• A new version of the Internet worm Bagle causes a global epidemic - The new version of I-Worm.Bagle is similar to its predecessor in many ways. The malicious program spreads via email as an infected file attached to messages. The worm is an executable Windows file of approximately 11KB. The message header reads 'ID x:thanks' and the message body reads 'Yours ID x:Thank', with x in both cases being a random string of characters. Once launched, the worm copies itself to the Windows system directory and registers itself in the system registry auto-run key. In order to confuse the user, the worm also launches Sound Recorder (sndrec32.exe), a standard Windows utility. Following this, Bagle.b attempts to establish a connection with a number of remote sites which are in some way connected with the Trojan proxy server TrojanProxy.Win32.Mitglieder. At the moment, all links to Internet resources where Mitglieder can be downloaded have been deleted, which means that I-Worm.Bagle.b is unable to utilitize this method to increase the speed at which it propagates.
• Code for MSBlast variant posted online - A piece of code that exploits the critical vulnerability for which Microsoft issued a patch only last week has been posted online, raising fears of an imminent MSBlast-style attack. On 10 February, Microsoft released a patch that fixes a networking flaw affecting all Windows XP, NT, 2000 and Windows Server 2003 systems. The company warned users to patch their systems because the vulnerability could be exploited by virus and worm writers. Four days after the patch was released, a piece of code was published on a French Web site that allows anyone to exploit the vulnerability, which means unpatched users can expect to be hit with another MSBlast-type worm.
• Computer Underground Pounds Windows Source Codes - Kaspersky Labs, a leading information security software developer warns users about a new vulnerability in Internet Explorer (5.0, 5.5 and 6.0) and Outlook Express 5.0. The new vulnerability allows cyber-criminals launch malicious programs on breached computers using files in BMP format. The vulnerability was discovered by an unknown individual nicknamed 'GTA' and published on several security web sites. The author provided an example of a possible attack and went on to comment that the proposed scenario was based on a detailed analysis of the Windows source code.
• Microsoft denies IE flaw claim - Microsoft has debunked claims that a new way of attacking its software has been discovered by someone looking at its recently stolen Windows source code. The company said that on Monday it began investigating a "reported exploit" on versions of Internet Explorer, which was "allegedly discovered by an individual studying the leaked source code".  But in a statement Microsoft said the reported exploit was in fact a known, patched, flaw: "This exploit is a known issue that Microsoft had discovered internally and addressed with the latest release of Internet Explorer 6.0 Service Pack 1."
• Order the Windows Security Update CD - The Windows Security Update CD will be shipped to you free of charge. This CD includes Microsoft critical updates released through October 2003 and information to help you protect your PC. In addition, you will also receive free antivirus and firewall trial software. This CD is only available for Windows XP, Windows Me, Windows 2000, Windows 98, and Windows 98 Second Edition (SE). (thanks Bink.nu)
• Google Achieves Search Milestone With Immediate Access To More Than 6 Billion Items - Google Inc.today announced it expanded the breadth of its web index to more than 6 billion items. Google's collection of 6 billion items comprises 4.28 billion web pages, 880 million images, 845 million Usenet messages, and a growing collection of book-related information pages.
• RIAA Radar - The RIAA Radar is a tool that music consumers can use to easily and instantly distinguish whether an album was released by a member of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
• Apple Says It Has 100,000 Orders for iPod Mini - Apple Computer Inc., said on Tuesday it has received 100,000 orders for its iPod mini digital music player, which goes on sale on Friday at Apple's retail outlets, its online store and through resellers.
• Intel plots demise of Ethernet - Chip giant Intel has demonstrated for the first time how it intends to make optical networking as inexpensive as Ethernet. The Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco saw the world's first demonstration of a new silicon optical modulator capable of transmitting data at 50GHz per second, which exceeds the previous speed record by a factor of fifty.
• NVIDIA Introduces PCI Express GPUs - NVIDIA yesterday unveiled the industry’s first top-to-bottom family of PCI Express graphics processing units (GPUs), all designed to take full advantage of the additional bandwidth and features that this new I/O interconnection standard delivers. The new family includes: NVIDIA GeForce PCX 5950, GeForce PCX 5750, GeForce PCX 5300 and GeForce PCX 4300.
• IBM backs 64-bit Intel chip plan - Intel's first 64-bit capable Xeon, code-named Nocona, is due in the second quarter of 2004 for dual-processor systems. IBM's EXA3 chipset requires the more powerful "Potomac" Xeon for systems with four or more processors. Potomac is also due in 2005. Another articles can be found at EETimes and EWeek. Following this "no surprise" announcement about 64bit support in forthcoming Intel products TechPC have decided to write a quick article called "What does 64-bit x86 mean for Intel?"
• Western Digital Media Center review - Backing up a PC's data today generally requires the expensive necessary evil of an external hard drive. Western Digital tries to make life easier with its WM Media Center, a portable storage device with 250 GB of capacity that offers an 8-in-1 card reader with dual-option USB 2.0 and FireWire connectivity. Our tests reveal whether or not the device makes the world of backup storage an easier place in which to live.
• UsenetJunkie v0.1.0 - UsenetJunkie (thanks Joe) is free client that works in a similar fashion to kazaa or other p2p clients (thanks joe).
• ATIs CATALYST v4.2 review - FiringSquad let us know they have posted a review of the new ATI’s CATALYST 4.2 drivers.
• Microsoft SQL Web Data Administrator - Microsoft SQL Web Data Administrator enables you to easily manage your SQL data, wherever you are.
• phpMyAdmin 2.5.6 RC2 - 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.
• PHP 4.3.5 RC3 - PHP 4.3.5RC3 (Win32 ~ Linux) has been released for testing. This will be the last release candidate prior to the final release, so please test it as much as possible.
• Adobe Reader Speed-Up 1.13 - 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, v5.1, v5.5, and Adobe Reader v6.0 and v6.0.1.
• Media Player Classic v6.4.7.8- MPC is a standalone video/music player that can handle a lot of media types, including DVD playback, Ogg audio, RealMedia and Quicktime video
• AnyDVD 3.5.1.1 - AnyDVD allows you to decrypt CSS encrypted DVDs on the fly. Insert your CSS- (Content Scrambling System) and RPC (Region Code Protected) - protected DVD into your DVD drive.
• CloneCD v4.3.2.2 - CloneCD (download) is a powerful CD-Copy program. It writes in Raw mode, which allows it to have total control on the data written. Therefore, it will produce real 1:1 copies of your CDs. This new version contains some minor fixes and improvements.
• InCD v4.1.5.7 -  Ahead has released a new version of their packet writing software InCD.
• Net Transport 1.81 - Net Transport (download) is a fast and powerful file download tool. Net Transport can use multiple threads to download files. If a sites allows multi-threaded downloads, you can expect much faster speeds.
• Central Brain Identifier 6.1.0.1 Beta - Central Brain Identifier is designed to provide detailed recognition and obtaining the most complete extended information for all AMD processors.
• DJBCP Codec Pack 1.4.4 Final - The new final version 1.4.4 of the DJBCP Codec Pack is available for download.
• kX Project Drivers 5.10.0.3537 Beta - The kX Audio Driver (download) is an independent WDM (Windows Driver Model) driver for all EMU10K1 and EMU10K2-based soundcards manufactured by Creative Technology Ltd. and/or E-mu Sytems Inc., including the SoundBlaster Live! series, the E-mu Audio Production Studio (APS) card, and the Audigy series of cards.
• ATI Radeon DNA-Drivers v2.1.4.2a - These are modified/hacked ATI Catalyst drivers (DNA-Drivers homepage) 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.

• MSIE Integer Overflow in Processing Bitmap Files Lets Remote Users Execute Arbitrary Code - A vulnerability was reported in Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) version 5. A remote user can execute arbitrary code on the target system. It is reported that a remote user can create a specially crafted bitmap file that, when loaded by IE, will trigger an integer overflow and execute arbitrary code. The author states that this flaw was found by reviewing the recently leaked Microsoft Windows source code. The flaw reportedly resides in "win2k/private/inet/mshtml/src/site/download/imgbmp.cxx" (leaked Windows source code). The report indicates that IE 5 is affected but that IE 6 is not affected.
• Police arrest Forces Reunited 'hacker' - Police have questioned a Lancashire man suspected of hacking the Forces Reunited Web site. The unnamed 29 year-old from Chorley, Lancashire was arrested and questioned last week by Wiltshire Police probing a cyber attack against the military equivalent of the popular Friends Reunited. After questioning, the man was released on police bail pending further inquiries, reports. A number of computers were seized from the man’s address and will now undergo forensic examination. Wiltshire Police have issued a statement on the arrest here.
• Belgian police arrest female virus writer - A 19 year-old female technology student suspected of being the infamous virus writer Gigabyte was arrested by Belgian police last weekend.  The woman was charged with computer data sabotage offences, Belgian daily La Libre Belgique reports. Her alleged crimes are punishable by up to three years in prison and fines of up to L100,000. Police confiscated five of the teenager's computers and shut down her Web site. The 19 year-old, from Mechelen (30 kilometres north of Brussels), was released on bail pending further police inquiries.
• Who's The Fastest Growing Linux Distro? - But according to one metric by Internet research company Netcraft's January survey, when measured by counting active sites that contain the name of a Linux distribution in the header of the open source Apache Server, the Debian version of Linux is showing the fastest growth in the past six months. From July 2003 through January 2004, Debian's 24.6 percent growth to 442,753 installations represented the fastest growth in that period, Netcraft said.
• AMD cuts Athlon XP prices - AMD trimmed its prices today, knocking back the cost of buying its Athlon XP desktop and mobile chips by up to 34 per cent.
• Dual Display Gaming Bigs Up - Without a doubt, "SurroundGaming" is not just a fun feature but also creates a new level of atmospheric immersion in games. If you're already using two monitors for your everyday computer work, you're only a step and some manual configuration work away from multi-display gaming - provided you have a graphics card using a Matrox or NVIDIA chip. Since ATi's processors don't support horizontal span mode, the list of games that will run in dual-monitor configurations on a Radeon board is short. Actually, the only title we know of that can do this is Microsoft's Flight Simulator 9.
• World's Smallest, Always-Connected Windows XP PC Premiere - Vulcan Inc., founded by Paul G. Allen, announced today that it will preview FlipStart at DEMO 2004, the premier forum for new product innovation. Previously debuted as Vulcan's "MiniPC" prototype, FlipStart(TM) combines the performance and functionality of Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP with the connectivity of wireless PDAs to provide users with continuous access to software, e-mail and the Web while on the go.
• HP unveils 8x dual format DVD±R/RW writers - HP has so far only been selling single format DVD+R/RW writers but in the new dvd420i, dvd420e and dc4000 DVD writers HP has also added support for burning the DVD-R/RW format. The dvd420i is an internal IDE version, the dvd420e an external USB 2.0/firewire version and the Movie Writer dc4000 is an external USB 2.0 version with built-in analog video capture.
• 3.2GHz EE  Northwood CPU review - Intel's Extreme Edition version of Northwood is targeted towards a specific and focused area of today's consumer. If you want something that is incredibly fast right out of the box for high speed gaming, extensive graphic work or just bragging rights at stock speeds, this processor is for you. The 3.2EE easily held its own in most benchmarks even against a steroid induced 2.4C clipping along with a 1Ghz+ FSB at 3.2Ghz.
• Hercules Radeon 9600SE vs PNY GeForceFX 5600XT review -  Whichever way you look at it, PNYs GeForceFX 5600XT doesn't have either the muscle or the finesse to make itself the preferable card here in any way, shape or form. PNYs decision to use a 64-bit bus for this card, on top of the natural architectural disadvantages the 5600 core has against its 9600 rival, was not far short of suicide. The advice is simple - Don't bother with this card. It would be interesting to see how a 128-bit bus 5600XT (which most IHVs producing this card use) would cope against the 9600SE, you would certainly hope that it would perform somewhat better than PNYs rather miserable offering.
• Dlink's DWL-G650+ PCMCIA 802.11g adaptor review - In brief, the DWL-G650+ is in fact a 54Mbps (802.11g) wireless PCMCIA card capable of 256bit encryption which appears to be well suited to take full advantage of the DI-624+'s features, in particular the 256bit encryption. The DWL-G650 is Dlink's PCMCIA version of their PCI based GWL-G520 card.
• ME-770 USB 2.0 Hard Drive Enclosure review - RipNet-UK has checked out the ME-770 USB 2.0 Hard Drive Enclosure.
• Roxio Easy Media Creator 7 review  - PCMag has posted a review of the Roxio Easy Media Creator 7.
• Multiplexer Hotfix for DirectX 9.0, 9.0a, and 9.0b - This Hotfix corrects specific application compatibility issues with DirectX 9.0 changes in the DirectShow DV Decoder and Multiplexer.
• OpenOffice 1.1.1b Stable - OpenOffice.org (Win32 ~ Linux) is the open source project through which Sun Microsystems is releasing the technology for the popular StarOffice productivity suite
• RightMark 3D Beta 4 - RightMark 3D is Independent DirectX 3D Benchmarking Project.
• Abit KT7/KT7 Raid BIOS - Abit has released a new BIOS update for the Abit KT7/KT7 RAID.

• Profanity, partner's name hidden in leaked Microsoft code - It makes it easier" on hackers, said Ken Dunham, Malicious Code Intelligence Director for security firm iDefense. "Instead of trying blindly to get in, now you can just go in, see the lines of code, run it, test it." Dunham and others spent hours looking for clues in the code, a mix of assembler, C and C++ programming languages. The leaked Windows 2000 code contained 30915 files and a whopping 13.5 million lines of code, he said. And the Windows NT breach had 95,103 files and 28 million lines. Both were available as zip files being exchanged readily on the Internet, Dunham said. "You have a mixture of good code and junk that doesn't make sense," he said. "It looks like someone was playing around with it."  It's not clear whether numerous profanities that are written into the code -- invisible to front-end users of the programs -- were put there by Microsoft developers or those who got their hands on the files after them.
• Off-topic: Space Burial - Celestis is the name of a company that is offering space burials for some $11K USD. "Celestis makes possible a new choice in truly unforgettable memorial services. Cremated remains can be launched into space; to orbit around the Earth; to fly to the Moon; or to travel into deep space. Celestis is the world leader in providing these unique space memorial services" (thanks Slashdot.org)
• AsylumLAN 15 - So you said that you would never go to a LAN with more than 100 people. Well, with 200 gamers at a LAN party, you'll definitely break free of that down-in-the-basement-hanging-out-with-your-buddies feel. If you haven't been to an AsylumLAN event, you're missing out Indiana's best big little LAN Party.
• Canon PowerShot S230 Digital Camera review - The S230 is a great value in a small form factor. It features a host of manual controls for those who prefer to do some tweaking, but the automatic mode is perfect for those looking for nothing more than a nice point and shoot. Images are crisp, clean and quite impressive for the size and price. We had very few complaints with the S230, notably the time between pictures can be a little long when using the flash and the shutter lag that we experienced when the camera was in anything but automatic mode.
• AMD Athlon 64 3000+ review - The AMD Athlon 64 3000+ is one fast processor. Throughout testing, everything was stable and very smooth. Compared to my old Athlon XP processor, the AMD Athlon 64 3000+ provided smooth games than before (before was jerky), applications opened faster and provided smooth processor execution, and the practical things I do were way faster.
• XGI Volari Duo V8 Ultra 256MB Video Card review - Digit-Life recommend this card only for hunters for hardware rarities and curious samples: "The Club3D Volari Duo V8 Ultra is still a raw product. How could they release such a card? The drivers are unsteady and need a lot of work, and the architecture itself does not realize its capabilities. Although the fillrate shows that both chips work it looks as if we had a uniprocessor card in the real applications. Even one chip with 8 pipelines and clocked at 330 MHz must look much better! Maybe the second chip is spare? If the first one burns the second could replace it, is it so? But what for does the card have all those internal buses? :) "
• Gainward GeForce FX 5700 Ultra Golden Sample Ultra/960 Dual-DVI 128MB review - Hexus.net have done a review of the Gainward GeForce FX 5700 Ultra Golden Sample Ultra/960 Dual-DVI 128MB.
• Rheobus comparison: Evercool and Coolermaster - If you are looking for ways to silence your PC, then read on to find out which one of these fan controllers is up to the job. MadShimps also have tested QuietPC 92mm AcoustiFan.
• Arctic Cooling Super Silent 4Pro L - . This is an efficient, quiet and good looking heatsink. If you are looking to quiet things down while still looking good and keeping your processor safely cooled, the Super Silent 4Pro L might just be what you need. I know the silence has sounded good enough to me that I might just leave this one in place for a while.
• AOC LM729 17-inch TFT LCD review - For the price of only S$768, there is hardly any other 17" LCD display that offers such convenient features for viewing angle adjustments (which we think is critical for your well-being in long-term usage). One should also not overlook the many conveniences associated with the 90 degrees pivot capability. In portrait orientation, we reckon that DTP users or even those who delve in pages of documents would find this feature practical. Other noteworthy extras would be the small stereo speakers integrated at the bottom of the LCD display (again ideal for the basic sound needs in the typical office setup) and the inclusion of a DVI-I cable within the package. A three-year warranty covers parts with the first year providing on-site service and "carry-in service" in the last two years. Overall, we found the AOC LM729 an affordable and fairly good monitor for the targeted group of office users.
• CloneDVD 2 "Sneak Preview" - This really isn't a preview, but more of an announcement. Check it out if you like copying DVDs.
• The Tweaking Experience 2.1 - The Tweaking Experience brings together all tweaks for Microsoft Windows XP/2000 such as Internet, Miscellanious, System Performance and User Interface related tweaks into a single easy-to-use centralized helpfile. Version 2.1 is a fresh new start, with more then 25 new tweaks, pocket pc and mobile tweaks.
• DVDFab 1.52  - DVDFab lets you make perfect quality DVD movie backups the smart way! Backup your entire DVD - including menus, trailers, and special features - on one or multiple discs. In this new version Nero Burning ROM or CopyToDVD can be used instead of internal burning engine.
• RockXP  - With RockXP you can: Retrieve your XP Product Key, Change your key and product ID, Save your activation file, Info on your machine like build and computer name.
• UNOFFICIAL Windows98 Second Edition Service Pack 1.1  - Microsoft has never released a service pack for Windows98 SE. But Alper Coskun made a Service Pack for Windows98 SE users. It contains all Windows98 SE updates from Windows Update site and more. It is a self-extracting and self-installing pack like Microsoft's update files. Thus, you cannot choice files individually. Uninstallation is possible from Add-Remove Programs. IT IS ONLY FOR -WINDOWS 98 SECOND EDITION ENGLISH-. It contains only operating system updates. It does NOT contain Internet Explorer 6, DirectX 9 and Media Player 9.
• PC Wizard 2004 v1.60 - PC WIZARD (download) is a powerful system information utility designed especially for detection of hardware. It's able to identify a large scale of system components and supports the latest technologies and standards. This tool is periodically updated (usually once per month) in order to provide most accurate results. PC WIZARD is also 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, CD/DVD-ROM performance.
• ASUS SmartDoctor 2 4.0 - ASUS SmartDoctor2 is designed to satisfy two major goals. One is to monitor graphic chip Status, altering users about abnormal events, such as fan malfunction or chip overheat.
• Nvidia Forceware Driver 56.55 - This is a Windows 2000/XP reference driver set that was found on Gainwards FTP. All NVIDIA graphics cards to date are supported with this new ForceWare/Detonator driver set and this is going to be one popular set to download.! The build date for this NVIDIA Display Driver version is 56.55, 01/29/2004.  The chaps at Bjorn3D  have compared 56.55 against 53.04 - "Not much of a change except for FP32 where we see a gain of 2 FPS. Next up was Aquamark3 benchmark. Quality wise, I haven't noticed any anomalies, though I've looked only at 2-3 screenshots. With 56.55 drivers, there was a 5-10 FPS gain. UT2004 demo didn't look pretty performance wise. Antialiasing looked a bit borked at level 4 - most 'vertically' angled edges were not antialiased at all. "

