• 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.

• [MS Patch critical] - Security Update for Microsoft Windows (840987) - This update resolves several newly-discovered, privately reported vulnerabilities. Each vulnerability is documented in this bulletin in its own Vulnerability Details section (Window Management Vulnerability / Virtual DOS Machine Vulnerability / Graphics Rendering Engine Vulnerability / Windows Kernel Vulnerability)  An attacker who successfully exploited the most severe of these vulnerabilities could take complete control of an affected system, including installing programs; viewing, changing, or deleting data; or creating new accounts.

• [MS Patch - critical] Vulnerability in Microsoft Excel Could Allow Remote Code Execution (886836) - A vulnerability exists in Microsoft Excel that could allow remote code execution on an affected system.
• [MS Patch - critical] Vulnerability in Compressed (zipped) Folders Could Allow Remote Code Execution (873376) - A vulnerability exists in the way that Windows processes Compressed (zipped) Folders that could allow remote code execution on an affected system.
• [MS Patch - critical] Vulnerability in SMTP Could Allow Remote Code Execution (885881) - A vulnerability exists in the Windows SMTP component and Exchange Server Routing Engine component that could allow remote code execution on an affected system.
• [MS Patch - critical] Vulnerability in NNTP Could Allow Remote Code Execution (883935) - A vulnerability exists in the Windows NNTP Component that could allow remote code execution on an affected system.
• [MS Patch - critical] Vulnerability in Windows Shell Could Allow Remote Code Execution (841356) - A vulnerability exists in the way that the Windows Shell launches applications. A vulnerability exists in Program Group Converter because of the way that it handles specially crafted requests. Both could allow remote code execution on an affected system.
• [MS Patch - critical] Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (834707) - Five remote code execution and three information disclosure vulnerabilities exist in Internet Explorer.
• [MS Patch - SUMMARY] - can be found here, enjoy ;) (there's also a vulnerability in RPC Runtime Library, WebDAV XML message handler, and NetDDE)
• Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 Service Pack 1 - Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 Service Pack 1 (SP1) contains the latest software updates for Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 that improve the reliability, performance and manageability of Virtual PC. Updates have been made to improve the performance of Windows XP Service Pack 2 as a guest in Virtual PC, to improve the manageability of virtual machines when used with SMS 2003 Service Pack 1, and to provide support for running Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition as the host operating system.
• PayPal outages, complaints continue - Online payment service PayPal continued to suffer outages Tuesday. Company officials insisted the problems were "intermittent," but many consumers complained they hadn't been able to log on to their accounts for days, and an Internet performance firm said that PayPal.com was completely inacessible on Tuesday afternoon.
• Will your phone become your credit card? - Motorola and MasterCard are at work on cell phones capable of secure financial transactions, such as banking or buying groceries with a credit card, the two companies said Tuesday.  The Motorola-MasterCard phones will have "the potential to be lifestyle-changing--in essence, your phone will become your wallet, key chain and your ID," Ron Hamma, a Motorola vice president, said in a statement.
• Game Developer Expects Sony's PlayStation 3 to Emerge in 2006 - An Electronic Arts exec said at a financial conference late last week that the company expected Microsoft next Xbox console to hit the market in later 2005, while Sony's PlayStation 3 to start selling about half a year afterwards, in mid-2006.
• Sony unveils DVD burner that combines stand-alone and computer-attached recording - Sony's new DVDirect (pronounced DVD Direct) device can connect directly to a camcorder or VCR for transferring tape-based video footage to DVD for playback on most home DVD players and PC DVD-ROM drives. Camcorder sales continue to soar, marking a significant opportunity for the DVDirect device to help camcorder owners transfer home movies onto DVD without the complexity of using a computer.
• Athlon 64 4000 and FX55 performance revealed - The chaps at TheInquirer have got a  nice document where they could clearly see the performance of two still unannounced AMD CPUs, the Athlon 64 4000+ and FX 55.  AMD is keen to introduce both of them in just few days.
• MSI K8T Neo2 FIR review - MSI K8T Neo2 FIR motherboard uses the latest high performance Via K8T800 Pro chipset supporting AMD Athlon 64 socket-939 processors and is a MSI top of the line AMD Athlon 64 939-socket motherboard. The MSI K8T Neo2 FIR motherboard comes packed with everything you need: Dual-channel DDR memory, Serial-ATA 150 RAID, Gigabit LAN, 8-channel audio and more. All this but no SmartCard reader or Kitchen Sink.
• Gateway M320XL laptop review - Gateway's M320XL laptop is a good laptop but it falls short in a few areas. First of all, this is a poor laptop for gaming. The system's 32MB of integrated video memory and XGA LCD display are simply not very impressive. During our 3dMark 2001 benchmarking, the M320XL's display could not display all of the colors some of the tests tried to use. We also did not like the recessed mouse buttons and the touch scroll wheel which was hard to use and very sporadic.

• AMD Sempron 3100+ Overclocking - As for the gain you receive by overclocking the Sempron 3100+, we enjoyed a performance growth of about 25% by clocking our sample at 2.52GHz (40% frequency boost). Thanks to that, the overclocked Sempron 3100+ could outperform the Pentium 4 3.4GHz as well as the Athlon 64 3400+ by about 5% in average.

• Meedio Essentials Guide For Your Home Theater PC - This guide will assist in getting Meedio Essentials up and running on your system. It will not show you how to install every plug-in available.
• Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 review - HTPCNews has published a review of Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005.
• NVidia Forceware 66.82 Benchmarks - The New Nvidia WHQL drivers have been released, but are they worth downloading? GameConnect decided to run some benchmarks and try them.
• DirectX 9.0c control panel - 3Dcenter.de have posted an updated DirectX 9.0c control panel for Windows 98/ME/2k2/XP/2k3.
• nLite 0.99.1 beta - nLite is a GUI for permanent Windows component removal by your choice. This release is ment to provide you with more stable version, there is not much "new" in it for those who didn't had any problems, but for those with Windows 2000 issues this one will be worthy. Windows 2003 issues probably are not yet solved because I still don't have a copy of them to test and correct it. There are qute a few languages added in this one.
• FFDShow MPEG-4 Video Decoder 20041012 - FFDSHOW is a DirectShow decoding filter for decompressing DivX, XviD, WMV, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 movies. It uses libavcodec from ffmpeg project for video decompression, postprocessing code from mplayer to enhance visual quality of low bitrate movies, and is based on original DirectShow filter from XviD, which is GPL'ed educational implementation of MPEG4 encoder.
• CloneCD version 5.0.3.1 - SlySoft has just released an update of their CloneCD software (download), bringing the version number to 5.0.3.1. According to the change log, the changes in this version are minor.

• New IM Worm On The Loose -A new worm that spreads via Microsoft's instant messaging client began badgering users Monday, several security firms said. Dubbed Funner, the worm propagates by sending itself to all the contacts listed in the user's copy of MSN Messenger, Microsoft's IM client. According to Symantec's alert, Funner may also try to contact a domain -- www.78p.com -- to download additional components. Other than reproducing, Funner's main purpose seems to be to modify Windows' Hosts file on the compromised machine so that attempts to contact any of some 937 sites -- many of them Asian porn sites -- will be redirected to the IP address that matches 78p.com. That Web site, however, was offline as of mid-morning Monday.
• FTC Sues Alleged Spyware Distributors - The U.S. Federal Trade Commission last week filed a legal complaint against two companies that allegedly infected computers with spyware and pop-up advertising, then tried to sell their owners spyware-blocking software. The FTC filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in New Hampshire asking for an injunction against Sanford Wallace, owner or president of Seismic Entertainment Products, based in Rochester, New Hampshire, and SmartBot.Net, based in Richboro, Pennsylvania.
• BitTorrent menaces Hollywood's DVD profits - A radical new technology threatens to do to Hollywood what Napster did to the music industry. It's called BitTorrent and is much faster than other file-swapping software used to exchange movies and music over the Internet. In fact, BitTorrent can transfer a feature-length film in about two hours - a fraction of the 12 hours it typically takes with file-sharing services like Kazaa.
• Off-topic: Poll of 100 worst jobs puts IT manager third - Computing reports on a survey looking for the UK's worst jobs!
• Off-topic: 3Dsolar Ltd Introduces Holographic-like 360-Degree 3D Imaging Hardware and Screen Technology - 3Dsolar Ltd. display devices are set to transform the way individuals experience multimedia content both at work and home. For the very first time, computer users will be able to view 3D objects hovering a few inches away from a screen that rotates 360 degrees - without wearing glasses. The stand-out feature is the way users will be able to manipulate the virtual image directly with their hands as they would a real object.
• MySQL To Use Open-Source Microsoft Toolset - The next release of the MySQL database server will include a Windows installer based on an open-source toolset released by Microsoft earlier this year. The upcoming MySQL 4.1 release will, according to documentation on the group's Web site, use the latest version of the Microsoft Windows Installer (MSI) available for the Windows 200 and XP operating systems. As part of the installation package, MySQL will make use of the Windows Installer XML (WiX) toolset, released as Microsoft's first open-source contribution earlier this year.
• Kazaa loses role as P2P king - According to BayTSP, a California firm that monitors file-swapping networks on behalf of entertainment companies, Kazaa rival eDonkey was the most widely used peer-to-peer application last month.
• High end card shortage due to lack of GDDR3 - Sources withing graphic industry confirmed that delays of high end graphics cards are being heavily affected by a shortage of high clocked GDDR 3 memory.
• Motorola sinks TV dreams - Motorola has scrapped an alliance with Moxell Technology to bring Motorola-branded plasma TVs, LCD TVs and monitors to North America and China, a nation where Motorola enjoys high recognition and brand awareness. The TVs and screens had been expected to come out in the middle of this year. Motorola showed off 15 different models ranging in size from 13 inches to 47 inches at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.
• AMD's 90nm Athlon 64 Have Equal Performances to 130nm Chips - An AMD representative denied any substantial architectural tweaks of AMD Athlon 64 processors manufactured 90nm fabrication technology on Monday, rejecting the rumors about higher performance of AMD64 parts produced using more advanced process technology compared to 130nm parts. According to AMD's web-site, the company's lineup of 64-bit desktop processors include chips that are made using 90nm Silicon-on-Insulator process technology. Currently the company lists there microprocessors rated at 3800+, 3700+ 3500+, 3400+, 3200+ and 3000+ for Socket 754 and Socket 939 infrastructure. Such chips function from 1.80GHz to 2.40GHz clock-speeds.
• Athlon 64 3200+ 90nm review - I have absolutely no hesitation in recommending this CPU to anyone considering an upgrade at this time. I feel that the stars have aligned, so to speak, to make this my recommended CPU for most persons upgrading their computers. Finally, we have motherboards that can scale to high HTT speeds giving the newer more overclockable Athlon64 Socket 939 chips long legs on which to run. New performance memory from companies such as OCZ, Corsair, Kingston, Mushkin, and G.SKILL (a relatively newcomer to the performance scene) are providing ram modules that allow us to not only maintain livable latency but scale to impressive MHz levels.
• SimpleTech PC3700 Nitro Series Memory review - CoolTechZone has posted a review of SimpleTech PC3700 Nitro Series Memory.
• Socket 939 Motherboards - MSI and nVidia vs. ABIT and VIA - With regard to price, both of our competitors today fall into the same category. The MSI board as tested can be found online for around US$139 while the ABIT board can be had for around US$129 as shown on DealTime. Considering the pricing of most modern motherboards (regardless of chipset and processor support), these boards will fare well against other possibilities on the market.
• Leadtek WinFast A400 Ultra TDH: GeForce 6800 Ultra review - Unique Hardware take a look at the Leadtek WinFast A400 Ultra TDH: GeForce 6800 Ultra video card
• MSI FX5700 128MB DVI Graphics Card review - Aftermath Reviews take a look at the MSI FX5700 128MB DVI Graphics Card.
• Plextor 12X SATA Drive 712SA review - HardwareHell take a look at the Plextor 12X SATA Drive 712SA.
• 16x DVD+-RW Double Layer DVD Writer Comparison Guide -  ExtremeMhz take a look at four of the top 16x drives to hit the market, the Pioneer DVR-108, NEC ND3500A, Lite-On SOHW-1633s and the new LG GSA-4160B.
• Adobe Reader SpeedUp 1.30 - Adobe Reader SpeedUp (download) is a simple application that was created to help make the loading time of Adobe's Acrobat/Reader software bearable for everyday use.
• Logitech X-530 Speakers review - CoolTechZone has posted a review of the Logitech X-530 Speakers.
• D-Link Home Networking Kit review - MHW has published a review of the D-Link home networking solution, this includes router, wireless cardbus adapter, switch, and PCI network adapter.
• Samsung SGH-E800 / E800C / E808 Dual Band Mobile Phone review - The phone has a LCD screen size of 1.72" with 65K colours. The camera lens is a 300K pixel VGA camera which takes pretty good images considering it a CMOS camera. (check out page 3 for photos taken off the camera). The phone also comes with 20MB of memory for you to store your captured images and ring tones.
• ATI Radeon to ATI FireGL Mod Guide Rev. 4.0 - Adrian's Rojak Pot has posted rev. 4.0 of his ATI Radeon to ATI FireGL Mod Guide.
• A Windows XP Optimization Guide v1.7.8 - This guide will help you improve your overall system performance. I avoid using or recommending "all-in-one" Windows XP Tweak programs since many blindly adjust settings that have no affect on performance and can cause future problems..
• Counter-Strike: Source - DirectX9 vs DirectX8 - The chaps over at Newgenerationorder.org have tested the quality and performance differences between DirectX8 and DirectX9 engines.
• WindowSizer 1.4  - WindowSizer, intelligent window management for Microsoft Windows, now allows you to create multiple tiled layouts and switch among them. Think of it as "Alt-Tabbing" through groups of windows at a time. The just released 1.4 version also has a command to quickly tile the last two, three, or four windows you were working with. Use WindowSizer through its right-click menu or keyboard shortcuts.
• CCProxy 6.2 - Proxy Server CCProxy (download) lets all computers on the LAN access Internet through one single Internet connection. Just need to install Proxy Server CCProxy on the server which can access Internet directly and the other PC clients can connect to the Internet through the proxy software
• ICQ Lite Edition 4.01 Build 1837 - ICQ Lite (release note) has all the essential features of the full version of ICQ. You can message people, exchange files, send SMS messages, and meet people. It also includes multilingual support, the ability to save your chat histories, and a typing indicator that shows when a contact is typing you a message.
• GAIM 1.0.1 - 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.
• AIM Fix 1.0 (Updated) - AIM Fix was created to remove all known AIM viruses in one consolidated removal tool. It is designed to end the virus processes, delete the files, and remove registry keys created by the virus.
• SPAMfighter Standard 3.0.6 - If you are looking for a tool to remove spam from your inbox, look no further. Spamfighter is the tool you are looking for. Simple, reliable, and efficient. Spamfighter is using the power of more than 450.000 people that instantly report if they receive a spam mail.
• BHODemon 2.0.0.19 - Think of BHODemon as a guardian for your Internet browser: it protects you from unknown Browser Helper Objects (BHOs), by letting you enable/disable them individually. BHODemon is free, runs in the tray area, and works on Windows 95 or later operating systems.
• Nero CD-DVD Speed 3.40 - Nero CD-DVD Speed is a benchmark which can test the most important features of an optical drive. These tests include: Transfer rate, Seek times, CPU (Central Processing Unit) usage, Burst rate, DAE (Digital Audio Extraction) quality & Spinup/spindown time. It can also check the CD (Compact Disk) and DVD (Digital Versatile Disk) media quality.
• CPUCooL 7.3.2 - CPUCooL (download) is a program that monitors temperature, fan speed, and voltages for many motherboards. It provides Cpu cooling under Win9x/2000/XP/NT, allows FrontSideBus changing, optimizes your memory and CPU.
• Hardware Sensors Monitor 4.1.4.5 - Hardware Sensors Monitor (download) allows you to check the temperature of any component on your computer that provides a temperature sensor, as well as fan speeds and voltages.
• 3dfx Voodoo 3/4/5 alpha 14 (SFFT)  - These drivers are Windows 2000/XP compatible and I've recompressed the archive towards 1,7 MB. The archive has both Windows 2000/XP drivers for 3dfx Voodoo 3, 4 and 5 graphics cards.
• nForce BETA Audio Driver 4.54 leaked - Check it out! (mirror)

• The SANS Institute identifies the top 20 Internet vulnerabilities of the year - IT security and research organization The SANS Institute is releasing its annual Top 20 list of Internet security vulnerabilities (PDF)s this week, with the intention of offering organizations at least a starting point for addressing critical issues.
• Next strike against European file-sharers - The IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) is targeting European file-sharers. After the campaign of the RIAA against file-sharers in the US before, now the IFPI targets 459 music "pirates" around Europe with civil and criminal lawsuits.  The music industry has targeted 459 prolific "uploaders" in Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy and the UK, who they accuse of illegaly providing their music collections to others on online file-sharing networks.
• First Suit Filed Against Internet "Spyware" - The U.S. government has sued a New Hampshire man in its first attempt to crack down on Internet "spyware" that seizes control of a user's computer without permission.
• Off-topic: Carbon Nanotubes Harder Than Diamond - CDAC has announced the formation of a new form of hexagonal packed carbon (PDF) similiar to diamond. Carbon nanotubes are compressed at 75 GPa and quenched. (thanks Slashdot.org)
• Off-topic: Millennium receives DoD contract for hydrogen fuel cells - Millennium Cell Inc. (Eatontown, N.J.) has been awarded a subcontract to develop hydrogen storage systems for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). Millennium Cell will develop and provide Hydrogen on Demand (HOD) system design and key components, which will be fabricated and tested at FCTec. The five (5) kW HOD system will provide hydrogen to refuel mobile devices and power stationary apparatus, among other military applications.
• Off-topic: Atomic register offers route to quantum computing - The fundamental memory component of a quantum computer has been built for the first time using a string of atoms. This could offer a more reliable way to build a working quantum computer than other techniques, suggest researchers. Quantum computers exploit the quantum properties of matter to perform calculations. While conventional computers use binary digits - or bits of information - in the form of electrical charge, quantum computers use quantum bits, called qubits.
• Abit offers RMB$1,000,000 in Great Wall finale - The firm said that the top four Doom 3 players in China will attempt to knock out Mr J Wendel to win the cash, and will compete for the championship.. The competition at the Great Wall, being held on the 15th of October, will also be the occasion of the launch of the full line of Fatal1ty products.
• AOL Builds New IE-Based Browser - According to News.com.com.com, America Online is preparing to release a free AOL-branded browser that is 'based on Microsoft's Internet Explorer technology.' The browser will be available to users who don't have AOL as their ISP.
• Nintendo unveils DS launch titles - Up to 12 titles will ship for Nintendo's DS in the 30 days after the console ships in the US on 21 November, with the total rising to between 20 and 25 by the end of March 2005, the company said yesterday. Nintendo will itself offer Super Mario 64 DS and Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt. Activision will ship Spider-Man 2; EA has Madden NFL, Tiger Woods PGA Tour and The Urbz: Sims on the City; THQ will tout Ping Pals; Namco is preparing Mr. Driller: Drill Spirits and Ridge Racer DS; Ubisoft will offer Rayman DS and Asphalt Urban GT; and Sega will ship Feel the Magic: XY-XX.
• Tapwave Zodiac to ship 22 October - Tapwave's Palm OS-based games console, Zodiac, will go on sale in the UK on 22 October 2004, the company said today, following its formal launch this past September. Availability will be limited to Dixons Stores Group outlets, including Dixons and PC World, with whom Tapwave has signed an exclusive contract. DSG stores will be retailing both versions of the console - the 32MB Zodiac 1 and the 128MB Zodiac 2 - along with at least six L30 game cards. Initial titles include Doom 2, Duke Nukem Mobile, Spyhunter, Tony Hawks Pro Skater and a pair a multi-game packs containing Galactic Realms and Legacy, and Paintball, MegaBowling and Kickoo's Breakout, respectively. The two versions of the hardware will retail for L270 and L330.
• RemoteTV Offers Slick Media Streaming - RemoteTV--which Belkin says will begin shipping in early November--lets you take content from a cable box, satellite receiver, digital video recorder, or DVD player and transmit it to a second TV. The setup uses a proprietary 40-megabits-per-second, 5-GHz wireless technology the company says works at up to 350 feet. The package includes a transmitter and receiver (each with component video, S-Video, composite video, and analog audio jacks). You use your existing television and stereo remotes to control the system.
• Dell to Recall 990,000 Laptop Power Adapters - Dell Inc. will recall about 990,000 power adapters for some of its laptop computer models because of a risk of overheating, which could lead to a fire or electrical shock. The recall covers adapters used with some Dell Latitude, Precision and Inspiron notebook computers and have the words "DELL" and "P/N 9364U," P/N 7832D" or "P/N 4983D" written on the back, the CPSC said.
• Nvidia NV41 coming in November - This chip is nothing more than a lower cost version of the NV40 core that will be adjusted for the performance mainstream market. This is the market where cards cost from $200 to $300. NV41 may well be called Geforce 6700. It will be clocked to 400MHz core and 1000MHz memory. Cards will, rather surprisingly, use a 256 bit memory interface and will come in two variants, 128MB and 256MB.
• OCZ Gold PC3700 V3 and EL PC3200 Platinum Rev2 review - While I was somewhat disappointed in the OCZ 3200EL Rev2 needing such lax timings to complete benching at 265mhz, I had to take a step back and consider that a ram that can hold BH-5 like timings at 200-215mhz is very rare nowadays and the fact that it can offer the user the option of going anywhere near and even above 250mhz is really something I've never experienced. Certainly nothing our venerable BH-5 never offered the common user at reasonable voltages.
• Corsair XMS2 DDR2 PC2-5400 Memory video-review - 3DGame Man has posted a video-review of Corsair XMS2 DDR2 PC2-5400 Memory.
• Abit IC7-MAX3 Motherboard review - The IC7-MAX3 comes with a hefty price tag but considering the amount of features and functions you get, it's worth the price. The OTES cooling system not only looked great, but it serves a good purpose in keeping the MOSFETs cool. The Softmenu functions in the BIOS makes overclocking a breeze thus giving unlimited access to the user to various voltage, speed and ratio settings on their system.
• PowerColor A350A-VF (ATI) motherboard review - Bjorn3D take a look at a motherboard from PowerColor that uses the ATI RADEON 9100 PRO IGP( RS350) + IXP 300 chipsets.
• TweakMonster RamSink Brackets review - BurnOutPc.com has posted a review on the TweakMonster Ramsink Brackets for the 9800XT videocard.
• Asetek WaterChill CPU Cooler Antarctica (Socket T) review - With Intel's new socket T platform, Asetek had to redesign their waterblock's cover for compatibility. In this look, Overclockers Online compare the performance of this new cover to that of the stock cooler Intel provides.
• Albatron nVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT - Build to the exacting standards of the NVIDIA reference design, this 6800GT differs in that it doesn't have dual DVI but keeps the single power connector, same style of GPU Cooler and offers an Albatron-branded decal on the heatsink. The DDR chips are covered by the heatsink which helps them keep cool under heavy loads and overclocking.
• Sapphire Radeon X800XT review - Rage3D has published a review of Sapphire's Radeon X800XT videocard.
• Asus AX800XT review - ASUS really deserve major credit for including the DVO - TMDS convertor chip with their card and along with their own ASUS branded software package, fan/temperature control and configuration software this really is the X800XT card to own if you have moved to the PCI express platform.
• 512MB SanDisk Memory Stick PRO review - Adrian's Rojak Pot has posted a review on the 512MB SanDisk Memory Stick PRO.
• Gigabyte GO-U0128B 128MB USB Hard Drive  review - The whole device measures 45 x 20 x 9mm when the USB jack is retracted into its protective case. The GO-U0128B flash drive comes encased in an aluminum and plastic shell, and a small thumb catch allows users to extend the USB jack out (click to lock it!) when they want to use the device. No cap? Wonderful!
• Swissbit TwistPro 2GB - The TwistPro is Swissbit's high-end USB memory key, and it's aimed directly at people like myself that need to have masses of data in their pocket all the time. The TwistPro has a huge capacity of 2GB!
• A-DATA i-Drive USB 2.0 Disk + PC Camera review - Combining the functions of a flash drive and a digital camera, the i-Drive USB 2.0 Disk from A-DATA Technology may find its user among people who do need such an alloy of characteristics.
• ASUS SCB-2408-D Combo Drive review - The undisputable advantages of the ASUS SCB-2408-D drive are its compact size, small weight, support of two interfaces, ability to work with DVD media of the two competing formats, and efficiency at processing C2 errors. On the downside, there is the too high offset value. Even with the highest quality score in the audio extraction test, the high offset may negatively tell on the quality of the audio copies you make with this drive. The speed characteristics of the SCB-2408-D combo-drive are rather low for it to compete with modern full-size external and internal devices of that class, so it targets specifically users who need a very compact optical drive.
• BTC 9128CRF Wireless Office Keyboard Kit review - Hi-Techreviews.com take a look at the BTC 9128CRF Wireless Office Keyboard Kit.
• BTC 9019URF Wireless Keyboard - When it comes to wireless keyboard, the 9019URF from BTC is one product specifically built for those looking for an all-in-one input device to control their computer from their beds or lazy chairs. In a way, this keyboard gives everyone the opportunity to flirt around with the idea of a robust multimedia center minus the need to break the bank while doing so. Add to it the lightweight, decent operating range and toughness of the rugged plastic housing of the keyboard and you'll have a full-fledged PC remote control in your hands.
• Ultra X-Connect 500 Watt Modular Power Supply review - 3DXtreme.net has posted a review of the Ultra X-Connect 500 Watt Modular Power Supply.
• Creative Debuts PCMCIA Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS review - The PCMCIA Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook simply plugs into any notebook computer's PCMCIA slot and provides an enhanced audio experience. It enables users to listen to PC games on a notebook in 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound and play back their MP3 music on their notebook with a dramatic improvement in audio quality.
• Zensonic Z710 Wireless RF Headphones review - The Zensonic Z710 wireless RF headphones offer good audio quality, compatibility, freedom of movement and comfort all in the one excellently priced package. As far as Wireless Headphones go, the Z710's aren't the top of the line, however for the price range they are unmatched; whilst the controls and "auto off" feature are not exactly ideal, all in all there is no doubting that these are a value packed set of headphones.
• Mobile GPU Comparison Guide Rev. 2.2 - Adrian's Rojak Pot has posted revision 2.2 of their Mobile GPU Comparison Guide.Currently covering nearly 30 mobile GPUs, this comprehensive comparison will allow you to easily compare 14 different specifications for each and every GPU.
• Computer FAQs updated - TechFreaks.org has updated their Frequently Asked Questions Guide.
• Advanced Security for Outlook - Get rid of the annoying security alerts in Outlook! Advanced Security for Outlook allows you to determine the violator and specify the permanent action for this program (and only this!) : allow access, block access or run the default Outlook handler. In future, the specified action by you will be executed automatically and Outlook Security will not annoy you with messages about trying to access e-mail addresses you have stored in Outlook.
• Update for Windows XP Service Pack 2 (KB885894) - This update helps resolve an issue where Windows Installer running on Windows XP Service Pack 2 stops responding when you install an update. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.
• SQL Server Health and History Tool 2.1 - SQLH2 collects four main types of information: 1. Feature Usage – What services/features are installed, running and level of workload on the service.2. Configuration Settings – Machine, OS and SQL configuration settings, SQL instance and database metadata. 3. Uptime of the SQL Server service 4. Performance Counters (optional) – Used to determine performance trends.
• GMail Drive Shell - 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.
• PropertiesPlus 1.65 - PropertiesPlus is a free add-on for your Windows Explorer. It adds additional functionality to your right-click menu under the menu option PropertiesPlus. Here you'll be able to modify file attributes, file extensions, and the time stamps of single files, multiple files, or files contained within the folders.
• FreshView 3.20 - Fresh View is a multimedia browser that makes organizing image, audio and video files much easier. It gives you the ability to watch movies, listen to music, view graphics in a slide show, converts graphics from one type to another, prints, and create an HTML album. This software is 100% free, no ads, no spyware.
• [!} CleanAVS (free) - Gary Di Girolamo send us a little application that he wrote to be used with Winamp Advanced Visualisation Studio. CleanAVS hides all desktop items such as task bar, and desktop icons (not open windows yet). It was devised to clear the way for the amazing effects offered by Winamp AVS set to desktop overlay mode, hence the name. If you use auto Hide XP toolbars (not the Taskbar) they will still work.
• VideoInspector 1.2.1.71 - VideoInspector (download) is a tools designed to provide you with as much information as possible about your video files. With VideoInspector you'll know why your video files has no sound or refuses to play correctly. VideoInspector will help you installing the required CoDecs (coder/decoder software) for an optimal performance.
• BeyondTV 3.5 - SnapStream Media has released BeyondTV 3.5 (download trial version). Version 3.5 adds support for multiple tuners and a smarter scheduler, in addition to other enhancements.
• The SphereXP 0.79.0 - The SphereXP is a 3D desktop (download) replacement for Microsoft Windows XP. Taking the known concept of three-dimensional desktops to its own level. It offers a new way to organize objects on the desktop such a icons and applications. Check the videos and screenshots to get the idea.
• Qwik-Fix Pro (NT/2k/XP) 2.1 - Qwik-Fix Pro uses Active System Hardening to protect Windows desktops and servers against new threats by blocking the underlying vulnerabilities exploited by worms and viruses. Qwik-Fix Pro protects from hundreds of specific worms and viruses and safeguards PCs from falling victim to the next worm or virus before vendor security patches become available.
• GPUBench 1.0.1 - GPUBench is a suite of tools useful in evaluting the compute performance of programmable graphics hardware. The tests are designed to provide information valuable to developers utilizing graphics hardware to accelerate compute intensive applications.
• Half-Life 2 Optimization Guide - IGN Gear have posted their Half-Life 2 Optimization Guide.
• RightMark 3DSound 1.24 - RightMark 3DSound is a sound test, which has the following features: DirectSound-diagnostics: the conclusion is hardware supported functions for the selected DirectSound-device; check of presence of EAX1, EAX2, EAX3 support; subjective test of DirectSound3D positioning, with vertical plane support; EAX2, EAX3 reverb, occlusions and obstructions.
• ATI Tray Tools v1.0.1.380 - ATI Tray Tools is a small utility that can be found in the windows tray which then allows instant access to options and settings.
• DNA-drivers 3.1.4.10b - 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.

