• Microsoft Confirms Bug in SSL Patch - Microsoft Corp. has confirmed in a knowledge base article that its patch for a critical bug can cause some Windows 2000 systems to lock up and fail at boot time. The problem occurs, according to the article, because Windows tries repeatedly to load drivers that fail to load. Microsoft acknowledges that the problem is a bug in the patch and that the company is investigating solutions.
• ACLU battles FBI over ISP customer data - The American Civil Liberties Union is challenging the FBI’s use of expanded powers to compel Internet service providers to turn over information about their customers or subscribers. A lawsuit challenging secret FBI national security letters was filed April 6 in U.S. District Court in New York but not made public until Wednesday because of its extraordinary sensitivity.
• Lawmakers Vow to Pass New Law Against Spyware - U.S. lawmakers vowed on Thursday to pass legislation to stop deceptive software even though regulators advised against any new laws. Both Republicans and Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee said new laws were needed to stop the proliferation of so-called "spyware" that hides in users' computers and secretly monitors their activities
• Visa Toys With Credit Card Displays - Visa International is experimenting with credit cards that include a small display screen where customers could view recent transactions, bank balances, or local currency exchange rates, says Deborah Arnold, Visa's vice president of global consumer strategies. About 10 percent of Visa's 1.2 billion credit and debit cards in use worldwide already have a built-in computer chip, and that proportion is growing rapidly, Arnold says. The chip can store information that could be displayed on a small screen running across the top of a card, in a position similar to the magnetic strip on the back of most cards today.
• MS04011 Lsasrv.dll RPC buffer overflow remote exploit - houseofdabus HOD has published the exploit code.
• Neowin's Official WinHEC 2004 Coverage - WinHEC Officially kicks off on Tuesday 4th May, but Neowin.net has already posted some coverage.
• ATI announces TV Wonder - ATI announced the "TV Wonder USB 2.0", which is a tv tuner for plugging into both desktop and notebook PCs. With the device installed, users will be able to watch the telly on their computers, as well as record data from TV onto their PC. The product should be available this summer in the USA, and will come in two available packages, the "TV Wonder USB 2.0 Remote Control Edition" at $149, and the "TV Wonder USB 2.0" which should weigh in at $100.
• HDTV DivX Player In The Works - KiSS Technology, Inc.have announced that they will work with DivXNetworks, Inc., to develop a DivX Certified DVD Player optimized for the high-resolution HDTV playback of DivX video files. KiSS Technologies will demonstrate DivX Certified DVD players to major retailers at RetailVision North America, where DivXNetworks is an event sponsor. RetailVision is held April 26-29 at the Hyatt Grand Champion in Indian Wells, California.
• ATI's Radeon X800XT ends up flying faster - ATI decided to increase the frequency of its soon to be released X800XT cards that will be presented in just a few days, on May the fourth. The card is now clocked at 525MHz.
• Introduction to DDR-2: The DDR Memory Replacement - PC Stats has posted an introduction to DDR-2: The DDR Memory.
• AC-3 ACM Decompressor 0.7 -  Install this and you can convert/decompress AC3 audio directly to WAV/MP3 using Virtualdub.
• Fresh Diagnose 6.60 - Fresh Diagnose is an utility designed to analyze and benchmark your computer system. It can analyze and benchmark many kinds of hardware, such as CPU performance, hard disk performance, video system information, mainboard information, and much more.
• nVIDIA Forceware v60.60 Windows 2000/XP - This is nVIDIA ForceWare series 60 which where of course originally designed for GeForce series 6 (6800), the newest NVIDIA reference graphics card driver. This release can be used with any NVIDIA graphics card. This is a full official NVIDIA. reference set, not yet WHQL certified though.

• Windows XP Service Pack 2 release delayed - Microsoft has delayed the planned release date of its next update to Windows XP by about a month, ZDNet UK sister site CNET News.com has learned. The software maker had originally said that Windows XP Service Pack 2 would be released in its final form in the first half of this year, but a representative told CNET News.com on Wednesday that the release is now likely to come later in the summer.
• Music industry sues 477 more computer users - The recording industry sued 477 more computer users Wednesday, including dozens of college students at schools in 11 states, accusing them of illegally sharing music across the Internet.
• Visa trials RF credit cards - Consumers in Malaysia will soon be able to pay for their shopping with contactless, EMV standard smart cards, as Visa does away with the need for a signature with the launch of its new system, Visa Wave. The company is running a four-month trial with 2000 Visa customers and over 150 merchants. The idea behind it (apart from selling lots of card readers) is to speed up the payment process. This, Visa hopes, will encourage people to use their cards more often in place of cash. Cardholders just need to wave their card near (within 4cm) the reader and the transaction goes through.
• Phoenix extends Bios to enhance network security - Phoenix Technologies, the company behind the Phoenix Bios firmware that is installed in about 80 percent of all PCs, launched a utility at the InfoSecurity show in London on Wednesday that can allow users' hardware to be used in conjunction with a traditional login system to ensure that only authorised users with a "trusted device" can gain access to the corporate network.
• SecuROM launches Electronic CD-Key and SecuRelease at E3  - Offering high-level security against piracy and illegal copying, Sony DADC's copy control solution SecuROM is now available with new applications. Protecting 80% of top PC games worldwide, SecuROM is now focussing on adding more security, convenience and expanded sales opportunities for games publishers. Innovative applications, such as Electronic CD-Key and SecuRelease, will be presented at the E3 in Los Angeles, from May 12 to 14, Kentia Hall, booth 6215. Electronic CD-Key is a new SecuROM function based on n-CD technology. The application replaces serialisation codes on stickers applied on retail games boxes, saving games publishers material and handling costs, and users inconvenient manual input. Each disc is assigned a unique invisible identification number. The code is read by the computer drive and initiates an automatic access to online gaming. As the technology is backwards compatible, virtually any computer drive can read the data. Ensuring that codes are safe, Electronic CD-Key lets the widespread method of unauthorised access to codes in stores come to an end, as they can't be seen anymore. JoWooD Productions Software AG will be the first games publisher to apply this convenient technology to the global games release "Soldiers" which will hit stores in May.
• Critical Update for Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 - This critical update for Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 enhances the stability and performance of Media Center Edition 2004 and resolves the following issues.
• Off-topic: Why most U.S. titles don’t fare well in Japan (and vice versa) - The relative success of "Grand Theft Auto III" in Japan may be a sign of changing tastes, but violent games are still far less popular in Japan than in the United States.
• Off-topic: US develops motorised robobollard - The lizard people are certainly rubbing their scaly claws together with glee today at the news that the US is developing motorised, computer-controlled robobollards. The three-wheeled cybercones are intended for use on roads where they can move quickly to close off carriageways without human operatives risking their necks. This is a sound idea in principle - any hairy-arsed motorway maintenence man attempting to create a 46-mile contraflow on the M1 by offloading plastic cones from the back of a lorry faces the continual threat of being physically assaulted by enraged motorists indulging in the UK national sport of "abuse the cone bloke".
• Off-topic: Scientists Develop Self-chilling Beer Can - Scientists have developed a self-chilling beer can that can drop the temperature of the drink down to a chilling 37.4° F (16.7 degrees Celsia) in about three minutes. After the drink has been chilled, it will stay cold for up to an hour. The new can has been developed by Tempra Technology and they call it the "I*C*CAN". The technology is completely safe to use as it contains no toxins, gases nor is the drink highly pressurized. The contents within the can is surrounded by a gel that drains off when the bottom of the can is twisted. There is also a insulated heat absorbing product a the bottom of the can. Once activated the temperature of the liquid drops to near freezing temperatures. The principle behind this, is similar to what it's like we you step out of a hot shower and feel very cool.
• Off-topic: Soldering iron added to nano-toolkit  - An atomic-scale conveyor belt may also be the smallest soldering iron ever created. The new device, which ferries molten metal, is made from carbon nanotubes just 20 millionths of a millimetre in diameter. The discovery could pave the way for nano-machines that are pieced together from smaller components, rather than emerging from chemical reactions.
• Dual-core Opterons coming next year - According to this interview with AMD CEO Hector Ruiz, one of the most powerful things next year is going to be their our dual-core product.  "To me, that's going to really shock the hell out of everyone, because it's going to be hardware-compatible, infrastructure-compatible, pin-compatible. I mean, people that have a 2-P system can slap in a dual-core product and end up with a 4-P system for the price of a 2-P. That's been the biggest drawback, everyone tells me. What keeps them from going from a 2-P to a 4-P system? It's price."
• Dabs.com stocking the first ever dual layer drive in the UK - Lite-ON SOHW-832S - JustCDR is reporting that dabs.com will be stocking the new Lite-ON SOHW-832S 8x Dual Layer DVD writer, in less than a weeks time :) for a nice price also L90. (thanks Mark)
• Plextor announces first Serial ATA 12x DVD-writer - The PX-712SA is Plextor's first product with a Serial ATA (SATA) interface, which offers PC makers new possibilities: SATA increases the bandwidth to 150 MB per second and replaces the traditional Parallel ATA (E-IDE) interface.
• Intel's 915 and 925 chipsets not to support Win98/ME - Intel’s forthcoming 915 (the Grantsdale) and 925 (the Alderwood) series of chipsets, expected to hit the market in June, will not bundle drivers for either Microsoft Windows 98 or Windows ME operating systems (OS), according to sources at Taiwanese motherboard makers.
• Siemens SX1 smart phone review - Like the 6600, the Siemens handset looks like a mobile that's put on weight, but while the Nokia is clearly the one that ate all the pies, the SX1 hides its spare tyre rather well. Both handsets are 10.9cm tall, but at 5.5cm wide and 1.9cm thick, the SX1 is less bulky than the 5.8 x 2.4cm 6600. You can certainly feel the difference in size and weight (110g to the 6600's 125g), and I found the SX1 much more comfortable to hold.
• iRiver iGP-100 Player Gets Smaller, Faster and Sexier - iRiver's iGP-100 digital music player with a micro hard drive shows just how the MP3 player market has come. For less than $200, iRiver's latest player offers a fresh design and hours and hours of music play.
• VIA's KT880 chipset Socket A's not dead yet - When compared with the KT600, the KT880's only new feature is its DualStream64 dual-channel memory controller. DualStream64 is more than just an extra 64-bit memory channel, though. The memory controller also features improved branch prediction, an enhanced data prefetch protocol, and other tweaks to improve performance. The KT880 is designed to work with DDR400 and DDR333 memory, and like all dual-channel designs, two DIMMs must be used to achieve optimal performance. Interestingly enough, the KT880's new memory controller can address up to 8GB of memory. The KT880 north bridge also features an AGP 8X graphics interface and supports a 400MHz front-side bus.
• DVD writers round-up - TrustedReviews have posted a comparison of six 8-speed DVD writers over here comparing the latestes models from AOpen, LG, MSI, Sony Teac and TDK.
• ATI Radeon 9800 XT 256MB review - DesignTechnica has posted a review of the ATI Radeon 9800 XT 256MB video card.
• PowerStrip 3.50 Beta - A PowerStrip 3.50 beta (download) has been released, with support for over 100 graphics controllers under 64-bit Editions of Windows.
• QuickTime 6.5.1 -  According to Apple, the update (download) includes the Apple Lossless Encoder, a new lossless audio codec that retains the full quality of uncompressed CD audio while requiring only about half the storage space, significant improvements to AAC encoding, resulting in high-quality sound over a full range of audio frequencies and enhanced support for iTunes and other QuickTime-based applications.
• iTunes v4.5 - With iTunes, you can create your own personal digital music library to manage and listen to your music collection, all with drag-and-drop simplicity. iTunes encodes high-quality MP3s as well as pristine AAC, all in a free application.
• VideoToolBox 0.9.1.42 - VideoToolBox is a Freeware which aim is to detect codec required by AVI, MKV, QT, etc etc files.
• Adobe Reader Speed-Up 1.21 - Adobe Reader Speed-Up significantly decreases the amount of time required for Adobe Reader 6.0 to start by disabling most of the least used plugins. Plugins can be freely enabled and disabled, if required.
• RightMark Memory Analyzer 3.1 - The RightMark Team is pleased to announce the release of our new test suite, the RightMark Memory Analyzer (download). It aims the detailed, stable and accurate measurements of the most important low-level characteristics of the CPU/Chipset/RAM subsystem of your PC.
• HWiNFO32 v1.42 - HWiNFO32 v1.42 has been released. This new version fixes report of RIMM module size, report of Hyperthreading support in the summary screen, recognition of AMD Paris and more.
• McAfee AVERT Stinger 2.2.2 - Stinger is a stand-alone utility used to detect and remove specific viruses.
• Gene6 FTP Server v3.0.0.34 - Gene6 FTP Server (download) is a professional Windows FTP Server featuring speed, reliability and customization. Its main assets are remote administration, encrypted (SSL) connection and ease of use.
• File-synchronization tool for Unix and Windows - Unison is a file-synchronization tool (download) for Unix and Windows. (It also works on OSX to some extent, but it does not yet deal with 'resource forks' correctly; more information on OSX usage can be found on the unison-users mailing list archives.) It allows two replicas of a collection of files and directories to be stored on different hosts (or different disks on the same host), modified separately, and then brought up to date by propagating the changes in each replica to the other.  (thanks Yog-Sothoth)
• NEC 2500 Hack Beta 9a - A new firmware version hack (win32 ~ DOS) is out for the NEC2500, beta 9. This firmware update will write at 8x instead of 6x onto Bulkpaq printables and printable G04s.
• VIA Audio Drivers v5.20b - VIA Tech has released a new drivers for the internal AC97 sound in their chipsets i.e. south bridges T82C686x , VT8231 , VT8233x , VT8235 and VT8237.

• PKWare Delivers Secure Compression - A new security-led version of the popular Zip compression technology has been released this week, extending the tool into the business market and putting it up against PGP. Zip developer PKWare has added encryption and centralized management to SecureZip, so documents can be protected and compressed at the same time with a systems administrator able to define variables from one location. Currently the program is solely for Windows desktops but Unix and Linux versions are in the wings, and a server version is currently in beta, the company's COO and president Tim Kennedy tells us.
• Spanish judge rules X-Box mods "legal" -  Spanish judge has ruled that modifications to games consoles to allow them to play DVDs and games from other countries "are not illegal". According to El País, the ruling comes after the Guardia Civil charged Barcelona video games shop Innovagames with offering its clients "alteration of Play Station 2 and X-Box games consoles to allow them to read games from other parts of the world or downloaded directly from the Internet... by carrying out modification of their components as per diagrams found on the premises".
• First Ten Programs on New Install? -  What are the first 10 programs you would install on a Windows machine? How about for a Unix machine?
• Off-topic: China 'Shocked' at U.S. Cold Shoulder in Space -  The Chinese, who launched their first astronaut into space last year, are "shocked" the United States has not welcomed them into the tight-knit community of space-faring nations, a leading U.S. expert said on Tuesday. Joan Johnson-Freese, who chairs the National Security Decision Making Department at the U.S. Naval War College, said one space official she met on a recent trip to China was in tears as he pleaded for U.S. recognition and cooperation. "They are shocked that the U.S. is not reaching out to them. They want very much to work with the United States," she said.
• [!] Off-topic: 'Laser vision' offers new insights - US firm Microvision has developed a system that projects lasers onto the retina, allowing users to view images on top of their normal field of vision. It could allow surgeons to get a bird's eye view of the innards of a patient, offer military units in the field a view of the entire battlefield and provide mechanics with a simulation of the inside of a car's engine. The system uses tiny lasers, which scan their light onto the retina to produce the entire range of human vision, reported the journal of the Institute of the Electrical and Electronics Engineers, IEEE Spectrum.
• Off-topic: Green tea polishes hard drive heads - Green tea provides a more effective and environmentally-friendly method of preparing computer hard disks, say US scientists. Inside a hard drive a component known as a read-write head is used to magnetically impart and retrieve information from a spinning disk. The point of this head must be extremely smooth as it travels on a microscopically thin layer of air above the disk's fast-moving surface. In fact, imperfections larger than 10 angstroms (a billionth of a metre) may interfere with the normal operation of the head.
• How Microsoft planned Xbox 2 for Christmas 2004 - Internal schedules at Microsoft as recently as last November called for the Xbox 2 to be launched in time for Christmas 2004, sources close to the company have revealed - and the firm is still thought to be considering a launch by mid-2005. Sources at a number of key Xbox developers, who cannot be named for legal reasons, have confirmed that when the company originally revealed the outline specification for Xbox 2 late last year, the company surprised its partners by suggesting that the new hardware would be in shops for Christmas 2004. The system has since slipped from that schedule - which also called for an unveiling of the specification at GDC, at the high-profile press conference which the company eventually used for the launch of the XNA development platform - but Microsoft apparently still has hopes to get the new console out in mid-2005, ahead of the Christmas 2005 release anticipated by most commentators.
• Pressure on Sony for PS2 Price Cut Grows - Sony Corp. may be forced to cut the price on its PlayStation 2 video game console as soon as the coming weeks or risk being outsold in the U.S. market by rival Microsoft Corp., analysts said on Tuesday. Sony forecast earlier on Tuesday that PS2 sales in the business year ending March 2005 would fall by as much as 30 percent, a much sharper decline than analysts had expected. Unless Sony cuts the price on its PS2 in order to spur sales, U.S. game software makers, many of whom track Sony's fiscal year, may find sales growth targets harder to reach, analysts said.
• AMD to introduce 32-bit CPU for K8 motherboards - AMD aims to strengthen its position in the entry-level processor market by introducing a 32-bit CPU, codenamed Athlon XP Paris, in the third quarter of this year, according to sources at Taiwanese motherboard makers. The 754-pin Paris will be targeted for the desktop and will be fully based on the K8 micro-architecture, with 256KB of L2 cache, but will not support AMD64, i.e. x86-64 technology, said the sources.
• PCI Gets Version Upgrade - The new Conventional PCI 3.0 spec completes the migration to 3.3V-only slots by removing support for 5.0V-only keyed add-in cards. Universal keyed add-in cards (cards that are keyed for both 5.0V and 3.3V slots) continue to be supported by the Conventional PCI 3.0 spec. Version 3.0 also incorporates the errata and ECNs (Engineering Change Notifications) to version 2.3 specification. Version 3.0 supports multiple bus specifications: PCI 66, PCI-X, Mini PCI, and Low Profile PCI.
• Optware Unveils Small Holographic Device Capable of Recording 200GB-300GB on One Disc - The company hopes to introduce a commercial product for business use that can record 200GB to 300GB on a 12 centimeter disc by the summer of 2005. Optware has been aiming for the practical application of its technology called "polarized collinear holography," which enables a more simple optical system than conventional holographic recording and playing devices. With this technology, the "signal beam" and "reference beam" used for the recording and playing of holographic media can be directed to the disc with just one objective lens.
• Citrix unveils MetaFrame Access Suite 3.0 - The Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based company detailed a new version of its flagship product, MetaFrame Access Suite 3.0, at a financial analyst meeting. One feature the company touted was the software's SmoothRoaming capability, which gives users uninterrupted access to data as they move from device to device, or temporarily lose their connection after entering an elevator, for instance. The software includes session-persistent features that automatically re-establish network connections, while preserving the information when the connection is lost. It also includes a password manager that provides for single sign-on, as well as user recognition capabilities that work with biometrics identification and proximity cards.
• Sony SDM-HS73P First Look - The SDM-HS73P ($610) shows off Sony's flair for making stylish products, but it does not deliver the top-notch image quality that most buyers expect from the brand. The limited viewing angle and other flaws are not fatal, but better choices are available at a similar price or lower.
• External Disk Roundup - The guys at Hexus.net have done a roundup of External Disks.
• Contour Design's Shuttle Pro 2 review - The Shuttle Pro 2, with its 15 programmable buttons and twin jog shuttles, is designed to help you avoid having to move your hands from the mouse to keyboard. But does this controller meet the needs of the video professional?
• Removing XP SP2 & Disabling IE's downloads Guides - I am not a Geek has posted two new Windows XP guides - Removing/Uninstalling Windows XP SP2 and Disable IE'S Downloading Capabilty.
• How To Rename Your Start Menu in Windows XP - Overclocking HQ.com has posted an article called "How To Rename Your Start Menu in Windows XP".
• Understanding Virtual Memory - OSNN have posted a pretty informative guide about Virtual Memory in Windows operating sytem.
• Dekart Private Disk 2.02 - Dekart Private Disk is an easy-to-use, fast and affordable software program that allows individuals to quickly encrypt both personal and business documents, as well as any other types of files stored most types of storage media. Dekart Private Disk allows to 100% protect the privacy of the important data, ensuring that only the owner of the documents will get access to the protected data in accordance with the defined user privileges.
• 3D Performance with Far Cry - Part 2 NVIDIA - The Firing Squad have posted part 2 of their 3D Performance with Far Cry article using Nvidia's Flagship GPU the GeForce 6800 Ultra.
• CloneDVD v2.0.8.3 - Elby has released a new version of CloneDVD. This new version fixes deadlocking problem in case of corrupted IFO files, adds support for unicode UDF volume names, updates japanese translation and fixes write speed setting.
• BSPlayer 1.00 RC1 Build 808 - BSplayer (download) is a Windows player that plays back all kinds of media files.
  Codec Pack All in 1 6.0.0.9 - A collection of codecs for playing DivX movies. All you need to see DivX movies: DivX, XviD, AC3...
• VisualRoute 8.0e  - VisualRoute (download) delivers the functionality of key Internet "ping," "whois," and "traceroute" tools, in a high-speed visually integrated package. VisualRoute automatically analyzes Internet connectivity and performance problems, displaying the results in an easy to understand table and on a world map.
• MultiRes 1.46 - MultiRes is a 32-bit alternative to QuickRes, which adds refresh rate and multi-monitor support, as well as optional timed confirmation prompts.
• Winnow Anonymous Proxy 4.1 - Winnow Anonymous Proxy (download) is an Internet utility to let you browse the Web anonymously by hiding your IP number.
• McAfee AVERT Stinger 2.2.1 - Stinger is a stand-alone utility used to detect and remove specific viruses.

