will mark the arrival of 300,000 Xbox 360s in stores across Europe.
• Farstone VirtualDrive 10 Pro claims to support Starforce 3 - Farstone claims on their product description of VirtualDrive 10 Pro to have beaten the Starforce 3 copy protection. The software is a CD/DVD drive emulator and allows you to use images made from CD or DVD discs on your hard disk but with the behaviour of a CD/DVD reading capable device
• Nokia Makes Enterprise Play with 9300i Smartphone - Looking to gain a stronger foothold in the enterprise, Nokia today took the wraps off of its latest smartphone , the 9300i, essentially an update to the 9300 model, which did not come with built-in Wi-Fi connectivity.

HARDWARE... 

• CPU - Dual-core desktop - AMD vs. Intel
• Motherboard - Abit's Fatal1ty AN8 SLI / ASRock 775Dual-915GL / Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe - x16 SLI  / DFI Infinity NF4 Ultra (1) / DFI LanParty NF4 SLI-DR Expert  (2) / ECS PF22 Crossfire / Epox Socket 754 SLI board / Foxconn Winfast 6150K8MA-8EKRS / Gigabyte 955X Royal
• Complete / SFF Systems - Dell XPS 600 - SLI Gaming PC / Shuttle XPC M1000 Home Theater PC
• Memory - Corsair TwinX XMS PC4000 2GB DDR Memory Kit  / Corsair TWINX 2048-4000  / Crucial Ballistix PC2-8000 / G.Skill Extreme 3200DSU2-1GBFX / G.skill F1-3200PHU2-2GBZX (2x1GB 2-3-2-5) / OCZ Dual Channel PC-3200 Gold GX XTC
• Storage - Seagate 7200.9 500GB || Vantec Nexstar GX USB Drive Enclosure and Hub Inbox || LG GSA-4167B Super Multi DVD-Writer
• Video - Mid-Range Graphics Card Round-Up || ATI All in Wonder Radeon X800XL Multimedia PCI Express /  ATI RADEON X1600 PRO and XT / ASUS Extreme N6600GT Silencer (1) / ASUS Extreme AX700 Silencer (2) / e-GeForce 7800GT OC and HIS X800GTO  / GECUBE ATi X550 256Mb DDR2 RAM / Matrox DualHead2Go / MSI NX6800GS-TD256E (GeForce 6800 GS, PCIe) / PowerColor X800 GTO VIVO / XFX GeForce 6600 DDR2
• Monitor - Samsung SyncMaster 740B 17" LCD Monitor / ViewSonic VG920 19" LCD monitor
• Cooling - Asus Extreme AX800 Silencer / Cooler Master Centurion 531 / FrozenCPU ATX 2.0 PSU Tester / Thermalright V-1 VGA Cooler / Thermalright XP_90C & Antec Tricool 120 fan tested on 4800+ / Zalman CNPS9500 LED Heatsink / Zalman VF700-Cu LED at Maximum CPU
• Watercooling - 5-Way Radiator Round-Up (Part 2) / Swiftech H20-Apex "Extreme Duty" Series Liquid Cooling Kit
• Case - Antec P180 / Nitro Ax Full Tower Server Case / Hiper Aluminium HCK-1S18A-XX / Lian Li PC-V880 HTPC Case / Nikao Black Dragonfire Case / NZXT Lexa case / SilverStone LC16M HTPC Case / Thermaltake Swing ATX Mid Tower Case / Vantec Stingray - STG100  / XG Ninja 2 Case
• Modding - mCubed FanAmp
• Sound - Creative Labs X-Fi Platinum || Altec Lansing AHS602i Gaming Headset
• PSU - SilverStone Strider ST60F PSU
• Peripheral - Bluetake BT510 Mini Mouse and BT009Si Bluetooth Adapter / Logitech MX5000 Laser Cordless Desktop / Logitech MX610 Laser Cordless Mouse / Logitech diNovo Cordless Desktop Kit for Notebooks / Razer Green Copperhead Gaming Mouse / Saitek P3000 Wireless Gamepad / Saitek ST90 Joystick / ZBoard Call of Duty 2 || fUnc 1030 Archetype mousepad / Icemat 2nd Edition Mouse Pad
• Network - SonicWALL TZ 170 SP Wireless
• Printer - Lexmark E342n Mono Laser printer
• Notebook - SONY VAIO VGN-T2XRP-S Notebook
• Cameras, MP3/DVD players/recorders - Canon Digital IXUS 750 digital camera
• Misc - Hawking Technologies HKS112AU 2-Port KVM Switch / Panasonic KX-FC235E - Fax Answerphone
• Phones/PDAs - Asus MyPal A636 - an absolute battery life record / Nokia 770 Internet Linux Tablet / Mitsubishi M430i GSM phone / Motorola V3i GSM phone / Samsung E330N GSM phone / Samsung X200 GSM phone / Wi-Fi enabled Nokia 9300i Communicator unveiled

GUIDES...

• The Definitive BIOS Optimization Guide Revision 8.6.1 - Adrian has updated his premier BIOS optimization guide.
• Buyers Guides - Holiday 2005 PC Case Buyers Guide / 10 easy steps to buy a new PC
• How To Prevent Unwanted Windows Programs From Loading At Startup - We all have them in our system tray, programs that load up and use precious memory resources and take up valuable space on your taskbar. Some of them you need, but most you can do without. Take charge and clean them out.

SOFTWARE...