• Trojan pretends to do good - Security company Symantec is warning Internet users of a Trojan horse that removes adware but alters the settings in computers. While Downloader.Lunii eliminates a variety of adware programs--often known as spyware--the Trojan also tries to maliciously change the security settings of Windows PCs and then downloads files from unknown Web sites, Symantec said.
• Noomy.A virus spreading via chat rooms - Security experts have warned internet users to update their antivirus systems to protect against a newly discovered worm dubbed Noomy.A, which "could represent a new trend in malicious code techniques". Written in Visual Basic, the worm creates an HTTP server on affected computers and generates a large number of files containing copies of its code. The names of these files, designed to tempt unwary users into believing that they are software cracks, include '2004serials.pif', 'Ageofempires2crack.exe', 'AgeOfMythologyISO.exe' or 'AnaKurnikovaVirualGirl2004.scr', among many others. Noomy.A then connects and logs on to different IRC channels as if it were a user, and starts sending messages to different chat rooms. The messages use social engineering techniques to get users' attention, offering attractive content to trick them into downloading files to their computers.
• Critical Update for Windows XP (KB885523) - This update resolves a compatibility issue with a non-Microsoft software application installed on your computer. This application prevents successful installation of Windows XP Service Packs, critical security updates and other system file updates. This update should be applied to your system to enable safe installation of these updates now and in the future.
• Microsoft Issues Ominous ASP.Net Security Warning - A security flaw in Microsoft's ASP.NET apparently allows access to password-protected areas just by altering a URL. There's no patch yet, but in the meantime Microsoft is telling ASP.NET developers they can rewrite their applications to prevent exploits.
• RealPlayer security patch - The flaws, that include remotely exploitable buffer overflows and file access issues, have been fixed by Real. The patch can be downloaded from here.
• Security Concerns Shelve MSN Messenger 7 - Microsoft has suspended the beta testing of the next version of its MSN Messenger client because of a potential security problem, a company spokesperson says. Testers discovered a potential security issue in the early version of MSN Messenger 7 shortly after Microsoft made the instant messaging client available to a select group of testers over the weekend, according to postings on MSN Messenger enthusiast Web site Mess.be.
• BPI starts legal action against UK P2P uploaders - The UK record industry trade association said that it is beginning the process of legal action against 28 UK file sharers, with more cases expected to follow. It plans to seek damages and injunctions to stop people illegally uploading recordings onto file sharing networks. The large-scale uploaders subject to legal action include users of the KaZaA, Imesh, Grokster, Bearshare and WinMX networks
• Spyware Bills Win House Approval - Two bills designed to curb the proliferation of Internet "spyware" took another step toward law this week with overwhelming approval from the House of Representatives, but supporters said they face a tough race against the clock to get Senate approval before Congress disperses for the November elections. The House on Wednesday voted 415-0 on a bill that would send some spyware users to jail for up to five years. On Tuesday, the House approved a second bill in a 399-1 vote that would fine individuals and companies every time they install spyware on people's computers without permission.
• Off-topic: Hydrogen Vehicle Generates Its Own Fuel - The truck is hydrogen-powered and creates its own fuel from solar energy and water, a technical feat that rivals the advanced technology being researched by major auto companies and universities. The four-cylinder engine is tuned to run on hydrogen, which is produced by a hand-built electrolysis system mounted in the bed. (thanks Slashdot.org)
• Off-topic: Man in satanic Renault terror ordeal - A traumatised Frenchman is shaken but otherwise unharmed after his Renault Vel Satis kidnapped him on the A71 motorway in central France and subjected him to an hour-long 125mph terror ordeal. Hicham Dequiedt, 29, was overtaking a lorry on said highway when the car's automatic speed regulator stuck, AFP reports.  Mercifully, Dequiedt managed to disable the vehicle by pulling out the Renault's magnetic card ignition key. He finally ground to a halt 12 miles from Riom. A police officer noted: "The driver was really afraid - especially at one point when he had to overtake at 200 kilometres per hour on the emergency lane."
• Off-topic: Scientists Find Deadly Component of 1918 Flu Virus - Scientists who synthesized two genes from the virus that caused the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic said Thursday they have a found new clues about what made it so deadly. Between 20 million and 50 million people worldwide died in the 1918-1919 pandemic, the deadliest in the past century. By unraveling the secrets of the virus, researchers hope to improve methods to spot the next potential flu pandemic which some scientists believe is overdue.
• Windows XP Service Pack 2 heads to retail - Microsoft last week started the process of swapping out all of the boxed copies of Windows XP with the updated version, with a triangle in the upper corner touting SP2 and its security enhancements. Retailer OfficeMax is among those promoting the change, advertising that it will have XP SP2 on sale starting Wednesday.  Over the next month, Microsoft hopes to swap out the bulk of all boxed copies worldwide. Retailers can, through their distributor, exchange their existing Windows XP boxes for the update.
• Piggyback developers in a bind over IE - As founder and CEO of Stilesoft, Stiles has marketed the NetCaptor software as an IE browser for power users. NetCaptor, which uses Microsoft's IE rendering engine to provide browser tabs and other comparatively advanced features, has capitalized on the fact that IE hasn't gotten an all-around feature upgrade in more than three years.
• Google Sends Out an SMS - Google this week launched a beta test version of Google SMS, a new service that lets users of wireless devices query Google for specific information, such as business or residential phone listings, product prices, and word definitions, the company says. Google SMS also can be used to solve mathematical calculations, to look up area codes and zip codes, and to receive snippets of Google search engine results. In related news, Co-Founder of Google's Blogger Leaving Company.
• BBC Wants Help With Dirac Codec - Lead developer Dr. Thomas Davies said that the BBC wants to collaborate with the open source community and academics in the further development of the technology. Dirac is a general purpose video codec which uses wavelets, motion compensation and arithmetic coding techniques to achieve what Davies described as the most advanced open source codec ever developed.
• AT&T Tests Linux to Replace Microsoft's Windows on 70,000 PCs - -AT&T Corp. is testing Linux software as a replacement for Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system, which runs the 70,000 personal computers used by its employees.  A decision by AT&T to abandon Windows would be Microsoft's biggest loss to the 13-year-old Linux system
• Keyboard and mouse come to Xbox - The device, which is detailed on this page, simply has two PS/2 ports on one end and a controller-port connector for the appropriate colour on the other. The units come pre-programmed with key configurations for popular games such as Halo or Chronicles of Riddick, and users can customise the key combinations as they want them, including setting mouse invert.  (thanks TheInquirer)
• HP unveils cheaper, faster, smaller mono printers - Hewlett Packard has introduced a new range of smaller, quicker and cheaper mono printers targeted at the home, SME and enterprise markets. Included in the launch are six new product families containing a total of 27 new individual models. Prices range from L219 to L2,179.
• Verbatim starts to ship 2.4 -5x DVD+R double layer 3-packs - Verbatim announced today that it is now shipping Verbatim 8.5GB DVD+R DL-certified discs in 3-packs. With the new packaging, consumers have a convenient solution for experiencing the benefits of the higher-capacity DL format as well as the quality and reliability of Verbatim DL-certified discs. The 3-packs also provide retailers with an ideal solution for enhancing the value of their Double Layer DVD+R hardware products.
• Ultra 4 in 1 USB 1.1 128MB Drive / MP3 Player review - Ap0calypse.com informed us they have posted a review of Ultra Product's 4 In 1 USB 1.1 MP3 Player / Voice Recorder / Thumb Drive. Another review can be found here.
• iRiver's H320 MP3 player review - THG has taken a look at the iRiver's H320 digital music player. This iRiver player has a 20GB hard disk (40GB version also available) and  it has a coloured screen.
• Samsung SCD103 MiniDV Digital Video Camcorder - Tweaknews.net has posted a review of the Samsung SCD103 MiniDV Digital Video Camcorder.
• Dell Axim X30 PDA review - TrustedReviews have posted a review of the Dell Axim X30 PDA with a 624MHz PXA processor, built in Wireless networking and Bluetooth.
• VIA K8M800: DFI K8M800-MLV review -VIA's K8M800 integrated graphics Athlon 64 chipset has been out for a few months, but you probably haven't seen many reviews.
• ABIT AG8 Motherboard (Socket 775) video-review - The ABIT AG8 Motherboard is based on the Intel 915X chipset and supports the latest Intel Socket 775 CPUs. This board has onboard 5.1 channel audio, USB, Firewire, LAN and more. Also included is software which has a number of very useful overclocking and monitoring features. It's loaded with goodies, stable, performs well and is great at overclocking.
• Pioneer DVR-A08XLA DVD Writer review - After spending a good amount of time and media on the Pioneer DVR-A08XLA, the drive's subdued operating noise, good media compatibility and commendable burn quality were key areas that left the deepest impression. Pioneer's arsenal of technologies and innovations such as Precision Recording, Quiet Drive and Performance Adjusting Firmware functioned well and these helped deliver the drive's impressive performance.
• Ultra XConnect 500Watt Power Supply review - OCIA.net has posted a review of the Ultra XConnect 500 Watt Power Supply.
• Logitech MX1000 Laser Mouse review  - Designtechnica has posted a review of Logitech MX1000 Laser Mouse.
• 8COM Wireless Digital BH220 Bluetooth Headset review - Hardware Pacers has posted a review on the 8COM Wireless Digital BH220 Bluetooth Headset.
• MSN Messenger 6 - WindowsX 7.2137 - A new version of the WindowsX edition of Messenger is now available for download which ADS patch and polygamy included with all languages and 50 skins.
• Crap Cleaner 1.14.072 - 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.
• WinAce 2.6 Beta 2 - WinAce (download) is not just another archiving shell. With it's own powerful compression format ACE and built-in support for other popular compression types like ZIP, RAR and MS-CAB (to name a few), WinAce could actually become the only archiver you need.
• Google Toolbar 2.0.114.6  - The Google Toolbar (download winxp/2k ~ win9x/me) increases your ability to find information from anywhere on the web and takes only seconds to install. When the Google Toolbar is installed, it automatically appears along with the Internet Explorer toolbar.
• Nero Burning ROM 6.6 Reloaded (Unofficialy yet)- Nero 6.6 supports for the first time a burning of short Lead Outs. Thus one can save up to 80 seconds when burning and has 12 Mb more storage location. A function is offered, which makes it possible to examine at the end of the combustion the medium for errors. The Tool Nero Vision Express was revised completely and is provided now in the version 3.It can read in and further process immediately films already burned. All usual formats are supported. The operation is very easy: One indicates the drive assembly, in which is the CD or DVD and indicates vision express in an overview with Thumbnails, which films are present. The download can also be found on TCMagazine.
• Intel Chipset Identification Utility 2.89 - The Intel Chipset Identification Utility provides an easy way to identify the specific Intel chipset that is located on your motherboard.

• N Korea’s computer hackers target South and US - North Korea has trained as many as 600 computer hackers to be capable of launching a cyber-war on South Korea, the US or Japan, South Korea's defence ministry said on Monday.
• Microsoft: Firewalls are failing to keep out hackers - Firewalls aren't doing a good enough job of protecting corporate networks, according to a Microsoft security expert. Speaking in London on Monday at a technical briefing on the need for next generation firewalls, Microsoft security technology architect Fred Baumhardt outlined some of the gaps that traditional firewalls are leaving open.
• Test your windows OS - Wanna do a quick test to see if the programmers that wrote your windows operating system have any clue as to what there doing ? Run these commands from cmd.exe in the system32 directory: for %i in (*.exe) do start %i %n%n%n%n%n%n%n%n%n%n%n%n%n%n%n%n%n%n%n%n  OR for %i in (*.exe) do start %i AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.... (type as much "A"-s as cmd.exe allows on one line.) Each command will execute every program in your system32 directory, most of them will either ignore the parameter or report an error because the parameter doesn't make sence...
• 20 Anti-Spyware tools tested - Twenty anti-spyware scanners were pitted against a collection of 15 adware and spyware programs that were installed with the latest version of Grokster.
• Ballmer: Open Office is like Office 97 - Speaking at the Microsoft Dutch Fusion event in The Hague in The Netherlands, in his keynote he states he is not impressed by OpenOffice. "Get the facts!" he calls several times. "Seriously nobody believes that open source on the desktop even comes close to Microsoft? Like Open Office, that seems like a ten year old product. OpenOffice is miles behind Office 2003, its not a comparison. Maybe Office 97 comes close."
• Off-topic: Fuel cell developer claims hydrocarbon membrane advance - New hydrogen fuel cell membrane technology could help auto makers meet minimum requirements for engine development in future hydrogen-powered cars, the technology's developer claimed
• Off-topic: Addicted Gamers, Losing Their Way - Jaysen Perkins used to spend up to six hours a day running missions with the U.S. Navy Seals. Until it started hurting his social life. And his grades.
• Off-topic: Sweet! Caffeinated, ginseng beer - CNN is reporting that Anheuser-Bush has developed a sweet, caffeinated beer they are dubbing B(E). Intended to compete with the trendy sweet concotions popular on the club scenes (such as Smirnoff Ice), it will contain caffeine, guarana, and ginseng
• Off-topic: Quark forces attract Nobel Prize in Physics - Three US physicists have scooped the prize for unravelling the mysterious strong force that binds quarks together.
• NEC and Toshiba hope to see Microsoft use HD-DVD in Xbox 2 - Xbox 2 may make use of the HD-DVD format, if some Japanese electronics giants have their way. Today, at the CEATEC Japan technology exhibition, now ongoing at the Makuhari Messe convention center, just outside of Tokyo, a manager at NEC revealed that his company is working to get Microsoft to use the format in the successor console to Xbox. A separate interview with Toshiba president Tadashi Okamura revealed a similar course for the electronics giant, with Okamura stating, in reference to HD-DVD, "We'd of course like them (Microsoft) to use it.
• Sharp Displays 65-Inch LCD TV -Sharp unveiled a 65-inch LCD television at the opening of the Ceatec 2004 exhibition here this week. The company also said it will sell Aquos-brand TVs with LCD panels in size of 50 inches and larger in 2005. The 65-inch model has a 6.22 million dot panel and is capable of displaying a full high-definition picture at 1920 pixels by 1080 pixels, according to Yasutaroh Tanno, a member of the Sharp's LCD digital systems division.
• Sony's home server stores 1 terabyte - The Vaio Type X, which is available only in Japan, is a home server that contains four 250GB hard drives: two for PC files and two others for audiovisual materials such as stored TV programs and music. The machine, which costs about $5,000, also comes with seven TV tuners and a special interface that lets consumers see thumbnails of what they record.
• AMD tips dual-core processor design for '05 intro - During the Microprocessor Forum here on Tuesday (Oct. 5), AMD disclosed some of the first details of its dual-core microprocessor design. The company's dual-core processor is a 205-million transistor chip, based on a 90-nm process and silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology. The device is approximately the same die size as a single-core, 130-nm Opteron processor, McGrath said. The 940-socket compatible chip is said to have a 95-Watt power envelope, he said. AMD plans to integrate two Opteron processor cores on a single die, based on a symmetric multiprocessing programming (SMP) model. Each core consists of 1-MB of L2 cache. The company expects to introduce dual-core chips for the one- to eight-socket server and workstation market in mid-2005. Dual-core processors for the client market are expected to follow beginning in the second half of 2005, according to a presentation by the company.
• Via to throw hat in 64-bit x86 chip ring - Via detailed the chip, code-named Isaiah and internally called CN, Tuesday at the Fall Processor Forum but didn't reveal when it planned to ship the new product. "CN has both the AMD and Intel variants of the...64-bit architecture," said Glenn Henry, president of Centaur Technology, Via's processor development unit.  The chip also will have much better performance, particularly when handling video and audio information, Henry said. However, it won't depart from Via's emphasis on low cost, small size and modest power consumption. Via isn't the only low-power chip designer gunning for 64-bit support. Transmeta, whose chips run x86 software through a translation technology, is also working on 64-bit support, Chief Technology Officer David Ditzel said at the show.
• DDR 2 800 MHz in shops by Christmas - Just when DDR 667 is still a very rare memory bird, aggressive memory company OCZ is preparing a speed bump with DDR 2 800 memory. TheInqurer learned that OCZ is already evaluating this memory and if all goes well, might even have retail products by the end of November
• AMD Value CPU Is No Athlon - In PC World tests, a machine with the new chip underperformed one with a comparable Athlon XP, but their Sempron-based test system did outgun a similarly configured PC with Intel's Celeron D value CPU. These chips all appear in PCs priced below $1000, and even in some costing under $500.
• Nvidia 65 series driver gets WHQL certified - TheInquirer is reporting that the Nvidia 65 series of drivers will end up with WHQL stamp for all of its products. The currently available 61 series driver is indeed WHQLd but only for Geforce 6800 and 6600, not for older products. That's why Nvidia didn’t want to release it on its web site. The 65 series of drivers will have support for SLI cards as well. You can imagine how hard it will be to certify dual SLI cards but Nvidia seems to have some clue as to how it's done. There's no word about the 66 series though.
• Desktop Graphics Card Comparison Guide Rev. 7.2 - Adrian's Rojak Pot has posted rev. 7.2 of their Desktop Graphics Card Comparison Guide. Covering over 200 desktop graphics cards, this comprehensive comparison allows you to easily compare 14 different specifications for each and every card! If you need to find out about the specification of any card, just come over and check out our Desktop Graphics Comparison Guide.
• Athlon 64 90nm Thermals: Not as Rosy as We Thought  - Sudhian Media take a look at Athlon 64 90nm thermals.
• iRiver's H320 Takes on the iPod review - iRiver's H320 MP3 player is at least as good as the iPod or any player Archos offers. Built around a superb LCD display, its 20GB hard drive is both quiet and fast. Features include great sound, a photo viewer and a USB interface for digital cameras and PCs.
• 3DMark05 tech FAQ - Futuremark has attempted to answer the most common technical questions (PDF) about 3DMark05 in a new technical FAQ just released.
• Apache HTTP Server for Windows 2.0.52 - The Apache project (download) is an effort to develop and maintain an open-source HTTP server for various modern desktop and server operating systems, such as UNIX and Windows NT.
• C64 Emulator Comparison -  The tested Emulators were CCS64, Hoxs64, Frodo and VICE. You will find the test here: AEP C64 Emulator Comparsion.
• SpeedyMSN 1.4 - SpeedyMSN is a modified version of MSN Messenger. Useless options like telephone conversations have been removed. Many of the dialogs and menus has been redesigned to make it easyer to navigate. By these small but effective changes MSN will be loading faster then before!
• Gmail Notifier 1.0.23.0 - The Gmail Notifier is a downloadable Windows application that alerts you when you have new Gmail messages. It displays an icon in your system tray to let you know if you have unread Gmail messages, and shows you their subjects, senders and snippets, all without your having to open a web browser.
• 7-Zip 4.09 beta - -7Zip is a file archiver with a high compression ratio. The program supports 7z, ZIP, RAR, CAB, GZIP, BZIP2, and TAR formats. Compression ratio in the new 7z format is 30-50% better than ratio in ZIP format. It also compresses to ZIP 2-10% better than PKZip and WinZip.
• WinAce 2.6 Beta 2 - WinAce (download) is not just another archiving shell. With it`s own powerful compression format ACE and built-in support for other popular compression types like ZIP, RAR and MS-CAB (to name a few), WinAce could actually become the only archiver you need.
• RightMark Memory Analyzer 3.41 - The RightMark Team (download) is pleased to announce the release of our new test suite, the RightMark Memory Analyzer. It aims the detailed, stable and accurate measurements of the most important low-level characteristics of the CPU/Chipset/RAM subsystem of your PC.