• Windows 2000 and Windows NT Source Code Leaks (confirmed)  - On Thursday, February 12, Microsoft became aware that portions of the Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4.0 source code were illegally made available on the Internet. Subsequent investigation has shown this was not the result of any breach of Microsoft’s corporate network or internal security, nor is it related to Microsoft’s Shared Source Initiative or its Government Security Program, which enable our customers, partners and governments to legally access Microsoft source code.  Microsoft is working closely with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation on this matter. Microsoft source code is both copyrighted and protected as a trade secret. As such, it is illegal to post it, make it available to others, download it or use it. Microsoft will take all appropriate legal actions to protect its intellectual property. Questions about the investigation should be referred to the FBI. The leaked code includes 30,915 files and was apparently removed from a Linux computer used by Mainsoft for development purposes. Dated July 25, 2000, the source code represents Windows 2000 Service Pack 1.
• XBox EvolutionX FTP 'cd' Command and Telnet 'dir' Buffer Overflow - EvolutionX  (EvolutionX 3921, EvolutionX 3935)is "a Replacement of Microsoft Dashboard.It has these Features: Build in FTP Server, Configurable Menu System, Flash BIOS utility, Upgrade Harddisk and Format/Partition easily, Create game backups and Build in Trainer menu system". Two vulnerabilities have been found in the product, one in its FTP server, and the other in its Telnet server. This issue exists when 'cd'  (FTP) command followed with a long string which will freeze the EvolutionX or 'dir' (Telnet) command followed with a long string.
• Man-In-The-Middle Attack Using Bluetooth In A WLAN Interworking Environnment - The paper by Eric Gauthier describes the assumptions and attack on the bluetooth link and details what is vulnerable and why. It presents a discussion about the requirements and the conditions in which such an attack can take place, how it is performed and the consequences of compromising the bluetooth link.
• Off-topic: Scientists Advance Hydrogen Tech -  Researchers say they have produced hydrogen from ethanol in a prototype reactor small enough and efficient enough to heat small homes and power cars. The reactor is a relatively tiny 2-foot-high apparatus of tubes and wires that creates hydrogen from corn-based ethanol. A fuel cell, which acts like a battery, then generates power. Another article can be found at CNN.
• Sony pledges to move chips to 45nm in 2005 - Sony and Toshiba will beat Intel, AMD and co. to the 45nm node, the duo announced yesterday, reaching that point in 2005, around the time other processor makers are shifting to 65nm chip fabrication processes.
• ATI's 2004 Plans Unveiled: R420/423 Specs Inside  - As you can guess, R420 is the AGP successor to the R350 (Radeon 9800) while R423 is a PCIe version of the R420. The specs on the two GPUs are as follows: 0.13-micron low-k manufacturing process, 160M transistors, ~500MHz core clock, 8 pipe design, 6 vertex engines, Improvements to all of the basic architectural features (shader engines, AA, etc...), 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 (~1GHz data rate), Single slot design. The R420/423 chips will offer twice the pixel fill rate and vertex throughput of the R350 core, as well as increases in memory bandwidth. Initial indications show that there may be two versions of the R420/423 with different memory clocks; one design calls for ~1GHz GDDR3 memory while the other calls for slower DDR1 memory. It isn't clear whether R423 (PCIe) based designs will eventually carry higher clock speeds than their AGP counterparts, but there is a definite possibility. 
• Toshiba ET1 LCD Projector review - The standard resolution of 854 x 480 pixels might not sound impressive compared to high resolution DLP projectors, but the ET1 has digital scaling functionality for higher resolution inputs and the result looks more than acceptable. You can also set the ET1 to 4:3 mode if you are using it for something that’s not widescreen. One of the more useful features is the adjustable projection size. You can digitally shrink the size of the projected image by up to 20 per cent. This is really handy if you can’t position the projector perfectly in relation to the screen.
• Dell Inspiron XPS Gaming Notebook - First Look -  Borrowing the name of its successful desktop gaming machine, the Dimension XPS, Dell hopes to propel the same kind of success with its new Inspiron XPS ($2,899 direct) notebook. Based on a 3.4-GHz Pentium 4 chip, along with an 800-MHz front-side bus and 512MB of dual-channel DDR SDRAM, this XPS brings true desktop hardware and power to the mobile world. The system is poised to give Athlon 64-based laptops serious competition and provide high-end users with horsepower they can use anywhere. Some benchmarks can be found at TechTV.
• MSI FX5950 Ultra-VTD256 review - HotHardware has posted a review of the MSI FX5950 Ultra-VTD256 video card.
• MSI FX5900XT-VTD128 review  - The GeForceFX 5900XT GPU has basically been equipped with some slower memory, and priced it at about half of what a regular GeForceFX 5900 goes for. Naturally, being a top of the line card, the MSI GeForceFX 5900XT easily outperforms the GeForceFX 5700 Ultra, and handily trounces ATi's Radeon 9600XT to boot. In fact nVIDIA may have even put themselves in the awkward position where one product could potentially steal sales away from the other. It's like the GeForce4 Ti4200 situation all over again, but this time more is on the line.
• Inno3D Geforce FX 5700 Ultra  - Techware Labs has has posted a review of the Geforce FX 5700 Ultra Video card (an affordable video card with a street price of ~$175 - $200 for the retail box).
• Gigabyte K8VNXP K8T800 Motherboard review - Hardcoreware has posted a review of Gigabyte K8VNXP K8T800 Motherboard. "If you are looking for crazy overclocking features, you'll have to look elsewhere however. Then again, neither the K8T800 nor the nForce3 150 chipsets are of much use to overclockers. We'll have to wait for the next revision of each to see what we can REALLY do with our 3000+'s. At $180 street, the K8VNXP is well beyond average price. Then again, I can virtually guarantee that you will not find a board with this kind of bundle for less than that."
• Gigabyte's 3D Cooler Pro review - The 3D Cooler Pro from Gigabyte is a uniquely designed cooler with variable cooling capacity. At a maximum rotational speed the cooling capacity is very high - unfortunately the noise level is high as well. At a minimum rotational speed and full load on the CPU, the boxed coolers from AMD and Intel are superior to Gigabyte's 3D Cooler Pro with respect to cooling capacity. In the end, this cooler with its four blue LED's on the top can be recommended only for case-modding fans. 
• Olixir Mobile Data Vault 3DX review - The Olixir really does come close to fulfilling its goal of building the best external hard drive in the world. The performance values that we calculated are at a comparatively high level. Only models with FireWire interface (e.g. Western Digital Combo Drive 250 GB) deliver transfer rates that are even better. Here, it should be mentioned that we did not have the optional FireWire cable for the Mobile Data Vault 3DX, however.
• Virtual PC 2004 incompatibilities with AMD Processors -  There are some posts to the Microsoft VPC newsgroup (microsoft.public.virtualpc), as well as a few sentences on Robert Moir's Blog/Website about this.
• Guide: Backup that data the smart way  - Designtechnica has published a new guide called "Backup that data the smart way"
• Recovery Commander Gives XP the Boot - Recovery Commander ($40) has been part of V Communications' SystemSuite and Fix-It packages for some time, but this is the first time it's offered as a stand-alone product. At its heart, Recovery Commander is a system backup tool like XP's own System Restore. But unlike System Restore, it doesn't require you to successfully boot Windows to restore your system.
• ATI Catalyst drivers 4.1 vs 4.2 comparison - OnlyNewZ has posted a comparison between the ATI Catalyst drivers. Also VR-Zone has done some quick tests on the newly released Catalyst 4.2 drivers and compared it to the Catalyst 4.1 and 3.10.
• Media Player Classic v6.4.7.7 - MPC is a standalone video/music player that can handle a lot of media types, including DVD playback, Ogg audio, RealMedia and Quicktime video
• VisualBoy Advance 1.7.1 - Visual Boy Advance is a Game Boy Advance and Game Boy emulator that runs with Windows system. This is the DirectX version of Visual Boy Advance.
• DVD Shrink 3.1.5 - DVD Shrink 3.1.5 now retains Closed Captions, fixes a few bugs with still-picture encoding and default playback streams (when re-authoring) and shows a reminder, in case of re-authoring menus, that they will be converted into video clips, not menus.
• AVG Free Edition 6.0 Build 587 - With AVG, you will get a reliable tool for your computer protection against computer viruses. A free registration is required to run AVG. You will be emailed a registration code and can not install it without it. The installer does provide a link during installation to get your code.
• PuTTY 0.54 Beta  - PuTTY  (download) is a free implementation of Telnet and SSH for Win32 and Unix platforms, along with an xterm terminal emulator.
• Tweak FX 4.23 - 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.
• TweakNow RegCleaner 1.0 - RegCleaner finds and removes incorrect or obsolete values in your registry.
• SiSoftware Sandra 2004.SP1.9.104 - SiSoftware Sandra is an information & diagnostic utility. It should provide most of the information (including undocumented) you need to know about your hardware, software, and other devices whether hardware or software. It provides similar level of information to Norton SI, Quarterdeck WinProbe/Manifest, etc
• ATI REMOTE WONDER Software Version 2.3 - ATI Remote Wonder Software has been updated to version 2.3 for use on RADEON Products with ATI Multimedia Center 8.5 or higher.
• S3G DeltaChrome Drivers - Logo'd: WinXP Drivers for DeltaChrome, with InstallShield v15.07.07.10 | Logo'd: WinXP Drivers for DeltaChrome, No InstallShield v15.07.07.10 (thanks SavageNews)
• Omega drivers  - OmegaCorner has now offers a new Omega Drivers (v2.5.22 for Win2k/XP ~ 2.6.37 for Win9x/ME) based on the Official Catalyst 4.2 (thanks Blooduk)

• Windows Code May Be Stolen - Microsoft is investigating rumors that the secret code underlying its Windows NT and Windows 2000 operating systems has leaked out and is available on the Internet, a company spokesperson confirms. The supposed leak was reported by Microsoft enthusiast Web site Neowin.net, which called it "shocking and potentially devastating news." The source code of the two operating systems is rumored to be spreading on a peer-to-peer file-sharing network as well as on Internet relay chat (IRC).
• "Robin Hood" virus on the loose -  A new variant of the Nachi worm is patching PCs that are vulnerable to MyDoom.A. Nachi B, also known as Welchi, copies itself onto systems using the same flaw as MyDoom.A, as a file named 'Svchost.exe'.  It then attempts to delete MyDoom and downloads patches to fix the security hole.
• Software allows game copying - Software maker 321 Studios, whose products for copying DVD movies have drawn controversy and lawsuits, released a new application Thursday for copying PC games. Game X Copy allows PC gamers to create a backup of any title and store it either on the PC's hard drive or recordable CD or DVD, according to the company. 321 spokeswoman Julia Bishop-Cross said the software was created at the behest of parents, who wanted a way to protect their investment in PC games for their children in case a game disc becomes scratched or otherwise unreadable.
• MSI FX5900XT-VTD128 Videocard review - The MSI FX5900XT-VTD128 videocard  retails for about $290 CDN ($220 US), and is backed with 128MB of DDR RAM, has a DVI port, and even sports S-Video output. With an nVidia FX5900XT chip under the hood, the results should be pretty good.
• Abit's Radeon 9800 XT graphics card review - If you're looking for blazing frame rates at high resolutions with antialiasing and anisotropic filtering enabled, the Radeon 9800 XT is clearly the way to go. However, the card won't come cheap—bragging rights rarely do. Expect the eventual street price of Abit's 9800 XT to be competitive with 9800 XTs from ATI and the rest of its partners. And remember, that Half-Life 2 voucher should represent at least $50 of value for anyone who was already planning on buying the game.
• Coding Workshop Polyphonic Wizard 2.4 - The Coding Workshop Polyphonic Wizard (download) is a software program for your PC that allows you to add new ringtones and pictures to your polyphonic phone without the need for cables or sms (text) services. The Polyphonic Wizard supports most makes and models of polyphonic phone including models from Alcatel, Kyocera, LG, Motorola, Nokia, NEC, Panasonic, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Sendo, Sharp and Siemens.
• SiSoft Sandra 2004 SP1 - download standard ~ pro.
• Avant Browser 9.01 Build 113 - 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.
• DVD Shrink 3.15 - DVD Shrink does not burn DVDs! The output from DVD Shrink is saved as files on your hard drive, which you can then burn to a DVD-R using separate burning software, such as the software provided with your DVD-R drive.
• PHP 5.0.0 Beta 4 -  This fourth beta of PHP 5 is also scheduled to be the last one (barring unexpected surprises, that did occur with beta 3). This beta incorporates dozens of bug fixes since Beta 3, rewritten exceptions support, improved interfaces support, new experimental SOAP support, as well as lots of other improvements, some of which are documented in the ChangeLog.
• SecureCRT 4.1.2 (SHW) - SecureCRT (download) gives you an encrypted SSH session with both SSH1 and SSH2 servers. SSH security goes far beyond the basic secure logon, rerouting data or local applications using TCP/IP ports through an encrypted channel. The VCP utility secures file transfers using SFTP.
• SecureFX 2.2.2 - The SecureFX client application (download) lets you choose between SFTP or FTP over an encrypted SSH2 connection for secure transfers, or standard FTP for non-secure transfers. It has a simple Explorer-like interface, so it's easy to learn and use.
• BWMeter 1.3 - BWMeter (download) is a powerful bandwidth meter and monitor, which measures and displays all traffic on your network.

• "Worst ever Windows vulnerability" discoverer finds seven more holes - EEye, the company that originally discovered a critical Windows bug patched by Microsoft on Tuesday, says it is waiting on fixes for seven more Microsoft bugs - three of them meriting a "high" severity rating. Microsoft released a patch for Windows on Tuesday that fixed one of the most severe security holes ever found in the operating system. EEye now says it has reported another seven as-yet-unpatched bugs to Microsoft, some as long as five months ago.
• Q&A: Microsoft Windows hacker "backdoor" - Bill Thompson, computing expert, explains how a basic programming mistake has led to Microsoft's announcement of a "critical" security flaw in its widely-used Windows operating system.
• Microsoft "MyDoom" removal tool updated - Microsoft has updated its tool (download) designed to remove the MyDoom worm from infected machines. The tool, which the company initially made available for download last week, now allows users to remove MyDoom.A, MyDoom.B and MyDoom.C (also known as "DoomJuice.A") from their systems.
• MS Patch: Vulnerability in the WINS Could Allow Code Execution - This vulnerability exists because of the method that WINS uses to validate the length of specially-crafted packets. On Windows Server 2003 this vulnerability could allow an attacker who sent a series of specially-crafted packets to a WINS server to cause the service to fail. Most likely, this could cause a denial of service, and the service would have to be manually restarted to restore functionality.
• MS Patch: ASN.1 Vulnerability Could Allow Code Execution - The vulnerability is caused by an unchecked buffer in the Microsoft ASN.1 Library, which could result in a buffer overflow. An attacker who successfully exploited this buffer overflow vulnerability could execute code with system privileges on an affected system. The attacker could then take any action on the system, including installing programs, viewing data, changing data, deleting data, or creating new accounts with full privileges.
• MS Patch: Vulnerability in Virtual PC for Mac could lead to privilege elevation - The vulnerability exists because of the method by which Virtual PC for Mac creates a temporary file when you run Virtual PC for Mac. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by inserting malicious code into the file which could cause the code to be run with system privileges. This could give the attacker complete control over the system.
• Virus-Like Game Annoys AOL Users - A new Web-based game (game website) that lets players pretend to catch Osama bin Laden is annoying America Online's Instant Messenger users with its virus-like self promotion, according to reports from users. The new game, called "Osama Found," grabs names from a user's AOL Instant Messenger address book and automatically sends those users instant messages with links to a Web page where the game can be downloaded.
• Wristwatch Lets the Music Play - The new watch, called Laks Memory Music, will be available with either 32MB, 64MB, 128MB, or 256MB of data storage space and is scheduled to go on sale in March at about the same time as its Cebit launch, the Vienna-based company says in a statement. Battery life, when listening to MP3 music, is between four hours and five hours and an internal battery can be charged via USB in about 1.5 hours, according to the company.
• Notebooks make a play as gamer machines - Hewlett-Packard will add the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition to its Pavilion zd7000 notebook, next week, although company executives said HP doesn't plan to market exclusively to gamers. When fitted with a 3.2GHz Pentium 4, a 17-inch wide-angle display, 512MB of RAM, a 40GB hard drive and a DVD-ROM, the zd7000 starts at about $1,775 before rebates, according to HP's Hpshopping.com Web site. A version with the 3.2 Pentium 4 Extreme Edition will add $650 to that price, a company representative said, increasing its price to about $2,425.
• SimpleTech 8 GB Type II CompactFlash - SimpleTech has today announced the industry's highest capacity CompactFlash with an 8 GB Type II card using the Company's patented stacking technology. No exact pricing information has been disclosed, but supposedly 8GB card will cost $5999.
• How Good Is ATi's Radeon 9100 IGP? - The results of this comparison are sobering. Integrated graphics chips represent the lowest level of graphics performance available in the market today. Even inexpensive add-in cards in the $50 price category play in another performance league altogether. Not even the DirectX 8 capabilities of the IGP 9100 can change that. While ATi's chip has no trouble outpacing Intel and SiS, in most cases it has to take a back seat to the nForce 2 with its theoretically outdated DirectX 7 architecture.
• ASUS V9570 TD 256MB & ASUS V9560XT/TD 128MB (64bit) Video Cards on NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700/5600XT -
• Visiontek 9600 256Mb Graphics Card review - Visiontek 9600 256Mb model goes for just about $100 online and VR-Zone decided to take a look at its performance relative to other graphics cards in the $100-150 market segment.
• TDK DA-9000 CD-RW Jukebox review - ExtremeTech has posted a review of the TDK DA-9000 CD-RW Jukebox.
• Gigabyte FX5950 Ultra GV-N595U-GT review - PC Stats has posted a review of Gigabyte FX5950 Ultra GV-N595U-GT videocard.
• ICQ Lite Build #1302 - ICQ Lite Build #1302 (download) has been released.
• Raine 0.39.4c - RAINE (download)  is an arcade emulator that emulates M68000 and M68020 based games. The emulator's main focus is on Taito and Jaleco game hardware. The emulator currently can run in excess of 120+ games.

