SECURITY...

• Windows XP update starts to weed out pirate keys - Microsoft has started implementing features in upgrades to Windows XP which specifically prevent users of pirated keys from upgrading parts of the operating system. What this means, for example, is that if you upgrade the Media Player to version 10, and you're using a pirated copy of XP, you'll lose functionality on your machine.
• Ten New Security Holes in Windows XP SP2  - Ten new security holes in Windows XP Service Pack 2 have been discovered, so get ready to insert new patches into your patch management schedule. Microsoft recently announced their Security Bulletin Advance Notification Program, which gives administrators a several days advance notice of upcoming patches, however these new security holes were announced by security product maker Finjan Software.
• Cyber Crime Tools Could Serve Terrorists -FBI - The hacking and identity theft tools now earning big money for mainly eastern European organized crime could be used by terrorists to attack the United States, an FBI official said on Wednesday. FBI Deputy Assistant Director Steve Martinez said cyber crime was no longer the domain of teenage geeks but had been taken over by sophisticated gangs.
• Unsecure Ftpd on HP PSC 2510 Printer - This printer comes with an ftp daemon which allows anonymous access, and drops the user into a write only directory. By default anyone from anywhere can drop a file into this directory and the printer will print the document. There is no documentation about this feature, nor is there anyway to change (enable/disable) it via any of their software or on the printer itself. HP Tech. support says that if you don't want this feature then you should hook up the printer as a local printer, however this printer comes with both wireless and wired connectors on the back.
• Cisco IOS DHCP Blocked Interface Denial-of-Service - Cisco IOS devices running branches of Cisco IOS version 12.2S that have Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server or relay agent enabled, even if not configured, are vulnerable to a denial of service where the input queue becomes blocked when receiving specifically crafted DHCP packets.

OFF-TOPIC...

• Study: Vitamin E may do more harm than good - Vitamin E supplements, which millions take in the hope of longer, healthier lives, may do more harm than good, researchers reported on Wednesday.
• Moving brain implant seeks out signals  - A device that automatically moves electrodes through the brain to seek out the strongest signals is taking the idea of neural implants to a new level. Scary as this sounds, its developers at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena say devices like this will be essential if brain implants are ever going to work. Implants could one day help people who are paralysed or unable to communicate because of spinal injury or conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease). Electrodes implanted in the brain could, in principle, pick up neural signals and convey them to a prosthetic arm or a computer cursor.

TECHNOLOGY...

• Mozilla Mulls Desktop Search Features for Firefox Browser - Having launched the much-awaited version 1.0 of the Firefox browser on Tuesday, the Mozilla Foundation is busy planning future enhancements to the open-source product, including the possibility of integrating it with a variety of desktop search tools.
• Google to support POP connection (for some) - Looks like Gmail is about to officially offer POP access, according to this message in their support database. This function has already been enabled by lots of third party tools, but has been expected from Google themselves for quite a while. Text for their configuration instructions is incomplete, make sure to use port 995 for pop.gmail.com and to enable SSL. One current drawback is that mail sent from the web client appears in the Inbox. In addition, Google is working on adding an antivirus-scanning feature to the Web mail service--possibly by licensing an existing technology--and on developing an HTML interface to make Gmail compatible with browsers that don't support JavaScript.
• Death Knell Sounds for Nullsoft, Winamp - The last members of the original Winamp team have said goodbye to AOL and the door has all but shut on the Nullsoft era, BetaNews has learned. Only a few employees remain to prop up the once-ubiquitous digital audio player with minor updates, but no further improvements to Winamp are expected.
• Microsoft Rejects Itanium Chips from Operating Systems for Clusters - A report over CNET News.com claims the Redmond, Washington-based software maker said its Windows Server 2003 Compute Cluster Edition for clusters that contain up to 128 processors will not run on Intel Itanium 2 chips without disclosing the exact reasons for the move, but noting that it had something to with "demand for the product". It is unclear, whether future incarnations of Windows for clusters will support Intel Itanium 2 chips.
• Intel dominates TOP500 supercomputer list - In the 24th edition of the TOP500 List of World's Fastest Supercomputers released on November 8, 232 of the systems included are powered by Intel Xeon processors. Intel processors, including the Itanium and Xeon, now power 318 (63.6%) of the top 500 systems. IBM Power CPUs rank second with 54 systems, Hewlett-Packard (HP) CPUs third with 50 systems and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) fourth with 31 systems.
• Modded XBOX drives are banned from XBOX Live - Mr. Belvedere reported in CDFreak's Standalone Devices & Home Entertainment Forum that many XBOX live accounts gone banned after Microsoft has updated the XBOX live configuration on November 8. Your account will get banned when you use another harddisk as the original, when you use an other EEPROM or when your Modchip is enabled. Another article can be found here.
• Microsoft to release three versions of Xbox 2 - The standard Xbox Next will not include a hard drive, which will allow Microsoft to cut costs on this basic unit. Xbox Next HD, as you might imagine, does include a hard drive and will offer increased functionality based on this. Xbox Next PC is, according to the presentation, an entry-level PC that runs Windows and all standard PC software. It also includes CD Burner, Wireless keyboard, mouse and controller and will work best connected to a high-definition TV or PC monitor. Media Center functionality - like movies, music and photos - is also included. The device will also play most available PC games.

HARDWARE...

• Sharp introduces a new Blu-ray Disc recorder with hard drive/DVD - Sharp Corporation announces the introduction into the Japanese market of a new Blu-ray Disc Recorder with Hard Drive/DVD. The new BD-HD100 can record and play back high-definition pictures to/from the built-in hard drive and Blu-ray Discs with exactly the same high resolution seen in digital Hi-Vision (HDTV) broadcast images.
• Fujitsu Siemens Computers launches the LIFEBOOK T4010 - Equipped with Intel Centrino Mobile Technology and, depending on the model, either a 1.6 or 1.8 GHz Intel Pentium M Processor with 2MB second-level cache, the LIFEBOOK T4010 delivers top performance, wireless mobility and long battery life. Thanks to integrated Bluetooth, wireless LAN, FireWire, USB 2.0, IrDA, modem and SD/memory stick slot, the possibilities when connecting peripheral devices or exchanging data are practically boundless.
• AMD 90nm Winchester CPU review - Legit Reviews has posted a piece on the new AMD 90nm 3500+ processor. "After having the 3500+ Winchester for almost two weeks I am very impressed with this CPU. It incorporates all the positives of the Newcastle it replaces, with a huge drop in operating temperatures. While some people will complain that there is virtually no performance boost over the 130nm technology, the optimists amongst us will look at an AMD processor that was 10C cooler at 2.64GHz, running without a hiccup"
• MSI X700 PRO review - MSI has done a decent job in turning an RV410 GPU into a fully-fledged retail package. L160 or so buys you a competent midrange graphics card and a bundle to rival the best. Too often manufacturers overlook the bundle but MSI hasn't made that mistake. There's games aplenty and documentation is excellent.
• HighPoint RocketRAID 1640 PCI 4 Channel SATA RAID Controller review - hardCOREware.net takes a look at the HighPoint RocketRAID 1640 PCI 4 Channel SATA RAID Controller.
• Creative Zen Portable Media Center review - Adrian's Rojak Pot has posted a review of Creative Zen Portable Media Center.
• XG Vigor 500 Power Supply review - LAN Addict takes a look at XG's Vigor 500 Power Supply.
• Swiftech H20-120 Rev2 Athlon 64 Water Cooling Kit review - TweakTown takes an in-depth look at Swiftech's newest water cooling kit by Mike. They test the H20-120 Rev2 with an AMD Athlon FX-53 processor and compare it against one of the best air coolers on the market today.
• Altec Lansing AHS-602 Headset - The AHS-602 creates 3D sound using SRS Headphone Technology. Sounds perfect for the LAN party. SRS Headphone technology is an audio enhancement technology that provides a realistic and spacious listening experience through standard headphones. Based on the same psychoacoustic research as the patented, Sound Retrieval System (SRS) and further refined for use with headphones.
• Acer AL1921ms 19in TFT monitor - As for the colour scales, again this 8-bit panel coped well with portraying clean and constant colours right through the ramps although as I've said earlier, they're not as vibrant or as well saturated as I had hoped. This was further reinforced in my images and our test DVD movie where the overall look was one that lacked real punch. That's not to say the AL1921ms could not handle movies. In actual fact, movie playback was silky and suffered from much less noise than the 17in LG Flatron L1730P I reviewed before and that's comparing a TFT monitor with a 25ms response time with one that has a 12ms one.
• UPS Roundup - All of the review UPS units feature line conditioning, also known as Automatic Voltage Regulation (AVR). This feature is what protects your equipment from surges, spikes, etc. by ensuring the power stream remains steady without any fluctuations in voltage.
• USB Computer Desk Lamp review - Need some more light at your computer desk? Something that uses very little electricity, yet provides lots of light? This just might be your answer. A USB powered Desk Lamp. But ah, this one is a bit different. I expected it to use LED's. Nope, this one uses a white CCFL. Isn't that slick?
• When Is A Good Time To Upgrade?  - Hector Martinez takes a deeper look at what makes us want to buy the latest gadgets. What are your options, and when should you actually just keep what you already have?
• Home Networking DIY Guide - PC Stats has posted a home networking guide.

SOFTWARE...

• AVG Free Edition v7.0 - 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).

• W32.Mydoom@mm Removal Tool 1.2.0 - The W32.Mydoom@mm Removal Tool does the following:  Terminates W32.Mydoom@mm, Backdoor.Zincite.A, W32.Zindos.A, and Backdoor.Nemog viral processes. Terminates the viral thread running under Explorer.exe. Deletes W32.Mydoom@mm, Backdoor.Zincite.A, W32.Zindos.A, and Backdoor.Nemog files.  Reverses the changes made to the registry by all aforementioned threats. Repairs the Hosts file, if the computer infected with Backdoor.Nemog.

• Spybot Search and Destroy Detection Update 2004-11-10 - Don't forget to update your Spybot S&D detections!

• Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) Utility: Component Checker  - Component Checker utility has been redesigned to provide XML support. The new tool includes updated snapshots for MDAC 2.7 SP1 on Windows XP SP1 and MDAC 2.8.

• Outlook 2003 Junk Email Filter (KB873362) - This optional update provides the Junk E-mail Filter in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 with a more current definition of which e-mail messages should be considered junk e-mail. This update was released in November 2004.

• TCTool: Glonim 1.00 - Glonim is a realtime patch for Windows that adds many "cool" features to the operating system, some probably never seen before. The program adds animations in many styles to when most windows open and close, make windows transparent whilst they are being dragged, etc.

• DivX Pro Plasma Alpha build 1394 (Tritium) - DivX (download) is a package that includes all the DivX codec, player, utilities, and documentation that you need to play DivX files.

• Fresh View v3.40 - Fresh View - your free Multimedia Manager has been upgraded to version 3.40. What's new: option to convert icons to bmp. Just install it over the old version on your PC.

• Philips DVDR1640P DVD-Writer - Philips has released a new firmware for the Philips DVDR1640P DVD-Writer (Philips DVDR1620K/00 and Philips DVDR1640K/00) ~ download

• nForce 64-Bit Driver 6.23 - This is a beta package of nForce drivers is for use with Microsoft Windows XP 64-bit Edition for Extended Systems build 1069 or later. (thanks Warp2Search)

SECURITY...

• New MyDoom variant exploits IE flaw - A new variant of the MyDoom worm that exploits an unpatched flaw in Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) browser is in the wild and posing particular risk to home and small business users, security experts warned this week. The worm, which security firms dubbed MyDoom.AF, MyDoom.AH and MyDoom.AG, spreads by e-mail and exploits a recently discovered buffer overflow vulnerability in IE. Internet users should avoid opening suspicious e-mail with the subject headers "funny photos :)," "hello," "hey!" and blank headers, according to security firm iDefense Inc. More detailed description can be found here.
• New Trojan Sends Spam - An ingenious new Trojan is circulating that hijacks PCs and uses them to send SMS-based spam to mobile phones. After a PC has been infected, the Delf-HA Trojan contacts a Web site for details on which spam campaign to run and then randomly generates a series of Russian mobile numbers beginning with the prefix +7921 or +7911. It uses the "send e-mail" function of a number of Russian mobile network Web sites to actually deliver the mail sent from the infected machines.
• Security breach hits another online bank - The credibility of online banking has taken another blow after a security flaw was discovered on the Morgan Stanley online banking facility. The problem came to light after BBC Breakfast was contacted by a viewer who logged on to his Morgan Stanley account. The flaw enables users to gain access to their credit card information simply by entering the first digit of their credit card number.
• Patch in for Microsoft server spoofing flaw - The vulnerability affects Microsoft's Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2000 software, which acts as a firewall, a content filter and a Web content cache. The software is sold both as a standalone product and included in Microsoft's Small Business Server package. The company issued a patch for the vulnerability, which is also found in Microsoft Proxy Server 2.0, in its monthly advisory on Tuesday. It ranks the flaw as "important," its second-highest rating.
• Kerio Personal Firewall Multiple IP Options Denial of Service - The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to reliably render a system inoperative with one single packet. Physical access is required in order to bring an affected system out of this "frozen" state. This specific flaw exists within the component that performs low level processing of TCP, UDP, and ICMP packets.
• Hack the Pentagon - Government hotspots left unsecured - It isn't just your neighbor who forgets to secure their wireless hotspot. Federal Computer Week drove around Washington and found many civil and defense agency hotspots left wide open. The crew notes it was a particular problem among defense contractors, but also found a Pentagon hotspot open and accessible 1,000 feet from the Pentagon.
• Feds charge man with selling Windows code - Connecticut man was arrested on Tuesday on charges that he illegally sold a secret source code used for Microsoft's Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 programs, federal prosecutors said. The Manhattan United States Attorney's Office said William P. Genovese Jr., 27, was charged with unlawfully distributing a trade secret, a charge that carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years and a $250,000 fine if he is convicted.
• Microsoft to back customers in infringement cases - The software maker plans to announce Wednesday that it will indemnify nearly all its customers against any claims that their use of Microsoft software infringed on any intellectual property claims. The company already offers unlimited protection to its volume license customers, but is adding the indemnity for customers who buy its key products in other ways, such as from a computer maker or even off a retail shelf
• New Rules Make Domain Hijacking Easier - Netcraft seems to have a little ditty about new rules from ICANN that take effect on Friday making it easier to hijack domain names. Essentially, if someone tries to take your domain, and you don't answer within 5 days, they now assume you are okay with the transfer! (thanks Slashdot.org)
• How A Criminal Might Infiltrate Your Network - This article is not intended to show you how to hack something, but rather to show how attackers can take advantage of your mistakes. This will enable you to avoid the common pitfalls that criminal hackers exploit
• What the heck is SSL? - AuphanOnline.com has posted an article on SSL.

OFF-TOPIC...

• Fun with Prime Numbers - Fun With Prime Numbers article offers a series of prime number finding algorithms starting with the most brute force imaginable, and working up to a paged algorithm capable of finding the first 1,716,050,469 primes in an hour and a half on a commodity machine.
• Boy sues mother for not buying him a PC - An eleven year old boy in central China has taken his mum to court for breaking a promise to buy him a PC if he did well at school. According to the China Daily, the mother told her son that if he ate all his greens and scored average marks of more than 94 per cent for his school work, she would buy him a computer. However, when the kid did so well that he managed to get this grade, she told him that she couldn't afford it.
• DVD Rentals for $15.99? - As part of a special offer, Blockbuster is offering a six-month membership on its standard three-movies-out-at-once option for $15.99, complete with two monthly in-store coupons for free movie and game rentals

TECHNOLOGY...

• Microsoft Sees $100 Million First Day for "Halo 2" - First-day sales of Microsoft new video game "Halo 2" will reach $100 million, a senior Microsoft games executive said on Tuesday. "I'm calling a $100 million day on 'Halo' today," Peter Moore, a corporate vice president in Microsoft's games division, said at a Harris Nesbitt investment conference in New York.
• Microsoft ready to launch search engine - Microsoft on Thursday will launch its long-promised Internet search engine, which will compete directly with market leader Google, sources close to the company said Tuesday.
• Microsoft to Update IE Before Longhorn? Maybe So  - Microsoft is investigating whether it can use the same IE add-on mechanism that third-party developers are deploying, so as to issue out-of-band browser updates. When asked whether Microsoft will release an updated version of its Internet Explorer (IE) browser before Longhorn ships in 2006, Microsoft's pat answer is that it has no current plans to do so. IE is part of Windows, and that's that, according to the Microsoft party line. But if you ask a slightly different question - whether Microsoft intends to add new features and functionality to IE without releasing a whole new standalone version - you'll get a different
• Xbox 2 hardware begins to shape up - Microsoft Xbox 2 hardware is starting to come together, according to reports, as final graphics details are thrashed out. Sources have told us that ATI is now starting to roll out the R500 part which will be the basis of Xbox 2, ahead of the machine's launch on January 5 at the Consumer Electronics Show. R500 is a Shader Model 3.0 part, and will be similar to the R520 part that will be its next generation PC graphics chip. The tape out will be a relief to developers, who have been working on the 9800 class hardware that shipped in the Xbox 2 development kits.
• R480 and SLI details emerge - ATI will introduce three version of its R480 card (probably bnded XT PE, XT and PRO). R480XT Platinum Edition is likely to be clocked at 540MHz while it memory should rock at 1180MHz. This is 20MHz core and 60MHz memory speed upgrades from fastest of AGP X800 XT Platinum Edition card. Just for the record, R480 cards are PCI Express only.
• AMD trims processor prices - This latest round of cuts isn't dramatic - the largest price drop is only 11% - but it's better than nothing. The low end of the Athlon 64 line benefits the most from these latest price cuts. Chips rated between 3500+ and 2800+ see discounts between 6 and 11% while price cuts on high-end CPUs barely crack 1%.
• Sharp unveils first DVB-H front-end tuner - Sharp Microelectronics Europe has unveiled the industry's first DVB-H front-end module to meet high-speed and low power requirements for the emerging European mobile TV standard. Sharp claimed its DVB-H front-end module reduces the power consumption of mobile TV reception to less than 100 mW for the first time. The new module combines a tuner unit with circuits for decoding DVB-H signals, demultiplexing, OFDM demodulation and MPE FEC IP data correction.

HARDWARE...

• HP unveils low-cost corporate copier - HP said its new LaserJet 4345mfp can spit out up to 45 pages per minute at a third of the cost of comparable devices. The product, which is small enough to fit on a desktop and which prints, copies, scans and faxes, is priced starting at $2,599 and slated to be available Nov. 30.
• ABIT Unveils CPU Accelerator Technology on AA8XE series, AA8-DuraMAX and AG8 Motherboards - CPU Accelerator basically enables users to change the multiplier factor of their CPUs. By altering the CPU multiplier, users can more easily find the optimal operating speed of their systems for massive performance gains. CPU Accelerator allows users to run their 800MHz FSB CPUs at a 1066MHz Front Side Bus. With the additional bandwidth provided by the increased system bus, PC’s equipped with CPU Accelerator deliver next-generation performance with the technology of today. In fact, CPU Accelerator can increase system performance by a whopping 33%!
• AMD FX-55/4000+ CPU review - The release of the new 4000+ was kind of a strange thing for AMD, as in reality it turns out to be a renamed FX-53, which is a 2.4GHz CPU with a 1MB cache. Strange, why not just keep the FX-53 on the market instead of the renaming and release of the 4000+? Probably since Intel cancelled its plans on the release of a 4.0GHz CPU AMD just decided to use a little flash in the pan to make it seem like they had a market ready CPU solution that broke the 3GHz barrier. Oh well, I guess it really doesn't matter much to the consumer, but it is a bit odd in the least and a hollow victory in the real sense.
• Mushkin 1GB L2V2 PC3200 Dual Channel Kit - Overclocking isn't something that everyone is comfortable doing, but the lower timings from this Mushkin 1GB L2V2 PC3200 Dual Channel Kit will help go towards wringing every last drop of performance from your system.
• G.Skill PC3200-PC4400 Memory tested on A64 S939 - The results and benchmarks speak volumes for the potential performance to be had with high HTT and memory speeds on a Socket 939 Athlon64 setup. I have no hesitation in recommending this memory to those users seeking the utmost in performance potential from their high end computing hardware.
• Abit Fatal1ty AA8XE motherboard - The Fatal1ty AA8XE is built with the just released Intel 925XE chipset, which sports a 1066FSB, DDR2 memory, and a PCI Express x16 slot for a graphics card.
• AOpen EX915 XCube SFF PC review  - In terms of standard equipment, the system also supports IEEE 1394b, Gigabit LAN, 7.1 channel audio, S-Video out and an onboard videocard. Of course, if you feel the need to upgrade, the AOpen EX915 XCube also includes one 32-bit PCI slot as well as a PCI Express 16x slot for hardcore videocard goodness.
• MSI NX6800 Ultra-T2D256 graphics card - Though the MSI NX6800 Ultra-T2D256 resembled very much like the reference GeForce 6800 Ultra, it was for its own good because it operated at a faster 425MHZ GPU core clock versus the recommended 400MHz. As such, the huge reference cooler unit is most ideal to effectively remove the excess heat. Its extra 25MHz clock speed produced frame rates 3% faster than the reference card when taking in the average of all the results we have obtained.
• Gigabyte GV-NX66T128D-3 6600GT PCI-E VGA - Gigabyte GV-NX66T128D flexes its muscle over the old PCX5900 and R9800Pro, due to its advanced architecture. It is amazing to see that Nvidia managed to give a sub $400NZ card this level of performance.
• Albatron GeForce PC6600 - Albatron typically doesn't include a large software bundle with their cards, and true to form the PC6600 comes with a full version of Arx Fatalis, a five game demo CD, WinDVD and a driver CD. With a retail price of only $161 CDN ($130 US) the card is very affordable, and the extra's are modest. Oh, did I happen to mention that the Albatron GeForce PC6600 also supports TV-Output, as well as component out for HDTV users? Well, it does.
• ATI X800 Pro Video Card - CoolTechZone has posted a review of ATI X800 Pro Video Card.
• PCI-X Serial ATA RAID - Highpoint RocketRAID 1820A review - TweakTown take a look at the Highpoint Rocket RAID 1820A card and comparing it to the Silicon Image 3114 4 Port SATA chip and the ICH5-S Adaptec Southbridge based RAID controller to see if the PCI-X bus can give the added juice that is needed.
• Gigabyte N512 Laptop review - The Gigabyte N512 is a very powerful and versatile laptop that should appeal to a large number of people. Gamers will be drawn to this system because of the ATI Radeon 9600 graphics adapter and the 512MB of system memory.
• PalmOne GPS Solution Zire 72 Edition - As the receiver is Bluetooth, your in car set up can be pleasantly wire free. However, when the batteries are running low you can plug in the Bluetooth receiver and the Zire into the the car power socket via the cradle. This usefully features an on/off switch on the front so you don’t have to unplug everything to turn off the power.

SOFTWARE...

• Mozilla Launches Firefox 1.0 - As I mentioned yesterday, The Mozilla Foundation has released version 1.0 of its Firefox browser, an open-source product that has generated lofty expectations that it will offer real competition to Microsoft's ubiquitous Internet Explorer..

• Windows XP Media Center Edition Test Kit v2.0 - This program will install a collection of software utilities intended to assist Media Center PC OEMs and device driver developers in evaluating readiness for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005.

• Windows XP Embedded with Service Pack 2 Evaluation Edition - This free downloadable version of Windows XP Embedded with Service Pack 2 is segmented into smaller downloads so you can easily and successfully access the tools to begin evaluating Windows XP Embedded with Service Pack 2 today

• Magic DVD Ripper V2.2 - Magic DVD Ripper is a powerful and easy-to-use DVD copy and convert software, which can copy protected DVD to hard drive or convert DVD to DivX, VCD, SVCD and AVI formats. This new version added the promised audio bitrate option and bitrate calculator of AVI.

• Cyberlink PowerDVD 6.0 - PowerDVD (download trial) incorporates support for high-definition audio and video, true 8-channel home theater audio playback, virtual surround sound, as well as complete controls and extra features for DVD enthusiasts.

• DVDFab 2.50 beta 2 - DVDFab now can copy DVD-9 in 1:1 mode, and remove all the protections (CSS, Region Code, RCE, Macrovision, UOPs), then burn to double layer disc, so you will get a perfect copy without any restriction.

• FlashFXP 3.0.2.1045 Final - FlashFXP (download) is the most powerful and popular FTP & FXP Client for Microsoft Windows 9x/Me/NT/2000/XP on the market today. It is loaded with features for the power user, but has an intuitive user interface that takes only minutes to master.

• BenQ DW1620/DW1620 Pro firmware - BenQ has released a new firmware for the DW1620/DW1620 Pro which now supports writing dual layer DVD+R discs at 4 speed.

• SiS Wireless LAN driver v1.05 WHQL - SiS released new wireless LAN drivers for SIS160 & 162 chipset

• ATi Linux Driver v3.14.6 - ATi released a new set of Linux drivers.

SECURITY...

• Microsoft helps Dutch police - Microsoft has helped the Dutch police force to trace two men who have threatened Dutch parlement member Geert Wilders via the Internet. The men - of 20 and 23 years with Dutch nationality - are suspects of involvement at the placing threadletters on the Internet and participation to a terrorist organisation. The two have been traced with aid of the head office of Microsoft in the United States and not named Dutch internet provider. Last friday the men could eventually could be arrested in Amsterdam and Bergen op Zoom. The police force has investigated three houses and a pizza restaurant in Amsterdam. Also a house in Bergen op Zoom has been searched. Several computers and mobile phones have been confiscated.
• DOS against Java JNDI/DNS - Java uses an "InitialDirContext" to perform DNS lookups. A wrap-around of an internal variable renders the context unusable after 32768 requests for the next 32768 requests. A remote attacker might trick an application into performing a lot of DNS requests which renders the application unusable. It might also be the cause of some problems with long running server processes.
• McAfee unveils 2005 security suite - MIS 2005, announced Monday, includes upgrades to the company's VirusScan, Personal Firewall Plus, Privacy Service and SpamKiller packages, which are designed to protect computers from viruses, hackers, spam, phishing scams and other online dangers. It also is meant to act as a safeguard against threats targeting instant-messaging software from America Online, Yahoo and Microsoft. In addition, McAfee has teamed up with Hackerwatch.org to let home users report and share data about cybercriminals.
• Email scammer jailed for four years - Nick Marinellis, the mastermind behind a 419 scam which stole more than L2m from unsuspecting internet users, has been sentenced to at least four years behind bars.
• Czech virus writer joins anti-virus firm - A prominent former virus writer has secured a job developing anti-virus software. Benny, one-time member of the 29A virus writing group, has begun work as the main developer of Zoner Anti-Virus (ZAV), according to an entry on his home page.
• 10 Reasons NOT to upgrade to Windows XP SP2  - SPDrivers.net have compiled a few reasons why you shouldn't upgrade; bare in mind that these reasons were collected from actual user experiences around the net.

OFF-TOPIC...