• UK P2P file sharers face legal action - Peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharers in the UK could soon face legal action from the recording industry. Record companies in other countries have already started legal action against people sharing copyrighted music online. The Recording Industry Association of America has sued around 5,400 people over the past year, fining them on average $3,000 a piece in an effort to discourage the online swapping of music, which it claims has damaged CD sales.
• U.S. Plans Crackdown on Piracy, Counterfeiting - The United States is cracking down on the growing trade in counterfeit and pirated goods that costs U.S. businesses hundreds of billions of dollar annually, U.S. government and industry officials said on Monday. The planned crackdown follows warnings from Ronald Noble, secretary-general of the international police agency Interpol, that trade in fake goods has become "the preferred method of funding for a number of terrorist groups."
• RealPlayer pnen3260.dll Heap Overflow - The code in pnen3260.dll among other things is responsible for handling .rm files. The vulnerability is triggered by setting the length field of the VIDORV30 data chunk to 0xFFFFFFF8 - 0xFFFFFFFF this will cause an integer overflow which leads to a small block of memory being allocated, we call this movie from a SMIL file to handle the initial exception, eventually overflowing the buffer. The flaws could be exploited via a malicious Web page or a RealMedia file run from a local drive to take over a user's system or delete files, according to RealNetworks.
• WinZip Warns of Security Flaws - WinZip versions 3.x, 6.x, 7.x, 8.x, and 9.x contain vulnerabilities that could allow an attacker to execute malicious code on a Windows PC, the vendor warns. In an advisory this week, Danish security firm Secunia gives the bugs a "highly critical" rating, the fourth-highest out of its five severity levels. While no exploits are known to be circulating, the wide deployment of WinZip makes the vulnerabilities important to patch immediately, WinZip says.
• In-game format string in Judge Dredd vs. Death 1.01 - The problem is a format string bug in the handling of the messages received from clients like "player connected", chat messages and so on. Like any in-game bug, the attacker must have access to the match (so if the server is protected by password, he must know it).
• IBM laptop features fingerprint scanner - IBM announced on Monday the launch of a new line of ThinkPad notebooks designed to provide an extra layer of data protection through advanced fingerprint technology.  The biometric capability will be present on select models of the ThinkPad T42 that will be shipped from Oct. 19, the company said. The fingerprint reader, placed on the wrist-rest, below the arrow keys, will verify the identity of a user when he or she swipes a finger across a tiny sensor. Once identity is established, users are automatically logged on.
• Punkbuster, ATI and Nvidia: Freezing in your online FPS favorites? - A few links were provided documenting that this was not an isolated incident - there were numerous reports on numerous forums ranging from the MSI user forums to Overclockers UK. There seemed to be a common thread - a NForce 3 based motherboad, an ATI card and Punkbuster. A few weeks went by and there seemed to be no resolution of the issue, yet there were more reports of the problem so I took a look and see if I could reproduce the problem first hand.
• Off-topic: Pepsi to give away an iPod an hour until Christmas - Over the weekend, Pepsi Canada launched a new iPod promotion that will givewaway a "truckload of iPods." The company said that it would offer a free iPod an hour, every hour, of every day, for 84 straight days for a total of 2,016 20GB iPods. The promotion runs from October 3rd through December 25 and is open to Canadian residents only.
• Off-topic: Spaceship one wins X-price! - SpaceShipOne climbed into space for the second time (video) in a week to claim the $10 million Ansari X Prize, which was set up to give impetus to commercial space flight. X Prize officials said the craft set an altitude record of 70 miles.
• Most songs on iPods "stolen" - Microsoft CEO - All iPod users are music thieves - according to Microsoft CEO Steve 'Monkey Boy' Ballmer. "The most common format of music on an iPod is stolen," he told reporters in London today, according to a Silicon.com report. Ballmer conveniently ignores not only that there are many non-Apple music players out there, on which there are probably as many, if not more "stolen" songs.
• Nokia Set to Unveil Redesigned TV Phone -  Nokia is set to unveil another attempt at a mobile phone designed for television and video, which is thinner and lighter than its predecessor which never made it to the market, a source said on Monday. The Nokia 7710 media device will be launched at a company event in Monaco next month, exactly one year after Nokia first showed a phone designed for television, video and other entertainment.
• Microsoft Eyes Lighter Versions of Longhorn - Microsoft is developing versions of its Windows operating system with only a subset of the Windows code base, designed for specific server tasks, in a move that could reduce maintenance costs for customers and create products that are less vulnerable to attack. The new "role-based" products may appear in 2007, when the server version of Longhorn is scheduled for release.
• Microsoft releases free Windows XP Embedded SP2 "preview" - Beginning tomorrow, Microsoft will make a "free technology preview" of the latest version of its Windows XP Embedded operating system available for download on its website, for testing by embedded system and device developers. Dubbed "Windows XP Embedded with Service Pack 2," the new OS version is said to include security and other enhancements from the recent Service Pack 2 (SP2) release for the standard version of Windows XP, as well as several additional capabilities targeting unique requirements of embedded systems and devices. In addition to the much ballyhooed security enhancements in standard XP SP2, Windows XP Embedded (XPe) SP2 adds "advanced" remote device management and system update capabilities, enhanced networking and multimedia features, and introduces a highly welcomed quick boot mechanism capable of booting an XPe SP2 device in as little as 10 seconds, Microsoft says.
• Intel Rides a Faster Bus - According to an internal document on Intel's website, Intel will soon release the 925XE chip set, a version of its recently introduced 925X chip set with support for a 1066-MHz front-side bus. Current Pentium 4 chip sets use an 800-MHz front-side bus to connect the processor to the memory. Intel will also release a 3.46-GHz Pentium 4 Extreme Edition that supports the 1066-MHz front-side bus in the near future, according to a separate document found on Intel's site. This chip will also come with 2MB of Level 3 cache, just like its counterparts in the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition category.
• Intel ships "execute disable" Pentium 4s - Intel's EDB-enabled processors include both new and old models. All of them are indicated by a 'J' after the CPU model number. The technology is now incorporated into all 90nm, Socket T Pentium 4 5xx processors, from the 520 to the 560, through a new core version, E-0. Older versions, based on the D-0 core, are still available alongside the E-0 parts. Prices remain unchanged: the 520 and 520J are $163; the 530 and 530J, $178; the 540 and 540J, $218; the 550 and 550J, $278; and the 560 and 560J, $417.
• Intel Quietly Sneaks New Server Chipset In - Intel’s E7221 core-logic is designed for uni-processor servers powered by Intel Pentium 4 processors with EM64T, or 64-bit capability. The chipset has integrated graphics and sports PCI Express x8 lane designed for the Intel 6702PXH 64-bit PCI hub component that enables PCI-X slots for advanced cards. The core-logic sports dual-channel DDR and DDR2 SDRAM controller, giving server builders a flexibility. E7221 works with typical ICH6R that adds Serial ATA, Parallel ATA, PCI and PCI Express connectivity for add-in cards
• R480 to come in the fourth quarter - ATI's next fastest graphic thing will be based on 0.11µ (micron) architecture. This is the natural direction for ATI to migrate from 0.13µ low K marchitecture to pure 0.11µ without low K. When you make things smaller you can possibly clock a chip even higher, but we don't have any idea what frequency ATI is aiming for. That's exactly where its R480 chip is at this time. Some more info can also be found here.
• XGI's XP47 is PS 3.0 announced- This time, XGI is talking about its chip codenamed XP47, a native PCI Express thing that will have support for Pixel Shader 3.0.
• Intel P4 3.0GHz LGA775 CPU review - ClubOverclocker take a look at the Intel P4, 3.0GHz LGA775 Processor. If you are still into overclocking, or are thinking about joining the club, you have got to read this review!
• Intel Celeron D vs. AMD Sempron - X-Bit Labs tested 14 new processors in 27 benchmarks and now we are ready to name the best choice for a budget system.  It is clear that the Semprons with ratings of 3000+ and lower, i.e. intended for Socket A systems, are slower than the Celerons working at the frequency that equals that rating, by about 5-6%.
• DDR vs. DDR-2 ­ TweakTown has posted a detailed article which investigates the current state of DDR vs. DDR-2 memory in the industry. They have included in-depth information about what is different about the two technologies, possible adoption problems for AMD with Athlon 64 and benchmarks comparing both on an MSI motherboard which supports both memory standards.
• [!] AGP Video Cards roundup @ TGH - THG's fourth annual VGA charts show that while fewer cards were released, ATi's and NVIDIA's cards offered some excitement with noteworthy performance gains. This year's VGA charts also feature performance tests for 10 games and benchmarks in three resolutions and quality settings, including an overview of 35 AGP graphics card classes from ATi, NVIDIA, S3 and XG.
• PowerColor X800 PRO Limited Assassin Edition review - PowerColor X800 PRO Limited Assassin Edition is a very solid product with really good accessory assortment and substantial performance. Because of rare and incomparable package, hardware admirers will love every aspect of the card including additional and useful bundle. With R420 out of the way, it will be interesting to see what ATI brings in next. Most likely the XBOX 2 VPU, R500 and then the PC refresh part the R480.
• ATI TV Wonder USB 2.0 review - TV Wonder USB 2.0 is an external tuner device, designed to offer higher quality than other external devices, potentially rivalling ATI's own dedicated All-In-Wonder solutions. The TV Wonder USB 2.0 is ideal for use with notebook's, or those desktop users that are reluctant to open their PC.
• Logisys Glacier Dual LED Fan 500W Power Supply review - In conclusion, this power supply has some faults, with the biggest fault being the control knob. Overall it's a very nice power supply. The blue LED’s on the fans are bright, the cables are more than sufficient for the largest case, and the power is very stable even under a load.
• PPA 9-in-1 Card Reader review - The most impressive feature is the size: it's no larger than a standard credit card. It's about half an inch tall, so it'll fit pockets nicely.
• Samsung SyncMaster 192MP 19" Multifunctional Display review - BFR take a look at the192MP 19" LCD monitor, a multifunctional display unit with the capability to perform as a monitor, TV (using its optional TV tuner) , or both with its PIP (Picture-in-Picture) feature. It accepts inputs from pretty much any video device you can think of (ie: PC, Air/Cable TV, DVD, VCR, Camcorder) and comes HDTV ready.
• Professional Headphone and Audio Accessory Roundup - Hardware Pacers have posted a Professional Headphone and Audio Accessory Roundup.
• HP Photosmart 945 review - Wow! Picture results are fantastic, colour results are not as rich as Canon's but HP has still done a great job at delivering bright and well contrasted images. The downside is that to get the best results out of this camera you have to use HP's digital flash feature and this results in noisier images
• Linux 3D AGP GPU Roundup - AnandTech has published an intriguing look at graphics performance in Linux using a FRAPS-esque open source benchmarking app they've been working on.
• OpenOffice.org For Windows 1.1.3 Final - OpenOffice.org (download linux ~ win32) is the open source project through which Sun Microsystems is releasing the technology for the popular StarOffice productivity suite. It is an international office suite that will run on all major platforms and provide access to all functionality and data through open-component based APIs and an XML-based file format.
• nLite 0.99 beta - nLite (download) is a GUI for permanent Windows component removal by your choice. After removal there is an option to make bootable image ready for burning on cd or testing in virtual machines. So that means that with nLite you will be able to have Windows installation cd which on installation doesn't install, or even contain on cd, unwanted components.
• MSN Messenger 7 beta + patch -  Microsoft has released the first beta version of MSN Messenger 7 to its beta testers and ofcourse, we have it ready for download for you! The Build number of MSN Messenger 7 is 7.0.0205 and it weighs at about 7MB.  There's also a patch for the beta.
• FirePanel XP 1.5.1736 - FirePanel XP is an add-on for the new firewall found in Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server2003 SP1. It can configure & monitor your firewall's activity, keeping realtime tabs on what exactly you're being exposed to. There are multiples panes to display all important network info.
• Mozilla Firefox 0.10.1 - The Mozilla Foundation has once again released an interim version of its popular Firefox browser. Firefox 0.10.1 addresses a new security vulnerability which could allow a hacker to delete files from a user's download directory.
• Crap Cleaner 1.14.072 -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.
• Real Alternative 1.27 - Real Alternative will allow you to play RealMedia files without having to install RealPlayer or RealOne Player from Real Networks. Supported are: RealAudio (.ra .rpm), RealMedia (.rm .ram .rmvb .rpx .smi .smil), RealText (.rt) and ReadPix (.rp). It also supports RealMedia content that is embedded in webpages. The very user-friendly installation is fully customizable, which means that you can install only those components that you want.
• FFDShow MPEG-4 Video Decoder 20041003 - FFDSHOW is a DirectShow decoding filter for decompressing DivX, XviD, WMV, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 movies.
• Style XP 2.15  - Style XP (download) is theming software that helps customize the way your Windows XP, Windows XP Service Pack 1, Tablet PC, or Server 2003 system looks. Style XP can manage and rotate themes, visual styles, backgrounds, and logons, which are freely available at ThemeXP.
• RivaTuner 2.0 RC 15.2 + SoftR9x00 + SoftFireGL  - Rivatuner is one of the (if not the) best Tweak Utilities available for NVIDIA GeForce and ATI Radeon based videocards.  The purpose of this utility is to give you access to all the undocumented features of Detonator and Catalyst drivers. Drivers have a lot of undocumented registry entries
• QuickGamma 2.0.0.1 - QuickGamma is a small utility program to calibrate a monitor on the fly without having to buy expensive hardware tools.

• Image virus spreads via chat - According to the Internet Storm Center, the victims received AOL Instant Messenger messages that directed them to Web sites that hosted the dangerous JPEG images. The instant messages read: "Check out my profile, click GET INFO!" When visited, the Web site automatically sends malicious code embedded in the JPEG image to the computer...
• Porn pics further poisoned with virus - Apparently victims who download the pictures from Usenet newsgroups to look at the picture will be infected with one of the early versions of the exploit code. The exploit then downloads a Trojan horse program onto their hard-drive. This is not a virus, because the hackers have not worked out a way of replicating it, so it seems that the virus writers are still in a proof of concept phase of development.
• What Is Wardriving And How Can You Prevent It - Imagine a car equipped with nothing more than a laptop computer, a portable GPS receiver, and a wireless network card slowly strolls through your neighborhood. Unknown to any onlookers, this is no ordinary vehicle; rather, it is a wardriving machine. As the car strolls past homes and businesses, a wireless network card (available at any electronics store for as low as $25) scans for any wireless access points. Anyone with a wireless network (and there are many out there) is vulnerable.
• Toorcon 2004 Brings Hackers to Sunny San Diego - Sunny San Diego served as a venue for Toorcon 2004 during which much light shone on how to keep the Black Hats at bay. Computer security concepts, sneak peeks at new hacking tools and more were all on the agenda.
• Microsoft FAT patent rejected - Microsoft's attempt to create a lucrative future revenue stream from its patent portfolio has tripped at the first hurdle. After an appeal, the US Patent Office has struck down Microsoft's '517 patent (USPTO 5,579, 517) on the FAT file system. Camera makers, amongst many other consumer electronics manufacturers, use the FAT file system on compact flash cards and other removable media.
• Knights of Honor game removes DAEMON Tools DLL-file? - According to CDFreaks, the game "Knights of Honor" by Black Sea Studios/Sunflower contains a copy-protection that seems to remove the file deamon.dll from our harddisks. This file is part of the DAEMON Tools software, an application with which you can emulate certain copy-protections. Futuremore, the game requires a "burning software clean" system. So what does this mean for us? Is it legal to force customers to uninstall software? What will come next? :( Of course, I don't plan to review this game any soon.....As a workaround, you can try this:
  1) Reinstall d-tools if it has been killed by this protection, 2) Make sure daemon.exe/tray icon are closed, 3) Open daemon.exe in a hex editor, 4) Find and replace the string 'daemon.dll' with something else (e.g., zaemon.dll), but make sure you replace (not insert) characters, 5) Rename C:windowsdaemon.dll to C:windowszaemon.dll, 6) Restart dtools and it might be ok to play this game.
• Off-topic: Experts Fight Crime With 3D Technology - Picture this: A police officer finds a bullet at a crime scene in Florida. He puts it in a machine that creates a digital 3D image of the bullet. The machine then loads this image into a database that quickly identifies a matching bullet fired from the same gun in a crime in Arizona last year. A medical examiner uses the images to verify a match, the police departments coordinate, and the suspect is soon captured.
• Off-topic: SpaceShipOne goes for next flight - Rocket plane SpaceShipOne is to attempt a second space flight on Monday in a bid to clinch the $10m Ansari X-Prize. Judges officially confirmed that pilot Mike Melvill took the craft to 103km (64 miles) on Wednesday's first flight.
• Off-topic: Red vs Blue Meets The Sims - The Strangerhood is a new series of machinima made by the bods behind Red vs Blue, but using the movie-making tools of the Sims 2. There're no full episodes yet, but they are "comming soon" apparently.  (thanks Peter Ng)
• Off-topic: Could Microsoft go the way of Pompeii? - AP reports that Mt. St. Helens may soon erupt (photo). How will citizen journalists cover it? Microsoft - home to 1000 employee bloggers - is a mere 100 or so miles away. Well, such an event could fling ash and rocks thousands of feet into the air but would not be expected to pose hazards beyond the volcano's crater and flan...
• Shadow Ops -- 64-bit Gaming Revolution? - The current status of 64-bit gaming is really the same as the status of 64-bit computing in general: it looks great on paper but we just aren't seeing the benefits for the end users yet. I can count the number of 64-bit applications, that I know of and buy right now, on one hand. I expect it to stay within that number until we get a final release date from Microsoft on their 64-bit operating system.
• ATI to roll out R500 GPU for Xbox 2 in 1Q 2005 - ATI Technologies is expected to roll out a new GPU, codenamed R500, for the Xbox 2 in the first quarter of next year, according to market sources. The R500 will be built using a 90nm process at TSMC and will deliver performance similar to ATI’s next-generation high-end graphics chip, the R520, the sources said.
• Icemat Audio Mp3-Players announced - Here's a slice from PR: "With a weight of ONLY 17 grams and a diameter of 41x10 mm, we are certain that the Icemat Audio Mp3-Players will fall into the taste of many. The earplugs are custom-made, giving YOU the opportunity to wear the Icemat Audio Mp3-Player around your neck – just like a medallion! There are two versions of the Mp3-Players. One with 128mb and one with 256mb. No batteries needed - you simply plug it into your computer with the included USB-Cable, drag the music you want onto the Mp3-Players directory, and the Mp3-Player will recharge while you choose your music. – You’re ready to go, and it’s giving you up to 16 hours of audio delight.
• SanDisk Flashes New Memory Cards - SanDisk this week announced a series of CF (CompactFlash) cards that double the read and write speeds of its fastest flash cards available today, as well as an 8GB version of its Ultra II CF Type 1 flash memory card. CF cards are widely used in cameras, video cameras, and camera phones to store and transfer data. The new Extreme III CF card, available in storage capacities between 1GB and 4GB, has a read and write speed of 20 MB per second, double that of SanDisk's fastest Ultra II CF cards, according to the company.
• Nvidia to launch nForce 4 "next week" - Nvidia's next-generation AMD-oriented chipset family will indeed be called the nForce 4 and is likely to be launched early this month, possibly as soon as Monday. Sources familiar with the chip-maker's plans revealed that the chipsets will support the PCI Express bus and incorporate Nvidia's SLI graphics card-doubling technology. The vanilla nForce 4 is likely to sport dual Serial ATA channels and be pitched at Socket 939 AMD processors, with the HyperTransport bus clocked at up to 1GHz. An Ultra version will add improved network processing facilities, while the SLI release will naturally provide a pair of PCI Express add-in slots. There's also talk of a budget version, pitched at Socket 754 processors and equipped with just a single Serial ATA bus. More info can be found on OCWorkBench.
• Club 3D readies S3 Deltachrome/ S4 Omnichrome cards - Club3D will offer three products - DeltaChrome S3 in 128MB and 256MB variations and an OmniChrome S4 128MB version. All three cards have 128 bit memory interfaces. DeltaChrome cards are clocked at 300MHz core and 250MHz memory. The 128 MB version will cost EURO85 while a 256MB card will cost EURO109. Omnichrome will be clocked at 350MHz core and 300MHz for memory and sell for EURO145. As for availability, both Deltachrome cards should be available
• ATI X800XT PE catches up with Nvidia SLI score - This score was brought to the world by the famous Finnish overclocker Sami Makkinen, the guy that did the overclocking for ATI in Barcelona at the X800XT PE, XT and PRO introduction.
• Canon Product Launch -Canon launched six PIXMA printers until this point of time. Three of the higher end PIXMA printers were on display during Canon Pro-Event last weekend : iP3000, iP4000 & iP4000R. This weekend, another three printers joined the PIXMA series, they were on display during PIXMA roadshow. These three entry level printers are : iP1000, iP1500 & iP2000.
• Futurelooks Field Tests the Samsung SC-D305  - There are so many great features and functions to this camera. I am definitely a fan of this unit, but with all products they all have their pros and cons. With the Samsung SCD305 the number of "pros" far surpasses the number of "cons."
• HP iPAQ hx4705 review - PDA Buyer's Guide has published an in-depth review of the HP iPAQ hx4605. The hx4705 features a fantastic VGA display and a super-fast 624MHz processor.
• OCZ EL DDR PC-3200 Platinum Revision 2 Q&A - OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev 2 is truly a universal product. We have had excellent results on NF2, NF3, VIA 880/880 Pro and Intel 865/875. The option of running 2-2-2 timings at speeds above 200mhz and the incredible headroom that allows 260mhz + operation make it a unique product. Of course you must have the right CPU/Mobo combination to hit these amazing speeds.
• Corsair 675MHz DDR2 (Twin2X1024-5400C4PRO) - Bjord3D take a quick look at some DDR2 from Corsair in the form of the TWIN2X1024-5400C4PRO 1GB kit. You might be thinking to yourself, '5400!?!' Oh yeah...this RAM is designed to run at 675MHz.
• DDR Memory Roundup - TrustedReviews have posted a small memory roundup comparing some of the latest DDR modules from Crucial, GeIL and Buffalo.
• Mushkin PC-3200 Level II V2 (2-2-2-5) Memory review - Hi-Techreviews.com has posted a review of Mushkin PC3200 Level II V2 (2-2-2-5) Memory.
• EPoX 5EGA+ i915G Socket 775 review - EPoX 5EGA+ is EPoX's offering for the Pentium Socket 775 processor based on the Intel=AE i915G chipset (i915G + ICH6R) with Intel GMA900 Graphics. With this board you do need of the expensive DDR2 memory. 5EGA+ comes with integrated video that could also save you some costs in getting an expensive graphics card and can get the system up and running. It comes with a x16 PCI-E slot which enable you to upgrade to high end graphics adaptor when the price comes down.
• Shuttle XPC SN95G5 review - Hexus.net taking a look at Shuttle's latest XPC, supporting AMD's Socket 939 CPU's.
• Gainward FX Ultra1800PCX "Golden Sample" reviewed - The card performs like that of a mainstream offering, but I was honestly expecting more out of a video card that retails for $250. The last generation technology found in the Ultra1800PCX will soon be smashed by the 6600 and 6600GT GPUs in the next few months in that they will cost less, offer more features, and better it in performance. That's not to say that this is a bad card, but this card falls into a price/performance ratio that is six months old.
• Kingston DataTraveler Elite 512MB USB Flash Drive review - GideonTech.com take a look at the Kingston DataTraveler Elite 512MB USB Flash Drive
• Buffalo AirStation G54 Wireless Router - As with all modern routers, the WBR2-G54 is based on the 802.11g standard allowing a theoretical maximum wireless transfer rate of 54Mbit/sec. At the back of the WBR2-G54 are four ports so you can add in up to four wired computers, and the WAN port which is where you will connect the router to your DSL modem since it does not have a built in modem of its own. Above these ports is the red AOSS activation button and an external aerial socket should you wish to boost the signal with the optional antenna.
• Enermax EG475P-VE (24P) Noisetaker ATX 12V v2.0 Power Supply - In keeping with the times, Enermax has released a new line of Noistaker power supplies that are ATX v2.0 compliant. These PSUs meet the high current requirements and provide the proper connectors for the latest Intel & AMD motherboards. This PSU will work with all older ATX motherboards too as Enermax has provided a 24pin to 20pin ATX connector.
• Doom 3 tweak guide - This DOOM 3 tweak guide will take you through every option available in the game, the console, config files, graphics, audio and input settings.
• Windows XP Professional x64 Edition preview - SuperSite for Windows has posted a preview on Windows XP Professional x64 Edition.
• Java 2 Platform Standard Edition 5.0 - Java 2 Platform Standard Edition (J2SE) 5.0 ("Tiger") is the next major revision to the Java platform and language; it is currently slated to contain 15 component JSRs with nearly 100 other significant updates developed through the Java Community Process (JCP). .
• Free SQL Server 2000 Report Pack for Microsoft CRM -  The SQL Server Report Pack for Microsoft CRM is a set of six reports based on Microsoft CRM version 1.2 and a sample database to let you easily visualize and author managed reports to support key sales activities.  There's also PSSDiag, a diagnostic data collector for Microsoft SQL Server. It can simultaneously collect Perfmon/Sysmon logs, Profiler traces, event logs, SQLDIAG reports, and detailed blocking information.
• XPlite and 2000lite v1.5 - XPlite and 2000lite (trial) are powerful configuration utilities for Windows creating a modular Windows operating system where YOU are in control. The new version 1.5 gives you more than 150 ways to reduce the size, improve the security, and customize your Windows XP or 2000 installation to suit you.
• xpy 0.83 - xpy is a small tool which disables the default threats of a windows xp installation. besides the classic antispy features, xpy closes recent security holes like the remote procure call (rpc) service and the distributed component object model (dcom).
• Maxthon (MyIE2) v1.1.039  - Maxthon (download combo ~ standard) 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
• DVD Region+CSS Free updated - Just like the latest AnyDVD update, the DVD Region + CSS Free software is now able to remove Sony's new ARccOS DVD copy-protection.
• AMD64 Clock Utility 1.1 - A64CLK (AMD64 Clock Utility) is a simple utility designed for realtime CPU frequency monitoring and realtime adjustment of the CPU multiplier (FID) and voltage level (VID) of the upported CPUs via processor's power management model specific registers (MSRs).
• PlexTools v2.17 - This PlexTools version adds Bitsetting support for the Plextor PX-708A, the Plextor PX-712A and the Plextor PX-716A.
• ForceWare 66.72 beta Win2000/XP - It's revision 66.72 and has been WHQL qualified, which means it is qualified in Microsoft Labs and got approval. All language files have been included. The driver is compatible with NVIDIA graphics cards based on GeForce4 and newer. Remember, although WHQL these driver still need to be considered Beta, use them at your own risk.