• New Worm: W32/Mydoom.C - Mydoom.C (also referred to as DoomJuice) is a variant of the Mydoom worm that attacks and infects only those systems which are currently infected with Mydoom.A. Customers who are not infected by Mdoom.A are not at risk from Mydoom.C. Customers who are currently infected with Mydoom.B are not at risk from Mydoom.C. Doomjuice doesn't spread via email or KaZaA as did MyDoom.A. Instead, the worm spreads via port 3127 only.
• [!] Microsoft warns of widespread Windows flaw - On Tuesday, the software giant released a fix for a networking flaw (download) that affects every computer running Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows Server 2003. If left unpatched, the security hole could allow a worm to spread quickly throughout the Internet, causing an incident similar to the MSBlast attack last summer.
• Microsoft Fixes IE Flaw -  A software patch issued by Microsoft restores Internet Explorer's ability to handle certain types of Web URLs that were banned by an emergency browser security patch in early February. The patch restores IE's ability to handle a type of HTTP URL containing user authentication information such as user name and password information (thanks PCWorld)
• Office 2003 SP1 Enhancements Revelaed - The chaps over at Neowin.net have received information about future enhancements for Office 2003. Office 2003 SP1 which is currently planned for release in late May will include fixes/improvements for all applications in the Office 2003 suite with some big enhancements for InfoPath 2003.  Microsoft are adding the ability for custom controls, active x controls that can be made available in InfoPath's control tasks pane as well as other improvements throughout InfoPath. Details are unclear on what enhancements will be made in other applications like Word and Outlook at the moment.
• Microsoft to end NT4 support - Support for all NT4 software will definitely end later this year - with no more extensions, according to Microsoft NT4 Enterprise Edition will be supported until 30 June and NT4 Server until 31 December. Microsoft has already extended the support life of NT4 twice.
• Nintendo to ship GameCube 2 in '2005-6' - Nintendo today denied Japanese reports that it has delayed the launch of the GameCube's successor and that its 2005-6 release target is the one it has always had in mind.
• Legal downloads outsell CDs - Legal music downloads have outsold traditional physical formats such as DVDs and CDs for the first time, according to research from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). The organisation found that over 150,000 downloads were sold in January 2004. Some 50,000 of these sales came in one week alone, with the launch of legal download site MyCokeMusic.
• Star Wars on DVD - According to DVDFile.com, 20th Century Fox and LucasFilm have confirmed that The Original Trilogy will arrive on September 21st in a four-disc set.
• Virtual PC 2004 vs. VMWare 4: Benchmarking Part II - Hernán Di Pietro has published the second part of the article, where WinXP is used as a guest.
• Canon Unveils Three Printers - New entries include i9900 photo printer, portable i80, and ImagePrograf W6200 for super sizes. The i9900 photo printer features Canon's ChromaPlus eight-color ink system, which adds new red and green ink cartridges to the traditional cyan, magenta, yellow, black, photo cyan, and photo magenta cartridges. It can print photos up to 13 by 19 inches, with a maximum resolution of 4800 by 2400 dots per inch, and it offers both USB 2.0 and FireWire interfaces. You can expect to see the i9900 in May priced at $499.99.
• VIA takes Eden CPU to 1GHz - VIA today extended its low-power Eden ESP processor family to 800MHz and 1GHz.  Hardly likely to challenge the x86 mainstream, that. But VIA is aiming the part at small form-factor PCs and PC-derived consumer electronics kit - almost all of which specify fanless operation.  At 1GHz, the 130nm Eden consumes as little as 7W, VIA said.
• More NV40 details  - Nvidia claims that its card will end up four times faster in Doom 3 and seven times faster in Half Life 2. Well, even if those numbers are ridiculously high, you might expect that NV40 will have much more efficient shaders than NV38 had. NV40 will use GDDR 2 or 3 memories as its memory controller is capable of both and Nvidia aims to get to 600MHz milestone - or should we say 1200MHz effectively.
• NV45 is Nvidia's PCI Express X16 - According to TheInquirer, Nvidia again will claim that NV45 is DirectX 9.1 compliant but let's clear things up by saying that there is no such thing as DX 9.1 only 9.0c. Let me stop right here and say performance wise it will equal the NV40 -- the only difference is a PCI Express interface. There will be two implementations of NV45 chips, as always. NV45 U implies Ultra and NV40 where Ultra will end up faster than 500, which is what Graphzilla is aiming for. Memory characteristics will be the same as the NV40, eight memory chips, 8x32BGA -144 GDDR 3 memory running at up to 600 MHz, 1200 MHz effectively. NV45 comes equipped with 256MB of 256Mbit GDDR3 memory, and not GDDR 2 like we suggested before. What's the difference? Even the vendors don't seem to know yet.
• Nvidia's Detonator 55 is Forceware 2.0 plans - Nvidia is planning to release new drivers with 55 marks in the name and the driver will be called ForceWare 2.0. This driver should get you "up to" 20 per cent of performance increase and free auto-overclocking it seems.
• Toshiba Pocket PC e805 First Look - Toshiba's earlier e-series PDAs had some ground-breaking features - the e740 was the first to integrate Wi-Fi, for example. The new Toshiba Pocket PC e800 series retains the 802.11b capability and adds a raft of other impressive features.
• Danish SD System Mach II review - This system is for people, who can settle for no less than the perfect system and then some. The system is overclocked at the magical 4GHz and is 100% stable – that is a great achievement.
• EPoX eX5 Mini Me review - At the end of the day, this is a well-performing system that is built better on the inside than the outside. Even the little door covering the front USB and FireWire ports feels like it's going to break off in your hand. Perhaps this is the kind of construction necessary to come in at a $300 price point, but we'd rather have something that feels a bit more durable.
• Mid Range Graphic Card Roundup (updated) - Overclockers New Zealand has posted an updated round-up of the Mid Range Graphic Card with new PixelView FX5900XT 128MB graphic card.
• ATI 9800 XT vs. nVidia 5950 Ultra - Gigabyte Style -  TweakTown have compared the performance of Gigabyte's GV-R98X256D graphics card based on the Radeon 9800 XT agains Gigabyte's GeForce FX 5950 Ultra.
• Chaintech GeForce FX 5700 Ultra - nVidia's mainstream VGA fighter - TweakTown have compared the performance of  nVidia's GeForce FX 5700 Ultra, in the form of the AA5700U from Chaintech, against ATI's Radeon 9600 XT.
• AOpen Aeolus FX5900XT review  - The card features an curious-looking fan, which might be of interest if you're of the transparent case brigade. Noise levels are reasonable. It's not as quiet as the MSi GeForce FX 5700 Ultra, but at least the days of Nvidia cards sounding like jet engines are long gone. The rear of the card sports a DVi port with a D-SUB adapter provided. There's also a second D-SUB port so you can hook up two displays. As you might expect at the price, there's no ViVo functionality but there is a TV-Out, with an S-Video to composite adapter in the box.
• Nu Tech DDW-081 Internal DVD+R/RW Driver review - If you're in the market for a solid performing DVD+R/RW drive then the DDW-081 from Nu Technologies is a great deal. The drive ships at an extremely pleasing price, comes with everything you need to get started, performs up to task, and has good firmware support with some major updates in the works. This drive is a quality investment, especially with new firmware enabling DVD-R/RW functionality thus making it an even more attractive buy.
• Seagate ST3200822A review - Seagate did a good job - the new 200 GB Barracuda 7200.7 is currently the fastest UltraATA drive in terms of transfer rates. With up to 64 MB/s, it even outperforms Western Digital's WD360 Raptor drive, which runs at 10,000 rpm. However, the transfer speeds at the end of the medium cannot cannot compete with the Raptor of course.
• AOpen H700B case review - Neoseeker has posted a review of the AOpen H700B case.
• TTGI USA TT-201T3 Case Review - The Madshrimps take a closer look at this fine TTGI offering, an aluminium case packed with nifty features and sporting an attractive pricetag.
• Asetek WaterChill KT12-L20 solution - Undoubtedly better than air cooling but not without its problems, the Asetek WaterChill KT12-L20 comes recommended if you have no fear of stiff pipes, or are willing to change them for something a little more pliable.
• Startech SV211MICRO 2 Port KVM Switch review - BigBruin.Com has posted a review of the  Startech SV211 MICRO 2 Port KVM Switch.
• 3ds max 6 Service Pack 1 - This first service pack (download) is only for English language versions of 3ds max.
• Foobar 0.8 Beta 8 - Foobar is an audio player with low memory usage and support for several audio formats.
• Mozilla Thunderbird 0.5 - Mozilla Thunderbird (relnotes ~ win32 ~ linux) is a redesign of the Mozilla mail component. Our goal is to produce a cross platform stand alone mail application using the XUL user interface language. Our intended customer is someone who uses Mozilla Firebird (or another stand alone browser) as their primary browser and wants a mail client based on mozilla that "plays nice" with the browser. In addition, by focusing solely on stand alone mail, we believe we can make some dents in the overall footprint and performance of the mail client by removing components and chrome we don't need.
• Mozilla Firefox 0.8 (Firebird) - Firefox (Win32 ~ Linux) is light version of the Mozilla browser previously known as Phoenix.
• RightMark Memory Analyzer v2.5 - RightMark Memory Analyzer v2.5 (download), 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.
• SysInfoMyWork 1.4 - SysInfoMyWork (download) is a system tool for monitoring state of memory and CPU load. In comfortable way showing count of free and occupied system memory, and CPU load, by using animated icon of taskbar notification area.
• Matrox Parhelia driver v1.06.00.99 (Win2k/XP) - This driver release supports Matrox Parhelia 128MB/256MB (AGP), Matrox Parhelia 256MB (PCI), Millennium P650 and Millennium P750 boards.

Sorry for the delay in updating, my hard disk and internet gateway died yesterday (amazing coincidence).  After sleepless night, I'm just now getting everything up and running again....

• Teen cashes in on feud with Microsoft - A Canadian teenager who fought Microsoft Corporation over his Internet domain name has sold documents and emails pertaining to the feud on eBay for 1 386,83 Canadian dollars (about R7 000). Mike Rowe, 17, who lives in Victoria, British Columbia, had registered the domain name mikerowesoft.com to host his budding Web development business but quickly found himself the target of Microsoft lawyers who threatened to sue him over alleged copyright infringement.
• Smart switching could solve communication tangle - Someone walks into your office as you are in the middle of a confidential phone call, and you do not want them to overhear it. Your only option is to cut the call short, and either phone back later or switch to more discreet email or instant messaging. Now IBM engineers are developing a system that makes the switch seamlessly, without breaking the flow of your discussion. It will enable a voice call to be switched to silent instant messaging when you get to your desk, for example. At present, both callers must switch, but the developers say as speech-to-text and text-to-speech technologies improve, this may not be necessary: one could use text while the other stays on the phone.
• Microsoft developing new 'light' version of Win XP - Thailand's People's PC project, initiated last year by the ICT Ministry, has been the genesis of a new operating system from Microsoft Corporation that is now under development, according to Microsoft Thailand Managing Director Andrew McBean. The new OS, as yet unnamed, but a new "light" addition to the Windows XP "family", will be released in limited, selected markets later this year and will offer reduced functionality when compared with Windows XP Professional and Home editions, he said.
• TwinMOS TwiSTER PC4000 review - The modules will run at the specified latencies but will not work at CL-2 or any other more aggressive latency settings, nor will they run reliably at more relaxed latencies but there may be differences between different mainboards. In the final analysis, the TwiSTER PC4000 meets the manufacturer's specs but does not go beyond those. In other words, there are practically no margins, the modules are specified to run at 250 MHz max and they do no less and no more.
• Chaintech GeforceFX5600 Personal Cinema review - The Chaintech 5600 Personal Cinema definitely proved to be a useful card, with an abundance of features and accessories. The breakout box will definitely see use. The TV tuner has made a part-time TV out of the PC and the nVremote has turned out to be a useful pointing device and application launcher. The software package is comprehensive and NVIDIA definitely has made strides in its WDM driver department.
• AOpen Aeolus FX5900XT - The card itself features an interesting looking fan, which might be of interest if you’re of the transparent case brigade. Noise levels are reasonable. It’s not as quiet as the MSi GeForce FX 5700 Ultra, but at least the days of nVidia cards sounding like jet engines are long gone. The rear of the card sports a DVi port with a D-SUB adapter provided. There’s also a second D-SUB port so you can hook up two displays. As you might expect at the price, there’s no ViVo functionality but there is a TV-Out, with an S-Video to composite adapter in the box.
• Gigabyte GA-K8NNXP review - The Gigabyte GA-K8NNXP is a full-featured motherboard, with enough options to satisfy everybody. You have dual LAN for home network setup, more RAID options than you can shake a stick at, a very customizable BIOS that is begging for a highly tweakable CPU, the newest Firewire implementation (1394b cards aren't exactly cheap), the list goes on and on.
• Shuttle AN50R (Nvidia nForce3 150) - The bundle was severely lacking. Shuttle could have at the bare minimum included rounded cables. At the price though it is a hard point to argue. The AN50R is near $100 cheaper than the other boards we have tested. This makes it a definite value.For the average gamer looking to jump into the Athlon64 market I would highly recommend the AN50R. The board is very stable and reasonably fast. It is roomy and has a plethora of extra options. You will however want to add in a Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS or some other high end sound card though. The onboard sound was mediocre at best.
• EPoX eX5-300S Mini Me SFF System review - Hexus has posted the first review of the EPoX eX5-300S Mini Me SFF System. "There's enough here to make the eX5-300S Mini Me SFF system sell on pure merit. We can just see enthusiasts using the highly overclockable Northwood Pentium 4 200MHz CPUs and decent graphics cards for true desktop replacement action, or it could be used as a fileserver, glorified media box or quiet, low-power system. That's exactly the role of any SFF PC, to be fit for more than one use. There are only so many ways to design a SFF system, EPoX appears to have chosen a good one".
• ASUS CRW-5232AS Drive - VipeLair take a look at the CRW-5232AS, and see if it's up to task of being your primary burner.
• Antec P160 Aluminum Enclosure review - TweakTown has posted a review of the Antec P160 Aluminum Enclosure.
• PowerRight UV Reactive 500w Modular PSU review - This is the first power supply which has, as its name indicates, a modular design. What this means is that you are able to remove any unused power cables from your case, thus decreasing clutter and improving airflow, not to mention improving the all important aesthetics of your cases' internals. The PowerRight power supply also dons an acrylic UV treated casing, 2 LED fans with colored blades, as well as laser cut fan guards.
• DDR II Preview - So for the bandwidth hungry Pentium 4 DDR-II could produce some tangible benefits, especially as processor clock speeds scale towards 4GHz and above. It is going to be interesting to see how the increased latencies affect performance. If the memory accesses are largely sequential reads with minimal switching between columns, such as in video encoding then performance should be significantly boosted thanks to the increased bandwidth, however in situations where the required data is spread through out the modules, such as in server applications, the increased latency is going to come into play and rain on Intels parade.
• Unbuffered vs. Registered vs. Registered + ECC - Let's briefly talk about unbuffered, registered and ECC memory and then take a look at how what type of memory you decide to purchase can impact overall performance.
• Prescott Temperatures Examined - Looking at the paper work that came with the Prescott press kit it was clear that high temps were expected and is something that end-users will have to learn to live with. Intel gives the Thermal Design Power (TDP) rating of their processors and below are some of the ratings. Northwood 3.2GHz: 82W ~ Prescott 2.80GHz & 3.0GHz: 89W ~ Gallatin 3.2GHz: 92W ~ Gallatin 3.4GHz: 103W ~ Prescott 3.20GHz & 3.40GHz: 103W. (thanks NeoNSX)
• First Look: Microsoft Windows XP 64-Bit Edition  - The XP64 beta integrates DirectX 9.0b and appears to have most critical update patches. Windows Update functions weren't available, and it is unknown if any patches will be offered during the 360-day trial. We were pleased the default OS install had the network Messenger service disabled.
• MyDoom (A,B) Worm Removal Tool for WinXP/2k - This tool will help to remove the MyDoom.A and My.Doom.B worms from infected Windows XP and Windows 2000 systems. Once executed, after the EULA is accepted, the tool automatically checks for infection and removes the worm(s) if found. If a machine is infected with MyDoom.B, the tool will also provide the user with the default version of the "hosts" file and set the "read-only" attribute for that file.
• 3d Traceroute 1.7.68:171 - Replace all your ugly ping plotters and traceroute programs with a full blown three dimensional traceroute program. And best of all: It's free. No money, no postcards, no beer. Just free.
• EarthClock 1.0 beta - EarthClock is a little shiny app by Arjan Dikhoff from XeNTaX, that displays a realtime view of the earth, and overlays a clock as polish. The realtime view is accomplished by downloading images every 5 minutes from "Earth and Moon viewer" by John Walker. Basically, you can watch the earth slowly revolving from a choice of different views (e.g. the Earth from the Moon), and it's a clock too! You can neatly see where it's dark on our planet, and where it's day!
• Forté Agent 2.0  - Agent 2.0 is the top-rated Usenet newsreader on the Internet. Agent is also an excellent POP email client.
• Bandwidth Monitor Pro 1.29 - Bandwidth Monitor Pro (download) is a utility that displays and logs your network adapters bandwidth usage. It supports logging of all your network adapters at once and has a detailed transfer history.
• RealPlayer 2.0 Build 6.0.11.872 - 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.
• PowerStrip 3.49 (SHW)  - PowerStrip 3.49 provides advanced, multi-monitor, programmable hardware support to a wide range of graphics cards - from the venerable Matrox Millennium I to the latest Radeon 9800.
• ATITool 0.0.17 - ATITool is an overclocking utility designed for ATI video cards. Design target is to write a light-weight application for the enthusiast - so no questionable registry tweaks.
• Central Brain Identifier 6.1.0.0 Beta - Central Brain Identifier is designed to provide detailed recognition and obtaining the most complete extended information for all AMD processors. It recognizes more than 40 various models of the AMD processors.
• Koepi's XviD Codec RC2 - XviD (download RC2) is an ISO MPEG-4 compliant video codec. This second RC added Internal bitrate calculator, VfW GUI fixes, DShow fixes (remembers the flip option etc.)., colour space fixes and more.
• AMD64 Windows Drivers - Planet AMD64 has launched a download section with the latest Windows drivers for the AMD64 platform.