• [!] "Critical" Windows Hijack Flaw Reported - Security researchers have discovered a serious boundary error vulnerability in multiple versions of Microsoft's Windows platform and warned that attackers could hijack systems via Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer (IE). Rodrigo Gutierrez, a researcher with Trustix AS, notified Microsoft of the flaw with a warning that it could be exploited by malicious attackers to cause a buffer overflow and lead to system takeover. The vulnerability is caused due to a boundary error, which can be triggered via Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer when connecting to a file server. This can be exploited to cause a buffer overflow by setting up a malicious share with an overly long name (about 300 bytes) containing no lower case characters. Secunia rates the flaw as "highly critical" and urged Windows XP and Windows 2000 users to restrict traffic in border routers and firewalls as a temporary workaround. Users could also disable the "Client for Microsoft Networks" for network cards to impact file sharing functionality.
• Microsoft warns of SSL attacks - Microsoft is urging customers to immediately install a recent software patch for Secure Socket Layer vulnerabilities in Windows because hackers are preparing to exploit the flaws. The patch, MS04-011, was made available on 13 April and is rated 'critical' by Microsoft. It patches 14 separate vulnerabilities, chiefly bugs in the SSL of all Windows systems.
• Off-topic: Bush: No Taxes on Broadband - People using high-speed Internet connections should not be taxed for doing so, President Bush says on a campaign swing through Minnesota. He also pushes for electronic medical records and hydrogen fuel technology.
• Off-topic: Whatever happened to Dungeons and Dragons? -  In the 1980s millions of teenagers world-wide would battle dragons armed with just dice, paper and pens. D&D became part of youth sub-culture but as the game celebrates its 30th birthday, is anyone still playing? In 1974 two men in the US Midwest, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, created Dungeons and Dragons, the first ever role-playing game.
• Off-topic: Xbox cops another loss - Third quarter results for software giant Microsoft have shown that revenues from the division responsible for the Xbox console rose significantly, but the business still made a $209m loss in the three month period. Revenue from the Xbox operations was up by some $81m for the three months ended 31 March, with the bulk of that improvement being down to higher volumes of software sales - although the company sold 30 per cent more hardware in the quarter than it did in the same period last year, it was sold at a substantially lower price point and therefore had a diminished effect on revenues.
• Microsoft's Xbox 2 Architecture Unveiled - According to X-bit labs, Microsoft is expected to formally announce the Xbox 2 (the “Xenon”) on the 2nd of  June 2004. Microsoft will use IBM's POWER 64-bit processors in the Xbox 2. The 65nm chips were reportedly taped-out recently and are now evaluated by engineers at Microsoft and IBM, though, the architecture of those microprocessors still remains to be investigated. The graphics processor of the Xbox 2 is to be developed by ATI Technologies, the I/O controller is to be developed by Silicon Integration Systems Corporation.
• New Processor Changes Instructions On-the-fly - Stretch, a company based out of California, announced on Monday of their S5000 chip which is the first processor that can add new instruction while operating. The chip combines an existing RISC (reduced instruction set computing) architecture with a large reconfigurable area of programmable logic called the Instruction Set Extension Fabric, ISEF. Stretch's own C/C++ compiler automatically spots areas in a program that require intensive computation and creates new instructions for the processor to handle those tasks on-the-fly.
• Taiwan mobo makers to sponsor online game competitions in China - Taiwan PC makers including Abit Computer and AOpen plan to ride the boom in the Internet café business in China by sponsoring international online game competitions to promote their brand names. Abit has been very aggressive in supporting the ACON4 event, which is being held in 21 countries with the final to be held in Shanghai on June 6. The company is providing fully-equipped DigiDice barebone PCs for the competition. Intel, Kingston, ViewSonic and ATI Technologies are co-sponsoring the event. AOpen will provide 800 fully-equipped XC Cube PCs for China E-Sport Gaming (CEG), which began April 17, according to an April 16 PC Home Chinese report. Related competitions will be held in different districts in China throughout this year and the final is set to be held in January 2005, according to sources at AOpen.
• NVIDIA's Tony Tamasi Interview - TechReport has posted an interview with NVIDIA's Tony Tamasi, as he talks about GeForce 6 series.
• Intel to launch 3.6GHz P4 in June - The June release will see the arrival of 2.8GHz to 3.6GHz P4s, with model numbers running from 520 to 560, alonside LGA775 socketed versions of the 3.2GHz and 3.4GHz P4EE. Intel will also offer a second 2.8GHz P4 using the new socket, though this one will only support a 533MHz frontside bus rather than the usual 800MHz FSB, and does not support HyperThreading. The 3.6GHz P4, which will make its debut in June, will only be offered as a 775-pin part and not in a Socket 478 version, the roadmaps suggest. So too will the 3.8GHz P4 that's due in mid-Q3 (August, basically) and the 4.0GHz version expected to ship next October (Q4). Those two chips will be numbered the 570 and 580, respectively.
• Toshiba Unveiled 100GB 2.5" HDD  - Toshiba's new MK1031GAS hard disk drive is a 100GB device with 8MB cache and 4200rpm motor. The world's first 100GB 2.5” HDD was achieved by using 2 advanced platters with 80Gb of data per square inch areal density.
• Blue Laser Products Emerge - Sony expects to release its blue laser rewritable DVD drives in the U.S. in June. The company demonstrated its drives at the recent National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas. Other vendors, including Pioneer, TDK, and Maxell, also showed prototypes of drives or media based on blue laser technology. The drives will use discs that hold 23GB of data, and should cost about $2500 for the internal version and $3000 for the external version, according to Robert De Moulin, marketing manager for Sony's optical storage group.
• TI-84 Plus Released - TI-84 Plus has now been shipped, and is avalible through a few distributors. This new model features a number of technical advancements including a 2.5 times faster processor speed (in comparison with 83 model). /thanks Slashdot.org/
• Creative MuVo 2 4GB MP3 Player review - The player is small, square and fits neatly in your hand, a little like a large pager. It feels solid but not heavy. The front is shiny black, the rest Creative's usual matt silver finish. On the front is the backlit LCD, a slim two-line job of the kind Creative already uses in the MuVo NX. Below it, to the right are the player's sole controls: a five-way navigation wheel - at last, no jog dial! - and the Play/Pause button that doubles up as the on/off switch.
• What's New With Displays  - Currently available displays and projectors keep improving, offering better images at constantly falling prices. PCMag explains the most exciting developments in five technologies that are already starting to show up in products you can buy now.
• GeIL Ultra Platinum 1GB Dual Channel PC4400 - If you were thinking of Corsair RAM for your next system, you'll definitely want to look GeIL's way. You'll get the same performance and save yourself $80 to $100 off the cost of admission. That'll give you an E-Ticket thrill-ride for the cost of a childrens' attraction.
• SATA Backplane Storage Comes of Age - THG tried out three SATA models from Adaptec, Addonics and Promise
• APC Biometric Password Manager review - Nicknamed the Biopod, APC's Biometric Password Manager is a small USB-powered fingerprint scanner that allows you to control access to your computer and other password protected systems, applications, and Web sites, without having to type in a password.
• Samsung ML-1750 (Monochrome) Printer review - A downside to printers like the ML-1750 is that the toner cartridge costs a lot more to replace. Also, you can run into paper jams. This is why desktop inkjet printers are more convenient, they don't jam and cartridges can range from $10-$30 CND depending on the brand. Of course they print fewer pages per minute and have their downsides as well. For a price of $220 USD ($300 CND) it is a decent buy if you want laser quality prints quickly, definitely a good investment for a home office or small business.
• The Workstation GPU Comparison Guide - RojakPot decided to compile this guide to provide an easy reference for those who are interested in comparing the specifications of the various workstation GPUs in the market as well as those already obsolescent or obsolete.
• Unlocking Guide for Barton 2500+ - This guide applies to all socket A processors that have L3 multiplier locked, which include Applebreds, Thortons, Bartons and Throughbreds.
• The Secrets of Athlon 64 3200+ Stepping - AMDBoard has posted the secrets of Athlon 64 3200+ Stepping.
• Shader Model 3.0 explained - [H]ardOCP has put together an introduction to Shader Model 3.0 that explains what this new graphics standard is all about.
• Windows XP, WinXP Pro tips, tweaks & tune-ups (updated) - There are some of the tips & tweaks for Windows XP Pro that you might find helpful and will certainly speed up Windows XP Pro.
• OpenOffice.org vs. MS Office 2003 - eWeek has published an extensive article in which compares OpenOffice.org and Microsoft Office 2003, as part of an IT decision whether to migrate a 300-plus userbase office away from Office 97/2000.
• Driverheaven Farcry Benchmark / 6800 Performance - There have been a few story's circulating on the Internet today regarding 6800Ultra performance in Farcry and how IQ is impacted when the Device ID is changed. Last weekend DriverHeaven tested Farcry under these conditions for our upcoming 6800 Ultra review however based on the fact that information has become widely available on the subject today it may be useful to know what their findings regarding performance were when these IQ changes were made.
• Spyware Removal Guide Version 2.01 - You can read the full Spyware Removal guide here
• GBAccelerator -- A better, faster way to play SNES Advance - check it out
• PHP 5.0 RC2  - The second Release Candidate of PHP 5 is now available! This mostly bug fix release improves PHP 5's stability and irons out some of the remaining issues before PHP 5 can be deemed release quality.
• phpMyAdmin 2.6.0-alpha - 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.
• IsoBuster Pro 1.6 Final - IsoBuster (download) is a CD/DVD and (Disk)Image File data recovery tool, that can read and extract files, tracks and sessions from CD-i, VCD, SVCD, CD-ROM, CD-ROM XA, DVD, DVCD and others.
• DVD Decrypter 3.2.2.0 - Ripping in DVD Decrypter (download) is about as easy as it gets. By default, the program will, where possible, automatically select the source (ie. the DVD drive) and the destination folder (by finding the drive with the most free disk space). All the files will have already been selected for you, so you really only have to press that big button to get the ripping underway. In about 10 - 30 minutes (depending on the speed of your computer / DVD drive) it will finish and you will have lots of nice DeCSS'd VOB files on your hard disk. From there you can choose to watch them with the likes of PowerDVD and WinDVD or you can re-encode them to MPEG1 (VCD) or DivX.
• NEC 2500 Hack Beta 8 - This version is based on HP 420i 1.24 firmware, he implemented the +R writing strategies from the 1.06 NEC 2500A firmware.
• Lite-On firmware - Lite-On IT has today several new firmware versions for Lite-On SOHW-812S(X) DR8US0J (most DVD players that can't read DVD+RW or DVD+R discs are the older models), Lite-On LDW-851S(X) DR8GS0H, Lite-On LDW-811S DR8HS0Q, Lite-On SDW-431SX DR4MS0J, Lite-On LTC-48161H Combo CO48KH0Q, Lite-On SOHR-5238S R524S03 and Lite-On LTR-52327S(X) R52QS0E58.

• Justice Dept. sweeps suspected "warez" groups - The U.S. Department of Justice said Thursday that it conducted an international sweep of suspected online copyright pirates. Dubbed "Operation Fastlink," the sweep consisted of 120 searches in 27 states and 10 countries. Officials seized 200 computers, 30 of which were alleged to have been used as storage and distribution servers, containing thousands of copyrighted works, including newly released movies and music. Another article can be found at Reuters, TheRegister
• Cyber-cops arrest trio in piracy crackdown - The raids took place late last night as part of Operation Fastlink, which also saw raids in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, the Netherlands, Singapore and Sweden. A 30-year-old from Belfast, a 34-year-old from Manchester and a 22-year-old from Sheffield were arrested and officers from the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit seized cracked software from all types of media, as well as seven computers and more than 100 CD copiers.
• Spamhaus breaches great firewall of China - Anti-spam organisation Spamhaus is taking its crusade to China following an invitation from the Chinese government. After the US, more spam is sent from China than any other country, and Spamhaus hopes to persuade the Chinese authorities to implement effective anti-spam legislation and technologies.
• Instantly stop illegal P2P with PacketHound 3 - Palisade Systems announced the release of PacketHound 3.0, its network application management appliance. The newest version of PacketHound detects and stops the illegal sharing of copyrighted materials using peer-to-peer (P2P) and other applications including instant messaging, e-mail, and FTP. PacketHound’s ability to detect and stop copyrighted materials from being shared illegally eliminates serious liability issues associated with all file-sharing applications.
• Entangled photons secure money transfer - An electronic money transaction has been carried out in at a bank in Austria using entangled photons to create an unbreakable communications code. Although commercial quantum cryptography products already exist, none of these use entangled photons to guarantee secure communications. The link was used to transfer money between Vienna City Hall and Bank Austria Creditanstalt on Wednesday. The cryptographic system was developed by Anton Zeilinger and colleagues from the University of Vienna and the Austrian company ARC Seibersdorf Research. Entangled photons obey the strange principles of quantum physics, whereby disturbing the state of one will instantly disturb the other, no matter how much distance there is in between them.
• Legislator seeks to block Gmail - Blasting Gmail as a horrific intrusion into Internet users' privacy, a California state senator has introduced legislation to block Google's free e-mail service. State Sen. Liz Figueroa, a Democrat from the Bay Area city of Fremont, said Thursday that it should be illegal for a company to scan the text of its customers' e-mail correspondence and display relevant advertising--even if customers explicitly agree to the practice in exchange for a gigabyte of storage.
• Exploit found for Net flaw, but risks remote - The vulnerability primarily affects routers and other devices that handle traffic on the Internet. Discovered by Paul Watson, a security specialist for industry automation company Rockwell Automation, the weakness could allow a knowledgeable attacker to shut down connections between routers--if left unchecked.
• Arbitrary file overwriting in Unreal engine through UMOD - The UMOD file format is a simple archive that contains all the files to install plus a manifest.ini file read by the UMOD installer and used to know some informations as the author of the mod, the description, the needed minimum game version and more. Using the classical ".." pattern in the filename and in its name into the manifest.ini file an attacker is able to go outside the game's directory and to overwrite ANY file in the partition on which the game is installed, without alerts or messages from the installer. (download exploit)
• Disable PCT 1.0, SSL 2.0, or SSL 3.0 on IIS - When you use HTTPS to connect to Internet Information Server (IIS) versions 3.0 and later, or Internet Information Services (IIS) 5.0 and later, the client and browser will negotiate a common protocol to secure the channel. In cases where the server and client have multiple protocols in common, Microsoft Internet Information Server will attempt to secure the channel with one of the protocols it supports using the following order of preference: PCT 1.0, SSL 3.0, and then SSL 2.0. In some instances, it may be desirable to disable one or more of these protocols. This can be accomplished through changes to the registry.
• Hard disk "speed limit" discovered  - An upper speed limit for writing magnetic information to a computer's hard drive has been discovered by physicists. In order to work out the speed barrier, the researchers used a 3.2-kilometre-long particle accelerator to fire a tightly packed bunch of electrons at magnetic material. They found that the limit was about 1000 times slower than previously thought, but say there may be ways to get around it in order to make hard drives even more efficient.
• Factory Testing of Airborne Laser Cannon Completed - Lockheed Martin has completed factory testing of the optical benches for the Airborne Laser's Beam Control/Fire Control (BC/FC) system. The Airborne Laser (ABL) is the first megawatt-class laser weapon system to be carried on a specially configured 747-400F aircraft, designed to autonomously detect, track and destroy hostile ballistic missiles." (thanks Slashdot.org)
• ATI R420 slips from April to May - ATI is unlikely to release its next-generation R420 chip until May and not 26 April, as previously thought, The Register has learned. But to lighten the burden of waiting a week or so, pictures of the part have already begun to surface on the Web.
• Notebook Storage Hits 100GB - Toshiba has developed a hard drive for notebook computers that can hold 100GB of data. The company expects to begin selling it later this year, it says. The new hard drive offers a quarter more storage space than the company's current highest capacity notebook drive and is the first 2.5-inch drive from any manufacturer to store 100GB, according to Toshiba.
• Samsung introduces 8x dual format DVD writer - The new burner has the model name SH-W08A and it looks to be near identical with Toshiba's SD-R5272.
• Library without books - The ebook reader (the Librie EBR-1000EP) launches in Japan on Saturday. Whisper it quietly, but first impressions of the Y41,790 (L220) Librie are that it looks a little dowdy. Its grey plastic case is vaguely reminiscent of an old-school PDA, albeit a slim one. Any disappointment vanishes the instant Ukita flips the power switch to bring his baby to life.
• Hitachi 7K400 400GB Deskstar Hard Drive review - ExtremeTech has posted a Hitachi 7K400 400GB Deskstar Hard Drive review.
• A Color Laser for Your Home or Office - The Lexmark C510n offers good enough performance for a small workgroup and brilliant color for graphics, making it one of the better choices in personal color lasers.
• KVM Switches for Two PCs, One Monitor - You want to access two PCs, but don't want to duplicate the mess and clutter of another monitor, mouse and keyboards. KVM switch vendors claim to offer a remedy.
• A Look at PCI Express  - PCI Express (not to be confused with PCI-X) is the upcoming replacement for both PCI and AGP. A couple of main points about PCI Express...
• ATI Accuses Nvidia of Cheating - ATI says that CryTek's representative told it that what Nvidia showed us in Geneva was a 2.0/3.0 path versus 1.1 path. The key message is that Shader model 3.0 and 2.0 look exactly the same, the ATI representative added.
• DX9 Gaming - Pixel Shader 3.0 and 32bit Precision - What's it all mean and who's right? - check it out!
• Geforce 6800Ultra Forceware 60.72 Image Quality Investigation - The final issue is why have Futuremark stated that these drivers should be considered as approved? Its very clear to me that the 6800Ultra is not rendering the reference image as desired by 3Dmark, regardless of any performance impact and therefore isnt comparable to any other card. This in result is no different to the optimisations in previous drivers which Futuremark have frowned upon.
• 174 Tips to a Better Windows Experience - PCMag has posted 68 Windows and 106 Microsoft Office tips.
• Interactive painting guide v2.2 for AMD Thoroughbred and AMD Barton CPUs - OC-Inside have published an updated interactive overclocking/painting guide for AMD Thoroughbred and Barton core CPU's.
• Nvidia Overclocking - CoolBits + other hidden features - NVIDIA has built several tools into their drivers that they don't want normal users to use. The overclocking tool is the most important one. Any of you wanting to overclock your Geforce should use this tool instead of anything like Powerstrip that you have to pay for.
• Windows Media Player (All Versions) patch - After installation of Update for Windows Media Player Script Commands (KB828026), some URL script commands do not respond correctly. This package helps resolve the issue. In addition, it helps resolve an installer issue that could cause 100% CPU utilization in certain scenarios
• Avant Browser 9.02 Build 021 - Avant Browser (download) is an upgrade to Internet Explorer. Avant Browser is a fast, stable, user-friendly, versatile multi-window browser. Avant Browser is freeware.
• MSN Messenger 6.2 - Microsoft have released version 6.2 (download) of their popular messaging software, MSN messenger. It is available for download at the links below. As our sceenshots show, Microsoft appear to be bundling their MSN toolbar with this release; Microsoft often criticised by regulators regarding their practise of bundling their software in this manner.
• Messenger Plus! 2.54.75 - Messenger Plus! Extension (download ~ release_notes) is a program that adds functionalities to the MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger chat program. Some of the added features are logging, personalized Away Messages, transparency effects, and a feature to minimize all MSN Messenger windows to the system tray. Now supports MSNM 6.x as well.
• SpyBot-Search & Destroy 1.3 RC4 - SpyBot-S&D searches your hard drive for so-called spy- or adbots; little modules that are responsible for the ads many programs display.
• RightMark Spy (Gotcha!) - The utility (download) will help your monitor the following: CPU frequency, CPU load in %%, Free memory available, PCI overclock (via HPC clock shift).
• FreshDownload 6.90 - Fresh Download - your free Download Manager has been upgraded to version 6.90. What's new: feature to export download list to a html or tabbed text file, and all minor reported bugs fixed. Just install it over the old version you have.
• Central Brain Identifier 7.0.0.0 Beta Build 0420 - Central Brain Identifier is designed to provide detailed recognition and obtaining the most complete extended information for all AMD processors
• Forceware 56.72 3D Stereo Driver - Nvidia have released a new Forceware 56.72 3D Stereo Driver for Windows XP/2k/95/98/ME.
• NVIDIA releases XP-64 nForce3 drivers - NVIDIA has released beta nForce3 drivers for Windows XP for 64-bit Extended Systems
• Intel Pro100/1000 LAN Driver 8.4 - Intel has relesaed a new Intel Pro100/1000 LAN Driver version v8.4 (download) for Windows 98/ME/2k/XP/NT4.