• Summary of Security Items from September 22 through September 28, 2004 - This bulletin provides a summary of new or updated vulnerabilities, exploits, trends, viruses, and trojans. Updates to items appearing in previous bulletins are listed in bold text. The text in the Risk column appears in red for vulnerabilities ranking High.
• JPEG exploit could beat antivirus software - According to Mikko Hypponen, director of antivirus research for F-Secure, antivirus software will strain to find JPEG malware, because by default, it only searches for .exe files. "Normal antivirus software, by default, will not detect JPEGs," Hypponen said. "You can set your antivirus scanner to look for JPEG, but the trouble is that you can change the file extension on a JPEG to so many things."  There are about 11 file name extensions to which JPEGs can be changed, including .icon or .jpg2. Hypponen said this would make finding malicious JPEGs even more difficult; searching could take up a significant amount of valuable processor power.
• Chinese IT student jailed for running XXX site - A 22-year-old Chinese computer student has been jailed for four years for running a porn site. State media reports that the student - known only by his surname Xie - was arrested in July for flogging XXX flicks. The court heard how Xie, a student at the east China's Zhejiang University of Technology, had earned more than 160,000 yaun (L10,700) from his porn site which attracted some 1,500 subscribers.
• File Traders Could Do Hard Time - Users of internet peer-to-peer networks, already dodging lawsuits from the recording industry, could face up to three years in prison under a bill passed Tuesday by the U.S. House of Representatives. The House voted to enlist the government to a greater degree in the entertainment industry's fight against those who trade copies of its products over the internet.
• Windows 2003 - Freezes at "Applying Computer Settings" - There's currently a bug in Windows 2003 server which causes the computer to essentially freeze at the "Applying Computer Settings" screen when logging on.
• Off-topic: SpaceShipOne makes second flight into space in hunt for X-Prize - SpaceShipOne dramatically rolled more than two dozen times as it rocketed towards its target height of nearly 62 miles. Controllers and spectators watched in horror as the craft, piloted by Mike Melvill, appeared to spin out of control over California's Mojave Desert. But after reaching sub-orbital space, Mr Melvill regained control and piloted the ship safely back to Earth. SpaceShipOne was carried high into the air anchored beneath the twin-engine White Knight craft. The two craft separated at around 50,000ft and the space ship rocketed into space. It was the second time that SpaceShipOne – the inspiration behind Richard Branson's dream of commercial space travel – has reached sub-orbital space.
• Off-topic: IBM claims supercomputer speed crown - An IBM supercomputer still under development has set an unofficial new world speed record during testing, the company announced on Wednesday. IBM says its Blue Gene/L, sited in Minnesota, US, attained a sustained performance of 36.01 teraflops when performing the standard benchmark used to test supercomputers, known as the Linpack test.
• Microsoft gives official stance on next gen DirectX -  Microsoft has confirmed that the specification is almost completed, but as WGF will be part of Longhorn it is definitely not finalised as a software product. Knowing Microsoft it needs 18 months from a beta until gold, and it still hasn't showed any beta. Bill Gates said once that this beta will arrive in 2005.
• Sony Redesigns Network Walkman - Sony has updated its hard drive-based Network Walkman with some design tweaks and a lower price. The new model that will go on sale in October, the company says. There are four main differences between the NW-HD2 and its predecessor, the NW-HD1, although none of them are substantial. Sony's switch to blue and pink follows a local market preference. Sony also changed the backlight color used in the 1.5-inch LCD of its NW-HD2, from green to blue. The biggest technical change is the ability to charge the player from the power cord by using a small interface adapter.
• Scientists Invent 1TB Optical Discs - The 1TB disk would be double sided and dual layer, but even a single sided, single layer, MODS disk could hold the Lord of the Rings trilogy 13 times over, or all 238 episodes of Friends. MODS disks will not be the first to challenge DVDs domination of the audiovisual optical disk market. BluRay disks, which have five times the capacity of a DVD at 25GB per layer, are expected to be released towards the end of 2005 for the home market.
• HD-DVD Standard Earns Approval - The DVD Forum has approved the physical disc specifications for the rewritable version of HD-DVDs (High Definition/High Density-DVDs), taking the format an important step nearer to mass production. At a meeting in Taiwan on September 22, the association approved version 1.0 of the HD-DVD-RW physical specification, which covers a single-layer disc with a capacity of 20GB, Junko Furuta, a Toshiba spokesperson says.
• Chip set pushes powerline networking rates to 85 Mbits/s - Intellon is pushing up the data rate of home powerline networks with the release of a new chip set that delivers 85-Mbits/s throughputs. But, to date, the HomePlug crew has still not adopted a formal HomePlug AV spec.
• ATI get dirty on GeForce 6600GT - Gamers-Depot recently got their hands on some internal ATI documents that show how they really feel about NVIDIA's 6600GT. These kinds of marketing materials aren't anything new, and it should come as to no surprise to anyone that the sub-$200 dollar market will perhaps be the most competitive between the two rivalries.
• SLI On 3DMark05! - NVIDIA announces a top 3DMark05 score of 7229! The used 2 GeForce 6800 Ultra PCI-E cards in SLI mode on a Intel Tumwater-System with Pentium4 3,4 GHz EE and NVIDIA ForceWare 66.51
• Start-up OQO to launch hand-size PC - OQO will launch its tiny computer Oct. 14 in San Francisco, according to an invitation from the company. The upstart has created a full-fledged Windows XP computer, called OQO model 01, that is about the same size and shape as a Palm organizer or Pocket PC. The unit can also be inserted into a docking station. The small size is possible, in part, because the computer runs on 1GHz Transmeta processors, which consume less energy than regular PC chips. It comes with a 20GB hard drive and 256MB of memory.
• Intel unveils latest mobile chip - The Pentium 4M 548 runs at 3.33GHz with 1MB Level 2 cache, and is built around Intel's latest 90nanometre technology. It has 13 new streaming SIMD 3 extensions designed to speed up multimedia processing.
• ABIT intros video card overclock tool - ABIT today launched its first ATI-based graphics cards to incorporate overclocking software derived from the code its ships with its overclockable motherboards. The RX600 Pro-Guru, X600 Pro-HDTV and RX300 SE-Guru boards both ship with vGuru, the video version of ABIT's µGuru overclocking utility. vGuru allows users to modify memory and core clock speeds and voltages, and adjust fan speeds. It also provides diagnostic tools to help fine-tune performance.
• 16.7 megapixel digital SLR with Wi-Fi preview - Successor to the EOS-1Ds the Mark II maintains the 36 x 24 mm CMOS sensor (full 35 mm frame size), raises the pixel count by almost six million pixels, provides ISO sensitivity through to ISO 3200, faster continuous shooting (4 fps) with a large and improved buffer (32 JPEG, 11 RAW) as well as all of the changes we saw between the EOS-1D to EOS-1D Mark II. Additionally Canon has also announced the WFT-E1 Wireless Transmitter which supports 802.11b/g (WiFi) as well as tethered LAN for transmission of images directly back to a server. It will be priced L5,999 (UK), $7,999 (US) and EURO8,000 (Europe).
• DDR2 Roundup - Of the four modules we tested, we think that either the Corsair or the OCZ would be a good choice as they performed well at tigher timings and are guranteed to work at higher speeds which will certainly help in the longer run. However, that being said, you should probably be able to pick the Kingmax and TwinMOS at a much lower price and considering the fact that not much difference exists between the performance of these modules, they dont seem to be a bad buy either. Although we still think that its too early to jump to DDR2 and dont necessarily recommend it at this particualr time.

• ATI Radeon 9250 shootout - So what's new in the RADEON 9250? Some people initially assumed that the RADEON 9250 is a DirectX 9 compliant VPU of the existing RADEON 9200 but that is actually the furthest from the truth. Sadly, there aren't any new features or for that matter, improvement in clock speeds either.

• ASUS Extreme AX600XT vs. MSI PCX 5750  - Each of these packages targets a different audience. The MSI PCX 5750 aims to capture the gamer on a budget, offering a modest card and a terrific collection of games with some new and old favorites. In contrast, the ASUS Extreme AX600XT takes a more multimedia approach, offering HDTV and VIVO options along with video/graphics editing software and one popular gaming title. Depending on your needs, both cards have something to offer with their retail packaging. Next, we'll focus on each card more closely, then we'll line them up on the test bed to see how they compare to each other.
• Gainward 6800GT 2400/Ultra Golden Sample review - The Golden Sample is significantly louder than the 6800GT and even a regular Ultra. For those that are populating their cases with Tornados or Deltas I do not think that this is a major impediment. For those who are investing in Panaflos and are trying to quiet down their PCs, the Gainward 2400/Ultra should be avoided.  Unlike some of the overclocked cards we have seen, the clockrates are not set automatically with the Nvidia drivers but still require the end user to overclock the card manually.
• Leadtek's A400 Series review - THG has reviewed 3 cards from Leadtek A400 GeForce series.
• SOHW-1633S review - The SOHW-1633S read every single CD and DVD I threw at it, and burned flawlessly. I did not have one "coaster" produced due to a bad burn throughout my extensive testing. The drive remained ultra quiet even at its top DVD read and write speeds. Although there's not much of a difference between 12x and 16x DVD burning, there's not much of a price difference between a SOHW-1213S and a SOHW-1633S either. The SOHW-1633S is however faster and supports DVD DL. So the choice is obvious.
• Sony's SDM-234/B 23 Inch LCD Display - While other screens have come close, the SDM-234/B is the first truly large screen display which we can recommend to gamers without compromise. The monitor looks truly spectacular when paired with a card powerful enough to run the card at its native resolution. In addition, media and DVD movie playback are nothing short of breathtaking when viewed on such a monstrous LCD panel.
• Thermalright XP-120 K8/P4 CPU Cooler review - The XP-120 is an excellent performing heatsink, beating the Alpha PAL 8150 by a degree or two. While it does offer some impressive cooling, it can be a major headache to install it.
• "Backy" review - This particular model is the "2x Molex 2x Fan3pin UVBlue" and contains, as per the name, two four-pin Molex power connectors (for hard drives, etc) and two three-pin fan connectors. In fact, only two pins are present on the connectors - the RPM-monitoring pin is not connected. The whole unit is powered from a single Molex plug inside the PC, so there's no way to pass that monitoring-pin signal back to the motherboard or a fanbus, short of running a single wire from each plug.
• Eleven Card Readers Roundup: Which One Is the Best? - X-bit Labs have a detailed coverage of 11 brand name as well as widely spread noname products.
• IRiver iFP- 190T 256MB MP3 Player review - Overall, the IRiver iFP 190 is a great product for the price. Sound quality is simply fantastic, and the feature-rich user interface is easy to understand yet packed with all of the options of a larger and more expensive player.
• Rojak Pot's Radeon 9800 Pro to Radeon 9800 XT mod guide rev. 5.1 - check it out!
• Phishing Prevention Guide - The guide (PDF) is quite extensive and details ways you can prevent or, at the very least, steer away from becoming a victim.
• Subnet masking guide - In this guide I will cover each of these aspects starting with converting binary to decimal and vice versa. In subnet masking you work with a series of 4 bytes each byte separated by a decimal. This makes up your IP Address. Remember 1 bits = 8 bytes. So each Address contains 4 bytes or 32 bits.
• Application Compatibility Guide for Windows XP SP2  -  This guide will assist IT Professionals to test and mitigate application compatibility issues arising from these more stringent security technologies.
• Defrag Manager 3.0 review - The software is installed onto the computer that you will use to schedule and monitor defragmentation. Once installed, the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in interface is used to manage clients and defrag rules. Comprising three main windows, the Scope window displays the primary nodes (Schedule, History, Network and Active Directory), the Results window displays information about the node selected in the Scope window, and the Details window becomes visible when you select a defrag schedule.
• XP2 - Event ID 4226 Patcher (4226 fix) - Updated patcher to get RID of that damn 10 half-open pipe tcpip.sys MS threw in with Windows XP2. Use the /L switch to open the pipe even more!
• phpMyAdmin 2.6.0-pl1 (Patch Level 1) - phpMyAdmin can manage a whole MySQL-server (needs a super-user) but also a single database. This minor update fixes a problem which prevents using 2.6.0 under PHP 4.1.x and 4.2.
• Apache 2.0.52 - Apache 2.0 (download) offers numerous enhancements, improvements and performance boosts over the 1.3 codebase. The most visible and noteworthy addition is the ability to run Apache in a hybrid thread/process mode on any platform that supports both threads and processes
• Avast! Home Edition 4.1.418 - Avast! Home Edition is a complete anti-virus package for Windows 9x/Me, NT/2000/XP. It is FREE for registered home noncommercial users. It's certified by ICSA and obtained 100% mark from Virus Bulletin in June 2002 under Windows XP Pro. /hi Mr.Kubec! :)/
• McAfee AVERT Stinger 2.4.0 - 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.
• FarCry Benchmarking Utility v1.3.1 - The HardwareOC FarCry Benchmark is an easy-to-use tool, that makes Far Cry video card benchmarking fast and easy.
• ThumbsPlus 7.0 Final - ThumbsPlus (download) is a highly customizable image database / thumbnails / graphics editor application that makes it easy to catalog and locate, as well as, maintain and modify all your graphics and multimedia files.
• ACDSee 7.0 - ACDSee (download) digital photo software makes it easy to import, view, organize, print, enhance, share and archive your digital photos.
• AnyDVD version 4.0.4.1 - SlySoft has today released AnyDVD version 4.0.4.1. This new version adds a new option that removes a copy-protection based on unreadable sectors.
• Kerio Personal Firewall 4.1.1 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.
• HyperSnap-DX 5.61.00 - HyperSnap-DX (download) is a screen capture and image editing tool for MS Windows. It captures screens from standard desktop programs and even those hard-to-grab DirectX, Direct3D, 3Dfx, 3dfx, Voodoo and Glide mode games.
• NVIDIA Forceware 66.51 beta - OSNN.net has a new Forceware Drivers v66.51 for Windows 2000/XP. Try only at your own risk.

• [!] jpeg virus in the wild?! - To check to see if you have been infected by this virus, look for a directory named "c:windowssystem32system" that has nvsvc.exe and winrun.exe in it.
• Is Organized Crime Controlling Your PC? - A rise in attacks for financial gain, as opposed to attacks motivated by the creator's desire to gain notoriety, is a disturbing trend noted in Symantec's latest report on Internet security.  The people behind these types of attacks, says Symantec Africa regional manager Patrick Evans, are well-funded, organized crime groups that use networks of bots to obtain financial information for their own gain.
• Microsoft pirates "cleverer" - Microsoft has again warned the channel to steer clear of illegal software after two members of Europe's largest software counterfeiting ring were sent to jail. A German court recently sentenced the father of notorious software pirate Ralph Blasek, himself jailed for five years in July 2003, to 16 months' imprisonment for selling counterfeit software and infringing Microsoft copyright. Another member of the gang received a three-year sentence.
• Russia gets budget version of Windows - Windows XP Starter Edition is Microsoft's attempt to gain more customers in the developing nations, the fastest growing markets in the world. The OS differs from regular Windows in a number of respects. Users can run only three programs on the operating system at once, for instance, and home networking has been deleted. It also comes preloaded only on authorized PCs. Microsoft does not sell the software separately in stores. On the other hand, it costs far less than regular Windows. Starter Edition costs about $36, according to sources, less than the $70 or more PC makers pay for Windows XP. Here are screenshots and photos ~ desktop#1, desktop#2, boxcover, security center.
• Microsoft Adds New Hotmail Fee - Microsoft will start charging for a Hotmail feature that allows users of the Web-based e-mail service to access their e-mail using the Outlook e-mail client. Microsoft is making the move not to increase the number of paying Hotmail users but because the feature is being abused by senders of spam, says Brooke Richardson, lead product manager for MSN at Microsoft.
• Off-topic: Branson to launch space tourism - Entrepreneur and part-time daredevil Richard Branson plans to launch the world's first passenger service to space in 2007, offering zero-gravity flights for 110,000 pounds. Branson, whose Virgin empire stretches from planes and trains to vodka, music and personal finance, is teaming up with Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen to build five, fish-shaped capsules for the two-to-three hour flights. The flights will climb to about 130 kilometres roughly six times higher than regular commercial planes, and include 4 minutes of weightlessness, views of the horizon from 1,200 miles away, and possibly a gin and tonic if granted a liquor license.
• Off-topic: Asteroid Toutatis Makes Closest Pass in 651 Years - An asteroid named for a Celtic god of war will come as close to Earth this week as it has since 1353. The space rock known as Toutatis will come on Wednesday within 960,000 miles of Earth, relatively close by cosmic standards, Astronomy Magazine said in an e-mailed statement on Monday. Toutatis poses no danger to Earth. However, if it did hit our planet, it would create a blast with the energy equivalent to 1 million ton of TNT. Measuring about 3 miles by 1.5 miles, Toutatis will speed by Earth at 22,000 miles per hour.
• Off-topic: Spy imagery agency watching inside U.S. -  In the name of homeland security, America's spy imagery agency is keeping a close eye, close to home. It's watching America. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, about 100 employees of a little-known branch of the Defense Department called the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency - and some of the country's most sophisticated aerial imaging equipment - have focused on observing what's going on in the United States. Their work brushes up against the fine line between protecting the public and performing illegal government spying on Americans.
• Microsoft develops robot language - Microsoft has lifted the lid on new technology it is currently developing, including a graphical programming language that allows people to control robots with a smartphone. At a technology fair in Brussels, researchers from the Berlin University of Technology and Microsoft Research Cambridge demonstrated the Visual Robot Development Kit (VRDK), a graphical programming language that makes the development of robotic applications easy enough to teach in school. It features a simple graphical editor that can be used with a mouse and keyboard or Tablet PC to program robots to perform simple tasks, and control them using a PC or Windows Mobile-based smartphone. /It sounds like an improved Karel The Robot language developed 25 years ago ;)/
• Adobe proposes new format for images - Adobe Systems Inc. plans to introduce a new format for digital photos tomorrow in an attempt to create an industry public standard to make the archiving and editing process compatible across all types of cameras and software.
• Toshiba presses play on 60GB audio player - The HDD Audio Player Gigabeat line will top out at 60 gigabytes and will be available before the end of the year in the country, along with 10GB and 20GB versions. The devices will come with a high-resolution 2.2-inch color display and a navigation system based on a plus-sign sensor on the front of the device.
• Intel drops Wi-Fi from chipset plans - Intel is phasing out its Wi-Fi-enabled ICH6RW south bridge chip. Intel will continue to offer the Wi-Fi-less ICH6R, though
• Next generation DirectX - WGF almost finished - Microsoft graphic group is very close to finally releasing the long awaited next generation DirectX. You can forget the name DirectX as Microsoft has decided to call this one WGF (Windows Graphic Foundation). The interface will, for the first time, reunite Direct Draw part that was mainly used for drawing 2D windows and Direct 3D part of DirectX used to draw 3D scene.
• Nvidia is making .NET driver  - ATI was criticised for its new Catalyst Control Center since apart from nice looking features its new driver brought slower execution. But TheInquirer has learned that Nvidia is doing the same at the moment.
• Athlon 64 3700+ review - The 200 MHz difference between the 3400+ and the 3700+ does not seem like much, but when the user considers the overall efficiency of the Athlon 64 architecture, this 200 MHz should make a large difference in overall performance. The 400 MHz jump from a 3000+ or 3200+ to the 3700+ should make a world of difference. Users that find their Athlon 64 2800+ to be a bit pokey should take a very long look at the 3700+.
• AMD's Opteron 250 vs. Intel's Xeon 3.6 GHz - AMD Opteron 250 continues to gain respect and share in the enterprise workstation sector. But now, Intel's new Xeon processor, packed with a 3.6 GHz clock speed and the retreaded E7525/Tumwater platform, is available in the channels. Will Intel's new Xeon steal some of the AMD Opteron 250's lunch?
• OCZ PC-3200 Platinum Rev.2 review - PCUnleash has posted a review of OCZ's PC-3200 Platinum Rev.2 memory.
• TwinMOS Twister PC3200 DDR 1 gig Dual channel kit review - Xtreme Computing has posted a review of the TwinMOS Twister PC3200 DDR 1 gig Dual channel kit.
• Abit's AG8 motherboard review - While the Athlon 64 world waits on PCI Express, a wide range of motherboards based on Intel's 900 series chipsets have flooded the market, and they're more affordable than you think. For only $132, you can get your hands on Abit's 915P-based AG8, which serves up PCI Express graphics, all the integrated goodies in Intel's ICH6R south bridge, and support for DDR400 memory so you don't have to resort to high-latency DDR2. With recent price cuts making LGA775 processors like the Pentium 4 520 2.8GHz available for as little as $160, boards like the AG8 could be perfect for video editing enthusiasts, Hyper-Threading fetishists, and those with a deep longing for PCI Express
• Gainward PowerPack! Ultra/2100 Geforce 6800 Golden Sample 128MB review - If you have a 5800, 5800 Ultra, 5900XT/SE, NU, Ultra or 5950, an upgrade to a 6800 would definitely be noticeable, and would cause goose bumps of gaming joy. Of course, those goose bumps might not be quite as prominent as those you would get from a 6800GT or 6800 Ultra, but with the $100 or $200 you save by getting the non-Ultra, you could buy an extra air conditioner, which would bring you right back up to GT/Ultra level goose bumps.
• ATI Radeon X700 XT review - As with the X800, ATI has employed GDDR3 memory for the X700 XT and Pro; in differing quantities and speeds. The type of memory used for the standard X700 hasn’t been decided yet, but considering the clock speeds employed, it’s likely to be standard DDR memory. The X700 XT will sport 128MB of memory running at 525MHz (1.05GHz effective), while the X700 Pro will employ 256MB of memory clocked at 432MHz (864MHz effective).
• Leadtek WinFast A400 Ultra TDH review - Bjorn3D has posted a review on the Leadtek WinFast A400 Ultra TDH video card.
• SoundBlaster Audigy 2-ZS Internal review  - Xtreme Computing has posted a review on the SoundBlaster Audigy 2-ZS internal sound card.
• BenQ FP992 review  -Bytesector has posted a review of the BenQ FP992 monitor (19" FP992 LCD  25ms)
• Windows XP Performance Tweaking Guide (Updated) - I am not a Geek has updated their Windows XP Performance Tweaking Guide. However, the SP2 didn't really bring any big changes to this guide.
• Troubleshooting Network Connections - This article covers a number of typical scenarios of a PC connected to a network and offers a list of logical and straight forward troubleshooting steps for each specific scenario to make the troubleshooting process easier and take some of the scariness out of it.
• Microsoft Picture It! Premium 10 review -  Hardware Pacers has posted a review of Microsoft's Picture It! Premium 10. "This tool allows to edit images, sort them by preference, assign ratings and keywords to photos, great 'Autofix' feature for quick color and exposure fixing and ultimately, it allows sharing of photos via e-mail or ordering prints online. Compared to some other products with similar features, it might be a bit pricey but it certainly delivers on a high level."
• phpMyAdmin 2.6.0 - phpMyAdmin is a tool written in PHP intended to handle the administration of MySQL over the WWW. Currently it can create and drop databases, create/drop/alter tables, delete/edit/add fields, execute any SQL statement, manage keys on fields, create dumps of tables and databases, export/import CSV data and administrate one single database and multiple MySQL servers.
• Cryptainer LE 5.0.1.0 - Cryptainer LE, a free disk encryption software, creates multiple 20 MB of encrypted and password protected drives/containers. The Cryptainer drive can be loaded and unloaded as per your need.
• Gmail Notifier 1.0.21.0 - The Gmail Notifier is a downloadable Windows application that alerts you when you have new Gmail messages. It displays an icon in your system tray to let you know if you have unread Gmail messages, and shows you their subjects, senders and snippets, all without your having to open a web browser.
• The GIMP 2.05 - The GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages.
• CATALYST Beta 8.07 Driver -  ATI has released a beta driver (v8.07) that  fixes a random hang issue with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic when loading / switching levels.