• RealNetworks Patches Security Holes - RealNetworks Inc. recently released a security update to plug a series of vulnerabilities in its media players that could open a user's machine to malicious code. Security researchers at British-based NGSSoftware Ltd., which issued an advisory on Wednesday, discovered the security holes in December and informed Real Networks of the vulnerabilities (thanks PCMag)
• Piracy fighters raid offices of Sharman, others - The Australian music industry has launched raids on peer-to-peer technology developer Sharman Networks. Australian trade organisation Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI) sent investigators into Sharman Networks' Sydney offices and the homes of two of its executives. The raids took place at 12 sites, including three Australian universities and several local ISPs.
• MS demos Jetsons' kitchen on FoodTV - Microsoft is hard at work solving the problems of moneyed illiterates who hate to cook. Those who can't quite manage to interpret the microwaving instructions printed on a cup of dehydrated soup no longer need to worry: the Microsoft Kitchen is alive with RFID (radio frequency identification) transponders that tell the microwave oven how long and at what intensity to nuke your soup powder or Macaroni & Whey Dinner for perfect results every time. The Microsoft Kitchen features a heavy reliance on RFID for inventory control, and numerous, unnecessary Internet connections. It also includes a magic countertop that reads the RFID information emanating from each appliance and grocery placed on it, then offers to instruct one in manipulating them in quest of a meal.
• Xbox Live 3.0 - Microsoft will soon ship an update to the Xbox Live online game service that adds key communications features, such as the ability to send and receive voice and text messages to foes and teammates during games. And later, the company will reportedly add a voicemail feature.
• Samsung Sends Satellite TV to Cell Phones - Samsung Electronics is developing a cellular telephone that can receive multimedia programming broadcasts via satellite, the company says. The new phone, which is still in the development stage, is expected to be compatible with a new satellite broadcasting service that is planned to launch in South Korea and Japan later this year.
• Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro first-look - With the Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro and Creative GigaWorks S750, Creative Labs becomes the first company to complement a 7.1 board with matching speakers. Although almost no discrete 7.1-channel content exists (yet), the Audigy 2 ZS can render EAX-compatible game soundtracks as eight completely independent channels, and it can expand stereo, 5.1, and 6.1 source materials into virtual 7.1 content.
• Philips Aurilium External Soundcard review - The PSC805 Aurilium is Philips' latest effort to take on the somewhat crowded soundcard market still dominated by Creative Labs. The Aurilium is a certified USB 2.0 external soundcard which doesn't differ much in concept with the SoundBlaster Extigy.
• Compro Videomate TV Gold Plus review - Compro Videomate Tv Gold Plus is a good product, rich in functionality, and built with care. The software is complete and easy to use: you'll love the time-shifting feature and the power-up function. While the video reproduction is convincing, Compro should advance the frame capture feature. The video smoothing filter does a good job. But it is a pity that it does not support MPEG4-encoding.
• Sapphire Radeon 9800XT Videocard review - Until then, there is a healthy selection of graphics cards currently available. The Sapphire Radeon 9800XT weighs in at $450USD ($600CDN), and the only real reason to consider such a pricey piece of hardware is to play games... at high resolutions with all of the visual details maximized. Of those cards currently available, Sapphire's RADEON 9800 XT does an excellent job.
• ABIT Radeon 9800XT - Compared directly to the Sapphire 9800XT, the ABIT 9800XT comes up short in a few areas. First, while they both offer the Half-Life2 coupon in the box and the same bundle of cables and adapters, the Sapphire 9800XT also comes with the full version of Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness. Granted, Tomb Raider is such a bad game that having it bundled could be considered cruel and unusual punishment, but I have to give Sapphire points for offering something extra that ABIT isn't. ABIT makes up a little for that though by including the new version of PowerDVD 5 while Sapphire still bundles PowerDVD 4.
• GeIL PC3200 DDR400 review - The GeIL PC3200 proved stable at DDR400 as rated, and provided us with a set of stable and impressive results during benchmarks. Whilst not shown on the results table, (but may be added) I’m able to run the ram at DDR333 @ the ratings of 6-2-2-2, 2.0, much higher and faster than rated by the top folks at GeIL.
• 3Com OfficeConnect Wireless 11g Cable/DSL Gateway review - Although not a bad product by any means, 3Com's OfficeConnect Wireless 11g Cable/DSL Gateway seems uninspired. The feature set, though adequate for many users, lacks features such as schedulable filtering and WDS bridging that are found on other products from lesser-known (and smaller!) competitors. And wireless performance is average at best, with the disadvantage of non-upgradeable antennas.
• Sony DRX-510UL External USB2/Firewire DVD±R/RW Drive review - The Sony DRX-510UL is a multiformat (DVD±R/RW) drive that burns both format DVD discs as well as CD-R and CD-RW discs. A little bit larger than a standard internal optical drive, it is still relatively compact and feels very solid - not flimsy at all.
• 3ware 8500 SerialATA RAID Controller Review - 3ware 8500-8 Escalade controller left a lasting good impression as it went with waving banners through our tests. Of course, there are minor problems you have to put up with. For example, TwinStor technology is not always correct, and, just like with 3Ware 7850 controller, we have no support for PCI 64bit/66MHz, which is critical even for the four-channel version of the controller if you use modern hard disk drives.
• Maxtor OneTouch 300 GB Hard Drive Review - DesignTechnica has posted a review of Maxtor OneTouch 300 GB Hard Drive.
• Samsung SyncMaster 172x Review - MonkeyReview has posted a review of Samsung SyncMaster 172x Review.
• Coolermaster Aerogate II Multi-function Panel - Matt Mantel at Overclockers Club has completed a review on the Coolermaster Aerogate II Multi-function Panel.
• Logitech Comfort Duo Cordless Keyboard and Mouse Combination review - The Logitech Cordless Comfort Duo is definitely a winner. You can’t go wrong with these two bits. Just keep in mind that if you have large mitts then this set might not be for you as your hands may feel a bit crowded. Just keep in mind any cordless pieces you may have you are paying to use them each year! You have to put batteries in them every so often, unless you are running rechargeable batteries!
• Wireless Keyboard and Mouse Group Test - The last 18 months has seen a flood of wireless devices wash onto the market, from routers to printers to game pads. Perhaps the most high profile arrival has been mobile phones, where the changes in driving law have made Bluetooth car kits a legal necessity, bolstering public interest in the whole technology. Despite the grumbles, the benefits of installing these kits are unmistakeable, and potentially life saving.
• AC-Ryan IDE & SATA Lighted Cables - Sick of that horrible looking IDE cable obstructing the airflow of your case? Are your case temperatures rising to the limit? Is your case dull and boring? Well if you’ve answered yes we have just the product for you! Today it's AC-Ryan’s chance to show off their rounded IDE cables and SATA cables with Blue Neon string.
• Prescott Hyper-Threading Examined - From what we've seen, the Prescott occasionally gains up to an additional 4% with Hyper-Threading than Northwood did. There are certain cases where the Northwood benefits more from Hyper-Threading, but in those cases, the Prescott still outperformed the Northwood. Either way, the addition of more L2 cache on the Prescott hasn’t changed Hyper-Threading performance by much. This could be attributed to the Prescott’s longer pipeline or higher latency L2 cache, either way we won’t be able to find out if the cache latency is the culprit till the Prescott scales to 4 GHz, which matches the L2 latency with a 2.8 Northwood; that is if Anand’s theory on the L2 cache is correct.
• Futuremark PCMark04 Benchmark Suite review - TechConnect has posted a review of PCMark04. "All in all, users with interest in benchmarking should see in PCMark04 a great tool for analysis on their computer performance. The PCMark04 suite is great and should provide enough information on how fast and how reliable the computer runs. Based on the received feedback, you can easily take decisions on tweaking the computer to your needs. PCMark04 showed great potential and strengthened its position as a world-class benchmark. Besides all these aspects, PCMark04 is very easy to use and user-friendly. We recommend it to novice as well as advanced users."
• Critical Update for Microsoft XML Services - This update contains Microsoft XML (MSXML) functionality that will allow applications using MSXML to continue to function correctly after security update 832894, Security Update for Internet Explorer, has been applied. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.
• Gush - Gush (download ~ screenshot) makes instant messaging and news aggregation simple, functional, and attractive. Gush excels at the functionality it provides without including the kitchen sink. Its not just pretty looks -- Gush provides several unique features such as Split Chat, real IM conversation management, IM Announcements, and a tabbed News Reader.
• X-Setup Pro 6.5 final -  X-Setup Pro (download) is a high-performance tool which allowes you over thousand different adjustments of Windows. No matter if you want to change your boot-section of your computer or if you want to accelerate your start-menue: X-Setup Pro can handle it. But there are feature for example Windows 2003 server support.
• Fresh UI 6.90 - 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.
• TaskInfo 2003 v5.0.1.102 - TaskInfo2002 (download) is combination of Task Manager and System Information Utility, It visually monitors different types of System information in Microsoft Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP.
• WinAmp 5.02 - Nullsoft Winamp (full ~ lite) is a fast, flexible, high-fidelity media player for Windows. Winamp supports playback of many audio (MP3, OGG, AAC, WAV, MOD, XM, S3M, IT, MIDI, etc) and video types (AVI,ASF,MPEG,NSV), custom appearances called skins (supporting both classic Winamp 1.x/2.x skins and Winamp 3 freeform skins), audio visualization and audio effect plug-ins (including two industry dominating visualization plug-ins), an advanced media library, Internet radio and TV support, CD ripping, and CD burning.
• Intel Processor Frequency ID Utility 6.5.20040203 - The Intel Processor Frequency ID Utility was developed by Intel Corporation to enable consumers the ability to identify and, in some circumstances, determine if their Intel processor is operating at the correct and rated frequency intended by Intel Corporation.
• HighPoint BIOS And Drivers 2.351 - HighPoint has released new BIOS files and drivers for the HPT370/370A RAID and the HPT372 RAID version 2.351 for WinAll (thanks Warp2Search)
• Latest Bios and Drivers updates  - OnlyNews let us know they have the latest released bios updates and drivers (10 ABIT bios updates, 10 GIGABYTE bios updates, 3 TYAN Firmware updates, 2 ASUS bios updates, 2 ECS bios updates, 5 LITE-ON IT bios updates, 1 MSI bios updates)

• Microsoft IE patch leaves users locked out - A critical security patch released this week that fixes vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer has left many users unable to access certain Web sites and Internet resources.Microsoft's latest IE update, which was released outside the monthly patching cycle, stops the company's browser from being used to transfer malicious code to a user's PC and fixes the URL spoofing flaw, but it also stops URLs from being used to access password-protected Internet resources, a feature that many companies employ.
• Web applications wide open to hackers - The vast majority of web applications are wide open to attacks by hackers, a four-year testing programme has revealed. According to vulnerability assessments conducted by the Application Defense Center of security firm WebCohort, at least 92 per cent of web applications are vulnerable to some form of hacker attack.
• Cable modem hackers conquer the co-ax - A small and diverse band of hobbyists steeped in the obscure languages of embedded systems has released its own custom firmware for a popular brand of cable modem, along with a technique for loading it -- a development that's already made life easier for uncappers and service squatters, and threatens to topple long-held assumptions about the privacy of cable modem communications.  The program, called Sigma, was released in its final version last month, and has reportedly been downloaded 350 to 400 times a day ever since. It's designed to be flashed into the non-volatile memory of certain models of Motorola's Surfboard line, where it runs in parallel with the device's normal functionality. It gives users almost complete control of their cable modem -- a privilege previously reserved for the service provider. 
• Windows XP's Big Security Fix - PCWorld tested a beta of XP SP2 and came away impressed: With a simple installation, much-needed security enhancements, and a friendlier front-end to wireless networking, XP SP2 is shaping up as a must-have upgrade for all Windows XP users. Service Pack 2 will be free, but Microsoft hasn't yet said how it will distribute the pack.
• Microsoft's IIS Serves More High-Traffic Sites than Apache - In stark contrast to statistics released by Netcraft, a survey conducted by San Diego-based Port80 Software indicates that Microsoft's Internet Information Services (IIS) server is used by more high-traffic Web sites than the rival Apache server. Netcraft's Web server findings, based on a survey of more than 47 million Web sites, have consistently indicated that Microsoft's IIS server garners about 20 percent of the Web server market, trailing the Apache open-source server's 67 percent. Port80 Software, however, polled the 1,000 most-visited Web sites on the Internet and found that IIS serves more than 43 percent of those high-traffic sites, while Apache accounts for slightly less than 40 percent of that market segment.
• Xbox to go online in Asia  - Microsoft will unveil its Xbox online gaming service in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore this April, a year and a half after its U.S. debut. In a statement, Microsoft said it will launch Xbox Live in those locations in two months' time but declined to offer pricing.
• IBM ThinkPad X40 First Look - With the arrival of the best-in-class IBM ThinkPad X40 (1GHz Pentium M / 512MB RAM), other ultraportables have a lot of catching up to do. Even with a system weight of just 2.7 pounds, the X40 still has the features serious road warriors demand-notably that wonderful-feeling, full-size IBM keyboard. Best of all, IBM has priced the X40 very competitively: Prices start at $1,499 direct. It will be available worldwide as of February 24.
• Saint Valentine's Day Screensaver - This is a screensaver for Windows which celebrates Valentine's Day.
• Port Knocking (Linux) - Port knocking (download) can generalize beyond protection of ports to transfer of data across closed ports. It need not be the case that the monitoring daemon open ports upon reception of information. It can store the information, manipulate the information and carry out some action, pass the information on, etc. Although slow, a form of IP over closed ports could be developed.
• GNOME 2.4.2 (Linux) - The GNOME Linux desktop environment (download), 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.
• HyperSnap-DX 5.50.00 (SHW) - HyperSnap-DX 5 (download) is a screen capture and image editing tool for MS Windows. It captures screens from standard desktop programs and even those hard-to-grab DirectX, Direct3D, 3Dfx Voodoo and Glide mode games.
• Cacheman XP 1.0.1.1 - CachemanXP (download) is a system service designed to improve the performance of your computer by optimizing several caches, auto-recovering RAM and fine tuning a number of system settings.
• Logitech MouseWare v9.80 - Logitech's FTP has offers new Mouseware drivers v9.80 for its mouse, trackball, etc. products.
• NVIDIA ForceWare 53.06 Windows 2k/XP BETA - Guru3D has posted a new ForceWare drivers (originally from Leadtek). The .inf file has been modified to support all NVIDIA graphics cards. This is build 53.06 for Windows 2k/XP. Try only at your own risk.

• Spyware cures may cause more harm - One such tool facing allegations of abuse is SpyBan, an anti-spyware program that has been downloaded some 44,000 times in the last four months, according to Download.com, a software download site owned by CNET Networks, the publisher of News.com. Download.com removed the software this week, noting that SpyBan had failed to disclose and explain all the software components included in its installation, a violation of the Web site's policies. Numerous competing anti-spyware companies, including Spybot-Search and Destroy parent PepiMK Software and Sweden-based Kephyr, have identified SpyBan as a potential source of unwanted spyware--notably a program listed by many spyware cleaners as Look2Me. Download.com had also independently warned that Look2Me might be installed along with SpyBan.
• P2P vs RIAA heads back to court - The ongoing feud between the music industry and developers of peer-to-peer (P2P) software returned to court again yesterday. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), backed by the National Music Publishers' Association and more than 20 film studios, is hoping that a California appeals court will overturn a ruling that P2P sites can have legitimate uses.
• Off-topic: "Mindsight" could explain sixth sense - Some people may be aware that a scene they are looking at has changed without being able to identify what that change is. This could be a newly discovered mode of conscious visual perception, according to the psychologist who discovered it. He has dubbed the phenomenon "mindsight". Our visual system can produce a strong gut feeling that something has changed, Rensink says, even if we cannot visualise that change in our minds and cannot say what was altered or where the alteration occurred.
• Off-topic: Ten Technologies That Refuse to Die - Like paper, the 10 technologies that follow have seemingly been surpassed and superseded at one time or other, written off as road kill on the highway of progress. But reports of their demise have proved greatly exaggerated. All have survived, and some have thrived, in their supposed obsolescence—not as cult artifacts (everything from buggy whips to eight-tracks has its fans and collectors), but because they fill real needs that their more sophisticated successors don't.
• Off-topic: Moon mission will 'talk' to web surfers - The first commercially-funded lunar spacecraft - scheduled to launch later in 2004 - will be able to communicate with space enthusiasts via the internet as it travels towards the Moon. California-based company TransOrbital has signed a deal with US computer manufacturer Hewlett-Packard to allow internet users to contact its craft, Trailblazer, as it travels through space. Trailblazer will be equipped with a computer built by Hewlett-Packard that will receive messages sent via a website back on Earth. It will then send a brief acknowledgement to indicate that the message was received.
• Euro Xbox Live pricing - Microsoft has today announced that it will release a new special edition Xbox Live starter kit in Europe later this month, and has also confirmed the pricing for both monthly and annual subscription renewals. Xbox Live is currently enjoyed by around 100,000 gamers in Europe, where the service launched on March 14 last year. In addition to the standard L39.99 (US$73) Xbox Live starter kit, from the end of this month newcomers to Xbox Live will have the option to purchase a special edition starter pack for L59.99 (US$110) that also includes a copy of Project Gotham Racing 2. Both of the packs include a one-year subscription, and an Xbox Live communicator headset.
• Xbox Next: The Price Of Compatibility - Microsoft is keeping many (most?) details about its next-generation Xbox console under wraps, but at least one of the choices that Redmond has made public is stirring a spirited debate. Will Xbox Next, as it's now being called, play games designed for the original Xbox? Your answer depends on who you ask.
• Windows XP 64-Bit Edition for 64-Bit Extended Systems Customer Preview Program - If you have a 64-bit ready PC (AMD Athlon64 or Opteron), you now have the option to receive trial software for Windows XP 64-Bit Edition for 64-Bit Extended Systems via CD or download. Read below about the different options for obtaining the pre-release software, and then use the links on the right to register to order the CD Kit or download product files. Please note that in either case, the pre-release software is time-limited and will expire in 360 days.
• Kyocera Readies High-Speed Digicam - Kyocera has released its Contax SL300R T* digital camera, a 3.2-megapixel camera featuring a swivel body design and Carl Zeiss optics. The unusually-designed camera measures about 4 inches by 2.5 inches by .6 inches and weighs about 4.5 ounces with battery and media removed. The SL300R T* gets its nomenclature from the Carl Zeiss-Vario Tessar T* 5.8-17.4mm lens, equipped with a 3x optical zoom.
• PlexWriter PX-W5224TU announced - Plextor Japan has announced a new external CD-RW recorder, the PlexWriter PX-W5224TU. As the model number suggests, the external USB 2.0 drive is based on the internal PlexWriter PX-W5224TA drive and it thus has the same specifications: 52x write, 24x re-write and 40x read speeds (52x read speeds can be unlocked though). The drive will have a 2MB buffer and will of course have support for BURN-Proof.
• irock! 860 Digital Music Player review - The irock! 860 Digital Audio Player is small, stylish, fun and easy to use. Ultra compatibility with the three major Operating Systems, long battery life and improved sound quality all come together to bring more than a small smile to my face.
• Evercool NoteBook CoolPad NP-101 - The Madshrimps check out an original product from Evercool that cools down your laptop, to prevent you from frying your genitals like this guy
• Gyration UltraGT Keyboard/Mouse review - NextGen Electronics has posted a review on the Gyration UltraGT Keyboard/Mouse.
• Q1 2004 Vendor Graphics Card Roundup - As for overclocking, it seems that the Radeon 9800XT cards that we looked at don't have as much headroom as the GeForce FX 59xx solutions do. The fact that the 9800XT doesn't benefit as much from overclocking is interesting, especially since the 9600XT seems to benefit so much from it. Core processing power is becoming more and more important, and with shader intensive DX9 games on their way, enthusiasts are going to want more and more power from their graphics cards. LeadTek and MSI really ran away with the performance here. Both vendors ended up with some really nice cards that we could clock to the sky and back. Of course, if lower noise is your need, Sapphire has a silent 9600XT and all of MSI's solutions are very quiet.
• Burning Data to file using Windows XP  - TechBox has posted a guide about burning data to file using Windows XP.
• PHP 4.3.5 RC2  - PHP 4.3.5RC2 (Linux ~ Win32) has been released for testing. This is likely to be the last release candidate prior to the final release, so please test it as much as possible.
• phpMyAdmin 2.5.6 RC1 security fix - 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.
• Linux Kernel 2.6.2 Final - Linux Kernel has been updated with few patches (download) and made official stable released.
• Complete Anonymous Web Surfing 1.2 - Complete Anonymous Web Surfing (download trial) is an internet utility to hide your IP address while you are browsing the web. IP address is your internet identification number which is detectable by any web site that you visit.
• HB++ PalmOS RAD Basic Compiler v1.04 - HB++ the true basic compiler for PalmOS with RAD environement is now available in version 1.04.
• W32/Mydoom@MM removal tool - W32/Mydoom@MM (download removal tool) spreads through e-mail. This worm can disguise the sender's address, a tactic known as spoofing, and may generate e-mails that appear to have been sent by Microsoft. Many of the addresses Mydoom uses are valid addresses that are being spoofed for malicious purposes
• KDE 3.2 - KDE 3.2 has been just released to the public. KDE is a powerful Open Source graphical desktop environment for Unix workstations.
• MyIE2 v0.9.16 - 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.
• News Interceptor 1.11 - This new version adds a window to modify your email address and password that you use to log into News Interceptor.
• Azureus 2.0.7.0 - Azureus offers multiple torrent downloads, queuing/priority systems (on torrents and files), start/stop seeding options and instant access to numerous pieces of information about your torrents.
• QuickTime Alternative 1.30 - QuickTime Alternative (download) will allow you to play QuickTime files (.mov, .qt and other extensions) without having to install the official QuickTime Player.
• Real Alternative 1.20 - Real Alternative will allow you to play RealMedia file 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
• VideoLAN 0.7.0 - VideoLAN is an excellent multimedia player with it's own plugins for playing different formats, so it doesn't need any codecs to be installed. It works great for previewing partially downloaded files too.
• RightMark 3DSound 1.01 - RightMark 3DSound is a sound test, which has the following features: DirectSound-diagnostics: the conclusion is hardware supported functions for the selected DirectSound-device; check of presence of EAX1, EAX2, EAX3 support; subjective test of DirectSound3D positioning, with vertical plane support; EAX2, EAX3 reverb, occlusions and obstructions.
• DVD Region-Free (SHW) - DVD Region-Free enables you to watch and copy DVD from any region on all DVD drives! It works in the background to make DVDs appear region free and unprotected for DVD player and copy software automatically. With its help DVD copy software are able to copy CSS encrypted DVDs.
• DVDIdle v3.32 - DVDIdle Pro combines both functionality of DVD Region-Free and DVDIdle into one efficient software.
• DVDStripper 0.3.0  - DVDStripper will strip titlesets, titles, chapters, announcements, logo's, trailers, extras etc from DVD's. Menu's with Movie Only or also keep a few selective extras too. Split DVD keeping original quality but also deciding what you want on each DVD (e.g. Episodic DVD's). Remove one of the two movies on the DVD (e.g. Widescreen & Fullscreen DVD's).
• CDBurnerXP Pro v2.1.8 -  CDBurnerXP Pro (download) is a freeware CD/DVD-Writer program. The program can write CD-R, CD-RW, DVD+R(W) and DVD-R(W) discs.
• Nero 6.3.0.3 Update 1 - Ahead has released an update for their burning software. The updated packages are Nero Burning ROM 6.3.0.1, Nero Vision Express 2.1.0.8, Nero Media Player v1.4.0.18, Nero Mix 1.4.0.18
• ATI All-In-Wonder 9700 Pro Fix - The AIW 9700 Pro is a great card, but some users may experience a PC shutdown issue...
• ATI Radeon DNA-DRIVERS 2.0.4.1a - These are modified/hacked ATI Catalyst drivers (download). 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.
• WDM VIVO drivers v2.20 - Vidia has released a new WDM VIVO drivers, v2.20 (thanks NeoNSX)