• PHP 5.1.1 Final - The PHP Development Team has released PHP 5.1.1. This is a regression correction release aimed at addressing several issues introduced by PHP 5.1.0.
• UNOFFICIAL Windows98 SE Service Pack 2.1 -  It contains all Windows98 SE updates from Windows Update site and more.
• Mozilla takes wraps off Firefox 1.5 - Firefox 1.5, available free via download, is the browser's first major update since creator the Mozilla Foundation introduced it about a year ago. New in the 1.5 version are more sophisticated security and performance features. In addition to a more effective pop-up blocker, the updated browser is designed to ease security updates.
• FastStone Image Viewer 2.29 - FastStone Image Viewer (download) is a fast, stable, user-friendly image browser, converter and editor. It has a nice array of features that include image viewing, management, comparison, red-eye removal, emailing, resizing, cropping and color adjustments.
• K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 1.44 - K-Lite Codec Pack is a collection of codecs and related tools. Codec is short for Compressor-Decompressor. Codecs are needed for encoding and decoding (playing) audio and video.
• VLC Player 0.8.4 - VLC (a.k.a. VideoLAN Client) is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, ...) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network.
• Media Player Classic 6.4.8.7 - Media Player Classic (download) is similar to windows media player 6.4 but with features pertained to minimalist advanced users. It also supports DirectX 9 and VFW drivers for capture. It supports viewing through ActiveX controls of Real and QuickTime files.
• Daemon Tools 4.00 X64 - Daemon Tools 4 X64 (download) has been released. It contains only small bugfixes, apart from that, the release notes from V4 32bit are valid here, too.
• AnyDVD 5.6.1.1 - AnyDVD program is a driver, which unprotects DVD movies automatically in the background. AnyDVD can be used to remove the various copy protections on DVDs and even audio or game CDs.  This new version Adds detection and removal of a new type of protection "MacroVision RipGuard" as found on "Madagascar WideScreen" R1 (US) or "Vet Hard" R2 (Netherlands) to the option to remove "Protection based on unreadable Sectors" Note: RipGuard could be copied together with elby CloneDVD2 since AnyDVD version 5.4.1.1, but this new version supports drag and drop of all files from DVD to harddisk as well.
• Unstoppable Copier v2.0 - Recovers files from disks with physical damage. Allows you to copy files from disks with problems such as bad sectors, scratches or that just give errors when reading data.
• Far Cry Benchmark v1.4.2 - Far Cry Benchmark v1.4.2 adds support for the latest v1.33 patch, instant save feature, etc
• Half-Life 2 Benchmark v1.6 - Half-Life 2 Benchmark v1.6 adds Lost Coast support, HD WideScreen resolutions 1280×768, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, HDR support, etc.
• Splinter Cell Chaos Theory Benchmark v1.1 - Splinter Cell Chaos Theory Benchmark v1.1 adds support for 1.5 patch, Pixel Shader 2.0 support, etc.
  Intel Video Drivers 14.17 - download

SECURITY... 

• Hackers publish code for critical IE bug - Security experts are warning Internet users to be careful where they click, thanks to a nasty unpatched bug in the way Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer browser handles the JavaScript computer language. The bug is of particular concern because security researchers in the U.K. have now published "proof of concept" code showing how hackers could exploit the problem and possibly take over a Windows system.
• Google fixes glitch that unleashed flood of porn - With the filter turned off, the amount of adult content on Google Base was staggering considering Google only launched the tool a week ago. A News.com search on the terms "XXX" and "XXX webcam" turned up more than 14,000 results each, including numerous listings under "XXX teen webcam." Several bloggers were also surprised by the amount of porn on the new service.
• Macromedia Flash Plugin Buffer Overflow - A buffer overflow vulnerability discovered in Macromedia Flash Plugin ActiveX, the following exploit code can used to determine whether your system is vulnerable or not.
• Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware (Beta) - Windows AntiSpyware (Beta) is a security technology that helps protect Windows users from spyware and other potentially unwanted software. Known spyware on your PC can be detected and removed.
• Sober variant causes new security hangover - The latest virus epidemic continues apace, with F-Secure raising its threat-level to one, and Sophos reporting that more than 5 per cent of email traffic infected by the latest variant of the Sober worm.
• AirMagnet's WLAN analyzer goes remote - Laptop Analyzer 6.0 allows remote scanning over any LAN or Internet connection and can run on a Centrino-equipped laptop without a separate Wi-Fi card.
• Gartner: piece of tape defeats any CD DRM - The highly controversial XCP digital rights management (DRM) technology bundled by Sony BMG on 52 of its audio CD albums can be defeated by applying a small piece of tape to the discs, according to analyst firm Gartner. Applying a piece of opaque tape to the outer edge of the disk renders the data track of the CD unreadable. A computer trying to play the CD will then skip to the music without accessing the bundled DRM technology."

CRIME/LAW...

• BitTorrent Creator and MPAA Reach an Agreement - In a deal aimed at reducing illegal Internet traffic in pirated films, Hollywood reached an agreement Tuesday with the creator of the popular file-sharing software BitTorrent. The agreement requires 30-year-old software designer Bram Cohen to prevent his Web site, bittorrent.com, from locating pirated versions of popular movies, effectively frustrating people who search for illegal copies of films. BitTorrent must remove Web links leading to illegal content owned by the seven studios that are members of the Motion Picture Association of America.
• Texas Sues Sony Over Rootkit - Under its new anti-spyware law, the State of Texas has sued Sony BMG Music Entertainment, on the grounds that its much-maligned XCP anti-piracy software included on numerous recent releases has left customers' computers open to attacks.
• IFPI files 2,100 lawsuits against P2P users across the world -  The IFPI has filed 2,100 lawsuits against P2P users across 3 cotenants. The IFPI has filed action against P2P users in Europe, Asia and for the very first time SouthAmerica.

OFF-TOPIC

• Untelevised Xbox 360 ad hits the web - The untelevised Zero Hour ad for the 360 has been spread on the web, and you can now check it out via this mirror and torrent. (thanks Joystique)
• Scientists discover singing iceberg - Sound waves from the iceberg had a frequency of around 0.5 hertz, too low to be heard by humans, but by playing them at higher speed the iceberg sounded like a swarm of bees or an orchestra warming up, the scientists said.
• More CO2 Now Than Past 650K Years - There is more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere today than at any point during the last 650,000 years, says a major new study that let scientists peer back in time at "greenhouse gases" that can help fuel global warming.

TECHNOLOGY...

• Maxell to offer 300GB holographic discs 'late 2006' - Maxell will ship its first holographic storage system late next year, the company has pledged. The storage specialist will initially offer a removable system based on 300GB media and capable of transfering data at a rate of 20MBps, Maxell said. However, the company said the technology, designed by InPhase Technologies, is capable of achieving 1.6TB per disk - and that's uncompressed capacity - with a 120MBps bandwidth.
• DVD Forum Rubber Stamps Rewriteable HD DVD Formats - Re-recordable HD DVD discs will be branded 'HD DVD-RW', the DVD Forum confirmed at its most recent steering committe last week. But in a move which would seem to be calculated to win support from as many firms as possible, the Forum also said re-writeable discs will be branded 'HD DVD-RAM'. They were originally supposed to be called 'HD DVD-RW'.
• Microsoft loses $126 per Xbox 360 sold - BusinessWeek has the breakdown on how much it costs for Microsoft to make an Xbox 360 - and the numbers aren't pretty.
• Xbox 360 launch marred by unit stability problems - Screenshots are available at Xbox-Scene, and a video of the crash can be downloaded here. Coverage is also available at 1UP and Arstechnica, for those of you who want to stay abreast of the situation. Remember, however, that there's no proof that the Xbox 360 has a widespread problem or issue. (thanks TechReport)
• Microsoft Reports Isolated Xbox 360 Glitches -  Microsoft said Wednesday it had received isolated reports of technical problems with its popular new Xbox 360. Spokeswoman O'Donnell urges anyone with Xbox problems to call 1-800-4myXbox or go to http://www.xbox.com. If the problems can't be resolved immediately, Microsoft said it will pay to ship the console overnight to a repair center, overnight it back once it's fixed, or ship a replacement.
• AMD to Intro Brand for Multimedia Computers - AMD is set to introduce a special brand-name for entertainment-oriented personal computers (PCs) running certain chips from the company as well as certain chipsets from the manufacturer's partners among core-logic designers.
• Ageia PhysX cards not quite ready yet - A source close to ASUS forwarded our attention to a few images of the actual PhysX expansion card online, but confirmed that the cards depicted in those images were not functional. Moreover, the source said, ASUS will debut the card in February 2006 when more games become available to take advantage of AGEIA's innovation. Apparently the manufacturer, ASUS, feels that the market isn't ready for the card yet. With all the Xbox 360 buzz around at the moment, it's not suprising they feel this way. The fact that they've apparently had very little support from game developers probably didn't help either.
• Apple to Launch "Black Friday" Sale & MS Office Promotion - The promotion which will offer special deals on select Apple merchandise is being held both in Apple retail stores and online. Apple has also launched a special Apple Store Microsoft Office promotion which offers mail-in rebates and discounts of up to 50% on Microsoft Office products. The Apple Store Microsoft Office promotion is good through January 31st, 2006.
• Microsoft to Standardize Office Formats - The company, which dominates the market for desktop productivity software, plans to hand over the technical specifications of Office 12 file formats to ECMA early next month.