• NASA Studying 'Rain Man's' Brain - NASA scientists are studying autistic savant Kim Peek, hoping that technology used to study the effects of space travel on the brain will help explain his mental capabilities. Last week, researchers had Peek who was the basis for Dustin Hoffman's character in the 1988 film "Rain Man" undergo a series of tests including computerized tomography and magnetic resonance imaging, the results of which will be melded to create a three-dimensional look at his brain structure. The researchers want to compare a series of MRI images taken in 1988 by Dr. Dan Christensen, Peek's neuropsychiatrist at the University of Utah, to see what has since changed within his brain. The 53-year-old Peek is called a "mega-savant" because he is a genius in about 15 different subjects, from history and literature and geography to numbers, sports, music and dates. But he also is severely limited in other ways, like not being able to find the silverware drawer at home or dressing himself.
• Cells from babies help heal their mothers - Pregnancy certainly has its downside, but it may have an unexpected upside as well: cells from the baby may help heal wounds in the mother, even long after it has been born.
• US ready to put weapons in space  - America has begun preparing its next military objective - space. Documents reveal that the US Air Force has for the first time adopted a doctrine to establish "space superiority". The new doctrine means that pre-emptive strikes against enemy satellites would become "crucial steps in any military operation". This week defence experts will attend a conference in London amid warnings that President Bush's re-election will pave the way to the arming of space.
• Music Downloading not Entirely to Blame - A recent article in The Economist discusses the proximate causes for the decline in music sales. Of some note is this quote in the article: "According to an internal study done by one of the majors, between two-thirds and three-quarters of the drop in sales in America had nothing to do with internet piracy..." (thanks Slashdot.org)
• Rules Set for $50 Million America's Space Prize - Anyone who wants to follow in the shoes of Burt Rutan and win the next big space prize will have to build a spacecraft capable of taking a crew of no fewer than five people to an altitude of 400 kilometers and complete two orbits of the Earth at that altitude. Then they have to repeat that accomplishment within 60 days. While the first flight must demonstrate only the ability to carry five crew members, the winner will have to take at least five people up on the second flight. And one more thing. They have to do it by Jan. 10, 2010.
• Video gamers gather at midnight for first copies of new Halo 2 ...-  The aliens are landing on Earth on Tuesday, and more than 1.5 million video gamers have already signed up to stop them!

TECHNOLOGY...

• Why MS paid Novell half a billion bucks today - Microsoft paid Novell $536 million dollars today, although it might not be enough to fend off a fresh antitrust case, which Novell says it will file by the end of the week. Novell says issues relating to the WordPerfect office suite, which it briefly owned in the early-1990s, are still outstanding.
• Longhorn Wireless Networking Feedback - The Wireless Networking and Devices teams want to better understand your needs in order to build wireless diagnostic features into the design of the next vesion of Windows, code-named Longhorn. Through this posted survey, they want to understand what wireless diagnostic features are most important to you.
• Bluetooth chews on future plans - A new version of the Bluetooth wireless specification and a three-year plan for more updates have backers hoping the technology will finally take off in the U.S. market.  The Bluetooth Special Interest Group, a trade group based in Overland Park, Kan., on Monday published a road map through 2006 for its technology that lets computer peripherals, cell phones and other devices communicate wirelessly over short distances. The group also updated the specification to trim power consumption and facilitate multitasking.
• Pioneer ultraviolet laser promises 500GB disks - Japanse hardware maker Pioneer has developed a technique which will allow optical drives to store 500GB of data. That's according to the Nikkei Business Daily, which reported that the technique will use ultraviolet lasers, which emit shorter wavelength rays than blue lasers.

HARDWARE...

• Microsoft launches dual-screen Project PC - Microsoft UK has lifted the lid on its first PC designed specifically for project managers. Dubbed Project PC, the device has been created in partnership with Scan Computers International and ships with "special features" to address the particular needs of project managers.
• IBM offers Blue Gene as commercial supercomputer - IBM Corp. announced today it would make its speedy Blue Gene supercomputer commercially available starting at $1.5 million.
• NVIDIA Introduces GeForce Go 6800 - NVIDIA today announced the GeForce Go 6800 graphics processing unit. The GeForce Go 6800 GPU is made up of 190 million transistors and utilizes a 3 quad processing architecture as well 6 vertex shading units all clocked at 275Mhz (or 300MHz depending on load). The first previews can be found on AnandTech, Hexus, ExtremeTech and THG.
• ATI's Radeon Xpress 200 chipset  - The race between the major chipset players to produce that first AMD chipset with PCI Express has been dramatic. Who knew that ATI would be the first to deliver to us a fully working reference board for an extended testing session? And who knew that ATI's Athlon 64 chipset with PCI Express would also pack an integrated Radeon graphics core with DirectX 9? Say hello to the Radeon Xpress 200 chipset, ATI's surprisingly solid first stab at the AMD core logic market. Another reviews can be found on AMDZone, AnandTech, PCPer, HotHardware, LegitReviews, DH and THG
• Audigy 4 Pro details - Creative is now touting an Audigy 4 Pro on its website.
• Dothan Unleashed : Intel's Pentium-M Processor On The Desktop - First off, the Pentium-M chip is a fairly good performer all around. The chip actually puts up numbers on par with Pentium 4 Extreme Edition and Athlon64 FX-55 in gaming, which is no easy feat. In the majority of benchmarks, the Pentium-M at 2.0 GHz can perform roughly on par with a 3.2 GHz P4 or an Athlon64 3200+ processor. Not great, but not terrible either. Some areas, like video encoding, really show the limitations of the Pentium-M architecture and the processor simply doesn't perform that well considering its $450 price tag.
• Corsair TwinX1024-4400C25PT 1GB Platinum XMS RAM - These new TwinX PC440025PT memory modules are designed strictly for overclockers, just as the previous Corsair DDR550 modules were. Every XMS module built must pass a stringent battery of tests at its rated speed before being shipped. The XMS440025PT modules are tested at 550MHz with 2.5-4-4-8 latency settings at 2.75V, that's right CAS2.5 at DDR550! TwinX kits are tested as a matched pair, and physically packaged together immediately after passing these tests, guaranteeing that the customer receives a product that has been verified in the dual channel environment. Another review can be found here.
• Super Talent DDR433 RAM review - This 1GB set is a great source for Low Latency (CL2) memory, granted that it is 2-3-3-8 timings and not the tight timings of high end memory at 2-2-2-5, and it gets to 1GB with 4 sticks not 2. After the tests were all said and done, I must admit that this memory is an excellent performer for the buck compared to the cost of the known brands such as Corsair & Kingston.
• MSI K8N NEO2 Platinum nForce3 Ultra Socket 939 Motherboard - Performance wise, this board stacks up with the best of them. When compared to the other chipset alternative, the VIA K8T800 Pro, there is very little performance difference, with both chipsets running neck and neck throughout our testing. The A64 chipset should definitely be the choice of any gamer that is looking to build a new rig. In overall usage, I would also suggest, as other benchmarks and reviews have shown that the A64 platform is perfectly able to keep up with today's Intel offerings without apology.
• Gigabyte 6800 Video Card review - The GV-N68128DH performs well when paired with the latest BIOS available for it. It is disconcerting that this BIOS update is basically required to make the board perform like it should, but at least it does do the trick. This BIOS issue is really the only negative experience I have had with this board since I installed it a couple weeks ago.
• Chaintech Apogee AA6800 Turbo Edition 10% Overclocked Video Card - What is attention grabbing with a 10 percent overclock is the amount of performance increase you experience. The results were surely surprising and to add another bit of treat to the whole 6800 overclocking goodness, we were able to overclock this card to even higher clock speeds.
• Chaintech GeForce 6600 GT 128MB PCI Express -The performance of this Chaintech GeForce 6600GT 128MB PCI-Express graphic card is out perform the ATI 9800 series even the ATI X700 Pro. Beside that, the bundles was very good which including of a full game of the PainKiller. As for the overcloking results from this Chaintech GeForce 6600GT 128MB PCI-Express graphic card is very good as well. There was an increment of 103MHz for the core and 210MHz for the memory that brings up from the default at 500/1000MHz to 603MHz/1210MHz.
• Asetek Hard Drive Water Cooler - A solid offering from asetek, that can make a huge difference in extending the longevity and reliability of your hard drive. If you already own an existing water cooling setup, you might want to consider this to round things out.
• Little River Storm G5 Waterblock - For comparison the Little River Cascade, Cascade SS, and Storm G4 waterblocks are also shown. It is clear from this graph that the Storm G5 is the best block ever manufactured by Little River Waterblocks over all flow rates. It is interesting to note that at very low flow rates (0.25 ), the G5 shows performance equal or better to the Cascade and Cascade SS while the G4 performs worse than the earlier blocks
• Toshiba SD-R5372 5x Double Layer DVD writer - Due to its lack of overburning support and unacceptable load times, the Toshiba SD-R5372 failed to earn our highest recommendation and "Extreme Excellence Award". However, thanks to its fast 5x double layer writing, excellent CD writing and speedy DVD ripping capabilities, it still earns our recommendation.
• Hitachi Desktar 250GB SATA Hard Drive review - So the final question is, should you buy this drive? With proper comparison being made to other ATA drives as opposed to SCSI, the answer is muddled. The decreased heat production and noise, along with less cable clutter makes the drive extremely attractive. However, ATA drives, while not necessarily getting quite the same performance as this model, are extremely cheap expressed in terms of US$/GByte. If you are in the market for massive, cheap storage, you can do better than this drive.
• Kingston 2GB Elite Pro CompactFlash Card review - The main difference between Kingston's regular CF cards and their Elite Pro line is the type of NAND flash chip. The standard CF cards use Multi-Level Cells (MLC) which translates into two data values per cell. The Elite Pro uses Single-Level Cells (SLC) which translates to one data value per cell. This allows for higher capacities and higher speeds, both of which are crucial when dealing with high resolution images and any other large files.
• Samsung HD-841 High Definition DVD player - In general, the image quality is still as good as it was on the HD-931 model; there might be slight differences but not anything so intense that it would be picked up by the naked eye. This player supports 720p/768p/1080i so it has the HD outputs covered, your TV can hopefully use one of these (by the way, you need an HD-TV to use this DVD player to its fullest potential), don't buy this player if your TV cannot accept HD inputs because its features are improved for HD TV viewing.
• Silentmaxx Quiet Power Pack - 480W Power Supply - Silentmaxx have come out with a good and great PSU which is the Silentmaxx 480W PSU. The performance of this Silentmaxx 480W PSU is very good and stable as you can refer back to the testing and performance section. Moreover, the PSU is finish in nice color. But, there are always some downside, which the PSU does not fully sleeve. With the price of around USD 100, this will be a GREAT buy. Look for this PSU if you plan to change your current PSU.
• Logitech Z2200 Speakers review - Overclockers Online has published a review of the Logitech Z2200 speakers.
• Al Tech Anydrive FM Transmitter - Plug in this handy device and listen to music on any car or home audio system--it's that simple. No navigating mazes of wires. Simply plug your portable CD or MP3 player via USB into the Anydrive and you're set; or plug in your USB memory device for an even lighter load! The on-board Play, FF/RW, and Volume controls provide easy access to your music, and the 4 dip-switch channel-selector guarantees the cleanest possible FM transmission, so your music will always sound great. But you don't always have to go wireless FM--with the Anydrive, you can quickly and easily direct-connect to virtually any audio system (via cassette adapter; not included) for crystal-clear sound wherever you go.
• Toshiba 52HM84 Projection Television  - In conclusion, Toshiba's TheaterWideHD 52HM84 combined with the RCA's DTC-210 DirecTV HD Receiver produced and reproduced the some of the best regular over-the-air HD, Satellite, Satellite HD, and DVD signals possible. This is a set that has to be seen in all its glory to be fully appreciated.
• MX1000 - The insides - Don't do this at home etc. etc., it might be dangerous and will definitly void your warranty. If I need to tell you that you should turn off the mouse first then you must stop reading now.
• Overclocking AMD Athlon64 101 - Some frequently asked questions on Athlon64 are answered!

SOFTWARE...

• Windows XP Services Default Settings Guide - This guide lists the default service configurations for Windows XP Service Pack 1 and Windows XP Service Pack 2.

• FreeBSD 5.3 Final - This distribution of FreeBSD 5.3-RELEASE is a release distribution. It can be found at ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/ or any of its mirrors

• MTV2 Video Mods - Video of NVIDIA's computer generated Dawn and Dusk models are featured on MTV2's web site. The video was developed for the MTV2 show Video Mods, which is based on remixed music video and video games. In this video, Dawn and Dusk are remixed with Evanescence's hit song "Bring Me to Life".

• Free Antivirus beta for Windows Mobile Smartphone - Airscanner Mobile Antivirus (download) for Windows Mobile Smartphone is the Smartphone version of Airscanner’s award winning anti-virus for the Pocket PC. FYI, Airscanner team members were the first company to analyze and release an antivirus signature update for CE.Dust, the first ever Windows Mobile virus. They were also the first company to provide a detailed tutorial on reverse engineering Brador, the first Trojan horse to infect Pocket PCs.

• Intel Chipset Identification Utility 2.90 - The Intel Chipset Identification Utility provides an easy way to identify the specific Intel chipset that is located on your motherboard.

• AutoPatcher 2000 v4.6 - Autopatcher is a tool independent of Microsoft which updates your PC in terms of security, and functionality. Excellently designed and maintained, the program is a must for all users. AutoPatcher 2000 requires Windows 2000 SP4 to be installed (works with Windows 2000 Pro, Server, & Adv. Server).

• MemTest86+ 1.30 - MemTest86+ 1.30 has been released. This new version adds "Fast" Mode (with MTRR & L1/L2 Caches on), support for VIA K8T890, on the fly timings change on some chipsets (e.g. i852/855), bugfixes.

• Kerio ServerFirewall 1.0.0 - Kerio ServerFirewall (download trial) is a host-based security software solution specially designed for Windows server operating systems. Kerio ServerFirewall helps enterprises of all sizes protect their Windows Server operating systems from malicious attacks coming from the outside as well as from within their corporate networks. Its policy-based system prevents intrusions passed as legitimate traffic and protects against zero-day attacks that exploit vulnerabilities in the operating systems and applications running on them.

• Forceware 66.42 for Windows 9x/ME - Station-Drivers shas posted a new set of Forceware Drivers in the shape of 66.42 for Windows 9x/Me multi languages. All Cards Supported.

• CATALYST 4.11 Beta Win98/ME - ATi have released CATALYST 4.11 Beta for RADEON X300, RADEON X600, and RADEON X800 AGP Series

SECURITY...

• Koei challenges, beats pirates in China - The Nikkei Business Express is reporting that Koei has successfully litigated a legal complaint against a Beijing-based company, Polystar Digital. Koei had accused Polystar of selling pirated copies of Sangokushi IX for the PC in Taiwan.
• Email worm poses as Osama videogram - Emails claiming to contain video clips of terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden are likely to be example of a new computer worm. The Famus-F worm normally arrives in the form of a bilingual English and Spanish email, with the subject line "More terrorism this year". The message body states: "Last speech from Bin Laden. Please forwards this video to everybody." and includes a password - "cnn".
• Security glitch discovered on internet bank Cahoot - A security glitch that allowed customers to access other people's accounts by just entering a username and no password has been uncovered at internet bank Cahoot. According to the BBC, the bank's site was shutdown for about ten hours yesterday to carry out an emergency system upgrade to resolve the issue. Head of Cahoot Tim Sawyer says the problem was caused during a system upgrade 12 days ago, but insisted that no customer's money was at risk, as the glitch only allowed anyone that breached an account to view account information, not transfer any money.
• BSA offers L20,000 bounty to stop software thieves - Business Software Alliance (BSA) is now offering up to L20,000 to people that report pirated software that's being used in an organisation.
• Alleged DDoS kingpin joins most wanted list - The fugitive Massachusetts businessman charged in the first criminal case to arise from an alleged DDoS-for-hire scheme has appeared on an FBI most wanted list, while the five men accused of carrying out his will are headed for federal court.
• BitTorrent filesharing - swarming just under the radar - A file-sharing program called BitTorrent has become a behemoth, devouring more than a third of the Internet's bandwidth, and Hollywood's copyright cops are taking notice. Even as lawsuits from music companies have driven people away from peer-to-peer programs like KaZaa, BitTorrent has thus far avoided the ire of groups such as the Motion Picture Association of America. But as BitTorrent's popularity grows, the service could become a target for copyright lawsuits.

OFF-TOPIC...

• Brain teasers help Google recruit workers - As its rapidly growing business creates hundreds of new jobs, Google is trying to lure premier talent with offbeat tactics, including a computer-coding competition and a brain-twisting aptitude test that mixes geek humor with a daunting mathematical workout. The 21-question test includes such geek brain twisters like, "How many different ways can you color an icosahedron with one of three colors on each face?" and "On an infinite, two-dimensional rectangular lattice of 1-ohm resistors, what is the resistance between two nodes that are a knight's move away?"
• "Shrek 2" DVD Debuts as "Incredibles" Hits Cinemas - Tales of a family of superheroes and a green ogre are expected to dominate U.S. entertainment this week with the Friday releases of "Shrek 2" on DVD and video and "The Incredibles" in theaters. DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. said there was no battle between Shrek and Pixar Animation Studio Inc's, and investors recently have boosted shares in both companies on anticipation they would be blockbusters. DreamWorks set its "Shrek 2" DVD release for a Friday rather than a customary Tuesday to avoid being overshadowed by another national drama -- the presidential election, a spokeswoman for the studio said.
• Air Force report calls for $7.5M to study psychic teleportation - The Air Force Research Lab's August "Teleportation Physics Report," posted earlier this week on the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) Web site, struck a raw nerve with physicists and critics of wasteful military spending. In the report, author Eric Davis says psychic teleportation, moving yourself from location to location through mind powers, is "quite real and can be controlled." The 88-page report also reviews a range of teleportation concepts and experiments: Quantum teleportation, Wormholes, Psychokinesis.
• First Grader Brings Crack to Class - An Orange County first grader who brought to school more than $1,000 worth of crack cocaine has been suspended and her mother is under investigation. Sheriff's deputies say the 6-year-old girl said she found the bag of more than a dozen pieces of crack at home. But her mother said she must have gotten it trick-or-treating. (thanks NeoNSX)
• F-16 Fire Damaged School Building - The target was an object on the ground well within the confines of the Warren Grove  firing range, a 2,400-acre scrub pine expanse used by the military to train pilots in bombing and strafing. But when the heavy gun in the left wing of an Air National Guard F-16 fighter jet fired Wednesday night, it sent 25 rounds of 20mm ammunition smashing through the roof and zinging off the asphalt parking lot of the Little Egg Harbor Intermediate School 31/2 miles from the range. (thanks NeoNSX)
• Newborn babies feed on themselves - Babies survive the period immediately after birth by feeding on the content of their own cells, research suggests.
  Right after birth babies face sudden and severe starvation as they have lost their nutrient supply from the placenta, but have yet to drink milk. It appears they bridge the gap by breaking down cells, and releasing essential nutrients.

TECHNOLOGY...

• Supercomputer breaks speed record - The US is poised to push Japan off the top of the supercomputing chart with IBM's prototype Blue Gene/L machine. It is being assembled for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, a US Department of Energy lab (DOE).  DOE test results show that Blue Gene/L has managed speeds of 70.72 teraflops. The current top machine, Japan's NEC Earth Simulator, clocks up 35.86. Due next week, the Top 500 list officially charts the fastest computers in the world.
• Graphics patent holder sues Sony, MS, Nintendo - The massive programme of legal action against alleged infringers of a series of patents covering graphics and other computing techniques has been extended to console hardware vendors Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. The news follows yesterday's revelation that 18 PC hardware companies had also been targeted, alongside 12 games software publishers.
• Microsoft Windows XP64 still slated for end Q1 2005 -  People getting their hopes up for an early release of Windows XP for 64 bit chips can relax a bit longer, they'll probably not be surprised to learn. According to sources at Intel Taiwan, the earliest we can expect to see such an operating system is at the end of the first quarter of next year. But, the same source added, Microsoft does not talk in terms of quarters of a year, but halves. So it's entirely possible that the launch of such an operating system could slip right up to the 31st of May next year.
• DualDisc Technology Has Multiple Problems - check it out.
• ATI Preps Multi-VPU Technology - Sources close to ATI Technologies said the company was preparing a technology that is similar to NVIDIA's Multi-GPU Scalable Link Interface, but offers additional flexibility and enhancements not presently available on NVIDIA's approach to graphics multiprocessing.
• AMD to Follow Intel Corp. with SSE3 in 2005 - Future AMD Athlon 64 microprocessors from Advanced Micro Devices that are scheduled for release in early 2005 will support SSE3 technology, a capability that is now available only on Intel Pentium 4 processors.
• Microsoft's Certification Puts Graphics Innovations Under Fire - At least some NVIDIA's ForceWare drivers cannot pass certain WHQL tests as Microsoft's Display Compatibility Test does not pass pixel shaders 3.0 along with some other pixel shaders tests on the drivers version 66.81. Earlier this year Microsoft's test rejected another important technology - Geometry Instancing, but on ATI's CATALYST drivers.

HARDWARE...

• Blu-ray Disc Goes Home - At present you won't find any HD-DVD machines in stores, but a trip to Japan will reveal two Blu-ray Disc recorders are already available: the Sony BDZ-S77 (released in April 2003) and the Matsushita Electric Industrial (Panasonic) DMR-E700BD (released in July 2004). Both models write to BD-RE media (the Panasonic system uses single and dual-layer discs, while the Sony accepts single layer only). Each model also supports playback of existing optical formats--DVD-Video, DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW, DVD-RAM (Panasonic only), and audio CDs. And both machines are leaving a widescreen-sized hole in the wallet of adventurous early buyers in Japan. The going price for either model is about $2700.
• Motorola dreaming of a 3G Christmas - Motorola has teamed up with UK video mobile operator 3 to push three of its latest multimedia 3G handsets for the Christmas market. 3 promised to offer the Motorola A1000, E1000 and C975 from November. The USB and Bluetooth-enabled A1000 device features a touch screen, GPS, 24MB of user memory, a 1.2 megapixel camera and the Picsel Document Viewer (supporting Adobe PDF, Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint). The Motorola E1000 multimedia device ships with a 1.2 megapixel camera, MP3 player, video playback and twin 3D stereo speakers. It's 260k colour display is designed to support video streaming and P2P video. The mass market 'Candy bar' Motorola C975 handset has a 1.9in colour display.
• Motorola HS850 Bluetooth Headset review - The HS850 is a great looking headset, finished in subtle black with silver detail. It's also very small and light, and will easily slip into your pocket unobtrusively when you're not using it. One of the reasons that the HS850 appears so small, is that the boom microphone flips open and closed, so when you're not using the device it's very compact.
• Creative Nomad MuVo 4GB - As a compact MP3 player with bags of storage capacity, you're on to a winner with the MuVo 4GB of storage space in such a small device can't be bad, Hitachi's MicroDrive 1" format the genius behind the implementation. Battery life is good, comparable to its chief rivals and the software is simple to use.
• HP rolls out Digital Entertainment Center, Media Center Extender - It may look like an ordinary DVD player, but HP's z545 Digital Entertainment Center is actually a full-featured multimedia PC packaged to look great in a home theater or family room. The z545 -- which boasts a 3 GHz Pentium 4 processor, 200 GB internal hard drive, built-in DVD writer, dual RF TV tuners, and a long list of interfaces ports and audio/video features -- is meant to serve as a central repository for all of a household's digital media, including music, movies, TV, and photos.
• BenQ's Joybook 5100U PM Notebook review - Given that physical size inhibits mobility as much as weight I'm not sure I fully agree with BenQ's description of the 5100U PM as ultra portable (image), although we may have just seen the world's first fat and light. That said, considering that true ultra portable notebooks weigh less than 1kg, maybe it's not that light either.
• Pentium 4 3.8GHz coming soon - News.com.com has confirmed a launch date of November 15 for Intel's next iteration of the Pentium 4, the model 570. 
• Soltek SL-K8TPro-939 Motherboard review - The Soltek SL-K8TPro-939 met our expectations and delivered an experience indicative of our past experiences of Solteks' products. The price to performance ratio of these boards just can not be beat. At the same price point most of the other boards lack SATA Raid, while this may not be used by everyone it is a feature that some may grow into.
• ASUS P4S800D-E Deluxe review -  In apps that are memory bound, the 655TX appears to be faster than Canterwood. The Springdale-PE on the DFI, backed up by a capable PAT BIOS means that we were emulating Canterwood. It has lower memory access latency, measured by Sciencemark, and it appears to have a touch more available bandwidth too. It's not much, but it's enough. With Canterwood the performance champion for P4, it appears we have a new champion when your app is memory bound in any way. Raw CPU performance is identical; 655TX ran the 3.2GHz Northwood without issue.
• NVIDIA PCI-Express GeForce 6800 GT review - There are no major differences between the PCI-Express version of the 6800 GT and its AGP brother besides the interface. Just like its AGP brother, though, I do expect the PCI-Express 6800 GT to be a good overclocker, reaching Ultra speeds with little effort. Read on to see just how a PCI-Express 6800 GT performs and to get an idea of how a PCI-Express 6800 Ultra might perform.
• ABIT Radeon 9600 XT 256MB review - In summary, ABIT's done a decent enough job with its 9600 XT card. It's quiet, efficient, benchmarks well for a midrange card and carries basic VIV0 functionality. Compared to other cards running similar GPUs, and I'm thinking of other 9600 XTs, FX5700 / Ultras, it's not a bad buy.
• HCT NC-760 Noise-Canceling Earphones review - CoolTechZone takes a look at the HCT NC-760 Noise-Canceling Earphones.
• Arctic Cooling NV Silencer 5 GPU Cooler review - Adrian's Rojak Pot has posted a review of Arctic Cooling NV Silencer 5 GPU Cooler.
• Overclocking the Pentium 4 520 2.8GHz to 3.57GHz - TechReport's Geoff Gasior has got an extra 770MHz out of his Pentium 4 520 2.8GHz, which is quite comfortable running at 3.57GHz with stock air cooling—not bad for a chip that costs less than $160!

SOFTWARE...