• Student hacker sparks US terror alert - Joseph McElroy, now 18 and an engineering student at the University of Exeter, hacked into the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois to download and store films and music from the internet. So many fellow hackers copied him that the system began to slow down and had to be shut for three days. McElroy was given a 200-hour community punishment order at Southwark Crown Court after admitting unauthorised modification of the contents of a computer in June 2002.
• Microsoft confirms "crystal" Xbox - Plans to launch a new "crystal" limited edition version of the Xbox console in Europe in the next few months have been confirmed by Microsoft, which has also announced that a new Xbox Live bundle will be available later this month.  As reported last week, the new limited edition pack - which is the second of its type to be launched here, following the semi-transparent green version last year - features a transparent casing and two matching controllers. The Crystal Limited Edition Xbox will be priced at E199 in Europe, and at L139 in the UK, with the extra tenner mark-up over the normal cost of an Xbox presumably justified by the inclusion of the second controller.
• Sony to invest in Toshiba, IBM chip plants - Sony Corp announced on Monday that it plans to build new lines at Toshiba Corp and IBM Corp factories to produce advanced microprocessors for use in such products as digital appliances and game machines including Microsoft's Xbox gaming console and Sony's PlayStation 3.
• Intel to again delay Dothan - notebook makers now aiming for May - Taiwan’s notebook makers have been upset as the launch of Intel’s mobile Dothan processors has been delayed to April or May from a revised schedule most recently slated for early February, sources at local notebook makers quoted Intel’s latest roadmap as saying.
• NEC Readies Card-Sized Camera Phone - At first glance the N900 looks less like a handset and more like a small, thin digital still camera such as Casio Computer's Exilim. Its plain face is cluttered only by the lens, a light, and the company's logo, But a glance at the back of the device reveals a telephone keypad sitting to the right of a 1.8-inch color TFT LCD. The display has a resolution of 120 pixels by 160 pixels and occupies about half of the rear of the device.
• ATI slashes Radeon 9600SE price by almost 30% - Facing fierce price competition from Nvidia in the mid-range graphics chip market, ATI Technologies recently slashed the price of its desktop-use Radeon 9600SE chip by about US$10, from over US$40 earlier, according to sources.
• ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 Preview - Compared to the previous top-of-the-line model, the Mobility Radeon 9600 PRO, the new chip offers nothing new aside from higher maximum clockspeed of 450MHz. Granted, the new and improved production process may help reduce the chip's power consumption, but the higher clockspeed easily counterbalances that advantage. Features like VPU recover are nice, but don't justify going out and buying a new notebook...Another previews can be found at HardOCP, TrustedReviews
• Intel P4E(Prescott) review - Well, drawing conclusions from tests above we can say the following: Prescott is in general slower than Northwood. Sometimes it's compensated by larger cache pulling the performance even to the older core. And if the application is sensitive to L2 cache, Prescott can even win. Besides, it shows better Hyper-Threading efficiency (but it seems the reason is doubled L2 again). Respectively, if an application can use both advantages - large cache and virtual multiprocessing, the benefit is considerable. But in general Prescott performs about the same as Northwood (and even worse - with the older software). This is no revolution.
• Seagate's Barracuda 7200.7 Serial ATA hard drive - At only $95 online for a 120GB drive, the Barracuda 7200.7 is one of the cheapest Serial ATA drives around. "Parallel" ATA versions of the drive are available online for as little as $85, but I'd pay the price premium to get my hands on thin and flexible Serial ATA cables any day. The Serial ATA Barracuda 7200.7's price also looks good when compared with the DiamondMax Plus 9, which sells for as low as $102 online. Considering that the 'cuda outperforms the DiamondMax in the vast majority of our tests, Seagate's drive looks like a pretty good deal.
• XPlite review - XPlite is a tweakers dream come true. A professional looking application, it delivers on the promise "Windows your way". Not only useful in the home environment, it should strongly be considered as a solution by IT folks as well.
• VMWare 4.0 vs. Virtual PC 2004 - Here's a benchmarking fight between Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 and VmWare Workstation 4.0.5.
• RightMark Memory Analyzer v2.4 - RightMark Memory Analyzer v2.4, 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.

• MyDoom downs SCO site - The MyDoom computer virus knocked out SCO Group's Web site on Sunday, and the company expects the massive denial-of-service attack to continue until Feb. 12. On Monday, SCO began directing customers, developers and others to a new Web site, www.thescogroup.com, which it says will be in effect over the next two weeks. SCO said an onslaught of data had made its usual Web site, www.sco.com, "completely unavailable." The attack began Saturday night and by Sunday morning the software company's site was completely flooded with requests, Utah-based SCO said. ~ The Lindon, Utah-based Unix vendor on Monday announced that it had moved its Web site to www.thescogroup.com instead of its normal address of www.sco.com to avoid the worm-induced distributed denial-of-service attack

• [!] Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (February 2004) - This update (MSIE 6SP1, MSIE6-Win2k3, MSIE6.0, MSIE 5.5SP2 ...) replaces the one that is provided in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS03-048, which is itself a cumulative update.

• Microsoft releases metadata removal tool - MS Word is notorious for containing private information in file headers, but not any longer. Microsoft has quietly released a tool to scrub leaky metadata from documents edited with its software. The Remove Hidden Data Add-In will permanently remove hidden and collaboration data, such as change tracking and comments, from MS Word, MS Excel, and MS PowerPoint files. For Windows XP/Office 2003 only, we should add.

• Off-topic: Wikipedia Reaches 200,000 Articles - The Wikipedia.org project to create a 'complete and accurate free content encyclopedia' has just surpassed 200,000 articles, an increase from 100,000 just 1 year ago. Join in on the celebrations.(thanks Slashdot.org)

• Off-topic: Nanotech spy eyes life inside the cell  - In the real world, biochemists are hoping to go one step further, deploying viruses as "nano-cameras" to get a unique picture of what goes on inside living cells and a greater understanding of how viruses themselves work. A team led by Bogdan Dragnea at Indiana University in Bloomington is exploiting the ability of viruses laden with gold to break into cells, along with the viral shell's own telltale response to laser light. Together these give an unprecedented picture of the chemical and physical activity in cells.

• Windows plan underscores Microsoft struggle - A move by Microsoft to extend support for an older version of Windows underscores a new reality for the software giant: Convincing customers to upgrade is becoming much more difficult. Earlier this month, Microsoft backtracked from a decision to end support for Windows 98 and other older Windows versions, pledging to continue support until 2006. While many customers applauded the move, some analysts said that the decision may be more than an act of goodwill. According to recent surveys, about one-quarter of all PCs run Windows 98 or older versions of Windows. "Better to have people stay on Windows 98 than to start investigating things like Linux," said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Jupiter Research.

• NV40 and R420 memory secrets revealed  - Nvidia’s upcoming NV40 and ATI’s R420 both support memory in the types DDR 1, GDDR 2 and GDDR 3, but both companies will be sticking with GDDR 2, at least at first.  The reason is simple: DDR 1 is just too slow to support the latest-generation graphics chippery in high resolutions, with fancy FSAA and Anisotropic filtering. Also, DDR 1 has a clock limit of 1GHz which is very hard to crank up further. DDR 2, of course, is nothing more than DDR 1 that can run at more than 1GHz, given a set of different commands.

• Intel Introduces Intel Pentium 4 on 90nm - Intel is delivering four new processors (formerly codenamed Prescott) that are built on the company's industry-leading, high-volume 90-nanometer (nm) manufacturing technology.

• Taiwan companies to make notebooks using desktop Prescott processors - Some second-tier Taiwanese notebook makers will roll out models using Intel desktop-use Prescott processors before the chip giant launches notebook-use Mobile Prescott processors in the second quarter of this year, according to sources.

• What's wrong with the Intel Prescott? - It seems that, across most PC benchmarks and usual test apps, the Prescott performance on the same clock varies between 5% faster and 15% slower than the normal Northwood core, or never faster and like 25% slower compared to the Extreme Edition

• Intel Pentium 4 E "Prescott" CPU review - In some cases, Prescott looks very good, but in others, it's slower than current Pentium 4 chips at the same clock speed. The larger caches and architectural tweaks have helped immensely in offsetting Prescott's super-long 31-stage pipeline, but they haven't entirely made up the gap. On balance, Prescotts are slower than Northwoods. I expect Prescott P4s will look relatively stronger over time as SSE3 instructions are adopted and, especially, as clock speeds ramp up. Another reviews can be found at AnandTech, Accelenation, HardOCP, HardcoreWare, MBReview , Legit Reviews, PCWorld, THG and VR-Zone.

• MultiEx Commander 3.9.69 - MultiEx Commander (source code), the world's no.1 Multi game archive resource Extractor has been updated, with supported archive formats totalling 150. This new version adds suport for EA Cricket 2004 *.COB (Extract only), BloodRayne *.POD (Import), Syndicate Wars *.DAT (Import) and Sacrifice *.WAD (Extract only).

• BlindWrite Suite 5.1.1 (SHW) - 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.

• TheFlyDS 1.9.1 - TheFlyDS 1.9.1 (download) is MS DirectShow based software for watching and recording video and/or audio or snapshots from tv-tuner or video-in cards (such as AverMedia TV Phone, LifeView FlyVideo98, ATI All in wonder, ASUS Deluxe Combo and many others).

• Beware: New Version of Mydoom - Kaspersky Labs, a leading information security software developer has detected a new version of Mydoom (Novarg) - Mydoom.b. Kaspersky Labs has received reports of infections by this malicious program. Their analysts believe that Mydoom.b is probably using machines infected by the original Mydoom, which could mean as many as 600,000 units. These infected computers may have received a command to send out copies of Mydoom.b. Therefore, the computer community may be facing a much more serious outbreak than the one caused by Mydoom.a yesterday, January 27. The new version contains minimal technical innovations. Mydoom.b also spreads via email and the KaZaA file-sharing network. The email contains a different set of text strings in the body. The carrier file is about 28 KB in size and contains the text string: "sync-1.01; andy; I'm just doing my job, nothing personal, sorry". Mydoom.b is scheduled to launch a DoS attack between February 1 and February 12 2004 on two web sites: www.sco.com and www.microsoft.com.
• Internet Explorer File Download Extension Spoofing - http-equiv has identified a vulnerability in Internet Explorer (an example), allowing malicious web sites to spoof the file extension of downloadable files. The problem is that Internet Explorer can be tricked into opening a file, with a different application than indicated by the file extension. This can be done by embedding a CLSID in the file name. This could be exploited to trick users into opening "trusted" file types which are in fact malicious files. Another article can be found here.
• Microsoft to remove support for usernames in http urls - A forthcoming update to Internet Explorer will disallow the use of the "@" character in URLs, addressing an issue which has helped fraudsters to obscure the true destination in a web site addresses. Once the update is installed, including the @ symbol in urls will return an "invalid syntax error" message. Microsoft's advisory did not say when the update would be available. Presently, using @ signs in urls is a conventional approach for fraudsters trying to trick bank customers into revealing their account details. including recent attacks on customers of Barclays and Citibank among others. To make the url appear plausible, attackers conventionally put an “@” sign in the url, where the text to the left of the “@” is the name of the site to which the victim is expecting to connect to, and the text to the right of it is the location of the attackers site. When the http protocol was originally designed, the “@” character was intended to denote a username at a particular site, in the style of http://[email protected] where sir.tim.berners-lee is the username, and www.w3.org is the name of the site.
• Off-topic: Mars rover recovering from memory problems  - A full revival of the Mars rover Spirit from its electronic ailments now seems highly likely. Engineers now think there is no real hardware or software problems, but something much easier to fix - a simple overload of files in its onboard memory. If further testing confirms this diagnosis, that will be very good news for Spirit's twin, Opportunity. Any software bug or hardware weakness would probably be present in both rovers and might require weeks of analysis and repair.
• Xbox for $99? Xbox 2 in 2005?  - Microsoft's Xbox may be on the verge of a substantial price cut, falling from $179 to $99 by Labor Day, according to P.J. McNealy, an analyst with American Technology Research. "It is our belief that the price on the consoles in North America could see a stepped drop this year, with both the PS2 and Xbox being cut to $129 between now and the May E3 trade show, with [Microsoft] then cutting the Xbox further to $99 in the late summer," he wrote in a research note released Wednesday. McNealy also believes Microsoft will launch its next generation console in late 2005 – a year earlier than has been previously rumored. That would put the Xbox 2 on store shelves up to a full year before Sony's PlayStation 3.
• Intel Planning Earlier Price Cuts, Analyst Says - According to Nguyen, Intel will release a Prescott-based processor on Monday that runs at clock speeds ranging from 3.0 gigahertz to 3.4 gigahertz, or billions of cycles per second. The 3.4 gigahertz chip will be sold for $417 in large quantities, 35 percent lower than its original list price of $637, Nguyen said. Chips that run at 3.2 gigahertz will be cut in price to $278 in large quantities from a current price of $417, Nguyen said.
• Asus DRW-0402P/D - 4X DVD +/- R/RW Drive review - HotHardware has posted a review of Asus DRW-0402P/D - 4X DVD +/- R/RW drive.
• Home-made CPU-,GPU-,Chipset-blocks tested - The Madshrimps test a collection of Custom made waterblocks, pitting them against the Asetek Waterchill kit.
• First benchmark results ATI RV380 & NVIDIA FX5200 with PCI Express - OnlyNewZ let us know that the Chinese HKEPC website has posted some PCI Express benchmarks.
• Creative GigaWorks S750 Speaker System review - ExtremeTech has posted a review of the Creative GigaWorks S750 Speaker System.
• Logitech Cordless Desktop MX for Bluetooth review - Hardware Pacers has posted a review on the Logitech Cordless Desktop MX for Bluetooth.
• Windows XP Security Guide (updated) - This guide includes settings for Windows XP clients deployed in a Microsoft Windows 2000 or Windows Server 2003 Active Directory domain. The document also includes guidance for an environment requiring an extremely high level of security in which application compatibility or usability may be constrained. Finally, this guide discusses procedures for implementing Windows XP security settings in stand-alone clients.
• Windows Server 2003 Security Guide (updated)  - The Windows Server 2003 Security Guide focuses on providing a set of easy to understand guidance, tools, and templates to help secure Windows Server 2003 in many environments.
• FMV-Extractor 1.2 - FMV-Extractor is a freeware 32-Bit GUI utility for extracting video/audio clips from other files, such as games, non-interactive demos or self-playing movies (thanks Peter)
• Intel Active Monitor 1.20 - Intel Active Monitor (download) is an alerting utility created by Intel and available exclusively on Intel Desktop Boards1. As PCs increase in performance and decrease in size, monitoring the cooling and overall system health becomes more important.
• Nu Technology DUAL firmware updated - Nu Technology have released an updated firmware that adds Dual capability to your 8X DVD-RW DVD burner.

• SCO Puts Bounty on Worm Writer - The SCO Group confirms it is experiencing a distributed denial-of-service attack apparently related to the Mydoom worm, and it is offering a reward for capture of the virus writer. Its apparent target is SCO, which is embroiled in legal action against IBM over intellectual property rights related to its ownership of System V Unix code. The company says it is offering a reward of up to $250,000 "for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the individual or individuals responsible for creating the Mydoom virus." Experts says the damage could continue for months or years. About one in every 12 messages being sent through the Internet contains the virus. Another story can be found here.
• "DVD-Jon" demands compensation - Jon Lech Johansen, who spent four years fending off computer piracy charges, now wants some compensation. He's demanding nearly NOK 150,000 from the white collar crime unit that prosecuted him. It's a modest claim by international standards, amounting to around USD 20,000. But that will apparently satisfy Johansen, who was a teenager when all the fuss around him started.
• Nullsoft Winamp creator Justin Frankel resigns from AOL - Justin Frankel, the controversial software engineer who created the Winamp media player, has resigned from America Online. In an interview over instant messenger with CNET News.com on Monday, Frankel said the time was right to step down after shepherding the latest version of the player, Winamp 5, to a public launch in late December.
• Off-topic: New brain disease could be affecting many thousands - A newly discovered neurodegenerative disease could be affecting tens of thousands of men around the world, say researchers. The disease closely resembles Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and senile dementia, but appears to be caused by a genetic defect linked to fragile X syndrome. Until now carrying the defect was not thought to be harmful. Researchers believe the new disease, named FXTAS (fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome), may affect up to one in 3000 men, with most sufferers being over 50 years old.
• EU customs set to slap 14% tax on PC monitors - The European union is set to reclassify monitors which have DVI outputs as TVs, meaning that manufacturers will have to pay 14% tariffs on these so-called "video monitors". According to display analyst firm Meko, a change of emphasis in guidance supplied by the customs authorities has prompted the reclassification, and sent manufacturers and dealers gasping in disbelief.
• No profit on Xbox One - John Connors, Microsoft's chief financial officer, spoke to financial analysts in Boston this morning. Among other things, he acknowledged that the company still loses money on every Xbox it sells, and he said that isn't going to change until after the next generation Xbox is released, because of the cost of making the current console. Access the audio of the full presentation through this site (thanks Bink.nu)
• NV40, NV41, NV45 & CO. Information - 3DCenter have posted some details on Nvidia's upcoming range of grahics cards NV40, NV41, NV45. Here are the specs for nVidia NV40: 175 million transistors, in 130nm manufactured, 8x2 architecture, however 16 Z/Stencil tests per clock, DirectX 9.0 architecture, supports Shader 3.0, opposite NV38 and Shader doubled more efficient pixels, supports DDR1, GDDR2 and GDDR3, internal AGPx8 interface, exact clock rates: unknown; there is estimated 500 to 600 MHz chip clock and 600 to 800 MHz storing act, Improvements with anti- Aliasing: (at least) a new mode; its SAM polarizing sample is however unknown, Improvements with the anisotropic filter: unknown, Presentation: GDC or CeBIT at the end of March 2004, Market entrance: At the end of April or May, 2004 Sales name: GeForceFX 6XXX. (thanks Warp2Search)
• Intel's Prescott 3.2GHz compared to Northwood 3.2GHz - It's already known that this CPU has a longer pipeline and more cache memory, with 16KB of L1 and 1MB of L2 cache, and that it's warmer than a Northwood based P4 at the same clock speed. It's cooled with an Intel traditional top line cooler but it ends up 10 or even more Celsius degrees hotter than the Northwood core.
• WinFast A360 Ultra TDH - The theme of this review is definitely "bang for your buck" because that's what the nVidia GeForceFX 5700 Ultra video card provides. LeadTek has put together a fantastic solution for gamers and people looking to upgrade alike with a very attractive board that won't kill you in the wallet - the price tag should be very popular with gamers used to getting a stroke when wishing to upgrade to a video card with similar statistics to this card.
• GFX chipsets round-up - The chipsets under comparison today are going to the the high-end and mid-range chipsets from both companies. These are:  Bleeding Edge: ATI 9800XT, Nvidia FX5950 / High End: ATI 9800Pro, Nvidia FX5900XT / Midrange: ATI 9600XT, Nvidia 5700Ultra.
• Creative Labs Sound Blaster Wireless Music First Look -The company's Sound Blaster Wireless Music ($249.99 direct) device lets you connect a PC that's part of a wireless 802.11b or 802.11g network to any speaker or sound system in the house. Although not the first consumer product to provide wireless music distribution, it could be the most flexible and easiest to use.
• Creative T7700 7,1 surround kit and Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS - RBMods has posted a review of the Audigy 2 ZS and T7700 sound kit.
• Creative Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro review - Sudhian Media has posted a review on the Creative Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro sound card.
• A Roundup of Coolers for Pentium 4: Q4'2003 - While the PC enthusiast can afford a cooler at $30-$40, the common user at best puts aside $10 of the budget for a cooler. At the same time, for this money the user would want to get an absolutely noiseless cooling (which is a sensible decision). Snatching these trends, cooler manufacturers are increasingly focusing on coolers with the variable fan rotational speed. Digital-Daily take a look at FSP, Igloo Diamond 4200 and a new version of the "boxed" cooler.
• Printing Your Own CDRs With Ink - THG recommends the Stylus Photo 960, as its little extra details make this printer more of a pleasure to use. These details also will contribute to an overall better user experience. However, the Stylus Photo 900 should not be ignored, but it is important to understand what you are gaining and losing by electing the 900 model or the 960 model.
• Samsung ML-1710 Monochrome Laser Printer review - ExplosiveLabs has posted a review on the Samsung ML-1710 Monochrome Laser Printer. "Text printing quality is great with the ML-1710 while graphics quality does lack somewhat. Also pleasing with this printer is its quiet and responsive operation. The 30 second warm up time is pretty much standard for all laser printers, even on some higher end models. The simple control panel fits the design of the printer nicely and does have some nice features to it. It would have been nice to see a few more features to the CP however."
• Evesham Axis 64 3000 review  - Hexus.net has posted a review of the Evesham Axis 64 3000. "Multi-use setups like the Axis will always appeal. It's for that reason, it's multi-talented abilities as a games machine, simple video capture and editing box and multimedia TV hub, that I'm happy to award it a high score. It has some downsides, I'd be looking to put a 512MB stick of something like Corsair XMS3200 in there for starters, relieving myself of the Hyundai mess, but overall it's a very well executed PC. With the Radeon 9800SE All-In-Wonder playing a large part, the excellent warranty and attractive £999.99 (sans VAT) price, combined with great HIDs and good speakers, I really recommend the Axis 64 3000+ if the budget fits."
• Ricoh's G4w digital camera review - PyroPort.com let us know they have posted a review of  Ricoh's Caplio G4w digital camera.
• Windows Services for UNIX 3.5 review - SFU is not an operating system. It is a subsystem and we will discuss how this differs from Cygwin and UWIN later on in this review. SFU is tacked on as a process that houses sub processes. SFU is a full UNIX environment to to let UNIX developers continue their Linux/UNIX work but leverage the advantages of the Windows platform but you must have Windows 2000/XP Professional Server 2000/2003, it no longer runs on Windows NT and it cannot be installed on Windows XP Home Edition.
• Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services - Microsoft Corp. today announced the availability of SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services (download evaluation version) Reporting Services provides companies with a powerful new reporting tool that can increase business insight by providing real-time information from any data source to any device.
• Word 2003 Update: KB830000 - Under certain circumstances Word 2003 can become unresponsive when the user saves a file or when Word automatically saves an AutoRecover file. This update corrects that potential error. For more information on this update, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article (830000) Overview of the Word 2003 Update: KB830000.
• Auto Switching Bluetooth BETA - Unfortunately HTC Voyager model of Microsoft smartphone, branded among others as "Orange SPV e200", "Qtek 8080", etc - has no ability to switch on the Bluetooth only then when a call is incoming (so that you could use Bluetooth headset to take the call). This program can solve this problem (you must be logged-in to the forum there to be able to download it; registration is free).
• PowerArchiver 2003 8.70.09 Final (SHW) - PowerArchiver (download) is an award-winning archive utility for the Windows family of products that provides support for most compressed and encoded files, as well as access to many powerful features and tools though an easy to use interface that seamlessly integrates with Windows Explorer.
• Get Win32.Mydoom.A removal utility - Win32.Mydoom.A is a worm spreading via e-mail and P2P file sharing network. The worm has been distributed as 22,528-byte, UPX-packed Win32 executable and may be included in a ZIP archive. Download removal utility from here (direct link)
• McAfee Stinger 1.9. - This version of Stinger includes detection for all known variants, as of January 26, 2004: (BackDoor-AQJ Bat/Mumu.worm Exploit-DcomRpc, IPCScan IRC/Flood.ap IRC/Flood.bi, IRC/Flood.cd NTServiceLoader PWS-Narod, PWS-Sincom W32/Bugbear@MM, W32/Deborm.worm.gen, W32/Dumaru@MM W32/Elkern.cav W32/Fizzer.gen@MM, W32/FunLove W32/Klez W32/Lirva, W32/Lovgate W32/Lovsan.worm W32/Mimail@MM, W32/MoFei.worm W32/Mumu.b.worm W32/MyDoom@MM, W32/Nachi.worm W32/Nimda W32/Pate, W32/Sdbot.worm.gen W32/Sober@MM W32/SirCam@MM, W32/Sobig W32/SQLSlammer.worm W32/Swen@MM, W32/Yaha@MMP)
• Codec Pack All in 1 6.0.0.0  - Codec Pack All in 1 6.0.0.0 includes: DivX 5.1.1, XviD Koepi's 1.0 b3, DivX, XviD - FFDShow 28.11.2003 alpha, MPEG2 2.0.0.2525, Subtitles g400 2.83, Subtitles DVobSub (Win9x, Win2k a WinXP) 2.23, 2.32, OGG Vorbis 0.9.9.5, AC3 0.70b and Morgan Multimedia Stream Switcher 0.97b.
• VIATray 1.53 - VIATray is an add-on utility for VIA's Hardware Monitor. It moves VIA's HWM from the task bar to the system tray and adds a few extra options.
• Realtek ALC650 drivers A3.54a - download