• Schools raided by FBI in pirating crackdown - Federal agents in Phoenix and elsewhere in the country raided schools and other targets in a national crackdown on pirated music CDs and movies. Agents poured through data and records at a computer command center for the Deer Valley School District in the northwest Valley and blocked the office from the public. It was among other places in Arizona and "quite a few other states" where sealed search warrants were served, the FBI said. The raids came on the same day that Justice Department officials in Washington announced the creation of a new Intellectual Property Task Force to step up copyright enforcement.
• China backs off of wireless encryption proposal - China has agreed not to implement a proposed wireless encryption standard widely opposed by U.S. companies.
• Secret Repairs Preceded TCP Flaw Release - The TCP issue publicized two days ago was publicly known as early as 1998. It allows an attacker to reset an existing TCP session using specially crafted TCP packets. Most TCP sessions are short-lived, so the vulnerability has little impact, but certain critical protocols, such as Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), depend on long-lived sessions. The weakness, which affects widely-used Cisco and Juniper routers, can be addressed by using MD5 authentication to secure BGP sessions, a step most ISPs had never taken because an exploit seemed mathematically implausible.
• Cisco hit by trio of vulnerabilities - Cisco has warned users of three vulnerabilities (#1 ~ #2 ~ #3) that could compromise the security of its networking products. Cisco advised customers to upgraded their software through the regular route, which is normally through Cisco's website.
• Army Confronts Enemies Within in Cyber War Game - The mission: to secure an entire computer network for the United States and its allies against a vague enemy force. Hostile agents aim to wreak havoc on military plans, sabotaging databases, computer terminals and communications. But the cyber warriors planning a best defense aren't analysts hunkered down at the Pentagon. They are cadets at West Point competing against military academies and other schools in a four-day Cyber Defense Exercise this week. And the "enemy" isn't al Qaeda or Iraqi insurgents. It's a team led by none other than the National Security Agency.
• Credit card only works when spoken to - A credit card that will not work unless it hears its owner's voice could become an important weapon in the fight against fraud. The card requires users to give a spoken password that it authenticates using a built-in voice-recognition chip. The idea is to prevent thieves using a stolen card or fraudsters using someone else's credit card details to buy goods online. A prototype built by engineers at Beepcard in Santa Monica, California, represents the first attempt to pack a microphone, a loudspeaker, a battery and a voice-recognition chip into a standard-sized credit card.
• Off-topic: Nasa launches Einstein Gravity Probe B - Forty-five years in the making and 24 hours late, Nasa launched a $700 million satellite into orbit on Tuesday to test Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity. The Gravity Probe B, one of the most precise scientific instruments every built, was carried aloft by a Boeing Co Delta 2 from the rocket range at California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base. A day earlier, launch directors from Boeing and Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida scrubbed the launch in the final minutes of the countdown when there was a problem loading software.
  Israeli site unveils its own gigabyte mail plans - Israeli Web portal Walla plans to launch a free e-mail service that gives each user one gigabyte of memory, which it said on Wednesday could affect the revenue models of other service providers. Walla said it hoped to be the first company in the world to provide e-mail with such a large capacity, which could be a marketing coup when it makes the service available in two months.
• FutureMark releases new 3DMark details - The second bit of info is that the Next 3DMark will use a new 3D-engine which dynamically builds HLSL shaders. The HLSL shaders are dynamically built and runtime compiled using the most optimal compilation target for the installed hardware. Of course, all compilations produce the same rendering. This is an engine structure that future games will be using. Dynamic shader generation is an efficient way to build large 3D worlds with a wide variety of different materials. Runtime compilation, to a target selected for the installed hardware, is a generic technique to produce the most optimal shaders for all hardware.
• Tests Find Theoretical Data Speed Limit - If there is an article of faith in computer science, it's that everything can keep getting faster and faster. But scientists say they've discovered an apparent speed limit that will restrict how quickly data can be written onto disks and then retrieved. The good news: This limit is about 1,000 times faster than today's state-of-the-art data storage devices.
• Stacked, packed nanowires hold triplexed megadata - A novel transistor architecture using molecular-scale nanowire memory cells holds the promise of unprecedently compact data storage. Researchers at the University of Southern California and the NASA Ames Research Center have successfully tested a self-assembled molecular memory device they say has the potential of holding 40 Gigabits per square centimeter -- a far greater density than any achieved on silicon. Furthermore, says Chongwu Zhou, an assistant professor in the USC Viterbi School department of electrical engineering, because of the self-assembly feature, such ultra dense memory devices can likely be cheaper than the silicon flash memories now widely used in digital cameras, "memory sticks" and other applications.
• Intel Ignites Serial ATA-300 - The Serial ATA Working Group announced Wednesday two specification development milestones at the Intel Developer Forum in Barcelona, Spain. One centers on doubling the signalling speed for Serial ATA, the other on new cable and connector solutions to support additional applications and usage models. The specification for the second generation Serial ATA signaling speed - 3Gb/s - has been completed and the release candidate of that specification has started its ratification process. The second-generation speed of 3Gb/s (300MB/s) is double that of the first-generation Serial ATA speed which is 1.5Gb/s (150MB/s).
• Lite-On SOHW-832S DVD+R DL burner Announced - Lite-On has finally updated its website with the official specifications of this drive, the SOHW-832S.
• Pioneer DVR-A07XL 8x DVD±RW review  - Without a doubt, what the DVR-A07XL does best is write DVD's. Thanks to its 8x DVD+R and DVD-R writing speeds, it was able to write 4GB of data in less than 8 minutes. While this is pretty impressive, Pioneer's new drive could probably be faster.
• The SiS755 chipset - The SiS755 chipset is made up of SiS755 north bridge and SiS964 south bridge chips, which come with all the usual integrated features. On the north bridge, the SiS755 houses an AGP 8X interface and 16-bit, 800MHz bi-directional HyperTransport link, but that's about it. North bridge chips for AMD64 processors haven't been all that interesting since AMD took the memory controller, which is traditionally a north bridge component, and moved it onto the processor.
• BFG Tech's pre-overclocked 5900XT - The 5700 Ultra struggled to even get above 20fps in Tomb Raider with all the details up while the BFG 5900XT OC almost hit 40fps. Turning the details up is something you can do with the BFG 5900XT OC that you can’t do with lower cards.
• nForce3 250 Chipset Overclocking - There is no doubt in our minds that the AMD Athlon 64 will take a great leap forward in overclocking circles with the launch of the nForce3 250 chipset. At last, now that the PCI bus can be controlled, the full potential of the processor can be achieved. Throughout our testing the motherboard proved extremely stable. Any failures were clearly down to pushing the processor or memory too far, not the chipset. Even at a driven clock speed of 250MHz, stability was assured when the CPU was within its limits. We had to search for Windows applications to unlock the full potential of the test motherboard; hopefully features such as multiplier adjustment will be added into the bios soon.
• Dell's Inspiron 8600 Gets ATI MR 9600 Graphics Boost - What more can Dell add to its fast and furious Dell Inspiron 8600 notebook with a 15.4" wide screen display, 7200-rpm hard drive and Pentium-M 1.7 GHz CPU? The answer is ATI's MR 9600 Pro Turbo graphics processor. So does this notebook's 3-D graphics capabilities get any better?
• MSX Game Reader review - It is there! The first new official MSX hardware, straight from Japan: the MSX Game Reader, a USB device that allows you to play cartridge games on MSXPLAYer, the official MSX emulator. MSX Resource Center puts this interesting new device to the test.
• Rev. 2.0 of The Radeon 9800 Pro To Radeon 9800XT Mod Guide - Adrian's Rojak Pot has posted Rev 2.0 of the Radeon 9800 to Radeon 9800XT Mod Guide
• GamePC suggests HTPC tips and tricks - GamePC has put together a handy set of tips and tricks for building a home theater PC.
• Windows Media Player (All Versions) for W2K/2000/XP/2003 hotfix - After applying the hotfix (download) referenced in KB article 828026, some URL script commands do not fire even though they would be expected to do so. In addition to the URL script command issues, this package addresses an issue with the installer that would cause 100% CPU utilization in certain scenarios.
• CloneDVD 2.0.7.3 - CloneDVD extracts, transcodes and writes any orginal DVD title you like to a single recordable DVD. Be impressed by the program speed and the amazing image quality of the movie copy.
• ICQ Lite Edition with Xtras 4.0 Final - ICQ 4.0 introduces a new Edition with Xtraz features on top of the essentials ones.
• Miranda 0.3.3.1 - Miranda IM (download ~ changelog) is a multi protocol instant messenger client for Windows. Miranda IM uses very little memory and is extremely fast. It requires no installation and can be fitted on a single floppy disc. Its powerful plugin system makes Miranda IM very flexible.
• FlashFXP 2.2.986 Beta - FlashFXP offers the easiest and fastest way to transfer any file using FTP, providing an exceptionally stable and robust program that you can always count on to get your job done quickly and efficiently. There are many, many features available in FlashFXP.
• ATI Radeon DNA-DRIVERS 2.4.4.4 - These are modified/hacked ATI Catalyst drivers (can also be downloaded from Guru3D). The drivers have been optimized with two things in mind, better Image Quality and more/stable frames per second when compared to the official Catalyst drivers from ATI.

• Exploit Targets Windows SSL Vulnerability - Working exploits have been released for a Windows SSL vulnerability (SSLBOMB.c) which leaves servers open to a denial of service (DoS). Code for the exploit, known as SSL Bomb, was released last Wednesday, just a day after the vulnerability was described in Microsoft's recent security updates. Malformed SSL packets can force Windows 2000 and Windows XP machines to stop accepting SSL connections, and cause Windows Server 2003 to reboot.  I recommend you to patch your Windoze ASAP!.
• New Phatbot worm may be on the loose - A new variant of the Phatbot worm may be on the loose and attempting to attack SQL Server ports, according to a warning the SANS Institute issued Monday. Last month, Phatbot made the rounds, attacking Windows systems by acting as a Trojan horse. Phatbot would then link infected computers into an underground network for sending spam or launching other attacks. SANS is currently in the process of attempting to capture a full packet of data--or an executable file--for further analysis of Phatbot.  The worm probes Transmission Control Protocol ports 2745, 1025, 3127, 6129, 5000, 80 and 1433, as well as Microsoft's NetBIOS, according to the SANS report.
• Is DOS gaming dead? - Monster Hardware has posted an article called "Is DOS  gaming dead?" Here is a bit: "Since I am running Windows XP I decided a good place to start trying to play my dos games would be the Microsoft program compatibility wizard. After fooling around with a number of games I was able to get a few of them half-way working, but none of them with sound. Slightly more alarming than the lack of sound was the "not enough EMS" message I kept receiving no matter how much EMS I had assigned the program under the memory tab. At this point things weren't going too well, so having run into a wall I decided to look for some other solutions."
  China expected to export five million DVD recorders this year - China will export an estimated five million DVD recorders this year, a huge increase over the 3,000 units exported last year, Chinese makers of DVD players/drives indicated.
• Matrox Graphics to Reveal New Graphics Cards -  An article published by German web-site Tweak PC claims that Matrox Graphics is going to introduce a revised version of its Parhelia graphics card with AGP 8x support and 128MB of memory within the next few weeks, maybe even this month. There is no information about target market for the part, but they say it will feature TV-Out, a capability that is typically used by home users, who also demand enough speed in 3D games.
• Super Eight Shooters - PCMag tested 5 of the latest 8-megapixel cameras, which range in price from $999 to $1,100.
• Nvidia green lights Quadro FX 4000 chip - Nvidia has introduced its latest workstation-class graphics chip, the Quadro FX 4000. Essentially an overclocked version of the previous top-end Quadro FX 3000, the 4000 bumps the triangle processing rate to 133m each second, a 33 per cent increase on the 3000's 100m per second rate, and ups the fill rate 41 per cent to 4.5bn texels per second, from 3.2bn. Both chips support up to 256MB of GDDR 3 SDRAM across a 256-bit bus. But the 4000's memory bandwidth of 32GBps yields a memory clock set to 1GHz, up from the 3000G's 850MHz.
• NVIDIA Introduces Gelato - Industry's First Hardware-Accelerated Film Renderer - NVIDIA Corporation today unveiled NVIDIA Gelato, the first 3D final-film renderer accelerated by industry-standard graphics hardware. Armed with the full feature set required by film and TV production professionals, NVIDIA Gelato is set to revolutionize digital film production with speed, precision, and productivity increases never before seen in offline, film-quality rendering.
• 3DLabs unveils Wildcat Realizm architecture - 3Dlabs today announced at the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) 2004 trade show in Las Vegas, Nevada, a major breakthrough in graphics architecture: Wildcat Realizm technology. The architecture combines a next-generation Visual Processing Unit (VPU) and a unique Vertex/Scalability Unit (VSU).
• AMD’s High-End 90nm Microprocessors to Come in 2005? - Engineering samples of AMD Athlon 64 4000+ and AMD Athlon 64 FX-55 processors presumably made using thin 90nm fabrication process will only show up in October 2004, while the mass production of these chips is scheduled for December 2004, not earlier, as anticipated previously. In related news, AMD will introduce new AMD Opteron processors with increased clock-speeds in June 2004, unofficial sources familiar with the Sunnyvale, California-based chipmaker’s roadmap said Monday.
• Radeon X800PRO will beat NV40 Ultra - The canaries are singing that 12 pipelines, 475MHz/950MHz card with 96 bit precision and PS 2.0 shader only will end up faster then 16 pipelines, 400MHz /1100MHz cards with 128 bit precision and PS 3.0 shader model.
• Athlon64 FX, Pentium 4 Overclocking En Extremus - THG overclocked AMD's and Intel's flagship CPUs en extremus, with a little help from our advanced compressor cooling system. The result? Overclocking the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition to 4.0 GHz and the Athlon64 FX to 2.9 GHz offered a glimpse of this year's performance future
• nForce3 250Gb: Faster with GeForce FX? -  TechReport testing shows that the nForce3 250Gb can improve the GeForce FX 5950 Ultra's performance by up to 35% over a K8T800, under the right conditions.
• Gainward FX PowerPack! Ultra/1100 XT - There's not much the Gainward FX PowerPack! Ultra/1100 XT does wrong. It's fast for its target market and at Ł135 including dreaded VAT in the U.K., it's a few pounds cheaper than some other 5900XTs on the market and slap bang in the middle of the price range you'll pay for anything else mid-range at the time of writing. GeForce FX 5900XT is a solid gamers GPU, with some architectural shortcomings that may affect image quality and speed in the games you play, but on the whole it's fine.
• Albatron FX5900 XTV review - Albatron has put together a pretty respectable bundle with this 5900XT card. It comes with everything you need to use this card to its fullest potential. Some may complain about the lack of "new, big-name" titles as far as bundled games go (Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project , AOWII, Max Payne, Zax, Beam Breaker, Rally Trophy), but some pretty good games are included nonetheless. The only real thing I see that is missing from this bundle is a molex 'Y' cable.
• AlphaShield Internet Privacy Protection Device review - Alphashield protects users in three ways: AlphaGap, Stealth IP, and RPA. Stealth IP makes the computer invisible to others surfing the Internet by placing the IP address onto the AlphaShield which blocks unauthorized access. Real-time Packet Authorization (RPA) technology inspects all packets of information and allows only the requested inquiry to enter the computer. AlphaGAP technology stops malicious attacks directed to a computer through an intelligent disconnection/reconnection process. Basically all your ports are hidden from hacker. You could even say that it is like you do not exist while protected with the Alphashield.
• The Motherboard BIOS Flashing Guide - The BIOS is short for Basic Input / Output System. By definition, it is the interface between software and hardware which allows software and hardware to communicate and interact with each other.
• Far Cry Tweak Guide - This guide refers to the latest version of Far Cry (Version 1.1).
• Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003 - The Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003 includes the core tools developers need to compile and link C++-based applications for Windows and the .NET Common Language Runtime.
• KDE 3.2.2 - KDE 3.2.2 has been released and can be downloaded from here.
• FFDShow MPEG-4 Video Decoder (18-04-2004) - FFDSHOW is a DirectShow decoding filter for decompressing DivX, XviD, WMV, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 movies.
• Fresh UI 7.06 - 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.
• Lame MP3 Encoder 3.97 - Lame 3.97 has been released. This new version features many improvements in quality in speed over ISO reference software, and more. This build is unofficial ~ keep checking the official homepage for updates.
• TVTool 9.6.3 - 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.

• Web Braces for Netsky.V's Attack - The latest variant of the hugely effective Netsky series of worms is causing trouble by spreading without the use of an attachment. Slipping past many e-mail gateways, it can launch simply by being viewed in an e-mail program. Rather than attaching the worm's executable code to an e-mail message, Netsky.V uses two separate vulnerabilities in Microsoft software to download the code from an infected PC. Many e-mail gateways now block all e-mail attachments, so the worm's tactic is a way of getting around that precaution, experts says.
• Security Patch available for ColdFusion MX 6.1 - ColdFusion MX 6.1 is vulnerable to a denial of service attack if a malicious user repeatedly uploads files and interrupts each upload before it completes.
• US proposes rigorous spam sentencing - The US Sentencing Commission (USSC) sent its proposals for sentencing spammers off to Congress this week. Offences under the recently-introduced Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM Act) will be treated as a felony. Criminal sanctions apply where spam is sent using someone else's computer without their permission or where bulk mailers misrepresent the source of a message.
• Xbox Live to go offline for upgrade - Microsoft announced Friday that Xbox Live will be offline for about 24 hours starting at 6 a.m. PDT Wednesday, to allow the company to upgrade services. New services include integration between Xbox Live and MSN Messenger, the instant messaging component of Microsoft's MSN Internet service, and online storage of customized game content.
• ICQ to ping application developers - The Internet pioneer expects to release the latest version of its instant messaging (IM) client, ICQ 4.0, on Tuesday, sources said. At that time, the company will also announce an initiative that for the first time will allow partners to obtain ICQ application programming interfaces (APIs), according to people familiar with the plan. ICQ is expected to eventually release open APIs to the public, sources said, but it has not yet set a timeframe for general availability.
• ATI to launch X800 PRO on 4th of May - Sources close to ATI claim that it can actually ship this card at the same day of launch. As for the specs, the R420PRO or should we call it X800PRO will be clocked at 475 MHz, 25 MHZ higher then we suggested since yields are better, while the memory will be clocked at 900MHz as we suggested before.  Everything is packed into 180 millions of transistors and the card has 12 pipelines. The R420XT, Radeon X800XT will be higher clocked card with 16 pipelines. This card is meant to fight Geforce 6800 non Ultra - the one with 12 pipelines and should be in retail as soon as ATI launches it.
• Nvidia to clear out millions from GPU inventory, likely to increase DRAM demand - Nvidia is offering discounts of 10%-20% to graphics card makers, with the goal of clearing out several million graphics processing units (GPUs) from inventory before the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2005, which ends April 30, according to sources at Taiwanese makers.
• Sony, Toppan Develop Optical Disc Made from Paper - Japanese electronics conglomerate Sony Corp and Toppan Printing Co Ltd have developed a new optical disc, made mostly from paper, that they say will be compatible with next-generation DVD technology. In a joint news release distributed late Thursday, the two companies said the new disc was comprised 51 percent of paper, enabling lower production costs. The disc can store up to five times more information than current discs, because it is based on blue-laser DVD technology.
• Samsung plans 30% NAND flash price drop in 2H - Samsung Electronics plans to drop its prices for NAND flash by up to 30% in the second half of this year, raising the barrier for new entrants in the market, according to a company source.
• Is Magneto-Optical Storage The Way to Go? - Fujitsu claims that hard drives, writeable DVDs and tape drives fall far short for viable and safe backups. So what is the alternative? The DynaMO 1300 U2 Pocket magneto-optical storage system, Fujitsu says.
• Mega Roundup: 20 Hard Disk Drives with 80GB Storage Capacity - The comparison of old and new hard disk drives helps us to estimate the progress in the HDD performance. It's clear that the ex-champion, the DTLA 307075, can only compete with modern devices in applications that require small random access time. Right now, it is difficult to name a single winner, the best HDD of our days. Western Digital Raptor WD740GD was beyond competition in synthetic patterns for Intel IOMeter, in Fileserver and Webserver, and in WinBench 99, while FC-Test was favorable to two Maxtor drives (6Y080P0 and 6Y080M0) and to Hitachi HDS722580VLSA80. I would also like to single out Samsung SP0802N as it is very fast at copying in the FAT32 file system.
• PLEXTOR PX-708UF review - In terms of performance, the PX-708UF takes a fairly big leap forward by supporting 8 different formats (8X DVD+R, 4X DVD-R, 4X DVD+RW, 2X DVD-RW, 12X DVD-ROM, 40X CD-R, 24X CD-RW AND 40X CD-ROM).
• Athlon 64 FX 53 - Benchmarked in 32 & 64 bit Environments  - Although AMD's 64 bit CPUs have been available for some time now, a lot of people are still using Athlon XP based systems, but I'm sure many like myself are considering the jump to the 64 bit architecture. What sort of performance increase can we expect, even if the Athlon XP system is overclocked? How does running old 32 bit software under the 64 bit OS affect performance? How efficient is the new K8 architecture compared to the K7 architecture employed by the Athlon XPs? These are the sort of questions I have wanted to answer myself and with this review.
• The Desktop GPU Comparison Guide Rev. 3.0 -  Adrian's Rojak Pot let us know he has posted Revision 3.0 of his GPU Comparison Guide.
• Kernel 2.4.26 - A new Kernel v2.4.26 is available for download.
• Tweak FX 5.05 - Tweak FX is a powerful configuration tool for Windows. In contrast to hundreds of so called 'tweaking programs', Tweak FX uses plugins, which can extend its possibilites to a significant extent.
• ATV2000 v2.1.0.1 - Freeware ATV2000 is new generation of TV viewing and capture application based on old ATV, but with reworked core.
• X Video Converter 3.5.5 - In X Video Converter 3.5.5 the new possibility of converting to VCD/DVD/SVCD compliant mpeg files is added. You can convert your source files of every supported format (AVI MPEG WMV/ASF) to VCD, SVCD or DVD and then burn it to a CD-R/CD-RW. You will be able to play the output disc at any VCD/DVD player and watch your favorite movie at your home TV.
• MyIE2 v0.9.26 - MyIE2 (download lite ~ combo) is a multi-tabbed browser based on the IE core (IE5.x or above required). It can open multiple web pages within one browser window, and uses little system resources. MyIE2 has a greatly integrated & customizable interface which supports Skins, Plug-Ins, IE Extensions, & specific toolbars (example: GOOGLE Toolbar).
• Quintessential Player 4.50 - Quintessential Player (download) brings a huge arsenal of quality features, and uses simplicity as its decoy. It is truly the most unique player available. Supports MP3, CD Audio, Ogg Vorbis, WAV, VQF, MP+, Windows Media, and streaming audio including SHOUTcast.
• DJBCP Codec Pack 3.0.0 beta 1 - Contents of the DJBCP Codec Pack 3.0.0 beta 1: DivX 5.1.1 Light Decoder, XviD-1.0-RC4-05042004, DivX 3.11alpha, Elecard MPEG2 Decoder, Ogg Vorbis Direct Show Filter 0995, AC3 Filter 0.7b, AC3ACM v0.7, and more. (thanks Warp2Search)
• SpyBot-Search & Destroy 1.3 RC3 - SpyBot-S&D searches your hard drive for so-called spy- or adbots; little modules that are responsible for the ads many programs display. But many of these modules also transmit information about your surfing behaviour and more to the net.
• NEC 2500 hacked firmware - Thanks to Herrie over on the forums on CDFreaks, he has released his latest version of the Nec2500 hacked firmware (download Win32 ~ DOS install) This firmware will allow either 6x or 8x writing on nearly all 4x dvdr media. (thanks Mark)
• Gamma Hotfix for Catalyst 4.2, 4.3, & 4.4 - Upon making changes to certain monitor calibration software, the gamma settings will not be applied or loaded for the display. Color and gamma profiles for third party applications and games are also affected. Users who are experiencing this issue are advised to download and install this driver HotFix.

• Average PC Plagued With 28 Pieces Of Spyware - The average computer is crammed with nearly 28 pieces of spyware, according to a report released Thursday by Atlanta-based ISP EarthLink and WebRoot Software, a message privacy and protection provider. Over the three-month period from Jan. 1, 2004 to March 31, EarthLink's and WebRoot's spyware and adware detection software sniffed through over a million systems and found more than 29 million instances of spyware.
• Cisco fixes latest WLAN flaw - Earlier this week, the networking company acknowledged a previously discovered vulnerability in its Lightweight Extensible Authentication Protocol (LEAP) that makes it easier for hackers to launch dictionary attacks to guess common passwords used to access wireless LANs. The company is now recommending that customers use a new security protocol called EAP-FAST (Extensible Authentication Protocol-Flexible Authentication via Secure Tunneling) , which it said helps reduce this threat.
• WinSCP Denial of Service - WinSCP is "an open source SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol) and SCP (Secure CoPy) client for Windows using SSH (Secure SHell). Its main function is safe copying of files between a local and a remote computer". A malicious attacker can send an email containing a link that will cause WinSCP to crash.
• Microsoft DCOM RPC Race Condition - eEye Digital Security has discovered a critical remote vulnerability in the way Microsoft Windows handles DCOM RPC requests. This vulnerability is a separate issue from vulnerabilities described in Microsoft Security Bulletins MS03-026 and MS03-039.
  Windows Local Security Authority Service Remote Buffer Overflow - eEye Digital Security has discovered a remote buffer overflow in the Windows LSA (Local Security Authority) Service (LSASRV.DLL). An unauthenticated attacker could exploit this vulnerability to execute arbitrary code with system-level privileges on Windows 2000 and Windows XP machines. The susceptible LSA functionality is accessible via the LSARPC named pipe over TCP ports 139 and 445.
• New mysql packages fix insecure temporary file creation - Two vulnerabilities have been discovered in mysql, a common database system. Two scripts contained in the package don't create temporary files in a secure fashion. This could allow a local attacker to overwrite files with the privileges of the user invoking the MySQL server, which is often the root user. For the stable distribution (woody) these problems have been fixed in
  version 3.23.49-8.6.
• Off-topic: Microsoft plans to invest 'tens of millions' of dollars in Chinese software - Microsoft Corp plans to invest "tens of millions" of US dollars in developing  China's fledgling software industry, a leading executive at the American software giant said. In related news, Chipmaker AMD said on Thursday that it will invest up to $100 million to expand its testing and manufacturing facilities in China.
• Off-topic: Storage limits found on brain's visual hard drive - Scientists have discovered the region of the brain responsible for the old adage, "out of sight, out of mind." The amount of information we can remember from a visual scene is extremely limited and the source of that limit may lie in the posterior parietal cortex, a region of the brain involved in visual short-term memory, researchers say. "Visual short-term memory is a key component of many perceptual and cognitive functions and is supported by a broad neural network, but it has a very limited storage capacity."
• Off-topic: Big Bang glow hints at funnel-shaped Universe - In the model, technically called a Picard topology, the Universe curves in a strange way. One end is infinitely long, but so narrow that it has a finite volume. At the other end, the horn flares out, but not for ever - if you could fly towards the flared end in a spaceship, at some point you would find yourself flying back in on the other side of the horn (see diagram).
• MP3 Players Get An Anti-Theft Protection Feature - Mobile devices like MP3 music players are very attractive to thieves and are also commonly lost and stolen items. However, PoGo! MP3 players are protected against theft and loss by SmartProtec premium, which is a protection service that acts as a security feature of the device.
• Kingston intros 1GB Compact Flash card - Kingston said it has released a 1GB member of its Elite Pro family in the Compact Flash format.
  The format is probably most suitable for people using digital photography, and Kingston said it will transfer data at a write speed of 5.2MB/second and a read speed of 6.1MB/second.
• GeForce 6800U Launch Event Coverage - NVIDIA GeForce LAN Party @ Mowers || GeForce 6800U Launch Event @ Gamersdepot || NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Launch Party: Geneva @ Bit Tech || NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Taipei Launch Report @ VR-Zone || NVIDIA GeForce 6800 (NV40) Launch Report @ Legit Review.
• Powercolor Radeon 9800XT review - DukGamers take a look at Powercolor’s Radeon 9800XT graphics card which is the current high end model. The 9800XT is basically Radeon 9800 Pro with faster core and memory clocks and 256MB of memory, so lets see how this card will perform in some of the latest games and demos.
• Plextor 8x DVD Burner review - When comparing it to all our standard DVD reading drives (lite-on, LG, MSI, NEC) it is quieter by far. If you have Set Top DVD drives which use DVD+R media, I would highly recommend this unit (money permitting). If you are one of the unlucky few like me with all DVD-R Set Top DVD players but wish to have the latest and greatest you might want to look at the new Plextor 12x burners which will be shipping in May... Another option would be to take your luck with a Sony or Lite-On 8x drive...
• 96kb first person shooter - For those of you old-timers who spent days and nights trying to get your code fit into 64Kb, here's the first beta of the .produkkt's next FPS: .kkrieger (96kb).
• GIMP 2.01 - The GIMP (GNU/Image Manipulation Program) is a very nice graphics manipulation application that works on many operating systems.
• PHP 4.3.6 Final - The PHP Development Team is proud to announce the release of PHP 4.3.6 (download). This is is a bug fix release whose primary goal is to address two bugs which may result in crashes in PHP builds with thread-safety enabled. All users of PHP in a threaded environment (Windows) are strongly encouraged to upgrade to this release.
• IrfanView 3.90 - IrfanView (download) is a very fast freeware (for non-commercial use) 32-Bit graphic viewer for Windoze 9x/ME, WinNT, Win2000 and Windows XP.
• [!] Total Commander 6.03 -  A new version of Total Commnader (download) is available for download. This minor update corrects some problems (mainly with the new functions introduced with Total Commander 6.0), corrects an incompatibility between the big file copy mode (in Configuration - Options - Copy/Delete) and certain Adaptec RAID5 controllers which can cause data corruption.