• Brennig's 1.4 - Brennig's (BGS) (download trial) is a powerful yet easy to use software to completely manage, view and present your digital Image, Video and Audio files. You can create Presentations and burn them on CD-ROM, print Contact Sheets or create Photo Albums for the Web. The only disadvantage of the program is its 45 days trail period. But fortunately, after this 45 days trail period remains functional. The only bad thing is the remaining screen about the trail period. (thanks SavageNews)
• Maxthon (MyIE2) v1.1.061 - Maxthon (download combo ~ lite) is a powerful web browser with a highly customizable interface. It is based on the Internet Explorer engine (your most likely current web browser) which means that what works in IE, works the same in Maxthon but with many additional efficient features.
• NetCaptor 7.5.3 - NetCaptor 7.5.3 includes new security features enabled by Windows XP SP2, including the native XP popup blocker, as well as additional features and fixes.
• GMail Drive v1.0.3 - Google recently changed their login procedures again, which broke the tool's ability to connect to GMail. Version 1.0.3 once again allows you to access GMail. GMail Drive is a Shell Namespace Extension that creates a virtual filesystem around your Google GMail account, allowing you to use GMail as a storage medium
• Fresh UI v7.22 - Fresh UI is a fresh solution for configuring and optimizing Windows operating system. Loaded with hundreds of useful hidden settings in Windows XP/2000/NT4/98/ 95/Me, it covers the customizing and optimizing techniques that you'll be glad to know.
• VideoLAN 0.8.0  - 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. It can also be used as a server to stream on a (wired or wireless) high-bandwidth IP (Internet Protocol) version 4 or 6 network in multicast or unicast.
• DivX Player Lite 1.0.5 -  Player Lite is a free and easy to use video player that contains the software you need to watch and create videos in today's most popular video formats.
• Real Alternative 1.29 - Real Alternative will allow you to play RealMedia files without having to install RealPlayer or RealOne Player. Supported are: RealAudio (.ra .rpm), RealMedia (.rm .ram .rmvb .rpx .smi .smil), RealText (.rt), ReadPix (.rp). This version includes an updated RealMedia codecs to version 6.0.12.1056.
• QuickTime Alternative 1.39 - QuickTime Alternative will allow you to play QuickTime files (.mov, .qt and other extensions) without having to install the official QuickTime Player.
• Advanced X Video Converter 3.9 - Advanced X VideoConverter is a comprehensive Windows video tool that makes it easy to convert, join, and split movies among AVI, MPEG (MPEG1, MPEG2), WMV, ASF, VCD (DAT), SVCD, DVD formats. It can also extract audio track and images from any movie.
• K-Lite Codec Pack 2.34 -  K-Lite Codec Pack 2.34 includes the following changes: added/updated an option to boost the AC3 volume, Ogg Vorbis DLLs 1.1.0, Matroska DirectShow muxer 1.0.0.9, DivX Pro Decoding to 5.2.1., XviD Decoding/Encoding to 1.0.2 build 2004-08-29, Windows Media to 10.0.0.3646, Ogg Vorbis DirectShow decoder (CoreVorbis) to 1.0, LAME MP3 ACM to 3.96.1., Matroska DirectShow splitter to 1.0.2.4, GSpot Codec Information Appliance to 2.52 beta 1 build 2004-09-15. and more.
• ATI Tray Tools build 1.0.1.400 - This new version adds  TV Out support (test mode). Look in Display->Settings. You can adjust all properties for TV Out including Contrast, Color Saturation, Screen Position, Flicker Removal, TV Format and much more. Also added support for Theater Modes. All these can be included in profiles.
• BIOS updates - TCMagazine have the latest BIOS updates for Epox, Asus, Asrock, Shuttle, Abit, Gigabyte, Albatron and MSI boards.
• Plextor PX-716A firmware v1.01 - Plextor America has released a new firmware v1.01 for PX-716A. This new firmware improves write quality on both DVD+R and DVD-R media.

SECURITY...

• Latest phishing scam silent but violent - Security experts are warning of a new phishing technique designed to capture online banking details without requiring users to click on a website link. According to security firm MessageLabs, all potential victims have to do is simply open an email, which then silently runs a script that attempts to rewrite the host files of targeted machines. The next time the user attempts legitimately to access their online bank they will be automatically redirected to a fraudulent website, enabling their log-in details to be stolen.

• Serious IE Hole Opens Pre XP SP2 PCs Up to Attacks - US-CERT on Wednesday warned of a fresh hole in Internet Explorer that could allow attackers to take control of a PC via an HTML e-mail message or a malicious Web page. The flaw is all the more serious because exploit. The flaw, a heap buffer overflow, is in the way IE handles two attributes of the "frame" and "iframe" HTML elements. An exploit currently circulating uses overly long SRC and NAME attributes to cause IE to execute an attacker's shell code, according to US-CERT.

• IE exploit is top of the hacks - The London-based security company said that the No. 1 hack was Exploit.HTML.Mht, which attempts to download and install a malicious program on a computer by using a security breach in Microsoft's IE browser software. The exploit was used to target almost twice as many organizations as other exploits, ScanSafe said.
• North Carolina man sentenced to 9 years for spam - A North Carolina man was sentenced to nine years in prison for sending hundreds of thousands of unwanted e-mail messages, Virginia prosecutors said Wednesday. Jeremy Jaynes of Raleigh was found guilty under a Virginia state law that sets limits on the number of e-mails marketers can send in a given time period and prohibits them from using fake e-mail addresses, Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore said.
• Psst...now it's Cisco source code up for sale - The group of self-identified hackers has posted files online that it claims contains source code for Pix security firewall from Cisco Systems. The price for the proprietary software: $24,000. "SCC is proud to announce the general availability of Cisco Pix 6.3.1 source code. This release is significant because Pix is vital to the security of many ultra-secure networks," read a Google group posting marked as a Source Code Club newsletter.
• Presumed Guilty: Paying for Piracy in Advance - Should prices for blank media and recording products include a royalty fee to copyright holders for presumed losses to piracy?
• Hollywood lawsuits to target illegal file sharing - The trade group that represents Hollywood's major motion picture studios is expected to announce Thursday that it intends to file as many as 230 lawsuits in coming weeks against individuals who have illegally shared copyrighted movie files over the Internet, according to two people involved in the proceedings.
• "Computer characters" shot man -  Court has been told two men dressed as characters from a computer game shot a man dead in front of his family during a home invasion in Sydney. Twenty-one-year-old Sophear Em is standing trial in the New South Wales Supreme Court charged with the shooting murder of Josef Logozzo at his Cecil Hills home on January 7, 2002. He has also pleaded not guilty to assaulting Mr Logozzo, a wholesale fruit distributor at Flemington markets, and shooting his wife, Marianne. Crown Prosecutor James Bennett SC, told the court Mr Em and another man invaded the Logozzos' home shortly after midnight, dressed as characters from the computer game Counter Strike.

OFF-TOPIC...

• Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith Teaser Trailer - As promised, there's the first trailer (mirror1 ~ mirror2 ~10 MB; 480 x 206, QuickTime required) for the upcoming Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith movie.
• Crime scene DNA puts names in the frame - Forensic scientists in the UK are developing a method of linking DNA evidence from a crime scene to the surname of the perpetrator. This might enable investigators to narrow the scope of an investigation by focusing on suspects with certain names. But some experts question whether such an approach would be feasible in practice.

TECHNOLOGY...

• P2P for cell phones: Reach out and share something - Cell phones are learning to share files, but the earliest efforts don't nearly resemble the peer-to-peer renegades like Napster and Kazaa that the designers have in mind.  FoneShare, an application introduced two weeks ago by NewBay Software, does let people share their collections of ring tones, graphics, games, songs, movie trailers and other wireless extras with strangers. FoneShare will debut next year as a subscription service, running over privately owned and operated cellular networks, and the sharing will be done via Web sites controlled by a wireless operator, said NewBay Chief Executive Paddy Holahan.
• TrustyFiles offers multi-P2P downloading without Spyware - TrustyFiles run by RazerPop inc. aims to overcome the main problems of existing multi-network P2P, by remaining freeware without unwanted spyware or software and combining various P2P networks to make it appear as one huge network.
• Hotmail Begins 250MB Storage Upgrade - Microsoft has kept their promise when a few months ago they announced that hotmail accounts would be upgraded to 250MB of storage
• Office 12 Details Begin to Trickle Out - Microsoft's next Office System release is set to ship by the summer of 2006, sources say. Expect new desktop apps, servers and services in the mix.
• Pics from the Unreal 3 Engine -  MaximumPC released a special edition Fall 2004 3D Tech Guide featuring a highly defined picture of Malcolm. This edition includes some exclusive photos of the capabilities of Unreal Engine 3. (thanks BeyondUnreal)
• Inkjet printing promises cheaper circuits - Electronic devices could be made more cheaply and with less of an impact on the environment using a circuit-making technology based on inkjet printing, says Japanese electronics firm Epson. The technique is based on the method used by inkjet printers to apply ink to paper. Instead of applying ordinary ink, Epson's inkjet circuit printer either fires droplets of conducting "ink" or insulating "ink" onto a circuit board.
• Intel's 2005 desktop chipsets will feature wireless technology - Intel’s next generation of desktop-use chipsets, to be introduced in the second half of 2005, will support wireless technologies such as 802.11a/b/g, said Sunil Kumar, director of chipset and software marketing at Intel, yesterday in Taipei.
• ATI tapes out 90nm R5xx chip - ATI has completed its design for the upcoming R5xx series of graphics chips. The chips will be the company's first to support Shader Model 3.0, and may be the company's first 90nm parts.
• Processor Fabrication: How a CPU is Built - Sudhian take a look at just how a processor goes from essentially sand to a fully functioning integrated circuit, and all the steps in between.
• Audigy 4 info - Creative Japan has released some info about upcoming Audigy 4 sound card.

HARDWARE...

• NTT DoCoMo Debuts Credit Card Phone - NTT DoCoMo Unveils its new phone allowing a simply wave to pay for items at the supermarket, rent movies, get airplane tickets and more.
• LG to launch GSA-4163B: 16x DVD±R, 5x DVDRAM, 6x DVD-RW -  Plextor PX-716A has 8x DVD+RW. Several manufacturers have 4x DVD+R DL. Matsushita introduced 5x DVD+R DL writers some time after Hitachi-LG's GSA-4120B release. P-CAV 16x DVD+R recording was first announced by Toshiba-Samsung two months ago. 16x DVD-R is even less unique. However, GSA-4163B is the first of all to support all of the above.
• Imation Adds 2GB Drive to its Line of USB 2.0 Swivel Flash Drives - Imation Corp. today announced it is extending its line of Imation USB 2.0 Swivel Flash Drives with the addition of its latest 2 gigabyte (GB) drive. The new Imation 2GB USB 2.0 Swivel Flash Drive features a unique "never lose" swivel cap design that business users and consumers can trust to protect their important files. The high-capacity drive is ideal for transporting and sharing large business documents and presentations, thousands of songs and photos, and multiple video files.
• Holly Computers S939 AMD64W pre-modded and watercooled FX53 PC - Even at default settings though, specifications wise, the Holly certainly has it going on. The system is powered by an Athlon FX-53, which until recently was the fastest AMD processor you could buy. That honour is now taken by the slightly upgraded Athlon FX-55, which has clock speed of 2.6GHz compared to the FX-53s 2.4GHz. The good news is that the Holly system is now shipping with a FX-55 for the same price, which can't be bad.
• EM64T Server Round Up - With it's 64-bit Opteron, AMD has taken the fight to Intel in an attempt to win market share in the server space. Now Intel is fighting back with its new Xeons featuring 64-bit extensions. TrustedReviews has posted a round up of Intel EM64T Servers.
• Intel Pentium 4 3.46EE (1066MHz FSB) review - If you are looking to upgrade an older system, then this is probably the way to go, but if you already have a 3GHz+ system, then there is little point in grabbing up a 1066MHz FSB based system yet. At this time, the 3.46GHz Extreme Edition is not worth the upgrade With higher processor speeds and getting the FSB up to speeds like what the Athlon64’s run at, Intel would stand a chance at perfecting a gaming processor. Until then, we must wait for bigger and better things.
• OCZ PC2 4200 Platinum Edition Rev 2 review - DriverHeaven take a look at OCZ's new 533mhz 4200 Platinum Edition Rev 2 LTD DDR2 8-2-2-3CAS rated modules.
• Low latency PC3200 memory roundup - MadShrimps have tested a new batch of PC3200 and PC4400 rated memory from known and lesser known manufacteres on our Intel P4 test setup.
• ASUS K8N-E Deluxe review - Hexus.net has just posted a review of the K8N-E Deluxe, a socket 754 motherboard running NVIDIA's nForce 3 250Gb chipset. It looks like a pretty nice board, with a great feature set and good performance.
• MSI K8N Neo & Neo2 Platinum (s745 & s939) Nforce3 250 Motherboards - MSI has delivered two excellent products in the K8N Neo and Neo2 Platinum. Both provide a ton of options, good overclocking and very nice performance all at a fairly reasonable price. If you are looking to upgrade to a new Athlon64 system, and want one of the fastest boards available take a good look at MSI's K8N Neo Platinum and K8N Neo2 Platinum motherboards.
• Gigabyte’s Radeon X800 XT 256MB review -  Gigabyte’s Radeon X800 XT is certainly a fine graphics card in every regard, combining a sleek board design with a low noise cooling system and a powerful graphics core. The card runs every modern game at high frame rates, even if you crank up the resolution and visual quality settings. There's certainly no denying that the Radeon X800 XT is one of the fastest graphics processors on the market today
• FlexiGlowHK xRaider Illuminated Mouse Pads review - The FlexiGlow xRaider Mouse Pad has been designed for the hard-core gaming enthusiast. With a maximum comfort low profile surface, the pad glows brightly, illuminating a funky design around the edge. A dimmer switch, located on the USB wire, allows easy selection of your level of brightness. The slick surface works well with Ball or Optical mice.
• ADS' new DVB-T Wireless USB TV - With ADS Instant TV DVB-T USB, you can capture programming off the air and import it directly into MPEG2, and also listen to free digital radio with the luxury of a remote control that can also remotely power off the PC. If you have a powerful enough signal, you can find out whats on by tuning into the DVB Electronic Program Guide and receive teletext signals.
• Nextbase Portable DVD Player review  - Pyroport has posted a review of the Nextbase Portable DVD Player.
• Modding: Single-Layer to Dual-Layer - Legit Reviews has posted an article about modding a single-layer burner into a dual-layer burner

SOFTWARE...

• Inofficial Spybot-S&D version around - Since yesterday, places like BetaNews or MajorGeeks offer Spybot-S&D, version 1.3.2 beta (spybotsd132b.exe). However, the Spybot-S&D makers are not sure how this version reached them or why they do publish it, because this had been an internal test version and was never intended for public use. They strongly advise you to not use this version, as it contains debug code that will most probably fail on your computer. An official new version will be out quite soon, please look for announcements on the official site and on our support forum first. (thanks Bert Jennekens and Rob)
• Omega Radeon Driver Comparison - Adrian's Rojak Pot has posted an Omega Radeon Driver Comparison.
• Firefox 1.0 RC2 - The Mozilla Foundation today has released the second release candidate for Firefox 1.0 which can be found on their FTP server. The Firefox developers please ask that you look at the following areas: site authentication (especially over SSL), extension installation via update.mozilla.org and other sites, MacOS X builds, and software update - "we're making another attempt at this. We think we've got the bugs from RC1, so please test by following these instructions."
• Kerio Personal Firewall 4.1.2 Final - Kerio Personal Firewall (download) helps users control how their computers exchange data with other computers on the Internet or local network. Kerio Personal Firewall is a necessity for all desktop computers connected to broadband Internet, using DSL, cable, ISDN, WiFi or satellite modems.
• GNOME 2.8.1 - This release includes the latest bugfixes and other improvements such as updated translations and is the first in a series of point releases.
• Mp3Gain 1.3.2 beta - MP3Gain analyzes mp3 files to determine how loud they sound to the human ear. It can then adjust the mp3 files so that they all have the same loudness without any quality loss.
• AnyDVD 4.1.0.1 - SlySoft has recently released AnyDVD version 4.1.0.1. Besides some minor fixes and updates has SlySoft added the support for a new type of the "Puppetlock" protection.
• VirtualDub 1.6.1 - The second experimental release in the VirtualDub 1.6 (download ~ download AMD64-bit version) series has been released. This release mainly fixes a bunch of regressions in 1.6.0 and should be more stable, especially on AMD64.  VirtualDub is a video capture/processing utility for 32-bit Windows platforms licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
• EVEREST Home Edition 1.52 -  EVEREST Home Edition is a freeware system information, system diagnostics and benchmarking solution for home PC users, based on the award-winning EVEREST Technology. It has a multilingual interface (supports 30 languages) and offers the most accurate system information and diagnostics capabilities, including online features, memory benchmarks, hardware monitoring, and low-level hardware information.
• RightMark Memory Analyzer 3.42 - RightMark Memory Analyzer 3.42, the universal CPU/Chipset/RAM experimental test suite has been released.
• RadLinker 2.018 - RadLinker is a new tweaker/linker for ATI Radeon based graphics cards.
• SiS 650/651/661/740/741/760 3.63 WHQL driver - download
• NVIDIA nForce v6.14 Beta - The package (mirrror) contains: Audio driver version 4.56, Audio utility version 4.50, Win2K ethernet driver version 4.58, WinXP ethernet driver version 4.58, GART driver version 4.40, Memory controller driver version 4.40, SMBus driver version 4.46,
  Installer version 4.57 and Win2K/XP IDE 2.7 driver version 4.70. (thanks Neil)
• VIA Audio Envy24 Family Drivers 4.32B - VIA released a new version 4.32B of Audio Envy24 Family Drivers. This driver supports audio solutions integrating VIA’s Envy24PT and Envy24HT-S Audio Controllers.
• Realtek ALC AC97 Audio Driver v3.65 - Realtek released version 3.65 driver for their ALC AC97 audio chipsets.
• Intel PRO 10/100/1000 9.1 WHQL driver - There's latest driver (release notes) for the Intel PRO 10/100/1000 adapters.

SECURITY...

• Internet Explorer IFRAME Buffer Overflow Vulnerability - A highly critical vulnerability has been discovered in Microsoft Internet Explorer and an exploit has already been seen on a public mailing list. According to Secunia, the flaw can be exploited remotely and an attacker could execute arbitrary code on a victim's machine.The flaw is caused by a boundary error in the way IE handles certain attributes in the IFRAME HTML tag.
• Medium Risk Vulnerability in WinRAR - Peter Winter-Smith of NGSSoftware has discovered a medium risk vulnerability within the 'Repair Archive' feature in WinRAR. WinRAR versions 3.40 and older are vulnerable to this issue. This vulnerability has now been fixed by RARLabs in WinRAR version 3.41,and a fix can be downloaded from the official WinRAR website.
• Nintendo's Late 2004 Piracy Crackdown - The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington has issued a temporary restraining order against the import and sale of systems containing versions of Nintendo games being sold at various shopping malls. In response to the court order, U.S. marshals will seize the systems at shopping mall kiosks in the western Washington area. Nintendo is also supporting numerous federal criminal investigations and U.S. Customs has seized tens of thousands of the devices upon their entry into the country.
• Anti-Spyware Vendor Takes Heat Over Adware Deal - The presidential election has nothing on the debates in the anti-spyware industry. An announcement last week from adware vendor WhenU and anti-spyware company Aluria Software has raised red flags in the anti-spyware community.
   

OFF-TOPIC...

• FDA Warns on Impotence "Dietary Supplements" - The Food and Drug Administration has warned consumers not to purchase or to consume Actra-Rx or Yilishen, two products promoted and offered for sale on Web sites as ''dietary supplements'' for treating erectile dysfunction and enhancing sexual performance for men. These products in fact contain an active prescription drug ingredient. FDA has also issued an Import Alert instructing FDA field personnel to stop the importation of ''Actra-Rx'' and ''Yilishen.''
• Mice Brains Can Fix Themselves - Researchers have found a way to help the brain replace damaged neurons in mice. The work could lead to therapies for spinal cord injury as well as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other neurodegenerative diseases. By Kristen Philipkoski.
• Arctic warming at twice global rate - Global warming in the Arctic is happening now, warns the most comprehensive scientific report to date. The reports concludes that the northern ice cap is warming at twice the global rate and that this will lead to serious consequences for the planet. The Arctic will lose 50% to 60% of its ice distribution by 2100, according to the average of five climate models run by the scientists. One of the five models predicts that by 2070, the Artic will be so warm it will no longer have any ice in the summer.

TECHNOLOGY...

• Several Publishers Sued for Infringing 3D Patent - According to a story on GameDaily, law firm McKool Smith is suing several publishers for infringing their patent on a "Method and Apparatus for Spherical Planning", filed in 1988
• PlayStation 3 and Xbox 2 to use the same IBM CPU? - It's possible that the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 2 could use what will end up the same IBM CPU. According to insider Alex Albrecht, an unnamed source told him that IBM is selling the same processor to both companies.
• IBM Smart Card OS On A 1MB Smart Card - IBM has ported/developed their Javacard smart card operating system for Sharp's 1MB smart card.
• One Chip MSX1 to be introduced in March 2005 - It seems that the legendary MSX computer system, of which millions were sold on the 1980's, is going to be re-introduced in a compact, low budget form. The Japanese companies ASCII (who, together with Microsoft, introduced the MSX standard in 1982) and MSX Association (the owner of the MSX trademarks and copyrights) demonstrated the One Chip MSX1 at Altera's PLD World 2004.

HARDWARE...

• Intel to cut 915 chipset prices in December - Intel plans to cut prices for its complete lineup of 915 core-logic chipsets on December 26, with the goal of boosting sales of the PCIe-enabled chipsets in the channel, according to sources at Taiwan motherboard makers. The price cuts will narrow the price differential between the 915G and the 865G integrated graphics chipsets from US$4 to US$2, indicating Intel's efforts to promote PCIe-supporting chipsets, said the sources.
• ATI takes on Via, Nvidia on chipsets - According to TheInqurer, ATI's future chipset will compete with Nforce 4 standard and Ultra and Via's K8T890 chipset. Radeon Xpress 200 G and non G will support all socket Athlon 64/FX and Opteron CPUs, dual channel memory, PCIe 16X + four PCIe 1X slots, PCI slots, eight USB ports, AC 97 audio, four S-ATA drives, two parallel ports and Raid 0 and 1. As you notice, it doesn't have any LAN support even though Nvidia and Via do support this feature.
• Microsoft launches the Project PC - Today, Microsoft launched the first ever PC designed specifically for project managers. The Microsoft Project PC system specifications are as follows: Hoojum Mini Chassis 2 x 17" Iiyama TFT (DVI+Speakers), Intel P4 2.8Ghz CPU - Socket LGA775 2nd Monitor option avaliable, Corsair Value Select 1GB Microsoft IntelliMouse leather feel, 160G Seagate SATA HDD Microsoft internet keyboard, 128Mb XFX PCI-E GF6600 graphics card Microsoft Windows XP Pro, Slot loading DVD + & - writer 4x Microsoft Project 2003 Standard.
• Samsung unveils 128MB mobile phone Sim - The Sim card integrated circuit, which incorporates System-in-Package technology with 128MB Nand flash memory, is designed to satisfy the increasing data storage requirements of next-generation mobile data services.
• NEC's Slick Wi-Fi Projector First Look - NEC's LT265 wireless-ready digital DLP projector has a smooth, egg-shell-white veneer that immediately makes it an attention-getter. I found much to like about this unit, but also a few drawbacks--including an overly complex wireless setup. With the $2495 projector's native XGA (1024 by 768) resolution, text and graphics were crystal clear and sharp. Also impressive was the projector's long list of features: a brightness rating of 2500 lumens; software that lets you control your PC remotely via the projector (or broadcast images from one laptop to multiple projectors); and a USB port that recognizes flash memory drives.
• Corsair 1GByte DDR2 Twin2X Matched Memory review  - Corsair's 1GBye DDR2 Twin2X pack debuts in at a blistering DDR533 speed. Just in case it sounds slow, that's high-end, premium DDR territory. What's more, Corsair is already marketing DDR2 that runs at, wait for it, an effective speed of 667MHz.
• 10 DVD Burners: 16x and Dual-Layer - or Nothing! -The NEC took 6 minutes and 7 seconds for DVD+R and 6:35 for DVD-R (at 12x), which means that it's also very fast working in single-layer. It was also among the fastest units for rewritable. Only its reading performance was disappointing. On the other hand, if dual-layer leaves you cold, the Lite-On SOHW-1633S or the Samsung TS-H522B are excellent choices. They showed very consistent results for reading and for writing.
• MSI RX800 PCI-E card review - MSI, who happens to produce cards based on both competing GPUs, has recently released its RX800 PCI-E card which uses ATI's X800XT chip. It's clocked at a lofty 500MHz has 256MB of GDDR3 memory and features a full 16 pixel pipelines that offer some of the fastest Shader Model 2.0 performance to be found today.
• Crucial Radeon X800 PRO 256MB review - HEXUS.net has posted a review of Crucial's Radeon X800 PRO 256MB video card.
• Logitech MX510 Optical Mouse review -  The MX510 is a lot more comfortable than any mouse I've used to date, but as far as tracking goes it's no different in practice than the cheaper MX310. It just feels a lot more natural. The only downside is the slightly louder clicking of the main two buttons, possibly attributed the fact that it's all one piece that requires bending in order to register as clicks.
• Logitech MX-1000 cordless laser mouse review - Normally, wireless mice have either batteries that you need to replace or static chargeable batteries, both of which leave you guessing as to the state of charge. This mouse however shows the charge that is left in the battery at any given time, which is really useful.
• Samsung SCD 105 Digital Camcorder - The SCD-105 is a sleek looking camcorder that's fairly light and compact. The battery included is a 7.4v 1100mAh Lithium Ion battery pack which will give you about 1.5 hours when using the LCD screen and a total of about 2 hours when only using the eyepiece. It uses mini DV tapes for recording and you can buy either 60 minute or 90 minute cassettes.
• hp iPAQ h6340 Pocket PC review - If you look at the base specs of the h6340, you might become a little concerned. For a start, the CPU that drives it is a Texas Instruments chip running at a very conservative 168MHz. Considering that the last Pocket PC we looked at (the Dell Axim X30) was based on a CPU running at 624MHz, you might worry about the h6340's horse power. However, I can't say that I found the h6340 to be particularly sluggish, and I'd rather have a slower processor with more supporting functionality anyway.
• TechIMO's processor water cooling guide - check it out
• Contemporary LCD Monitor Parameters and Characteristics Explained - This guide is offering you a detailed description of various LCD monitor parameters, which are essential for comparative analysis, as well as the measuring techniques used for each of them. Besides, since the majority of LCD monitor parameters are determined by the type of the matrix the monitor is based on, we will also introduce to you the major four types of contemporary matrices. They are: TN+Film, S-IPS, MVA and PVA.

SOFTWARE...