• W32/Dumaru.y@MM and W32/Dumaru.z@MM alert -  A new minor variant of this worm is spreading.. The extra.dat file has been updated to deal with both threats - W32/Dumaru.y@MM and W32/Dumaru.z@MM. W32/Dumaru.z@MM is very similar to the y variant, the major differences being: Filesize: approx 14,550 bytes, File download: this variant is intended to download a remote file (URL hard-coded in body). This remote file may change, but at the time of writing it was a variant of W32/Spybot.worm. This is written to disk as %SysDir%NVIDIA32.EXE. This is detected as W32/Spybot.worm.gen with the 4288 DATs or greater.
• Windows XP Explorer Executes Arbitrary Code in Folders - A vulnerability was reported in Microsoft Windows XP in Windows Explorer. A remote user can create a folder that, when viewed by the target user, will execute arbitrary code on the target user's system. http-equiv reported that a remote user can create a specially crafted 'folder' that includes HTML scripting code and a Windows executable ('.exe' file) containing arbitary code. When a target user attempts to view the contents of the 'folder' (which may be considered an ostensibly safe task by many users), the arbitrary code will be automatically executed on the target user's computer by Windows Explorer. The code will run with the privileges of the target user.
• NAI Announces McAfee AntiSpyware Software - Network Associates Inc. announced McAfee Antispyware software that will retail for $39.95 that can help rid your computer from spyware. The product will compete in a growing field of commercial and free software that sniffs out legal and illegal programs that can log computer keystrokes, track Web browsing activity or give remote attackers full access to a computer hard drive, according to information from NAI.
• Mutating software could predict hacker attacks - Novel computer viruses and worms can sweep the world within hours, leaving a trail of devastation, because firewalls and antiviral software work by identifying the telltale signatures of known attacks. They are useless against anything completely new. But now software engineers at Icosystem in Cambridge, Massachusetts, have developed a program that can predict what is coming next by "evolving" future hacker and virus attacks based on information from known ones. The company is testing the technique with the help of the US Army's Computer Crimes Investigation Command in Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
• Off-topic: First look at Martian bedrock - In a stroke of uncanny luck, elated scientists discovered Sunday that Opportunity, their second Martian rover, has landed inside a tiny crater where the planet's original bedrock lies exposed to offer insights into billions of years of the planet's evolution. As the first digital images came down before dawn on Earth Sunday from the Martian site where the six-wheeled Opportunity had landed precisely on schedule at 9:05 p.m. PST Saturday, the mission's chief scientist, Steven Squyres, was almost uncontrollably excited, and so were his fellow scientists.
• Japanese bone phone developed - Japanese Telecom carriers have come up with the world's first mobile phone that enables users to listen to calls inside their heads - by conducting sound through bone. The TS41 handset, manufactured by electronics firm Sanyo, was put on sale by the Tu-Ka mobile phone group this month, drawing healthy demand from customers who want to hear calls better in busy streets and other noisy places. The new phone is equipped with a "Sonic Speaker" which transmits sounds through vibrations that move from the skull to the cochlea in the inner ear, instead of relying on the usual method of sound hitting the outer eardrum.
• Queen to give knighthood to Bill Gates - Bill Gates, the Microsoft founder and the world's wealthiest man, is to receive an honorary knighthood for "services to global enterprise". The recommendation that he receive the honour was made by the Chancellor, Gordon Brown. Buckingham Palace is expected to announce it tomorrow, when Mr Gates will speak at a conference on "Advancing Enterprise" organised by Mr Brown (thanks Peter)
• Microsoft Search Tool Takes On Google - Microsoft will begin offering customers of its MSN online service a software " toolbar" (download beta) for Internet browsers that has a window for searching the Web using keywords and phrases. The toolbar, which sits below the control panel on a browser, includes shortcut buttons to other Microsoft services such as Hotmail e-mail and its MSN Messenger product.
• Leaked Star Wars: Episode III footage - Here is a leaked footage of Star Wars: Episode III (thanks max)
• Future of UnitedLinux in doubt - The future of the UnitedLinux consortium looks in doubt following the departure of its chief and the admission from SCO Group that it is unlikely to sell Linux again. The consortium, which has looked fragile since SCO began legal action against IBM and the Linux community, has now lost general manager Paula Hunter to the Open Source Development Labs. She has so far not been replaced.
• AMD Athlon FX-53 appears on web - AMD's upcoming Athlon FX-53 processor has surfaced on the web. Apparently. GZeasy has a rather blurry, indistinct photo of a chip, which it claims is the 2.4GHz processor. To back-up its claim, the site has posted a series of BIOS and CPU information software screen shots mentioning the Athlon FX-53 by name.
• Crucial PC3200 DDR400 Memory review - TweakNews has posted a review of Crucial PC3200 DDR400 Memory.
• AMD Athlon 64-Bit Processors overview -  The "Athlon FX" is actually an abbreviated name for the chip, much in the same way that “Athlon XP” is. Currently, there is only one Athlon FX chip out, the FX-51, and because of this, most people (users and resellers alike) tend to leave off the –51 from the chip name. Hopefully once additional “FX” chips come out such as the FX-53 it'll help ease the confusion between the Athlon 64 chips and the Athlon 64 FX chips. The Athlon 64 chips will continue to be named in the same way that the Athlon XP and MP processors were (e.g. Athlon 64 3000+, Athlon 64 3200+, Athlon 64 3400+, and so on). On more than one occasion, we've seen people refer to the processor's model number thinking that the number is an indication of the processor speed (e.g. Athlon 1800+ being 1.8Ghz) this of course is not true.
• XGI/Club3d Volari Duo V8 256MB review - Lets look at the positives. If you're a case modder then the Volari has a nice look (shiny copper is always good) and some trendy blue LED fans that may well fit in nicely to your case. Additionally we appear to have a chipmaker who is serious about competing with ATI and Nvidia – this can only be good for prices in the long run. We also noted that there was never a crash in normal desktop use. For this purpose the card was perfect. Unfortunately that's where the positives end.
• S3 DeltaChrome S8 review - There's always room for competent products, and S3, if it can iron out some of the problems that we have made reference to, can provide competent architectures that partners would be willing to put their name to. That's a big if, and time will tell whether S3 has been able to surmount the obstacles that are presently in the way. There's a chance that S3 can be a real player again, but that's just what it is - a chance.
• NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200 GPU Review Rev2.0 -  Adrian's Rojak Pot let us know has just posted Revision 2.0 of The NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200 GPU review.
• Inno3D Tornado GeForce FX 5700 Ultra 128MB - The 5700 Ultra has the raw power to take its counterpart but it really shines once the eye candy is turned on. With an anticipated street price of around $175, the Inno3D Tornado is THE card to have for the gamer wanting performance but restrained by the financial limits 95% of us share. Hats off to Inno3D for a well earned award from us here on an outstanding product.
• ATI AIW 9800Pro - There are more features built into this product that basically makes up three different components; 2D/3D, Hardware Multimedia Features and Software Multimedia Features.
• 4 DVD Burners From Asus, Gigabyte and MSI compared - All four candidates perform well compared to the drives from traditional makers, proving that they need not fear established names like Pioneer, Sony and Teac.
• Samsung SyncMaster 192T 19 inch LCD Monitor - The Samsung SyncMaster 192T is a display I would recommend to someone who is looking for a larger 19" LCD that saves space. You do pay the price for this though. The features and settings on the display area easy to use, and has proven itself to provide a clear, sharp, and vivid reproduction of images.
• SilenX 400w 14 dBA PSU - This SilenX 400w has pretty standard connections including: 6 Molex, 1 berg, 1 Auxillary, 1 12v, and 1 ATX. None of the cables have sleeving or any other form of cable management which would have been nice to see but is alright none the less. The cables also don’t look to be too long which is the case of many other power supplies.
• Track IR 2 review - Overall if you are a flight sim fan I think you should buy this. In no way have I been disappointed with Track IR 2, indeed in many ways it is a lot more than I was expecting. When starting each game it's so easy, just get comfortable and get your head level, hit the key to centre and you're away. It's very easy to use, quite easy to get up and running (although as stated does need tweaking for each game) and personally for what you get I don't think it's overpriced. As you can probably tell I've really enjoyed testing it and my Track IR 2 will certainly be getting some use.
• Microsoft Wireless Intellimouse Explorer for Bluetooth - The Microsoft Wireless Intellimouse Explorer for Bluetooth is a great place to start. This five-button, fully programmable mouse is a great package. The fact that it is Bluetooth enables it to do so much more. When considering buying a wireless mouse, this is a candidate that should be near the top of your list, but if you’re on a budget, you may need to sacrifice a little.
• Steel Gaming Glove 3 Review - The purpose of it is to go on your hand during gaming to relieve tension during extensive PC gaming, and overall give you a more comfortable feeling.
• Installing Slackware Linux - The packaging system in Slackware is quick, dirty and simple too. Slackware packages (.tgz files) are basically just tar.gz archives, that have install scripts that the packaging utilities execute. No dependency checking, which can be good or bad, depending on how you look at it. To me it's good, because I don't get annoyed by packages that won't install because of some brain dead mechanism that checks for things in specific places. The catch is, you need to be a bit careful installing system software.
• Morpheusware nForce Remix Drivers and nForce Driver FAQ - To address the multitude of needs in the nForce community, Morpheus has assembled several Driver Remix Packs. These Remix Packs are combinations of certain nForce/nForce2 driver components that have been selected based on criterion such as speed, stability, and functionality. The driver code and content has not been altered in any way; rather, the packs include hand-picked components premade by NVIDIA. Morpheus has painstakingly tried these components and assembled them by hand. These driver remixes even include an option tailored to those who have encountered trouble burning CDs and DVDs.
• Ten More Ways To Make Windows XP Run Better - When tweaks become useful enough to be part of a routine installation, they're worth sharing. Here, then, are another 10 very useful changes, additions, or alterations you can make to XP. All are free, and take only minutes to implement.
• Server Appliance Kit 3.0 for Windows Server 2003 - SAK 3.0 (Server Appliance Kit) is a tool-set for creating specialized windows servers, like a Windows powered NAS (Network Attached Storage), VON servers, Anti Virus Gateways, print servers, and Call center voice servers.
• ReactOS 0.2 - ReactOS is an Open Source effort to develop a quality operating system that is compatible with Windows NT applications and drivers.
• Coding Workshop Polyphonic Wizard 2.2.2 - The Coding Workshop Polyphonic Wizard (download) is a software program for your PC that allows you to add new ringtones and pictures to your polyphonic phone without the need for cables or sms (text) services.The Polyphonic Wizard supports most makes and models of polyphonic phone including models from Alcatel, Kyocera, LG, Motorola, Nokia, NEC, Panasonic, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Sendo, Sharp and Siemens with more added every month.
• Fresh Download 6.60 - 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.
• AVG Free Edition 6.0 Build 567 - AVG for Microsoft Windows (register ~ download) provides comprehensive antivirus protection for personal computers. The unique combination of detection methods (heuristic analysis, generic detection, scanning and integrity checking) ensures that your computer receives the maximum protection possible on multiple levels (Resident Shield, Email Scanner plugins, Personal Email Scanner, On-Demand and other tests, etc.) 
• Raine 0.39.2 - RAINE (download) is an arcade emulator that emulates M68000 and M68020 based games. The emulator's main focus is on Taito and Jaleco game hardware. The emulator currently can run in excess of 120+ games.
• XviD 1.0 RC1 - XviD 1.0 RC1 (download), codenamed Niltze, has been released. It contains a cleaned up VfW GUI, fixes color space assignment problems, the weighed zones should have been fixed, the VfW status window has been overhauled, fast first pass now disables QPel during the first pass, the codec checks for statsfile existence before starting the 2nd pass, the installer deletes old XviD configurations and some issues in the postprocessing department have also been fixed.
• A-Ray copy protection scanner v0.0.0.2 - A-Ray Scanner is a new copy protection scanner which can identify the SafeDisc, SecuROM and Tages copy protections.
• DVD Shrink 3.1.4 - DVD Shrink 3.1.4 (download) fixes a couple of minor bugs and performance enhancements.
• Media Player Classic v6.4.7.6 - MPC is a standalone video/music player that can handle a lot of media types, including DVD playback, Ogg audio, RealMedia and Quicktime video
• WinRAR 3.30 Final (SHW) - WinRAR (download Win32 ~ Linux ~ DOS) is a powerful archive manager. It can backup your data and reduce size of email attachments, decompress RAR, ZIP and other files downloaded from Internet and create new archives in RAR and ZIP file format.
• VideoLAN 0.7.0 - The VideoLAN Client can read the stream from the network and display it. It can also be used to display video read locally on the computer : DVDs, VCDs, MPEG and DivX files and from a satellite card. It is multi-plaform: Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, BeOS, BSD, Solaris, QNX, iPaq... The VideoLAN Client and Server now have a full IPv6 support.
• CPU-Z 1.21 - CPU-Z (download) is a freeware that provides some information on your system: Processor name and vendor, Core stepping and process, Processor package, Processor current core voltage, Internal and external clocks, clock multiplier, Partial overclock detection, Processor features, including supported, instructions sets, L1 to L3 cache information : location, size, speed, technology, Motherboard information : name, vendor, BIOS, chipset, memory, AGP, Memory information : size, type, timings, specifications.
• Nu Tech DDW-081 dual format firmware -  The firmware on this website is offered for NU Technology users' convenience only. NU Technology does not give any warranties, express or implied about the function of the firmware, including, without limitation as to the quality or fitness for a particular purpose. Support -R media list: Memorex DVD-R, MCC DVD-R, TAIYO-YUDEN DVD-R, CMC DVD-R.
• Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS updates - Creative Labs have released their Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS software updates (EU Mirror) dated 16 Jan 2004 (DTS Neo:6 Settings (Version 1.00.06) for Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS, Creative EAX Console Update (Version 2.02.05) for Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS, Creative MediaSource 2 Update (Version 2.02.06) for Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS, Creative THX Setup Console Update (Version 1.00.16) for Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS).
• Omega ATI drivers v4.1 - Omegacorner.com has released a new "optimized" drivers for the ATI Radeon family of video cards.