• Microsoft Windows Security Bulletin Summary for April, 2004 - Microsoft has released 8 new security updates for Windows XP 64 Bit, Windows Server 2003 64 Bit, Exchange 5.0, Windows NT Terminal Server, and Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack.
• Hackers hit university supercomputers - Hackers have compromised a number of Linux and Solaris machines used in supercomputer networks at Stanford University and other academic institutions in the US. An unknown individual, or group, is believed to have compromised multi-user Solaris and Linux computers by cracking or sniffing passwords.
• PGP software gains antivirus defense - The company on Wednesday said it will bundle Symantec's AntiVirus Scan Engine with its PGP Universal products to minimize the risk of unwanted payloads in e-mail messages. The package will check outgoing messages for viruses before they are encrypted and incoming ones immediately after decryption.
• O&O Software finds patient files on used hard disks -  The O&O Software GmbH today published a study on data protection on used hard disks with the title "Data, Data Everywhere". This study is concerned with the question of whether users securely delete data before selling on or giving away their hard disks. These data carriers are either sold individually, given away with the PC or are returned to commercial leasing companies. For the study, 100 used hard disks and other data carriers were purchased on the internet auction site eBay and subsequently examined to see if data were present and restorable. The analysis showed that only 10% of the hard disks had been properly and completely wiped with the help of software products. The rest all contained private data in all shapes and forms, from scanned signatures and ID cards to legal powers of attorney, account access information and PIN and access code lists.
• Xbox supremo Allard on the future of Microsoft's console part#2 - At the recent Game Developers Conference where Microsoft chose to unveil its XNA game development platform, PCPro managed to corner Mr Xbox J Allard (part #1) and general manager of Windows technologies Dean Lester to talk about the newly announced initiative and the future of videogaming.
• The Complete N-Gage QD (aka. N-Gage 2) Q&A - What is N-Gage QD, where can I get one, how much does it cost, what are the new features, can I use it on a plane? These questions and many more are answered in this comprehensive N-Gage Q&A.
• Mass production of 5-megapixel CMOS digital cameras to begin in 2H, prices expected to drop US$50 - Prices for 5-megapixel CMOS digital cameras are expected to drop from around US$200 currently to US$150 in the second half of the year as local companies move into mass production, according to sources.
• ATI RADEON X800 Core, Memory Clocks Revealed - H]ard|OCP reports that various versions of the R420 will be branded as RADEON X800 PRO, RADEON X800 XT, RADEON X880 XT and RADEON X800 SE citing a "classified ATI document". The solutions will enable different number of rendering pipelines: 12, 16, 16, 8 and will function at clock-speeds of 500MHz, 600MHz, 600MHz and 450MHz respectively. Higher-end graphics cards will have 256 or 512MB of GDDR3 memory functioning at 1000 and 1200MHz for "PRO" and "XT" parts. The performance-mainstream offering RADEON X800 SE will boast with 800MHz DDR memory with 128-bit bus. Sources familiar with the company’s roadmap revealed Thursday, the 8th of April, that the 420/R423 graphics processors will have 16 rendering pipelines, significantly more compared to the previously released information about 8 or 12 pipes.
• Nvidia' GeForce 6800 Ultra reviews - Following months of heated discussion and rumors about the performance of Nvidia' new NV4x architecture, today their new graphics cards based on this architecture got an official introduction. The first previews can be found at  Tom's Hardware, FiringSquad, Hexus.net, HardOCP, Anandtech, 3DGPU, GameSpy, GameSpot, HomeLAN, PC.IGN, 3DCenter. 3DGPU, Beyond3D, Clubic, Extremetech, Guru3D, Hardware Analysis, K Hardware, Nordic Hardware, Tech Report, Trusted Reviews, Within Games, X-bit Labs, Hot Hardware. Nvidia GeForce 6800 Ultra @ TheRegister.co.uk
• DirectX Next preview - Digital-Life have published a new article called DX.Next:The near and nearest future of hardware graphic acceleration.
• Cloning WindowsXP Beginners Guide - PC Stats has posted a new beginners guide about cloning WindowsXP
• GeForce 6800 Demos - Check out the new NVIDIA tech demos: Nalu, Timbury, and Clear Sailing.
• Opera 7.50 Preview 4  - Opera 7.50 Preview 4 for Windows is available for download.
• XP Skins v2.0 - XP Skins it's a great tool for making your old programs look great on Windows XP. Most older programs work as well in Windows XP as in the operating system for which they were first created but does not take advantage of the associated XP Visual Styles (XP Themes). XP skins will allow these applications to take full advantage of Visual Styles, thus allowing for a much better GUI experience than previously.
• BIOS Agent  - The BIOS Agent is a simple, easy to use program that will automatically identify your computers BIOS and other system information. The results you get back after running the BIOS Agent are exactly what you need in order to upgrade your computer's BIOS, so save or print these results! BIOS Wizard has a nice-looking interface and a detailed help file.

GeForce 6800 GPUs have a programmable video processing engine that delivers stunning high-definition video playback. Featuring support for MPEG encode and decode, as well as support for Windows Media Video 9 (WMV9), the GeForce 6800 delivers an amazing video experience when used with the Microsoft Windows Media Center Edition operating system. The GeForce 6800 also enables high-quality video playback on any window size, and has an integrated TV-encoder for direct-to-TV playback.

As DOOM 3 development winds to a close, my work has turned to development of the next generation rendering technology. The NV40 is my platform of choice due to its support of very long fragment programs, generalized floating point blending and filtering, and the extremely high performance," said John Carmack, president and technical director of id Software

• Feds asked to hang up on FBI's wiretap proposal - A major cell phone trade group objected to a proposal that would force broadband Internet providers to rewire their networks to support easy wiretapping by police. The proposal, from the U.S. Department of Justice, the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration, is "expressly exempted from the law" and puts an unfair burden on broadband subscribers to fund any network overhaul, according to a regulatory filing by the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA), whose members include the nation's top cell phone service providers.
• Microsoft warns of a score of security holes  - The software giant released four patches to cover the 20 security issues (patch#1 ~ patch#2 ~ patch#3 ~ patch#4), as part of its monthly update schedule. Microsoft wouldn't comment on the level of risk the flaws present, instead maintaining that companies that apply the fixes won't be in danger.
• Security Update for Windows NT4 Option Pack (KB310669) - Microsoft has released a patch (download) for Microsoft Windows NT4 Option Pack that will eliminate a vulnerability that exists because a malicious user could issue a specially formatted, non-RFC compliant SMTP command that will result in a Denial of Service attack. This would be carried out more typically through a custom application where the malformed data would cause the SMTP service to fail.
• Nokia N-Gage 2 debuts on web - Nokia's N-Gage 2 has apparently surfaced on the Web, and the images clearly indicate how the mobile phone giant has solved the first version's notorious telephonic user-unfriendliness: it has made the device oval-shaped. You can see the (blurry) pics of the console's front and back here. They certainly show a sleeker, more compact, more curvaceous design than that sported by the N-Gage of old. The new model - described as being smaller and thinner than the original - also features a game slot that's rather more readily accessible than its predecessor's. It's on the console's underside - you can see an arrow on the first, rear-facing pic.Interestingly, the front shot shows a camera menu, but there's no sign of said device on the back, unless it's hidden under that bit of grey paper on the right.
• Intel launches secure mobile chips - A line of microprocessors built to keep data locked within a secure "vault" inside mobile devices was launched by US chip maker Intel on Monday. The chips are designed for use in gadgets such as smart cellphones and PDAs. The PXA27x processor family, also known by the code-name "Bulverde", are touted as a solution to the looming threat of mobile computer viruses and hacker attacks. But they will also make it possible to lock music and video files on mobile devices so that they cannot be copied or forwarded. Other new elements include features designed to boost performance and reduce power consumption.
• Removable, 1.8-Inch Hard Drive Due - At the Consumer Electronics Show in 2003, the consortium showed the IVDR Mini, which is based on 1.8-inch drives rather than the 2.5-inch drives originally shown. It is little more than a hard disk drive in a case with a common interface and connector. IO Data will launch this smaller format later in April. Its entry is a set comprising a 20GB IVDR Mini disk and an adapter that can be connected to a PC via a USB 2.0 interface. The set will cost $320, IO Data says in a statement. Single disks of similar capacity will also be available priced at $225.
• New Iomega drives: Low cost, high capacity  - The computer storage company, best known for its Zip drives, said it was shipping the REV drive and disks, which can store 35GB of data or more using compression software. The drive will go on sale for about US$400 (S$670), while the disks will be priced at around US$60.
• HyperSnap-DX 5.60.00 - HyperSnap-DX 5 (download) is a screen capture and image editing tool for MS Windows. It captures screens from standard desktop programs and even those hard-to-grab DirectX, Direct3D, 3Dfx Voodoo and Glide mode games
• Lame 3.96 Stable - LAME (download) is an educational tool to be used for learning about MP3 encoding. The goal of the LAME project is to use the open source model to improve the psycho acoustics, noise shaping and speed of MP3
• Style XP 2.03 - Style XP is theming software (download) 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. Now with Win XP SP2 RC1 (2096) and icon set support.
• CPUCooL 7.2.12 - 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.
• Unofficial Windows 98 SE Service Pack 1.3 RC-1 - This package contains all Windows98 SE updates from WindowsUpdate site and more.
• AutoPatcher XP 4.5 (March Update) - AutoPatcher XP is an installation package designed to get your Windows XP system up to date quick and easily.
• Intel Chipset Identification Utility 2.88 - The Intel Chipset Identification Utility provides an easy way to identify the specific Intel chipset that is located on your motherboard.

• CPU - Athlon 64 3200+ & 3400+ | AMD Athlon 64 3000+(German) | AMD Athlon 64 2800+ | AMD Opteron 248 (German)



• Motherboard - Abit AI7 i865PE | Abit AN7 nForce2 | Albatron PX875P i875P | AOpen AK86-L VIA K8T800 | Asus SK8V VIA K8T800 | Chaintech Zenith ZNF3-250 nForce3 250 | DFI LANparty Pro875B i875P | ECS PT880-A VIA PT880 P4 | Epox 4PDA5+ i865PE | Gigabyte 8TRS300M ATi Radeon 9100 IGP | Intel D875PBZ i875P | MSI 875P Neo-FIS2R i875P | nVidia nForce3 Pro 250GB(1) | nVidia nForce3 250GB Chipset(2) | nVidia nForce3 250GB Chipset(3) | Epox 4PDA5+ i865PE |  Foxconn 875A02-6EKRS i875P | Gigabyte GV-N595U-GT | Intel D875PBZ i875P | SOYO SY-KT600 Dragon Plus || SFF roundup | Abit DigiDice 865G Mini PC | AOpen EZ65 XCcube SFF PC | Biostar iDEQ Small Form Factor PC | Monarch Hornet 64 Pro Barebones SFF | Shuttle XPC SB75G2 and XPC ST62K Zen | Shuttle SB75S XPC i875P | Shuttle SB62G2 SFF PC | Soltek Qbic IQ 3601M VIA CLE266



• RAM - DDR500 Memory roundup | Crucial 512MB PC3200 DDR400 Memory | Corsair XMS4400 TwinX Memory Kit(1) | Corsair XMS PC-4400 Memory(2) | Corsair TwinX Memory 1024MB | Geil Mushkin OCZ Memory | OCZ EL DDR PC-3700 Dual Channel Memory Kit | OCZ PC4000 EL Gold 1GB Dual Channel Memory | PMI DDR533 Memory | PMI 4200-512DG PC4200



• Storage - Seagate ST3200822A HDD (German) | Snap Appliance Snap Server 1100 || Hyundai HY-208 128MB USB Flash Drive and MP3 Player | Imation USB 2.0 Swivel Flash Drive |
Kingston Elite Pro 512MB CompactFlash Card | Plexuscom's Biometrically Secure USB Flash Drive | SanDisk 1GB Extreme CompactFlash Type I Memory Card || AOpen AX4SG Max II i865G ||Lingus 3,5 USB 2.0/ Firewire HDD Case (German) | Wantec Vortex HDD Cooling System (German)


• Video - GeForce FX5600 roundup | VGA Roundup | GeForceFX 5700 Ultra roundup | ABIT Radeon 9800 XT 256MB | Albatron GeforceFX 5900XT(1) | Albatron GeForceFX 5900XT(2) | AOpen Aeolus GeForce FX5900XT 128MB | BFG GeForceFX 5700 Ultra | BFG GeForceFX 5900XT 128MB | Chaintech GeForceFX 5700 | Chaintech GeForceFX 5700 Ultra | Chaintech GeForceFX 5900XT | Gainward GeForceFX 5900XT 128MB || ATi All-In-Wonder 9600XT 128MB(1) | ATi Radeon All-In-Wonder 9600XT(2) | ATi Radeon 9800XT | Connect3D All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro 128MB (German) | HIS Radeon 9600XT 128MB | HIS Radeon 9600XT 128MB(1) | HIS Radeon 9600XT 128MB(2) | HIS Radeon 9600 Dual DVI(3) | HIS Radeon 9600XT (4) | Powercolor Radeon 9800XT(1) | PowerColor Radeon 9800XT(2) | Sapphire All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro 128MB (German) | Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB || Plextor PX-M402U ConverX Digital Capture Device



• Monitor - Samsung 173P LCD(1) | Samsung SyncMaster 173P (2) | Samsung and BenQ's High-End LCD Showdown



• Cooling - Cooler Installation Guide | CPU Cooler roundup | Pentium 4 Cooler roundup (German) || Aerocool Chameleon Fan | Arctic-Cooling VGA Silencer(1) | Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer (2) | Climator LapTopCooler 2 | Enermax UC-A8FATR4 FanController | EverCool CUW8-715 Cooler | HighSpeed PC Lapping Kit | Kingwin TC-02 Thermal Center | NVentiv Mach II Cooling | PCAT GPU Cooler | Papst 4412 FGL 120mm Fan | Primecooler PC-HDB SuperSilent passive HDD Cooler | Revoltec RAM Freezer Gold und Platinum | Scythe Kamakaze Cooler(1) | Scythe Kamakaze Cooler(2) |  Sharkoon CUS2 CPU Cooling Kit | SilenX 80mm Thermistor Fan | Swiftech MCX159-R Northbridge Cooler | Thermaltake UFO Fan | Thermalright NB-1 Cooler | Tweakmonster BGA Ramsinks and GELtech XGel Fragtape | Vantec Aeroflow 2 Socket-A Cooler



• WaterCooling - Asetek WaterChill System(1) | Asetek WaterChill(2) | Asetek Chipset Waterblock(3) | Corsair HydroCool200EX WaterCooler(1) | Corsair HydroCool 200 EX (2 ~ German) | Enermax EG475AX-VE(W) Noisetaker PSU | Evercool WC-201 Water Cooling Kit | GlobalWin Silent Stream Watercooling Kit | Chieftec BX Series Mid-Tower CaseKoolance PC2-650 Watercooled Server Case | Raidmax 822W Cobra Case | Swiftech H20-8500 Series Water Cooling Kit



• Case - Ahanix case(1) | Ahanix Plasma MicroATX Case(2) | Antec Super Lanboy | Antec SLK3700BQE Case | AOpen EZ65 Barebone | Chenbro PC61319 ATX Case | Hoojum Cubit 3T Case | Lian Li PC-73SL Case | RaidMax Scorpio 868 Case | Seasonic Super Tornado 350W Case | ShinyShuttle Case | Silverstonetek TJ-04 Case | Silverstone SST-TJ02 Glacier Case (German) | Silverstone Temjin TJ03 Nimiz Case | Super Flower SF-561T2-BT Case | TechSolo TC-10SR Case | Xoxide RazerX microATX Case | XPCases Z-Alien Computer Case  | Z-Alien PC Gamer Case



• PSU/UPS - BeQuiet Blackline 450W PSU | Clever Power 500W PSU | Enermax Noisetaker PSU | Cheetah EP-450XP-C1B 450W PSU | Seasonic Super Tornado 400W PSU | SilverStone Technology ST46F(PFC) 460W PSU | SilenX 400W iXtrema Pro PSU | StarTech 480 Watt Silent PSU | Super Silencer 460 Watt PSU | Vantec Aeroflow 2 PSU



• Sound/MM - M-Audio Revolution 7.1 Sound Card || Gigaworks S750 DDTS-100 Decoder | VPC-1000 Multimedia Hub | Plextor PX-M402U ConverX Digital Capture Device



• Peripheral - Black EL Keyboard  | Cooltek Luminous Keyboard | Logitech MX510 Mouse (1) | Logitech MX510 Mouse (2) | Logitech MX510(3) |  Logitech MX510 Optical & MX700 Cordless Mouse (4) | Logitech MX700 Mouse | Microsoft Wireless Intellimouse Explorer | Razor Viper Optical Mouse | Razor Viper Optical Gaming Mouse || Chillblast Soyo Kiky Joy PS2 Game Pad Adaptor | Gamester FPS Master Xbox Controller | Saitek R440 Force Wheel | Saitek ST90 Joystick (German) | Saitek P3000 Wireless Gamepad || Black Icemat 2nd Edition | Compad Speedpad Mousepad  | Everglide XTreme Mousepad | GG3 Steel Gaming Glove | Podium Mauspad | Steelpad 4D Mousepad | Steelpad 4S Precision Mousepad



• Network - 802.11b USB Stick roundup | Belkin Wi-Fi CF | Belkin TetraHub Hi-Speed USB 2.0 4-Port Hub | Gigabyte GN-WLBZ201 USB-Stick mit WLAN Adapter (German) | Snap Appliance Snap Server 1100 |  X-Micro 11g Wireless-LAN Set (German)



• Modding - Kingwin Aluminum Thermal Center FanController(1) | Kingwin Aluminum Thermal Center FanController(2) | Mutant Mods Laser Cut Fan Grill | Realstyles LEDs roundup (German) | PolyGFX CaseSkin | Silverstone Front Port Module & Transfer Bracket | Startech Mutant Mods Lighting Products | Sunbeam Bubble Light | Sunbeam Meteor Light | Sunbeam LED Case Feet | Super Flower SF-609F Fan Controller | Thermaltake UFO Twin Blade Fans



• Miscelanous - Ahanix Wireless Freedom iMon Plus HTPC Remote | Bluetake BT400 GII Bluetooth Headset | Monitor and other Switches (German) | Xoxide LAN Bag | Vantec GO 2.0 Card Reader



• Notebook, Camera, MP3 players -
HP Pavilion ZD7000 | Poweroid 1204 Silent System | Sony VAIO PCG-FR415S Laptop | Systemax TourBook 5112 Notebook | Syntax AP7600 Pentium 4 Notebook || Canon Digital Camera roundup | mobiBLU DAH-900 MP3-Player | Motorola V500 Mobile Phone | Nokia 6220 Tri-Band Mobile Phone | Plexuscom 128MB MP3 Player

• Service Pack 2 will close lot of holes in Windows XP - The frustrating thing about XP is that many of the components you need for secure computing are present. However, in its out-of-the-box form, they're hidden or the default settings are insecure. The new Service Pack reconfigures the way these features are presented, strengthens them and adds new ones. While it doesn't make computer security completely automatic - users still have to stay away from spyware and not click on unexpected e-mail attachments to avoid viruses - it makes great strides toward that goal.
• Germany moots jail for spammers - Germany's ruling Social Democratic Party (SPD) is mooting tough sanctions for spammers. These would include big fines for spammers and the companies which use their services, and prison sentences for the worst offenders. Ulrich Kelber, an SPD MP who is promoting the draft law, says that small fines will not deter the top 50 spammers. "In the event of repeated violation we need really hard sanctions." The law could be a signal to other countries, too, he said. "And perhaps even spammers outside of Germany would think twice if they know that they had to face these sentences when they cross German borders."
• How Microsoft Is Clipping Longhorn - Never in its history has Microsoft had to wait so long between Windows releases. When Windows XP launched in October, 2001, researcher Gartner Inc. expected the software giant to gin up a new version within two years. But Microsoft's ambitious follow-up to Windows XP, code-named Longhorn, has bogged down in delays. The company rarely discloses timelines for products, lest it miss its targets. But in copies of two e-mail messages obtained by BusinessWeek, Microsoft lays out a roadmap that shows Longhorn debuting in the first six months of 2006. Another related article can be found at TheRegister.
• DVD player to edit movies Technology allows viewer to bypass offensive content  - Wal-Mart and Kmart are planning to sell a new DVD player that includes a technology that has riled Hollywood-- a controversial program that can automatically skip sexual content, graphically violent scenes and language deemed offensive.  The new DVD player, manufactured under the RCA brand by Thomson Inc., comes as public debate is heating up over whether the media have pushed the limits of decency, especially after too much of singer Janet Jackson was bared during this year's Super Bowl halftime show. RCA plans to start shipping the DVD player in the next few weeks. It is scheduled to be on shelves at Wal-Mart and Kmart in the next two months at a suggested price of $79, said Dave Arland, Thomson's vice president of U.S. corporate communications and government relations. Wal-Mart's version will be black while Kmart's will be silver.
• Off-topic: Photo recognition software gives location - For a small fee, photo recognition software on a remote server works out precisely where you are, and sends back directions that will get you to your destination. You are lost in a foreign city, you don't speak the language and you are late for your meeting. What do you do? Take out your cellphone, photograph the nearest building and press send.
• Off-topic: Nintendo Tops Japan Videogame Sales -  Nintendo Co Ltd pulled away from the competition and remained Japan's top game software maker in the business year ended March 31, game magazine publisher Enterbrain Inc said on Friday. Nintendo sold nearly 6.5 million units, helped by hit titles such as racing game "Mario Kart Double Dash" and "Mario Party 5."
• N-Gage 2 Pics? - Pictures of the N-Gage 2 have been circulating the internet today, and the first pictures of the unit have surfaced at a website called Howard Forums, a forum dedicated to the mobile phone community. Apparently a user from this forum has a friend working with Nokia to test the unit. The official details & pics of the N-Gage 2 will reportedly be revealed on April 14.
• New protocol promises to smash Gigabit wireless impasse - UWB, the future wireless standard that could see half-a-Gigabit wireless links replacing USB and Bluetooth, could at last break out of its standards purgatory. A new proposal by PulseLink suggests any number of UWB standards could operate, if devices use an agreed low-speed signalling mode to negotiate. To sidestep the standards snarl-up at the IEEE, the idea will be put to the world's telecoms body, the ITU, in June.
• AMD Athlon 64 2800+ CPU review - The 3000+, and the new 2800+, both only feature 512 KB of L2 cache, where the initial release of the 3200+ and 3400+ models of the Athlon 64 line both feature 1 MB of L2 cache. The new Athlon 64 processors brought up the talk of the next core of the Athlon 64 processors, and it was later revealed that indeed the next interation of the Athlon 64 processor (not including the FX line) were going to only feature 512 KB of cache.
• Lexmark X422 MFP review - High-speed printing and scanning, along with duplex capability for printed, faxed, and copied output, are among the X422's attractions.
• Spider-Man 2 Full Length Theatrical Trailer - Here is a new theatrical trailer (QuickTime format) for Columbia Pictures' Spider-Man 2. 
• Cacti 0.5.8a - When it comes to network monitoring/graphing, Tobi Oetiker's RRDTool (download) does it best. It gives you the ability to put data into a database, then represent that data on a graph as you see fit. One drawback to RRDTool, is that by itself it is not a complete package for users wanting to graph their own networks. This is where cacti's job comes in. Cacti brings the power of RRDTool to a friendly web interface making it easy to graph anything using RRDTool. Other frontends have been created in the past that simply emulate MRTG using RRDTool as a backend. Cacti, on the other hand exploits RRDTool's full potential; utilizing Round Robin Archives, CDEF's, Data Sources, and Graphs. (thansk SavageNews)
• Matroska Pack Full 1.0.2 - The famous full pack, not only for playing matroska media files, but it will also allow playback of most modern video formats on any DirectShow player, even with WMP 6.4/7/8/9 ( Windows Mediaplayer ).
• Mesa gl 6.1 for voodoo2/3/4/5 - This new dll (download) contains a rewrited T&L ENGINE, with a good 5%-8% in speed improvement. The package, as always,includes (in Voodoo2 dir) a specific file for Voodoo2 users: a Glide3x for Win9x/me - Win2k - WinXP and FXmemmap for win9x/ME user only. Another Glide3x (in the root) should be used for voodoo 3/4/5 User.