• Jail time for California file swappers? - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a law Tuesday establishing fines and potential jail time for anonymous file swappers.The new law says that any California resident who sends copyrighted works without permission to at least 10 other people must include his or her e-mail address and the title of the work. Swappers who do not include this information will face fines of up to $2,500 and up to one year in prison.
• Hackers use Google to access photocopiers - Using Google hacks -- requests typed into the search engine that bring up cached information on networks -- hackers are discovering and using login details for networked photocopiers so they can watch what is being copied. "You don't have to be a genius to do this," said Jason Hart, security director at Whitehat UK. "You can see what people are photocopying on your monitor. You just have to search for online devices on Google."
• Virus writers hit home PCs as companies get tough - Virus writers are increasingly targeting poorly protected home PCs because company defences are proving too much of a challenge. Vincent Gullotto, vice president of the Anti-Virus Emergency Response Team (Avert) at security company McAfee, said recent attacks have ignored corporate networks and aimed for the home user instead.
• BSA Pursuing 700 Software-Piracy Probes - The Business Software Alliance, the chief watchdog for U.S. software publishers, rarely raids enterprise customers with federal marshals and court orders, according to Robert M. Kruger, chief enforcement officer for the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization. But that doesn't mean Kruger and other BSA piracy cops are easing up on their investigations. Even though the incidence of software piracy worldwide has dropped, the BSA still has 700 active investigations into software piracy across the United States, says Kruger.
• GDI+ JPEG Remote Exploit - Exploit based on FoToZ exploit but kicks the exploit up a notch by making it have reverse connectback as well as bind features that will work with all NT based OS's. WinNT, WinXP, Win2K, Win2003, etc... Thank you FoToz for helping get a grip on the situation. I actually had got bind jpeg exploit working earlier but I could only  trigger from OllyDbg due to the heap dynamically changing...
• Scanner Tool Released To Thwart JPEG Attack - Microsoft has released a scanning tool to help users identify vulnerable versions of the GDI libraries that handle JPEG processing. The Microsoft GDI+ Detection Tool helps detect the presence of non-Windows Microsoft products that contain the GDI+ component and determines whether a security fix should be applied.
• Choosing an alternative browser  - This article will discus about why it is important, and what the main choices are.
• Off-topic: Economist 2004 Innovation Awards - As such, each year, The Economist recognises individuals who have proved their talent in their respective fields 1) Bio-Science : David Goeddel - for work with gene cloning and the expression of human proteins 2) Communications : Vic Hayes - for work as founder of the IEEE 802.11 working group, and his efforts with WIFI. 3) Computing : Linus Torvalds - for extensive work on the Linux operating system. 4) Energy : Takeshi Uchiyamada - for work on the Toyota Prius (a hybrid fuel car). 5) "No Boundaries" : Gerd Binnig, Heinrich Rohrer, Christoph Gerber - for work with IBM on scanning-tunnelling microscopes (STM). 6) Social and Economic Innovation : Muhammad Yunus - for work in banks in 3rd world countries; masterminded the idea of "micro-credit".
• Off-topic: The Jobs Crunch - Neither major party is accurately describing or combatting the Jobs Crunch that Americans are facing. Bad immigration policy-and bad trade deals are combining to decimate the middle class in America. (thanks Slashdot.org)
• Off-topic: Montreal team offers build-your-own solar scooters - A couple of entrepreneurs in Montreal are teaching people how to build their own solar-powered scooters by making the instructions freely available on the internet. Many people are looking to alternative fuels but solar-powered vehicles are often too expensive. "The total cost of the project was probably about $600,000," said Paul Glass, project manager for McGill University's solar car. The Biomod company in Montreal said it can build the vehicles for much cheaper. By using surplus parts, a solar-powered scooter costs $1,600.
• Off-topic: Hard drive costs now under 10 cents per MB - The first hard drive in 1956 was the IBM 305 RAMAC, and cost $10,000 per MB – it had a capacity of 5MB. But now the cost, Fox said, is something under 10 cents per MB and that he said, is a retail figure, including tax.
• Off-topic: Biggest cosmic collision - An international team of scientists have discovered a head-on collision of two galaxy clusters, one of the most powerful collisions ever documented, China Radio International reported Saturday. cientists have called it the"perfect cosmic storm." The galaxy clusters collided like two hurricanes, tossing individual galaxies out into space.
• New Longhorn Concept Video -  This video covers technology to be delivered in 2005, as well as demonstrating platform advances coming in Longhorn in 2006.
• Xbox 2 Peripherals to Work on PCs - Gamespot has posted an interview with Microsoft Windows Graphics and Gaming general manager Dean Lester where he reveals that the Xbox 2 peripherals will all work on PC too. So it looks like the Xbox 2 will probably the regular USB standard.
• Xbox Next could support Xbox games - Xbox specialist site xbox-scene.com reports that Transitive has announced QuickTransit, an application that would allow for software to be run across different processors and operating systems without any source code changes -- boasting "100 per cent functionality, transparent interactive and graphics performance" and "near-native computational performance."
• Xbox Adds Video Chat Service -  Microsoft is looking to several anticipated titles, its online gaming service, and a new video chat application to propel sales of its Xbox console in Japan during the year-end shopping season.
• Gamers Get a Look at PlayStation Portable - Gamers got their first chance to lay their hands on Sony Computer Entertainment's highly-anciticipated PlayStation Portable (PSP) at the Tokyo Game Show this week and initial reactions were mostly positive. People who already own a PlayStation 2 (PS2) say the PSP faithfully translates the larger console's environment. "The performance is quite incredible and the buttons are comfortable. ... It's just like the PS2," says Cody Pang, a 30-year-old gamer who traveled to the show from Hong Kong.
• Game puts players in Kerry's boat - Military game specialist Kuma Reality Games will let players make up their own answers in a couple of weeks, when it releases a new adventure based on presidential candidate John Kerry's Vietnam War service. "Silver Star" will be the latest in a string of missions for "Kuma War," an ongoing game based on historical events. The Kerry mission, to be released Sept. 30, centers on the Feb. 28, 1969, battle that earned the presidential candidate the nation's second-highest military honor, while he commanded a Navy "swift boat" in the Mekong Delta.
• Nokia 6670 smartphone challenges PDAs - Nokia has launched a new handset with a 1 megapixel camera, claiming that the market is moving from PDAs to smartphones. The tri-band Nokia 6670, which includes Bluetooth support, is expected to be available from October.
• Nvidia Presentations Leak - Neowin's Forum has offers some presentations slides from Nvidia where they slag off ATI's Radeon 9250, 9550 and X700.
• VIA announces K8T890 PCIe chipset for the AMD 64 - VIA Technologies has announced the VIA K8T890 chipset, enabling advanced PCI Express (PCIe) connectivity on motherboards for the latest AMD Athlon 64, Opteron, and Sempron processors. The VIA K8T890 chipset is designed to fully accommodate the increased multimedia demands being placed on the PC through applications such as high-definition video creation, multi-streaming audio and the latest 3D-game engines that require ever-increasing levels of system bandwidth. Featuring the unique VIA Flex Express architecture, the VIA K8T890 chipset provides support for the latest high performance PCI Express x16 graphics cards, benefiting from a blistering 4GB/s of bandwidth, both upstream and downstream. The first previews can be found on TechReport, PCPerspective, BitTech, HotHardware
• Systemax TourBook 5202 2GHz Centrino review - The processor has been upgraded to a 2GHz Pentium M with 2MB of Level 2 cache, but the system memory remains at 512MB. The graphics card has been given a boost and you now get a Mobility Radeon 9700 instead of the 9600, but the graphics memory remains at 64MB.
• 90-nano Athlon 64 3500+ review - Korean website PC-Web has posted a review (translate with Babelfish) of AMD's 90-nanometer "Winchester" Athlon 64 3500+
• PQI PC3200 1024DBU RAM review - The PQI3200-1024DPU is a matched pair dual channel 512MB DDR 400MHz PC3200 TURBO module. Capable of achieving ultra-low latency 2-2-2-5, PQI3200-1024DPU optimizes overall system performance with superior stability.
• OCZ's PC-3200 Platinum Rev.2 review - From DDR400 to DDR530, OCZ's EL rev2 pc3200 displayed consistent speeds, which is astounding for memory that claims to be a humble DDR400. In other words, the ram is truly a Jack of all trades. With a superior overclocking rate, OCZ's EL PC-3200 has truly impressed me. It is not often that you'll see a ram that can run at Cas2, 3-3-5, moreover at high frequencies such as PC4400.
• Corsair 1GB PC2 5400 Pro DDR2 review - For those of you upgrading to a DDR2 platform, this Corsair PC2 5400 is going to be the memory to have. It has plenty of headroom to push your CPU as far as you want and still have room left over. Granted, it is a bit on the pricey side, but if you've got the dough, it's more than worth it. As Intel's new chipsets continue to be improved upon and mature, I'm sure we'll be seeing much better overclocking capabilities from them and I have no doubt this memory is going to be the overclockers choice.
• GALAXY Glacier GeForce 6800 128MB -  The oversized VGA silencer carries the two-fold benefit of reducing core temperature and fan speed. GALAXY's obviously confident enough with Arctic Cooling's efforts to warrant a 15/25MHz (depending on whether you consider 325MHz or 335MHz the default 6800 speed) increase over reference models. GALAXY Technology also adds in some super-fast Hynix DDR1 RAM, rated to a nominal 900MHz, yet chooses to go with NVIDIA's 700MHz RAM speed recommendations.
• ASUS V9999 Gamer Edition review - Performance of the Asus V9999GE videocard was excellent for the most part, but that is to be expected considering it's using a GeForce 6800 GPU. ;-) In almost all benchmarks, the V9999GE fought it out for top spot with the Asus AX800XT/TVD and Albatron GeForce 6800GT.
• Albatron GeForce PCX5750 review - Other than its overclocking prowess, the PCX5750 from Albatron does not offer a lot of bells or whistles, which is what we should probably expect from a mid-range video card. Duke Nukem and a disc full of demos does not offer too much of a compelling reason to buy this board instead of a competitor's. However, the cooler that covers the core and the memory chips on the front of the board seems to be offered by only a couple different vendors, so that is definitely a feature that helps differentiate this board. Unfortunately, the memory chips on the back do not have heatsinks on them.
• Leadtek WinFast PVR2000 review - The PVR2000 is Leadtek's latest PC TV tuner card and it is a real bundle of tricks. As well as the compulsory antenna or cable transmitted programmes and Teletext, the PVR2000 also has a built-in hardware MPEG2 Encoder which takes significant strain off the CPU and can capture in MPEG1, MPEG2, VCD and DVD formats, as well as burning directly to a DVD.
• Gigabyte Radeon X800 Pro review- Good news for Small Form factor owners, these cards are rather cool during their operations and the heatsink fan occupy only a single slot unlike the GeForce 6800Ultra that take up two slots. Since the fan speed varies according to the temperature of the core, most of the time the fan was spinning at low rpm. Although the fan is huge, it is still less noisy than the blower fan found in GeForce 6800Ultra.
• External Audio Adapters roundup - ExtremeTech take a loot at eight audio products that think outside the box.
• Altec Lansing MX5021 Speaker System review - The MX5021 fits the need for those of you who are looking for something that sounds as good as it looks. It's not a boring-looking piece of equipment - it's sleek and elegant. Since you can use the MX5021 as home theater speakers as well, you can stretch your investment by having it perform double duty by the computer and in the living room.
• NIRO 1.1 PRO DVD/Receiver-Speaker System (HTIB) and MovieMouse - The 1.1PRO system (MSRP $799) reviewed here is the little brother of the Two6.1 system - both of which are Home Theaters in a Box - HTIB - and uses only one speaker enclosure to do the surround job. Surely, this simplifies the system setup further, but it also brings up an obvious question: how realistic a surround effect can this system deliver with only one speaker enclosure? Also it would be interesting to see how it compares with the Two6.1 system.
• Logitech MX 1000 review -  THG dissects both laser and mouse to see whether or not laser technology will eventually render traditional optical mice obsolete.
• Xtrac Eels & Mad Dotz Mouse Enhancers - Mad Dotz is a slightly more elaborate approach though at the very basic level no different from the Eels. Instead of having to cut the pieces to size, you get 12 precut portions that'll fit any mouse with room to spare. Of course if you really wanted to size them down, there'd be nothing preventing you from doing so. They're also a lot easier to peel off and the adhesive feels a bit stickier than that of the Eels'. Furthermore, you get a handy isopropyl alcohol pad to clean off your mouse feet before installation.
• 20 tips to keep your temperatures low - check it out.
• Catalyst A.I. - The future of optimisations? - EliteBastards tested this new feature from both an image quality and performance standpoint, running benchmarks on not only a Radeon X800 XT, but also the older Radeon 9800 Pro, to see what advantages they would both garner from this added functionality.
• MacOSX Transformation Pack 1.0 beta - This is the first beta of the new MacOSX Transformation Pack for Windows. With this program you can transform your Windows to MacOSX without having to install all kinds of other tools. This pack works only on Windows XP with SP2 and Windows Media Center 2004 with SP2.
• PHP 5.0.2 - PHP Development Team is proud to announce the immediate release of PHP 5.0.2 (changelog). This is a maintenance release that in addition to many non-critical bug fixes, addresses a problem with GPC input processing. All Users of PHP 5 are encouraged to upgrade to this release as soon as possible.
• Maxthon (MyIE2) v1.1.035 Beta - Maxthon (MyIE2) (download) 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.
• Real Alternative 1.25a - 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). It also supports RealMedia content that is embedded in webpages
• Google Toolbar 2.0.114.5 - The Google Toolbar (download win9x/me ~ winxp/2k) increases your ability to find information from anywhere on the web and takes only seconds to install. When the Google Toolbar is installed, it automatically appears along with the Internet Explorer toolbar.
• AutoGK 1.60 Stable - AutoGK is a very simple and powerfull tool for making dvd rips
• DiscJuggler 4.10.1151 - DiscJuggler (demo) can simultaneously drive multiple CD recorders and replicate virtually any standard CD. It features direct digital-to-digital CD duplication from a CD-ROM drive to multiple CD-R drives, audio CD duplication with support for PQ and R-W subcodes, and on-the-fly audio stream resynchronization, and on-the-fly software regeneration of ECC/EDC and scrambling. This new version adds support for DVD+R Dual Layer and 5x DVD-RAM.
• Adobe Reader SpeedUp 1.29 - Adobe Reader SpeedUp (download) is a simple application that was created to help make the loading time of Adobe's Acrobat/Reader software bearable for everyday use.
• Fresh Download 7.14 - Fresh Download (download) is an easy-to-use and very fast download manager software that turbo charges downloading files from the Internet, such as your favorite software, mp3 files, video files, picture collections, etc. Unlike any other similar utilities, this software is 100% free, no charges, no banners in the software, no spyware.
• K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 1.12 - 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.
• K-Lite Codec Pack 2.32 - K-Lite Codec Pack 2.30 (download) includes: updated Vorbis DLLs to version 1.1.0., updated GSpot to version 2.52 beta 1 build 2004-09-15, auto set the correct DirectX related settings for Media Player Classic and added option to boost the AC3 volume.
• nVHardPage v2.1 - Do you seek an easy way to en/disable overclocking options or vsync option in your detonator drivers without the burden of importing registry entries or the need to go in that registry yourself.
• Lite-On IT firmware - Lite-On IT has today released several new firmware releases for SOHW-832S(X) VS0B, LDW-851S(X) GS0M, LDW-451S GSBA, and SOHC-5232K(X) NK0E. In addition, codeguys.rpc1.org have some hacked firmwares, firmware mod tools and custom firmwares extending the drives capabilities.

• Microsoft To Provide IE Patches for Windows XP Only - Microsoft this week reiterated that it would keep the new version of Microsoft's IE Web browser available only as part of the recently released Windows XP operating system, Service Pack 2. The upgrade to XP from any previous Windows versions is $99 when ordered from Microsoft. Starting from scratch, the operating system costs $199.
• Example of JPG Exploit & Shellcode - check it out!
• Macromedia Products Not Affected by MS JPEG/GDIPlus Issue - Although some Macromedia products do install a vulnerable version of gdiplus.dll, no Macromedia product uses this Microsoft graphics library to process JPEG images, therefore there is no security risk.
• Hackers hit credit card company  - Cyber Extortionists launched a denial of service attack against a major credit card company after the company ignored a note demanding they handed over cash or be shut down. According to Computerworld, the attack targeted the company's payment gateway service. A few days before the attacks, a snail mail post arrived asking for a substantial amount of money or else the attacks would begin. Authorize.net sent the letter to the FBI.
• Symantec Holes Open Up Firewalls to Attacks - Three "highly critical" flaws in Symantec's Firewall/VPN Appliance and Gateway Security products allow remote attackers to shut down a firewall.
• McSoftware pirate jailed for nine months - A Scottish man who pirated computer software valued at an estimated L750,000 was this week jailed for nine months. Timoney was selling illegal Adobe and Microsoft software.
• Microsoft server crash nearly causes 800-plane pile-up - A major breakdown in Southern California's air traffic control system last week was partly due to a "design anomaly" in the way Microsoft Windows servers were integrated into the system, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times. The radio system shutdown, which lasted more than three hours, left 800 planes in the air without contact to air traffic control, and led to at least five cases where planes came too close to one another, according to comments by the Federal Aviation Administration reported in the LA Times and The New York Times. Air traffic controllers were reduced to using personal mobile phones to pass on warnings to controllers at other facilities, and watched close calls without being able to alert pilots, according to the LA Times report. The failure was ultimately down to a combination of human error and a design glitch in the Windows servers brought in over the past three years to replace the radio system's original Unix servers, according to the FAA.
• Illegal phone jammers sold on Web - Global Gadget UK sells a range of "cell phone" jammers which it could claim were only for export or licensed UK users. But it also sells (and more importantly prices in Sterling) devices such as the SHO66PL2B which operate at European frequencies [900 MHz and 1800 MHz].
• Nokia breaks into home security market - Nokia today expanded its consumer product portfolio with the introduction of a wireless home monitoring system, the Nokia Remote Camera. The device features an integrated motion detection system and the ability to capture megapixel-quality images and video clips with sound, even in low-light and outdoor conditions.
• Off-topic: "Levels" of Computers the Future? - Gamespot has an article up talking about a recent interview with Microsofts's Dean Lester about the future of PC gaming (as well as Xbox 2 tidbits).
• Off-topic: BMW H2R - World's fastest Hydrogen Car - The H2R Record Car, using a version of BMW's proven 12-cylinder 6-liter power plant, currently available in the 760i and 760Li Sedans, develops 232- horsepower using liquid hydrogen fuel. This translates into a 0 - 60 mph acceleration in under 6 seconds and a top speed of 174 mph.
• Nokia touts new smart phone - The Nokia 6670 is capable of producing images with a 1152-by-864-pixel resolution, the company said Thursday. The device features video-recording and photo-editing software with text input capabilities. Consumers can capture, print, store and send photos and video. The smart phone is based on the Symbian operating system and is capable of Web browsing, and handling e-mail attachments and PDF files. It has a foldable wireless keyboard, and users can print documents from it via Bluetooth, Nokia said. In related news, Nokia will offer mobile antivirus software through F-Secure as one of the features in its new Nokia 6670 smart phone when it is released in October.
• Sony to support MP3 - shock - Sony Electronics has indicated that some of its portable music hardware will support the MP3 format in the future, in preference to its own proprietary ATRAC (Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding) codec
• World's Highest Resolution LCD Display by Casio - The 2.2 inch LCD display features VGA!! resolution. The Casio innovation has 368ppi (pixels per inch). The power consumption and size is the same as with current QVGA (320x240) displays.
• Microsoft Announces Canon's Support Of Media Transfer Protocol in Digital Still Cameras - Microsoft today announced that its new Media Transfer Protocol (MTP) will be supported by Canon Inc. Canon now plans to incorporate support for MTP into its future digital camera product offerings. This announcement coincides with next week's 2004 Photokina trade show and signifies a premier industry relationship for Microsoft, introducing one of the most advanced technologies yet for image acquisition to a Windows-based PC.
• IBM, AMD extend chip-making alliance through 2008 - AMD and IBM Corp. have extended their chip-manufacturing technology agreement for an additional three years, paving the way for further chip process advancements from both companies.  The contract was supposed to expire next year. Under the terms of the extended deal, AMD will pay IBM between $250 million and $280 million from September 2004 through December 2008. In return, AMD gets access to IBM's chip technologies.
• Intel to cut Dothan CPU prices on October 17 - Intel plans to cut prices for its Dothan-based 400MHz FSB Pentium M lineup on October 17, which should help boost notebook shipments from Taiwan makers 20-30% sequentially in the fourth quarter, according to sources at the makers.
• Catalyst A.I. - The future of optimisations? - The AI feature brings us to another new innovation from ATI and their Catalyst driver team - Catalyst A.I. Is it the dawning of a new age, a return to the era where "optimisation" isn't an ugly word?
• NVIDIA 6600 GT Available - NVIDIA  today announced that add-in boards based on NVIDIA GeForce 6600 graphics processing units (GPUs) are available immediately at www.gameve.com and www.buyextremegear.com.
• AMD's Athlon64 3700+ DTR Processor review - AMD recently released their fastest notebook processor to date, the Athlon64 3700+ DTR. Designed for desktop replacement (i.e, large) notebooks, the 3700+ DTR boasts a 2.4 GHz clock rate, 1MB of on-die L2 cache, and includes all the bells and whistles of AMD's desktop processors. Let's take a closer look.
• IWill's ZMAXdp dual Opteron cube - HEXUS has posted a preview of IWill's ZMAXdp dual Opteron cube. "With low-power Opterons, CPU temperature never rose over 48C under load, and with a BIOS SmartFan threshold of 58C, the fans never made more than a half-hearted whisper. The ZMAXdp, with those CPUs, is nearly silent."
• Memorex F16 Double Layer 16x DVD±RW review - Like the Lite-On drive it's based on, the F16 can write to DVD+R media at 16x. At this speed, the drive completed our tests in record time, turning out an entire 4.7GB DVD in less than 6 minutes. Unfortunately, the F16's performance wasn't as impressive when writing to DVD-R media. Due to a fairly conservative writing method, it was more than a minute slower than some of the other drives we've looked at.
• NEC ND-3500A review - To sum it all up, we can say that the new pinnacles of write speed are conquered without any special problems, DVD+R recording quality at 16X is perfect. The same can be said about the DVD+R DL recording quality at 4x.
• Philips DVDR1640P review - This drive supports 16x DVD+R writing and DVD+R9 DL writing technology, allowing dual layer discs of 8.5Gb to be written.
• LG GSA-5120D External DVD Writer review - Having displayed the same writing competency as the internal GSA-4120B, we have to say LG's GSA-5120D was quite a convincing performer. The consistently fast write time for our test media and fast CD/DVD read and seek speeds were admirable. Extracting audio and video was another quality side of the LG drive. It's quite a pity that the LG GSA-5120D is no longer the only drive that can read DVD±R discs at read speeds faster than 8x anymore. This fine trait is no longer an exclusive boast for LG drives and TDK's AID+1616DLN with its fast 16x read speed for DVD±R is a good example.
• 200GB Seagate External USB2.0 Drive Combo review - This particular combination is just one of many options available. Pricing is also decent. eWaggle sells the 120GB (drive only) for $99 and the 160GB model for $122 (the 200GB isn't available separately), so in theory you're getting the case for free with the 200GB drive. Of course the exact brand of drive, capacity, speed, and the enclosure will be different for all situations. For sheer size and backup, a big 5400RPM drive may be a better choice than a smaller capacity 7200RPM variant.
• Microsoft Releases VPN Fix for SP2 - Microsoft has issued a formal fix for a problem in Windows XP Service Pack 2 that appeared almost immediately after the update's release. The problem, which affected many VPN users, causes errors when programs attempt to connect to loop-back addresses other than 127.0.0.1. Service Pack 2 blocks all such addresses; users receive an error message saying that they cannot establish a connection
• Office 2003 Security Update: KB838905 - This update fixes a vulnerability where a specially crafted image could allow an attacker's code to run on a user's machine due to a security vulnerability in the graphics interpreter code.
• Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer Tool - Administrators running this tool will get a detailed report listing the recommendations that can be made to the environment to achieve greater performance, scalability and uptime.
• phpMyAdmin 2.6.0 RC3 - phpMyAdmin can manage a whole MySQL-server (needs a super-user) but also a single database. To accomplish the latter you`ll need a properly set up MySQL-user who can read/write only the desired database.
• PHP 4.3.9 Final - PHP Development Team is proud to announce the immediate release of PHP PHP 4.3.9. This is a maintenance release that in addition to over 50 non-critical bug fixes, addresses a problem with GPC input processing. This release also re-introduces ability to write GIF images via the bundled GD extension.
• Fresh Download 7.14 - Fresh Download is an easy-to-use and very fast download manager software that turbo charges downloading files from the Internet, such as your favorite software, mp3 files, video files, picture collections, etc.