HARDWARE... 

• Motherboard  - Epox EP-8NPA SLI / EPoX EP-9NPA+ SLI vs. Tyan Tomcat K8E (in German) / Sapphire Pure Innovation PI-A9RX480
• Complete / SFF Systems - Alienware Aurora ALX system / Dell XPS 600 - SLI
• Memory - Corsair TWINX 2048-4000 memory / GeIL Ultra PC2-5300 DDR2-667 / GeIL ONE Winbond BH5 1GB Dual Channel Kit / OCZ EB DDR PC-4000 1024MB Platinum Edition memory / OCZ EL DDR PC-3200 Gold GX XTC Dual Channel memory  / OCZ Rally 512MB USB Flash Drive / OCZ EL DDR PC-3500 Gold GX memory
• Storage - Western Digital Raptor WD740GD / Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB HDD / Bytecc Backup Star One-Touch Backup External Enclosure || Lexar JumpDive Secure II 'File Shredder' drive / OCZ Rally 512MB USB Flash Drive ||  Toshiba 6x burn speed dual layer drive (Model SD-R5472)
• Video - Asus EN7800GT 2DHTV-256M-OSP-A / Asus GeForce EN7800 GT / ATI All-In-Wonder X1800 XL(1) / ATI All-In-Wonder X1800XL (2) / EVGA e-GeForce 7800 GT CO / HIS X800GTO IceQ II Turbo PCI-Express / NVIDIA 7800GTX 512MB / Sapphire Radeon X800 GTO² / XFX GeForce 7800 GTX 512MB DDR3 XXX Edition(1) / XFX GeForce 7800 GTX 512 XXX Edition (2) || Overclocking the 512MB 7800GTX
• Monitor - ViewSonic N3250w 32 Inch LCD TV
• Cooling - Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU AMD64 cooler / Arctic Cooling ATI Silencer 5 VGA cooler / Lighted Blue Card Cooler XT / MIPS RAM Freezer / Nikao Dragonfire Case / SilverStone FN81 and FN82 fans / Tuniq Tower 120 CPU Cooler / Zalman CNPS9500 LED High Performance Quiet CPU Cooler (video-review)
• Watercooling - 5-Way Radiator Round-Up (Part 1) / Thermaltake Big Water SE cooler
• Case - Antec P150 Case / Antec P180 Case / Silverstone LC16M HTPC case / Silverstone LC17 HTPC case  / PrimoChill X-QPack H2O SFF case / Voyeurmods X-QPack H2O Case / Zalman TNN300 Fanless Aluminum Chassis
• Modding - Matrix Orbital MX610 Front Panel
• Sound - Creative T6060 5.1 speaker system
• PSU - Cooler Master RealPower 550W / Coolmax CXI-600B PSU / Ultra X-Finity 500W ATX Power Supply
• Peripheral - Logitech G7 Laser Cordless Mouse / Logitech G5 Gaming Mouse / Razer Green Copperhead Gaming Mouse / Saitek Eclipse Illuminated Keyboard
• Network - ZyXEL ZyAIR AG-225H WiFi Finder
• Printer - HP Photosmart 422 printer & digital camera bundle
• Notebook - Panasonic ToughBook CF-29 Rugged Notebook
• Cameras, MP3/DVD players/recorders -Kodak CX7530 5.0MP Digital Camera / Olympus SP-350 8 Mpixel digital camera / Samsung SC-M105 Miniket 6 in 1 Multifunctional Digital Camcorder ||  Cowon iAudio X5 (20GB) Media Player / Oakely Thump 2 MP3 Sunglasses / X-Micro Mini DisGo 20 GB
• Misc - Compro VideoMate U900 - Tiny USB TV Box / SV411KA KVM switch / Vantec NexStar GX USB2.0 Hub & HDD Enclosure / Xbox 360 /  Xbox 360 Fan Stand
• Phones/PDAs - LG VX-8100 / Palm Z22 Handheld / Sony Ericsson W600i

GUIDES...

• Mobile GPU Comparison Guide Rev. 4.2 - Currently covering over 40 mobile GPUs, this comprehensive comparison will allow you to easily compare 14 different specifications for each and every GPU.
• Buying Guides - Holiday 2005 Gifts at DesignTechnica / The 12 Days of Christmas Bona Fide Style at BonaFideReviews
• Digital Signal Processing Explained - It happens that many people have no idea what Digital Signal Processing means, although they hear more and more often these words, today.
• Emergency Spyware Guide - Is your computer slowing down? Are you getting unsolicited ads? Or are you being redirected to unknown sites? If so, please continue to read on because I'm going to show you how to remove them and how to prevent it from happening again.
• How Chips are Manufactured - Learn how chips like microprocessors, video processors, memories, chipsets etc are manufactured.

SOFTWARE...