• Software beats all CD copy protection - Software that makes it simple to bypass any form of anti-copying technology used to protect music CDs has been released by a computer magazine and a software company in Germany. The program (called unCDcopy) exploits the so-called "analogue hole".
• Cisco bug could put hackers in driver's seat - Networking giant Cisco Systems warned customers on Wednesday about a security flaw (advisory) that could compromise two products used to manage wireless local area network devices and data center switches. The company said in the warning posted on its Web site that a preset username and password coded into its Wireless LAN Solution Engine (WLSE) and Hosting Solution Engine (HSE) could give attackers complete control of the devices. Attackers could use this control to add new users, modify details of existing users or even change the device's configuration, the company said.
• New Worm/Virus April 8th - According to SecurityFocus, the file is called ndemon.exe (.99k) and it puts itself into c:\winnt and c:winnt\system32. Registry entries HKLMSoftware|Microsoft|CurrentVersionRun and HKLMSoftware|Microsoft|CurrentVersionRunServices (Think it creates that one). At first look: it then tries to propagate itself via MS ports 135, and 139 VIA known flaws and password guessing. It also listens for other infected machines on port 1025 and scans for MS IIS boxes on port 80 (to try known exploits as well).
• Kazaa and eDonkey brace for NetSky-Q attack - Zombie PCs infected with the NetSky-Q worm are set to launch distributed denial of service attacks against P2P and warez sites tonight. The worm will attempt to flood the main Web sites of Kazaa and eDonkey with spurious traffic between 00:01 8 April and 11 April (time taken from system clocks). Other sites including www.cracks.st, www.cracks.am and www.emule-project.net are also targeted for attack. File-sharing networks themselves won't be affected by the worm, only access to Web sites.
• "Homeless Hacker" Sentencing Delayed - A sentencing hearing for noted computer hacker Adrian Lamo has been postponed from Thursday, according to a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. Lamo was scheduled to appear in Manhattan federal court to be sentenced, after pleading guilty to an unauthorized intrusion onto the computer network of the New York Times in February 2002. That sentencing is now postponed until June 2004, the spokesperson says.
• Privacy advocates say Google's e-mail scanning process a dangerous precedent - Google Inc.'s planned Web-based e-mail service is a big target for privacy advocates upset by the gigabyte storage capacity to be offered users and the company's plans to scan communications for advertising purposes. And the name Gmail could soon be the subject of a trademark dispute. A coalition of 28 privacy and civil liberties groups wrote Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page this week urging them to rethink the service, which they say sets potentially dangerous precedents for automated scanning of private communications. The service may conflict with European privacy laws and should be suspended until privacy issues are addressed, they wrote in a letter Tuesday.
• Surgeons Who Play Video Games Err Less - All those years on the couch playing Nintendo and PlayStation appear to be paying off for surgeons. Researchers found that doctors who spent at least three hours a week playing video games made about 37 percent fewer mistakes in laparoscopic surgery and performed the task 27 percent faster than their counterparts who did not play video games
• CeBIT Wrap-Up 2004 - GameExplosive have published an extensive CeBIT 2004 wrap-up.
• Nokia's Bluetooth CDMA phone draws iPod comparisons - Nokia used the CTIA show last month to unveil a phone that's drawn comparisons to the iPod. Nokia's 6255 is a flip phone, which the company has been reluctant to bring to market, works on CDMA networks and is due to ship by in the final quarter of the year. It also has a VGA camera, MP3 player with removable storage for MMC cards, and a radio, and will be Nokia's first CDMA phone to feature Bluetooth.
• Nvidia sets NV40 launch date on April 14 - Nvidia has set the launch date for its latest AGP8X chip, the NV40, on April 14, aiming to penetrate the high-end market of around US$499, according to sources at Taiwanese motherboard makers.
• Sandisk, Toshiba tout 4-gigabit Nand flash memory - SanDisk Corp. and Toshiba Corp. have doubled the capacity of their jointly developed Nand flash memory to 4 gigabits by applying multilevel cell technology on a 90-nm process. The memory chip tops Samsung's 2-Gigabit Nand memory also made using a 90-nm process. Simultaneously, the partners have developed an 8-gigabit device by stacking two single-die 4-gigabit chips in one package. Samples of the single die and stacked chip will be available within a month at $113 and $226 each respectively.
• Navigation 1 TeraByte external hard drive becomes reality  - LaCie, a PC peripherals manufacturer, announced the release date of it's 1 TeraByte "Bigger Disk" external hard disk drive. The "Bigger Disk" product line already consists of 320GB, 400GB, and 500GB external models. The price for 320GB HDD is $399.99, 400GB HDD is $479.00, and for the 500GB model is $579.00. The price for the 1000GB or 1TeraByte model drive has been set at $1200.00. This is the first external hard drive that will feature 1000GB of storage space.
• nForce3 250Gb chipset review - The 250GB is especially interesting because it's the first core logic chipset to integrate a Gigabit Ethernet MAC, hardware-accelerated firewall, and RAID across four Serial ATA and four "parallel" ATA devices. TechReport's performance results suggest that the 250Gb is at least as fast as, if not faster than, the K8T800.
• Draytek Vigor 2900g Broadband Security Router review - How much would you pay for a four-point SPI router with 802.11g access point, USB print server and built-in VPN endpoint? If you think about $200 is too much, would you change your mind if it handled LAN-LAN and Remote-LAN PPTP, IPsec and L2TP VPN tunnels on both the wired and wireless sides? And how about if it threw in VLAN and Bandwidth control? Come read THG's review to see how Draytek's Vigor 2900g Broadband Security Router does it all. 
• Iomega Super DVD QuikTouch 8x Video Burner review - The Iomega Super DVD QuikTouch 8x Video Burner is an analog-to-DVD converter with a broad software suite and exceptional recordable-media compatibility. Its 8X maximum speed and dual-format capabilities make it worth the $110 premium over the 4X HP DVD Movie Writer dc3000 ($249 direct), which debuted last fall, though the HP bundle delivers greater video-editing facility.
• X-Micro EVA MP3 Player review - PimpRig has a review of the 128MB portable MP3 player from X-Micro. "The quality of the earphones while listening to music on the EVA MP3 player was exceptional. I could not tell any major differences of sound quality when I compared the EVA to an iPod (3rd Generation), iRiver iFP-108T, and a Creative Labs Zen."
• Storage in Practice - Some vendors may claim that multiple hard drives, RAID systems or DVD burners can do the job, but tape drives still remain the only cost-effective option for large-scale data backup. THG look at different tape drive options and put a mid-level device from Tandberg to the test.
• Shader Model 3.0 article  - D. Sim Dietrich Jr. of NVIDIA has published an article entitled "Shader Model 3.0 - No Limits" that appears at Microsoft's WINHEC web site. The article compares the capabilities and features of pixel and vertex shaders as they exist in Shader Model 3.0 to Shader model 2.0.
• PECompact 2.00 Beta Build 83 - PECompact is an advanced Windows executable file compressor. It works by compressing the executable or module and then performing decompression in memory at runtime. Not only does this save space and bandwidth, PECompact also adds a level of obsufcation to your binaries.
• Mousotron 4.5 - Mousotron measures your mouse and keyboard activity.
• DefilerPak 1.17  - The DefilerPak is a minimalist collection of video and audio codecs designed to keep you up to date with the latest developments. It includes XviD; ffdshow; AC3Filter; CoreAAC DirectShow filter; Ogg DirectShow filter; CoreVorbis; Matroska DirectShow filter; VSFilter; DivX ;-)
• AntiBugBear Removal Tool - AntiBugBear Removal Tool (download) is a free tool from BitDefender. It detects and removes the BugBear virus from your system.
• SpywareBlaster 3.1 - SpywareBlaster doesn't scan and clean for spyware - it prevents it from ever being installed.
• Omega ATI Drivers out Based on Catalyst 4.4 - Omega has released some new Omega drivers for the ATi catalyst 4.4 (mirror)

• Trade officials raid Intel's Japan offices - Intel said Thursday that officials from Japan's fair trade watchdog raided its Japanese unit's offices, and a source close to the matter said the chip giant is suspected of unfair business practices.
• Japanese finger virus for police document leak - Japanese police are blaming a computer virus for a leak of information about criminal investigations. Information from 19 documents - including investigation reports, expert opinions and police searches - found its way from the hard disk of an officer from Shimogamo Police Station in Sakyo Ward, Kyoto, onto the Net last month.
• Off-topic: Quick flip of Earth's magnetic field revealed  - The Earth's magnetic field takes an average of only 7000 years to reverse its polarity, but the switch happens much more quickly near the equator, according to the most comprehensive study yet of the last four reversals.
• Off-topic: Global warming may melt Greenland's ice, scientists warn - Greenland's icy mountains and the island's entire ice cap could disappear in the next 1,000 years because of global warming, European scientists warn today.  If that occurs sea levels will rise by seven metres, drowning low-level coastlines around the world. Greenland is covered by the biggest ice sheet in the northern hemisphere: almost 772,000 square miles of ice which is up to 1.9 miles thick, the base of which is below sea level.
• Samsung Elec Unveils New TVs - Seeking to crank up sales of flat-panel TVs amid growing competition from global players, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd unveiled on Wednesday a new technology which it claimed enhanced picture quality. Samsung is launching high definition TV sets with its new DNIe (Digital natural image engine) imaging technology. The technology can be applied to all color TVs that come with flat screens, such as plasma and liquid-crystal display, as well as projection sets and bulky cathode ray tubes.
• Chips Detail 64-Bit Differences - The 64-bit extensions used by AMD and Intel are virtually identical and should not present any major software incompatibility problems, according to a report from market research firm In-Stat/MDR released this week. After a thorough examination, only two instructions were discovered in a forthcoming version of the AMD64 architecture that did not appear in Intel's Extended Memory 64 Technology (EM64T). The two instructions allow data to be stored or loaded in groups rather than as individual data points. Any incompatibility issues that arose could probably be handled by a software patch.
• US Robotics speeds up Wi-Fi access - Network access manufacturer US Robotics is to improve the speed capacity of its Wireless Turbo products by 25 per cent. From June, all 802.11g Wireless Turbo products from US Robotics will ship with 125Mbps upgrades, building on their present speed of 100Mbps.
• HP Color LaserJet 3700n first look - The HP Color LaserJet 3700n bridges the gap between the sub-$1,000 personal color laser printers and the $2,000-and-up mid-range color laser printers—not just in price, but in performance, too, although it stubs its toe on graphics quality.
• V-TEC V-Drive Flash Pen review - It's a stylish, shiny black and chrome calligraphic implement that also contains 32, 64, 128 or 256MB of Flash memory, configured as a hard drive. The styling is spoiled only by the word's "V-Drive USB Flash Drive" written in large letters down the length of the pen, and an ugly silver sticker pointing out the capacity. Sorry, V-TEC, this is what packaging is for.
• D-Link DCS-5300 review - The D-Link DCS-5300 is a must for any business owner or person looking to protect their home. It can serve many functions, but none greater than keeping you and your possessions safe. There is no doubt that the quality of the camera is top notch and deserving of every single cent you pay for it.
• BIOS Guide Revision 8.0 Interim Release 7  - Adrian has updated his premier BIOS optimization guide to 8.0 Interim Release 7. This interim release features 12 new BIOS options.
• UT2004 Tweak Guide - Koroush "PersianImmortal" Ghazi has written the definitive UT2004 Tweak Guide, complete with detailed setting descriptions, recommendations, tweaks and links to important resources.
• Crap Cleaner 1.06.051 - CCleaner (Crap Cleaner) is a freeware system optimization tool. That removes unused and temporary files from your system - allowing it to run faster, more efficiently and giving you more hard disk space.
• foobar2000 v0.8.1 final - Foobar2000 is an advanced audio player for the Windows platform. Some of the basic features include ReplayGain support, low memory footprint and native support for several popular audio formats
• BlindWrite Suite 5.1.6.132 - Blindwrite Suite (download) is the best set of tools to reproduce or clone any CD, even protected ones. Blindwrite Suite is the most powerfull tool to create a perfect copy from your original CD for personal private copy.

• F-Secure warns on software flaw - Security vendor F-Secure is urging users to patch their systems after the discovery of two flaws in a version of its antivirus software that leaves users vulnerable to hackers and virus writers. The first flaw could give hackers complete access to a target PC through a hole that affects F-Secure BackWeb 6.31 and earlier versions. This makes the company's antivirus, BackWeb and policy management software vulnerable. The second problem is in versions 5.41 and 5.42 of F-Secure's Anti-Virus for MIMEsweeper product. It allows the Sober D worm, which is sent in email-attached Zip files, to bypass the antivirus software and infect PCs.
• Three Minutes With Spybot's Patrick Kolla - Patrick M. Kolla wrote Spybot Search & Destroy, a free download that is one of PC World's most recommended programs. Spybot is an anti-spyware scanner that finds and cleans out adware on your PC so your private information can't be transmitted. The software is so popular worldwide that user donations support Kolla's company, Safer Networking Limited, which he runs with part-time help from his father, Dr. Michael Kolla, and a group of computer science students called Team Spybot. Kolla, 26, lives in Germany 300 steps from the Safer Networking office that takes up a floor in his parents' home. An edited transcript of the February 23, 2004, conversation follows.
• Format string bug in IGI 2: Covert Strike 1.3 - The IGI 2 server is affected by a format string bug (exploit) in the logging function of the RCON commands. FYI, RCON commands are used by admins to administer their servers remotely. This function exists in both dedicated and normal servers and cannot be disabled. A practical example of the bug "in action" is the following: 1)Attacker sends: /hello-%08x.%08x.%08x.%08x 2)Server logs: [17:17:28] Consoled: 'hello-082aeefc.00000131.0061b64c.00000011' run from 192.168.0.3:32768
• The Joe Job DoS attack - A problem with the way that non-delivery notifications are sent by many mail servers could be exploited to launch "mail bomb" denial of service attacks. Incorrectly configured mail servers may respond to mail delivery failure with as many non-delivery reports as there are undeliverable cc: and bcc: addresses contained in the original email. By forging the source of an email, hackers could bombard systems with spurious emails.
• Start-up takes a crack at blocking hackers - The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company, Fortify Software, is offering a set of tools designed to test software for potential flaws, while products are still being built. The tools allow companies to examine the underlying code programmers write more closely, cutting down on the likelihood of security weaknesses, according to Fortify.
• Microsoft vs. iTunes - Microsoft is set to release copy-protection software that could radically effect the burgeoning online music business. Called "Janus," the technology will add a clock function to portable music players that handle files encoded in Microsoft's Windows Media Audio (WMA) format. Because downloaded tracks could be programmed to expire, users of legal music services like Napster would be able to "rent" unfettered subscription-based access to large music libraries.
• Off-topic: Star Wars Episode 3 Release Date - Lucas Films has announced the release date for the last movie in the trilogy of prequels. The date is set for May 19, 2005.
• Mega-Off-topic -Frequent ejaculation may protect against cancer - Frequent sexual intercourse and masturbation protects men against a common form of cancer, suggests the largest study of the issue to date yet. The US study, which followed nearly 30,000 men over eight years, showed that those that ejaculated most frequently were significantly less likely to get prostate cancer. The results back the findings of a smaller Australian study revealed by New Scientist in July 2003 that asserted that masturbation was good for men. In the US study, the group with the highest lifetime average of ejaculation - 21 times per month - were a third less likely to develop the cancer than the reference group, who ejaculated four to seven times a month.
• Coming soon: the Wi-Fi PSP and PS2 - Well-placed sources have informed us that Sony plans to use wireless networking not only for multiplayer between PSP devices, but also to link the PSP with the next-generation home console, PS3, and with wireless Internet "hot spots" to enable online multiplayer and Internet communication functionality.
• NEC Develops Fastest Rechargeable Battery - NEC Corp has developed a battery that can be recharged only in 30 seconds, company sources said. Called an organic radical battery, it can be recharged to the same level of power as that stored in nickel-hydrogen cells, which are widely used in digital cameras, portable MD players and other electronic devices. It takes only about 30 seconds to recharge the battery enough to allow 80 hours of continuous operation of an MD player, compared with around an hour needed by conventional rechargeables, the company claims.
• Samsung Readies Portable Fuel Cell - Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, the research and development arm of South Korea's Samsung Electronics, has successfully developed a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC), the company says. Direct methanol fuel cells mix methanol with air and water to produce electrical power and are viewed by many as a potential successor to Lithium-Ion and other batteries used in devices such as notebook personal computers and other portable electronics devices. Many major electronics companies are developing DMFCs, and Samsung says its new fuel cell could allow a notebook computer to run for 10 hours on a 100 cubic centimeter cartridge of methanol.
• VMware launches upgraded Workstation software  - VMware Inc. yesterday announced a new version of its virtualization product for PCs that will allow developers and systems administrators to test and deploy enterprise applications completely in virtual machines. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company said its Workstation 4.5 leverages snapshot capabilities and Intel Corp.'s Preboot Execution Environment (PXE), a function embedded in most PCs that can be used for remote installation of both the operating system and applications. With it, users can run PC server-class applications in Microsoft Windows, Linux or Novell NetWare operating environments on a single desktop.
• HP to ask printer suppliers to start implementing RFID technology in May - Hewlett-Packard (HP) hopes to have its worldwide suppliers and distributors ready with radio frequency identification (RFID) technology by the end of this year, Ian Robertson, director of HP’s RFID Program, said in Taipei yesterday.
• Taiwan launches FVD format as alternative to DVD - The Opto-Electronics & Systems Laboratories (OES) under the government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), according to schedule on April 5, formally introduced its self-developed DVD format, FVD (forward versatile disc, originally called finalized versatile disc).
• [!] ATI and NVIDIA Product Names And Shipping Info - AnandTech is reporting that the first retail samples of ATI's R420 (AGP Radeon X800) will debut April 26 as Radeon X800 Pro. NVIDIA's NV40 (GeForce 6800) officially launches April 13th, but retail availability will occur around April 26th. Notice the NV40 product to be released April 13th is GeForce 6800, not GeForceFX 6800. ATI's naming scheme for R420 has been closely guarded as well, but the open term we hear from vendors is "Radeon X800."
• Lite-On IT to launch 12x DVD Dual this month, may be short term solution - Despite an expected short life cycle, Lite-On IT will offer 12x DVD Dual burners later this month because the new 12x models can command higher OEM prices, according to the company’s Optical Disc Drive Business general manager Michael Gong.
• Seven new digital cameras from Canon - Canon has announced seven PowerShot digital cameras (Canon Powershot Pro 1, Canon PowerShot S1 IS,
  Canon PowerShot A75, Canon PowerShot A310, Canon Ixus 500, Canon Ixus 430, Canon Ixus IIs) on Feb 9 2004. Equipped with 3.2 to 8 MegaPixels sensors, they are packed with more features to cater the needs of beginners to advanced shooters. On 26 March 2004, the first batch of these digicams has arrived in Singapore.
• Soyo KikyJoy PS2 Game Pad Adaptor Review - Chilliblast has posted a review of Soyo Kiky Joy PS2 Game pad adaptor.
• Velocity Micro ProMagix review - Overclocking is still a popular pastime among the boutique PC makers, and the Velocity Micro ProMagix has it in spades: Both the 3.4E-GHz Pentium 4 processor and the nVidia GeForce FX 5950 Ultra graphics card are tweaked to run faster than stock components.
• A KVM Switch Saves Workstation Space - All KVM switches work according to the same principle, and there's clearly a trend to gravitate towards USB devices. Unfortunately, only a few switch boxes currently use USB 2.0 or an on-screen display. This means that each KVM switch we tested entails a small loss of functionality - at least in this test, there is no superlative KVM switch among the candidates. But maybe that will change in the near future.
• Logitech MX510 Mouse review - OCIA has posted a review of  the Logitech MX510 Mouse.
• Shader Model 3.0 - What's it all about? - With anticipation for ATi and nVidia's next-generation video cards reaching fever pitch, and speculation running riot as to what features these GPUs will support, one question that is emerging time and again has been - What's the difference between 2.0 and 3.0 shaders?
• Windows XP Performance Tweaking Guide (updated) - I Am Not A Geek have published their updated Windows XP Performance Tweaking Guide. There's a LOT of potential damage that can be done with the data within this article. You will have to understand the risks. You could potentially cause your system to quit booting and many other things. You will want to make a backup of anything important just in case. Please move on if you understand that and are willing to risk things.
• SimpleDivX 1.34 - SimpleDivX is a powerfull frontend utilizing the latest version of mpeg2avi and supporting many video formats like 3ivx,xvid & divx and audio formats including ogg/mp3/ac3.
• FFDShow MPEG-4 Video Decoder 5-04-2004 - FFDSHOW is a DirectShow decoding filter for decompressing DivX, XviD, WMV, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 movies.
• Hmonitor 4.1.4.1 - Hmonitor has much more functions than MotherBoard Monitor, for example, including thermocontrol features and COM/PerfMon API support (quoted from the author). Please check its homepage for additional information.
• Driver's Heaven TuneXP Final - This radical, new tool is the one of the best and most powerful Windows XP tweakers ever, supporting totally unseen tweaks, which is unique to the program.
• Tweak FX 5.01 - Tweak FX (download) is a powerful configuration tool for Windows. In contrast to hundreds of so called 'tweaking programs', Tweak FX uses plugins, which can extend its possibilites to a significant extent.
• StarStorm 56.72 nvidia Forceware Drivers - The StarStorm 56.72 Forceware based off the Official 56.72 WHQL forceware have been released.