• Optimize XP - A Windows XP Optimization Guide v1.7.9 - This guide is designed to be performed top to bottom, in sequence since some steps are required to be performed before others. Before using this guide make sure your system meets Microsoft's Official: Windows XP System Requirements. This guide is not designed to be used in combination with other Windows tweaking guides or other Windows tweaking software.
• Part 2 of the Virtual Memory Optimization Guide Rev. 4.0 - Adrian's Rojak Pot has posted Part 2 of his definitive Virtual Memory Optimization Guide Rev. 4.0.
• Spyware Block List File - The best part of this process is that we can pull this off without *any* programs running on your PC, without even having to run a program to install the block list! All you need to down is download the -small- registry file below (Right-Click, choose "Save As...") and then double click it to enter it into the registry and activate the protection.
• Update for Internet Explorer 6 for XP Service Pack 2 (KB885932) - This update addresses an issue when you view a Web page that can render vector graphics on screen in Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 running on Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), Internet Explorer may stop responding or crash and you receive an access violation in Vgx.dll.
• Spybot Search and Destroy 1.32b Final - Spybot Search and Destroy searches your hard drive for so-called spy- or adbots; that is, little modules that are responsible for the ads many programs display. Many of these modules also transmit information, including your surfing behavior on the Internet. If it finds such modules, it can remove them. In most cases the host still runs fine after removing the spyware/adware.
• CCleaner 1.15.078 - CCleaner (Crap Cleaner) is a freeware system optimisation tool. That removes unused and temporary files from your system - allowing it to run faster, more efficiently and giving you more hard disk space.
• Mp3tag 2.26 Final - 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.
• FarCry Benchmarking Utility v1.4 - The HardwareOC FarCry Benchmark is an easy-to-use tool, that makes Far Cry video card benchmarking fast and easy. This new version adds support for the official v1.3 patch.
• Safe XP 1.4.11.1 - Safe XP is a free software to allow users to quickly tweak various security and privacy related settings in XP. The options include Media Player settings, Services settings (error reporting, time synch, remote registry etc.), as well as and option to remove items from the Start menu, network security settings and more.
• ObjectDock 1.05 - ObjectDock is a free program that allows you to have a nice animated launchbar/taskbar on your screen that reacts to your mouse when you mouse over it.
• Tray Helper 4.5 - Tray Helper it's freeware, award winning application with many features (f/e: email checker, auto mail responder, anti-spam, popup-killer, event reminder and more).
• WinRAR 3.41 Final - WinRAR (download version for win32 ~ dos ~ linux) is a powerful archive manager. It can backup your data and reduce size of email attachments, decompress RAR, ZIP and other files downloaded from Internet and create new archives in RAR and ZIP file format.

• Logitech QuickCam 8.4.1 build 1092d WHQL - There are drivers for the QuickCam Pro 3000, QuickCam Web, QuickCam Express, QuickCam Home, and QuickCam Pro Cameras.

• Evolution Drivers v1.0 - Radeonthetop has posted a new alternative drivers for Radeon cards. These drivers are based on official Catalyst 4.10. Evolution Drivers are the evolution of the Spirit Drivers, another alternative drivers for Radeon Cards.
• VIA IDE, RAID & SATA Driver Update 4.10a - The drivers of the IDE, RAID & SATA RAID VT8237, VT6410, VT6420 and VT6421 controllers are updated to 4.10a. If you are not sure what South Bridge chip is on your board then please view your manual. The VT6410, VT6420 and VT6421 Serial RAID controllers use the same drivers. You can download the drivers from the link below.

SECURITY...

• Who Wrote Sobig? - As the one year anniversary of the Anti-Virus Reward Program bounty for Sobig approaches, we felt this was an appropriate time to publicly release the current state of our Sobig forensic investigation (PDF). Appropriately, the authors of this document have chosen to release it anonymously for many reasons.
• Bagle.BC sparks red alert - IT security experts have increased the threat rating of the newly discovered Bagle.BC infection to 'Red Alert' as the worm continues to spread rapidly worldwide, causing more and more incidents. Panda Software reported that, just a few hours after Bagle.BC first appeared, it has entered the top half of the ranking of the most frequently detected viruses by the firm's online antivirus scanner.
• Netsky-P and Zafi-B dominate virus charts - Although security experts have issued a red alert over the Bagle.BC worm, the most prevalent and damaging viruses in October continued to be Netsky-P and Zafi-B, viruses which have topped the chart since June.
• Google Plugs Gmail Hole - Google has fixed a security flaw in its Gmail Web-based e-mail service that allowed attackers to hijack users' e-mail accounts. "Google was recently alerted to a potential security vulnerability affecting the Gmail service. We have since fixed this vulnerability, and all current and future Gmail users are protected," Google spokesperson Nathan Tyler says.
• Oxford Students Suspended for Hacking School Network - Two Oxford students have been suspended after admitting to gaining unauthorized access to the university's IT network. Patrick Foster, 20, and Roger Waite, 21, claimed they had carried out the hack to expose security flaws. But at a disciplinary hearing Friday, it was decided that both students should be "rusticated," or suspended--Foster until May 2005 and Waite until January 2005
• China shuts 1,600 cybercafes - The Chinese government confirmed this weekend that it has closed 1,600 internet cafes and fined operators a total of 100m yuan ($12m) since March, when it began its crackdown on violent or pornographic content, and other material it considers harmful to public morality. Government inspectors have checked up on 1.8m cafes since the campaign began, seeking out those letting kids play violent games or access subversive foreign sites. In addition to the 1,600 cafes that have been closed permanently, 18,000 have been shut down for "rectification", according to reports.

OFF-TOPIC...

• Girl with rare disease doesn't know pain - In the school cafeteria, teachers put ice in 5-year-old Ashlyn's chili. If her lunch is scalding hot, she'll gulp it down anyway. On the playground, a teacher's aide watches Ashlyn from within 15 feet, keeping her off the jungle gym and giving chase when she runs. If she takes a hard fall, Ashlyn won't cry. Ashlyn is among a tiny number of people in the world known to have congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis, or CIPA -- a rare genetic disorder that makes her unable to feel pain.
• Organised chaos gets robots going - A control system based on chaos has made a simulated, multi-legged robot walk successfully. The researchers behind the feat say it may have brought us closer to understanding how people and animals learn to move. Standard robots control their leg motion either through complex computer programs or by using so-called genetic algorithms to “evolve” a successful walking strategy. Both these options are time-consuming and require a lot of computer power.

TECHNOLOGY...

• Windows XP "Reloaded" FAQ - Windows XP Reloaded is a planned interim marketing push for Windows XP that will more widely broadcast features that have been shipped since the initial XP release in 2001, including XP SP2, a new Windows Media Player version, and other exciting consumer-oriented features.
• Toshiba Recalls Memory Modules on Laptops - Toshiba Corp. has announced a voluntary exchange program for memory modules in some of its notebook PCs after identifying a module problem that could cause the PCs to exhibit blue screens, lock up, or experience corruption of memory data.  Under the voluntary exchange program, customers can exchange the memory components in the affected PCs any time from November 1, 2004 until April 30, 2005. Customers can download a utility from Toshiba's website that analyzes their PC's operating system to determine whether or not it contains the subject components.
• Nokia 9500 Communicator receives Wi-Fi certification - The Nokia 9500 Communicator has been granted the IEEE 802-11b and WPA (Wireless Protected Access) certifications by the Wi-Fi Alliance.
• ATI Technologies Vows to Bring Shader Model 3.0, Multi-GPU Technology - "ATI will support Pixel Shaders 3.0 when it becomes readily available in games and applications. Currently, this feature is not readily used by the developer community and today’s top titles still largely rely on Pixel Shaders 2.0. As this trend starts to change ATI will incorporate PS3.0 into its feature set," said John Carvill, who is public relations manager on Integrated and Mobile Products for ATI, in an interview to an Asian web-site OC WorkBench.
• Bands debut dual-sided CD/DVD hybrid - The Donnas and Simple Plan, two rock bands under the label of the Warner Music Group released this week the first two albums on a new, so called DualDisk. The Dual Disk is a new hybrid CD format that offers standard CD audio on one side and the enhanced media capabilities of a DVD on the other side. The disk was designed to be compatible with most devices, including game consoles and personal computers.

HARDWARE...

• Sony Ericsson P910i Triband GSM 900-1800-1900 PDA Camera Phone  -The P910i is the enhanced version of the P900 PDA phone. If you are familiar with the P900, you would have noticed that the major difference between P910i and P900i is the additional of a keyboard which can be used for text entry. Based on the Symbian OS 7.0 UIQ, this PDA phone comes with a stylus for pen based or key based operation. Being Symbian based, there is no lack of applications which you can install onto the unit. As it is a PDA phone, you can turn off the phone function during power on by turning on Flight mode. As claimed, the Flight mode will not interfere with navigation systems or life saving equipments in hospitals.
• Iogear launches Bluetooth mini mouse - Iogear today announced a rechargeable mini mouse with bluetooth interface. The mouse can be opoerated up to 66 feet away from the computer, making it a practical tool fro presentations, the company said.
• Voodoo offers Athlon 64 gaming system with SLI - VoodooPC has thrown its hat into the SLI ring with a RAGE SLi system featuring dual PCI Express NVIDIA graphics card. Unlike Alienware's current SLI system, which is based on a dual Xeon processor platform, the Voodoo box is built up on an Asus A8N-SLi motherboard that supports 939-pin Athlon 64 processors.
• Intel Xeon 3.6 GHz CPU review - At 3.6 GHz clock rate, performance between this new Xeon and AMD's top Opteron 250 processor is pretty close all around. There is no clear winner between the two, as both chips excel in their respective categories (Intel for multimedia and content creation, AMD for number crunching and gaming), but the new 3.6 GHz Xeon puts up very respectable numbers even in areas where the Opteron typically dominates. Rest assured, these Xeon chips will run most modern applications buttery smooth. It's likely we will see clock speed boosts for both the Xeon (3.8 GHz) and Opteron (2.6 GHz) families in early 2005 before the introduction of dual-core technologies from both companies.
• Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.46GHz CPU - all reviews can be found here.
• Kingston HyperX PC2-5400 DDR2 Memory review - MadShrimps take a closer look at Kingston's DDR2 offering, this 1gb kit is clocked by default at 675Mhz (PC2-5400 / KHX5400D2/512) and will give any DDR2 powered platform quite a boost.
• Mushkin PC3200 DDR 222 BLack Hi Perf LII V2 review - Mushkin certainly has a winner with this memory. Anyone with an Athlon system, whether it be an XP or a 64 should put any memory with these chips on their shortlist. Mushkin wants your business and backs their product with a lifetime warranty. Only a handful of manufacturers offer this type of warranty, so that should narrow your choices.
• ABIT AV8 (K8T800 Pro socket 939) Motherboard - This new ABIT board is based on the VIA K8T800 Pro chipset and has a plethora of features including 1000 MHz Hyper-Transport, Serial ATA Raid, Firewire and onboard Gigabit Lan. This motherboard can be found at Directron.com for a mere $111 (pricing current as of 10/31/04), lets take a look at the Specifications of this affordable motherboard then get right into the performance testing results.
• PC AirCon PAC400 review - Probably the best part about the PC AirCon PAC400 is its ability to "hotswap", you can unplug it and plug it back in again without having to worry about opening the case or shutting down the system, giving you full control on when you want this device active. This is handy as I'm sure most people would prefer to only use it when necessary due to the bulky external nature.
• Akasa AK-954D - If you're a diehard overclocker and always interested in achieving the best overclock, then it would be in your interest to examine the Akasa AK-954D due to its slightly improved results. However, this cooler is quite noisy, not making it suitable for any enthusiast who only is interested in mild overclocking success or no overclocking at all.
• Silverstone Nitrogon P4 Heat Pipe Cooler -  The Nitrogon is impressively effective in a fanless setup given the right amount of consideration to airflow. I'll certainly have to bug my contact over at Silverstone to see if I can get my hands on a SST-TJ06, the case this heatsink was really designed to be used with. On the bad side, I was rather disappointed to have to give up my exhaust fan to use this unit, even though it is very obvious the engineers on this project were trying to get the cooling fins as close to the power supply fan or exhaust fan as possible. Hopefully this clearance issue will be something that Silverstone will take into account on their next heatsink. If you are looking to get your PC as quiet as possible, I would definitely give this heatsink some serious consideration as long as your physical setup can accommodate it.
• Vantec NXP-201 and Vantec Fans - This fan controller from Vantec is available in two versions: one with a black and one with a silver housing. The housing is made of Aluminum. The NXP-201 has 4 channels, and you can connect fans (or other devices like CCFLs) to the 3-pin connectors on the rear of the device. Lukely Vantec also ships two 3-pin extension cables and two 3-pin to 4-pin(Molex) cables with the NXP-201.
• OCLabs PlexyBlock B3 - There are a lot of nice CPU water blocks out there, OCLabs B3 is certainly one of them. This finely-tuned hunk of copper was able to do a very good job of cooling our processor even under very unfriendly conditions (FSB 250). This block was even able to do a good job of competing with one of of the most successful and efficient blocks on the market. If this was not enough the block looks very cool and installs in a snap.
• $5 VGA Cooler: At a glance -  All video card gets hot, hot, hot! Ram heatsinks on a performance video card can get 150 degrees Fahrenheit hot. The large fan and heatsink assemblies on the graphics processor chip can get equally as hot; around 130 degrees Fahrenheit. PC enthusiasts know heat is the enemy of PC stability and successful overclocking. Sure a VGA cooler could be the answer for $25-$35 USD (plus taxes, shipping and handling) but we set out to build our own for under $5.
• NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT vs. ATI RADEON X800 Pro Comparison - Adrian's Rojak Pot has posted a NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT vs ATI Radeon X800 Pro Comparison.
• Sapphire's x800 Pro review - PyroPort.com take a look at Sapphire's x800 Pro and compare it to a comparably priced GeForce 6800GT.
• ATI Radeon X800 XT PCI-E -Currently, the X800 XT PCI-E version is not available on the consumer market, but the AGP version of this card sells for anywhere between $700 and $800 CDN (approx. $550-650 USD). I will finish off with a quote that sums up the X800 XT in 5 short words; "This card knows no limits!"
• Chaintech GeForce AA6800 Apogee review - Chaintech aims to provide consumers with multiple product configurations, which is the case with their standard GeForce 6800 and their GeForce 6800 AA6800 Apogee. While the AA6800 Apogee sports a slightly higher price tag, it offers higher clock speeds on both the GPU and memory than standard 6800-class units. The AA6800's core clocks in at 358MHz, 33MHz higher than the standard 325MHz. The 128MB of DDR memory runs at 770MHz, 70MHz higher than standard speeds.
• Dual Layer and 16X DVD+R Roundup - AnandTech take a look at the 8 fastest and most capable burners!
• VisionTek Xtreme 2 Go Drive - From a price to performance perspective, it is easy to see why floppy drives and disks will be a thing of the past. We're almost there too. At Newegg, a floppy drive and a box of ten floppies will set you back 17 dollars, and you only get 14.4MBs worth there. For an additional 3 bucks, VisionTek offers you a 64MB USB2.0 Xtreme 2 Go Drive.
• UV X-Connect 500W PSU review - This product gives you all the power you need, looks awesome, and helps you keep the inside of your computer neat and clean, with their Modular Cable Connection System!
• Bluetake HI-PHONO BT460EX Bluetooth Hi-Fi Audio Station - BT460EX Audio Station is aimed at not only the audio enthusiasts, but also at those with passion for full room sound (not surround sound). This product will help you connect numerous products, or applications, and wirelessly transfer the audio to another a set of stand-alone speakers. It won't exactly give you the surround sound effect, but it will positively sound better than two speakers in a home theater setup.
• Sharp AQUOS 15" LC15L1US (wireless) - ByteSector take a look at the 15" Sharp Aquos LC15L1US Wireless LCD-TV.
• Samsung 192MP monitor review - For what the 192MP is designed for it does its job well. A hardcore gamer probably should look for another monitor but it should be ok for any casual gaming. This is a monitor that I can recommend to most day in day out users. It would work well in the college dorm room or a child's room that does not need a CRT and a TV. Believe me, with 3 kids I would love to have 3 of these hooked up to their computers.
• S+ARCK Mouse review - NeoWin take a look at "different" piece of hardware, the S+ARCK Mouse (image), from Microsoft.
• Xtrac Mouse Pads review - XtracPads' mouse surface lineup is great. There are plenty of choices and you really can't go wrong with any one (ok the Ripper XL and the Micro may be a little extreme, but there's a market for those as well). I haven't found anything wrong with any of the pads, and forking over $10-20 for a quality, no nonsense mouse pad is money well spent.
• Mid-Range Buyer's Guide  - The goal of this guide is to outline an entire mid-range computer system for around $1500. This includes the internal hardware, input devices, monitor and speakers (everything but an OS).

SOFTWARE...

• MySQL 4.0.22  - changelog ~ download
• Firefox v1.0 RC2 Nightly Build  - RC2 version is available in the nighly builds.
• Opera 7.60 Preview 2 build 7263 - Opera 7.60 Preview 2 for Windows is available for download. As usual, discuss the new version in opera.beta and in the my.opera.com Beta Testing forum. Due to the experimental nature of this release, upgrading a previous Opera installation is not recommended. If you'd like to test your mail from a previous release with this preview, delete the OperaMail folder, then copy your entire Mail folder from your old install to your 7.60 Preview 2 installation.
• A9 Launches Official Toolbar for Firefox - Amazon.com subsidiary A9.com on Monday released a version of its Internet toolbar for the Firefox Web browser. A9 said the toolbar, which is available for free download, will offer the same features to users of the Mozilla open-source software as it does for other browsers. Those features include the "bookmarks" function, which lets users save favorite Web sites and access them from any PC, and "diary," which lets users save notes to themselves.
• nLite 0.99.3 Beta - nLite (download) lets you choose which components to remove from your Windows 2000, XP or 2003 before installation. Removing unneeded components you gain on your system speed and security. It supports removal of almost any component and few services. You can make a bootable ISO with it and even easy slipstream Service pack with a click of a button.
• CDBurnerXP 3.0.116 Beta - CDBurnerXP Pro is a freeware CD/DVD-Writer program. The program can write CD-R, CD-RW DVD+R/RW DVD-R/RW discs.
• FirePanel XP 1.5.2.0 - FirePanel XP is an extension for the new firewall found in Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server2003 SP1. It modifies your Windows Firewall, with features not normally available to users.
• PlexTools Professional version 2.18 - Plextor has released a new version of their PlexTools software. This new version adds support for PX-716SA.
• EPOX BIOS updates - EPOX released several new bios updates the last couple of days, they included updates for EP-4SGM8I, EP-4PLMI , EP-9NDA3+, EP-4PCA3I, EP-4PGAI, EP-4PCAI, EP-8KDA3+, EP-8KDA3J.
• Forceware 70.41 Beta Quadro drivers - NVIDIA FTP has a new set of Forceware Drivers in the shape of 70.41 beta (download). This set was released for their Quadro series of cards.

SECURITY...

• Bagle Is Still Biting - McAfee's Antivirus Emergency Response Team spotted its first sample of Bagle.bb, one of the new variants, at 11:30 p.m. Thursday Pacific Coast Time. Since then, the company has received about 200 reports of the virus and intercepted two more variants, dubbed Bagle.bc and Bagle.bd, according to Vincent Gullotto, vice president of McAfee AVERT.  McAfee rates Bagle.bb and Bagle.bd "medium" threats, based on the number of submissions they received for each, Gullotto said. The new variants are almost identical to each other, but use slightly different versions of a compression program, known as a packer, to shrink the size of the virus, creating a different profile or "signature" that can fool some antivirus programs, he said. Another article can be found at CNET. (download Win32/Bagle cleaner)
• Security hole found in Google Gmail, claim - So you've got a Gmail mail account? Or maybe you've just received an invitation? Well, we have some bad news for you: Your mail box is exposed. A major security hole in Google's mail service, allows full access to user accounts, without the need of a password.
• PuTTY Buffer Overflow Vulnerability (SSH2_MSG_DEBUG) - The vulnerability specifically exists due to insufficient bounds checking on SSH2_MSG_DEBUG packets. The 'stringlen' parameter is given a user-supplied value by reading in an integer from an offset in the packet data. The 'stringlen' value is incorrectly checked due to signedness issues as seen below.
• Bulgarian allegedly fakes Bill Gates' credit card - A 22 year old Bulgarian student has been financing his education by making a fake credit card in the name of Microsoft supremo Bill Gates, it is alleged. According to Bulgarian Interior Chief Secretary, General Lieutenant Boyko Borissov, the student was arrested as part of a "swoop" on an international crime gang, dealing in counterfeit driving licences, passports and "Euro" banknotes.  Bulgarian officers allege the youth, named only as 'Alexey K' produced fake credit cards and played a key role in the ring. Another story can be found here.
• Microsoft Just Wants a Little Look - Do you want to let Microsoft check if your copy of Windows is legit? How about if they promise it's anonymous? How about if they give you some free stuff?

TECHNOLOGY...

• The internet turns 35 -  Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles are celebrating the anniversary of the first message sent over what would eventually become the internet.
• High-Tech Japan Aims to Stop Counterfeit Banknotes - Holograms and kaleidoscopes of shimmering colors will be part of Japan's latest hi-tech response to the growing number of banknote counterfeiting cases troubling authorities. New banknotes will go into circulation on Monday with sophisticated security features and new designs as the central bank hopes to reverse a 25-fold rise in the number of forged notes discovered in the country in the past five years.
• Retailers still not prepared for Chip and PIN - Thousands of retailers are calling for more time to adopt Chip and PIN guidelines, despite an extensive campaign by the government to boost awareness, a new report claims. Although many small businesses have already adopted the new technology, recent research shoes that around half of retailers are doubtful they will make the 1 January 2005 deadline. The system will replace signitures with a four-digit PIN number as the main way of proving customers' identities.
• P2P Not Dead, Just Hiding - Contrary to media reports, P2P is not dying (PDF); it's just becoming harder to detect. In a paper for CAIDA, the Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis, researchers present evidence that the supposed decline in P2P traffic is actually due to a decline in easy-to-track protocols as those that change port numbers on a regular basis become more popular. (thanks Slashdot.org)
• Super-tough coating for cellphones and discs - The colour LCD screens on cellphones and PDAs can get badly scratched in pockets stuffed with loose change and keys. And CDs and DVDs become unplayable in no time when children use them as indoor frisbees. Now a tough, transparent polymer coating developed by chemists in Japan is set to make scratched phone screens and scuffed discs a thing of the past.

HARDWARE...

• ASUS Proclaims 3DMark05 World's Record - ASUSTeK Computer said its upcoming mainboard based on NVIDIA's nForce4 SLI along with NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra graphics cards and AMD Athlon 64 FX-55 processor had scored scored 10 118 points in 3DMark05.
• Nvidia's sneaky little secret unsnarfed - NVIDIA has a little secret it doesn't want to get out about the SLI bridge. It seems the current bridge, you can see it in the pics of the Alienware machines that were launched the other day, and the Boxx ones launched months ago, probably isn't the one you will end up getting. The little PCB is a rigid link between the two boards, and that doesn't play very well.
• The GeForce 6800's Video Processor is Broken - If you already didn't know, but Nvidia's GeForce 6800 AGP series of Card's may have had almost all video acceleration in hardware disabled by an internal flaw.
• Intel to debut new Itaniums Nov. 8 - Intel's newest top-line Itanium 2 processor is due to arrive Nov. 8, according to sources familiar with the plans. The processor, an upgraded member of the Madison line, boosts high-speed cache memory from 6MB to 9MB--thus its nickname: Madison 9M. In addition, Intel is expected to update the rest of its Itanium 2 family, adding a lower-end model for dual-processor servers and a low-voltage model for servers that are packed densely together.
• MSI launches nForce 4-based K8N motherboards - Micro-Star International (MSI) has launched two Nvidia nForce4-based motherboards, the K8N Diamond and K8N Neo 4 Platinum, for the Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Athlon 64 processor platform, according to a company press release.
• Intel 915 - DDR or DDR2??? - The purpose with this review is not to compare the particular two Intel motherboards, but to use them just to show the difference between the performance provided by Intel 915G/P chipset using DDR and DDR2 memory.
• Inno3D GeForce 6600 review -  For those users that wanting to get a new video card in their PCI-Express motherboard this might be something to consider. It is a next-generation card with support for the new PCI-Express connector. For these price you only get the card and not much else, not many people like getting a plain card with not much else included. If you are strapped for cash and still need the next generation video card this is something for you. If you have a little bit more to spend, there are other cards out there that have some more extras included for a little higher price.
• ASUS DRW-1604P Dual Layer DVD+/- R/RW review - This drive sports a very complete list of features, including the ability to burn DVD+R and -R discs at 16X speeds and burn dual-layer discs at 4X speeds..
• Desktop Logitech LX: Comfort and Style - Where cordless operation is concerned, gamers are the main holdbacks - they continue to believe firmly that latency time is not as good as with a corded mouse or keyboard. To address this, for its LX series, Logitech uses a technology called Fast RF. It uses the same frequency band as other wireless peripherals, 27 MHz, but takes full advantage of the bandwidth available at that frequency. This means that twice the amount of data can be sent, which means that coordinates can be refreshed twice as quickly.
• Saitek PZ09A Notebook Subwoofer review - The device itself is the size of a CD in diameter (image) but it stands about 4cm tall and looks like a classic flying saucer the kind you see in 50's Sci-Fi movies. The colour scheme is a mix of silver and blue with a lighter blue cover over the top mounted speaker - but Saitek seems to have forgotten to fit blue LEDs for a full UFO effect.
• LG Flatron L1730P review - As for the rest of the connectivity options, LG has squeezed in both a D-SUB and a DVI-D port for the price, along with both cable types. And, with a dedicated signal source button nestled within the rest of the vertically mounted OSD controls, one can easily switch between these signals. The L1730P does lack speakers, but to be honest that’s no great loss as the majority of those fitted to LCDs are embarrassingly weak.
• Camcorders-Reality DV -  Even with a budget below $500, don't compromise on camcorder video quality-you don't have to. These reviews of 17 models under $1,000 prove it.

SOFTWARE...

• Swapfile Optimization Guide Rev. 4.0 Part 1 - Adrian's Rojak Pot has posted Part 1 of his definitive Swapfile Optimization Guide Rev. 4.0
• OpenBSD 3.6 Final - The OpenBSD project (download) produces a FREE, multi-platform 4.4BSD-based UNIX-like operating system.
• Apache 1.3.33 - The Apache Foundry has released a new version of their 1.3.x HTTPD servers (download)
• Win32/Bagle cleaner - download
• McAfee AVERT Stinger 2.4.3 - Stinger is a stand-alone utility used to detect and remove specific viruses. It is not a substitute for full anti-virus protection, but rather a tool to assist administrators and users when dealing with an infected system. Stinger utilizes next generation scan engine technology, including process scanning, digitally signed DAT files, and scan performance optimization.
• Sygate Personal Firewall Free 5.6.2808 - Sygate Personal Firewall is more than an advanced, user-friendly personal firewall, it's a bi-directional intrusion defense system.
• OpenGL Extension Viewer 2.13 - This program displays the vendor name, the version implemented, the renderer name and the extensions of the current OpenGL 3D accelerator. This new version adds an Extension Verification Utility which allows you to verify the entry points for the extensions supported and reports problems like entry points missing but extension appeared to be supported, or functions found but extension string is missing.
• OCZ Memtest86 v1.00 - The OCZMemtest86 v1.00 has been built onto the core of the newly-released Memtest86+ v1.27 memory test package. OCZ Memtest86 v1.00 contains enhanced feature sets, a comprehensive support platform fully compatible with both the latest and old-generation chipsets as well as providing many unique options.
• Intel Desktop Control Center 1.3.0.63 - Intel Desktop Control Center (download) enables you to perform stress tests to verify system stability and to conduct performance testing to measure the impact of system configuration changes. The easy-to-read system gauges provide feedback so you can observe the effects of various system modifications in real-time.
• Catalyst 4.10 for Windows 98/ME - ATi have released Catalyst 4.10 for Windows 98/ME.
• ForceWare 66.77 Media Center WHQL - This is ForceWare 66.77 (NVIDIA FTP) for Windows 2000/XP which has been WHQL certified (Microsoft tested and approved). The WHQL stamp is only for GeForce 6 series GPUs as the release highlights state, we're not sure about the FX series. These drivers are intended for (as release notes state) Windows XP Media Center Edition. They should work just fine on XP though.
• Lite-On CD-RW Firmware - LiteOn have released some new DVD Dual and CD-RW firmware updates for the following drives: Lite-On SOHW-1633S, Lite-On SOHW-832S, Lite-On SOHW-1633SX, Lite-On SOHW-832SX, Lite-On LTN-529S, Lite-On SOHD-167T, Lite-On SOHC-5232K, Lite-On LTC-48161H, Lite-On SOHC-5232KX.