• phpMyAdmin 2.7.0-rc1 - phpMyAdmin 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.
• Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware 1.0.701 (Beta) - Windows AntiSpyware (Beta) is a security technology that helps protect Windows users from spyware and other potentially unwanted software.
• Microsoft Power Toys (with a couple of new ones) - Download these 14 power tools separately or as a package. They now include Color Control Panel Applet, SyncToy, RAW Image Thumbnailer and Viewer, ClearType Tuner, HTML Slide Show Wizard, Open Command Window Here, Alt-Tab Replacement, the fabulous Tweak UI, Power Calculator, Image Resizer, CD Slide Show Generator, Virtual Desktop Manager, Taskbar Magnifier, and Webcam Timershot.
• Opera 8.51 - Opera's latest release addresses the security issue in the Flash Player (thanks NeoNSX)
• AIM Triton 1.0.2 Final - AOL AIM Triton is the next generation release of AOL Instant Messenger. It is an all new user experience with an elegant, tabbed look and feel.
• KoolMoves 5.1.4 - KoolMoves (download) is web animation software that creates Flash movies and frames for animated gifs. It is powerful yet easy to learn and easy to use.
• Azureus 2.3.0.6 - Azureus (download) offers multiple torrent downloads, queuing/priority systems (on torrents and files), start/stop seeding options and instant access to numerous pieces of information about your torrents.
• BitTorrent 4.2.0 Final - Another original BitTorrent release (download / changelog)
• µTorrent 1.2.1 - µTorrent is an efficient and feature rich BitTorrent client for Windows sporting a very small footprint.
• Google Toolbar for Firefox 1.0.20051104 - When the Google Toolbar (download) is installed, it automatically appears along with the Firefox toolbar. This means you can quickly and easily use Google to search from any website location, without returning to the Google home page to begin another search.
• CCleaner v1.26.218 - CCleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history.
• MemTest 3.3 - MemTest is a RAM reliability tester. It evaluates the ability of your computer's memory to store and retrieve data.
• Logitech G5 Laser Mouse Firmware Update v1.1  - Logitech has released a firmware update to their recently launched G5 laser mouse, targeted at gamers. This update allows the G5 to track on more surfaces.
• NVIDIA nTune Performance Application 3.00.14.05 - With NVIDIA nTune your system can automatically adjust to maximum performance settings for intense gaming or will detect that you’ve inserted a DVD and will set the system to quiet operation. This intelligent application offers the safest way to change bus speeds, memory timings, and even tweak voltages.
• Official VIA Hyperion Pro drivers v5.06a - VIA Tech has posted new, updated set of VIA Hyperion Pro set (release notes) of chipset drivers.

SECURITY... 

• Windows security at risk again - Microsoft admitted Windows XP and Windows 2000 are at risk again. But although it's not a big risk, it's still a risk.
  Holes in XP SP1 and W2K SP4 can be exploited by the malicious, Microsoft told the magazine
• Apple iTunes Security Flaw Discovered - A critical vulnerability has been found in some versions of Apple's popular iTunes that could allow attackers to remotely take over a user's computer, according to a warning issued Thursday by a security research firm.
• Google Base launched with security hole, now patched - Google has patched a security problem with its Google Base that allowed attackers to steal sensitive information from users of the new content-hosting service.
• Password-stealing keyloggers skyrocket - Hackers are on target to release more than 6,000 keystroke loggers in 2005, a 65 per cent increase from the 3,753 keyloggers released last year, according to security intelligence outfit iDefense.

CRIME/LAW...

• Sony BMG offers MP3 files and disks for unsafe CDs - In an attempt to make up with consumers whose PCs have been exposed to unsecure copy-protection software which acts like malware, music publisher Sony BMG said on Friday it would swap unsecure CDs for new unprotected disks as well as unprotected MP3 files.
• Sony's rootkit infringes LAME GPL licence and breaks copyright - Close examination of the rootkit that Sony"s audio CDs attack their customers" PCs with has revealed that their malicious software is built on code that infringes on copyright. Indications are that Sony has included the LAME music encoder, which is licensed under the Lesser General Public License (LGPL), which requires that those who use it attribute the original software and publish some of the code they write to use the library.
• Copy protection an experiment in progress - Factor in lawsuits that Sony BMG could face, and it's worth wondering whether the costs of XCP and its aftermath might even exceed whatever piracy losses the company would have suffered without it.
• RIAA, MPAA force shutdown of i2Hub file swapping network - A file-swapping network popular with US students that used a superfast internet research network has closed down. It follows repeated legal pressure from the entertainment industry.  The i2Hub network took advantage of the Internet2 research network which connects some 207 US universities. Earlier this year, the Motion Picture Association of America said users had swapped films amounting to 99 terabytes in a single day, the equivalent of an entire video rental store.
• Pssst, wanna '3.6-GHz Pentium 4' chip for $78? - Shenzhen Chuanghui Electronics Co. isn't shy about offering remarked Intel Corp. processors for sale: The company is openly selling them through a major Chinese Web site and brags that its remarked Pentium 4 chips look just like the real thing. The remarked processors Chuanghui sells are actually 1.7-GHz Celeron chips and are currently available for $78 each, including a motherboard, in quantities of 100 or more, said James Zhan, a company representative named online as a contact for potential buyers.
• Boeing Says Laptop with Employee info Stolen - A laptop computer containing names, social security numbers and other sensitive information of 161,000 current and former employees of Boeing Co. was stolen recently, the U.S. aerospace manufacturer said.
• Jail for would-be pirates -  People who attempt to copy music or movies without permission could face jail time under legislation proposed by the US Justice Department. Outlined by US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales at an anti-piracy summit, the bill would widen intellectual property protection to cover those who try but fail to make illicit copies of music, movies, software or other copyrighted material. It would also enable investigators to seize assets purchased with profits from the sale of illicit copies, as well as property such as blank CDs that might be used for future copying. Those found guilty of a copyright violation could be forced to pay restitution to the owner of the material in question, and repeat offenders would face stiffer sentences.

OFF-TOPIC

• Is Earth in a vortex of space-time? - We'll soon know the answer: A NASA/Stanford physics experiment called Gravity Probe B (GP-B) recently finished a year of gathering science data in Earth orbit. The results, which will take another year to analyze, should reveal the shape of space-time around Earth--and, possibly, the vortex. Time and space, according to Einstein's theories of relativity, are woven together, forming a four-dimensional fabric called "space-time." The tremendous mass of Earth dimples this fabric, much like a heavy person sitting in the middle of a trampoline. Gravity, says Einstein, is simply the motion of objects following the curvaceous lines of the dimple.
• Dung shows dinosaurs grazed on grass - Traces of grass found in fossilised dinosaur dung proves that grass grew on Earth much earlier than previously thought and changes beliefs about dinosaurs' diets, a study published on Friday showed.
• "Resident Evil 4" video game of year: Spike TV Awards -  Capcom's Resident Evil 4, Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie from Ubisoft and Oscar-winning actor Charlize Theron were among the winners at the 3rd Spike TV Video Game Awards held in Los Angeles on Friday. A partial list of winners from the awards follows.

TECHNOLOGY...