• New Version of Sober Worm Spreading in Europe - A new variant of the Sober worm, Sober.F, is spreading in Europe, and some anti-virus companies are raising their threat levels for the worm due to its success. Sober.F arrives in an e-mail sent by the worm's own SMTP engine. According to F-Secure's description of the worm, the incoming message can have any of a large number of subject lines and message bodies, some in German and some in English...
• Virus Top Twenty for March 2004 - As predicted, March was the month of the Bagles. Five new versions of Bagle appeared. In seventh place is PSW-Worm, an umbrella identification which includes several versions of Bagle. These differ from other worms in the Bagle family in that they spread in password protected ZIP and RAR archives, and the password is either included in the message or contained in a graphics file. Such an approach is not new, but Bagle
  exploited it with great success. Incidentally, tricks like this have positively influenced the development of new antivirus technology designed to detect and intercept such sneaky viruses.
• WinAmp music to hackers' ears - The ubiquitous WinAmp program can provide someone with system access simply by getting someone to visit a malicious website (details) It all has to do with how the software loads Fasttracker 2 ".xm" media files. It is possible to cause a heap overflow and so run code on the person's system. A ".xm" file is not needed however, as the software runs through all supported files with the same faulty piece of code. This greatly increases the opportunities hackers may have to con someone into clicking a link and so providing them with system access. The flaw affects all WinAmps and so the only advice is to upgrade as soon as possible to the new patched version (5.03) on the company's website here.
• FBI on Xbox Live - In incredible news breaking in the US over the weekend, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has made an application to the Federal Communications Commission requesting easy access to all forms of Internet communication, including Microsoft’s Xbox Live and online PlayStation 2 servers. If the request is granted, all US-based Internet Service Providers will have to make radical changes to their systems in order to accommodate a backdoor listening post for FBI agents. The request includes all forms of digital online communication, from instant messenger services to voiceover IP communications, and mentions gaming services such as Xbox Live.
• Off-topic: Gates loses No. 1 spot in net worth !! - Ingvar Kamprad, the Swede who founded furniture retail chain IKEA, has overtaken Microsoft's Bill Gates as the world's richest man, Swedish TV news reported on Sunday.  Citing next week's edition of the Swedish business weekly Veckans Affarer, public service SVT2 television said Kamprad, 77, has a personal fortune of 400 billion crowns ($53 billion). Gates's fortune is put at $47 billion, according to the latest list of the world's rich in U.S. Forbes magazine, SVT2 said. SVT2 said the dollar's slide against other currencies is the main reason why Kamprad has now overtaken Gates.
• Off-topic: New technology could detect dirty hands - With just a flicker of blue light, little Johnny's mother one day may know for sure whether her son washed his hands before dinner. New light-scanning technology borrowed from the slaughterhouse promises to help hospital workers, restaurant employees -- one day, even kids -- make sure that hand washing zaps some germs that can carry deadly illnesses. A device the size of an electric hand dryer detects fecal contamination and pinpoints on a digital display where on a person's hands more scrubbing is needed.
• Off-topic: Humanoid robot conducts Beethoven symphony - The 58-centimetre-tall humanoid robot led the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra in a unique rendition of Beethoven's 5th symphony during a concert held at the Bunkamura Orchard Hall in Tokyo on 15 March. A video of the robot conductor in action can be viewed on Sony's website here (RealPlayer required). QRIO's speed of movement is impressive, say experts (Image: Sony)
  Perhaps even more impressive is footage (Windows Media Player required) of four QRIOs performing a complicated dance routine, recorded in December 2003.
• Off-topic: Sci Fi Confirms Forthcoming Farscape Miniseries - SCI FI announced it will be bringing back Farscape with an all-new miniseries - called Farscape: Peacekeeper War - slated to air in the fourth quarter of this year. The four-hour miniseries picks up where the cliffhanger series finale left off and will reunite John Crichton (Ben Browder), Aeryn Sun (Claudia Black) and the rest of the Moya crew.
• Off-topic: U.S. Military Takes First Step Towards Weapons in Space - The first real step in that direction appears to be coming in the form of a little-noticed weapons program at the U.S. Missile Defense Agency. The agency has now earmarked $68 million in 2005 for something called the Near Field Infrared Experiment.  The NFIRE satellite is primarily designed to gather data on exhaust plumes from rockets launched from earth, and defense officials claim it is therefore designed as a defensive, rather than offensive weapons. But the satellite will also contain a smaller "kill vehicle," a projectile that takes advantage of the kinetic energy of objects traveling through low-Earth orbit (which move at several times the speed of a bullet) to disable or destroy an oncoming missile or another orbiting satellite.
• Xbox goes green - Microsoft next week will begin selling a "special edition" version of its Xbox game console. The package will include a copy of "Halo," the best-selling shooter game for the console, and an Xbox console with a bright green case, as opposed to the standard black. A total of 200,000 units of the package will be available for $169 on April 13.
• Analyst: Intel Reverse-Engineered AMD64 - After investigating the instruction sets used by 64-bit chips from AMD and Intel, an industry analyst has concluded that Intel reverse-engineered the AMD64 instruction set to create its own 64-bit microprocessor architecture. Tom Halfhill, an analyst at In-Stat/MDR in San Jose, said Monday that he had compared the instruction sets of AMD's 64-bit chips, called AMD64, with the 64-bit extensions to be used in the Intel Xeon processor and future desktop chips. The smoking gun, Halfhill said, was Intel's choice to mimic a decision AMD made in its early Opteron designs, and later reversed.
• CyberLink Delivers Right-to-Disc Video Recording On Double-Layer Discs - CyberLink Corp. announced today that its burning applications - Power2Go and PowerProducer 2 Gold - support DVD+R9 double-layer recording. This new support enables users to burn high quality video or TV recording directly to disc and up to 8.5 GB of data on one double-layer disc.
• Dell Cuts Music Player Price 20 Percent to $199 - No. 2 personal computer maker Dell Inc. on Monday cut the price on its digital music player 20 percent to $199 from $249 as it tries to compete with the industry leading iPod from Apple Computer Inc.
• NVIDIA to Boost Performance of PCI Express x16, Add High-Definition Audio? - Unofficial sources said that NVIDIA’s core-logic code-named CK8-04/Pro designed for AMD’s Socket 939 processors will sport 1000MHz HyperTransport bus, 4 Serial ATA-150 ports with RAID, 2 Parallel ATA-33/66/100/133 channels with RAID, Gigabit Ethernet, 10 USB 2.0 ports, 4 PCI slots, High-Definition 24-bit 96kHz 7.1 audio as well as something NVIDIA calls PCI Express x20.
• Intel sets serial numbers for 90nm Dothan processors, launch in May expected - Intel has fixed the serial numbers for its long-awaited lineup of 90nm Dothan processors - a move which has led Taiwanese motherboard makers to believe that the US chip giant will be able to launch the next-generation Pentium M chips in early May as expected, said sources at the makers.
• GeForce FX 5700 Ultra goes GDDR3 - The new graphics memory GDDR3 is ready to roll. Though this new technology was developed by ATI in collaboration with memory manufacturers, its rival NVIDIA is the first to deliver it in the form of the updated GeForce FX5700 Ultra. "The new GDDR3 memory technology looks promising. In the case of the GeForce FX 5700 Ultra GDDR3, however, the improvements are only marginal. The minimal clockspeed increase compared to the GDDR2 model has hardly any effect on real-world performance."
• TDK Indi DVD 880N 8x DVD±RW review - CDRLabs.com have posted a review of the TDK Indi DVD 880N 8x DVD±RW, which is based on the NEC ND-2500A.
• Lite-On SOHW-812S DVD±R/RW review -  In fact going with the SOHW-812S over the LDW-851S is pretty much a no-brainer as the SOHW-812S just started showing up at the e-stores this weekend at around $115 USD (retail box) which is only a few dollars more than the (relatively) older burner.
• Network Laser Printers roundup - PCMag has posted a review of  9 monochrome units.
• Neowin Guide to buying a LCD - The Guide has extensive reasons as to why you should upgrade to a LCD; it also establish some basic steps to follow when buying. Further, it highlights some of the key functions / features you should look for when buying. Also in the guide potential problems with LCDs, and how they can be over come. Finally, it has a variety of recommended specifications for different types of user, with suggested models in each category.
• RSS feed MSDN New Content Notifications for MSDN Subscriber Downloads - Notification of newly published content is now available as an RSS feed. By subscribing, you will receive notifications of all new downloads available from MSDN Subscriber Downloads
• Kernel 2.6.5 Final - Linux Kernel (download) has been updated once again with few patches and made official stable release.
• Diagnostic Tool for the MSJVM 1.0a - The Diagnostic Tool for the Microsoft VM can be used to scan one or more computers to detect the presence of MSJVM and MSJVM-related software.
• Microsoft WiX Code Released to SourceForge.Net - On Monday, April 5, 2004, as part of the Shared Source Initiative, Microsoft released the source code for the Windows Installer XML (WiX) developer tool to SourceForge under the IBM Common Public License or CPL. (thanks Slashdot.org)
• Bittorrent 3.4.2 - This new version fixes some bugs, including an important tracker bug.
• Tray Helper 4.1 - Tray Helper it's compact award winning application with many features (f/e: email checker, auto mail responder, anti-spam, popup-killer, event reminder and more).
• Koepi's XviD Codec RC4 - This new version (download) improves bitrate calculator; decoder clips motion to valid range, so that it doesn't crash if bitstream is broken;- decoder supplies quantizer information for external postprocessing (used by ffdshow); decoder fixes in GMC - DivX5 GMC-ed clips weren't decoded right, also 2-point GMC; fixed problems caused by wrong cooperation of bframes and frame dropping code; VfW GUI looks better on asian windows now;  Memory leak when using multiple instances fixed; Minor fixes for VfW GUI.
• ATITool 0.0.19 - Finding maximum core and memory overclock by rendering into a Direct3D window and scanning the output for visual artifacts. Artifact scanning mode for non-ATI cards - use together with a 3rd party overclocking utility. Loading a predefined clock profile on Application/Windows startup. Hotkeys that can be used any time to load clocks from a profile. 3D application detection (Direct3D 8, Direct3D 9, OpenGL) to overclock your video card only when required. ATITool (download) will only work on Windows 2000/XP/2003.
• RightMark Memory Analyzer 3.0 - RightMark Memory Analyzer 3.0, the universal CPU/Chipset/RAM experimental test suite has been released! RightMark Memory Analyzer provides stable and accurate measurements of the most important low-level characteristics of the CPU/Chipset/RAM subsystem of your PC.
• Mwarhead's 3.31a nForce Remix Rebirth For Win2k/XP - This package also includes the better network drivers than the the official. (Audio driver version 4.31 (WHQL) / Audio utility version 4.31 / Ethernet driver 3.39 (WHQL) + TOT.nvu /  GART driver 3.43 (WHQL) / MemCtl driver 3.38 (WHQL) + TOT.nvu / SMBus driver 3.43 / Win2K IDE 2.5 driver version 4.15 (WHQL) + updated nvuide.exe and txtsetup.oem / WinXP IDE 2.5 driver version 4.12 (WHQL) + updated nvuide.exe and txtsetup.oem /  Installer version 4.31)
• Pioneer DVR-A07U/XL / DVR-107D firmware v1.13 - This new firmware improves the recording quality on several media and adds support for 8x CMC DVD+R media.

• CPU - AMD Mobile Barton XP 2500+ | AMD Athlon 64 2800+ || AMD Athlon 64 FX-53 | Intel Pentium 4 Prescott 2.8GHz | Intel Pentium 4 Prescott 3.2GHz | Intel Pentium 4 3.40GHz | Intel Celeron 2.8GHz



• Motherboard - nVidia nForce3 250 | Abit AN7 nForce2 | AOpen AK86-L VIA K8T800 | Abit KV8-Max3 VIA K8T800 | Albatron K8X800 Pro II VIA K8T800 | AOpen AK86-L VIA K8T800(1) | AOpen AK86-L VIA K8T800(2) | ASrock K8S8X SiS755 | Asus A7N8X-E nForce2 | Asus SK8N nForce3 Pro150 | Asus P4S800D SiS655TX | Asus P4R800-V Deluxe Radeon 9100IGP(1) | Asus P4R800-V Deluxe Radeon 9100IGP(2) | DFI LANparty Pro875B i875P | ECS 755-A2 SiS755 |  Epox 4PDA5+ i865PE | FIC K8-800T VIA K8T800 | Gigabyte K8NNXP-940 nForce3 Pro150 | Gigabyte K8N Pro nForce3 150 | SOYO K8USA Dragon Ultra ALi M1687 || Gigabyte 8VT880 Ultra VIA PT880 | AOpen EZ65 XC Cube i865G SFF | AOpen EZ65 SFF XC Cube Mini Barebone System | Shuttle SB75S XPC(1) | Shuttle XPC SB75S SFF System(2) | Shuttle XPC SB75G2 Barebone



• RAM - Registered Memory roundup | PC4400 Memory roundup || Corsair TwinX1024-4400PT Platinum Memory | Corsair XMS4400 Memory | Corsair PC3500 XMS Memory |  Samsung DDR466 Memory (German) | SimpleTech PC3700 1GB Dual Channel Memory Kit | Kingston Hyper-X KHX4000K2/1G DDR Memory Kit | Kingston HyperX PC4300 Memory(1) | Kingston HyperX PC4300 Memory(2) | Kingston HyperX DDR533 Memory | OCZ EL DDR400 Memory | OCZ DDR PC-3200 ECC Registered Memory



• Storage - Seagate Barracuda 7200 200GB | Seagate Cheetah X15.3 HDD | Seagate 160GB External HDD | Maxtor OneTouch USB External HDD | SATA HDD roundup (German) || HighPoint eSATA v2 Controller | Vantec EZ-Swap Hard Drive || AOpen DRW8800/AAN DVD-RW | LG GCC-5241P Portable CDRW/DVD-ROM Combo | Lite-On LVW-5005 DVD-RW | Plextor 708A DVD-RW | NU DDW-081 8X DVD+R/RW(1) | Nu DDW-081 DVD-RW(2) | NuTech DDW-081 8X DVD-RW(3) | TDK Indi DVD 880N 8X DVD±RW || Iomega Mini 128 MB USB 2.0 Drive (German) | PlexusCom BioDisk Biometric USB Flash Drive



• Video - Video Card roundup(1) | Video Card roundup (2) | Albatron GeForceFX 5900XT(1) | Albatron GeForceFX 5900XT 128MB(2) | Chaintech GeForceFX 5700 Ultra | GalaxyZeus GeForceFX 5900XT | Leadtek GeForceFX 5900XT 128MB | MSI GeForceFX 5700 256MB(1) | MSI GeForceFX 5700(2) | nVidia GeForceFX 5700 Ultra 128MB GDDR3 (1) | nVidia GeForceFX 5700 Ultra 128MB GDDR3 (2) | nVidia GeForceFX 5700 Ultra 128MB GDDR3(3) | nVidia GeForceFX 5700 Ultra GDDR3 | MSI GeForceFX 5900XT (1) | MSI GeForceFX 5900XT(2) | Sparkle GeForceFX 5900XT 128MB | XFX GeForceFX 5950 Ultra 256MB || Asus P4R800-V Deluxe Radeon 9100IGP | ATi Radeon All-In-Wonder 9600XT (video) | ATi Radeon All-In-Wonder 9600 | Asus Radeon 9600XT | ATi Radeon 9600XT | Gigabyte Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB | Gigabyte Radeon 9600XT | HIS Radeon 9600XT | Sapphire Radeon 9800SE 128MB(1) | Sapphire Radeon 9800XT(2) || Compro VideoMate Live USB 2.0 | Transcend Xabre 400



• Monitor/TV - Samsung HLN617W TV | Samsung 172X LCD | Samsung SyncMaster 173MW Widescreen LCD | Samsung SyncMaster 192MP 19" LCD | Samsung SyncMaster 213T LCD | Nebula Electronics DigiTV USB Hub | ViewSonic VP171b LCD | Voom HDTV Satellite TV



• Cooling - Athlon XP Cooler roundup | Fan roundup | Intel Prescott Cooler | Acousti Products AcoustiCase C6607 Case | AeroCool HT-101 Cooler(1) | AeroCool HT-101(2) | Akasa AK670cu s478 Cooler | Antec Overture Piano Black Media Case | Arctic-Cooling VGA Silencer | Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound | Chieftec BX-02 Tower Case | Coolmax X Notebook Cooler | CoolerMaster Jet 4 Cooler | CoolerMaster Musketeer 2 Fan Controller | CoolerMaster ATC-110B-SX1 |  CrazyPC/Thermaltake Purepower 480W PSU | EverCool K802-715 AMD Athlon 64 Cooler | Gigabyte GH-PCU21-VG 3D Cooler | Gigabyte PCU31-VH P4-K7-K8 Cooler | Global Win Silent Stream | OCZ Thermal Paste | Prometeia Mach II | Spire WhisperRock IV | Scythe Kamakaze Cooler | StarTech HDDPro Hard Disk Cooler | Thermalright NB-1 Cooler | ThermalTake Silent Boost K8 Cooler | Thermaltake Polo 735 Extreme 3-in-1 Cooler | Thermaltake Smart Case Fan II | Thermaltake Extreme Giant III Cooler | Titan TTC-HD12 Hard Drive Cooler | TTIC-NPH-101 P4 Cooler | TweakMonster Fan Bracket | Swiftech MCX-478V vs Zalman CNPS-7000Cu | Thermal TI-RV108TN Cooler | Thermalright SP-97 Cooler | VapoChill XE Xtreme Edition | Vantec Spectrum Fan Card | Zalman Reserator | Zalman ZM-NB47J Northbridge Cooler | Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu Cooler



• WaterCooling - WaterCooler roundup | Alphacool Medium WaterCooler (German) | Cool Sprinter Inline 12V v2.5 WaterCooler | D-TEK Spiral Waterblock | Evercool WC-201 WaterCooler(1) | Evercool Water Cooler WC-201 Kit(2) | Koolance CPU and GPU Waterblock | Koolance GPU-180-L06 GPU Water Block | Koolance CPU-300-V10 WaterBlock | OcLabs CPU Waterblock | PolarFlo SF Water Block and GPU block | Swiftech MCW5000-A | WC-201 Watercooling Kit | Zalman ZM-WB2 WaterBlock



• Case - Aluminum vs. Steel Cases - Cooler or Not? | 3rsystem R101 Case | 3RSystems Design R101 Case (German) | Antec Super Lanboy(1) | Antec Super Lanboy Case(2) | Antec Super LANBOY Case(3) | Ahanix Black Knight Case(1) | Ahanix Black Knight Mid-Tower Case(2) | Beantech Igloo9 Case (German) | CasEdge Diabolic Minotaur Mid-Tower Case | Case4u Mona Designer ATX Mid-Tower Computer Case | Chieftec CS-601 DX-01BD-U-OP (German)| Colorcase Case (German) | Coolermaster WaveMaster TAC-T01 Aluminum Silver Case | Enermax ATX CS-3088TA-B3A Case | Enermax CS-800TA Case | Global Win GAT002 Case | Guardian Gamers Case | Kingwin KT-424 Aluminum Case | Lian Li PC-60 Case | Maxtop Domino Type II CSF-800 Case | MountainMods U2-UFO PR LE Cube Casec | NZXT Guardian Mid Tower Case | SilverStone SST-TJ02 Glacier ATX Mid-Tower Case | Silverstone SST-LC02 | SilverStone Gloria SST-TJ04 Case(1) | SilverStone Gloria TJ-04 Case(2) | SinoTech Zeus Midi Champ | Thermaltake Xaser V Damier Case | Thermaltake Xaser V Damier V5000D Mid-Tower Case | UV Reactive Acrylic Case | Vantec Iceberg 4 Cooler | WinGo V7000D Gaming Tower



• PSU/UPS - Enermax Noisetaker 475W PSU | Fortron Noiseblocker Edition 400W PSU (German) | Jaguar 450W PSU | Levicom Visible Power 500W PSU |  PCPower&Cooling TurboCool Deluxe 510W PSU | Raidmax 400w Blue Aluminum PSU | SeaSonic Super Tornado 400W PSU (1) | Sea Sonic Super Tornado 400W PSU (2) | Super Flower SF-450TS 14cm Titanium 450W PSU (German) | Zalman ZM400B-APS 400W PSU (1) | Zalman ZM400B-APS 400W PSU (2)



• Sound - Hercules Muse Pocket USB Soundcard | M-Audio Firewire 410 Mobile Recording Interface | Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro(1) | Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS(2) | Turtle Beach's New Sound Cards || Altec Lansing MX5021 Speakers | I-O Magic Sound Assault 5.1 Headphone | Logitech Z-560 Speaker System | Plantronics DSP-300 Multimedia Headset | Plantronics CS60 Wireless | Portable Digital Audio Guide | Sicuro 2.1 RW-350XL Gaming Speakers | Speed-Link Medusa 5.1 Surround Headset | Zalman 5.1 Headphone (1) | Zalman ZM-RS6F Theatre 6 Surround Sound Headphones (2) | Zalman Theatre 6 Headphones (3)



• Peripheral - Mouse roundup | Auravision Lazermouse | Bluetake BT500 Bluetooth Mouse | Epox Bluetooth Barton Series Keyboard (German) | Genius KB-19e NB Keyboard (German) | Gyration Ultra GT Compact Keyboard Suite(1) | Gyration Ultra GT Compact Keyboard Suite(2) | Ideazon Keyboard and Crossfire Keyset | Logitech Netplay Controller (PS2) | Logitech Dual Action GamePad | Logitech IO Personal Digital Pen | Razer Viper Gaming Mouse(1) | Razer Viper Mouse(2) | Saitek R440 Force Feedback Racing Wheel || Mouse Pads Go Glass and Steel | Giganta Ray Mousepad  | GlidePad Podium(1) | Glidetapes Podium Mauspad(2) | Ricochet Everglide Mauspad | Vantec Spectrum Mouse Pad | XTrac Ripper Gaming Mousepad



• Network - Compex NetPassage 26G Wireless Router | Epox Bluetooth Device roundup | SMC 2304WBR-AG Wireless Router | StarTech 11Mbit Cardbus