SECURITY...

• Zafi-C mutant virus targets Google and Microsoft - IT security experts have intercepted the latest mutant Zafi virus, dubbed Zafi-C, which targets the Google and Microsoft websites. It also attempts to knock out the website of the newly appointed Hungarian prime minister. The Zafi-C worm (W32/Zafi-C) spreads via email using socially engineered subjects lines including 'Re: Hey buddy!' and 'Re: very sick little girl!' in an attempt to lure users into launching its malicious attachment.
• AOL to Give Away Anti-Virus Software to Members -  America Online plans to offer its 23.4 million U.S. subscribers a premium anti-virus software service, McAfee VirusScan Online, for free in November.
• Hacking becomes a full-time job - The chief scientist of security company Internet Security Systems believes 2004 could prove to be a watershed year for hacking. Robert Graham says that many hackers are graduating into the pro ranks, a development that carries worrisome implications for corporate security.
• Flaws found in Windows-based media players - Apple Computer and RealNetworks have both issued fixes for their Windows software to patch serious security vulnerabilities. Apple released Quicktime 6.5.2 on Wednesday to plug two holes in its Windows media player. On Tuesday RealNetworks advised users of its RealPlayer 10, RealPlayer 10.5 and RealOne Player software to use the "Check for Updates" feature to download the latest patch.
• RIAA files 750 new file-trading lawsuits - RIAA on Thursday announced it has filed 750 new lawsuits against alleged file-traders using P2P software. Among the 750 new lawsuits were 25 P2P users on 13 university campuses. The lawsuits were filed against users of P2P software such as Kazaa, Grokster and LimeWire.
• Microsoft Expands Windows Anti-Piracy Program - A program in September, Microsoft Corp. was hoping 20,000 customers would opt into the voluntary program, via which Microsoft checks whether customers are running counterfeit copies of Windows. But by a little over a month later, 828,000 customers had opted in, Microsoft officials said Wednesday. And they did so with no real incentives, admitted David Lazar, director of Microsoft's Windows client product management group. Until Thursday, there were no tangible benefits to participating in the Microsoft Genuine Advantage program. But now, users who agree to participate in Microsoft's program will be offered up to $390 worth of software for free or reduced prices.

TECHNOLOGY...

• Sex Is Out, Consuming Is In - Internet users are doing far fewer searches for sex and pornography and more for e-commerce and business than they were seven years ago, University of Pittsburgh and Penn State researchers say in a new book.
• New Technology Powers Fuel Cells -  A new fuel cell for notebook PCs, more compact and powerful than competing technologies, could be on the market in early 2006 at a price of around $90, its Japanese inventors claim. Fuel cells generate an electrical current from a chemical reaction between a hydrogen-containing fuel and oxygen.
• Via's twin-core processor may upstage AMD, Intel - In a move that could upstage the dual-core processor plans of AMD and Intel, Via Technologies Inc. is developing a twin-core x86 processor that is likely to hit the market by June 2005, a company executive confirmed Tuesday. The twin-core processor is primarily designed to be used in high-density server clusters. Via has demonstrated that two processors can fit onto a small Mini-ITX motherboard and it will be feasible for customers to offer a standard 1U (1.75 inches, 4.4 centimeter) server chassis containing two Mini-ITX motherboards running four twin-core processors, Brown said.

HARDWARE...

• AMD debuts low-cost Net device - AMD has teamed up with partners in India, Mexico and the Caribbean in an ambitious bid to equip half of the world's population with internet connectivity and computing capabilities by 2015. A key element of the strategy, dubbed 50 x 15, comes in the form of AMD's newly launched Personal Internet Communicator (PIC), a Microsoft Windows-based consumer device designed to provide affordable, managed internet connectivity. It features capabilities such as a browser, email, word processing and spreadsheets, and the ability to view images, multimedia files and standard format documents. The device will sell for $185 with a keyboard, mouse and preinstalled software, while one with a monitor will cost $249, the company said.
• Turtle Beach Ships Noise Canceling Headphones - Turtle Beach announced the availability of its new ENC-S noise-canceling ear buds. Each ear bud includes a built-in microphone with special circuitry that monitors noise in the listening environment and subtracts its signal from the sound fed into the ear bud diaphragms. The result is almost total silence as external background noise is eliminated from the music. Unlike simple passive ear buds, the ear buds' high-quality diaphragms are driven by an internal audio amplifier to provide high-efficiency, full-bandwidth audio reproduction for crisp highs and deep lows. The comfortable and lightweight design rests comfortably in your ear and can be worn for extended listening sessions without fatigue. A volume control lets you set the level to suit your taste, and the noise-canceling feature can be shut off with a convenient switch.
• Gateway Launches Photo MP3 Player - Following Apple's launch of iPod Photo earlier in the week, Gateway is announcing its own MP3 player with digital photo display capabilities, the Gateway MP3 Photo Jukebox. The MP3 player's 1.6-inch color TFT-LCD can display digital photos stored on the 4GB hard drive, said John Schindler, manager of convergence products with the Poway, California-based company. It is Gateway's first MP3 player with a color screen, he said.
• ATI's X600XT faces end of life in December - ATI made this decision since it's not that easy to position X700 cards together with the X600s. However, they will just eliminate the fastest of the X600 cards, the X600XT, while X600PROs will continue to coexist with X700 cards.
• AGP 6600GT out in a few weeks - The card should be clocked at the same speeds as the 6600GT PCIe version and the only difference is the BR2 Bridge, hidden behind a cooler. Just so you know, when companies say November that indeed usually means the last week of it and not the first one. November 30th sounds much better then December the 1st. It goes the same was as $199 versus $200.
• Sparkle Computer introduces GeForce 6-series PCIe graphics cards - Sparkle Computer has introduced the latest card in its GeForce 6 series, the Sparkle GeForce 6200. The GeForce 6200 is the company's entry-level PCI Express (PCIe) product, said a company spokesperson. The 6200 will be available in both 128MB and 256MB versions and will have a core clock speed of 300MHz.
• DDR RAM Guide III - Overclockers New Zealand have pusblished their DDR RAM Guide III.
• DDR2 Shoot-Out: Corsair vs. Kingston - HotHardware.Com has posted a shoot-out between two 1GB DDR2-675 capable memory kits, Corsair's TWIN2X1024-5400C4PRO and Kingston's KHX5400D2K2/1G.
• Corsair XMS2 5400 Pro DDR2 RAM review - One more time, DDR-2 has better performance than DDR, but not nearly living up to the hype of being the next greatest thing in RAM. The difference between the 1:1 and 3:4 configurations is hardly noticable. Suffice to say, at stock clocks, the new DDR-2 format dissapoints.
• Mushkin LII-V2 1024MB PC3200 review  - ipKonfig.com has posted a review of Mushkin LII-V2 1024MB PC3200.
• Intel P4 Aircooling - Heatsink Roundup -  Madshrimps let us know they have compared 13 different P4 heatsinks made by Thermalright, Coolermaster, Scythe, Speeze, Swiftech, Evercool, Aerocool and TTIC.
• PowerColor Radeon X800 Pro VIVO review - InsaneTek has posted a review of PowerColor Radone X800 Pro VIVO.
• Point Clark Networks ClarkConnect Gateway / Server (Home Edition) review - ClarkConnect is available in three editions. The Professional Edition includes firewall, VPN, and gateway tools, while the Office Edition includes everything in Professional and adds web, file, and print services. Both Professional and Office are reasonably priced ($65 and $55 respectively), and available with various support plans and web-based services, such as domain registration and DNS service.
• HumanScale M7 Monitor Arm review - XYZ Computing has posted a new review of the HumanScale M7 Monitor Arm.
• ATI HDTV Wonder review - There's no denying the incredible picture improvement of HD broadcasts over regular analog TV. The ATI HDTV Wonder does a good job of allowing you to enjoy this amazing video on your computer at a fraction of the cost of an HDTV. Of course, an HDTV is often much larger than a computer monitor and if you get an HDTV set, chances are you will just get an HD tuner from your cable company - allowing you to enjoy all of the HD cable channels as well as the over-the-air broadcasts.

SOFTWARE...

• Using Domain Controller Virtual Machines  - On servers running Windows Server 2003 and Virtual Server 2005, you can install multiple domain controllers in separate virtual machines. This platform is well suited for test environments. With strict adherence to requirements described in this paper, domain controller virtual machines can also be used in production.
• Knights of Honor game removes DAEMON Tools DLL - SUNFLOWERS statement: By starting Knights of Honor the copy protection checks for CD-emulation-programs such as "Daemon-Tools". Due to a bug in the checker-routine the file "daemon.dll" is renamed to "daemon.bak", if it has been locked by the user, which it is not by default. This is a known issue and will be fixed in the upcoming patch. To have "Daemon-Tools" working again, the file "daemon.bak" has to be renamed back to "daemon.dll", which is located on the harddrive in the main directory of Windows (e.g. C:Windows).
• FarCry Patch 1.3 & SM 3.0 - As for Shader Model 3.0 in FarCry, we experienced just what we thought we would. SM3.0 image quality matches that of Shader Model 2.0 and affords us some performance gains. There are some bugs to be worked out with NVIDIA’s drivers currently, but we are confident those issues will be addressed.
• Critical Update for Windows 2000 (KB887811) - After you install the MS04-032 (KB840987) Security Update for Windows on a computer running either Windows 2000 with Service Pack 3 or with Service Pack 4 and then try to run an OpenMG compliant music software, the OpenMG compliant music software may not run as expected or respond. Install this update to help resolve this issue. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.
• MySQL 4.1.7 - MySQL (download ~ changelog) is the world`s most popular open source database, recognized for its speed and reliability
• Firefox 1.0 RC1 - The release candidates (download from FTP) include about 250 bug fixes since Firefox 1.0 PR. If you've already downloaded 1.0 PR (the 'feature complete' preview) and you're not really interested in testing and bug reporting, then you should probably stick with 1.0 PR for a couple more weeks and upgrade when we release the official Firefox 1.0.
• Flexbeta FireTweaker 1.1 - Flexbeta Firetweaker 1.1 (download) is a Tweaking tool for the revolutionary Firefox Web Browser.
• 20 Firefox 1.0RC1 Extensions - Most popular by users - Extensions are small add-ons that add new functionality to Firefox. They can add anything from a toolbar button to a completely new feature. They allow the browser to be customized to fit the personal needs of each user if they need addtional features, while keeping Firefox small to download.
  MMH Cleaner 2.1 Build 9 - MMH Cleaner is a tool to help you to clean your junk files, programs recent, temp files and more as well as to help you control startup programs.
• Fresh Diagnose 6.80 - Fresh Diagnose is an utility designed to analyze and benchmark your computer system. It can analyze and benchmark many kinds of hardware, such as CPU performance, hard disk performance, video system information, mainboard information, and many more.
• AVG Free Edition 7.279 Beta - A free registration is required to run AVG. You will be emailed a registration code and can not install it without it. The installer does provide a link during installation to get your code.
• Virtual Desktop Toolbox 2.10 - Virtual Desktop Toolbox is the first professional tool that enlarges your monitor by dynamically creating multiple virtual or non virtual desktops. You can organize programs and windows by categories in different desktops, share programs and windows between desktops, group your desktops within a virtual screen and easily and quickly (one mouse move) switch from one desktop to another one.
• K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 1.15 - The K-Lite Mega Codec Pack includes the K-Lite Codec Pack Full, QuickTime Alternative, Real Alternative, Bink and Smacker playback support and Monkey's Audio DirectShow decoder. This new version features QuickTime components to 6.5.2.10.
• QuickTime Alternative 1.38 - QuickTime Alternative will allow you to play QuickTime files (.mov, .qt and other extensions) without having to install the official QuickTime Player. It also supports QuickTime content that is embedded in webpages.
• Audio DVD Creator 1.83  - Audio DVD Creator (download trial version) is a revolutionary tool that changes the way you listen to your favorite music. You can create DVD disc compiled from normal Audio CDs and MP3 files, and play it on any DVD player since it's DVD-Video compliant. You can choose the audio format from high quality (up to 6 hours PCM 48kHz/16bits) or high quantity (up to 45 hours AC3 192kbps).
• IrfanView 3.95 - IrfanView is a very fast, small, compact and innovative FREEWARE (for non-commercial use) graphic viewer for Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003.
• Lite-on DVD firmware updates - Lite-on made available this week a number of new firmware updates for its DVD RW drives including 16x, 12x and 8x models.

SECURITY...

• Bluetooth poses security risk - Bluetooth wireless technology poses as great a security threat to corporate data as wireless LANs (WLANs), according to intrusion detection and management tools vendor Red-M. The firm said that Bluetooth is rapidly becoming ubiquitous in client systems, and that attackers could exploit this fact to gain access to networks and data.
• EBay virus fears dismissed as scaremongering - Security fears sparked by the recently identified W32/Myfip virus are unfounded, according to a security industry executive who claims the concern is nothing more than empty scaremongering by antivirus firms.
• AOL Shows Safe Chat Rooms - America Online is showing a "safe chat room" for children and teenagers that uses so-called "multifactor authentication" technology from VeriSign to verify a child's age. Equipped with secure tokens that plug into computer USB outlets, kids will be able to securely access AOL chat rooms without fear of being preyed upon online criminals, according to a statement from VeriSign.
• Spanish MP3 site owner to pay RIAA $10m - Four men who attempted to use what they believed was a loophole in Spanish law to allow them to sell MP3s online legally, along with the company behind the site they ran, have agreed to pay music labels $10.5m to settle the copyright infringement case brought against them by the Recording Industry Ass. of America (RIAA).
• Bush Website Blocked Outside N. America - The BBC News are reporting that George W Bush's re-election website (don't bother if you aren't in the USA) is blocked to people accessing it from outside the USA. Oh well, at least John Kerry's site still works for us outlanders :)
• Suse warns of hole in Linux kernel 2.6 - The problem lies in the way the kernel handles iptables firewall logging, and only affects systems with iptables-based firewalls, such as SUSEfirewall2, Suse said. An attacker could use a malformed packet to shut down the system, according to Suse's advisory, which ranked the bug nine out of 10 in severity.
• Easy to remain untraceable - Breaking into computer networks and remaining untraceable after the breach has been detected is apparently easier than anyone would like it to be, said The Grugq, a Britain-based hacker. The Grugq, who refused to reveal his true identity, said remaining undetectable, even from computer forensics experts, is achievable with freely available tools that can be downloaded from the Internet.
• What Is a Cookie & Should I Accept or Reject It - The Tech Zone explains what a cookie is and whether you should accept them or reject them.

TECHNOLOGY...

• NASA's Columbia Supercomputer is World's Fastest - Silicon Graphics with NASA today confirmed that NASA's new Intel Itanium 2 processor-based Columbia supercomputer is the most powerful computer in the world. Only days after NASA completed installation of Columbia—and using just 16 of Columbia's 20 installed systems—the new supercomputer achieved sustained performance of 42.7 trillion calculations per second (teraflops), eclipsing the performance of every supercomputer operating today. Built from SGI Altix systems and driven by 10,240 Intel Itanium 2 processors, Columbia's 16-system result easily tops Japan's famed Earth Simulator, rated at 35.86 teraflops, and IBM's recent in-house Blue Gene/L experiment, rated at 36.01 teraflops.
• John Deere, iRobot team on military robot - John Deere & Co. and iRobot Corp. are teaming up to produce an unmanned ground vehicle for use by U.S. military personnel. The vehicle combines Deere's M-Gator military utility vehicle platform with iRobot's military robotic controls. The machine called the "Military R-Gator," would conduct unmanned patrols and reconnaissance as well as acting as a sort of packhorse for soldiers. It would be built with off-the-shelf components, the partners said.
• Brain prosthesis passes live tissue test - The microchip, designed to model a part of the brain called the hippocampus, has been used successfully to replace a neural circuit in slices of rat brain tissue kept alive in a dish. The prosthesis will soon be ready for testing in animals. The device could ultimately be used to replace damaged brain tissue which may have been destroyed in an accident, during a stroke, or by neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's disease. It is the first attempt to replace central brain regions dealing with cognitive functions such as learning or speech.
• DivX Networks touts new studio deals - DivX already has a partnership with News Corp.'s 20th Century Fox to encode films for an airline movie-rental service. Now its video file format will be used in planned Internet video-on-demand services that would be available to consumers by the first half of 2005, DivX President Shahi Ghaman told CNET News.com at the Consumer Technology Ventures Conference.
• Google buys satellite image firm Keyhole - Search giant Google said Wednesday that it has acquired Keyhole, a company specializing in Web-based software that allows people to view satellite images from around the globe.
• Wireless LAN knows where you are - Wireless LAN specialist, Airespace, has developed a system using regular Wi-Fi that can pinpoint you to within ten metres. Its Wireless Location Services (WLS) using a technique known as RF (radio frequency) pinpointing. According to Airespace's Jeff Aaron, other location methods have far less accuracy. He pointed out that using triangulation from base stations doesn't always work because a Wi-Fi user could be standing feet away from a base station but doesn't get a strong signal because there's a wall in the way. RF fingerprinting takes the geography of a building into account.
• Sony to ship PlayStation Portable for under $200 - Sony will ship the PlayStation Portable for 20,790 Yen ($195), the Japanese consumer electronics giant said today. The PSP-1000 - to give the device its official model number - will go in sale on 12 December, achieving Sony's goal of shipping the handheld by the end of the year. It is due to debut in the US and Europe by the end of March 2005. In related news, the battery life is quoted as being 4 to 6 hours (specs ~ Japanese PDF ~ translated here).
• Panasonic Unveils International 3G Cell Phone - Panasonic Mobile Communications is unveiling its first Wideband Code Division Multiple Access cell phone for the international market, the company says. A prototype of the handset, called the Z800, was on show at the PT/Expo Comm China 2004 telecommunications exhibition in Beijing, according to a company statement. Launch plans for the handset were not announced.
• Finis unveils first waterproof MP3 player attached to goggles - Developed by Finis, this underwater MP3 player dubbed the SwiMP3, (pronounced swim P-3 thank you) is unique in that it bypasses your ears via "bone conduction" and directly stimulates the inner ear. The company claims that this results in unparalleled clarity of sound for the user.

HARDWARE...

• NEC to Market DVD Burners - NEC Solutions is taking an unusual step in today's modern age of CD and DVD burners: The company has begun marketing and shipping a DVD burner under its own brand. NEC joins a crowded market, but the company believes there's room for one more player--especially given the super-low $100 price of its ND-3500A model.  The drive, which has been shipping for several months as part of OEM packages (and sold as a "bare" OEM drive online), can write at up to 16X for DVD-R and DVD+R; 4X for DVD-RW and DVD+RW; and 4X for DVD+R Double Layer.
• Intel plans to introduce five south-bridge chips for Smithfield - Intel plans to introduce five versions of its ICH7 south-bridge chip for its Smithfield dual-core platform, according to sources at Taiwan motherboard makers. In addition to the ICH7 for standard PCs, there will be an ICH7 DH for entertainment PCs, an ICH7 DO for digital-office devices, an ICH7 DE for digital-enterprise applications and an ICH7 R for RAID storage applications, the sources noted. The ICH7 DO and ICH7 DE will feature support for Intel Active Management Technology (iAMT), while the ICH7 DH, ICH7 DE and ICH7 R will support Matrix Storage Technology, according to the sources.
• Intel intros 90-nm low voltage Xeon - Intel today expanded the 64-bit capabilities of its product line with the addition of an Intel Xeon processor-based platform with Intel Extended Memory 64 Technology (EM64T) aimed at the storage industry. Intel also unveiled a key optical design win with Emulex Corporation and a new compiler for storage applications. The new chip (specs) is fabbed using 90-nano process tech, runs at 2.8GHz on an 800MHz front-side bus, comes with 1MB of L2 cache and 64-bit extensions, and boasts a Thermal Design Power (TDP) of only 55W. AMD's low voltage Opteron HE processors, which are available at 2.0GHz, also carry a TDP of 55W.
• HyperTransport problems stall nForce4 chipset - TheInquirer is reporting that NVIDIA is still having problems getting its nForce4 chipset running with a 1GHz HyperTransport bus. The issue was supposed to be fixed in the A02 stepping of the chipset, but now it looks like it will take an A03 stepping to iron out the kinks. Until
• AMD's Athlon64 FX-55 Processor review - Still, performance levels between the Athlon64 FX-55 and Pentium 4 3.4 GHz Extreme Edition are actually very close in many cases. While the Athlon64 FX-55 simply trounces the competition in gaming and raw number crunching, Intel's high-end Pentium 4 processors still put up a major fight in multimedia and media encoding applications, which gives Intel the edge in the creative workstation field. The Athlon64 FX-55 has quite a lot of major and minor fringe benefits in compared to the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition processors. First off, the Athlon64 FX-55 costs less. Not that much less, mind you, simply a mere 10% or so.
• Corsair TWIN2X1024-5400C4PRO DDR2 memory - There is alot of speed improvement with this new memory and I don't think we have even seen the possibilities with DDR2 yet. The cost is a bit high still as the cheapest we found it was for $344 USD@Moarch computers which is still quiet a bit of money bit if you want good stuff you have to be prepared to pay for it
• Abit AA8 Duramax 925 Express Alderwood motherboard review - If you are interested in the upgrade but you want something a little more overclocker friendly then the AA8 Duramax is absolutely perfect for your situation. Without a single corner cut, ABIT packed every single enthusiast option they could into their entry into the Alderwood including extensive Windows and BIOS overclocking and monitoring, excellent cooling, industry leading uGuru technology and let's not forget about the onboard high definition 8 channel audio and firewire.
• Elitegroup 915P-A review - ECS has managed to implement an AGP compatible slot on a 915P motherboard, which it calls AGP Express. This lets upgraders move to Intel's latest system generation while continuing to use their AGP graphics card. How do they do it, and how well does it work?
• Five GeForce 6800 Cards Compared - TrustedReviews has posted a comparision between the latest cards from Asus, Galaxy, Leadtek, MSI and XFX.
• XFX 6800U review - This particular board is clocked at 450MHz core and 1100MHz on the memory, as opposed to the reference 6800U speed of 400/1100.
• Gigabyte 6800 Video Card review - CoolTechZone has posted a review of Gigabyte 6800 Video Card.
• PowerColor X300SE review - Is this card going to attract owners of systems with integrated graphics? Priced at about $80, it really can, in those special cases exposed early in this review when the integrated graphics core like i915G, nForce2 IGP or RADEON 9100 does not satisfy the owner with its low-quality 2D picture, lack of DirectX 9 support or missing TV output. The i915G system has one more unpleasant trait – Intel's graphics driver is full of bugs yet. You might also want to purchase the PowerColor X300 SE to save your system RAM for other tasks.
• ASUS Extreme AX800XT review - The Extreme AX800XT uses Samsung's K4J55323QF-GC20 GDDR3 (Part number K4J55323QF). According to Samsung's specifications, the BGA ram is rated at 500MHz (1GHz DDR). The AX800XT, while a full fledged X800 XT, is not a Platinum Edition part, as that version of the card uses 560MHz ram. ASUS clocks the AX800XT at the maximum ram speed, so at the moment, we're not holding our breath for overclocking potential.
• SilverStone FP52 "Eudemon" Multifunction Fan Controller - The single failing in this system in my view comes from the predetermined fan speed/temperature ratios which can't be altered.
• LiteOn SOHW-1213S Dual DVD±RW Recorder review - Like many products from Lite-On, this drive left a nice general impression: no leaders in any class, they usually show good, sometimes average, and rarely excellent results. The SOHW-1213 is a workhorse that provides an opportunity to estimate the quality of the written discs and has good technical parameters, although in an unassuming design.
• Accordance ARAID 2000 review - This compact, easily-installed system provides RAID 1 support without configuration. The ARAID 2000 supports two hard drives, and works completely without drivers. THG compared the ARAID 2000 with a Serial ATA RAID controller made by Silicon Image (model Sil3152). We found that in most I/O categories, the Accordance system logs better results than its competition. However, when it comes to application benchmarks and transfer rates, the Silicon Image controller holds a slight edge.
• Coolmax 3.5" Xtreme Files F1-B review - Are you backing up your computer? Are you backing up your files at least? No? Do you think you should? Well, this is one of the newest accessories from Coolmax. The F1-B, for short. What it does is make an image of your C: drive for complete disaster recovery. You can backup files additionally from your C: Drive, or any other drive. Sound like something you would use?
• Asetek Hard Drive Cooler - Asetek has released a cooling block for hard drives, allowing you to lower the temperature of your hot running drives.
• BuffaloTech Fully Customizable NAS shell review -  If you're interested in embedded Linux, there are a lot of little devices to experiment with these days. The Kuro Box is a powerful little home server, easy to develop for, and powerful enough to handle the needs of a home network. After a few days of casual experimenting, I was able to configure it with Apache, MySQL, an X10 home-automation program, a Web Camera, an iTunes server and more.
• Enermax Noisetaker EG475P-VE SFMA 2.0 470W PSU - The Enermax Noisetaker 470W power supply is one of the few products that works as good it is looks. The power supply includes just about everything an enthusiast could expect: SATA connectors, dual 12V rails, 24-pin motherboard support, and 6-pin auxiliary connectors for modern video cards. Best of all, this power supply is stable!
• Kingwin KT-424 Aluminum Midtower Case - The KT-424 sits at a sub $100 price-point, yet somehow packs many of the features found in today's more expensive cases. Some of these features include a removable motherboard tray, a tool-less design, HDD shock absorbers, front USB & firewire ports, a hidden fan controller, and folded edges. It has been established that this is a great case on paper, but now it's time to put it to the test.
• Creative Zen Touch Player review - Without any doubt, the Zen Touch audio-player from Creative is going to make a good buy for many users, but people with a small budget are unlikely to be interested. Of course, the high price of the device is due to the use of new hardware stuffing, but they could have reduced the cost by abandoning the exclusive software and switching to the OS's generic driver.
• Don't Believe Your BIOS: MSI's K8N Neo 2 Falsifies its Multipliers - Fairly interesting article, check it out.
• 3D Performance with Counter-Strike: Source Part 2 Mainstream Cards - First, Counter-Strike: Source will take advantage of the extra memory found in 256MB graphics cards. The 256MB X700 PRO swept all the 1600x1200 tests against the 128MB X700 XT with 4xAA enabled, and pulled ahead with 2xAA/16xAF turned on as well. Whether or not the game is playable at 1600x1200 with 4xAA and an X700 PRO 256MB is up to your personal taste, but certainly an argument can be made for cobble, where the X700 PRO delivered 56.8 frames per second. Some gamers will want to shoot for 60 frames per second or more in CS: Source, while others will be happy at just 30-40 fps. We've found that practically everyone has a different opinion on what a playable frame rate is. But if you can spare the extra cash on a 256MB card, definitely do it.