• Mozilla, Firefox, Thunderbird, Epiphany: New releases fix vulnerabilities - New releases of Mozilla, Epiphany, Mozilla Thunderbird, and Mozilla Firefox fix several vulnerabilities, including the remote execution of arbitrary code.
• Fraudsters take advantage of chip-and-PIN rollout - Fraud from new credit cards being sent to customers in the mail and intercepted by fraudsters soared 51 per cent over the last year, as criminals took advantage of the high volume of chip-and-PIN cards being mailed out to consumers.
• Exploit posted for Microsoft JPEG flaw - The code was published late last week (link1 / link2), only days after Microsoft on Tuesday revealed the "critical" vulnerability and made available patches to fix the problem. Any application that processes JPEG images could be vulnerable. A wide range of Microsoft software, including versions of its Windows and Office products, are vulnerable.
• Unofficial fix for Call of Duty - The 15th September 2004 has been officially released the expansion pack  called United Offensive. It is an expansion pack but uses a new executable that unfortunally has not been fixed for the shutdown bug I reported to the developers the 1st July 2004. To note that the executable (CoDUOMP.exe version 1.41) has been compiled the 23th August 2004 so when the developers were aware of the bug from over 8 weeks. Here is an unofficial fix (download) for that.
• Lords of the Realm III versions 1.01 vulnerability - Lords of the Realm III versions 1.01 and below suffer from a denial of service attack when an overly long string is supplied as the user's nickname.
• Ireland blocks 13 countries after net scams - The republic of Ireland is to block direct dial telephone calls to 13 countries in an effort to crack down on growing internet scams. Watchdog, the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) has instructed internet service providers (ISPs) and telecommunications operators to implement the blocking by October 4. Calls are to be blocked to Norfolk Island, Sao Tome and Principe, Cook Islands, Tokelau, Diego Garcia, Wallis and Futuna, Nauru, Tuvalu, Comoros, Kiribati, Solomon Islands, Mauritiana and French Polynesia. Direct dial access to the countries can only be unbarred at the request of a subscriber and following verification that the requested number is a voice only service.
• Off-topic: Neither Gates Nor Ballmer Is Microsoft's Highest Paid Exec - According to documents filed Monday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Microsoft's highest paid executive in the 2004 fiscal year was neither its CEO Steve Ballmer nor its Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates, but the exec responsible for Microsoft Office products - who received $962,500 in bonus and base pay. FYI, Bill Gates, earned $901,667 in Microsoft's 2004 fiscal year, up 4.4 percent from a year ago. Steve Ballmer earned the same amount and got the same raise in the fiscal year ended June 30.
• Off-topic: Germans develop bad breath-detecting mobe - The Siemens' team in Munich is developing a mobe with a miniature chip which can detect when it's time to uncap the mouth wash. A spokeswoman for presumably fragrant German outfit told Reuters: "It examines the air in the immediate vicinity for anything from bad breath and alcohol to atmospheric gas levels."
• Off-topic: US sends plutonium to France - Under heavy security and amidst much opposition, enough plutonium for 40 nuclear bombs is being taken by sea from the US to France for processing. The US and French authorities see the shipment as the first step in a new "atoms for peace" programme to convert 34 tonnes of plutonium from "surplus" US weapons into fuel for power stations.
• Sony reveals redesigned PS2, plans November 1st launch - The wraps have been taken off Sony's redesigned PlayStation 2 hardware, previously referred to as PStwo, with SCEE this morning revealing that the significantly smaller console will launch in the USA and Europe on November 1st. The new hardware, designated SCPH-70000CB, follows the same design lines as the original PlayStation 2, but is only 2.8cm thick, compared with 7.8cm on the current console, and reduces the internal volume by 75 per cent. As expected, the system has the PS2 network adapter built in.
• PlayStation 3 will use Blu-Ray discs - confirmed - Sony  has officially confirmed that the PlayStation 3 will use the Blu-Ray disc technology, an evolution of the DVD format which provides six times more storage space than conventional DVD discs. A single-sided, dual layer Blu-Ray (BD-ROM) disc can hold 54Gb of data, compared with just over 9Gb on a standard DVD-ROM, and the use of up-to-date video compression standards on BD-ROM discs allows the playback of high definition encoded video.
• PSP hardware is finished - Sony has finished work on PlayStation Portable hardware and still intends to ship the console this year, Sony COO Ken Kutaragi told a press briefing in Japan yesterday, although the company has yet to announce pricing or release date details and Kutaragi declined to say whether or not the unit would cost more than the Nintendo DS ($149).
• Xbox team joins Virtual PC development - Feeling pressure from both Apple and G5 customers, Microsoft this summer cut several key enhancements from its Virtual PC 7.0 Windows emulation software in order to deliver a G5 compatible solution without further delays. One of the features reportedly shelved until a future release was native graphics card support. But precisely what is delaying this feature remains a mystery to even some members of the Virtual PC team, as they are not the ones responsible for the implementation. According to sources, Virtual PC's native graphics card support is being handled exclusively by Microsoft's Xbox team. Though not expected for several months, the feature will reportedly demand a graphics card that meets the same level of graphics sophistication required for Apple's Core Image and Video technology.
• First game arrives for AMD 64-bit chip - Atari has released a 64-bit version of "Shadow Ops: Red Mercury," according to AMD and Atari. Chips that allow 64-bit addressing can handle far more memory than the 32-bit chips found in desktops today, a situation that should lead to graphics that are more dense and realistic.
• Sony Eyes 200GB Blu-ray Discs - Sony will announce next month that it developed an 8-layer version of the Blu-ray Disc that is capable of storing 200GB of data, according to a company spokesperson. The announcement will be made at the International Symposium on Optical Memory 2004, which takes from October 11 to October 15, in Jeju Island, South Korea, according to Sony. The company further plans to commercialize a 4-layer 100GB version in 2007, says Sony spokesperson Taro Takamine.
• Five graphics-card makers to form alliance to strengthen competitiveness - Five Taiwan companies, consisting of graphics card makers and second-tier motherboard manufacturers, plan to form a strategic alliance to strengthen their bargaining power for the purchase of graphics chipsets and to improve their competitiveness through the division of product lines, according to sources at the makers. The five companies are Albatron Technology, Tul, Chaintech Computer, Prolink Microsystems and Gainward.
• Samsung Demos 8GB Flash Memory Chip - Korean electronics giant unveiled an 8-gigabit flash memory chip Monday based on the 60-nanometer process, as well as a 2-gigabit DDR DRAM chip based on the 80-nanometer process.
• ABIT AA8 DuraMAX Motherboard (Intel 925X) - Upgrading to a new 925X-based board is quite an expensive endeavor when you consider the fact that on top of a new processor, you'll need to buy a PCI-Express video card and DDR2 memory. If you plan this expensive upgrade path though, the AA8 DuraMAX should go on your short list of considerations. On top of its nice feature set and flexibility, it has proven to be a very solid board as far as stability and performance are concerned
• More ATI Radeon X700 previews - Another ATI Radeon X700 previews can be found on X-bit Labs, Gamers-Depot, PC Perspective, DriverHeaven, Beyond3D, HotHardware.
• Socket 775 - THG tests the latest models, including the Biostar P4TAW Extreme, the new LANParty boards from DFI and the EP-5EGA+ from Epox. See if these mobos offer graphics, networking and other value-add interface capabilities that make the Socket 775 world a more interesting place.
• Albatron Trinity 6800 GT review - The Guru3D has reviewed the Albatron Trinity 6800 GT.
• Mainstream PCI express card roundup - This article will compare all seven graphics cards purely on a performance basis to determine which product offers the best value. The low-end (mainstream) products are the Radeon X300 SE, Radeon X300 and NVIDIA GeForce PCX 5300. These three graphics cards share similar specifications, including clock speeds. In fact, the only difference between the Radeon X300 and Radeon X300 SE is the crippled memory bus of the latter. The Radeon X300 SE features a 64-bit memory bus; this is a cut down from the 128-bit bus of the Radeon X300.
• Maxtor's Atlas 10K V SCSI hard drive - Maxtor's new Atlas 10K V is packed with 73.5GB platters and available in capacities up to 300GB. With a 10K-RPM spindle speed, seek times between 4.0 and 4.9ms, and a maximum sustained transfer rate of 89MB/sec, the Atlas 10K V should be no slouch when it comes to performance, either. Read on for more on what the Atlas 10K V offers and how its performance compares to a handful of 10K and 15K-RPM SCSI drives, plus a couple of Serial ATA Raptors.
• Lite-On SOHW-1633S 16x DVD+-RW Double Layer Writer review - Featuring 16x DVD+R writing and support for double layer media, this drive supersedes their already highly popular SOHW-832S thanks to the higher read/write support. Unlike a majority of other drives on the market, Lite-On drives usually offer higher media compatibility.
• NEC ND-3500A 16x DVD+/-R DVD review - Luckily, the ND-3500A arrived on the same day that I received a package of 16-speed DVD+R media from Verbatim. This meant that I could test the drive properly, rather than just assuming that it would be fast writing DVD+R discs. As it turned out though, the ND-3500A wasn't any faster writing at 16-speed than the Plextor PX-712A was writing at 12-speed. In fact, burning 4.3GB of digital images at 16-speed took over a minute longer than it did on the Plextor at 12-speed.
• Asus WL-330g Pocket Wireless Access Point review - The TechZone has posted a review of the world's smallest wirless router - Asus WL-330g Pocket Wireless Access Point.
• Vantec EZ-grip molex connector kit - Have you ever thought of changing those ugly white molex connectors for nicer black ones or UV reactive ones? Well Vantec has put together an EZ grip molex connector kit with a removing tool and ten black UV reactive molex connectors. Well how does this work then? Is it easy to use? Will it look good and work good?
• Professional Mouse Pad Comparison 2004 - The Golden Chainsaw award goes to the Kryptec X-board V2. The surface of the pad performs very well and it's very comfortable to use. In the end the interesting style of the pad inched it ahead of the competition, plus the pad is reasonably priced so I think it's the best choice here.
• Vodafone Mobile Connect - 3G Data Card review - The Mobile Connect, as the full name suggests, is a 3G data card that slips into the PC Card slot of a notebook, and enables it to connect to the Internet over Vodafone's growing 3G network. The card also supports GPRS, so if there's no 3G coverage where you happen to be, the Mobile Connect will drop down to the slower GPRS standard to keep you connected.
• Cable Organizer Electrical Round-Up - Cable Organizer, a company that always manages to amaze the staff here at Phoronix due the wide variety of products they carry ranging from reflective wire looms to torches, recently provided us with several different pieces of equipment to assist in the testing of electrical appliances. Phoronix take a look at the Triplett Sniff-It, Triplett Plug-Bug, DT92 Advanced Series digital multimeter, and the M83 digital multimeter.
• Panasonic D-Snap SV-AS3 - Panasonic (Matsushita) announces along with the Panasonic AV-AS30 a new thin digital camera line. The Panasonic D-Snap SV-AS3 is a 3.2 Mega-pixel camera that comes in four bright colors. Technically the SV-AS30 and the SV-AS3 are very similar. The difference is in the size of the digital camera body. The SV-AS3 is thicker and heavier. the SV-AS3 measures 52.5x88.7x21.2mm and weighs 75.1g. As with the SV-AS30 the SV-AS3 can record MPEG4 video with 30 frames/sec. The new D-Snap can play also AAC/WMA/MP3 music with a play-time of 36 hours.
• OpenOffice.org For Windows 1.1.3 RC - OpenOffice.org is the open source project through which Sun Microsystems is releasing the technology for the popular StarOffice productivity suite.
• Adobe beta tests Acrobat Reader 7.0 - Adobe has released a new beta version of its Acrobat Reader, the program to view the universal file format PDF. Acrobat Reader 7.0 - not publicly available yet - is likely to appear with a major update of the Acrobat document management software, dubbed "Acrobat X", by the end of the year. The 18MB program contains a couple of new features: you now can fill in forms, sign documents, participate in email and browser-based document reviews, and attach other PDF and non PDF files to a PDF document. Acrobat Reader 7.0 will also automatically download updates in the background.
• [!] ATI CATALYST A.I.feature explained/tested - From the Catalyst 4.10 drivers on, a new panel will appear in ATI's Catalyst Control Center: Catalyst AI. It's here that the application specific optimisations can be turned on or off. Whenever Catalyst AI is enabled any application specific optimisations that are present in the drivers are automatically enabled - when the "Disable Catalyst AI" checkbox is selected ATI says this turns of all optimisations, be it generic or application specific. Beyond3D put this to the test on an X800 to see if the generic texture filtering optimisations ATI are currently using would be disabled when Catalyst AI was disabled. Another coverage of this feature can also be found on TweakTown, TechReport, DriverHeaven.
• Adware T.V. Media Removal Tool from Microsoft 1.1 - This tool will help to remove the adware T.V. Media from affected computers. This adware interferes with successful installation of Windows XP Service Pack 2. T.V. Media is bundled with certain advertisement-supported applications such as Speed Blaster and Memory Meter. Users should uninstall these applications before running this tool and before installing Windows XP SP2.
• iRider version 2.2 final - The final release of iRider version 2.20, the advanced multi-page web browser, is available for download. This update includes several feature enhancements and bug fixes. Wymea Bay has announced the final release of iRider version 2.2.
• DiscJuggler 4.10.1150 - DiscJuggler (demo) can simultaneously drive multiple CD recorders and replicate virtually any standard CD. It features direct digital-to-digital CD duplication from a CD-ROM drive to multiple CD-R drives, audio CD duplication with support for PQ and R-W subcodes, and on-the-fly audio stream resynchronization, and on-the-fly software regeneration of ECC/EDC and scrambling.
• Fraps 2.3.2 - Fraps (download) is designed as a generic tool for DirectX and OpenGL games. In its current form Fraps performs many tasks and can best be described as: Benchmarking Software, Screen Capture Software and Realtime Video Capture Software. This new version fixes blurred playback of 1024x768 movies on ATI cards, video capture automatically restarting after recording stopped, crash when Record Sound enabled on a machine with no sound card and autodetection of best Sound Device with multiple sound cards under XP.
• Driver Cleaner 3.3 - Driver Cleaner is a program which helps you to remove parts of drivers that are left after uninstalling the old drivers. The program is for ATI and nVidia drivers.
• UXTheme Multi-Patcher 2.5 - With this little program you can you can use 3rd-party visual styles in Windows XP with SP1 and/or SP2 and Windows 2003 without having to worry about any bugs or errors. In other words, to patch uxtheme.dll protection.
• UNOFFICIAL Windows98 Second Edition Service Pack 1 1.6.2 - It contains all Windows98 SE updates from Windows Update site and more. It is a self-extracting and self-installing pack like Microsoft's update files. Thus, you cannot choice files individually. However, the pack installs only required fixes for your system. Uninstallation is possible from Add-Remove Programs.
• CPU-Z 1.24 - CPU-Z is a diagnostic tool that provides information on your CPU, including: processor name and vendor, core stepping and process, processor package, internal and external clocks, clock multiplier, partial overclock detection, etc.
• Latest Bios updates - TCMagazine has posted the latest bios updates listed by brand, ASUS has 9 bios updates, GIGABYTE has 15 bios updates, MSI has 10 bios updates, ABIT has 3 updates and EPOX has 3 bios updates!
• Radeon Omega Drivers v2.5.76 (Cat 4.9) - The Omega Drivers for Windows 2k/XP based on the Catalyst 4.9 are ready, go get them in the ATI Radeon section.
• ATI Radeon BIOS Tuner (RaBiT) 1.5 - Russian guru called Jaz has created a new BIOS editor ATI Radeon BIOS Tuner (RaBiT) with real ability to control Memory Timings (RAS-to-CAS, tRP, RAS#, CAS#, tRbs). It also can change Device ID, core/mem clocks, memory bus width 32/64/128/256 bit and memory type SDR/DDR.

For the time being, the GeForce 6600 GT appears to be the card of choice by the slimmest of margins. NVIDIA's $199 card seems to have slightly higher performance generally than the Radeon X700 XT, and it offers the possibility of upgrading to a dual-card SLI config at some point down the road, when the right motherboards become available. The GeForce 6600 GT also offers Shader Model 3.0 support, packaging together a number of incremental feature enhancements, including a more natural programming model, higher-precision pixel shaders, and 16-bit floating-point frame buffer blends. More importantly, the 6600 GT seems to have very few weaknesses in terms of performance, image quality, and features.

The X700 XT also has few weaknesses, although its relative performance in Doom 3 could be a little better. Otherwise, it's all good, from best-in-class antialiasing (including funky temporal AA) to 3Dc normal map compression to the razor-sharp video signal output of a "built by ATI" graphics card. The Radeon X700 XT will recommend itself especially to those folks looking to play real-time strategy games and the like, where vertex shader power will be at a premium.

• Hackers deploying "bots" on a massive scale - Hackers have increased their attempts to hijack PCs since the start of the year, with up to 75,000 being compromised daily, according to Symantec. The security firm's biannual Internet Security Threat Report found that the average number of PCs taken over by remote control was up from 2,000 to 30,000 a day.
• Security firm looks to hire alleged Sasser author - The teenage virus writer arrested for writing the Sasser worm has been offered a job--at a security firm. Sven Jaschan, an 18-year-old German, who is also thought to be behind the Netsky virus and is currently awaiting trial on virus-writing charges, could be about to enter gainful employment with German firewall company Securepoint. Securepoint says it would teach the ex-malware maker to be a security programmer. The security vendor says it would like to hire the reformed "script kiddy" because he has knowledge in the field and deserves a chance to prove himself.
• Microsoft Opens Office Source Code to Governments - Microsoft Corp. will allow governments around the world that use its software to have controlled access to the source code for its pervasive Microsoft Office 2003 desktop offerings for the first time. The Redmond, Wash., software maker on Monday in Europe will detail how it is going to give access to the code, an expansion of the existing Government Security Program, or GSP, via a new Government Shared Source License for Office.
• Arrest Made in Cisco Source Code Theft - Police in the U.K. have arrested a man in connection with the theft of source code from networking equipment maker Cisco Systems in May, a Scotland Yard spokesperson confirms. The suspect has since been released on bail and is scheduled to appear before authorities at a London police station again in November. Another story can be found here.
• "Warez lawyer" had double agenda - claim - More details have emerged on the arrest of a German lawyer and three businessmen who masterminded an international warez network and grossed EURO1m. A spokesman for German anti-piracy organisatin GVU told Berlin newspaper Tagesspiegel on Friday (17 Sept) that the crackdown may have been the biggest blow ever against internet pirates anywhere in the world. The main suspect, Bernhard Syndikus, a lawyer, was arrested for criminal breach of copyright,money laundering and membership in a criminal conspiracy. Police last week raided the offices of Gravenreuth & Syndikus, a Munich law firm, of which Syndikus is a partner. According to German reports almost all the funds of the warez site Ftpwelt.com were channeled through an offshore company Internet Payment Systems Ltd, registered on the Caribbean island of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands, and ended up in a small eastern German town, Breitungen.
• PC-WELT discovers and fixes serious security issue in Windows XP SP2 (updated) - As soon as you install SP2 on a Windows XP PC with a certain configuration, your file and printer sharing data are visible worldwide, despite an activated Firewall. This also applies to all other services. The PC only has to provide sharing for an internal local network and connect to the Internet via dial-up or ISDN. Users of DSL services are also affected, if a firewall is not integrated into the DSL modem or a common modem instead of a DSL router is used. Additionally, Internet Connection Sharing of the PC has to be disabled.
• Off-topic: HAL 9000 on the Auction Block - He's now up for sale on eBay, for the starting bid of just $150,000(USD)! :)
• Off-topic: Sen. McCain Seeks $1 Billion to Speed Digital TV Shift - U.S. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain is pushing for up to $1 billion in aid to ensure consumers are not left in the dark when television stations broadcast only new, crisp digital signals, according to draft legislation obtained on Sunday. McCain's measure would require broadcasters to air only digital television signals by 2009 and help consumers who rely on traditional television sets buy a device that would convert digital back into a format that they could watch.
• Off-topic: Artificial Intelligence heads for the mainstream - Artificial intelligence (AI) is making its way out of the lab and into the mainstream market, industry experts have reported.According to analyst group Frost & Sullivan some technologies, such as case-based reasoning applications, have already created a buzz in fields including drug discovery, medical diagnosis, fraud detection, data mining and knowledge discovery.
• Off-topic: Poor service plagues half of European broadband users - More than half of European consumer broadband subscribers are dissatisfied with the customer service they receive from operators, a survey has claimed. Two-thirds feel that customer service would improve if they were given the opportunity to receive high-speed data, voice over IP (VoIP) and video delivery from a single service provider rather than ordering the same services from multiple providers.
• Critical Mass. for AMD's chip designs? - The chipmaker this summer established a new chip design team at its Boston Design Center here, a continent away from its Silicon Valley base, as part of a worldwide effort to strengthen its ability to deliver new processors and boost its sales. The bulk of the new team, about 60 design engineers out of a total of 90, was already in the neighborhood--they were stationed at a nearby outpost of Sun Microsystems. The engineers, who came on board en masse in July, had been working on new processors for Sun, before the computer maker shifted its processor design strategy and canceled two projects, including its UltraSparc V. Many of the designers also had worked on Digital Equipment's Alpha processor at one time or another, considered a good pedigree in the chip world.
• NVIDIA adds 3D core to wireless media chip - NVIDIA has reportedly added a 3D graphics core to its GoForce wireless media processor. Dubbed "Early Z," the graphics core has a 40-bit pipeline, the ability to apply up to four textures per pixel, and programmable shader technology. As its name implies, the graphics core also makes use of occlusion culling to reduce overdraw.  The Early Z graphics core is a part of NVIDIA's GoForce 4500 media processor, which also includes a 2D graphics engine and JPEG and MPEG4 codecs.
• Via Details Processor Plans - Via Technologies' next generation of desktop microprocessors, based on the Esther processor core, will be called C7, the company says. Mobile versions of the chip will be called C7-M. The first C7 and C7-M chips, which will be produced by IBM using a 90-nanometer (nm) process, will ship in volume during the first half of next year, says Richard Brown, Via's associate vice president of marketing, noting that samples of the C7 will be available before volume production begins next year.
• Athlon 64 4000+, FX-55 to arrive October - According to TheInquirer, the Athlon64 4000+ and FX-55 on October 11th. Both appear to be 130 nanometre parts. In related news, the company expects to ship 600,000 units in the third quarter and 1.5-2 million K8 CPUs in the fourth quarter.
• 4GHz Intel Prescott on target for Q1 - The 4GHz Prescott processor using an LGA 775 pinout and with 1MB of L2 cache is on target for the first quarter of next year, according to the latest Intel roadmaps. he 580 has an 800MHz system bus and will be released round about the same time as Intel's 670, 660, 650 and 640. These chips are really Gallatin core processors - they have 2MB of cache and an 800MHz front side bus, as we've reported previously.
• Via brings dual PCIe 16X slots to Pentium 4 - The Via chipset will have support for FSB 800 and 1066MHz P4s. It will support both DDR 333/400 MHz and DDR 2 400/533MHz memories while we don't know what will happens to DDR 2 667MHz memory marchitecture support. This chipset is compatible with Via's VT8251 south bridge which includes two PCIe 1X slots, four IDE and four S-ATA drivers, S-ATA command queue, integrated RAID, eight USBs, 10/100 Mbit LAN, and AC 97 6 channel audio.
• PQI Turbo 1GB Ultra Low Latency PC3200 review - System Cooling has posted a review on the PQI Turbo 1GB Ultra Low Latency PC3200 memory.
• PowerColor Radeon 9800 Platinum Edition review - Bjord3D take a look at the PowerColor RADEON 9800 Platinum Edition. For those that don't know, Tul owns the PowerColor brand and is the third largest provider of ATI-based graphic cards. The company makes very competitive products that are known all over the world. Although the RADEON 9800 has been around for some time now, this card is something totally different.
• Albatron Trinity GeForce 6800GT 256Mb review - The Crucible has posted a review of Albatron Trinity GeForce 6800GT 256Mb video card.
• Lite-On SOHW-1633S 16x DVD Writer review - TechIMO has posted a review of Lite-On SOHW-1633S 16x DVD Writer.
• Pioneer DVR-108 16x Dual Layer DVD+/-RW Drive review - The DVR-108 is capable of writing at speeds up to 16x maximum on DVD-R and +R discs that are designed for this recording speed, as well as specified 8x media. With 16x media not yet available, Pioneer's DVR-108 is allowing customers to write on currently available 8x media at faster speeds by capitalizing on Pioneer's over specification technology, a writing strategy designed to allow the DVR-108 to record at higher speeds with certain media.
• Plextor PX-712A and Plextor PX-712S DVD writers review - TrustedReviews take a look at the Plextor PX-712A and Plextor PX-712S DVD writers, both tested wtih 16x DVD+R media from Verbatim.
• 7 Hot New Water Cooling Systems Tested review - In theory, water coolers represent an optimal solution to keep CPUs cool and quiet. But in practice, water coolers in the past have been difficult to install and use. THG tests a new crop of seven to see if water cooler vendors have gotten their cooling acts together.
• BlueTake Hi-PHONO BT460EX Bluetooth Hi-Fi Audio Station Kit review - Modtown has posted a review of BlueTake Hi-PHONO BT460EX Bluetooth Hi-Fi Audio Station Kit
• Lexmark X1150 All In One Printer/Scanner review  - Ascully.com has posted a review of Lexmark X1150 All In One Printer/Scanner.
• Make your CD/DVD burner go from internal to external - There are few options for portable DVD burners. Most cost quite a bit more than similar internal versions. One of the available options is to make an internal DVD external by putting it into an enclosure. This option is not a well-known one, and because of that, not many people are willing to spend the money to see if it actually works. This guide is to help out in setting up an enclosure and drive so that the mystery and uncertainty is dispelled
• Desktop Graphics Card Comparison Guide Rev. 7.1 - Adrian's Rojak Pot has posted rev. 7.1 of the Desktop Graphics Card Comparison Guide.
• Messenger Plus! 3.20.100 - Messenger Plus! Extension (download) is a program that adds functionalities to the MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger chat program.
• UXTheme Multi-Patcher 2.5 - With this little program you can you can use 3rd-party visual styles in Windows XP with SP1 and/or SP2 and Windows 2003 without having to worry about any bugs or errors. In other words, to patch uxtheme.dll protection.
• IENavigator 2.0.05 - The most IENavigator (download) advantage as a pop up blocker is intellectuality. This pop up blocker is capable of distinguishing between a pop up that is an inherent functional part of the current page, and a window that is a mere advertising trick introduced by the resource creator. New IENavigator version features improved pop up blocking capabilities. Using this pop up blocker you’ll hardly meet pop ups.
• IPCheck Server Monitor 4.3.2.391 - By design IPCheck Server Monitor fills the gap between the small freeware tools that do not monitor thoroughly enough and the expensive management suites that are often very complicated to set up.
• TVTool 9.7 - TVTool (download) is a control center for the TV output of nVidia graphics cards. With this tool it is possible to adapt the TV output perfectly to your needs and to control the TV mode in a comfortable way. TVTool accesses the hardware directly and is able to offer a significant greater functionality and picture quality than most standard graphics card driver.
• AnyDVD 4.0.3.2 Beta - AnyDVD is a driver, which descrambles DVD-Movies automatically in the background. This DVD appears unprotected and region code free for all applications and the Windows operating system as well. With AnyDVD's help copy tools like CloneDVD, Pinnacle Instant Copy, InterVideo DVD-Copy, etc. are able to copy CSS protected Movies.
• XP Edit 2.0 -A - XP Edit allows you to change various settings in Windows XP, including owner information, mouse and keyboard options, personal folder locations, taskbar options, boot screens and more.
• Nero Suite Update 2004-09-20 -  The Nero Suite contains: Nero Burning Rom 6.3.1.25, Nero Burning Rom 5.5.10.56 (lang), Nero Burning Rom WMA9 Plug-In 2.0.9.3, Nero Burning Rom WMP Plug-In 1.0.1.5, Nero Media Player 1.4.0.23, NeroMIX 1.4.0.23, NeroVision Express 2.1.2.18, Nero InCD 4.3.0.5, Nero Recode 2.1.1.20 and more.
• CPUCooL 7.3.1- CPUCooL (download) is a program that monitors temperature, fan speed, and voltages for many motherboards. It provides Cpu cooling under Win9x/2000/XP/NT, allows FrontSideBus changing, optimizes your memory and CPU.
• Driver Cleaner + Cab Cleaner - Driver Cleaner is a program which helps you to remove parts of drivers that are left after uninstalling the old drivers. The program is for ATI and nVidia drivers.