• Modding - Bonzai Mods Custom Hand Sculpted Fan Grilles | Crystalfontz 634 20 X 4 USB LCD | Custom Cutting Your Computer Case | Custom GlowBus Guide | ElWire Modding Kit | Enermax Ultimate Controller | Enermax UC-SST8 Security Screws | Lamp Electronics Dual Bulb CCFL Kit | Matrix Orbital MX212 LCD | Matrix Orbital MX222 USB LCD | Mountain Mods U2-UFO Solid Top | Silverstone Eudemon Fan Controller | SilverStone FMC3XW FanController | Sunbeam CCFL Tubes and LED Fan Grills | Sunbeam Dual UV Reactive UV CCFL 80mm Fan Grill | Thermaltake Xray Lighter/Cup Holder(1) | Thermaltake X-ray Cigarette Lighter/Cup Holder(2) | Thermaltake Xray | Voyeurmods Window Etching | UV Reactive PSU Connector Kits | UV Acrylic PSU Mod | Vantec Cable Sleeving Kit



• Miscelanous -
 Allen Concepts KeyKatcher | Best Store Portable 7 in 1 Memory Card Reader | Crucial 7-in-1 Card Reader | Eksitdata HDD Anti-Vibration Rubber Pad | PNY Technologies Card Reader | StreamZap PC Remote


• Notebook, Camera, MP3 players -
 Al Tech AnyDrive Car MP3 | Actiontec Wireless Digital Media Player | Asus S5200NE Notebook | Creative Zen Xtra 30GB MP3 Player | Dell Latitude D600 Laptop | Fujitsu S6130 Centrino Notebook | Gateway 610XL Media Center PC | Mambo 6-in-1 Digital MP3 Player | Oregon Scientific DS6628 Flashcam | Sony Ericsson 2004 Phone Models | The Notebook PowerUp Guide | Toshiba Portégé R100 Laptop | Vmax V-330 and Sunrich Technology MP3 Players

• MSBlast epidemic far larger than believed - New data from Microsoft suggests that at least 8 million Windows computers have been infected by the MSBlast, or Blaster, worm since last August--many times more than previously thought. Though Microsoft believes the total number of users infected by the worm is likely closer to the higher, 16 million, tally, the 8 million figure may provide a more solid indication of the minimum number of systems hit. The larger number may include systems counted more than once, as busy computers users declined to deal with the worm immediately, or canceled the process once it had begun, only to return to Windows Update later. Once those systems were disinfected and patched, however, they would not be re-counted. Microsoft did not track what systems, specifically, used the tool, just that it was used.
• Ecuadoran police destroy 60,000 pirated CDs - Ecuadoran authorities used a steam roller to pulverize 60,000 illegal CD copies (photo) of films, music, computer games and software in a Quito park before two dozen protesting street sellers from whom the merchandise was seized. Authorities are awaiting a court order to destroy another 80,000 pirated compact discs, an official said.
• Microsoft agrees to pay Sun $1.6bn - Microsoft is to pay Sun Microsystems $1.6bn to settle antitrust and patent issues. The two companies have agreed to pay royalties for using each other's technology, with Microsoft making an upfront payment of $350m and Sun to make payments when this technology is incorporated into its server products.
• Off-topic: US fingerprints 'allied' visitors - A US requirement for visitors to be fingerprinted and photographed is being expanded to include citizens from America's closest allies. The move will affect visitors from 27 countries - including the UK, Japan and Australia - whose nationals are able to visit the US without a visa. The change in the US-Visit programme is due to take effect by 30 September.
• Off-topic: Vampire Bats Kill 13 People in Brazil -  Rabies-carrying vampire bats killed at least 13 people in a remote Amazon town in Brazil's northern state of Para last month, authorities said on Friday.  The state health care department said the thumb-sized creatures had attacked about 300 people -- an unusually high number -- since March 2 in the riverside Portel area, next to the world's biggest estuarine archipelago of Marajo. Wow!
• Off-topic: Probe eyes key concept of physics - Yesterday, the space agency announced that Gravity Probe B is finally ready for launch on April 17. Its goal is to help prove one of the most confounding concepts in physics: the strange twist in space-time predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity.
• Longhorn beta delayed to 2005 - Microsoft is delaying the rollout of the beta of its Longhorn operating system until early next year in order to focus on improving security in its Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2). The beta of Longhorn - the successor to Windows XP - was supposed to be distributed before the end of this year, but has now been moved back because its developers have been shifted onto the SP2 project.
• Google's Web mail no joke - Google has released a test version of a new Web-based e-mail service called Gmail that will provide up to a gigabyte of storage and serve ads based on the content of messages. Google's decision to begin testing a free, ad-supported Web-based e-mail service this week was so far out of character for the search giant that many people thought the announcement was an April Fools' Day hoax.
• Photographic memories - Your daughter's first smile. Your son's joy the first time he catches a ball. The wink your favorite uncle always gave you, but that he'd never do on camera. Spontaneous, unguarded, fleeting -- they're often the moments in our lives we most want to photograph. But these moments are also those we frequently miss -- gone before we could reach for a camera. Hewlett-Packard researchers in the U.K. are working on a camera that's always on, recording everything you see and letting you go back later and decide what's actually photo-worthy.
• Pioneer to produce 50GB Blu-ray technique with electron beam - Pioneer has announced it has jointly developed a high precision electron beam recoder (EBR) that should result in 50 GB Blu-ray discs on one side on 12 cm. (CD/DVD size) discs. The company is using an electron beam instead of the conventional laser beam to record information to the disc.
• Taiwanese makers co-developing double-layer DVDs with international brands - Leading international brands of DVD burners are co-developing, rather than adopting an OEM relationship, with Taiwanese manufacturers to produce single-sided double-layer DVD discs, according to Taiwanese optical disc makers. Philips will begin marketing its 8x DVD+R DL (dual-layer) burners in Europe this month and Sony will launch its 8x DVD-R DL burners in the following month, the Taiwanese makers indicated. Sony has quoted its 8x DVD-R DL at US$230 per unit and US$330 for an external model. Single-sided double-layer DVD-R discs are priced at US$5-6, Taiwanese makers pointed out. Philips and Ricoh have not yet announced their retail prices for 8x DVD+R DL burners and discs, they added.
• Quiet PCs With No Compromise - PCMag tested  $2230 Hush ATX-Business PC and  $3750 Voodoo Rage F-50 with PC WorldBench 4 and performed sound tests both with the PCs on idle and with intense hard-drive activity. Unlike many prior quiet PCs, the two they saw used mainstream, fairly powerful CPUs. The Hush, with a 2.8-GHz Pentium 4 and 512MB of RAM, earned a PC WorldBench 4 score of 122; the Voodoo had a 2-GHz Athlon 64 3200+ and 1GB of RAM, and scored 138. Both were on a par with PCs in their processor class, so you won't have to compromise performance for quiet.
• Philips KEY019 Key Ring Camcorder review - If you are looking for a full-featured MP3 player, camcorder, or camera, the KEY019 isn't for you. The camera doesn't have a zoom or a flash, the MP3 player lacks a playlist function, and the device got a bit warm after you shot 20 minutes of video. It offers the basic fun of all of these gadgets; you can take snapshots, record spontaneous moments on video, and carry along a few of your favorite tunes to boot.
• Samsung SyncMaster 173MW Widescreen Multifunction LCD Monitor - The 173MW follows this trend by working flawlessly and not having one problem other than the substandard gaming. But, you have to remember, poor gaming on an LCD is common and they are not meant for this purpose in the first place. If an LCD monitor does game well then you can consider it a bonus.
• FireWire 800 put to the Test -  THG take a  look at FireWire's robustness, its performance as a LAN network protocol and its data-transfer future.
• Logitech Dual Action Gamepad review - DesignTechnica has posted a review of the Logitech Dual Action Gamepad: "While the Logitech Dual Action Controller appears to be the perfect game pad for the PC and will definitely appeal to those on a budget, we have to warn you to stay away from it. The problems we experienced after a week of testing were not isolated to our three test game pads and people all over the Internet are reporting the same issues."
• Macromedia Director MX 2004 first look - Aimed at professional multimedia, Web, game, and even enterprise developers, Macromedia Director MX 2004 adds polish and new reach to an already powerful multimedia authoring tool. This strong release features support for new media file types, better Flash integration, and several key user interface improvements.
• Diagnosing Bad Memory - Having problems figuring out if your system is plagued with bad RAM or DDR? PCstats walks you though the steps to diagnose bad RAM.
• How Change the Volume Licensing Product Key on a Windows XP SP1-Based Computer - This article (published last year, but still useful) describes how to change the Windows XP product key in a Volume Licensing installation. Because of changes in Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1), Windows XP-based computers that use a leaked product key that is known to be available to the general public may not be able to install SP1 or automatically obtain updates from the Windows Update Web site.
• GPU Comparison Guide Rev. 2.0 - Adrian's Rojak Pot let us know he has posted Revision 2.0 of his GPU Comparison Guide.
• MAME 0.81 - A new version MAME is available for download.
• VideoToolBox 0.9.1.39 - VideoToolBox is a Freeware which aim is to detect codec required by AVI, MKV, QT, etc etc files.
• SimpleDivX - SimpleDivX is a powerfull frontend utilizing the latest version of mpeg2avi and supporting many video formats like 3ivx,xvid & divx and audio formats including ogg/mp3/ac3. Easy enough for an encoding novice, but customizable enough to suit encoding vetrans.
• Plextor Updates - PX-W4012TA V1.06 firmware, PXInfo V1.22, CDVDInfo V1.22.
• KlipFolio 2.5 - Serence KlipFolio (download) is a free information delivery and notification application that lets you view and manage Klip information services right on your desktop.
• GAIM 0.76 - Gaim (download) is a multi-protocol instant messaging client for Linux, BSD, MacOS X, and Windows.
• TVTool 9.6.2.0 (SHW) - 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.
• Fresh UI 7.04 - Fresh UI is your Windows tweaking tool. What's new: hidden settings for Processors, Motherboard and Graphics card. Just install it over the old version you have.
• NetLimiter 1.30 - You can use NetLimiter (download) to set download/upload transfer rate limits for applications or even single connection and monitor their internet traffic. Along with this unique feature, Netlimiter offers comprehensive set of internet statistical tools.

• Unreal 3 Engine Movie - The developers of Epic showed a first video of the fire-new unreal 3 engine to the Games of this year Developer Conference in the hiding. That was abgefilmt with a Handcam and circulated now in the InterNet.
• GNOME 2.6 -  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
• Kerio Personal Firewall 4.0.14 - Kerio Personal Firewall (KPF) 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.
• UltraFXP 1.07 - UltraFXP (download) is an FTP client for Microsoft® Windows. It can transfer files from FTP servers directly to and from your local hard drive, or transfer files between FTP sites (site to site transfer).
• WinAmp 5.03 - WinAmp is an audio player that can handle audio CDs, MP3 audio files and streaming audio broadcasts. It combines extensive functionality with an intuitive interface. WinAmp features a playlist editor and a 10-band graphic equalizer with user-definable presets that can automatically load specific files. It also includes Windows Media Technology 4.0 input/output support and the industry-standard Fraunhofer MP3 decoder. This download no longer includes VIS/DSP plug-ins; you can download them separately.
• XP-AntiSpy version 3.8 - XP-AntiSpy (download) is a little utility that lets you disable some built-in update and authentication "features" in WindowsXP.
• FFDShow MPEG-4 Video Decoder 29-03-2004 - FFDSHOW is a DirectShow decoding filter for decompressing DivX, XviD, WMV, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 movies.
• XviD 1.0 Final  - Changes since 1.0.0 RC3 (Ni Hao): xvidcore GMC 2 warp point fix Minor postproc code fixes. Motion Vector clipping fix for stressing test cases. VFW frontend Multiple instance memory leak fixed. Some other minor changes.
• A-Tuner 1.8.28.5664 - A-Tuner is a small tool for changing Anti-Aliasing (including all unofficial modes), Anisotropic Filtering, Vsync, MipMap LOD (Level Of Detail) Bias settings on your ATI and Nvidia cards and should work with Nvidia Detonators 23.11 - 56.64 and ATI Catalyst 3.0 - 4.3 for Windows 98/ME/2000/XP.
• nVidia System Utility 1.08 - Supported products: nForce 220, nForce 220D, nForce 415 and nForce 420D, nForce2 and nForce2 400, nForce2 Ultra and  nForce2 Ultra 400, nForce2 400R and nForce2 Ultra 400Gb, nForce3 150 and nForce3 PRO 150, nForce3 250, nForce3 250Gb and nForce3 PRO 250.Check it out!
• nForce drivers (IDE v4.12 & Audio v4.31) - AUDIO | IDE (thanks Blooduk) Release Date is April 1, 2004 and it's not even a joke! :)
  

• File sharers outside the US now targeted with writs - The music business in Europe has started trying to sue online song sharers, with a raft of writs fired off in the direction of uploaders in Denmark, Germany, Italy and, um, Canada, today. A body representing the music industry, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) targeted 247 alleged illegal file-sharers, charging individuals with "illegally making available hundreds of music tracks for copying, transmission and distribution via file-sharing services". In related news, the researchers behind a major new statistical study claim that the Internet music piracy is not responsible for declining CD sales.
• Microsoft's South Korean site defaced - Microsoft's South Korean network defaced by hackers who exploited a misconfiguration in the site's Frontpage Extensions. According to the website defacement archive, Zone-H.org the site was turned over by bunch of boys from Brazil going by the name of c0derz. 
• Linux vs. Windows: Which Is More Secure? - In a new report, Is Linux More Secure Than Windows? from Forrester Research Inc., based in Cambridge, Mass., Computing Infrastructures Senior Analyst Laura Koetzle finds that both Windows and Linux can be deployed securely. Microsoft Corp., however, fixes security problems the quickest - which is a good thing, since it also has the most major security holes.
• MPlayer - HTTP parsing vulnerability -  A remotely exploitable buffer overflow vulnerability was found in MPlayer. A malicious host can craft a harmful HTTP header ("Location:"), and trick MPlayer into executing arbitrary code upon parsing that header.
• Web Application Worms: Myth or Reality? - Imperva's Application Defense Center (ADC) has released a new white paper. The new paper demonstrates the feasibility of launching worms that attack custom Web application software automatically. These methodologies leverage common Web search engine technologies to achieve the characteristics of a worm: anonymous origin, automated discovery of vulnerable sites, automated exploit and self-propagation. The paper is based on the the research, led by Amichai Shulman, the company's CTO, that was conducted by Imperva's Application Defense Center (ADC).
• Off-topic: Microsoft Cancels Sports Video Games for Autumn  - Microsoft on Tuesday said it will not release new versions of its sports video games this fall in a move Wall Street saw as opening the door to deeper ties with industry leader Electronic Arts Inc.  Since introducing its Xbox game player in 2001, Microsoft has struggled to gain share in the intensely competitive sports video games market, and EA has shunned Xbox Live, Microsoft's online gaming service over concerns about its financial model. A Microsoft spokesman said three titles that had been planned to be released annually -- "NFL Fever," "NBA Inside Drive" and "NHL Rivals" -- were affected, as were three other titles -- "Links," "Top Spin" and "Amped" -- that were not necessarily on an annual release schedule. Those six titles were exclusive to Microsoft's Xbox video game console. Another sports game, "RalliSport Challenge 2," is still on track for a May release
• Off-topic: Waiter, There's a Drug in My Rice - The California Rice Commission on Monday approved a biotech company's request to grow the state's first crop genetically modified to contain a drug. The rice is genetically modified to produce two human proteins that fight infection: lactoferrin and lysozyme. Some rice growers and environmental groups oppose the project, saying the rice could contaminate regular crops and damage the export market.
• Off-topic: Future travel: How will we get around? - Nasa scientists say their experimental X-43A jet has the potential to make the world a much smaller place. It has already led to predictions that passenger planes will one day fly from the UK to Australia in two hours. But apart from the huge cost implications, governments are increasingly sensitive to environmental concerns and may resist the use of technology that could harm the planet.
• Off-topic: Vodka and beer to power batteries - According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch a university student looked no further than the bottom of his glass to develop a cell phone or laptop computer fuel cell using vodka, beer or any other ethanol-based substance.  St. Louis University student Nick Aker and an assistant chemistry professor Shelley Minteer developed the biofuel cell in class. Akers said that once the biofuel cell is charged, it could run a cell phone for a week or a laptop all day before needing another drink.
• Bulldog chases SDSL up to 4Mbps - Broadband service provider Bulldog Communications today switched on its 4Mbps Symmetric DSL (SDSL) service covering a number of major British cities. The broadband service, priced from L100.41 a month with a L495 connection fee, is available in cities including London, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield, Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Sterling, through Bulldog's local loop unbundled network. Bulldog plans to increase coverage over the next 12 months, particularly to the south east.
• Sony studio bets on Blu-Ray; Nokia mixes radio, TV and cellular - A studio affiliated with Sony Corp. on Monday (March 29) became the first to officially commit to launching its new titles on the Blu-ray high definition disk format. Meanwhile, a new business unit of Nokia said it is developing separate services that mix cellular data with FM radio and digital broadcast TV. Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment will launch all its new titles on Blu-ray disks by early 2006 when the format is officially released, said Benjamin Feingold, president of the movie studio that is an affiliate of Sony Corp.
• Fujitsu debuts 10-Gbit Ethernet switch - Fujitsu Microelectronics America Inc. officially unveiled a 10-Gbit Ethernet switch IC at electronicaUSA Tuesday (March 30). The company made special efforts to keep volume costs of the MB87Q3070 under $1000 a chip, by keeping protocol support to Layer 2 only.
• AMD Delivers Another Inexpensive 64-bit CPU - Sunnyvale, California-based chipmaker AMD added the Athlon 64 2800+ processor for desktops into its technical documentation in early March. The 2800+ chips run at 1.80GHz, incorporate 512KB of L2 cache and feature single-channel memory controller. Thermal and electrical specifications of the Athlon 64 2800+ are the same as those of other PGA754 chips from AMD. The company quotes the new microprocessor at $178 price-point in for business quantities, the same price tag as the least expensive Intel Pentium 4 with 800MHz QPB and HT technology.
• Cebit 2004 in 7 hours - The Madshrimps have their picture report up from Cebit 2004 - Watercooling, Phase-Change, flashy cases, new motherboards, PCX, miniPC´s and a wide range of gadgets can be seen in this article which consists of over 150 high quality photos!
• SFF Roundup - Cebit 2004 - check it out!
• Intel Celeron 2.8GHz review - The Celeron is high on MHz but low on performance. Just ensure that you're not pulled in by the myth that MHz means everything. If you hear the words 'Intel 2.8GHz processor' in some fancy advert with a PC at an unbelievable price, just do yourself a favour and look at the smallprint carefully.
• Creative Labs MuVo TX: MP3 in the Fast Lane - The MuVo TX, like the NX, is an ultra-compact MP3 player based on a unique concept. The module can be used on its own for storage, or as a portable player when attached to the battery unit. This new version with USB 2.0 stands out for its ergonomics, smaller size and sound quality combined with greater speed.
• HP LaserJet 3030 All-in-One - If you want the speed and text quality a laser printer provides, but require more versatility-for scanning, faxing, and copying-the HP LaserJet 3030 ($499) with its flatbed scanner and automatic document feeder is a good choice where printing demands are light to moderate. The quality of graphics and photo output, however, is less than ideal.
• The GPU Comparison Guide - Adrian's Rojak Pot let us know he  has posted the GPU Comparison Guide.
• Home Networking: From the Ground Up - The following pages take you on a tour of Bruce and Marge's home and discuss the networking possibilities of the home office, living room, two upstairs bedrooms, and kitchen, as well as the backyard and boat dock.
• Migrating from Windows to Linux, Part 1: Preparation - Want to switch to Linux, but don't know where to begin? In Part I of Migrating from Windows to Linux, THG will help you prepare for the big move. Step-by-step instructions and printable checklists will ensure your happy and safe journey into Linux.
• Linux Kernel Comparison: 2.6.4 vs. 2.4.25 - 2CPU have published their Linux Kernel Comparison: 2.6.4 vs. 2.4.25.
• SP6 for VB 6.0, VC++ 6.0 and VSS 6.0d - Microsoft has released Service Pack 6 for Visual Basic 6.0, Visual C++ 6.0 with Visual Source Safe 6.0d
• Ultrasound 1.0 - Monitoring and Troubleshooting tool for FRS - Ultrasound is a monitoring and troubleshooting tool for the File Replication service (FRS). FRS is used to replicate files and folders in the SYSVOL file share on domain controllers and files in Distributed File System (DFS) targets. Ultrasound is a powerful tool to measure the health of FRS replica sets by providing health ratings and historical information about replica sets. Ultrasound also allows administrators to monitor the progress of replication and detect problems that can cause replication to become backlogged or stopped.
  BitTornado 0.1.1 (SHAD0W's Experimental BitTorrent Client) - A new version of BitTornado is available for download.
• SpywareBlaster 3.0 - SpywareBlaster doesn't scan and clean for spyware - it prevents it from ever being installed. The SpywareBlaster database contains information on these known spyware Active-X controls. Make sure you run the Check For Updates feature frequently to get the latest database! (And make sure you check the new items to protect your system against them!)
• MRU-Blaster 1.5 - 3/28/2004 - MRU-Blaster is a program made to do one large task - detect and clean MRU (most recently used) lists on your computer. These MRU lists contain information such as the names and/or locations of the last files you have accessed. They are located ALL OVER your registry, and for almost ANY file type. By looking at these MRU lists, someone could determine what files you opened/saved/looked at, what their file names were, and much more! (And, in many cases, the lists are displayed in drop-down menus automatically.)
• Foobar 0.8.1 Beta 3 - Foobar2000 is an advanced audio player for the Windows platform. Some of the basic features include ReplayGain support, low memory footprint and native support for several popular audio formats.
• Macromedia Shockwave Player 10.0.0.210 - Macromedia Shockwave Player lets you enjoy multimedia games, learning applications, and product demonstrations on the Web using exciting new 3D technology.
• Media Player Classic 6.4.8.2 - Window Media Player Classic is an enhanced version of Windows Media Player 6.4. This program can play DVDs with help of external decoders like WinDVD and it can also play Realmedia files, if realplayer one is installed.
• Google Toolbar 2.0.110 - A new version of Google Toolbar is available for download.
• Asterisk Key 6.3 - Asterisk Key shows passwords hidden under asterisks (Windows)
• Central Brain Identifier 7.0 - An official beta release of CBId 7.0 (download) with the full support of AMD64 processors is available for download! Now the "Brain" uses a new driver for 9x/NT Windows platform. Added multiplier/VCore change feature and P-Rating calculation for the AMD64 processors. Central Brain Identifier is designed to provide detailed recognition and obtaining the most complete extended information for all AMD processors.
• EAX 4.0 ADVANCED HD Driver Patch Update for Sound Blaster Audigy & Audigy 2 -  Download update for Audigy 2  ||  Download update for Audigy 1. You should only install this update after you have downloaded and installed the Audigy Web Update files released on 19 November 2003. (thanks Duncan).