SOFTWARE...

• Far Cry HDR Guide - NVNews' forum member Ruined has put together a guide with instructions on how to enable HDR in the Far Cry 1.3 patch
• Hacking Windows XP: Speeding Disk Access - This excerpt from the ExtremeTech book, Hacking Windows XP, shows you how to use the Intel Application Accelerator and fine-tune page-file settings to give your Windows XP apps more zip.
• Microsoft to Ship Photo Story 3 for Free - On Wednesday, Microsoft will ship Photo Story 3 for Windows (review), the latest version of its amazing digital photo slideshow utility. However, this version of Photo Story differs from previous versions in many ways, adding a wide range of new functionality. Best of all, it will be made available free to all users of Windows XP.
• End of Support for AVG 6.0 - Grisoft announces the end of support for AVG version 6.0 effective on December 31, 2004 for technical reasons.
• OpenSSL 0.9.7e released - The OpenSSL project team has released OpenSSL 0.9.7e (changelog). This new OpenSSL version is a bugfix release and incorporates changes and bugfixes to the toolkit. The most significant changes are: 1)Fix race condition in CRL checking code 2)Fixes to PKCS#7 (S/MIME) code.
• YMPEG 2.2 - YMPEG is an award winning professional codec which can integrate itself with Windows and offers seamless encoding from your favorite application (VFW).
• Opera 7.60 Preview 2 - Update for those who need it, or just want to give it a try - download / changelog.
• MSN Messenger 6 - Windows X 7.2.137 Refresh - This package of MSN Messenger will install MSN Messenger with removed advertisment (code by vorte[x] and pHaez) and extra skins without any extra patcher after installation.
• SecureFX 2.2.8 (shw) - The SecureFX (download) lets you choose between SFTP or FTP over an encrypted SSH2™ connection for secure transfers, or standard FTP for non-secure transfers
• SecureCRT 4.1.9 (shw) - SecureCRT (download) gives you an encrypted SSH session with both SSH1 and SSH2 servers. SSH security goes far beyond the basic secure logon, rerouting data or local applications using TCP/IP ports through an encrypted channel.
• PuTTY 0.56 Beta - PuTTY (download) is a free implementation of Telnet and SSH for Win32 and Unix platforms, along with an xterm terminal emulator.
• QuickTime 6.5.2  - Apple's multimedia software suite QuickTime has been updated to version 6.5.2. (download)
• ATI Radeon DNA-drivers 3.2.4.10 -  These are modified/hacked ATI Catalyst drivers, use them at your own risk. The drivers have been optimized with two things in mind, better Image Quality and more/stable frames per second when compared to the Beta Catalyst drivers from ATI.
• ForceWare 66.74 Win2000/XP WHQL (unofficial!) - There's a new ForceWare driver on the loose, this time they came from FDR France who on their term got them from manufacturer Medion. In it's current form these drivers have been Microsoft approved (WHQL certified). If you need to replace when your graphics card would not be supported the .inf file then you of course will loose that WHQL label. In related news, Station-Drivers has ForceWare v70.40 beta.

• Microsoft Revises Anti-Spam Standard -  Microsoft on Monday said it had revised its proposal to weed out "spam" e-mail to win over skeptical Internet engineers who have been reluctant to adopt technology owned by the dominant software company. Microsoft officials said they have revised their SenderID protocol to work better with an existing standard and have narrowed their patent application to make sure it does not cover other proposals.
• Fake RedHat - Fedora Security Patch / Trojan Source Code & Analysis - Emails that pretend to come from the Red Hat Security Team are circulating in the wild. These emails tell users to download and install malicious updates. These trojan updates contain malicious code designed to compromise the systems they are run on.
• EBay virus "start of worrying trend" - Security experts have intercepted a virus which claims to have been sent from eBay.com and uses a packer previously unseen in email virus distribution. The use of the uncommon packer in the W32/Myfip virus could make it more difficult for antivirus software vendors to identify and protect against the malicious code within, signalling "the start of a worrying trend", MessageLabs warned today.
• Cisco adds scrambler to IP telephony - Cisco is beefing up the security of IP telephony kit with an upgrade to its software available from today. A new version of the network giant's IP PBX software, Cisco CallManager 4.1, comes with new enhanced encryption facilities, including Voice over Virtual Private Network (V3PN) functionality. Encryption features had previously only been available on Cisco's high-end phones - such as the 7960G - but the vendor is now making the technology more mainstream. The majority (2.5m out of 3.5m) of the IP phones Cisco has shipped thus far will be able to use the enhanced scrambling technology after users upgrade their software.
• Would John Kerry Defang the DMCA? - Over at ZDNet Declan McCullagh asks, "Would John Kerry defang the DMCA?" Kerry's response: "open to examining" whether to change current law "to ensure that a person who lawfully obtains or receives a transmission of a digital work may back up a copy of it for archival purposes". It's not clear, though, how serious Kerry truly is"
• U.S. moves closer to e-passports - The State Department plans to produce more than 1 million e-passports by the end of 2005 and, by 2006, it expects all new passports to feature the special microchips, according to Angela Aggeler, a spokeswoman for the agency’s Bureau of Consular Affairs.

TECHNOLOGY...

• Microsoft's Worst Nightmare - Blake Ross is lounging at his parents' Florida Keys condo, thinking ahead to his first day back at Stanford. His goal for his sophomore year: nothing less than to "take back the Web" from Microsoft.You might think the shy 19-year-old is outmatched. Think again. Ross, a software prodigy who interned at Netscape at age 14, is the lead architect behind Mozilla's Firefox -- a revolutionary new browser that's catching on the way Mosaic did in 1993. In beta for the past four months, Firefox version 1.0 is set to be released in November. With that, Ross will issue the first truly formidable challenge to Internet Explorer that the world has seen in seven years. "We're hoping for 10 million downloads in 10 days," Ross says proudly.
• Peeping Tom filter lets phones see through bikinis - A developer in Tokyo has created an add-on for Vodafone handsets that's meant to be used as a night filter to let people take pictures with their phones in the dark. Unfortunately, the night vision camera has an unexpected side effect, according to Japanese developer Yamada Denshi. In the right circumstances, it allows users to see a lot more than they bargained for. As well as taking snaps in the dark, the Yamada Denshi infrared filter apparently sees through people's clothes. The problem arises because the filter uses the distribution of heat to create its pictures. When attached to a high-end camera, the filter can see though certain kinds of clothing and is reportedly particularly effective on dark bikinis
• [R.I.P.] - Xbox writer, web founder taken off life support - Short Media said that Keith "Mortin" Whitsitt was taken off life support in a Gainesville Florida hospital. He had suffered massive brain damage following a gunshot wound, the site said. Keith started website Icrontic.com and wrote many articles about the Xbox.
• UF scientist: "Brain" in a dish acts as autopilot, living computer - University of Florida scientist has grown a living "brain" that can fly a simulated plane, giving scientists a novel way to observe how brain cells function as a network. The "brain" -- a collection of 25,000 living neurons, or nerve cells, taken from a rat's brain and cultured inside a glass dish -- gives scientists a unique real-time window into the brain at the cellular level. By watching the brain cells interact, scientists hope to understand what causes neural disorders such as epilepsy and to determine noninvasive ways to intervene. As living computers, they may someday be used to fly small unmanned airplanes or handle tasks that are dangerous for humans, such as search-and-rescue missions or bomb damage assessments.
• Adobe, Yahoo to Integrate Products - Adobe and Yahoo on Monday said they have signed a deal to combine Adobe services, like its widely used document-sharing program, with Yahoo's Web search functions. The joint product allows a user to search for information in Adobe Portable Document Format, or PDF, documents -- the primary standard for sharing electronic files -- posted on the Web.
• Intel Prepares for the Next 20 Years -  Intel is drawing the curtain on some of its future research projects to continue making transistors smaller, faster, and less power-hungry out as far as 2020. In a recent briefing for reporters and analysts at the company's headquarters here, Intel researchers discussed exotic materials such as carbon nanotubes and nanowires as well as novel techniques to take the transistor down to the atomic level.
• Low-power screens boost notebook battery life - The Mobile PC Extended Battery Life Working Group (EBL-WG) today claimed to have reached "a major milestone" in its initiative to promote low-power display panel technology. According to the group, more than six million low-power 12.1/14.1/15.0 XGA display panels with a power consumption of 3 Watts or less will ship globally in 2004. It said these units accounted for about 12 per cent of total estimated global notebook shipments.

HARDWARE...

• Sony launches music players with MP3 support - As expected, the company announced the release in Europe of two flash-memory-based devices, the Walkman NW-E99 and NW-E95, which can natively play songs in MP3 and Sony's own Atrac file format. The move, discussed by the company on Monday, diverges from its previous position of not supporting MP3 because of its lack of security measures and susceptibility to easy file sharing.
• Sony Ericsson introduces new quad-band EDGE/Wi-Fi PC card - The GC89 PC Card combines global EDGE coverage with the WiFi technology in a single card which is compatible with both Windows and Macintosh computers. The GC89 card delivers connectivity through EDGE, GPRS, CSD, SMS over the GSM 850, 900, 1800 and 1900 bands world-wide. And, for those areas covered by wireless local networks (homes, offices, and hotspot locations such as airport lounges, coffee shops and hotels) the GC89 provides 802.11b and g connectivity with speed potential in excess of 50 Megabits per second.
• AMD's Personal Internet Communicator revealed - The folks at AMDboard.com have a news and info roundup on AMD's Personal Internet Communicator, complete with pictures of the device. The computer is about the size of a tissue box and runs on a 366 MHz AMD Geode GX 500 processor that uses 1 watt of power.
• Alienware debuts gaming system with NVIDIA SLI - Alienware is taking orders for Area-51 ALX gaming systems featuring NVIDIA SLI technology. The water-cooled systems are decked out with dual GeForce 6800 Ultra graphics cards, but saddled with Nocona-core Xeon processors. With an estimated shipping date of December 1, ALX systems could be the first commercially-available NVIDIA SLI platforms. However, with nForce4 SLI on the way and the Athlon 64 trashing the Pentium 4 in games, more appropriate and affordable SLI platforms may be available before long.
• Nvidia reacts to lack of Nforce4 Soundstorm - TheInquirer has managed to get an official response from top Nvidia chipset man Drew Henry about the lack of support for Sound Storm in its forthcoming Nforce 4 chipsets.
• NV41 to quietly replace 6800 standard - From the beginning, Nvidia wanted to make some kind of cheaper to produce 6800 standard card and that's what NV41 is all about. There is a slight change of interface as NV41 is PCI Express. It will use exactly the same clock speeds as the 6800 Standard AGP card. NV41 based cards will be branded as Geforce 6800 PCIe and will come as PCIe cards only.
• ATI Radeon X700 XT / PRO review - Ostensibly Radeon X700 is designed as a mainstream part, with the remit of bringing last years high end performance to mainstream prices, however rather than just taking onboard a Radeon 9800 configuration, X700 has only a 128-bit memory bus, 8 fragment / pixel pipelines, and 6 vertex shaders. In this review we take a closer look at the architecture, and put both a reference ATI X700 XT platform and a retail Sapphire Hybrid X700 PRO board to the test.
• GALAXY GeForce 6600 256MB review -  GALAXY's card comes in at the upper end of that scale, thanks to a healthy 256MB of onboard RAM. Looking at Hexus.net's benchmark numbers that include a few older titles, it's apparent that NV43 performance makes looking at previous generation's midrange cards.. What's more, GALAXY's PCI-Express 6600 card doesn't require auxillary power and the GPU's fan is pretty damn quiet, although a few sacrifices have to be made for the cheaper NV43 part, as there's no SLI capability and a distinct lack of memory bandwidth from the 128-bit interface."
• BenQ DW1620 16x DVD+-RW Double Layer Writer review - Not to be confused with the DW1610, the new DW1620 offers the same capabilities but adds support for double layer writing. While not a 4x double layer writer, this drive is set to compete against the Lite-On SOHW-1633s and LG GSA-4160B.
• Water Cooler Roundup - To help you make the plunge, TrustedReviews have decided to take a closer look at three different approaches to water-cooling, each theoretically suited to a different level of experience.

SOFTWARE...

• Multilingual User Interface Packs for WMP 10 - Windows Media Player Multilingual User Interface Packs are available for download for 25 non-English language versions of Windows XP. Individual language versions of the User Interface Packs are available for download, and users are able to choose the specific target language version of the language that they want to enable.
• Coding Workshop Polyphonic Wizard 3.7.1 - The Coding Workshop Polyphonic Wizard (download) is a software program for your PC that allows you to add new ringtones and pictures to your polyphonic phone without the need for cables or sms (text) services. All you need is your phone and this software to add new polyphonic ringtones! All the technical details are taken care of. All you need to do is pick a midi file, use the trim tool to select the part you want, then send it to your phone.
• Coding Workshop Ringtone Convertor 5.2.3  - The Ringtone Converter (download) is a software program for both Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac systems that allows you to add new ringtones to your mobile phone without the need for cables or expensive premium rate SMS services. The Ringtone Converter supports most makes and models of phone including Audiovox, Alcatel, Ericsson, HTC, Kyocera, Motorola, Nokia, NEC, Panasonic, Philips, Sagem, Samsung, Sony, Sendo, Sharp and Siemens handsets, with more added every month.
• MAME v0.88 -  MAME stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator, and currently runs 1800+ classic (and even some not so classic) arcade games.
• Maxthon Combo 1.1.050 -  Maxthon (formerly MyIE2) (download)  is a powerful web browser with a highly customizable interface. It is based on the Internet Explorer engine which means that what works in IE, works the same in Maxthon but with many additional efficient features like Tabbed Browsing Interface; Mouse Gestures; Super Drag&Drop; Privacy Protection; AD Hunter; Google Bar Support; External Utility Bar; and Skinning.
• CloneCD v5.0.4.2 - SlySoft has released an update of their CloneCD (download) software. According to the changelog this update fixes a problem with the Plextor DVD recorders.
• XP-AntiSpy 3.92 - XP-AntiSpy (download) is a small program that let's you disable some built-in update and authetication features in Windows XP. This new version adds Profile/Userdefined profiles, online help, connection limit now works on build 2505 and build 1208 of the tcpip.sys files, and much more.
• Nero 6 Reloaded 6.6.0.1 - Nero (download ~ mirror1, mirror2) is a flexible, reliable, and easy-to-use application designed to write both data and CD audio to CD-R and CD-RW discs. It supports ISO 9660 images as well as ISO mode 1 and XA mode 2, and allows for on-the-fly disc recording in addition to overburning (if supported by hardware). There's also a new Nero Media Player v1.4.0.25, Nero Vision Express 3.0.1.4, and NeroMIX 1.4.0.25.
• NVIDIA Forceware 70.41 Beta - Techconnect Magazine let us know they have a new Forceware 70.41 beta driver online. This one comes from a test at OSNN and features new improvements and other enhanced thing.
• ATI Optimized Driver v1.6a - These are modified/hacked ATI Catalyst drivers based on the offical Catalyst 4.11beta (8.07b2). The drivers have been optimized with two things in mind, better Image Quality and more/stable frames per second when compared to the official Catalyst drivers from ATI.

• Google patches one security hole, but another surfaces - Search engine darling Google Inc. has patched a hole in its search engine the could have allowed malicious hackers to modify the content of the Google search results page or silently modify search results, but a new hole may have already appeared. The vulnerability concerns the Google Custom WebSearch service, which allows third-party Web portals and other Web sites to use Google's servers to search content on their Web site. A flaw in Google's Web servers allowed malicious hackers to insert javascript instead of links to image files, allowing them to alter the appearance of the Google search results page or steal search data. After being alerted to the hole, Google fixed the vulnerability, said Nathan Tyler, a Google spokesman.
• 53 arrested in phishing crackdown - Brazilian police have arrested 53 people for allegedly stealing $30m (L16m) from online bank accounts. The crackdown, involving 160 police officers, took place across four states in North Brazil. Suspects are believed to have targeted thousands of online banking customers by sending emails containing Trojan horses, a type of virus able to collect information on internet bank accounts.
• Internet Explorer is the Chenresi of bad code - MSIE is more tolerant of bad HTML than other browsers, according to research carried out by a Polish security researcher. Michal Zalewski has published his preliminary results on the Bugtraq security mailing list. Zalewski used a program to generate tiny, razor-sharp shards of malformed HTML which he could use to test recent versions of internet Explorer, Mozilla, Netscape, Firefox, Opera, and two text browsers Lynx and Links. All the browsers but internet Explorer kept crashing on a regular basis due to NULL pointer references, memory corruption, buffer overflows, sometimes sheer memory exhaustion.
• Microsoft Records 106 Million SP2 Downloads - According to Microsoft, the 106 million distributions mainly encompasses consumers and small business customers. A company spokesperson could not quantify the number of enterprises that have deployed the update, but claimed that customers were reporting "good results."
• Microsoft: Still no free 250 MB Hotmail accounts - Microsoft is being slow to deliver the free 250MB mail storage it promised earlier this year. It has offered 2GB mail space but for a price of $19.99 per year. Many readers have written to say that Hotmail had promised a free upgrade to 250MB by the end of the September. Gmail offers 1 GB but its still private club with invite only while Yahoo mail will offer you 100 MB's for free and anybody can sing.
• Xbox Live! Security Steps Up - The Xbox Live team has noticed and received reports from the Xbox Live community about users connecting to the Xbox Live service using modified Xbox consoles. In most cases, these users have used the modifications to gain an unfair advantage over other players, such as racing modified, faster cars in Project Gotham Racing 2. By doing this, users are breaking the Terms of Use that must be agreed to when a gamertag is created. The Xbox Live team will not tolerate this unfair activity and have taken steps to protect our community from this cheating. Xbox Live has recently initiated additional security measures to ensure that those connecting to Xbox Live with modified hardware will be removed from the system. Modified consoles will be banned, and information about those banned machines will be tracked to prevent them from connecting to the service again.
• Swatch, Microsoft Eye Wrists - Microsoft Corp. and watch maker Swatch are offering a new line of wireless data watches (photo), the companies said yesterday, bringing the era of Dick Tracy wristwatch radios one step closer. The watches offer news, sports, weather and stock quotes, among other snippets of content, via Microsoft's MSN Direct wireless data service. Twice the number of information channels of earlier Microsoft-based models are available. The watches come with three levels of service. Each comes with free local weather, news headlines and stock-index levels. For $40 a year, users can receive more weather data, personalized news and sports scores, stock quotes, horoscopes and the like. For $60 annually, they can receive instant messages and calendar reminders from their PC if they use Microsoft Outlook software.
• J.P. Stewart - A new hobby: putting Windows XP in your car - This is a different kind of video. It's not of someone talking about a Microsoft product. It's about a Microsoft employee's hobby.
• Intel Cancels Plan to Enter Digital TV Chip Market - Intel said it has scrapped plans to enter the digital television chip business, marking a retreat from a major component of its consumer electronics initiative. The cancellation, which follows a string of missteps by the world's largest chip maker, eliminates a major competitive threat faced by Texas Instruments Inc., whose own chips for rear-projection televisions have become a successful enterprise.
• iRiver ships Linux portable media players - iRiver has formally introduced its Linux-based Portable Media Player (PMP) family (photo) in the UK. The device maker also said this week that it has cut the price of its H series colour digital music players.
• Digital Audio Player's Hard Drive Hits 100GB - Carlsbad, California-based Digital Mind (DMC) this week announced an update to its Xclef 500, a Mac- and PC-compatible digital music player that the company claims is the first to offer 100GB of storage capacity. The Xclef 500 connects using a USB 2.0 interface and also accepts input from a built-in mic, line-in audio connector, and S/PDIF optical mini plug. It features 20+ hour battery life using a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, and supports built-in MP3 encoding, voice recording, FM radio, recording capability, and more.
• Never Fill a Digital Camera Memory Card Again - Epson's new P-2000 Multimedia Storage Viewer features a 40GB hard drive that you can use to store images from memory cards. That means you don't have to worry about running out of card space or carrying a notebook along--just insert the memory card into the P-2000, transfer the images, clear the card, and start shooting again. Each of the two built-in memory card slots supports CompactFlash Type I and Type II and Secure Digital memory cards--an optional third-party adapter supports additional cards. The P-2000 has a 3.8-inch display for viewing JPEG images. Its 40GB capacity is enough to store about 5000 RAW-format images and up to 10,000 5-megapixel JPEG images, according to Seiko Epson representatives.
• Intel Boosts Centrino's Speed - The Pentium M 765 processor ($637) runs at a clock speed of 2.1 GHz and includes 2MB of Level 2 cache and support for a 400-MHz front-side bus. Previously, the Pentium M 755 was the fastest processor in the line with a clock speed of 2 GHz. The introduction of the new processors follows recent price cuts on Intel's mobile processors. On October 17, Intel cut the price of the Pentium 755 by 33.6 percent, from $637 to $423 in 1000-unit quantities, according to the price list posted on the company's Web site.
• AMD, Intel Stick with Speed for Gamers - McCarron said that as both AMD and Intel prepare to unveil new, ultra high-end processor refreshes later this month that will push the 3.5 GHz mark, the companies are cutting it close when it comes to having machines with the chips available this holiday season. However, because of the loyal nature of the market and the fact that system replacement is far more likely with extreme gamers, the companies should be able to pull it off, according to McCarron. He added that in the ultra-high end desktop market, a new version means that all previous versions are no longer of value.
• 90 nano Winchester Athlon 64s for sale - A Japanese website reports that shops are selling Athlon 64 using the 939 socket and the Winchester 90 nanometre core. Akiba Ascii 24 reports that five types of AMD Athlon 64s are being sold - the 3000+, the 3200+, the 3500+, the 3800+ and the 4000+. (thanks TheInqurer)
• No Fake "Power Color" Cards in the USA, Says Local Representative - An official for PowerColor Computer Inc., a subsidiary of Tul Corporation based in the City of Industry, California, said the company has not ship allegedly fake RADEON 9600 PRO SKUs into the USA and that the country’s market is free of forged graphics cards reported to be available in some other countries.
• Corsair Offers 550MHz DDR Modules with Reduced Latencies - Corsair's new "DDR550" memory modules will be available as 1GB dual-channel optimized kits – TwinX1024-4400C25 and TwinX1024-4400C25PT. The company says that its new modules function with CL2.5 4-4-8 latency settings, down from CL3 4-4-8 timings of the previous incarnation of Corsair's "PC4400" DDR SDRAM.
• nForce4 motherboards pictured - The XtremeSystems Forums have snagged some interesting pictures of upcoming nForce4 motherboards from Foxconn, MSI, Tyan, Epox, ECS, Chaintech, and DFI
• MSI's nForce4 PCI-E/SLI boards - The K8N Diamond with Nvidia SLI technology can accelerate the 3D performance by over 180% via two SLI-ready graphics cards. The Nvidia nForce4 chipset features configurable PCI Express lanes for SLI technology, and the graphics interface can be set as a single PCI Express x16 or dual PCI Express x8. The other new interface is SATA2 which supports data transfer rates up to 3GB/sec - twice the speed of SATA1. The NVRAID 2.0 can obtain unmatched storage performance with SATA2 hard drives in the wink of an eye. Its scalability can also configure the disk array across SATA and IDE hard drives as single RAID.
• Crucial Ballistix 1GB (2x512) PC3200 review - The memory performed like a champ and I would not hesitate to recommend it to any one. There are a lot of companies at the moment trying to be the King of the low latency memory market and I think I can safely say that crucial is one of the top runners in that figh. So whether you're a high performance freak or just a casual user you can't go wrong with Crucial and its Ballistix line of high performance memory products
• ASUS V9999 Gamer Edition Graphics Card review - ASUS V9999 Gamer Edition graphics card left a wholly positive impression – we just couldn't find any defect in it, however negligible. It seems like the manufacturer gave thought to every small detail, forgetting nothing, which is a rare thing. Highest performance, six operational vertex processors, efficient cooling system with a copper heatsink, beautiful appearance and generous accessories all contribute to making the V9999 Gamer Edition into a wanted product. The device is free from the main disadvantage of the original GeForce 6800 design – slow memory. Having a higher-clocked memory, the ASUS card scored well in our tests, quite comparably to the most dangerous rival, the RADEON X800 PRO.
• Graphics comparison chart updated - TechReport have updated their handy graphics comparison chart, adding a stack of new graphics cards. The comparison chart will give you a good idea how the various graphics options stack up in terms of pipeline configuration, fill rate, and memory bandwidth, but keep in mind that there are a few manufcturer-specific SE, LE, 64-bit, and Golden Ultra Turbo Sample Editions out there that don't necessarily match.
• The Coolermaster Dual Storm: Will Two Fans Double Cooling Performance? - Things are best done in pairs - at least, that's what Coolermaster probably thought when it equipped the Dual Storm with two fans. But the concept pans out: with the Hyper6, thermal resistance decreases, and air is also transported away from the "dead spot" in the cooler's center. However, it only does that reliably at low fan speed, because in the high-speed mode the Dual Storm becomes unbearably loud. A user modding his or her chassis will especially like the illumination. At a price of $29 (€29), however, this product is hardly a bargain.
• Kingston DataTraveler II, II Plus, and Elite flash drives review - The maximum average read speed (21.2MB/s attained by the DataTraveler II Elite) is very close to the speed of an external 7200RPM hard drive connected via USB2.0. The interface has finally matured and Kingston put their skills to good use with this series of flash drives. Your best bet is a DataTraveler II Plus; the II is too slow and the Elite may be slightly faster and the software much better, but the price difference is hard to justify.
• Edimax Wireless 802.11g Network - Once you figure out that you are never going to get the 54Mbps that is the standard listing for 802.11g, you still see you have the performance of a 10Mbps wire network. Wireless networking is competing with Home PNA (but I find Home PNA is not very well supported since wireless made the scene) and with PowerLine networking, which uses your house electrical wiring for the network.
• Logitech MX1000 Laser Cordless Mouse review - According to Logitech this new laser technology is 20 times more sensitive than even the best LED based mice, which means that you can use it on virtually any surface.
• SilenX iXtrema Pro 400W Power Supply - After testing this PSU for quite a long time, we concluded that its high power specs and complete security besides its absolute silence even under heavy workloads, make it a perfect solution for all types of uses, from the beginner to the experienced hobbyst. Voltage levels were very stable without incurring in overheating, which makes us think that this PSU can deliver a lot more than we asked it for; it is perfectly ready for really hefty workloads, keeping the low noise levels.