• Maxell presents holographic media with 1.6TB storage capacity -  With storage capacities achieving 1.6 TeraBytes per disk and data rates as high as 120 MBPs, holographic technology is a true breakthrough in optical media. These features, along with a long archival life, make holographic media a compelling choice for storage and archival requirements.
• Xbox 360 mania slams CircuitCity.com - Minutes after Microsoft's next-generation game console went on sale Friday afternoon at CircuitCity.com, the site was hobbled by a deluge of traffic. A representative for the online counterpart to electronics retailer Circuit City said the company's site saw a "tremendous" traffic spike at 2 p.m. ET, when the company began taking Internet orders for the eagerly awaited Xbox.
• Cell production costs - So, how much does a Cell cost? Other than the fact that you can't buy one right now, and the Playstation 3 is about a year out, it does cost money to make. From what we understand, each wafer run through the fab costs $9-10K, and IBM gets about 65 good chips per wafer. This would put each raw Cell on sale at a price tag of almost $150 give or take a bit. Toss in $25-30 for the packaging, and you are at a non-trivial number for a console. Assuming $175 for a 'solder to the board' working Cell, and you are at about half the cost of the console with just the CPU. Add in the GPU, RAM and a HD, and you are in loss-leader territory...
• Sony aims at Skype with Internet-based phone service - The electronics giant is partnering with Glowpoint to offer a new consumer version of Sony's Instant Video Everywhere (IVE) service featuring free, unlimited video and voice service for consumers worldwide
• Motorola RAZR V3c in Alltel Stores Next Week - Alltel and Motorola announced today that the Motorola RAZR V3c will be available at Alltel stores nationwide starting Monday. Customers can watch live television on the new CDMA EVDO handset through MobiTV.
• Alienware introduces dual-core AMD laptop - The Aurora m7770 notebook can be equipped with an AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processor. It also has a 17 inch screen and dual hard-drives. According to the Alienware laptop ordering page, the Aurora m7700 will start shipping on January 18, 2006. A fully configured laptop with an Athlon 64 X2 4800 CPU and 2 GByte of RAM was just under $5000.
• AGP Radeon X1800 confirmed as misprint - Initial reports that Diamond Multimedia would offer an AGP version of ATI's Radeon X1800 appear to be false. A misprint on Diamond's web site caused the confusion, but the company has confirmed that it has no plans to offer a Radeon X1800 with an AGP interface.
• Yonah shipping clock speeds revealed - The Inquirer has news of Yonah's shipping clock speeds and projected pricing. Intel's new 65nm CPU will debut at frequencies of up to 2.16GHz on a 667MHz front-side bus.
• VIA starts shipping PCIe-enabled P4 and K8 chipsets - VIA Technologies has begun shipments of its PCIe-enabled integrated chipsets supporting Pentium 4 and K8 platforms this quarter, albeit in small volumes, according to company source.
• Windows Genuine Advantage now supports Firefox - Microsoft Genuine Windows Validation process now works in Firefox and other Mozilla browsers. Firefox users can manually install the Windows Genuine Advantage validation Firefox plug-in available on Microsoft's website to complete the Windows validation process.
• Microsoft Office 12 beta goes live - Microsoft has released a first beta of its Office 12 productivity suite to a selected group of 10,000 customers and partners.
• Google offers "advertise on this site" feature - Web search leader Google Inc. is offering a new private-label feature that allows advertisers to sign up directly on Web sites where they wish to advertise, the company said on Friday.
• Hyperthreading Hurts Server Performance? - ZDNet is reporting that enabling Intel's new Hyperthreading Technology on your servers could lead to markedly decreased performance, according to some developers who have been looking into problems that have been occurring since HT has been shipping automatically activated

HARDWARE... 

• CPU - Athlon 64 X2 4600+ and 4200+ CPUs
• Motherboard  - Abit AW8-MAX v1.0 / DFI nF4X / ECS KN1 / Epox 8NPA SLI / Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9 AMD Athlon 64 Socket 939 PCIe / Epox 5LDA+GLI, Foxconn 945P7AA-8EKRS2, and Asus P5LD2 roundup
• Complete / SFF Systems - Dell's Open Source Desktop Systems
• Memory - Corsair TWIN2X1024-8000UL / DDR2 PC2-6400 memory showdown / GeIL ONE W BH5 PC3200 400MHz DDR memory  / Kingston HyperX KHX7200D2K2/1G (DDR2-900 SDRAM) / OCZ EL DDR PC-3200 Gold GX XTC(1) / OCZ EL DDR PC-3200 Gold GX XTC Dual Channel(2) / OCZ EB DDR PC-4000 Platinum Edition 2GB Dual Channel RAM Kit / Patriot Dual Channel 2GB DDR PC 3200 RAM
• Storage - Samsung Spinpoint 250GB PATA HDD / WD Caviar SE16 SATA HDD - WD2500KS / Seagate Pocket Hard Disk Drive || Plextor PX-740UF External DVD+-R/RW drive (video-review) || OCZ Rally Dual Channel USB Flash Drives Review Rev. 2.0
• Video - Albatron Trinity Series PC6600GT / ASUS 7800GTX TOP / ATI All-In-Wonder X800XL / EVGA's 6800 GS  / Gigabyte Radeon X1800XL / Gigabyte GV-NX66T256DE Silent Pipe II / HIS IceQ X700 128Meg AGP / Sapphire Radeon X800 GTO Roundup (PCIe) / XFX GeForce 6600 DDR2 256MB PCIe
• Cooling - Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro Evaluation / Gigabyte GV-NX66T256DE Silent Pipe II Cooler / Jetart VGA All in One Cooler / Noctua NH-U12 & NH-U9 Cooler / PrimoChill PC ICE / Thermalright SI-120 heatsink / Highspeed PC Tech Station
• Case - Antec P160W P160 Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case / Cooler Master Centurion 531 case / Sansun SN-C001 The Bat Case
• Sound - Icemat Siberia and Steelsound 5H headsets / Steel Sound 5H USB Professional Gaming Headset
• Peripheral - iONE Scorpius-P20 2.4 Ghz Wireless Keyboard || Saitek Cyborg Evo Force joystick || Sharkoon Xurface Gaming Mouse Pad / The Black Knight HP Gaming Mouse Pad
• Notebook -
• Cameras, MP3/DVD players/recorders - Fuji FinePix E900 Digital Camera || Evaluation: LG LGDVB418 DVD Player / iRiver U10 1GB Media Player
• Phones/PDAs - LG VX9800 / Orange SPV M5000

GUIDES...