• NetSky variant a greater threat than thought - NetSky.Q was upgraded from a level 2 to level 3 threat on the security firm's five-point rating system. The company said it has received 379 reports of the worm since its discovery Sunday.
• Cisco Security Notice: Exploit for Multiple Cisco Vulnerabilities - Proof-of-concept code has been publicly released that exploits multiple previous vulnerabilities in various Cisco products. The following list of vulnerabilities taken verbatim from the exploit code are affected. Included after each is a URL which may be referenced for more information regarding each vulnerability where Cisco has previously released a security advisory or response to address the issue. Customers should take steps to ensure that they have addressed each of these either via a software upgrade or workarounds in place as appropriate in order to mitigate any risk from this new exploit code.
• Bush promises universal broadband access - George Bush wants all US citizens to have broadband Internet access by 2007. Speaking in Albuquerque on Friday, 26 March, the American president gave no details as to how this would be achieved. But he did say consumers need more choice.
• Off-topic: NASA jet flies at seven times speed of sound - An unmanned supersonic jet shattered the speed record for plane flight by flying at more than seven times the speed of sound on Saturday. NASA's X-43A plane flew high above the Pacific for 11 seconds using an engine which expels hot exhausts to propel it forward like a rocket, before gliding for several minutes and plunging into the ocean. It was the first successful demonstration of acceleration by a supersonic combustion ramjet or "scramjet" engine.
• Xbox Price $149.99 On Tuesday - Microsoft sent over a press release officially announcing that beginning on Tuesday the price of their Xbox console will drop from $179.99 to $149.99 (US, Canada, Australia) Now, will Sony follow suit on the PS2?
• Indian 'Simputer' to bridge digital divide - In a nation where only nine in 1,000 people own a computer, a long-awaited device has finally been launched to bring the poor into the information age. The so-called Simputer, a device which has been discussed and hyped for three years, was finally launched last week in India with a price tag of slightly less than INR10,000 (187 Euro). The Simputer is a bare-bones handheld computer that is designed to allow poorer Indians to access the Web, email and other basic computer functions.
• What Is Bill Gates Thinking? - Gates granted eWEEK an exclusive interview at the VSLive conference in San Francisco last week, where he keynoted on his vision of Seamless Computing.
• Bill Gates: Hardware to Be Nearly Free in 10 Years - Hardware costs will fall sharply within a decade to the point where widespread computing with speech and handwriting won't be limited by expensive technology, Microsoft Corp Chairman Bill Gates said on Monday.  "Ten years out, in terms of actual hardware costs you can almost think of hardware as being free -- I'm not saying it will be absolutely free -- but in terms of the power of the servers, the power of the network will not be a limiting factor," Gates said, referring to networked computers and advances in the speed of the Internet.
• Macromedia flexes Flash muscle - Macromedia released on Monday a new server product intended to expand the use of its Flash format for presenting Web applications. Flex, formerly code-named Royale, allows developers to create scripts in common languages such as Java and .Net and to run them on top of Web applications. Flex breaks them down into a Macromedia dialect of extensible markup language (XML) that can be read by the Flash Player, the widespread Flash client commonly used to spice up Web pages.
• MS to preview WinCE 5.0 - Microsoft is set to release on Monday a beta version of an update to its Windows CE operating system for handheld devices, set-top boxes and other limited-function computing devices. The Technology Preview Kit for Windows CE 5.0, formerly code-named Macallan, will be provided to developers attending the Embedded Systems Conference in San Francisco. Microsoft plans to make it available for download later in the week through its Microsoft Developer Network site for embedded developers.
• Nano work chases self-cooled chips  - Future chips may be self-ventilating, thanks to added microfluidic-like layers that pump heat-laden air off-chip using a classic "corona wind" effect. Purdue University has patented the technique at the nanoscale, and two team members have co-founded a company to commercialize aspects of the cooling system.
  Intel likely to delay 90nm LGA775 processors to June - Despite the appearance at CeBIT of motherboards supporting the LGA775 socket T Pentium 4 processors, sources at Taiwan’s PC makers are claiming that the new 90nm chips will be generally available in June, rather than as originally scheduled in May.
• Kodak Camera Focuses on Images - The nifty little 4-megapixel Kodak EasyShare LS743 packs almost everything a point-and-shoot user could want into a stylish, exceptionally easy-to-use device. The 6-ounce LS743 has a nice, solid feel. The 1.8-inch LCD is sharp but doesn't automatically adjust when the scene is very dark or light, making it difficult to set up shots in those conditions. The unit can accommodate optional SD/MMC cards, and comes with 16MB of built-in memory.
• BFG OC Cards Announced - BFG Technologies announced today that their two newest cards, BFG GeForce FX 5900XT OC and BFG GeForce FX 5500 OC will be faster than standard cards with the same chipset due to BFG's custom "out-of-the-box" overclocking. For example, BFG GeForceFX 5900XT OC ($229.99) features 128 MB DDR memory, 430 MHz core clock (vs. 390 MHz standard), 735 MHz effective memory clock, 23.5 GB memory bandwidth.
• Lite-On LVW-5005 'All Write' DVD Recorder review -  If you're someone that liked the LVW-5001, you're going to love the LVW-5005. With their new DVD recorder, Lite-On has raised the bar for the rest of the industry. Thanks to their new "All Write" technology, the LVW-5005 is the ultimate in versatility. It can write to both DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW media and is the first stand alone DVD writer on the market with the ability to record audio and video directly to CD. While this feature might not appeal to everyone, using a CD rather than an entire DVD just to record a 30 minute TV show is much easier on the wallet.
• OpenOffice 1.1.1 Stable - OpenOffice.org (download Win32 ~ Linux) 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.
• Adobe Reader Speed-Up 1.16 - Adobe Reader Speed-Up significantly decreases the amount of time required for Adobe Reader 6.0 to start by disabling most of the least used plugins. Plugins can be freely enabled and disabled, if required. Currently supports free and full versions of Adobe Acrobat v3.0, v4.0, v4.0.5, v5.0, v5.0 CE, v5.1, v5.5, and Adobe Reader v6.0 and v6.0.1.
• TZ Connection Booster 2.6.0.0 - Connection Booster Wizzard can configure any modem, ADSL, Cable, DSL & LAN connections for maximum performance & faster web surfing, playing online games, downloading files.
• ICQ Lite Edition with Xtras 4.0 Beta - A new beta version of ICQ Lite is available for download.
• K-MP3 v5.6 update - KC Softwares (Ignition, VideoToolbox...) has just released an update of the popular Masstagger + Toolkit for audio files (MP", OGG, MPC,...) called K-MP3.This update is HIGHLY recommended to ALL users because it fixes major bugs in ID3v1 and ID3v2 tags encoding.More details on the official web page
• CPUCooL 7.2.11 - 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.
• Hitachi Feature Tool 1.94  - The Feature Tool (download) allows you to control some of the features in our newer Deskstar and Travelstar high performance ATA hard disk drives. This version adds support for our latest drives (including 48-bit addressing for capacities beyond 128GB).
• Pioneer DVR-A07XL and DVR-107D firmware v1.12 - Here are the download links for the DVR-107D and the DVR-A07XL.
• EAX 4.0 ADVANCED HD Driver Patch Update for Sound Blaster Audigy 2 and Audigy 2 ZS - This update (download) contains additional features and fixes to improve the performance of your Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 or Audigy 2 ZS series audio card. This update requires you to have drivers already installed.

• New Bagel.U a virus of few words - Antivirus software companies are again warning e-mail users about a new version of the popular Bagel virus, which is spreading on the Internet through infected e-mail messages and targeting machines running the Microsoft Corp. Windows operating system. Bagle.U is the 21st version of an e-mail worm that first appeared in January. Unlike earlier versions of the worm, the new variant eschews tricky subject lines or enticing messages, hiding in a file attachment to otherwise blank e-mail messages. Once opened, Bagle.U opens a back door to infected systems, mails copies of itself to e-mail addresses it steals from the user's computer and even launches the Windows Hearts card game, antivirus companies said.
• "Piracy" extradition case rejected -  Magistrate has rejected an application to extradite an Australian man US authorities alleged headed an internet piracy syndicate. Hew Raymond Griffiths, 41, of Berkeley Vale on the NSW Central Coast, was indicted by a grand jury in the state of Virginia last year with one count of criminal copyright infringement and one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement. The US indictment alleged he was a member and later the leader of Drink or Die, a high-profile piracy ring founded in Russia in the 1990s, and later headquartered in the US.
• NannieBot claims leave experts unconvinced - New software claims it can protect children using chatrooms by spotting suspicious adults - but experts are not convinced. The software creates thousands of 'NannieBots' which visit chatrooms, pretending to be human. According to the developer, IT consultant Jim Wightman, the software's conversation is indistinguishable from humans interacting on the internet. If the software detects what it considers to be 'suspicious activity' the police are alerted and the internet address of the suspect user supplied.
• Spam being rapidly outpaced by 'spim'  - While the torrent of unsolicited spam emails continues to rise, it is being far outpaced by the surge in unwanted messages sent to the users of instant messaging programs, analysts have warned. The volume of so-called "spim" is set triple in 2004, according to a new report from the Radicati Group, a technology market research firm in Palo Alto, California. The company projects that 1.2 billion spims will be sent, 70 per cent of which are porn-related. This is a mere trickle compared to the 35 billion spams expected, but the researchers warn that spim is growing at about three times the rate of spam, as spammers adapt their toolkit to exploit a rapidly rising number of new instant messaging (IM) users.
• The DoD's 50 petabytes database - The Department of Defense is known for stretching the boundaries of technology. It's doing that again with a planned database system to hold medical records for 9 million military personnel that could eventually reach a capacity of 50 petabytes of data. To imagine how much data that is, consider what it would amount to in the form of double-spaced text on both sides of a piece of paper: "The stack would reach the moon and back to Earth--twice," estimates Richard Winter, president at database research firm Winter Corp.
• Video game industry faces 'crisis of creativity' -  The video game industry is facing a hardening of the creative arteries as aging gamers' tastes increasingly shift toward sequels and games based on movies, industry participants said this week. With more and more titles chasing the success of their predecessors and content owners digging deep into their libraries to tap older material for quick fail-proof conversion into games, the industry is faced with a question more serious than rhetorical: What's new?
• Sony plays up future of video games - Sony executives still won't say boo about the immediate successor to the company's smash PlayStation 2 game console. But the PlayStation 6 should really rock. Some of the biggest changes, they assert, will center on the way players control and interact with games. Forget mashing the "X" button; future games will use cameras to read your body movements and facial expressions, plus microphones backed by advance speech recognition technology to recognize vocal commands. And perhaps they'll all be crammed into your personal entertainment robot, so the game sensors follow you wherever you go.
• Microsoft shows first demos of Xbox 2 software tools  - Microsoft sent shockwaves across the games industry, showing the first ever real-time demos of the next-gen software tools which will power Xbox 2. The demos, which formed the epicentre of Microsoft's XNA announcement, were presented by Mr Xbox himself J Allard, ably assisted by Lara Fry of the Xbox ATG and Chris Donohue from the Windows division. Demo one was created by High Voltage Software and, entitled 'Rex' showed a creature moving through an empty landscape, mutating at intervals into entirely different entities. The creature is controlled in real-time via Controller S (part of Microsoft's new initiative to standardise controllers across Xbox and Windows platforms) switching from furry yeti, to six-legged insect, to four-legged abomination, to an equally random, undeniably cute, armadillo.
• Nokia to fix sidetalking, swapping with Son of N-Gage - Nokia's Kirsi Kotilainen, head of game developer relations, has promised that N-Gage owners won't look so stupid when making regular phone calls, as the microphone has been repositioned. He's also said that version two will support hot-swapping games cards. The first N-Gage required the phone to be powered down and the battery removed. Nokia argued that TV-based consoles ask the user to reboot, so why not phones? However, this isn't really a sustainable argument any more: Nokia's 9200 'brick' smartphone supported hot-swappable MMCs three years ago; and rivals such as Sendo's SX1 happily perform the trick. Kotailainen also said that the next N-Gage will be backward compatible with the earlier version.
• Sony preps 50GB next-gen Blu-Ray video deck - Sony has committed itself to shipping second-generation consumer-oriented Blu-Ray video recorders by the end of the year, the company said. The new systems will support single-side, dual-layer Blu-Ray rewriteable discs with a total capacity of 50GB. Current Blu-Ray rewriteable discs provide 23GB of storage on a single layer.
• Asus preps Wi-Fi hard drive - Asus is promising to "change your perception on data storage" when it releases what may be the world's first Wi-Fi enabled network-attached hard drive storage system. The WL-HDD is a hard drive enclosure capable of taking any 2.5in ATA-100 hard disk. The enclosure also contains an 802.11g adaptor and antenna, plus a pair of wired 10/100Mbps Ethernet ports.
• Linux Comes to the Desktop - It is almost no longer a question of which applications run on Linux, but instead, which applications do not run on Linux. THG look at heavy-hitter PC OEMs such as HP that have taken the Linux desktop leap during the past few weeks and offer a survey of Linux applications. THG even tell you why you don't want Linux if you're a gamer.
• HP LaserJet 3030 All-in-One  - The middle sibling in a series that includes the HP LaserJet 3015 at the low end and the 3380 at the high end , the HP LaserJet 3030 All-in-One offers almost everything you'll find in its big brother for about $200 less.
• Compex NetPassage 26G Wireless Router Review - Neoseeker take a look at Compex's NetPassage26G Wireless Router.
• LCD Comparison: 17" & 19" Under 20ms - Wide-screen LCD monitors with fast response time have finally arrived. The Samsung SyncMaster 193P offers the first 19" monitor with a less than 20ms PVA panel. Others such as Hitachi, Sharp, Sony and Nec have also stepped up to the 19" plate.
• Nero 6 Ultra Edition vs Roxio Easy Media Creator 7 - Both Easy Media Creator and Nero start off with a screen that lays out all the options. Instead of having to guess which program does what, it's as easy as clicking on "Create DVD" or "Capture video" from a start panel.
• PHP 4.3.5 Final - This is primarily a bug fix release (download), without any new features or additions. PHP 4.3.5 is by far the most stable release of PHP to date and it is recommended that all users upgrade to this release where possible.
• PassMark BurnInTest 4.0 build 1010 - BurnInTest is a software tool that allows all the major sub-systems of a computer to be simultaneously stress tested for endurance, reliability and stability. BurnInTest tests the CPU, hard drives, CD ROMs, sound cards, 2D graphics, 3D graphics, RAM, network connections & printers.
• Fresh Download 6.80 - 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
• XPlite/2000lite 1.2.0229 - With XPlite and 2000lite we give YOU the power to set up YOUR machine the way YOU want! The power to remove unwanted features, the power to remove upgrades that go bad, the power to strip potential security and privacy threats out by the roots.
• CloneDVD 2.0.5.3 - With CloneDVD you can compress your DVDs to fit on a recordable DVD±RW.
• K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 1.01 - The K-Lite Mega Codec Pack includes the K-Lite Codec Pack Full, QuickTime Alternative, Real Alternative and BSplayer.
• K-Lite Codec Pack 2.25 - The K-Lite Codec Pack is a collection of codecs and related tools. Codecs are required to encode and decode (play) audio and video.
• Style XP 2.02 - Style XP Final ( can import, select, and manage Themes, Visual Styles, and Wallpaper. Future versions may support sounds, cursors, screensavers, logon UIs, and packages of all the above.
• VisualRoute 8.0d - VisualRoute (download Win32 ~ Linux) delivers the functionality of key Internet "ping," "whois," and "traceroute" tools, in a high-speed visually integrated package. VisualRoute automatically analyzes Internet connectivity and performance problems, displaying the results in an easy to understand table and on a world map. In addition, VisualRoute has the unique ability to identify the geographical location of routers, servers, and other IP devices.
• Avant Browser 9.01 Build 121 - Avant Browser is a fast, stable, user-friendly, versatile web browser. Avant Browser is a multi-window browser which features with many functions such as Pop-up Stopper, Built-in Google Searching, Safe Recovery, Integrated Cleaner and Advanced Browsing Options.
• QuickTime Alternative 1.32 - QuickTime Alternative will allow you to play QuickTime files (.mov, .qt and other extensions) without having to install QuickTime Player. It also supports QuickTime content that is embedded in webpages. The QuickTime plugins include iPIX and QuickTimeVR. The QuickTime Browser plugin supports Internet Explorer, Opera, Mozilla and Netscape.
• Real Alternative 1.22 - 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. RealMedia .smi and .smil files are not fully supported, only the first part will usually be played. This is a limitation of the current Media Player Classic. The RealMedia Browser plugin supports Internet Explorer, Opera, Mozilla and Netscape.
• ForceWare 56.63 Win2000/XP  - MSI just released a WHQL version of ForceWare 56.63 drivers, one build older than the official NVIDIA drivers. We altered the.inf file to remove some MSI specific installation lines, the drivers should be 100% compatible now.

• Indonesian government plans to stop using pirated software - After Years of using hot software, Indonesia says it is planning to eliminate the use of pirated software in government offices. This is despite the fact that nine months ago it announced a tough copyright law and launched a crackdown on sales of pirated software.
• Germany targets neo-Nazi music - German police have raided the homes of more than 300 people suspected of posting neo-Nazi music files on the internet.  Police say they have seized thousands of compact discs and hundreds of computers in their nationwide raids. Federal Crime Office President Joerg Ziercke warned neo-Nazis used skinhead music to reach out to young people. ;Young people are being targeted and brought into the world of anti-Semitism and hatred of foreigners," he said.
• DOJ criticizes EU's ruling on Microsoft -  The European Commission's order for Microsoft Corp. to ship a version of Windows without the Windows Media Player could stifle innovation and help Microsoft's rivals instead of promoting fair competition, the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust chief said
• Nokia eyes N-Gage turnaround  - Nokia is counting on a few upcoming games to turn around lackluster sales for its N-Gage portable game player.  In an interview at the Game Developers Conference here, Pasi Polonen, director of games publishing for the cell phone giant, blamed slow sales for the device on initial software selection. But Nokia is still confident in the system's prospects, he said.
• Microsoft releases Pocket Streets for Smartphone - The Pocket Streets program - known from Windows XP and Pocket PC versions - now has been ported also to Microsoft smartphone:  Take a map with you wherever you go with Microsoft Pocket Streets for Smartphone, the street-level mapping guide for your Windows Mobile-based Smartphone. Pocket Streets for Smartphone offers great map guide functionality right on your Smartphone. Locate addresses, intersections and points of interest or customize locations by inserting your own pushpins. Download maps of cities in the US, Canada and Western Europe from the Pocket Streets web site, or create your own maps using Microsoft desktop applications MapPoint, Streets & Trips or AutoRoute. Once your maps have been synced to your Smartphone you can access them when you need them most, when you are on the go.
• U.S. students shun computer sciences - Undergraduates in U.S. universities are starting to abandon their studies in computer technology and engineering amid widespread worries about the accelerating pace of offshoring by high-technology employers. A new study, to be published in May, shows there was a dramatic drop-off of enrollment in those fields last year -- 19 percent -- and some educators warn about the potential consequences for America's global competitiveness.
• Dell Fixes Inspiron XPS Flaw - Dell has resumed shipments of its Inspiron XPS system after a problem with the notebook caused the company to hold over deliveries of the notebook until last week. The Inspiron XPS is Dell's first notebook computer aimed exclusively at gaming enthusiasts. According to postings on both the notebookforums.com and Dell forum Web sites, users have been experiencing lock up and display corruption problems with both the Inspiron XPS and the lower-priced Inspiron 9100.
• Rest of the world to wait for iPod - Apple Computer Inc. will delay global sales of its new iPod mini digital music player until July due to stronger-than-expected demand in the United States, Apple said Thursday. Apple began shipping the smaller version of its iPod music player in February. Demand in the United States has outstripped expected supply through the end of June, the company said. Tight supplies of the hard drive at the core of the player forced Apple to delay increasing manufacturing until July, it said.
• Sony launches true electronic book - The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - the real one, not that Douglas Adams novel thingy - just came a step closer. Sony has launched its first electronic book using what it calls "electronic paper". In reality, that means a high pixel density LCD panel. Unlike most 72dpi notebook and monitor panels, the one used in the Sony Librié 1000-EP is a 170dpi job. The display's resolution is 600 x 800. The technology comes to Sony from Philips - the e-book uses Philips' Electronic Paper Display, which is itself based on E-Ink technology. The Librié 1000-EP contains 10MB of memory and includes a Memory Stick Pro slot for extra storage. You get about 500 books on a 512MB Memory Stick, says Sony. But they are likely to be copy-protected - the machine incorporates Sony's Open Magic Gate (OpenMG) DRM system.
• AMD Socket 939 chip launch pinned to 25 May - AMD will officially launch its new 939-pin processor socket on 25 May. However, significant volumes of the Athlon 64 and Athlon 64 FX chips that will use the new packaging many not appear until much later in the year.  Citing sources familiar with AMD's plans, Xbit Labs claims Socket 939 parts will be offered in only limited quantities until Q4. In this context, 'limited' means Q2 shipments of 50,000 939-pin Athlon 64 and FX parts compared to 700,000 754-pin chips.
• Microsoft Introduces Unified Game Development Tool - At the Game Developer’s Conference, Microsoft announced a new software tool for game development that aims to cross-pollinate features between the Xbox and other Windows gaming platforms. Microsoft’s XNA will port certain XBox features over to the Windows and Windows Mobile operating systems, including capabilities like billing, matchmaking, and security from the Xbox Live online service.
• DVDXTREME DVD copy suite announced - DVDXTREME is a complete digital media toolbox that allows you to create, edit, back up, rescue, and share your photos, home video, music, and data with only a few clicks.
• AIDA32 development is finished - As of March 24, 2004 we have decided to discontinue the development project that we all know as AIDA32 (download latest version)
• Apache 2.0.49 - Apache 2.0 (changelog) 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. This has shown to improve the scalability of the Apache HTTP Server significantly in our testing. Apache 2.0 also includes support for filtered I/O. This allows modules to modify the output of other modules before it is sent to the client. We have also included support for IPv6 on any platform that supports IPv6.
• NVSDK 7.0 - NVIDIA empowers real-time developers with the latest graphics technology by providing the NVSDK, a suite of cutting edge content creation, code integration, performance analysis and educational resources.
• RealPlayer 10.0 Final - Build 6.0.12.857 - Helix Powered RealPlayer (download) is the all-in-one digital media player that lets you find anything and play everything. Now also includes an option during setup to install the Real Toolbar for Internet Explorer.
• WinAmp 5.03 Final - WinAmp (download full ~ lite - pro) is an audio player that can handle audio CDs, MP3 audio files and streaming audio broadcasts. It combines extensive functionality with an intuitive interface. WinAmp features a playlist editor and a 10-band graphic equalizer with user-definable presets that can automatically load specific files.
• FFDShow MPEG-4 Video Decoder 25-03-2004 - FFDSHOW is a DirectShow decoding filter for decompressing DivX, XviD, WMV, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 movies.
• 3D Traceroute 1.8.81:231 - Replace all your ugly ping plotters and traceroute programs with a full blown three dimensional traceroute program (download)
• CDBurnerXP version 2.2.3 - There's a new version of the freeware burning application CDBurnerXP available. This new version adds possibility to shut down the PC when writing is finished, fixes an error in the audio ripper, etc.
• RadLinker 1.006 - RadLinker is new tweaker/linker for ATI Radeon based graphics cards.
• TweakOL 3.0 - TweakOL is a standalone utility that allows you to change hidden functions in Microsoft Outlook.
• VideoToolbox v0.9.0.3. - This new version can automatically download codecs required by a video file.
• Codec Pack All in 1 6.0.0.5 - Free-Codecs has updated their bundle to version 6.0.0.5.