• Microsoft: Can we check your software license? - The software maker has launched a pilot program in which some visitors to the main Windows download page are being asked to let the software maker check to see whether their copy of the operating system is licensed. Visitors do not have to partipate in the program to get their downloads. They'll also get their downloads if they do participate and their copy of Windows turns out to be unlicensed. But Microsoft said the program is a first step in trying to provide a better experience for customers using legitimate copies of Windows. Since the program is optional at this stage, Microsoft expects that most of those who know their software is bogus will not take part.
• British police arrest suspect in Cisco code theft (update) - British authorities have arrested a man suspected of stealing source code from Cisco Systems in May, a spokeswoman for Scotland Yard confirmed Friday.  The 20-year-old man, who has not been identified, was arrested Sept. 3, after the Metropolitan Police Computer Crime Unit searched two residences in Manchester and Darbyshire. The man is suspected of committing "hacking offenses" under that country's Computer Misuse Act of 1990, said Julie Prinsep, a spokeswoman for Scotland Yard.
• 11 charged over "biggest-ever" MS piracy bust - Eleven people from across the US were indicted on Wednesday over alleged software piracy offences following the largest seizure of counterfeit Microsoft software to date. FBI officers seized $80m worth of pirate Microsoft software in series of raids last month following a two-year investigation into a US-wide software piracy ring. Pirated Adobe and Symantec software worth an estimated $7m was also recovered during "Operation Digital Marauder" which involved the execution of three search warrants and the arrest of 11 individuals in California, Washington and Texas.
• AOL dumps Microsoft's Sender ID - America Online is taking on the Sender Framework Policy in favour of Microsoft's Sender ID approach. America Online (AOL) has ditched Microsoft's Sender ID technology in favour of Sender Policy Framework (SPF).  The move follows concerns over Sender ID voiced by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) earlier this week. Explaining its decision, AOL cited a low level of support for the technology in the open source community, as well as possible problems with backward compatibility.
• XP SP2 Can Slow Down Business Apps - Mobile PC magazine installed XP SP2 on a bunch of notebooks and benchmarked them, finding that SP2 caused a 9-percent performance reduction in business productivity apps. While a couple of notebooks performed better, the majority took a 3- to 22-percent performance hit
• Sony to sell smaller PlayStation 2 - Sony Computer Entertainment declined to comment, but the conglomerate's game unit will be holding a briefing in Tokyo on Tuesday to explain its business strategy, and industry watchers expect it to unveil the new product then. Ken Kutaragi, known as the father of the PlayStation, will be at the briefing. Called the PStwo, Sony's new console will be 30 percent smaller than the current PlayStation 2, but it is expected to retail for the same price, $149, the entertainment trade paper said in an article dated Sept. 15.
• Amstrad plugs in E3 email videophone - Amstrad has taken the wraps off its latest e-m@iler phone the Amstrad E3 e-m@iler, which features a colour screen and videophone functionality. The product follows on from the launch of Amstrad's original e-m@iler in March 2000 and the e-m@ilerplus, launched in February 2002. As well as offering email, internet access, text messaging and games, the Amstrad E3 e-m@iler includes a colour screen and built-in camera to enable users to make video calls with other E3 users and send and receive picture messages.
• AMD begins shipping 90nm desktop CPUs - TheInquirer has confirmation from AMD that desktop versions of the Athlon 64 built with a 90nm fab process are now shipping. The flavors shipping are lower speed grades, like the 3000+, 3200+, and 3500+. More info about new AMD's 90nm desktop Athlon 64 processors can be found here.
• AMD sneaks out Sempron 3000+ - AMD this week added a 3000+ rated processor to its 32-bit Sempron desktop chip line-up. The $123 part was added to the company's price list without fanfare. Unlike previously announced Semprons the new part contains 512KB of L2 cache - the others have 256KB.
• ATI announces HyperMemory tech - ATI announced HyperMemory, an innovative technology that reduces PC system costs by allowing its visual processors to use system memory for graphics processing. HyperMemory uses the high-speed bi-directional data transfer capabilities of PCI Express to store and access graphics data in system memory, leading to less of a dependence on graphics memory and ultimately a lower overall system cost.
• Nvidia Nforce 4 shipped to customers - The NVIDIA chipset codenamed the CK8-04 will be revealed to the world in the middle of October. You should be able to get these boards before Yule time and there is certainly interest for Nforce 4 dual PCI Express boards or should we call them Nforce 4 SLI, as Nvidia wants as to.
• Via K8T900 Pro has two PCI Express slots - As Nvidia has its Nforce 4 Dual PCI Express chipset ready, Via had to do something about it. That’s how the Via DualGFX Express chipset was born. This chipset used to be known as K8T900PRO but Via decided to go for a sexier commercial name. You will see an Athlon 64/FX/Opteron chipset that supports two PCI Express graphic lanes. The first one operates at 16X speed while the second runs at 4X speed, identical to Intel's Tumwater chipset. 4X from the second PCI Express slot should be fine to run SLI like functions. This chipset will use a 1GHz Hyper Transport bus and will work with all existing sockets including 754, 939 and 940.
• How playable is Doom 3 with the 915G? - One reader said that if you get an i915G based board from a shop and run the game, you can achieve some pretty high frame rates at decent a decent rez. It seems that at 640*480, no FSAA or aniso, on low quality mode, if you turn off all effects, you can get 15FPS out of this beast
• Nikon Camera Captures 12 Megapixels review - The new lens is the AF-S VR Nikkor 300mm f/2.8G IF-ED super-telephoto. It offers two vibration reduction modes, a focus mode switch to choose between manual-priority auto-focus and manual focus, a silent wave motor, and Extra-low Dispersion (ED) glass. Nikon expects to reveal pricing by the time the lens becomes available in January.

• BenQ DC C-50 camera review - The DC C50 is the current line's flagship, featuring a 5MP class sensor, 3x optical zoom, Li-Ion battery and an extensive range of exposure control settings. Along with very competitive pricing, the DC C50 seems to be a good choice when stacked up against comparable models from Canon, Olympus, Pentax and Sony in the same class.

• ATI Brings HDTV to the PC - ATI's HDTV Wonder gives your PC HDTV television capabilities. But while saving you the expense of buying an HDTV television, the PCI card's installation can be a challenge while Nvidia graphics card users are left out in the cold. THG weighs the good against the bad.
• Crucial Ballistix 1GByte PC4000 184-pin Memory review -It's always difficult to make absolute recommendations based on the results obtained from a couple of modules. However, if the performance of the sample pair are representative of the vast majority of Crucial Ballistix PC4000 modules, I'd have no hesitation from recommending them to a wide range of enthusiasts. The test pair seem to break the long-held belief that high-speed RAM, along with associated high timings, cannot be run at moderate speeds and extremely low latencies. Priced at around L190 for a 1GByte pair, Crucial Ballistix PC4000 modules sit alongside equivalent modules, in both price and specification, from the likes of Corsair, OCZ and GeIL.
• Crucial Hi-Speed Gizmo! 2.0 - The new Crucial Hi-Speed Gizmo! has proved itself to be worthy of the Hi-Speed moniker with its 40% speed increase. The Hi-Speed Gizmo! retails very close to the original Gizmo's prices, with the 256Mb costing £32 and the 512Mb costing £72. (Doubling in price for doubling the size from then on).
• OCZ PC3500EB Platinum DDR Memory review  - OCZ's recently released PC3500EB Platinum Dual Channel Memory kit consists of two 512MB sticks, and comes from the familiar family of OCZ's Enhanced Bandwidth line of memory products. The timings of these two 512MB PC3500EB Platinum DIMM's are not the tightest we've ever tested, but they're much better than the average for PC3500 DDR. Each stick is rated to run at 217 MHz with memory timings of 2.5-3-2-8 on AMD systems, and 2.5-3-2-6 on Intel rigs with a supply of 2.8V.
• DDR-2 533MHz Memory Royal Rumble - TweakTown check out and compare the performance of memory modules from Kingmax, Crucial, TwinMOS, Mushkin, Corsair and Kingston. If you are on the market for a new set of DDR-2 memory, you shouldn't miss this article.
• Chaintech Apogee AA6800 GeForce 6800 OC review - What it doesn't show though is that the Chaintech Apogee AA6800 card comes pre-overclocked above the reference NVIDIA design speeds of 325 MHz core and 350 MHz (700 MHz DDR) memory; instead Chaintech chose to overclock the card by 10%, giving the card a core clock of 358 MHz and memory clock of 385 MHz (770 MHz DDR). How does this improve performance over a stock 6800 graphics card? We shall see in the benchmarks ahead.
• ATi Mobility Radeon 9800 review - HotHardware.Com has posted a review of ATi's flagship mobile 3D gaming GPU, the Mobility Radeon 9800.
• ATI TV Wonder USB 2.0 - External TV Tuner review - On top of its USB 2.0 interface it can receive its signal from an aerial, composite video or S-Video sources. You can also schedule and record TV programmes, pause and rewind live television, capture video in MPEG 1/2/4, AVI and Windows Media formats, snag images directly from the screen, and even set the television up as your desktop wallpaper.
• Pioneer DVR-A08XLA DL Recorder review - The Pioneer DVR-A08 supports 16X DVD±R, 4X DVD±RW and 4X DVD+R DL writing according to the official specifications.
• Pioneer DVR-108 16X DVD+-RW 4x Dual Layer Writer Review - XYZ Computing has posted a new review of Pioneer DVR-108 16X DVD+-RW 4x Dual Layer Writer.
• Samsung ML-2250 Laser Printer -Bjord3D take a look at the big brother to that printer, the Samsung ML-2250. This printer actually comes in two versions, the 2250, which is the basic printer, and the 2251N, which is the same printer but with networking built into it.
• Logisys Dracula Case review - Mikhailtech take a look at Logisys' Dracula designer case and 480watt PSU.
• The Essential Buying Guide: Photo Printers - Nearly all photo printers today can claim true photo quality for most, if not all, output. This means that you can't distinguish their output from photos that were printed from film in the conventional process. You can often get the same quality from a $50 printer as you can from a $500 printer. Within any given manufacturer's line, the difference from one model to the next is almost always in speed or features, not in quality.
• Elite Bastards examine ATI CATALYST Control Center - From an "under the hood" point of view, the huge change that comes with Catalyst Control Center is the use of Microsoft's .NET Framework. The reasons for the switch to .NET are two-fold. Firstly, .NET is likely to be the basis of the forthcoming Longhorn Operating System, thus development of this application now is giving ATI a "head start" in this regard. Secondly, the modular nature of Catalyst Control Center thanks to its use of .NET means that third parties can easily create and introduce their own plug-ins into the Control Center's environment. The downside of this move is that the .NET Framework has an unenviable reputation as being unwieldy and slow, not to mention a tad unreliable.
• [MS-Patch] Update for Windows XP Service Pack 2 (KB884020) - This update helps resolve an issue on computers running Windows XP Service Pack 2. Programs that connect to IP addresses in the loopback address range may not work as expected and you may receive an error message indicating you cannot establish a connection. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.
• WinGate 6.0.3 Build 1005 - WinGate (download) will share most types of Internet connections effortlessly, allowing multiple users to simultaneously surf the web, retrieve their email, or chat with online messaging, as if they were directly connected to the Internet.
• Symantec Products Line 2005 - Final/Trial - Symantec products from line 2005, such as Norton AntiVirus 2005, Norton Personal Firewall 2005 and Norton Internet Security 2005, are available for download already.
• Ad-Aware SE Build 1.05 - Ad-Aware (download ~ changelog) is designed to provide advanced protection from known Data-mining, aggressive advertising, Parasites, Scumware, selected traditional Trojans, Dialers, Malware, Browser hijackers, and tracking components.
• SpeedFan 4.16 - SpeedFan is a freeware program (download) that monitors fan speeds, temperatures and voltages in computers with hardware monitoring chips. SpeedFan can even access S.M.A.R.T. info for those hard disks that support this feature (almost all :-)) and show hard disk temperatures too, if supported.
• CloneCD 5.0.2.2 now copies SafeDisc 3! - SlySoft has just released a new version of the CloneCD software (download). According to the change log this version has some changes that will make a lot of people very happy: CloneCD can now copy and emulate the SafeDisc 3 copy protection!
• Nero CD-DVD Speed 3.30 - Nero CD-DVD Speed (download) is a benchmark which can test the most important features of an optical drive. These tests include: Transfer rate, Seek times, CPU (Central Processing Unit) usage, Burst rate, DAE (Digital Audio Extraction) quality & Spinup/spindown time. It can also check the CD (Compact Disk) and DVD (Digital Versatile Disk) media quality.
• Gaim v1.0.0 - Gaim (download) is a multi-protocol instant messaging (IM) 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.
• AMD64 Clock Utility v1.0 - A64CLK is a simple utility designed for realtime CPU frequency monitoring and realtime adjustment of the CPU multiplier (FID) and voltage level (VID) of the upported CPUs via processor's power management model specific registers (MSRs).
• Pioneed DVR-108 firmware - This new firmware brings reduction of 12X/16X DVD-R writing time and much more.
• nForce WHQL v5.10 Drivers - These are WHQL certified (changelog) and the official reference set from and for NVIDIA based mainboards. It seems, the drivers has improved IDE performance compared to previous editions.

• Geeks Code for the Gold  - This year, the 16th annual geek olympics is taking place in Athens, Greece, from Sept. 11 to Sept. 18. During the games, 304 young programmers from 80 countries will compete in seven marathon programming sessions to determine who is the world's fastest coder. Overclocked athletes popping performance-enhancing drugs aren't a concern at this competition. Instead, officials appear to be concerned about hacking.  According to the rules, any contestant who attempts to "attack the Olympic system's security or the grader (the grader is a program that assigns scores to each contestant), execute other programs or access other networks during competition, change file system permissions, or read file system information" will be immediately disqualified. .
• Windows XP SP2 Opens Door For Everyone - Windows XP SP2 is save agains trojan horses, hackers, viruses and other intruders but they open up the door for everyone if you share files for your local area network. Here is a quick translation by google, if anyone can translate it in proper english it would be appriciated.
• Vulnerability in IBM Windows XP: default hidden Administrator account allows local Administrator access - IBM OEM XP and XP SP1 contain a default hidden administrator account. Use of this account will allow anyone with physical access to the computer to fully control the computer, add spyware, keystroke loggers, password stealing software and read all files, including temp files, local files, documents, and any email that has been stored locally. IBM does not inform the installer of this account, does not give them the option of putting a password on this account, and if a savvy installer FINDS the function to change the password for the Administrator account, they are warned that they could lose data. Security best practices REQUIRE a password on all administrative (and root) accounts.
• Latest Mozilla releases fix 10 security flaws - The three critical flaws could let an attacker run code on the victim's computer, according to information published by the Mozilla Foundation on Tuesday. The vulnerabilities are caused by the improper handling of electronic business cards, known as vCards; overly large images in the bit map (BMP) format; and links that have host names using nonprintable characters.  The issues are fixed in the latest versions of the Mozilla Foundation's open-source software products: Mozilla 1.7.3, Firefox release candidate 1.0  (first look at Firefox 1.0PR can be found here) and Thunderbird 0.8.
• Microsoft Issues Patch; E-Mail ID Plan Rejected - Microsoft released on Tuesday a patch for its latest "critical" rated security flaw affecting its Windows, Office and developer tools software programs. Separately, the world's largest software maker was dealt a setback on Tuesday after the Internet Engineering Task Force decided not to adopt Microsoft's e-mail sender ID standard that would make it easier for Internet providers to block unwanted junk e-mail.
• More Ways to Trap Spyware - PCMag tested two new antispyware utilities, as well as a significantly revised version of Lavasoft's perennially popular Ad-Aware, which looks better than ever.
• Messenger 2 versus Trillian Basic - A nice comparison can be found at TechConnect - "Personally I stay with Trillian Basic at this moment, because I love the systray notification when some one says something to me. Other people don't care if there pops up a message in screen and some find this very annoying because you will be interrupted with the work you are doing. Also people who are at work know how hard it is to explain their boss why they have to chat with people on the internet in the time they should work. Got the picture? On the other hand Messenger 2 has great extra function like Video chat, Audio chat and peer 2 peer filesharing which are all very usefull and most wanted for most people."
• Identity Theft Suspect Pleads Guilty - A man charged in one of the largest identity theft scams in U.S. history pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, and fraud in connection with identity documents this week. He could face up to 50 years in prison, according to a statement from U.S. Attorney David Kelley, of the Southern District of New York.
• Scammers use Gmail invite as phishing hook - Scammers have caught on to the allure of Gmail and are using the Google e-mail service for a "phishing" scam to harvest e-mail addresses and passwords.
• Researchers create super-secure computer network - It's a hacker's nightmare but a dream for bankers and spies: A computer network so secure that even the simplest attempts to eavesdrop will interrupt the flow of data and alert administrators to the snooping. The work by researchers at Harvard University, Boston University and BBN Technologies is the closest scientists have come to a real-world quantum encryption system that uses light particles called photons to lock and unlock information instead of random-number "keys." Using the technology, the scientists can swap data, send e-mail and visit one another's Web sites as their data is protected.
• IBM protects passwords with PC chip - Big Blue will be the first computer maker to use National Semiconductor's SafeKeeper Trusted I/O Device, which stores a computer's identity in silicon, making it harder for outsiders to access. It's adding the technology as part of an upgraded input-output chip, which is a secondary PC chip that shuttles data from various parts of a PC.
• Bill Gates Gives $20M to CMU for New Building - Carnegie Mellon University announced on Tuesday that The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation had donated $20 million toward the cost of a new building to be called the "Gates Center for Computer Science.
• Debugging the Megahertz Myth Editorial  - Most, if not all, of you have read or been in heated debates over why or why not higher clocked microprocessors are better than their "comparable" competition. Just why is it that so many people stand behind their arguments about a 2.4GHz processor outperforming a 3.4GHz processor overall?
• Nose-steered mouse could save aching arms - Tired of using a mouse to control your PC? Perhaps there is another option for when your arm starts to ache: your nose. A novel PC control system lets users nudge a cursor around the screen with gentle movements of their nose. Blinking the left or right eye twice takes the place of left or right mouse clicks
• 1st Xbox2 pictures - Here're some Xbox2 pictures.
• Tapwave Zodiac 1 review -  The Zodiac looks like a portable gaming device and comes with a built in joystick with 360 degree capability. The joystick will be very useful in games such as Tony Hawk where learning the tricks of the trade and being able to manuever stunts will give you the edge.
• BlackBerry 7100t review - The firsts keep coming: this is the first BlackBerry to provide instant messaging, and it even has a wizard, designed by T-Mobile, to set up not just AOL Instant Messenger, but Yahoo Messenger and ICQ as well. The streamlined e-mail setup can handle any POP3 accounts plus AOL Mail. (Despite what you may have read, there's currently no support for Hotmail or MSN Messenger in the T-Mobile version of the 7100).
• 4 Digital Cameras, 6 Million Pixels - Four new digital cameras from Kodak, Fuji and Olympus may offer six-million-pixel resolutions, but that is just a starting point. THG details how each device fails or delivers when it comes to optical quality, color fidelity, dynamic contrast and other features.
• ATI to launch RX480 AMD K8 chipset by the end of this month - At the end of this month, ATI Technologies plans to unveil its RX480 north bridge, which will be the company's first discrete chipset to support Advanced Micro Devices' (AMD) K8 platform, said Reuven Soraya, director of platform product marketing at ATI, during a recent visit to Taipei.
• Locking Down Your Data with Cipher Shield External Hard Drive Encryption - External hard drives are sitting ducks for data thieves if lost or stolen. Cipher Shield offers a 2.5" device that encrypts external hard drive data. But is the solution worth a base price of $300?
• Athlon 64-939 Processors review - Socket754 is also good in the other respect - already now you can buy both the processors and the motherboards. What's good is the price for both is quite sensible. But for Socket939 the situation is a bit worse: prices for the motherboards are quite affordable, but the lower-end Athlon64 3500+ model costs around 375$. That is why the Socket939 platform will gain popularity no earlier than the reduction of prices to a reasonable level. Since all the high-end processors run at the same speed actually, I think it doesn't make sense paying extra 200$ for the CPU.
• Intel Pentium 4 560 (3.6 GHz LGA775) Processor review - Bjorn3D has posted a review of the Intel Pentium 4 560 (3.6 GHz LGA775) Processor.
• MSI NX6800 128MB review - For those looking to upgrade their video card, the NX6800 should be at the top of your list. If money is no object and you would prefer the top-of-the-line 6800 Ultra video card, we recommend you still stay with the MSI brand. MSI has taken a regular video card and presented it in such a way that you feel like you are getting a complete gaming system. The NX6800 is a solid performing card for its price range, but when you add in the amount of software and the quality of the board itself, the NX6800 stands apart from the crowd.
• Seagate160GB NCQ HDD review - Seagate is marching head-strong into this fall with a new SATA technology called Native Command Queuing - their Barracuda 160GB unit is the first drive to have this feature. While it won't set any storage capacity records, this new drive - an updated version of the 160GB drive released last year – it's sure to turn some heads with its performance and what lies beneath the hood.
• Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 NX - External Sound Card review - The Audigy 2 NX may not be perfect, but its plus points definitely outweigh the minus ones. The sound quality is superb, and once you factor in the price and the fact that you can connect it to any number of machines, its appeal grows. If you want high-quality audio on all your PCs, including your notebook, the Audigy 2 NX will do the job nicely.
• Aesthetic Water Cooling Solutions: Zalman Reserator 1, ZM-WB2 Gold and ZM-GWB1 - The ZM-GWB1 kit should only be used with low-power graphics cards. The GPU temperature on cards of the GeForce FX 5900 Ultra class and hotter may become critical with the ZM-GWB1.
• Logitech Rumblepad 2 Vibration Feedback PC Gamepad review - Let's face it, US$25 bucks is not all that bad for a high quality vibration feedback PC controller. Some people might say, "Why do you think that?". Well, seeing that in the gaming market a gaming mouse pad can be tagged with a ridiculous US$50 pricetag for some models, a whole controller for half the price seems to be quite the deal. I myself thought that this controller was going to be at least US$50+ dollars only to be pleasantly surprised when I found out just how cheap it really is.
• LG Flatron 2320A 23" LCD Media Station review  - This product transforms your computer into an all-in-one solution. The Xbox games look terrific, and your desktop is just a click away. You can even play games on the Xbox and surf the internet at the same time, thanks to the picture-in-picture option.
• Viewsonic's VP912B LCD Monitor - With a 19" diagonal viewing size and a native 1280 x 1024 resolution (12ms), it's big enough to satisfy the needs of the vast majority of gamers, and the price tag is quite reasonable in comparison to other 19" LCD's on the market. There's really no reason to look at any other 19” LCD currently out there, since the VP912b will cost just as much but deliver much better performance
• TomTom's Go GPS navigation system - The TomTom GO makes no claims to being as flexible as a PDA. It's a one trick pony and proud of it, which actually brings a number of advantages. For one, the GO lives up to its name and works as soon as you take it out the box. There's no software installation to deal with, you don't have to worry about application conflicts or fiddling with a Bluetooth connection. You also get a system that you can transfer easily between any car.
• [MS Patch] - Critical Update for Windows XP (KB885626) for Prescott C-0 CPU's - This non-security critical update helps resolve an issue where a limited number of systems running a BIOS without production support for Intel Pentium 4 and Intel Celeron D processors based on Prescott C-0 stepping can potentially hang on Windows XP Service Pack 2 installation. After you install this update, you may have to restart your computer.
• Windows XP Video Decoder Checkup Utility - If you encounter a problem while using Windows Media Player 10 to play a DVD or to synchronize (copy) recorded TV shows to a Portable Media Center or other device, use this utility to verify that you have a compatible MPEG-2 decoder installed on your computer.
• Microsoft GDI+ Detection Tool - The Microsoft GDI+ Detection Tool helps detect the presence of non-Windows Microsoft products that contain the GDI+ component. Microsoft customers can run this tool to help determine if a GDI+ security update should be applied.
• Shadow Key Timestamping Utilities - Brian Madden posted 2 tools from Microsoft: SDT and RDT, these tools can be used to set the shadow key area of the Terminal Server registry. The shadow ley area could cause a lot of headaches. Funny think is these tool date back to 1999 (win2k RTM build) and I never heard of them before. AFAIK they were not in any resource kit or support tools, maybe these tools were used by MS engineers at premier customers. There are many issues and KB articles on shadow key, wonder why MS never pointed to these 5 year old tools (thanks Bink.nu)
• SSL Diagnostics Version 1.0 - This tool allows users to review configuration information in a easy to read view mode or to run the tool silently with only the creation of a log file. During use, administrators can simulate the SSL handshake to find errors. They can also quickly "hot swap" certificates for testing purposes.
• Java Language Conversion Assistant 3.0 (Beta) - The Java Language Conversion Assistant is a tool that automatically converts existing Java-language code into Microsoft Visual C# for developers who want to move existing applications to the .NET Framework. Version 3.0 adds support for J2EE 1.3 functionality, including JDK 1.3, EJB, JAAS, JCE, JMS, JNDI, and RMI.
• GNOME 2.8 (Linux) - The GNOME project (download) provides two things: The GNOME Linux desktop environment, an intuitive and attractive desktop for end-users, users, and the GNOME development platform, an extensive framework for building applications that integrate into the rest of the desktop.
• FreePOPs 0.0.16: - FreePOPs is an easily extensible program, which allows to have an access to the most varied resources through the POP3 protocol.  Mainly, it can be used to download mail from the most famous webmails, but it could also be used as an aggregator for RSS feeds and many more. Supported webmails and resources include: Gmail, Hotmail (and company: msn, compaq, etc...), Yahoo (com, ca, it), Lycos (for many countries), AOL (for many countries) , Squirrelmail, Libero.it, Tin.it, Tre.it, Kernel.org, RSS Aggregator and others.
• WindowSizer 1.3 (shw)- WindowSizer 1.3 (download), intelligent window management for the Windows desktop, includes some much requested features: keyboard shortcuts (including a new shuffle windows command) and a window exclusions list.
• SPAMfighter Standard 2.96 - A tool to remove spam from your Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express.
• PHP 4.3.9 RC3 - PHP 4.3.9RC3 (download Win32 ~ Linux) has been released for testing. This is the last release candidate before the final release and should have a very low number of problems and/or bugs.
• [!] Apache HTTP Server 2.0.51 - The Apache Software Foundation and the The Apache HTTP Server Project have released Apache HTTP Server version 2.0.51. This Announcement notes the significant changes in 2.0.51 as compared to 2.0.50. This version of Apache is principally a bug fix release. Of particular note is that 2.0.51 addresses five security vulnerabilities.
• PassMark BurnInTest 4.0 build 1018 - BurnInTest (download demo) is a software tool that allows all the major sub-systems of a computer to be simultaneously stress tested for endurance, reliability and stability.
• CleanMOCache 1.05 - CleanMOCache is a free (for 1 - 2 systems), very powerful Mozilla/Netscape/Firefox/Opera and Windows XP cleaner. It will delete all browser tracks, AutoComplete, WinXP tracks and the deletion of user created additives.
• CleanCache 2.15  - CleanCache is a free (for 1 - 2 systems), very powerful Internet Explorer 6.0 and Windows XP cleaner.
• FirePanel XP v1.5.1720 - FirePanel XP is an add-on for the new firewall found in Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server2003 SP1. It extends your Windows Firewall, with features not normally available. It sets rules, monitors firewall's activity, displays logs, helping you keep realtime tabs on what exactly your system is being exposed to. This new version adds IP filtering to prevent any TCP/IP & ICMP pattern you choose.
• Fresh UI 7.19 - Fresh UI (download) is the fresh solution for configuring and optimizing Windows. Loaded with hundreds of useful hidden settings, this software covers the customizing and optimizing technique that you'll be glad to know: Customizing Windows User Interface, Optimizing system settings, Optimizing hardware settings, Customizing Windows application settings, and Control user environment with policies.
• WinRAR 3.40 Final - WinRAR (download 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.
• SpeedTree Demos - Interactive Data Visualization (IDV) has released the Trees of Pangaea demo, which contains seven of the most stunning environments ever seen in real-time.
• ATI Radeon DNA-drivers 3.0.4.9 - 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 66.32 BETA Win2000/XP -  The files are dated on the 4th of September 2004 and will work with four graphics cards namely: NVIDIA_NV43.DEV_0140.1 = "NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT", NVIDIA_NV43.DEV_0141.1 = "NVIDIA GeForce 6600", NVIDIA_NV43.DEV_0145.1 = "NVIDIA GeForce 6610 XL", NVIDIA_NV43.DEV_014E.1 = "NVIDIA Quadro FX 540"

• Software Pirate Gets Jail Time - The noose appears to be tightening around one of Europe's largest software counterfeiting rings as a German court sentenced a second member of the network to prison this week, and handed a sentence to his father for helping run front operations. After an 18-week trial, a criminal court in Stuttgart, Germany, sentenced the convicted software pirate to three years in prison without parole for copyright infringement and selling counterfeit Microsoft software. The court also convicted the defendant's father for his participation in the counterfeiting scheme, issuing him a 16-month jail term and 100 hours of community service.
• [MS-patch] - Buffer Overrun in JPEG Processing (GDI+) Could Allow Code Execution (833987) - A remote code execution vulnerability exists in the processing of JPEG image formats that could allow remote code execution on an affected system. Download patch

• [MS-patch] - Vulnerability in WordPerfect Converter Could Allow Code Execution (884933) - This update resolves a newly discovered, privately reported vulnerability. A remote code execution vulnerability exists in the WordPerfect 5.x Converter that is provided as part of the affected software..