• Bill Gates Says Make Spammers Pay - Gates said Microsoft is working on a solution based on the concept of "proof," or identifying the sender of the e-mail. One method involves a human challenge, or requiring the sender of an electronic pitch to solve a puzzle that only a flesh-and-blood person can handle. Another is a so-called "computational puzzle" that a computer sending only a few messages could easily handle, but that would be prohibitively.
• Users still waiting for browser patch - Microsoft has admitted that it is still unable to release a fix for a serious flaw in Internet Explorer (IE) that allows hackers to clone websites. Security experts notified the software giant about the vulnerability, exploited in so-called 'phishing' attacks, early last month.
• MS Blaster clean-up tool was stellar success - Microsoft's recently released Blaster clean-up tool was downloaded 1.4 million times during the first few hours of its availability earlier this month. The strong need for the tool makes a case for greater automation of viral removal, according to Microsoft.
• First Office 2003 Service Pack Scheduled - Users of Microsoft's Office System products released in October can expect the first service pack for the software in late June, Microsoft said Friday. Service Pack 1 (SP1) will apply to InfoPath 2003, OneNote 2003, Project 2003, Publisher 2003, Visio 2003 and SharePoint Portal Server and Windows SharePoint Services, as well as the Microsoft Office 2003 suite, which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, a Microsoft spokesperson says.
• Chipping PlayStations isn't illegal, says Italian court - Calling the limits put on the PlayStation 2 by Sony "absurd", the Italian authorities have ruled that it's illegal to prohibit certain uses of commercial products. While Sony is boasting about PlayStation sales breaking the 70-million barrier, the Japanese giant has suffered its first significant legal defeat in Europe. On 31 December, a court in Bolzano, Italy, ruled that the authorities' seizure a few days earlier of mod-chipped PlayStation 2s was illegal - officially landing chipped PlayStation 2s on the right side of Italian law.
• Off-topic: NASA fights to revive Spirit - Attempting to diagnose a nearly mute and temporarily delirious spacecraft more than 100 million miles away, NASA mission controllers said Friday that they suspect a hardware problem on the six-wheeled Mars rover may have caused a severe malfunction. Cautioning that they will need more time to understand what went wrong, project engineers said they have determined that Spirit has rebooted or tried to reboot itself more than 60 times a day since the failure. As NASA scientists struggled to revive their ailing Mars rover, they also began to prepare for the landing of its twin, which was scheduled to touch down on the other side of the Red Planet late Saturday night. In related story, "first data from Mars Express confirms ice water".
• "Exploding" cell phone battery recalled - The voluntary recall affects Kyocera Wireless model 7135 smart phones sold between September and December, bought either online or in stores belonging to Verizon Wireless, Arkansas-based Alltel or Chicago-based US Cellular. The handsets use batteries manufactured by Coslight International Group of Hong Kong, and have a serial number on the underside that begins "-05". San Diego-based Kyocera said on Friday that it is trying to reach all 40,000 people who bought the cell phone in order to arrange for delivery of a free replacement.
• Walkie-Talkie Phones Proliferate - PCMag has tested the Sprint PCS Sprint Vision Video Phone VM4500 ($379 street, plus service fees), also known as the Sanyo SCP-5500, a 3.8-ounce, dual band, tri-mode phone with a built-in video camera that can capture 15-second video clips. The phone, which Sprint PCS advertises as "The Whole Package," comes with an abundance of cool and user-friendly features.
• Are 64-bit Binaries Slower than 32-bit Binaries? - Tony Bourke decided to run a few of tests on his SPARC to see if indeed 64-bit binaries ran slower than 32-bit binaries, and what the actual performance disparity would ultimately be.
• Intel Limits Socket 478 Processors' Evolution to 3.40GHz - While originally Intel planned to offer 3.60GHz processors for PGA478 platforms, some sources now report about absence of such chips in the firm's plans. The last and final play for Socket 478 will be 3.40GHz Intel Pentium 4 processors with 1MB or 512KB of L2 cache.
• Alienware Aurora Extreme review - GeekNews has reviewed Alienware Aurora Extreme ($3600): "This system is no doubt the best I've ever had a chance to own or even see. Performance is amazing and 3D gaming is just for hardcore gamers that will enjoy the full feel of a game. The components are all quality but like we mentioned before it doesn't come cheap. Alienware has a great reputation of their systems but the tech support just isnt worth the call."
• Logitech diNovo Review - Logitech has the MSRP of the diNovo at a whopping $249.99, far out of the reach of most of us mere mortals. But just like buying a Ferrari or Bentley, you definitely get a masterful piece of equipment when you shell out this kind of cash.
• XGI/Club3d Volari Duo V8 256mb review - Driverheaven has posted a review of the XGI/Club3d Volari Duo V8 256Mb Video card.
• HIS Excalibur 9600SE VIVO Edition review - Legit Reviews has posted a review of the HIS Excalibur 9600SE VIVO Edition.
• Western Digital Raptor 36.7GB Serial ATA 10000RPM  review - Although SCSI is still the fastest interface, with drives like this at hand the SATA interface no longer has to prove its case, installation is simple, and performance is higher than any IDE drive ive used. Certainly the prices are alot higher with this drive currently costing around the same price as a 160 gig parallel ATA drive (around L90) so you have to balance the loss in storage with the speed you are gaining. If you already have alot of storage and want to inject some speed into your rig, then move your current drive into a file storage device and put one of these babies into your system as the OS drive. What about a game drive? Speed differences will be noticeable, especially on loading times which can make you want to pull your hair out.
• Top Secret Fanless 350 W PSU Phantom - It operates at or above 80% efficiency by using dedicated circuits for each voltage output and does not needs any fans or external heat absorbers. The PSU is the same size than all other ATX12V 1.3 PSU. Check it out!
• Intel Prescott benchmarked against Northwood 2.8GHz  - This time, the benchmarks compare a Prescott 2.8GHz against a Northwood 2.8GHz using a number of benchmarks. Those benchmarks include a bunch of SiSoftware Sandra, CPUBench2003, and PCMark measurements. (TheInquirer)
• OCZ Ultra 2 Recall - OCZ would like to take this time to address the recent article published at Overclockers.com, which shows that OCZ Ultra 2 thermal compound has no silver content.
• Microsoft releases memory diagnostic tool - The Windows Memory Diagnostic (download) tests the Random Access Memory (RAM) on your computer for errors. The diagnostic includes a comprehensive set of memory tests. If you are experiencing problems while running Windows, you can use the diagnostic to determine whether the problems are caused by failing hardware, such as RAM or the memory system of your motherboard. Windows Memory Diagnostic is designed to be easy and fast. On most configurations, you can download the diagnostic, read the documentation, run the test and complete the first test pass in less than 30 minutes.
• AutoPatcher 4.2 - AutoPatcher XP is a comprehensive collection of patches & registry tweaks that give you peace of mind in the knowledge that your Windows XP is up to date.
• Sonique2 Beta 1.01 - Sonique (download) is a windows audio player capable of handling Microsoft Windows Media files, MP3 files, audio CDs, and more.
• Logitech iTouch Keyboard Software 2.21 Build 270 - Logitech have released a new iTouch Keyboard drivers version 2.21 Build 270 for Windows 9X / ME / NT / 2000 / XP

• DVD Copying Charges Dropped - The DVD Copy Control Association (DVD CCA) has dropped its case against a California man accused of misappropriating trade secrets by posting copies of the DeCSS program, which defeats DVD security technology. Another article can be found here.
• Execs vow global crackdown on music file sharing - On Thursday, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) released a progress report on its year-old campaign to develop and promote online music stores and spread its message that online song-swapping is illegal. In a rare upbeat statement, the IFPI said its initiative is building a vibrant, albeit small, market for selling music downloads that appears to be stealing momentum from peer-to-peer networks such as Kazaa and WinMX where all varieties of music are available for free.
• RIAA Sues 532 "John Does" - The RIAA filed a new round of copyright infringement lawsuits Wednesday against 532 computer users who are allegedly illegally sharing copyright material using peer-to-peer networks, Sherman said in a telephone press conference to discuss the move. In contrast to previous rounds of lawsuits, the RIAA filed "John Doe" lawsuits that identify alleged file swappers only by the IP address of the computer sharing the file. The RIAA will file a motion to require Internet service providers that own the addresses to provide the identity of the customers behind the addresses, Sherman says.
• UK Internet Crime Syndicate Smashed By Music And Film Anti-Piracy Units - A series of countrywide raids conducted on Thursday this week (January 15) by Police and Trading Standards with assistance from FACT (Federation Against Copyright Theft) and BPI (British Phonographic Industry) have disabled a massive organised crime piracy syndicate. Throughout the raids, which took place in Manchester, Sheffield, Eastbourne, Darlington, Hull, Hartlepool, Anglesey, Wrexham and Derby massive amounts of pirate material – including music, films, business software, PlayStation games and suspected paedophile material – were seized, with an estimated value running onto the millions of pounds.
• CD lock loosened for freer copying - Macrovision released a new generation of its antipiracy technology on Thursday that it hopes will make copy-protected music CDs more attractive to consumers and record labels. The update attempts to simulate most of what people are doing with CDs on their computers. Content owners such as record labels would be able to set the "usage rules" on the Microsoft Windows Media files included on a Macrovision-protected CD, allowing a specified numbers of CD burns and transfers to portable devices, for example.
• Security pros question flaw find - Two Internet software developers who said they have uncovered a way to cause entire networks of computers to freeze or shut down may have simply rediscovered an old network issue. The network performance issues are described in a series of Web site forum postings recently publicized within the security community. The poster, who uses the alias NT Canuck, said he created a tool, with the help of another developer, that can shut down entire networks.
• Off-topic: US space agency loses touch with Mars robot - Nasa, the US space agency, said Thursday it had lost touch with the Mars Rover Spirit, which landed on Mars amid much fanfare almost two weeks ago. Spirit project manager Peter Theisinger showed concern in a press conference about a "very serious anomaly" in communications with the craft. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) has been unable to establish meaningful contact with Spirit since Wednesday afternoon but scientists initially put the problems down to stormy weather on Earth. On Wednesday, Nasa received signals showing the craft was still there, but it was unable to capture any meaningful data.
• Sun Launches Java for Linux - Sun Microsystems, recognizing the opportunities presented by Linux and hoping to keep pace with the competition, is expanding its support for the open-source operating system.
• R420 to support DDR, DDR II and GDDR 3 - ATI's team headed by Dave Orton team has no intention of slowing down after its successful coup with the R300. You will be run over if you stop for even a second in the graphics business and even R420 is still not totally cast in stone. Someone at ATI is thinking of the next speed update of this chip that should come roughly six months after. ATI is acting far sightedly. It will have support for all memory marchitectures in R420 as the chip will support DDR1 and that could mean cheaper cards, it will support DDR 2 that will be the memory of choice for this chip and then there's GDDR3 memory, which could be used in future speed upgrades of the R4x0 family. We understand that the initial R420 will use DDR 2 memory which is finally stable and available, and can deliver over 1000MHz.
• Sony VAIO Digital Studio PCV-RZ46G First Look - The Sony VAIO Digital Studio PCV-RZ46G delivers TV images free from the snow and other artifacts we've seen in the past. Its picture was also sharper than images from other models, which tend to look a bit soft when shown full-screen. And while it still isn't digital-cable crisp, this is the first Media Center PC you won't have to make excuses for when you flip on The Simple Life. Most of the rest of the system is top-notch, too. It includes a 3.2-GHz CPU married to 1GB of RAM, a 200GB hard drive, and a dual-format DVD burner, as well as a separate CD-RW drive. But hard-core gamers will find they can get better 3-D performance than the midrange nVidia GeForce FX 5600 card delivers, and the three-piece speaker set isn't the last word in sound.
• AirMagnet Handheld 3.0 and Laptop Trio review - THG has posted a review of the latest versions of the Handheld and Laptop Trio products.
• Corsair 1GB TwinX XMS4400 Memory review - OcPrices has posted a review of the Corsairs latest PC-4400.
• Sapphire Radeon 9600 XT 128MB review - The Radeon 9600 XT is ATI’s latest high end mainstream board. Introduced at the back end of last year it features all the same functionality and configuration of the 9600 PRO but based on the RV360 chip which puts TSMC’s 130nm low-k dielectric process to use. The low-k process afforded 9600 XT a 25% core clock speed hike over 9600 PRO, which saw few complain about, however the memory speed of ATI’s reference 9600 XT specification was stuck at 300MHz DDR (600MHz effective) and many did query this part of the 9600 XT’s specification.
• ASUS Radeon 9800 XT and GeForce FX 5950 Ultra Kings of the VGA Hill - TweakTown take a look at two top dogs from both ATi and nVidia in the form of the Radeon 9800 XT and GeForce FX 5950 Ultra from ASUS.  They pit them directly against a reference 9800 XT and an older 9800 Pro to find out who is the king of the hill in the VGA department.
• Club3D Geforce FX 5900XT - The Madshrimps have reviewed the attractively priced FX5900XT powered videocard from Club3D.
• Power Supply Units round-up - THG has tested 15 PC power supply units and details the must buys and the must not buys. They also explain and clarify how to interpret manufacturers' power unit specifications.
• Crystalfontz CFA-631 USB LCD Modules video review - The Crystalfontz CFA-631 USB LCD Modules look fantastic, fit in a 3.5" drive bay and come in a variety of styles. With 5.25" drive bays quickly filled up it's great to see a full featured 3.5" USB LCD Module. Since this product connects directly into your computer's USB port, it's easy to install. Also, the free software makes it a snap to configure.
• Xenix Optical Wheel Mouse review - OCIA.net has posted a review of the Xenix Optical Wheel Mouse.
• ZXR-750 7.1 Speakers review - TechSpot has posted a review of Videologic ZXR-750 speakers.
• Inside the Windows XP Service Pack 2 Beta Preview - Microsoft will release Service Pack 2 for Windows XP (both Home and Professional) in the first half of 2004. PCMag take a look at the beta version, released to testers in December, revealed a number of interesting security enhancements in Web browsing, e-mail, and networking. The beta is, of course, a work in progress-the final version may differ in features and appearance.
• NIST Releases Guide to Cyber Attacks - NIST (the US National Institute of Standards and Technology) has just released a 148 page report entitled Computer Security Incident Handling Guide (PDF).
• Windows 2000 Security Hardening Guide -  This document (download) is not meant as a replacement for the Windows 2000 Common Criteria Security Configuration Guide, but rather as a more generally applicable hardening guide which applies to a much broader range of specific systems which may include or exclude services specified in the Windows 2000 Common Criteria evaluated configuration.
• SAPPHIRE RADEON 9800 XT ULTIMATE Edition Extreme Overclocking: Myths and Reality - X-Bit Labs have posted an article about volt-modding techniques for the today's top graphics accelerators based on NVIDIA GeForce FX 5950 Ultra and ATI RADEON 9800 XT.
• Power Supply Sleeving Guide - Looking for a sleek way to present your power supply’s ugly cabling? There are several methods of cleaning up the wire jungle, be it electrical tape, split loom, wire wrap, or expandable sleeving. This guide will assist you in your quest for a case with higher performance, and much better looks, especially if you have a case window.
• Extension Viewer 2.07 - Many OpenGL extensions, as well as extensions to related APIs like GLU, GLX, and WGL, have been defined by vendors and groups of vendors.The extension registry is maintained by SGI and contains specifications for all known extensions, written as modifications to the appropriate specification documents. The registry also defines naming conventions, guidelines for creating new extensions and writing suitable extension specifications, and other related documentation. This program displays the vendor name, the version implemented, the renderer name and the extensions of the current OpenGL 3D accelerator.
• IPCheck Server Monitor 4.0 - Network and Server Uptime/Downtime Monitor (download) monitors a network using various protocols (e.g. ping, http/https, smtp, ftp, pop3, dns,snmp ) and notifies the staff in various ways as soon as an outage occurs.
• WipeOut 1.3.0.0 - Wipes free space (download) on the selected drive, clears cookies, temporary internet files, file access history from the registry and recent folder.
• txt2pdf v7.1 - txt2pdf is shareware; it is a very flexible and powerful tool that converts text files to PDF format files.
• Sateira CD&DVD Burner v1.13 update - Sateira Software has released an update of their CD&DVD Burner software.
• AIDA32 3.90.6 Beta - AIDA32 (download) is a professional system information, diagnostics and benchmarking program running on Win32 platforms. It extracts details of all components of the PC. It can display information on the screen, print it, or save it to file in various formats like HTML, CSV or XML.
• BWMeter 1.2.2 - BWMeter (download) is a powerful bandwidth meter and monitor, which measures and displays all traffic on your network. Unlike other products, it can analyze the data packets (where they come from, where they go, which port and protocol they use).
• Cacheman XP 1.0.1.0 - CachemanXP (download) is a system service designed to improve the performance of your computer by optimizing several caches, auto-recovering RAM and fine tuning a number of system settings.
• Hitachi Feature Tool 1.91 - The Feature Tool (download Win32 ~ binary floppy image) 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).
• Nokia Monitor Test 1.0.0.1 - Nokia Test is a freeware utility by Nokia that will guide you through testing and adjusting any monitor for an optimum display. There are test patterns for Geometry, Convergence, Resolution, Moiré, Brightness, Contrast, Focus, Readability, Color and Screen Regulation. You put up the test pattern and then make the adjustments to your monitor.

• Zip file encryption compromise thrashed out - Compression software companies PKWare and WinZip have agreed to make their rival approaches to encrypting zip files more compatible. The latest beta of WinZip's software is able to read files wrapped up and encrypted using PKWare's PKZip. Meanwhile PKZip, the free reader application, will be able to open up files compressed and encrypted in WinZip's programme.
• Xbox 2 A.I. - Microsoft is looking for a software development engineer to lead the development of next generation A.I. that will power Xbox 2 games. Particularly, Microsoft is looking for someone to help with sports A.I., as this job description suggests: "Microsoft Sports Studio is looking for a development lead with a passion to create cutting edge Artificial Intelligence systems for the next version of the Xbox. These systems will crunch through millisecond-by-millisecond decisions that real-life players make on the field while planning ahead for that next surprise play. They will allow users to become the best-of-the-breed players in the league, yet continue to challenge them play after play. The systems do not merely react to the user’s input, they anticipate and adapt. Games will no longer rest on the shelf because they have become too easy to beat."
• Sony PSP Info & Rumors round-up: release date, price point, 3rd party publishers, ram upgrade...- Llik-Sang.com have posted an article called "Sony PSP Info & Rumors round-up: release date, price point, 3rd party publishers, ram upgrade".
• Intel's Prescott chip gets rebuilt for speed - The Prescott processor, an enhanced version of the Pentium 4 set for release in early February, will feature a pipeline--the equivalent of a assembly line inside a chip--that will be substantially longer than the 20-stage pipeline on current Pentium 4s, according to sources. Some sources say the Prescott pipeline will be about 30 stages.
• The Futuremark's Approved NVIDIA Drivers For 3DMark03 - Adrian's Rojak Pot let us know has just posted the Futuremark's Approved NVIDIA Drivers For 3DMark03 Article.
• AMD's Athlon 64 3000+ processor review - AMD's new Athlon 64 3000+ arguably resides in the sweet spot now, priced at less than $220 for an honest-to-goodness 2GHz "Hammer" microprocessor with a built-in memory controller and true 64-bit computing capabilities. To see how the 3000+ measures up, TechReporte have benchmarked it against 11 of its closest competitors.
• Keyboards and Mice roundup - PCMag has posted a review of 20 devices.
• MSI DR4-A DVD Writer review - DesignTechnica has posted a review of the MSI DR4-A DVD Writer.
• Plextor 708UF DVD Burner review - Hard Extreme has posted a review of the Plextor 708UF DVD Burner.
• Silver Thermal Pastes - Buyers Beware - Overclockers.com decided to test Arctic Silver 5, Arctic Silver 3, OCZ Ultra II Premium Silver Compound, and CompUSA Silver Thermal Grease. This test was not conducted to test performance, but rather to determine if these compounds have Silver as an ingredient.
• Beginners Guides: Creating MP3 Music Files - PC Stats has posted an article by the title of "Beginners Guides: Creating MP3 Music Files".
• RightMark Audio Analyzer 5.3 - A new version RightMark Audio Analyzer has been released bringing the excellent open source audio test software package up to version 5.3.
• InstantGet 1.86 - InstantGet (download) is a powerful and efficient download manager and accelerator, InstantGet splits downloading files into multiple sections, downloading each section simultaneously to increase downloading speed up to 5 times faster. InstantGet supports ftp and http protocols, proxy servers, file redirects, cookies, directories with authorization, InstanGet integrates seamlessly into Microsoft Internet Explorer to automatically handle your downloads and can monitor clipboard.
• Style XP 2.0 Final - Style XP (download) is theming software that helps customize the way your Windows XP, Windows XP Service Pack 1, Tablet PC, or Server 2003 system looks. Style XP can manage and rotate themes, visual styles, backgrounds, and logons, which are freely available at ThemeXP.
• DVD-Cloner 2.0 - The DVD-R/RW copied by DVD-Cloner is the same with the original DVD movie, in true DVD format and adopts MPEG2 format. You can clone your DVD entirely within 3 hours. The DVD you copied is in the same quality with the one you bought.
• ATITool v0.0.15 - ATITool is an overclocking utility designed for ATI video cards.