• Samsung X10 Plus - Slim & Light Notebook review - The screen is a 14.1in affair and is a very fine example of a good TFT display. Unfortunately, the resolution is limited to 1,024 x 768, which is a little disappointing considering the physical size

• Microsoft Partner Pack for Windows XP - Microsoft has released a free suite of software dubbed the "Partner Pack", for computers running Windows XP. The free add-on pack includes new Microsoft and 3rd party sofware items. Word is: "The Partner Pack is the ultimate application package for your Windows XP PC. Install this package and you will be able to play new games and have more fun, explore the internet in new ways, keep in touch and share information with friends and family, better protect your PC and do more with tools and desktop utilities."
• Apache 1.3.32 - The Apache Foundry has released new version of their 1.3.x HTTPD servers (download)
• Safe XP 1.4.10.20- Safe XP allows users to quickly tweak various security and privacy related settings in XP. The options include Media Player settings, Services settings (error reporting, time synch, remote registry etc.), as well as and option to remove items from the Start menu, network security settings and more.
• NVIDIA DVD Decoder 1.00.58 - NVIDIA DVD Decoder (download) enables the industry`s highest quality DVD and MPEG-2 playback and rich surround sound audio for Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center Edition.
• Messenger Plus! 3.25.106 - Messenger Plus! Extension (download) is a program that adds functionalities to the MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger chat program. Some of the added features are logging, personalized Away Messages, transparency effects, and a feature to minimize all MSN Messenger windows to the system tray.
• Longhorn SideBar 4.0 - This will add Longhorn SideBar on your Windows 98 or later with Active Desktop features.
• Ignition [CD/DVD optimizer] v2.9.0.49 - This CD/DVD burning optimizer helps you saving space on your media by optimizing the way files are placed on the CDs/DVDs of your set. For example if your backup fits on 3-4 CDs, a manual files organazation might lead on a 4th with only 10 Mb of data when a better organization would have only required 3 CDs.
• CodeGuys EEPROM Utility for Lite-On DVD+/-RW drives - The CodeGuys released a new tool called CodeGuys EEPROM Utility . With this  tool you can backup and restore the EEPROM of your Lite-On DVD+/-RW drives. Another important feature is the option to reset the "learned media calibration data", this can be very useful when you have a bad burning quality and want set back your drive to "learn" it again.
• VIA Hyperion Pro 64 4.51 Beta - This package contains the drivers for Windows XP 64 and Windows Server 2003 64 bit only (original FTP link), supporting the components for K8T800, K8T800Pro and K8M800 including VT8237 South Bridge: : AC97 audio, RAID drivers and the RAID tool have all been updated. But don't get confused people! If you're not using a 64 bit operating system, these are not for you.
• NVIDIA NVFlash 5.10 - With this utility it is possible to flash your NVIDIA graphics card with a new BIOS. Of course make sure you create a backup of your original BIOS.

• Ballmer: We need a $100 PC - What's one of Steve Ballmer's biggest headaches? It's not Linux or security breaches. It's piracy, the Microsoft CEO said Wednesday. "The biggest problem we have right now is that people who should be paying for software aren't," Ballmer told an audience of technology executives at an industry conference here sponsored by market researcher Gartner. One way to stem piracy is to offer consumers in emerging countries a low-cost PC, Ballmer said. "There has to be...a $100 computer to go down-market in some of these countries. We have to engineer (PCs) to be lighter and cheaper," he said.
• [!] Major browsers bitten by security bugs! - What do Internet Explorer, Mozilla's browsers, and Opera all have in common? Bugs! First off, http-equiv has discovered two vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer, which can be exploited by malicious people to compromise a user's system, link to local resources, and bypass a security feature in Microsoft Windows XP SP2. Sadly, there also are vulnerabilities in Opera, Mozilla / Mozilla Firefox / Camino, Safari, Netscape, Konqueror, Avant Browser and Maxthon.
• How to Break Windows XP SP2 + Internet Explorer 6 SP2 - The following technical exercise demonstrates the enormously elaborate methods required to defeat the current [as of today's date] security mechanisms in place in both Microsoft Windows XP SP2 and Internet Explorer 6.00 SP2 fully patched: It is by no means easy. The 'locking down 'of the local zone is and has been the 'Achilles' Heel' of the manufacturer known as Microsoft from time of inception to date.
• Singapore to jail and fine software pirates - Singapore will next year introduce jail terms and stiff fines for people who break software and internet copyright laws, the government said on Tuesday. People found to be illegally using software or downloading off the internet will face a maximum six months in jail and a fine of 20,000 Singapore dollars ($A16,395) for their first offence, according to ammendments to the Copyright Act introduced into parliament. Repeat offenders face three years in jail and a fine of 50,000 Singapore dollars.
• Self-destructing DVDs to help market new film - At the center of the Convex Group's plan is a low budget Christmas movie called "Noel," directed by Chazz Palminteri, that will debut in up to 10 U.S. cities on Nov. 12. On the same day, the disposable DVD can be bought for $4.99 through online retailer Amazon.com. A little over two weeks later, the movie will air once on cable television network TNT, which Convex hopes will only spur greater ticket sales and higher revenues from the DVDs, which become unplayable 48 hours after their air-tight package is opened.
• Off-topic: Internet about to collapse, says Finnish scientist - Dr. Hannu Kari says the Internet will will collapse in 2006 as reported in an article on ARS Technica.
• Off-topic: Humans Have Fewer Genes Than Previously Thought - A more refined analysis of the human genome, or book of life, shows people have fewer genes than previously thought, an international team of scientists said on Wednesday. Instead of 100,000 genes, the initial estimate, scientists working on the Human Genome Project, a publicly funded collaboration of scientists from 20 institutions in the United States, Europe and Asia, have reduced the number to 20,000-25,000.
• Off-topic: Miniature jet engines could power cellphones - Engineers have moved a step closer to batch producing miniaturised, jet engine-based generators from a single stack of bonded silicon wafers. These chip-based “microengines” could one day power mobile electronic devices. By spinning a tiny magnet above a mesh of interleaved coils etched into a wafer, David Arnold and Mark Allen of the Georgia Institute of Technology, US, have built the first silicon-compatible device capable of converting mechanical energy - produced by a rotating microturbine - into usable amounts of electrical energy. The key advantage of microengines is that they pack in at least 10 times more energy per volume of fuel than conventional lithium batteries, take up less space and work more smoothly than much-touted fuel cells.
• Nvidia Puts a Firewall on a Motherboard - The catch is that the new PCI-based chip set will only work with AMD Athlon 64, 64 FX, and Sempron processors. Consequently, the company expects that NForce 4 will be aimed at higher-end applications such as gaming in its initial roll-out. It is not clear whether the chip set will be made to work in Intel systems at a later date. Although software firewalls are effective on PCs, the NForce 4 "ActiveArmor" protection engine claims to carry out its security routines without hindering the performance of the PC, acting as an "accelerated" co-processor. This should improve system performance by unburdening the main CPU from having to process network traffic. ActiveArmor's firewall functions look fairly standard, and include packet inspection, port filtering, and other anti-hacking features as well as remote administration which is a must for IT departments.
• NV41 is Geforce 6700 - This chip will be clocked at 400MHz while the memory on cards will work at 1000MHz. You will be able to buy 128MB and 256MB versions. NV41 is derived from NV40 and will have full support for Pixel Shader 3.0 and at this time it's PCIe only. Those cards are set for production in November.
• S3 unveils OmniChrome graphics card - Today S3 is taking the wraps off OmniChrome, an answer to ATI's All-in-Wonder and NVIDIA's Personal Cinema. Based on a DeltaChrome S4 Nitro graphics card, OmniChrome adds a TV tuner and video decoder chip to enable video capture and PVR applications. Given DeltaChrome's native HDTV output support and less-than-stellar gaming performance, the PVR/home theater PC market seems like a natural market for S3 to pursue.
• Toshiba To Offer Laptops With HD-DVD in 2005 - Toshiba will release laptops with HD-DVD under its high-end Qosmio brand and plans to ship one million units in the first year to Europe, the U.S. and China, as well as Japan.
• OCZ DDR2 PC2-5400 Performance Series Memory video-review - 3D Game Man has posted an OCZ DDR2 PC2-5400 Performance Series Memory Video Review.
• Asus AX800XT/TVD review - In this review PCstats is testing one of Asus's flagship Radeon videocards, the AX800XT/TVD.
• Creative Sound Blaster Wireless Music review - For your money, you get a WiFi receiver box which sits next to your stereo, and a chunky remote control with a built-in LCD screen. The remote communicates with the receiver using radio waves rather than infrared, so there’s no need for a line of sight to the receiver. The idea is that you can have your PC and wireless access point in one room, your receiver and stereo in another, and you and your remote in a third room.
• [!}Spice up your MX Mouse - The standard USB port polling frequency for mice is 125hz ( for serial port 40hz ). This will not change no matter what mouse you buy as long as it uses the USB interface. The PS/2 port however can be adjusted to deliver as much as 200hz with the help of third party programs, making it the better option for games compared to a normal USB interface. However, USB can be spiced up by doing a little hexeditingSpice up your MX Mouse.
• TweakHound's Super XP Tweaking Guide - SP2 v.1 Beta - Eric Vaughan has published a Beta version of this guide, updated for SP2.
• ATI Catalyst Tweak Guide - TweakGuides have posted their latest guide that looks at tweaking your ATI Catalyst Drivers. This guide refers to the latest ATI Catalyst drivers Version 4.10, including the new ATI Catalyst Control Center and the Catalyst A.I Feature. Make sure to check back regularly as the guide is updated for each new Catalyst release.
• Kernel 2.6.9 Final - check it out (download)
• Microsoft Time Zone 2.1 - Microsoft Time Zone conveniently runs in the system tray and allows you to easily view the date and time in various locations around the world. You can also quickly and easily add your own personal locations to customize Microsoft Time Zone the way you want.
• ICQ Lite 4.14 Build #1839 - download ~ release notes.
• GAIM 1.0.2 - Gaim (download ~ changelog) is a multi-protocol instant messaging client for Linux, BSD, MacOS X, and Windows. It is compatible with AIM (Oscar and TOC protocols), ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, and Zephyr networks.
• FRAPS 2.3.3 - Fraps is a tool that lets you monitor current framerates in a corner of the screen for programs using DirectX or OpenGL technology. It also allows you to easily take screenshots of games, make movies of gameplay, and manually determine the average framerate between two points.
• Koepi's XviD Codec 1.1 Unstable - XviD is an ISO MPEG-4 compliant video codec. Use this build with great care! It's unstable, it can mess up your encodes badly.
• K-Lite Codec Pack 2.33 Full, Standard and Basic - K-Lite Codec Pack is a collection of codecs and related tools.
• NVIDIA DVD Decoder v1.00.58 - NVIDIA DVD Decoder (download) enables the industry's highest quality DVD and MPEG-2 playback and rich surround sound audio for Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center Edition.
• DVD Region+CSS Free 5.56 - DVD Region+CSS Free enables you to watch and copy any region code CSS-encrypted DVD movies on any DVD drive.
• TiVo Desktop 1.2 - TiVo Desktop allows you to access your music and photos located on a PC over the network using a TiVo.
• ATI Tray Tools v1.0.1.386 - ATI Tray Tools is a small utility that can be found in the windows tray which then allows instant access to options and settings. Quite handy and quite a small download.
• nVidia Unified Driver 6.11 Beta - The package (German language website, but you should be able to find _download_ link) contains: Audio driver version 4.55 (9/30 nightly INF), Audio utility version 4.49, Ethernet NRM driver version 4.57, Network management tools version 4.57, SMBus driver version 4.45 (WHQL) with updated uninstaller files, Installer version 4.55, Win2K IDE 2.7 driver version 4.64 (WHQL), WinXP IDE 2.7 driver version 4.64 (WHQL)  (thanks blooduk)  More info can be found here.
• NVIDIA Forceware 70.41 Unveiled - OSNN.net have managed to get our hands on some new NVIDIA drivers that will eventually become what is known as Rel7. There's no download, but they've decided to take some screenshots of how things are different since the Rel6 and Rel65 releases.
• ForceWare 66.81 Win2000/XP WHQL - Another unofficial ForceWare driverupdate. This one is a bit different though, it's online and serving from NVIDIA themselves (from the nzone pages) making it an official driver release. It's files are dated on the 19th of October 2004 making it the absolutely newest set available, it will work with all graphics cards from NVIDIA.  Another mirror can be found on NVIDIA Zone.

• Microsoft researching a new first-line worm defense -Microsoft research labs are working on a new technique, code-named Shield. Software patching has not been an effective first-line defense preventing large-scale worm attacks, even when patches had long been available for their corresponding vulnerabilities. Shield uses a shielding process that precedes the patching process. This will cover the critical time window between the vulnerability disclosure and patch application, when more than 90% of the attacks take place today.
• Can Laser Printers Fight Crime? - What if you could print your own driver's license at home, instead of having to wait in line all day at the DMV? That's the potential of an emerging technology in the works at Purdue University. Although it may not be apparent, all laser printers leave specific markings on each document they print, a process called banding. Purdue's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering has pioneered a tracking system that uses banding to trace a document back to the printer from which it originated.
• Watchdog issues porn dialler guidelines - The body that regulates premium-rate telephone services has issued guidance telling users how to deal with porn diallers. The leaflet from ICSTIS (PDF) explains how to distinguish legitimate dialler services from those that reroute dial-up connections by tricking consumers. It also explains how to make a complaint if you think you have been duped into downloading a dialler.
• Google Script Insertion Exploit - Google's custom websearch does not prevent javascript from being inserted into the url of the image, allowing malicious users to modify the content of the google page allowing in phishing attacks, or silently steal search terms/results/clicks or modify actual searches to always contain controlled results. With Googles trusted status, the risk is almost certainly high.
• Off-topic: The Man Who Could Have Been Bill Gates - BusinessWeek discusses They Made America, a new book which claims Bill Gates got the rewards due Gary Kildall. The book attacks the reputations of key early PC era players - Gates, IBM, and QDOS programmer Tim Paterson - asserting that Paterson copied parts of Kildall's CP/M and that IBM tricked Kildall, allowing Gates to prevail and depriving Kildall of untold riches and credit for a seminal role in the PC revolution.(thanks Slashdot.org)
• Off-topic: Gates: PC will replace TV, TV will become a giant Google - Gates explains that Microsoft has been experimenting with the 1970s-style split screen concept, where half of the TV is the regular broadcast program, and the other half is an interactive page. For viewers with zero attention spans - like Gates himself - the "interactive" page is always available. It will be broadcasting's salvation, he explains, because broadcasters will be able to make up the revenue they've lost from PVR-skipping by forcing viewers to look at Google-style ads.
• Off-topic: Busting the Biggest PC Myths - PCWorld expose the bad advice that wastes your time and money
• Microsoft Sets Licensing Policy for New Chips -  Microsoft on Tuesday agreed to require only a single license for server software that runs on computers powered by a new generation of chips that squeeze multiple processors into a single package.
• New iBooks, xServe RAID 5.6TB, PowerMac G5 1.8GHz released - Apple has released a bevy of revised systems today- iBooks: 1.25GHz/1.33GHz with Airport extreme and Combo, a xServe RAID model with 5.6TB of storage and a single CPU PowerMac G5 1.8GHz.
• Intel's dual-core Xeon due in 2006 - Intel's first dual-core Xeon processor is scheduled to arrive in the first quarter of 2006, a company executive said Monday, meaning that a competing chip from rival Advanced Micro Devices will likely arrive several months earlier.
• AMD Assaults New Performance Heights with New Chips - As expected, AMD, on Tuesday officially released its new microprocessors - AMD Athlon 64 4000+ and AMD Athlon 64 FX-55. The FX-55 product operates at 2.60GHz, has dual-channel memory controller, 1MB of L2 cache, bringing new performance heights to Sunnyvale, California-based AMD. The model 4000+ processor is clocked at 2.40GHz, contain 1MB of L2 cache and sport dual-channel memory controller, fully copying specs of the previous top chip AMD Athlon 64 FX-53 processor for Socket 939 infrastructure. The company also cut the prices of its mainstream Mobile Athlon 64 processors, and those of the XP-M chips. The latter saw a number of lower-end parts knocked off AMD's official price list.Intel Corporation is expected to respond to the new "FX" chip with a new "Extreme Edition" microprocessor clocked at 3.46GHz and featuring 1066MHz Quad Pumped Bus along with 2MB L3 cache. In related news, VIA Technologies today announced that its VIA K8T890 series chipsets will support the new AMD Athlon 64 FX-55 processor and AMD Athlon 64 processor 4000+.
• nForce4 Ultra & SLI preview - As can be seen from the benchmarks, there is really little to discuss here. With the memory controller on the AMD Athlon 64 CPU, it is going to be hard for anyone to squeeze out a major performance difference. In 3D gaming and all sorts of applications, we saw the nForce4 and the current K8T800Pro chipsets stay pretty much even in terms of performance. Worth remembering too is that retail K8T800 solutions have been on the market a while now and are starting to mature, while no motherboard builder has yet to show us a working nForce4 retail sample. And rest assured that SLI support is on the way from VIA as well.
• Sennheiser RS 65 Headphone review - The unifying characteristic of consumer cordless headphone systems used to be, of course, that they sucked. Crummy sound, lousy range, poor ergonomics. For a lot less than you used to have to pay for a good wireless 'phone system, Sennheiser's RS 65 headphones solve all of thes old cordless problems. They're not perfect, but they're very good.
• Motherboard Troubleshooting Guide - Zone365 has posted a Motherboard Troubleshooting Guide.
• BWMeter 2.10 - BWMeter is a powerful bandwidth meter and monitor (download), which measures and displays all traffic on your network. Unlike other products, it can analyze the data packets (where they come from, where they go, which port and protocol they use). BWMeter can create statistics for all computers in your network, measuring and displaying all internal network traffic as well as download and upload from the internet.
• Bench'emAll  - This is a tool to launch a set of your favourite 3D game benchmarks and synthetic 3D tests in a single batch job automatically. Bench'emAll! will do all the boring stuff for you: start the benchmark, wait for result fps and write result to the file.
• Codec Pack All in 1 6.0.2.1 - The pack includes DivX 5.2.1, Koepi's XviD Codec 1.0.2 Final, DivX, XviD - FFDShow 12.10.2004, MPEG2 3.0.0.0, Subtitles G400 2.83, Subtitles DVobSub (Win9x, Win2k a WinXP) 2.23, 2.33, OGG Vorbis 0.9.9.5, AC3 1.01a RC5, Morgan Multimedia Stream Switcher 0.99.

• MyDoom seeks to destroy antivirus firms - Worm writers are threatening to attack antivirus companies F-Secure, Symantec, Trend Micro and McAfee. In the latest version of MyDoom--MyDoom.AE--the authors embedded a message ridiculing rival worm Netsky and promising to attack the antivirus companies.The message has left antivirus companies unsure of what to expect.
• File-swapping "hobby" man in $500m lawsuit - For six years, Stephen Cooper ran a song-sharing MP3s4free.net website from his modest brick home in Bellbowrie, in Brisbane's west, that attracted 190 million visitors a year and allegedly earned him up to $64,000 a month. Now the world's record companies have put the former policeman on their hit list - with a $500 million bullet. After raids in October last year - on his home and at the Sydney offices of his Internet service provider - the father of two is facing a damages claim for as much as $500 million from 31 Australian and international record companies for copyright infringement.
• Latest Netsky variant spreading fast - Security experts have warned users to beware a new version of the prolific W32/Netsky virus. According to McAfee's Avert antivirus research team, the Netsky.ag variant is a prolific mass-mailing worm that spreads via email, sending itself to addresses found on the victim's machine.
• Microsoft Patches Windows Server 2003 - Setting the stage for what it hopes will be a "breakout year" for its server operating systems, Microsoft this week announced it will ship the first Release Candidate of its Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Windows Server 2003 by year's end as well as a SDK (software development kit) for the High Performance Computing version of Windows Server in November.
• Multiple Vendor Anti-Virus Software Detection Evasion Vulnerability - Remote exploitation of an exceptional condition error in multiple vendors' anti-virus software allows attackers to bypass security protections by evading virus detection.
• New copy protection uses chemical to manipulate DVD laser - Dynamic Media Solutions, an Israeli company, says it has developed a "novel technology" that, it claims, will provide a "far-reaching copy protection solution for current and next-generation optical media, which include CD/DVD, CD/DVD recordable, and DVD-Video media." Furthermore, they say it is fully compatible with todays hardware players and cheap. The system applies directly to the restriction of DVD-Audio discs, but not audio CDs at this time however.
• CherryOS Not BS, Author Says - Despite being widely accused of code theft, fraud and other chicanery, the author of the controversial CherryOS Mac emulator is sticking to his guns: It's all on the up and up, says programmer Arben Kryeziu. As previously reported, CherryOS purports to be a Mac emulator that allows Mac OS X to run on Windows PCs. The complex system was ostensibly written in four months by Kryeziu alone, who claims it performs at about 80 percent of the speed of the PC host's hardware. On Oct. 11, Maui X-Stream, Kryeziu's employer and a Hawaii streaming-video company, offered the software as a $50 download at CherryOS.com. But it appears the software was never made available, and all week the site complained of problems caused by overwhelming traffic and malicious attacks by crackers.
• Microsoft may create Russian Hotmail - Microsoft Corp is considering creating Russian versions of its Hotmail e-mail program and Microsoft Network online service, company CEO Steve Ballmer said in an interview published on Monday.
• Off-topic: Chinese kid topples US games champion - A chinese youth demolished US games champion Fatal1ty today, walking away not only with RMB$1,000,000 ($125,000), but getting a job with Abit to be its PR spinner on the mainland.
• Off-topic: Gravity constant called into question - One of nature's venerable constants - gravity - may not be the same for every type of particle in the universe, suggest new calculations. The finding could explain a persistent mystery regarding how much helium was created in the first few minutes after the big bang, say physicists. The gravitational constant (G) first estimated by Isaac Newton and also known as Newton's constant, describes the strength of the gravitational pull that bodies exert on each other. For particles - protons, neutrons and electrons - this relates to their mass. In the case of light - photons - it relates to energy.
• Off-topic: Who Leaked "Halo"? - Let's get the basic facts out of the way: The game's predecessor sold more than 4 million copies. A French version appears to have been leaked from a disc-stamping foundry a full month before the official launch. Yada yada yada. Now, on to the conspiracy. You ready for this? Get your ear right up to the monitor. Microsoft did it.
• Microsoft Bringing TV to Xbox - Microsoft is set to release its Windows Media Center Extender for Xbox mid-November. The device will allow you to view recorded and downloaded media content stored on your PC via your Xbox.
• Xbox 2 to be announced on January 5? - Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates has been confirmed as the pre-show keynote speaker at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January. According to media reports, Gates could bring a late Christmas gift to Las Vegas: A new Xbox.
• Intel Details Dual Core Roadmap - And it appears that when the first "Smithfield" dual core processors are launched in the third quarter of next year, they will be called the x20, the x30 and the x40. An x20 is a twin 1MB L2 cache processor supporting EM64T extensions and the "execute disable" bit. Clock speed for the x20 will be 2.80GHz, for the x30 3GHz and for the x40 3.20GHz - they will have 800MHz system buses and use the LGA775 socket. Meanwhile, Intel's 630, 640, 650 and 660 processors, which have 2MB of L2 cache and 800MHz system buses, will be launched in the first quarter, but we don't expect to see them in systems until Q2. They will cost $225, $270, $400 and $600 respectively. More detailed info about these new Dual Core CPUs can be found on DataFuse.net
• No more LGA775 Pentium 4 price cuts in 2004 - Intel has told its Taiwanese customers not to expect LGA775 Pentium 4 price cuts before the end of the year.
• Intel discounts Pentium M, Centrino bundles -  Intel just slashed the price of its Pentium M processors and Centrino bundles. The discounts are hefty, too. High-end Pentium M 755 2.0GHz and 745 1.8GHz chips see price cuts of over 30%!
• Fake RADEON 9600 PRO Graphics Cards Hit the Market - Graphics cards maker Tul Corp. may face denunciation from customers and distributors as at least some graphics cards with the "Power Color" brand-name made by the company use different graphics processors than they should.  Allegedly fake graphics cards are marked with R96T-QC3 marking, a typical nomenclature for Power Color's products, equipped with 128MB of 2.8ns Hynix DDR SDRAM chips, which can theoretically run at up to 714MHz speed , D-Sub, DVI-I and TV-Out connectors, according to Tim Tscheblockov, a 3D graphics analyst for X-bit labs in Moscow, Russia. Tul Corp., the owner of the Power-Color brand-name, did not have any RADEON 9600 PRO graphics cards on its web-site at press time.
• AMD Athlon FX overclocking to 3Ghz: Creating a "Gamebeast" - This setup has all the bragging rights available, but is it actually worth its extreme price? Does buying an 800 euro cooling for your CPU improve your gaming experience? Do we need a 3Ghz FX? Find out in this overclocking extravaganza!
• Analysis of the Main Characteristics of Memory Modules. Part 4: Corsair DDR2 Modules -  Digit-Life proceed with a new series of articles devoted to the low level analysis of the most important characteristics of memory modules using our RightMark Memory Analyzer test package. The purpose of this analysis is to provide information on compatibility of a given memory module from a given manufacturer with different mainboards based on various chipsets. The object of our next analysis is a matched pair of DDR2 Corsair modules totaling 1 GB.
• Intel and AMD in a Web Application Shoot-out - AnandTech ran load tests on Macromedia ColdFusion MX 6.1, PHP 4.3.9, and Microsoft .NET 1.1. We used a collaboration application called FuseTalk for their .NET and ColdFusion tests, and they used the popular open-source portal software, PHPNuke for our PHP test.
• AMD Sempron 2800+ , Sempron 3100+ and Intel Celeron D 335 comparison - Which value processor should you choose? If your budget resembles a shoestring then a bottom-end Sempron (Socket A, obviously) or Celeron D 320 are the natural choices. Both CPUs have a number of cheap-ish supporting motherboards that often feature integrated video as standard. If your budget is set a little higher, say, at L80 for a processor (or L150 for a processor/motherboard bundle), AMD's K8-class Sempron 3100+ is comfortably the best choice. It's just a shame that it's been stripped of 64-bit goodness, though.
• AMD Athlon64 - 64-bit vs. 32-bit, A Head On Comparison - In this article PCstats will examine the performance of the AMD Athlon 64 processor using conventional Windows XP and 32-bit benchmarking software, and compare those results to the same tests using the 64-bit 'x64 edition' beta version of Windows XP. For comparison purposes, they also tested the performance of the 64-bit XP beta using both 32-bit and 64-bit benchmarking programs in the 64-bit environment.
• OCZ PC4000EL Gold Edition review -  In this review, OCModShop is testing OCZ's Gold Edition PC4000EL DDR Dual channel kit. This 1GB of total memory consists of two 512MB modules and is specifically paired to use a dual channel motherboard. The OCZ PC4000EL DDR is rated to run at 250MHz while maintaing fast timings of 2.5-4-4-7 at 2.8V. Unofficially, this memory can easily run at 265MHz.
• Seven PCI Express Graphics Cards Compared - In the mid-range, we really, really like nVidia's new GeForce 6600 GT card. This card gives incredible performance for the money, especially in new titles such as Doom3 and Counterstrike : Source. The AOpen GeForce 6600 GT card we tested was less expensive than ATI's competing Radeon X700 Pro card, but was faster in nearly every benchmark. The 6600 GT also was surprisingly close in performance to the QuadroFX 3400 PCIe card, which is roughly five times the price of the 6600 GT. While we didn't mention this before, the GeForce 6600 GT is also quite an overclocker, and looks to be one of the best price to performance ratio cards from the nVidia camp in quite a long time.
• Chaintech DTT-1000 DVB TV Tuner review - At its most basic level, the DTT-1000 is Freeview in a PCI slot. It receives digital free to air television channels and radio signals through an aerial. On top of this it has time shifting capabilities, an electronic program guide (EPG) which works in the UK unlike a lot of other cards, a snapshot option, video capture in MPEG 1 and 2 and Teletext. This is a good feature set, but if you want to display this digital image on your TV you’ll need to use the TV out from your graphics card, if it has that feature.
• Gigabyte GO-W1608A 16x DVD±RW Drive review - Gigabyte GO-W1608A has proven to be very quiet during my daily usage to burn the recorded tv programs so that I can view them using the conventional DVD player. Now with the Dual Layer support, I do not need to use software DVDshrink to compress the movies so that it can fit within 4.7G.
• VisionTek 1GB Go Drive review - So now you are probably asking "How much is it???" I expected that the price would put a nice little dent in your pocketbook, but fortunately it isn't nearly as bad as I thought. For a measly $99.99, you can pick up the Go Drive directly from VisionTek. Not too bad of a dent after all.
• COOLMAX 3.5" X-Treme FILES review - At less than $70 USD, it's another good external enclosure out on the market. It does have some air holes to let some air into the unit too. In no time during testing did the 3.5" disk get very hot.
• Etymotic Performance Shootout - ER-6i, ER-4P and ER-4S Earphones - CoolTechZone tested these headphones with a variety of music generas that include gaming and classical music for precision in sounds. Games like Unreal Tournament 2004, Battlefield 1942, Doom III, and FarCry were tested for enviormental sounds while music from Metallica and Hard Rock was selected to test volume levels, bass levels, and noise clearity. This time they are also including a stand-alone amplifier to correctly note the subtle performance differences between the three pairs. Of course the amplifier is necessary for the ER-4S so it makes sense to compare the rest of the pairs with the same testing methods.
• BenQ DC C50 Digital Camera review - On the face of it, the L163 DC C50 is attractively designed with a mirrored plate mounted to the front giving it an overall “retro” appearance. The body is constructed from metal and the build quality feels sturdy. In the hand, the DC C50 feels well-balanced and your thumb falls nicely over the rocker switch which controls the 3x optical (and 4x digital) zoom. Instead of a going for a bulky grip BenQ has added a bobbled surface to the front to help you keep a firm purchase, while keeping the DC C50 at a suitable size for your a pocket.
• Building an AMD64 HTPC for around $1000 - What is building an HTPC? Pretty easy answer actually.. its the fastest system you can cram into a case with poor ventilation all the while trying to keep silence in mind. Its actually pretty easy if you are prepared to live with a toaster for a computer, by no means will you get the same temperatures from your gaming rig. There is a little something called WAF that we will try to achieve a high score on as well ;). Clear?
• XP/2003 Trick - Bootlogo boot.ini switch - "/BOOTLOGO" Use this switch to have Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 display an installable splash screen instead of the standard splash screen. First, create a 16-color (any 16 colors) 640x480 bitmap and save it in the Windows directory with the name Boot.bmp. Then add "/bootlogo /noguiboot" to the boot.ini selection. (thanks Neowin.net)
• Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe 2005 review - The Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe 2005 is a phenomenal program that can give users access to a wealth of information. With more than 63,000 articles, 20,000 images, 200 videos and animations, 2000 sound and audio clips, and 36,000 map locations, Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe can provide information for virtually any subject.
• Exchange Server MSSearch Administration Tool - The Exchange Server MSSearch Administration tool can be used to determine which Exchange Stores in the domain have Full-Text Indexes, provide status on indexes, and provide administration tasks all via the command line.
• ShaderMark v2.1 - Shadermark has been updated to version 2.1. You will need 66.31 drivers (61.77 will not work) and DirectX 9.0c running on a Shader 2.0 or better card.
• Here It Is! 1.6.116 - Here it is! - (download) the ultimate solution for organizing your media collection. It allows you to easily add, browse and search your CD, DVD, ZIP, JAZZ and other removable discs
• SpeedFan 4.17 - SpeedFan is a freeware program that monitors fan speeds, temperatures and voltages in computers with hardware monitoring chips.