• [MS-patch] - Update for Outlook 2003: Junk E-mail Filter (KB870765) - This optional update provides the Junk E-mail Filter in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 with a more current definition of the e-mail messages that should be considered junk e-mail. This update was released in September 2004.

• [MS-patch] - Security Update for Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1 (KB833989) -  A security issue has been identified that could allow an attacker to compromise a computer running Windows and gain complete control over it. You can help protect your computer by installing this update from Microsoft. After you install this item, you may need to restart your computer. Note that in Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, this update will appear as Microsoft VGX 833989.

• Samba servers vulnerable to denial-of-service attacks - The two relatively minor flaws could crash or make unresponsive systems running version 3 of Samba, an open-source software package that allows Windows files and printers to be shared by Unix and Linux systems. The flaws, known as denial-of-service vulnerabilities, basically could be used to disconnect Samba servers from the network by either overrunning the computer's memory to such an extent that it cannot function or by sending a specially crafted network request that would crash the NetBIOS function.
• Lexar JumpDrive Password Scheme Cracked - "Lexar describes the JumpDrive Secure as "loaded with software that lets you password-protect your data. If lost or stolen, you can rest assured that what you've saved there remains there with 256-bit AES encryption." @stake has a different take: The password can be observed in memory or read directly from the device, without evidence of tampering." And best of all, the punch line: "[The password] is stored in an XOR encrypted form and can be read directly from the device without any authentication." That's why I use ROT-13 for my encryption needs." (thanks Slashdot.org)
• File-sharing leaps from internet to cellphones - Music, videos and games could soon be swapped between cellphones using a mobile file-sharing network developed by phone maker Nokia. Lorant Farkas and colleagues, at the Nokia Research Center in Budapest, Hungary, have adapted the peer-to-peer (P2P) schemes used by internet users to share files and tested them on their 6600 model cellphones.
• The new Game Boy for $200? - Walmart.com recently posted a preorder page for the Nintendo DS, the advanced handheld game player the Japanese game giant announced earlier this year. Though Nintendo has yet to reveal pricing or an on-sale date for the device, Wal-Mart says it will cost $199.82 and be in the hot little hands of gamers around Nov. 30. A Nintendo representative called those specifics rumors and said the company has not yet settled on a price or availability date for the DS.
• Xbox 2 chip finished? - The Xbox2 chip might be already finished, according to a German web site. According to Gamestar.de, the graphics core is finalised and it may be used by both Xbox 2 and a future Nintendo console. It seems that both Microsoft and Nintendo will license the same architecture and it's possible we will end up with the same graphic chip for both consoles.
• AMD desktops outsell Intel desktops 54% to 45% - A recent study by Current Analysis found that AMD-based desktop computers selling within the retail channel have once again outsold Intel-based desktops for the week ending August 21, 2004. This increase in AMD-based sales comes on the heels of Intel's lowered financial forecast; from between $8.6 bln and $9.2 bln to between $8.3 bln and $8.6 bln.
• Speech recognition "on a chip" in three years - The US National Science Foundation has awarded a $1m grant to researchers in the US who want to put speech recognition on a chip, a move the project's proponents claim will revolutionise the way we communicate.
• RF module requires no configuration, offers 40-mile line-of-sight range -  The 9XTend is MaxStream's longest range (up to 40 miles in RF line-of-sight), low power OEM RF module. This affordable RF module is smaller than a credit card and allows for robust performance in North America, Australia and Israel. The 9XTend outputs 1-Watt (30 dBm) of conducted output power while consuming only 780 milliamps at 5-V. This makes the 9XTend one of the most efficient 1-Watt 900 MHz modems in the industry. The 9XTend can output 4 Watts radiated power allowed by the FCC. The RF module also provides security through data encryption.
• Transmeta Ships Efficeon TM8800 Processors - Transmeta's highly-acclaimed Efficeon processor delivered in mid-October 2003 after some delays is a 256-bit VLIW chip that integrates DDR SDRAM memory and AGP controllers as well as 512KB or 1MB L2 cache depending on its version. It uses special code-morph software to run conventional x86 applications and supports widely-used instruction sets, such as MMX, SSE and SSE2. The Efficeon utilizes 400MHz HyperTransport bus to connect I/O processors.
• ATI syncs audio, video with Theater 550 chip - The 550 Pro provides audio and video decoding on the same silicon - a first for the Theater family - which ensures audio and video remain in full synchronisation. The 12-bit video decoder features 3D Comb Filtering for NTSC and PAL, and five-line 2D Comb Filtering. The chip also provides MPEG 2 encoding with digital video noise reduction, eliminating granularity within the picture and thus improving the quality of the compressed video.
• No built-in graphics for next nForce? - According to TheInquirer, NVIDIA's next chipset won't have built-in graphics in any of its incarnations. If true, the lack of an nForce with PCI Express and built-in graphics will leave the Sempron processor high and dry.
• Western Digital Expands External HDD Lineup - The company is adding a USB 2.0 model to its existing WD Dual-option product family, which features software that simplifies and automates data back up; and is introducing the WD Essential external drive line, which provides the necessary storage functions and maximum value. Both WD Dual-option USB 2.0 and WD Essential drives feature a front-mounted power button, the USB 2.0 interface, 7200rpm spin speed; and capacities of 80, 120, 160, 200 and 250GB. WD's Dual-option USB 2.0 model gives consumers the option to back up data either on-demand or automatically and ensures that all data is safely transferred before shutting down the drive with the company's Safe Shutdown feature.
• UNOFFICIAL Windows 98 Second Edition Service Pack 1 1.6.1 - It contains all Windows98 SE updates (download) from Windows Update site and more. It is a self-extracting and self-installing pack like Microsoft's update files. Thus, you cannot choice files individually. However, the pack installs only required fixes for your system. Uninstallation is possible from Add-Remove Programs.
• ReactOS 0.2.4 - ReactOS is an Open Source effort to develop a quality operating system that is compatible with Windows NT applications and drivers.
• Mozilla, Thunderbird and Firefox (updated) - Download Mozilla 1.7.3 || Firefox 1.0 Preview || Thunderbird 0.8.
• True Launch Bar 3.1 - True Launch Bar (download) is a Superior replacement for the standard Quick Launch bar. All functions presented in Quick Launch are also in True Launch Bar. However, the True Launch Bar is fully compatible with Quick Launch because it uses the same folder for shortcuts. But there is one huge difference. True Launch Bar allows you to combine your shortcuts into groups. This feature looks like popup menus.
• Elaborate Bytes CloneDVD 2.4.5.4  - CloneDVD 2 copies movies in unparalleled picture quality. If it"s only the main movie or a complete DVD CloneDVD compresses even long footage in brilliant quality and at high speed: A special transcoding technology compresses your choice of DVD titles according to your audio and language selection automatically to a freely adjustable target size. Our unique Film Strip assistant will guide you step by step through all settings. With the help of the Video Preview you select the desired DVD titles and decide if you want to trim individual chapters.
• BSPlayer 1.02 - BSplayer (download) is a Windows player that plays back all kinds of media files ( avi / mpg / asf / wmv / wav / mp3...) and specialises in video and divx playback.
• Adobe Reader 7 Beta - Software maker, Adobe, have released a beta version of its popular reader program, Adobe Acrobat Reader. At version 7.0, Adobe has updated a variety of features.
• Kerio Personal Firewall 4.1.0 Final - Kerio Personal Firewall (KPF) (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.

• New Scam Tactic Hits Online - The new techniques, which experts began seeing sporadically earlier this year and in large waves in recent weeks, involve the use of a process called steganography, or embedding or hiding text in an image. In the most recent cases, spam and phishing messages have incorporated complex images containing text. In some cases, the image files include hidden code designed to exploit known vulnerabilities in e-mail clients and Web browsers.
• Symantec Goes Anti-Phishing - The antivirus software giant will announce this week a brand protection service that will use the company's global network of researchers and its desktop software to help companies identify and thwart online scams that use their names to trick unsuspecting customers.
• New Worm Installs Network Traffic Sniffer - A new worm whose payload includes the SDBot trojan tries to install a "sniffer," seeking to use infected computers to capture login and banking information for other computers on the same network. While sniffers are hardly new, the bundling of a sniffer with an auto-propagating worm is a new wrinkle, according to security firms.
• Worm speaks to Windows users - The Amus worm, which may be Turkish, uses the Windows Speech Engine, embedded on Windows XP, to play the following message: "How are you. I am back. My name is Mr. Hamsi. I am seeing you. Haaaaaaaa. You must come to Turkey. I am cleaning your computer. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. 0. Gule gule." "Gule gule" means "bye-bye" in Turkish.  The worm, which runs after the Windows XP boot-up music has played, also deletes certain files, causing Windows to fail. It spreads automatically via an e-mail titled "Listen and Smile" and alters home page settings in Internet Explorer.
• Independent Developers Fight Piracy & Lose - The author of the Echelon decided to take his fight against software piracy to the next level and then threw in the towel. After someone began posting new serial numbers on a well known hacking site, the author took matters into his own hands. With version 1.0, entering a hacked serial number causes the software deleted the user's Home directory. Yes, you read it right, the software completely erases it (aka rm -rf ~).
• Does Online Banking Put Your Money at Risk? - The modern-day Willie Suttons of the world target bank Web sites for the same reason. With online transactions, money is represented in the form of electronic records of ownership, which means online bank robbers can steal more money, in less time, than by stealing literal currency--and they don't even need a getaway car. But that doesn't mean online banking necessarily has to be a riskier proposition.
• Off-topic: Genetic Code Transmits Medical Records, Personalized Medicine - Acknowledging that the project began "when the DNA-augmented patient record seemed to many to be mere science fiction," scientists Barry Robson and Richard Mushlin of IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center now predict GMS will be able to transmit information as a "smart DNA sequence" that contains a patient's entire medical record along with genetic information. Even MRIs and X-rays might be rendered into the system.
• Off-topic: Novell: Microsoft 'sucked $60 billion' out of IT - Speaking on Monday at BrainShare Europe, Novell's annual conference here, CEO Jack Messman told customers and partners that Microsoft's exhaustive license fees for Windows have prevented end-user organizations and independent software developers from directing cash into more "innovative" software.  "I am of the opinion that innovation has been slowed because of Microsoft. It has sucked $60 billion out of our industry that could have been used for innovation," he said.
• Off-topic: "Beware of the End of the WWW," Says Intel - At Intel's technical conference, CTO Patrick Gelsinger said the Internet will begin to collapse as millions of new computer users from developing nations begin to sign on. "We're running up on some architectural limitations," Gelsinger was quoted as saying. Gelsinger's solution is to build a new network over the current Internet, that would monitor and direct traffic and better fight security threats or traffic surges.
• Step Toward Universal Computing - A Silicon Valley startup claims to have cracked one of most elusive goals of the software industry: a near-universal emulator that allows software developed for one platform to run on any other, with almost no performance hit.  Transitive Corp. of Los Gatos, California, claims its QuickTransit software allows applications to run "transparently" on multiple hardware platforms, including Macs, PCs, and numerous servers and mainframes.
• BeAll adds extra Megabytes to DVD recordable media with EEM - South Korean company BeAll has announced that it will start shipping 4x DVD-R recordable discs to which consumers can record up to 4.85 GB of data or 124 minutes of DVD video. This an increase of 0.15 GB when compared to regular 4.7 GB DVD recordables.
• Virtual Server 2005 available - Virtual Server 2005 Standard Edition supports up to four processors, with an estimated retail price of $499 (U.S.). Virtual Server 2005 Enterprise Edition supports up to 32 processors, with an estimated retail price of $999 (U.S.). Both versions will be available within 30 days through retail and volume licensing and will be licensed on a per-physical server basis.
• Chinese startup claims 25-Gbit/s over copper wire - Analogix Semiconductor Inc. has introduced physical-layer transceiver ICs that lets system designers design in 6.25-Gbit/s serial performance per copper twisted pair and 25-Gbit/s full-duplex over a single InfiniBand copper cable at up to 30 meters distance, the company claimed today.
• Sony unveils 3LCD 6000-1 contrast ratio HD projector - The new VPL-HS51 model is equipped with an advanced iris function, enabling the projector to dynamically adjust the video image according to the level of the input signal. This results in high contrast ratio of up to 6000:1, along with reproduction of the most subtle details. The HS51 also incorporates three proprietary 720p LCD panels that provide 2,764,800 pixel resolution (1280x720) optimized for HD video input.
• ATI RS480/RS400 runs Doom 3  - Both of those chipsets are able to run all top three games including Doom 3, Far Cry and Half Life 2 at playable frame rates just using the power of chipset graphics. We haven’t any specifics what playable frame rates are, but we suspect ~24 plus FPS.
• AMD Sempron 3100+: The best value processor yet - The three main notable differences between the Sempron 3100+ ($123) and the rest of the Athlon 64 family concerns the amount of L2 cache, 256KB instead of the usual 512KB or 1MB cache, the fact that it has a single channel DDR memory controller and a single hypertransport Link and the fact that it has no AMD64 capabilities but will include the NX bit and Cool'n'quiet features.
• Overdrive PC Torque.OP review - Believe it or not, the "OP" in the Overdrive PC Torque.OP's name refers to the AMD Opteron 150 CPU inside (overclocked to 2.6 GHz). The Torque.OP's Opteron 150 processor is installed on an Asus SK8N motherboard - the same motherboard we've seen in 940-pin Athlon 64 FX-51 and FX-53 systems. Backing up the fast CPU are two 10,000-rpm SATA drives in a RAID 0 configuration, as well as 1GB of registered DDR 400 SDRAM.
• IBM ThinkPad T42 notebook review - The T42 is Centrino branded, so you’re getting an Intel Pentium M CPU, running at 1.7GHz, complete with 2MB of Level 2 cache. Backing up the processor is 512MB of PC2700 DDR SDRAM, which is adequate for pretty much anything you’re likely to run on a notebook computer. That said, if you do want more memory, the T42 can support a maximum 2GB of memory, which should satisfy even the most fanatical multi-tasker.
• AMD Athlon 2500+ processor shootout (Barton, Mobile, Sempron)  - If you're looking to run at straight out of the box stock speeds, then going for the Athlon XP 2500+ should be a no brainer. The XP either beats or almost matches the Mobile chip in every benchmark and can be had at a lower price. If however you're a tweaker, a freaker, a mad cookie eater, then by all means spend that extra four bones that is burning a hole in your pocket and pick up a Mobile Athlon chip. Even if by some chance you get a dud in the overclocking department you'll still have a chip that can easily run at stock XP speeds all the while requiring _much_ less voltage which will enable you to have a quiet if not super fast gaming system. Finally, if you're looking at the Sempron do it only if you absolutely cannot afford that extra ten bucks that it's going to cost you to move up to a Barton based XP processor.
• OCZ EL DDR PC-3200 Dual Channel 1gig kit review - Xtremecomputing has posted a review of the OCZ EL DDR PC-3200 Dual Channel 1gig kit.
• Abit KW7 KT880 Motherboard Specs - The Abit KV7II sporting VIA KT880 chipset has been replaced with the Abit KW7 for a total compatibility with new technologies like AMD Sempron, IEEE 1394 Firewire, and Gigabit LAN. The KW7 series also based on the VIA KT880 chipset supports AMD Socket A K7 processor with FSB 400, and dual DDR400 that deliver up to a 50% increase in bandwidth. With SATA RAID, LAN, and 6 channels sound, this board can easily be the foundation for a superb system.
• Abit AA8 DuraMAX 925X motherboard review - PC Perspective has posted a review on the Abit AA8 DuraMAX 925X Motherboard.
• Sapphire Radeon X800 XT ViVo review - When we look at the performance of the X800 XT in relation to the other boards, the performance really holds little surprises, as it nestles between the Platinum Edition and the PRO. The specifications of the X800 XT would indicate that it performance would be closer to the Platinum Edition, and this is indeed the case, hold a mere 6%-8% performance differential to it.
• HIS X800XT IceQ II VIVO Special Edition review - Image quality on the HIS X800XT card is nothing short of impressive. While playing games such as Unreal Tournament 2004, Doom 3, and Call of Duty I was able to turn up all the "eye candy" and effects that the designers put in the respective game engines, and enjoy them at impressive frame rates. Being able to see all the details of all the textures was great. Being able to crank up some of the AA and AF settings and still get good frame rates was even better.
• Leadtek WinFast A380 Ultra review - Xtremecomputing has posted a review on the Leadtek WinFast A380 Ultra video card.
• Inno3D GeForce 6800 review - The Inno3D GeForce 6800 is a high quality product that lives up to anyone's informed expectations of what an NVIDIA GeForce 6800 video card has to offer. Compared to the 6800 Ultra, this card is quieter although the difference is not drastic as the 6800 Ultra noise is basically drowned out by typical power supply fans, case fans, etc.
• ASUS V9999 GeForce 6800 Gamers Edition 256MB - That's precisely why ASUS' 256MB-equipped GeForce 6800 behaves so much like the more expensive 6800 GT and Ultra designs, right down to decent performance with high resolutions and AntiAliasing/Anisotropic Filtering applied. The gap between it and a regular 128MB-equipped GeForce 6800 can increase from around 25% at 1024x768 4xAA/8xAF to almost 100% at our highest setting of 1600x1200 4xAA/8xAF. Just that fact puts ASUS' card into a different league than most other plain 6800s.
• P4 Integrated Graphic Chipsets shootout - There is the final matter of which Pentium 4 IGP chipset is better? Obviously at this stage if you want to build an LGA775 platform the 915G is the only choice, as I have not seen an RS350 motherboard using this socket. It is unlikely these two chipsets will be found in direct competition as neither is likely to be found offering the same socket. However, they may sway a user in a certain direction. For example, those after an incredibly cheap integrated graphics PGA478 Pentium 4 solution will most certainly want to get their hands on an RS350 supportive motherboard.
• XPS & Mobility Radeon 9800 - The ATI Mobility Radeon 9800 is simply an amazing piece of technology for gaming. It will allow you to see gaming performance on a notebook that you have never seen before. The "wow factor" for this thing is pretty darn high the first time you experience it. We can only hope that ATI keeps up the breakneck speed in which its performance focused Mobility Radeon VPUs are coming to market. At this rate, it will be very soon that find gaming laptops at mainstream prices instead of just being populated in mostly high dollar machines.
• Graphics Card Guide (updated) - Adrian's Rojak Pot has updated his comprehensive graphics card comparison guide. Products from ATI, NVIDIA, XGI, S3, SiS, Matrox, PowerVR, 3dfx, Trident and Intel are represented.
• Why 8 New Miditower Cases Do Not Always Deliver - There are few miditowers that also offer practical and useful control displays. Either reading the values is difficult or the display is too small to be read. Good-looking at first glance, they soon lose their charm, because reading is only possible with a direct view from above. Even the brightness of the room makes a huge difference in visibility for almost all of the miditower displays.
• Antec Truepower 430 Power Supply review - AusPCWorld take a look at the Antec Truepower 430 Power Supply.
• NVIDIA & WoW Beta -To celebrate the collaboration, NVIDIA and Blizzard will randomly distribute 1,000 closed beta accounts. Sign-ups will be held for one week only, starting today at NVIDIA's nZone.
• Microsoft Wireless Desktop Comfort Edition review - Hardware Pacers has posted a review of the Microsoft Wireless Desktop Comfort Edition.
• SP2 Windows XP setup bootfloppies - Here're Setup Disks for Floppy Boot Install updated for Windows XP Service Pack 2 (WinXP Home Edition SP2 ~ WinXP Professional SP2)
• Windows Server 2003 (KB827214) update - This update resolves problems that were found in the Exchange 2003 Transport since Exchange 2003 was released.
• Mozilla Firefox 1.0 Preview - Phronix has released a Mozilla Firefox 1.0 preview.
• Taos Image Finder - Taos Image Finder (shots ~ demo) is an application like no other in the market. It is one of the first applications that take advantage of the bleeding edge performance and capabilities of graphics processing units like the GeForce FX and GeForce 6800 to deliver image processing performance never before seen on the desktop PC.
• IPCheck Server Monitor 4.3.2.385 - Network and Server Uptime/Downtime Monitor (download) - monitors a network using various protocols (e.g. ping, http/https, smtp, ftp, pop3, dns,snmp ) and notifies the staff in various ways as soon as an outage occurs. By design IPCheck Server Monitor fills the gap between the small freeware tools that do not monitor thoroughly enough and the expensive management suites that are often very complicated to set up.
• Overclockulator v1.1.1b Freeware - PimpRig has posted Overclockulator v1.1.1b for download. It's a great little app that will be an overclocker's best friend! Various calculating functions aimed straight at the overclocker incuding a tool to add up your systems total wattage use, CPU and FSB calculations, Temp conversions and more.
• ShaderMark 2.1 Graphics Benchmark - ShaderMark 2.1 (download) is a DirectX 9.0 pixel shader benchmark. All pixel and vertex shader code is written in Microsoft’s High Level Shading Language. ShaderMark provides the possibility to use different compiler targets and advanced options. It also features a picture quality comparison based on mean square error (MSE) values.
• Fraps 2.3.1 - Fraps (download) is designed as a generic tool for DirectX and OpenGL games. In its current form Fraps performs many tasks and can best be described as: Benchmarking Software, Screen Capture Software and Realtime Video Capture Software. This new version fixed crash in 2.3.0 when "Save Detailed Benchmark Statistics" enabled and still incorrect colors recorded from games running in 16-bit color.
• K-Lite Codec Pack 2.31 - New versions of the K-Lite Codec Pack have been released (thanks Siegfried)
• AnyDVD 4.0.1.1 Beta - AnyDVD allows you to decrypt CSS encrypted DVDs on the fly. Insert your CSS- (Content Scrambling System) and RPC (Region Code Protected) - protected DVD into your DVD drive. It will detect it and automatically remove the protection. This new version allowing you  to remove "Protection based on unreadable Sectors".
• PowerStrip 3.54 (shw) - PowerStrip (download) provides advanced, multi-monitor, programmable hardware support to a wide range of graphics cards - from the venerable Matrox Millennium I to the latest video cards.
• Creative USB Sound Blaster Audigy 2 NX driver v1.0.10 - This driver (EU mirror) update improves USB Sound Blaster Audigy 2 NX functionality with Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2.
• GSA-4120B LG DVDRAM  firmware - The new firmware claims to fix compatibility problems with Lite-On DVD-ROMs. Try only at your own risk!