• All Pentium 4 Models - A series of quick reference tables containing the main specs of all Pentium 4 models released to date.
• The Definitive BIOS Optimization Guide Revision 8.5.5 - Adrian has updated his premier BIOS optimization guide.
• Choosing the Best Compact Notebook - Part 1 - The models from Acer, Dialogue Technology, Fujitsu Siemens, IBM, LG, MSI, and Samsung boast unique personality, excellent features, small size and weight. Hope this series of articles helps you make the best choice!
• The Dual Channel Advantage - So why equip a notebook with the capability to run dual channel memory then cripple it by installing just a single piece of memory?
• High End Audio Cable Design - Part 3 - In part 3 of High End Audio Cable Design, audio engineer Adam Blake talks about noise and how to counter its effect inside the audio cable. Can you make a noiseless cable? Put on your propeller hats, this is really deep stuff.
• A Digital Photography Odyssey, Volume 1: The Digital Lens - The most exciting feature of SLR photography is the interchangeability of lenses. The quality and style of the shots taken with any SLR camera heavily depend on the lens used.
• Fall 2005 Buying Guide: Photo Printers at Designtechnica - check it out
• How To Clean Up Your MP3 Collection - The TechZone shows you how to organize your MP3 collection.
• Techie Christmas Gift Ideas - Finding the perfect gift for the person in your life can be tricky.

SOFTWARE...

• 7-Zip 4.30 Beta - 7-Zip (download) is a file archiver with high compression ratio.
• AIM Triton 1.0.2 - It's here: email, IM, text, voice, video at the click of a button. Now you can look your buddies in the eye, hear their voices or take them with you everywhere you go.
• Aim Ad Hack 5.0 Beta 14 (for AIM Triton Beta) - With this small file you can effectively remove all the ads from AIM
  you must be using Aim Triton
• KoolMoves 5.1.3 (shw) - KoolMoves (download) is web animation software that creates Flash movies and frames for animated gifs
• MAME v0.102 - MAME stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator, and currently runs 1800+ classic (and even some not so classic) arcade games.
• BitTorrent Beta 4.1.8 - A new BitTorrent beta is available for download.
• Fiddler 1.0.5 - Fiddler (download) is a HTTP Debugging Proxy which logs all HTTP traffic between your computer and the Internet. Fiddler allows you to inspect all HTTP Traffic, set breakpoints, and "fiddle" with incoming or outgoing data.
• Firefox 1.5 RC3 - A new RC release of the famous Mozilla Firefox browser has been just released to the web.
• SpamPal 1.73 Beta - The most recent beta release of SpamPal is 1.73.
• Google Earth Free 3.0.0762 Beta - Google Earth combines satellite imagery, maps and the power of Google Search to put the world’s geographic information at your fingertips.
• Google Toolbar 3.0.128.1 - The Google Toolbar (download version for WinXP/2k / Win9x/ME) increases your ability to find information from anywhere on the web and takes only seconds to install. When the Google Toolbar is installed, it automatically appears along with the Internet Explorer toolbar. This means you can quickly and easily use Google to search from any website location, without returning to the Google home page to begin another search.
• MetaProducts Download Express 1.9 Build 337 - MetaProducts Download Express (download) is a Windows 95/98/NT/2000/ME/XP/2003 program that allows you to download individual files from the Web and FTP sites at the maximum possible speed.
• xplorer2 Lite 1.4.0.1 - The lightweight version of xplorer2 (download) is not a crippled unusable salesman of the professional version.
• PhotoFiltre 6.2 (shw) - PhotoFiltre (download) is a complete image retouching program. It allows you to do simple or advanced adjustments to an image and apply a vast range of filters on it. It is simple and intuitive to use, and has an easy learning curve.
• GIMP 2.2.9 - GIMP (download) is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages.
• SyncBack Freeware 3.2.9 - SyncBack (download) is our freeware program that helps you easily backup and synchronise your files to: the same drive; a different drive or medium (CDRW, CompactFlash, etc); an FTP server; a Network; or a Zip archive.
• AnyDVD 5.5.4.1 - A new protection called 'Chapter Jump' has been spoted in Germany and AnyDVD has been updated to deal with it. Also a new protection has been found on Layer Cake" R2 (Dutch). It seems that DVD43 may cause an issue with AnyDVD, so an option is given to automatically uninstall it.
• DVDFab Decrypter 2.9.5.8 - DVDFab Decrypter (also known as DVDFab Express free) copies entire DVD movie to hard disk, and removes all the protections (CSS, RC, RCE, Macrovision, UOPs and Sony ARccOS) while copying. This new version addes support for a new protection as found on "Madagascar" (US). It's not a Sony movie, but the protection is almost same with Sony ARccOS.
• NvTempLogger - This is a simple program that is used to watch the temperature (Core and Ambient) of NVIDIA based GPUs.
• NVTray - NVTray provides some extra quality tweaks that both the default NVIDIA tray icon and control panel are lacking - you will be able to select more Antialiasing modes, as well as OpenGL and Direct3D options right from the tray icon.
• zer0point Catalyst 0.511 - The DHzer0point drivers based on the Catalyst 5.11's are here, we've made some changes to our internal optimizations, cleaned up the chaff extensive testing done with FEAR, Quake4, as well as the oldies but goodies, Source based games, UT based games, we've put them through the ringer.
• Realtek HD Audio 1.27  - This is build number 1.27 and is compatible for ALC880, ALC882, ALC883, ALC861, ALC260 en ALC262 .
• Sound Blaster X-Fi Series 2.07.0004 -  This contains an improved version of the driver found on the Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ installation CD. For more details, read the rest of this web release note.
• Chipset Installation Utility 7.2.2.1006  - 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. This release adds Intel® 955XM Express Chipset & Intel® 975X Express Chipset support. Mirror: Guru3D

SECURITY... 

• Vendors Warn of New Sober Variants - Both Kaspersky Lab and Symantec have detected worm variants. Kaspersky noted three variants of E-mail-Worm.Win32.Sober, which Symantec identified as W32.Sober.S@mm. The variants are modifications of the same program, according to Kaspersky, which is based in Moscow. A "large number of samples" of the variants have been intercepted in e-mail traffic, indicating that the worms are spreading by spam containing infected messages, Kaspersky said in a statement. The variants arrive as an attachment to infected messages.
• Sony recalls risky "rootkit" CDs - Anyone who has purchased one of the CDs, which include southern rockers Van Zant, Neil Diamond's latest album, and more than 18 others, can exchange the purchase, Sony said. The company added that it would release details of its CD exchange program "shortly."
• Sony DRM rootkit - The Uninstaller is worse than the Rootkit! -  A patch that Sony issued a week ago when virus writers began taking advantage of the software's file-hiding capabilities actually introduces serious new security risks onto the user's machine, according to research released today by Princeton University computer science professor Edward Felten.
• Hole Found in Widely Used VPN Gear - The flaw affects a component of the IPSec (Internet Protocol Security) protocol used by VPN software and hardware to securely exchange data over the Internet. While there is some risk of affected VPN systems being taken over by attackers, a more likely threat is a denial of service attack, in which machines would be forced to reset repeatedly, jamming up networks and causing headaches for users.
• Windows 2000 Server UPNP DoS (Exploit) -check it out!