The test PC equipped with Windows XP Professional Service Pack 1 was an average of 0.5% faster than the same hardware with Service Pack 2 installed. The percentage difference between faster and slower is insignificantly small. Less than 2 or 3 percent in some benchmarks could be dismissed by most but when gamers are looking to squeeze every extra frame out of their machines...it may count.

• Bungie Speaks On Halo 2 Leak - A moderator on the official Halo 2 forums posted some speculations and warnings about the Halo 2 leak. To the question where the leak originated he answered "is almost positively the work of some jerk in the manufacturing plant who pocketed the game".
• Four eastern Europeans charged over phishing scam - The Financial Times reports that two men and two women from Russia, Estonia and Ukraine were allegedly part of a gang that duped customers into giving them their banking details before stealing money from their accounts. If successful, the case will be something of a coup for the UK's National High-Tech Crime Unit, which has been collaborating with foreign authorities to clamp down on internet-based crime.
• High Court in London orders ISP's to hand over pirates ID's - The High Court in London has ordered ISPs to hand over the names and addresses of 28 alleged music pirates to Britain's trade body for the recording industry. The British Phonographic Industry Ltd., or BPI, Friday welcomed the court order by Justice William Blackburne as the first step to suing people it accuses of promoting the illegal downloading of copyrighted music.The ruling is a victory for both the BPI and its umbrella organization, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, IFPI, which announced earlier this month that its affiliates were filing a total of 459 lawsuits against alleged Internet pirates in Britain, France, Germany, Denmark, Italy and Austria.
• Norton AntiVirus 2004 Script Blocking Failure - If you ever *do* run a hazardous script in on a box running NAV2004 don't count on Script Blocking to cover your butt. Symantec should be publicly flogged for trying to sell this inferior AV software to home users, especially knowing they have a decently workable AV product in their Enterprise line.
• Sender ID Finds New Life - Internet Light and Power says it will become one of the first ISPs to deploy Microsoft Corp.'s anticipated Sender ID technology in daily operations.  Sender ID will become part of the Toronto-based company's iPermitMail virtual e-mail firewall, which ILAP developed as a means of combating e-mail fraud.
• Microsoft Issues Patch for SP2 - Microsoft has issued a patch for a compatibility problem between the recent Windows XP Service Pack 2 and an advertising application run on many users' machines. The service pack was causing system crashes due to a conflict with a hidden app from Total Velocity Software, called TV Media.
• Google targets Microsoft with search tool - Google has rolled out a preliminary version of its new desktop search tool, making the first move against its major competitors in the race to provide tools for finding information buried in computer hard drives.
• Off-topic: Endangered species: US programmers - Say goodbye to the American software programmer. Once the symbols of hope as the nation shifted from manufacturing to service jobs, programmers today are an endangered species. They face a challenge similar to that which shrank the ranks of steelworkers and autoworkers a quarter century ago: competition from foreigners. Some experts think they'll become extinct within the next few years, forced into unemployment or new careers by a combination of offshoring of their work to India and other low-wage countries and the arrival of skilled immigrants taking their jobs.
• Off-topic: Hydrogen-powered cars creep forward - Fuel-cell-powered cars moved another step closer yesterday with the announcement that a group of British scientists have developed a material that can safely store and release hydrogen. Although fuel cell technology is reasonably well developed, scientists have struggled to find a way of storing enough hydrogen fuel to make them viable alternatives to petrol engines. However, the breakthrough that the Liverpool and Newcastle team has made could change that. It has developed a nanoporous material into which they can load highly pressurised hydrogen. However, once the gas is stored in the pores - nanometres across - its pressure is lowered considerably.
• Off-topic: New propulsion concept could make 90-day Mars round trip possible - Mag-beam is one of 12 proposals that this month began receiving support from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Institute for Advanced Concepts. Each gets $75,000 for a six-month study to validate the concept and identify challenges in developing it. Projects that make it through that phase are eligible for as much as $400,000 more over two years.  Under the mag-beam concept, a space-based station would generate a stream of magnetized ions that would interact with a magnetic sail on a spacecraft and propel it through the solar system at high speeds that increase with the size of the plasma beam. Winglee estimates that a control nozzle 32 meters wide would generate a plasma beam capable of propelling a spacecraft at 11.7 kilometers per second. That translates to more than 26,000 miles an hour or more than 625,000 miles a day.
• PSP will support MP3 - Besides MP3, the portable device can accept JPEG and of course Sony's ATREC3plus audio format. Browsing and playing back the files will be done with the Cross Media Bar (XMB), a interface which was also used in Sony´s PSX system ( a hybrid of a DVD recorder and the PS2 sold only in Japan).
• Dell unveils holiday lineup, including new plasma TVs - Dell Inc. took the wraps off its holiday lineup on Thursday, showing new printers, plasma televisions and music players that will soon be available through its Web site.
• AMD preps high-performance chips for desktops - The chipmaker will unveil its Athlon 64 FX-55 chip next week, in an effort to bump up the performance of game desktops and other high-end PCs in time for the holiday season. The chip is expected to be unveiled on Tuesday, along with the AMD Athlon 64 4000+, the company's highest-performance processor for mainstream desktops.
• Intel: It will be hard for AMD to follow us - The day of Intel's earning results, CEO Craig Barrett delivered an up-beat report to all the firm's employees, via a Webcast and through its internal organ Circuit News. Barrett told the staff that Intel has a "plan and product roadmaps" which will allow the company to be successful despite "several highly publicised setbacks" in the recent months. As reported yesterday, Intel will not make the 4-gigahertz version of its Pentium 4 PC processor. Intel will release another chip that has fewer gigahertz.
• Sharp To Ship New HD-equipped Zaurus In Japan - The SL-C3000 includes a 4GB hard drive, a 416MHz Intel XScale PXA270 CPU and 64MB of RAM. All of that in a package weighing 298g!
• Seagate's Savvio 2.5" SCSI hard drive review - Savvio drives are a little less than 70% smaller than 3.5" disks by volume and less than a third of their weight. To put that in perspective, a single Savvio is roughly the size of a deck of cards—you need three Savvios to approach the volume of one 3.5" hard drive.
• Gigabyte GO-W1608A 16x DVD+RW Drive  review - OCWorkbench has posted a review of the Gigabyte GO-W1608A Dual Layer 16x DVD-RW Drive.
• Imation 1GB USB 2.0 Swivel Flash Drive review - Bjorn3D has posted a review on the Imation 1GB USB 2.0 Swivel Flash Drive.
• Samsung Multifunction Device review - The SCX-5315F falls into the higher end of multifunction devices by boasting a 1200 dpi class laser printer engine rated for 15 pages per minute, a 600 x 600 dpi scanner, a copier rated at 15 pages per minute. This product is targeted towards businesses as it combines the main machines you would find in a typical office into a compact device. We'll be taking a look at how the device performs in terms of its overall speed, quality and value.
• Forceware Drivers Compared (61.77 - 66.29 - 66.51 - 66.70 - 66.81) - TechConnect Magazine benchmarked three DirectX games and three OpenGL games, old and new included. They also turned on the Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic gameplay and/or fixing any other issue. Last couple Filtering to compare the differences between all five drivers.
• SQL Server 2005 Express October CTP - Download the Community Technology Preview (CTP) of Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition.
• MySQL 4.1.6 Gamma  - This is the third 4.1 gamma release, primarily fixing bugs in preparation for the upcoming production release.
• Serious Samurize 1.60 - Samurize (download) is a system monitoring utility with outstanding configuration power. The configuration program is totally separated from the client for minimal memory usage.
• 3d Traceroute 1.9.4:4 "Really Last Preview" - Replace all your ugly ping plotters and traceroute programs with a full blown three dimensional traceroute program.
• DeepBurner Free 1.1.5.149 - DeepBurner is a new CD/DVD burning software that utilize power and effeciency. With DeepBurner you can create data, bootable, and audio CDs as well as data DVDs.

• Nvidia Omega Drivers v1.6177 - These are "optimized" drivers (Based on the Official 61.77 drivers) for the NVIDIA family of video cards/laptops made by Omega. They are not supported officially by NVIDIA.

• Halo 2 leaked onto the net - Microsoft has pledged to "aggressively pursue" whoever leaked Halo 2, the eagerly awaited sequel to the Xbox hit, onto the net. The game, a key title for MS' console in the run up to Christmas, is believed to have surfaced on Usenet and the web last night, possibly in the form of a localised French version, according to early reports. The download is said to weigh in at 3GB and lack support for Xbox Live multi-player gaming. Another story can be found here.
• Technology hinders fraud investigations - Increasingly sophisticated technology is making serious fraud harder to investigate, according to the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). In an interview with Computing, SFO Assistant Director Peter Kiernan, said new remote networked technologies and storage intense laptops, mean investigators have to search for more information sources and locations when tracking down fraudsters.
• Australia vulnerable to Korean hacking army - An army of more than 500 hackers hired by the North Korean military could find Australian businesses a "softer target" than their U.S. or European-based counterparts, according to security experts. A U.S. security expert who requested anonymity said Australia could provide a "back door" into corporate networks and provide the North Koreans' with intellectual property worth billions of dollars.
• Fake Beckham pics trick users with virus - Hackers have posted thousands of messages on internet chat rooms and news groups, claiming users can see pictures of the England football captain in a 'compromising' position with a Spanish hooker by downloading a file. But inquisitive users will actually be infecting their PC with the Hackarmy trojan horse, a type of virus which can be used by cyber-criminals to remote gain access to unprotected PCs.
• BSA collects more than USD$ 2.2 million from 25 U.S. companies - BSA has announced that it has collected more than 2.2 million USD in settlements with 25 U.S. companies.
• [Vulnerability] Format String Vulnerability in Valve's CS-Source - If u type '%n' (without ') to in-game-console, your game crashes instantly!
• [Vulnerability] MSN Gaming Heartbeat Component Buffer Overflow - John Heasman of NGSSoftware has discovered a high risk vulnerability in the Heartbeat component used on MSN related gaming sites. This vulnerability has now been fixed by Microsoft, and a fix can be downloaded from the Microsoft Security website.
• Unearthing the origins of Firefox (interview) - Goodger, a native of Auckland, New Zealand, has spent most of the past four years working for AOL's Netscape division and then at the Mozilla Foundation AOL spun off last year to oversee the open-source development of the Mozilla and Firefox browsers. As the Web observes the 10th anniversary of the first public release of the Netscape browser, Goodger finds himself the lead engineer for Firefox, widely seen as Mozilla's best browser yet and an increasingly popular alternative to Microsoft's dominant Internet Explorer.
• Lycos Builds Web Circles - Called Circles, the site will be announced officially at the DigitalLife conference in New York City and can be found online at http://circles.lycos.com. The site lets a user define multiple groups of acquaintances, such as a group of co-workers, a group of family members, a group of neighbors, and a group of school parents. What the user shares with each group can be established independently of the other groups, or can overlap more than one group.
• Off-topic: Russia plans 500-day mock Mars mission - Russian space researchers will lock six men in a metal tube for more than a year in an effort to mimic the stresses and challenges of a manned mission to Mars. The 500 Days experiment, under development by the Russian Institute of Medical and Biological Problems, will isolate human volunteers in a mock space station module for -- as its namesake suggests -- a complete 500 days to study how a long mission to Mars might affect its human crew.
• Off-topic: Internet sex - US suspects Briton - Police in America have issued an arrest warrant for a North Yorkshire man who allegedly had sex with a teenager he met in an internet chat room. James Horsfield, 36, from Leyburn, is wanted in connection with an alleged sexual assault on a 15-year-old in Austin, Texas. On Wednesday, North Yorkshire Police said they had arrested a 36-year-old for an alleged offence of grooming. He has been released on police bail and could now face extradition proceedings.
• Abit dual AMD 64-bit Opteron SU-2S shows prowess as UT2K4 game server - Abit has now unveiled its latest server board for the gaming community, its SU-2S dual-AMD-Opteron server, which, according to the director of marketing at Abit, Scott Thirlwell, has now been running Unreal Tournament 2004 (UT2K4) game server for six weeks straight, with no problems. The server is using the AMD Opteron 246 series CPU and is running under Red Hat Linux Advanced Server edition, said Thirlwell. Currently, the company is working with a local Taiwan ISP that has two servers online, and Thirlwell expects a US server to be set up within the next few weeks.
• .09 Athlon 64: Value, Speed and Overclocking - The major impact of the new 90nm Athlon 64 chips may not be quite as obvious. Prior to the new 3000+, 3200+, and 3500+ 90nm chips, the entry point to dual-channel 939 was the $400 3500+. As a result, buyers saw the Socket 754 as the value solution for Athlon 64 shoppers, where they could buy a 754 Sempron 3100+ for about $120 or a full 64-bit 2800+ for around $140. The new 3000+ should cost about the same as the 130nm 3000+ once the new settles into the market. That will make the cost of entry for the top 939 chipset well below $200 for the CPU. Many buyers who would have bought 939 if it had been cheaper will now be able to buy 939. This leads us to future directions for 754 and 939. Roadmaps show 754 ending in late 2005, but 5 quarters is still a lifetime in CPU sockets.
• AMD Sempron 3100+ review - It is not easy to sum up the Sempron 3100+ as it is a decent enough CPU and since we have not yet seen what Intel has on offer with its latest Celeron processors, it's hard to make any kind of comparative judgement. I would however go as far as to say that the Sempron 3100+ is one of the best budget processors to have hit the market.
• Corsair TWIN2X1024-5400C4PRO review - Corsair has earned a reputation as makers of fast and reliable ram, and this tradition continues from past ram formats and into DDR-2. While not earth shattering, performance-wise today, DDR-2 is forward thinking as Intel scales their clock speeds, and the TWIN2X Pro Series is up to the task
• OCZ PC3700 Gold Rev. 3 review - The latest version of OCZ's PC3700 Gold is a superb overclocker, and is among the fastest 3700 or 4000 speed ram you can buy, all things we have come to expect from OCZ. An added benefit is you no longer need 3.0V+ of voltage to achieve maximum speed. I've done a bit of testing on an Asus K8N-E, and was able to get to 540mhz with only 2.7V, that board's maximum. The Gold series now occupies the mid-range of OCZ's performance lineup, with the Platinum series taking over the top spot. This means that the latest version of the 3700 Gold is not just faster than previous versions, but less expensive as well. How can you lose? Very highly recommended.
• Intel's 900-Series Chipsets: PCI-Express and LGA775 - The 915 and 925 chipsets offer Intel's usual stability and solid performance, while making sure that you're all set to take advantage of PCI Express, DDR2, and Intel's new Socket 775 CPUs. The 915 offers a passable integrated graphics solution that might actually let you game a little on grandma's Dell when you're stuck at her place this Christmas. Unfortunately, there's a price to pay for being future-proof. You get to deal with extra power issues, and if you're looking at the 925X chipset, you'll have to shell out for DDR2 memory. That's a fairly major drawback, in my opinion, especially given the fact that you're buying that DDR2 simply because the platform requires it, not because it actually gets you any major performance increases.
• Abit AA8-3rd Eye review - This motherboard is the same thing as an AA8-DuraMAX with a new accessory addition. This 3rd Eye refers to the µGuru clock that is included with the bundle and is quite a nice feature.
• Epox EP-5EGA+ 915G motherboard review -  The EP-5EGA+ is a next generation board which is based on the new Intel 915G and ICH6R chipsets. The standard flavour is the 915P, but as you guessed it, the 915G boasts its own Intel GMA900 integrated video package. It also comes with the high bandwidth PCI Express x16 slot for graphics cards, so there are couple options video-wise.
• [!] Summary of 3D Tests of 101 Video Cards Manufactured in 1999-2004 - Digit-life has posted a huge roundup of graphics cards launched since 1999!
• Thermaltake Fanless 103 socket 754 cooler - Without a fan the temps just got up 65-70 Celsius which is to high so with that conclusion you need a fan atleast. So we mounted a Zalman 92 mm fan to cool this off with.
• Vantec NexStar 3.5" HDD External Enclosure - With the NexStar 3.5" External Hard Drive Enclosure, you can back up your valuable data, transfer your collection of videos and songs, or even carry that important presentation with you quickly and easily. The NexStar is also an ideal way to add an extra hard drive to your system without having to open your system and deal with jumpers and cables. The NexStar also features a sturdy housing with aluminum covers to dampen noise and cool your hard drive. The NexStar supports both FireWire and USB2.0, offering speeds up to 480MBps.
• Fortron Blue Storm 400W FSP400-60THN-R review - The 3.3v rail was stable, but the maximum VDIMM was only running at 2.85v. Fortron really needs to go back to the drawing board and come up with a beefier power supply. The Blue Storm does look nice, but looks can be deceiving. Fortron should have stuck with the 530W and made that power supply blue instead. If you're in the market for a new power supply but don't have $100 to experiment with, stay away from the new Fortron Blue Storm. Get the Fortron 530W instead.
• Altec Lansing FX6021 2.1 Speakers review - The FX6021's sound fantastic. For simply listening to music, you would be hard pressed to find a better set of 2.1 speakers. The clarity of sound that comes from the 6 pairs of 1" drivers is, quite simply, amazing. Unfortunately because they are 2.1 speakers, some movie buffs and gamers may be disappointed with the lack of surround sound capability.
• PCMCIA Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook review - The 2 ZS Notebook uses hardware-accelerated EAX 4.0 ADVANCED HD and 3D positional audio support to bring high quality sound to games. Creative has also added virtual surround for gamers, or anyone, through their Creative Multi-Speaker Surround 3D support. For those wanting to listen to music, Creative has endowed the 2 ZS Notebook with a high audio clarity of 104dB SNR. They feel this is the best to handle 24-bit/192kHz audio content, including DVD-Audio.
• Toshiba e400 PocketPC review - The Toshiba e400 PocketPC is available at CompGeeks for only $191.50. The e400 is not bulky and is much more compact than other PocketPC's on the market. The unit weighs in at an incredible 4.6 oz and can easily fit in your pocket. The unit also has a very nice design and looks similar to the e800.. Does size matter? The e400 was able to perform all normal functions as other PocketPC's I have tried and specializes as a voice recorder as well. The unit runs on the Intel PXA261 processor at 300MHz.
• AudioBUG AB-250 FM Wireless Transmitter review - The AudioBUG AB-250 is an ingenious little device that happened to land on my desk a few days ago. Manufactured by a company named Aerielle Inc www.aerielle.com out of Mountain View California, the AudioBUG AB-250 is the answer to taking your music from a portable device to any FM radio stereo system. As long as your favorite MP3 Player, CD player, or Mini Disc Player has a headphone jack, the AudioBUG AB-250 can wirelessly send music from your portable player to any speakers hooked up to a working FM dial.
• Tritton See2 USB 2.0 SVGA Adapter review - Tritton Technologies says its See2 is the world's first USB 2.0 to SVGA adapter -- a $99 gadget that converts a Windows 2000 or XP system's USB 2.0 port to a 15-pin VGA port for connecting a spare CRT or analog-interface LCD. Slightly larger than your PC mouse, the plastic dongle needs no external power supply or other connections; it has a handsome transparent top and glowing blue LED, though you probably won't see it tucked behind your monitor.
• Siemens S65 Tri-band Mobile Phone review - For consumers who enjoy large and highly viewable visual displays on their mobile phones, Siemens' Tri-band S65 would definitely be in the running for your money. Not only do you get to have a well-crafted and designed handset, you'll also get to enjoy more than 160 'premium' shots at the same time. This should suffice for wallet-sized printouts and even 3R sized printouts – that is if you don't mind a somewhat grainy image quality. Add in the extended storage capacity found in the form of a RS-MMC slot and you'll have one more reason to let your finger loose and be a shutterbug yourself. Still, as far as camera functions are concerned, the ones found in the S65 were nothing out of the norm as most mobile phones in the market right now are offering more or less the same set of camera functions.
• MyDVD Studio Deluxe Suite 6.0 review - MyDVD Studio is available in a number of versions: MyDVD 6.0 is an OEM edition that comes with basic CD and DVD video authoring tools; MyDVD Studio 6.0 (L39.99 ex. VAT) offers the complete CD and DVD video authoring package with integrated video editing and CinePlayer 2.0 DVD playback software; MyDVD Studio Deluxe 6.0 (L55.86 ex. VAT) further adds music CD ripping and burning, CD/DVD coping and disc labelling, while MyDVD Studio Deluxe Suite 6.0 (reviewed here) comes with Sonic Software's BackUp MyPC software.
• Plans 6.2 (free webapp) - Plans (download) is a powerful and flexible Web calendar. Its features include recurring events, merged calendars, event icons, custom themes and templates, MS Outlook export, SQL or flat-file data storage, and browser-based management.
• phpMyAdmin 2.6.0-pl2 (Patch Level 2) - phpMyAdmin (changelog) 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.
• Fresh UI  v7.21 - Fresh UI - your free Windows tweaking tool - just got better with the release of version 7.21. What's new: hidden options for Windows Security and Covering Track sections. Just install it over the old version you have.
• MemTest86+ 1.27 - MemTest86+ 1.27 is available for download. This new version adds support for nVidia nForce 4, FSB1066 P4 EE, Intel i925XE and  90nm Athlon 64.
• CrystalCPUID 4.0.0.212 - CrystalCPUID is a CPU identification utility, which shows quite comprehensive information about your CPU, memory and BIOS. All the data can be saved in a report file (text or graphic formats). Moreover, CrystalCPUID lets you change Athlon 64's, Athlon XP, and also some VIA processors', multiplier directly under Windows.
• Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility 6.2.1.1001 - 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 is needed for the proper functioning of the following features:  Core PCI and ISA PNP Services, AGP Support, IDE/ATA33/ATA66/ATA100 Storage Support, USB Support, Identification of Intel Chipset Components in the Device Manager  This release adds Intel i8xx Serie / i9xx Serie / E7xxx Serie support.
• ForceWare 61.82 WHQL Win 2000/XP - NVIDIA just released ForceWare drivers revision 61.82 for Windows 2000/XP A bit weird as I expected a series 66.xx driver. Anyway, these drivers are WHQL certified (Microsoft Approved) and have all language files included.