CRIME/LAW...

• Chinese-American Engineer & Family Charged With Data Theft -  A grand jury indictment filed on Tuesday alleges that Chi Mak, a lead engineer for Anaheim defense contractor Power Paragon, took computer disks containing sensitive information pertaining to several U.S. Navy projects and conspired with members of his family to smuggle the information to China.
• IFPI Launches Largest Attack To Date on Illegal File Sharing - The recording industry today unveiled the biggest escalation yet in its campaign against illegal internet file-sharing, announcing over 2,100 new legal cases against individuals and extending the actions to five new countries in Europe, Asia and - for the first time - South America. File-sharers in Sweden, Switzerland, Argentina, Hong Kong and Singapore are for the first time at risk of criminal penalties and payment of damages in an international campaign that has already seen thousands of people - the majority of them young men between the ages of 20 and 30 - pay sums of US$3,000 or more for uploading copyrighted music on peer-to-peer networks (p2p).

OFF-TOPIC

• Gaming fanatics show hallmarks of drug addiction - Excessive computer gaming has the hallmarks of addiction, suggests new experiments on "drug memory". Learning is recognised as an important underlying mechanism of addiction. In becoming addicted, people start to associate cues that are normally neutral with the object of their craving. To a crack addict, for instance, a building in which they have used the drug is more than just a place they have been - it becomes a trigger for craving and can, on its own, reignite a need to use the drug again after months of abstinence.

TECHNOLOGY...

• AMD to debut quad-core chips by 2007 - EE Times has details from AMD's latest analyst conference call, including the revelation that quad-core processors could be introduced by 2007-a year earlier than previously expected
• Ballmer bowls for HD-DVD - Microsoft has reiterated its preference for the HD-DVD version of next-generation high definition optical storage, despite recent announcements of support for the rival Blu-ray format from several Hollywood studios. CEO Steve Ballmer said that Vista, the next version of Microsoft Windows, will eventually support HD-DVD, although possibly not when it is first released sometime in the next 18 months. HD-DVD is expected to make its debut early next year. Ballmer said that the company's support for HD-DVD was based on several reasons, including the way in which it can be integrated with the PC.
• Via integrates Padlock security into Java - VIA has announced that it has finished up integrating the Java Secure Protocol into the Padlock engine that sits inside its C7 and C7-M processors. The VIA Padlock engine is designed to increase security in transactions on your computer. There are a few different aspects to the hardware. The first is that it includes an awesome random number generator, which allows it to generate better cryptography in hardware. The second is that it includes the ability to encrypt an entire section of your hard drive, providing a secure file store for sensitive information that only you can access, regardless of who steals your computer in the future.
• Credit-card sized Samsung SGH-P300 debuts - Starting with a 1.8-inch 262K colour LCD with a resolution of 176 x 220 pixels, the SGH-P300 supports both audio and video playback in a variety of formats. MPEG4 and H.263 are on board for motion pictures, while MP3, AAC, AAC+ and eAAC+ files are supported by the audio player of the handset and can also be used as ringtones.
• FutureMark's SPMarkJava06 preview - The focus of SPMarkJava06 is (as the not-so-catchy name suggests) Java performance on modern mobile devices that support it. This certainly seems to be a logical progression for the SPMark series, seeing as Java has become something of a de facto standard among most new high-end devices of this ilk.
• Microsoft may open Windows for free - Microsoft is considering the possibility of free, advertising supported versions of its applications including Windows.
• Google Base service goes live - The new beta service allows people to post "all types of online and offline information and images" that will be searchable on Google Base and, depending on their relevance, may be searchable on Google Search, Froogle and Google Local, the company said.
• Patents database posted for developers - The site hosts more than 500 pledged patents and more than a dozen technical standards supported by additional patent pledges and covenants. Content hosted in the library is available to developers, users and vendors.
• US Keeps Control of the Internet - As a result of a a deal reached late Tuesday, the US and ICANN will maintain control over the Internet's core systems.

HARDWARE... 

• CPU - AMD Sempron 3400+(1) / AMD Athlon 64 3400+ (2) / AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+
• Motherboard  - DFI NF4 SLI nForce4 SLI / Epox 8NPA SLI / Gigabyte K8N51GMF-9 nForce 430 / Intel 945P Motherboard / Sapphire Pure Innovation PI-A9RX480
• Complete / SFF Systems - Shuttle XPC SD31P
• Memory - Corsair 2GB Secure Digital 133x / Corsair XMS2 UL DDR2/667 Memory / Corsair's XPERT TWINXP1024-3200XL / OCZ High Grade Memory - PC4800 DDR and PC5400 DDR-2 / OCZ EB Platinum DDR500 Memory
• Storage - Sony DRU-810A Optical Storage Drive / Toshiba MK1032GSX 100GB 2.5" SATA Hard Disk
• Video - 7800 GTX 512: Overclocking and SLI-AA Performance / Albatron 6600GT (single and SLI) / ATI RD580: Dual x16 Crossfire / eVGA GeForce 7800 GTX 512MB / Gigabyte GeForce 7800 GTX / HIS Radeon X800 GTO IceQ II / NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX 512(1) / nVidia GeForce 7800 GTX 512(2) / Nvidia GeForce 7800 GTX 512(3) / PowerColor Radeon X800 GT / XFX GeForce 6600 / XFX 7800GTX 512MB  / XGI Volari 8300
• Cooling - Asetek VapoChill Micro Series / AeroCool GT-1000 Cooler / Antec Notebook Cooler / Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro / Cooljag SFO-H (68YC) Skived Athlon64 Heatsink / Evercool K803-925CA HSF / PrimoChill PC ICE / Titan TTC-K8ATB-825-SC Athlon64 Heatsink / Zalman CNPS9500 Cooler
• Case - Antec Super Lanboy Aluminum ATX Computer Case  || Comp Geeks Masscool 520UI Enclosure / MGE XG Dragon Case / NZXT Lexa Tower Case / Silentmaxx ST-11 Pro / Thermaltake Muse: External Enclosure for 3.5" and 5.25" Devices
• PSU - Enermax Liberty 620Watt PSU / ePower XScale 570W (EP-570MP) / Turbo-Cool 510 SLI / XG Magnum 500W
• Sound - Creative X-fi Fatal1ty Sound Card / KOSS HQ1 Vibration Stereophone
• Peripheral - Mini-keyboard round-up  / Logitech G5 Laser Mouse / Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 3100 Keyboard and Mouse Duo / Logitech MX5000 Cordless Laser Desktop(1) / Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 5000 Laser (2) / Microsoft Laser 6000 Mouse / Razer Copperhead High Precision Gaming Mouse || Icemat Mousepad
• Networking - Teac HD-35NAS
• Printer/Scanner - Epson AcuLaser C2600N
• Misc - Logitech Harmony 525 Universal Remote / Memory Pointer Review at ASE Labs / Metapo/Egen Power 150Watt Power Can Inverter / Mr Bulk LionCub LED flashlight
• Notebook - MSI M635 AMD Turion 64 Notebook / Sony VAIO FJ Series Notebook
• Cameras, MP3/DVD players/recorders - Canon PowerShot S80 digital camera || Buffalo Link Theater / LG LGDVB418 DVD Players/Recorders / Vantec AVOXJukebox || ProPorta Leather and Aluminium iPod Cases
• Phones/PDAs - Motorola ROKR E1 / Samsung SGH-D600 Mobile Phone

GUIDES...

• The Definitive BIOS Optimization Guide Revision 8.5.4 - Adrian has updated his premier BIOS optimization guide.
• Fall 2005 Photo Printer Buyers Guide  - Some of the best printers offer 9600 x 2400 DPI and over 50 levels of gradation. Another important specification for inkjet printers is ink drop size, typically measured in picoliters. The smaller the number, the more ink per square inch can be placed on the paper. The more ink, the more accurate and lifelike the color of the print.
• Powering Up A Standalone PSU Guide - There may be times when you might want to power up a power supply unit (PSU) without attaching it to any computer case. Perhaps you want to use it to test fans, cold cathode tubes or other modding stuff, without connecting it to a chassis.
• How To Clean Your Keyboard - A Step By Step Guide - Many people have their own way of cleaning their keyboards, but most people usually just flip it upside down and shake it. Those who do spend money on compressed air or cleaning products, you are wasting money and time.
• Data Recovery Myths - Have you ever heard about freezing the hard drive, opening it on a bathroom full of steam or swapping its logic board in order to revive a dead hard drive?
• Guide to the Cellular Internet - Cellular internet access uses the cell phone network to connect. The performance is limited by the capabilities of the phone and the cell tower it is connected to. That performance could range anywhere from 14.4 kbps to 300+ kbps, but typical digital speeds are 50-120 kbps up/down. 300+ kbps is just starting to arrive in very few cities, but it is expected to continue replacing existing networks.
• Connecting Two PCs Using an USB-USB Cable - Learn how to connect two PCs using an USB-USB cable to transfer files and share your Internet connection.
• How to Build a Small Network Using a Broadband Router - Learn how to build your own network using a broadband router, allowing you to share Internet access, files and printers among your computers.
• How to Share Folders and Printers on Your Network - A step-by-step guide on how to share files and printers on your home or office network.
• The 8 Basic Steps of Image Editing - This series of steps will help you to focus on the individual problems an image might have. It will also help you to understand how to use Photoshop's tools together.
• Xbox 360 Manual (PDF) - check it out!
• XP Games - A Windows XP Freeware Game Guide v1.0.0 BETA - This guide covers the better Freeware games from Independent Developers and Commercial Publishers. The following games are 100% free full games, not Demos or Shareware. None have any Adware or Spyware.

SOFTWARE...

• AutoPatcher XP November 2005  - AutoPatcher XP (192MB) is an installation package designed to get your Windows XP system up to date quick and easily. This update package features a slick looking GUI and and can be customized to install as much or as little as you please.
• AutoPatcher 2003 and 2000 November 2005 - AutoPatcher 2003 / Autopatcher 2000 is a comprehensive collection of patches, addons and registry tweaks that give you peace of mind in the knowledge that your Windows system is up to date, even before you connect it to the Internet. It's designed to quickly patch a system with the most current updates and tweaks available, and requires no user interaction once you have selected what to install.
• 7-Zip 4.29 Beta - 7-Zip is a (free) file archiver with high compression ratio.
• TaskInfo 6.2.0.174 - TaskInfo (download) is combination of Task Manager and System Information Utility, It visually monitors different types of System information in Microsoft Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP.
• WinAmp 5.112 - Nullsoft Winamp (download full / lite) is a fast, flexible, high-fidelity media player for Windows. Winamp supports playback of many audio (MP3, OGG, AAC, WAV, MOD, XM, S3M, IT, MIDI, etc) and video types (AVI,ASF,MPEG,NSV), custom appearances called skins and more.
• Winamp TV 1.9 Beta 11a - Winamp TV is a plugin for Winamp that lets you control your TV tuner card from within the multimedia player.
• QuickTime Alternative 1.66 & 1.54 - QuickTime Alternative will allow you to play QuickTime files (.mov, .qt and other extensions) without having to install QuickTime Player from Apple. It also supports QuickTime content that is embedded in webpages.
• Nero Suite Update 2005-11-12 - Nero is a flexible, reliable, and easy-to-use application designed to write both data and CD audio to CD-R and CD-RW discs. Download: : Nero Burning Rom 6.6.0.18 (mirror1, mirror 2, mirror 3), NeroVision Express 3.1.0.21.
• DVDFab 2.9.5.6 - DVDFab Decrypter is a simple and freeware version of DVDFab Express. With it you can take your DVD movie and move it to your hard disk. DVDFab Decrypter will remove the protections found on some DVD's, including among others-CSS, Macrovision and Sony ARccOS while copying.
• FileZilla Server 0.9.11 - FileZilla is a fast FTP and SFTP client for Windows with a lot of features.
• FastStone Image Viewer 2.28 - FastStone Image Viewer (download) is a fast, stable, user-friendly image browser, converter and editor. It supports all major graphic formats (BMP, JPEG, JPEG 2000, animated GIF, PNG, PCX, TIFF, WMF, ICO and TGA) and popular digital camera RAW formats (CRW, CR2, NEF, PEF, RAF, MRW, ORF and DNG).
• Weather Watcher 5.6.1 - Weather Watcher (download) is your personal Windows desktop weather station. Automatically retrieve the current conditions, hourly forecast, daily forecast, detailed forecast, severe weather alerts, and weather maps for over 77,000 cities world-wide.
• Daemon Tools 4.00 - In case you don't know about Daemon Tools (download) yet, the software provides a virtual CD/DVD-ROM on your computer with which you can directly mount image files created by various other software packages.
•  nTweaker 2.0 - nTweaker 2.0 collects all the changes and settings that make each nVidia Detonator modded driver unique, and offers a streamlined and installer standard interface to switch between them.
• nVidia 'NiBiToR' 2.5a - For us performance nuts owning nVidia cards, another great utility, NiBiToR, has been updated. For those who haven't tried it yet, like Coolbits and nvclock it is software designed specifically to help you tweak your GeForce card.