• Check Point unveils network security tool - Security firm Check Point Software Technologies announced Tuesday a network device aimed at protecting companies' internal networks from fast-moving threats such as the MSBlast worm. Called the InterSpect internal security gateway, the device inspects data moving over a local-area network, identifies unauthorized behavior, and blocks malicious attacks, said Mark Kraynak, manager of product marketing at Check Point.
• Lie-detector glasses offer peek at future of security -  It may not be long before you hear airport security screeners ask, "Do you plan on hijacking this plane?" A U.S. company using technology developed in Israel is pitching a lie detector small enough to fit in the eyeglasses of law enforcement officers, and its inventors say it can tell whether a passenger is a terrorist by analyzing his answer to that simple question in real-time. The technology, developed by mathematician Amir Lieberman at Nemesysco in Zuran, Israel, for military, insurance claim and law enforcement use, is being repackaged and retargeted for personal and corporate applications by V Entertainment (New York).
• Portable Fuel Cells: Coming Soon? - A California start-up has made an advance that it says stands to make Direct Methanol Fuel Cells--envisaged as a future power source for mobile electronics devices--smaller, cheaper, and lighter. PolyFuel's development of a new Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (or DMFC) membrane comes as several of the world's largest electronics companies are developing fuel cells with a view to commercializing them later this year or next year.
• Gamepad aims to build up muscle -  The Kilowatt controller by Powergrid is designed to build up muscle while playing a PlayStation 2, Xbox or PC game. The device costs $695 and will be available in the US from late spring. The company is currently working on getting the product into Europe and Asia.
• TI Seeks EDGE With Cell Phone Chip Set - Texas Instruments has announced its first chip set for Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution, or EDGE, networks, a stepping stone on the road to third-generation wireless networks. TI's TCS3500 chip set is intended to enable cell-phone designers to build smart phones and personal digital assistants that run on EDGE networks. These networks offer faster data rates than current Global System for Mobile Communications/General Packet Radio Service networks, but fall short of the data rates promised by the oft-delayed 3G networks.
• Microsoft spotlights Windows-powered gadgets at CES 2004 - At the recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Microsoft hosted a dazzling display of devices powered by the company's Windows Embedded and Windows Mobile software platforms.
• Super G Doubles 802.11g Performance - Based on wireless chipsets by Atheros, Super G products claim to double the top data rate of standard 802.11g-to a whopping 108 Mbps-while still working with other 802.11b and 802.11g devices (albeit at lower speeds). Be warned, however, that Super G is not standards-based, so compatibility is up to each manufacturer and is not inherent in the specification
• Lead Data to begin shipping 8x DVD-R discs in February - Lead Data will begin deliveries of blank 8x DVD-R discs to a Japanese client in February. The client is one of the world's top five optical disc brands, Lead Data said. With rising global supply of 8x DVD discs, the OEM price of blank 4x DVD-R discs is likely to drop to US$0.60 in the second quarter of this year, according to Lead Data.
• Will Intel Pentium 4 "Prescott" 3.40GHz Get Here by its Launch? - According to OverClockers.co.uk web-store, currently you can pre-order Pentium 4 "Prescott" processors at 2.80GHz, 3.00GHz and 3.20GHz. No 3.40GHz Pentium 4 "Prescott" CPUs and no 3.40GHz Pentium 4 Extreme Edition processors that officially debut on the very same 2nd of February. As the parts are not listed even for pre-order, it may mean they are not available in stock now or are not expected to emerge on the mentioned date.
• Via takes Nvidia head on with DX9 future parts - On the AMD front, Via's KT800 will support the 8251, and PCI Express will loom into view. The 8239 will be a chip that takes second place to the 8251, we understand. And the KT880 chipset will also have 8251 support, meaning that while Socket A still lives, we'll see PCI Express in two lanes for such beasties. In Q3 this year, the Athlon FX gets a 754 pin retrofit.
• Creative's Decoder Enables Home Theater Quality Sound -  Creative Labs DDTS-100 decoder enables relatively high-performance, low-cost PC speakers to work with DVD players, games consoles and TV sets. For an investment of around $150 (€169), Creative Labs DDTS-100 allows for home theater audio for twice as less.
• VIA PT880 Chipset review - VIA has always prided themselves on innovative and high performance designs and great overclocking support. VIA has done this in the past but faltered slightly in the present. Since the KT333 and KT400 chipsets came out, VIA has put a slight tarnish on its name, which they have been pushing to remove, and have done a reasonably good job with on the PT880 chipset.
• Leadtek WinFast A360TD FX 5700 128MB review - What this conclusion, rambling as it is, is attempting to convey is that Leadtek has made decent use of a GPU that's not a hot property at its current price point. That's an eminently important point. Finite money forces the user to choose the product that provides the best value. Unfortunately, we can think of one or two cards that would tickle our fancy ahead of the Leadtek A360TD FX 5700. Solid and dependable, so it's a decent enough choice for a die-hard NVIDIA fan.
• ChillVent II Deluxe Cooler review - OverclockercClub have posted a review of ChillVent II Deluxe Cooler - The fans included are one 80mm fan rated at ~3000RPM. No decibel ratings, but its pretty darn quiet. The 40mm fans are silent as well, no high-pitched hum you get with some fans.
• The NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200 GPU rev2 - Adrian's Rojak Pot let us know he has just posted Revision 2.0 of The NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200 GPU Review.
• Antec Super Lanboy Case review - At L78 from Overclock.co.uk it's not a cheap case, but for an aluminium one its not bad value. A carry strap is also included in the box to make carrying it easier and the fans would cost almost L10 each if bought separately. In the end then, a case that achieves what Antec was obviously aiming for, a decent looking, lightweight case for the regular LAN goer, but not quite what the performance enthusiast will be looking for, a shame as those big quiet fans could have made it absolutely ideal and with a little more depth it would be a very good case.
• Crucial 7-in-1 USB Flash card reader - The Crucial 7-in-1 USB2 reader is a highly compact, lightweight and portable little device which lends itself well to laptop users. The support for seven key flash memory formats is a godsend for people who own several products that use the different formats and do not want readers for each one. The only format that is missing is Fuji's xD memory format, possibly due to patent / licensing issues.
• Xerox Phaser 8400 Series Color Printer - What's faster than most laser printers, prints much like an offset printing press, and costs $1,000? It's the Xerox Phaser 8400 Series Color Printer. This solid-ink printer melts its resin-based ink, sprays it on a drum, then rolls the drum against the paper to transfer the image, all at an engine speed of 24 pages per minute (ppm) for color or monochrome output.
• Beginners Guides: Stopping Spam - PC Stats has published a new beginners guides about Stopping Spam.
• ATI Catalyst 4.1 Driver Comparison - OnlyNewZ , Dark Tweaker and VR Zone let us know they have posted their Catalyst 4.1 Driver Comparisons.
• Critical Update for SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine on Windows Server 2003 - This update addresses issues with Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine (Windows) when used with Windows SharePoint Services as discussed in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) Article 829358.
• Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition Infrared Receiver Update - This driver update contains the latest firmware for the hardware and the required functionality of the latest version of Windows XP Media Center Edition. It supports all versions of the infrared receiver (IR) through Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004.
• Windows 2000 Authorization Manager Hotfix - This Hotfix improves the Windows 2000 Authorization Manager Runtime auditing capabilities.
• TaskInfo 2003 v5.0.1.96 (SHW) - TaskInfo2003 (download) is combination of Task Manager and System Information Utility, It visually monitors different types of System information in Microsoft Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP.
• Net Transport 1.71 - Net Transport (download), one of the fastest and most powerful downloading tools that is ever made available online for free access and distribution, now features unprecedented full support of the most prevalent Internet protocols, including: HTTP / HTTPS, FTP / through SSL (Secure Sockets Layer), MMS (Microsoft Media Services), RTSP (Real-Time Streaming Protocol), PNM (rename PNM to RTSP).
• BlindWrite Suite 5.0.8 Build 125 (SHW) - 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. Blindwrite Suite can also create CD audio from MP3, Ogg Vorbis, WAV, WMA, monkey`s audio and be use with an cd-rom emulator like Daemon Tools.
• WinZip 9.0 Beta 3 (build 6007) - WinZip (download ~ changelog) brings the convenience of Windows to the use of Zip files and other compression formats. WinZip features built-in support for CAB files and for popular Internet file formats such as TAR, gzip, UUencode, BinHex, and MIME. ARJ, LZH, and ARC files are supported via external programs.
• Central Brain Identifier 6.0.0 Final - Central Brain Identifier (download) is designed to provide detailed recognition and obtaining the most complete extended information for all AMD processors. It recognizes more than 40 various models of the AMD processors.
• NEC DVD RW-/+ Firmware - Station-drivers has posted a new firmware for NEC DVD+RW-1100A and DVD RW-1300A. Try only at your own risk!

• MSBlast virus writer faces 15 years behind bars -  A virus writer accused of creating an MSBlast variant last year is to face a Romanian court this week and could be sentenced to 15 years in jail if convicted. Dan Dumitru Ciobanu, 26, is alleged to have written a computer virus that spread over the intranet of a Romanian university in September 2003. The virus only hit 27 machines but Ciobanu still faces between three and 15 years in jail for "unlawful possession of a program and disturbing a computer system".
• Husband and wife VIA bosses deny software theft charge - VIA president Wenchi Chen and his wife, company chairwoman Cher Wang, denied industrial espionage charges in the Taipei District Court, yesterday. The pair are accused of sending VIA employee Jeremy Chang to work at D-Link in order to acquire test simulation software, Associated Press reported last night. Chang also denies stealing the D-Link code.
• New worm draws Sobig comparisons - Computer security experts fear a new worm that began spreading rapidly across Australian e-mail networks on Sunday could be a rehearsal for a more concerted attack in coming weeks. The worm--dubbed Bagle-A--carries an expiry date, possibly indicating more robust versions of the worm could be slated for release soon, said Daniel Zatz, security director for Computer Associates Australia. Another articles can be found at Yahoo, BBC, VUNet and SearchSecurity.
• Cutting Windows down to size - A Melbourne-based software outfit has come up with a tool for getting rid of the bloat on Windows systems and literally cutting one's system down to size. Litepc has developed software which it markets as XPLite and 2000lite, which users can use to remove practically any component of Windows. Components like Outlook Express and Internet Explorer cannot be removed using the Add/Remove software utility in Windows 2000; on XP however, this can be done. Both can be dispensed with using these products. However, XPLite and 2000lite go much deeper and the latest version offers offer a list of up to to 128 different removable options in XP and 94 in Windows 2000, thus trimming Windows down considerably.
• Intel reschedules P4 price cuts to 1 February - Intel has brought planned price cuts across its Pentium 4 processor line forward two weeks to 1 February, Far Eastern PC company sources have claimed. So suggests a DigiTimes report, which says that the chip giant will drop the prices of its 2.8GHz P4s - one with HyperThreading support, the other without - to $178 and $163, respectively, the same prices it currently charges for the 2.6GHz P4s. The cuts represent falls of 18.5 per cent and 15.5 per cent, respectively.
• Athlon 64 3700+ and 4000+ coming soon - The upcoming months will bring us the 3700+ in not only S939 guise, but also in S754 form. All those people who bought an Athlon64 board should have little to fear, the 3700 will be a very viable upgrade for you, and the 4000+ which follows should fit in your board also. Overall, AMD is not going to orphan you any time soon.
• Sharp Introduces a New DVD/VCR Combo Recorder - Sharp Corporation announces the introduction into the Japanese market of a DVD/VCR combination recorder. The new DV-RW200 is equipped with three tuners, a VHF/UHF tuner and an analog BS (broadcast satellite) tuner for recording on DVD plus an additional VHF/UHF tuner for recording on VHS videotape, enabling independent tuning and recording of separate TV channels.
• Memory Timings Put to the Test - CAS latency, RAS-to-CAS delay, RAS precharge and active-to-precharge ... so far, so good, right? Those are the names of the parameters that determine whether your RAM is fast or slow. THG tested RAM with ideal, average and slow timings to see whether different memory settings would affect the performance of the latest AMD and Intel processors.
• OCZ High-end RAM Roundup - Both Platinum sticks made solid contact with the TIM (and thus the heatspreaders), but one of the Gold sticks had a round sticker that was pushing the TIM up off most of the chips. DDR modules can get a bit warm at PC4000 speeds, so we'll see if this effects overclocking at all below.
• HP Deskjet 9300 / HP Deskjet 9650 First Look - HP recently introduced the HP Deskjet 9300 ($300 street) and the HP Deskjet 9650 ($400 street). What separates these models from typical home-office ink jet models are their higher monthly duty cycles, larger ink tanks (hence lower per-page costs), and-most important-wide-format abilities (up to 19 inches), which would cost you $2,000 or more in a color laser.
• SMC 2804WBRP-G w/ USB Print Server review - SMC has their new 2804WBRP-G 802.11g Wireless Broadband Router with a built-in USB print server. Now you no longer need a dedicated machine for your USB printing. Simply hook your USB printer to the back of your router, set up your network printer as you would normally, and you are in business, the SMC router does the rest. This wireless router also sports a brand new design that's much more pleasing than SMC's old smoke-grey standard design. What hasn't changed is the performance and value expected from an SMC product.
• Lite-On LDW-811S DVD+RW review - CDRLabs.com have posted a review of the Lite-On LDW-811S DVD+RW recorder. "While not as fast as the drives from Nu Tech and Plextor, its 8x DVD+R writing speeds allowed it to write 4GB of data in a little more than 8 minutes. Unlike Sony's new DVD±RW, the LDW-811S also has the ability to write to select 4x DVD+R media at 8x. Considering how expensive 8x DVD+R media is right now, this is something that many will appreciate."
• Exchange Server 2003 Message Security Guide - Microsoft has updated their Exchange Server 2003 Message Security Guide.
• Sybase/UNIX to SQL Server 2000 - This guide presents the most common issues and solutions for migrating Sybase databases to SQL Server. The guide focuses on procedures for transferring the items in a Sybase database and on redirecting and redeploying DB-Library and CT-Library applications to use a migrated database.
• 3DS Max 6 review - Bytesector has posted a review of 3DS Max 6.0
• Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer v1.2 - Version 1.2 of MBSA includes a graphical and command line interface that can perform local or remote scans of Windows systems. MBSA runs on Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000, and Windows XP systems and will scan for common security misconfigurations in the following products: Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Internet Information Server (IIS) 4.0, 5.0, and 6.0, SQL Server 7.0 and 2000, Internet Explorer (IE) 5.01 and later, and Office 2000, 2002 and 2003.
• PHPMaker 2.0.0.4 - PHPMaker (download) is an automation tool (for Windows) that can generate a full set of PHP scripts quickly from MySQL database. Using the generated PHP, users can view, edit, search, add and delete records in the database easily on the Web.
• Avant Browser 8.02 Build 212 - Avant Browser (download) is an upgrade to Internet Explorer. Avant Browser is a fast, stable, user-friendly, versatile multi-window browser.
• AVG Free Edition 6.0 Build 564 - AVG (free registration required) provides comprehensive antivirus protection for personal computers.
• ImgTool Classic 0.91.1 - ImgTool Classic 0.91.1 can erase rewriteable media without manual interaction and no longer goes beyond 100% when indicating the progress.
• G-Force v2.5.3 - G-Force is an audio visualization plug-in for media players and can also visualize auxiliary or "line-in" audio. G-Force features fast anti-aliased effects, millions of possible effect combinations, savable and scriptable effects, video file export capabilities, and unparalleled expandability. G-Force is designed to entertain you on its own, but there are manys it can be customized and extended.
• River Past Screen Recorder 3.0.0 - River Past Screen Recorder (download) is an easy to use and fast screen recording software. Capture screen from a full screen, a window (even if you drag it around the screen), a region with fixed location, or cursor area.
• Cygwin DLL 1.5.6-1 - Cygwin (download) is a Linux-like environment for Windows. It consists of two parts: A DLL (cygwin1.dll) which acts as a Linux emulation layer providing substantial Linux API functionality amd a collection of tools, which provide Linux look and feel. The Cygwin DLL works with all non-beta, non "release candidate", ix86 versions of Windows since Windows 95, with the exception of Windows CE.
• Speed Commander 10.0 RC2 - SpeedCommander (download) is a comfortable file manager. It builds on the proven two window technology and offers a multitude of exclusive features. Sort, copy, move or delete your files either using the keyboard or the mouse. SpeedCommander reads and creates ZIP archives, Microsoft CAB files and fully supports ten additional compression formats.
• Disclib 1.0.4.36 - Disclib (download) is a CD collection organizer program. It may be used as a catalogue of people's CDs. After creating the catalogue, disclib stores file and folder names and tree, allows user to categorize folders and files, and allows searching all the files from the collection CDs without need to place them in CD reader.
• Serv-U v4.1.0.3 (SHW) - Serv-U (download) is a powerful, easy-to-use, award-winning FTP server created by Rob Beckers. An FTP server uses the FTP protocol to share files across the Internet. Serv-U is not only 100% compliant with the current FTP standard, but also includes numerous features unique to Serv-U that make it a perfect file sharing solution for virtually everyone.

• Supreme Court Unscrambles DVD Decision - There's a war raging in cyberspace, and this time it is the movie industry that's feeling the heat. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed an emergency stay on a case involving DVD descrambling Jan. 3.  In so doing, the high court affirmed a decision of the California Supreme Court, which had ruled that the entertainment industry could not force a Texas resident who had published DVD descrambling software on the Internet to stand trial in California. This means that the defendant, Matthew Pavlovich, who posted the software called DeCSS, is able to distribute the program online.
• Spanish Police Arrest 14 for Microsoft Piracy - Spanish police have arrested 14 people for intellectual piracy, including the first-known forgeries of authenticity certificates for Microsoft's Windows XP Professional edition, the Interior Ministry said on Thursday. Investigators found 3,000 perfectly copied and packaged CDs with the operating system software, accompanied by the fake guarantee certificates, in the northern city of San Sebastian, the Ministry said in a statement.
• Retail Half Life 2 pirated in Russia(?) -  TheInquirer has received some photographs of a two-disk Half Life 2 distribution which he says is on the shelves of a Russian trader in Novosibirsk. The game has been translated into Russian, and according to our reader, this is a copy taken from Valve's web site and "translated and compiled by the chaps out there"....Fake or not? :) [thanks Trevor]
• Perchance to dream - anything you like with the fantasy machine - Entering an exam hall totally unprepared or walking the streets naked may soon become nightmares of the past. A Japanese toymaker, which has already brought us cats and dogs that "talk" said yesterday it had developed a gadget enabling people to turn fanciful daydreams into realistic night-time experiences. Before hitting the futon, all the owners of Yumemi Kobo, or Dream Workshop, have to do is stare at a photograph of what they would like to dream about and then record, in their own words, how the dream is supposed to pan out. Once users are in the land of nod, the gadget goes to work, combining the voice recording, lights, music and aromas to stimulate sleepers whenever it detects rapid eye movement - a sign that someone is dreaming - and directs their dreams accordingly.
• AMD Athlon 64 3400+ - The Athlon 64 3400+ is another step forward for AMD but the 3200+ offers a better price/performance ratio. The Athlon 64 family is still pretty new, and the need to buy a new motherboard may put off some potential upgraders for a while yet. That said, there are bound to be some great Athlon 64 3400+ PC deals from system integrators over the next couple of months. Of course when 64bit Windows rears its head, you can expect to see a big upturn in Athlon 64 sales.
• Corsair XMS4400 TwinX 1GByte memory review - In summary, Corsair's XMS4400 TwinX 1GByte memory pack will appeal to a very select, niche market. Priced at over L300 it certainly isn't cheap. Recommended if your setup can make the full use of it - just ensure that it can before you part with a large chunk of cash.
• OCZ EL DDR PC-4200 Dual Channel - The Madshrimps have posted a review of PC4200 "EL" memory kit from OCZ.
• Chaintech ZNF3-150 Zenith nForce3 motherboard review - Bjorn3D has posted a review of Chaintech ZNF3-150 Zenith nForce3 motherboard.
• Sparkle Geforce FX 5700 Ultra review - The Madshrimps have posted a review of Sparkle Geforce FX 5700 Ultra.
• NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200 GPU review - Adrian's Rojak Pot let us know he has posted a review of NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200 GPU.
• AMD Athlon 64 heatsink roundup - The Madshrimps has posted a roundup of A64 heatsinks compared to a all-in-one watercooling kit.
• Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu CPU Cooler review - Bjorn3D has posted a review of Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu CPU Cooler.
• Evercool Extended Cooling System - 3DXtreme has posted a review of Extended Cooling System (ECS) from Evercool Thermal Corporation.
• Cordless Trackman Optical review - This is a cordless trackball that uses radio technology to communicate with its receiver over a maximum 2 metre range, (6'). It uses optical sensors, similar to that used in optical mice, for detecting movement of the trackball. Theoretically there are no moving parts to wear out since it is highly unlikely that the ball would wear out during the units life. It has eight buttons including the standard left/right mouse buttons and a scroll wheel. The unit is powered by two AA batteries which have a life expectancy of up to 6 months with normal use.
• Pacific Digital U-30201 DVD±RW recorder - The Pacific Digital U-30201 did not return good jitter values or at least not as good as we would have expected, considering that the LiteOn drive for the same set of tests was particularly good. The table above further shows that the drive did go over the 35nsec Red Book limit for all speeds excepting 8x.
• Bit Torrent with Nexland Pro100 Router - OCWorkbench has posted a guide called "Bit Torrent with Nexland Pro100 Router".
• DNA Drivers 9.3.10a VS Omega Drivers 2504 VS ATI Catalyst 3.10 - The final review of the DNA, Omega and ATI Catalyst driver is online. The review includes 5 Game Benchmarks, 2 Synthetic Benchmarks and more.
• ReactOS 0.2 RC1 - ReactOS (download) is an Open Source effort to develop a quality operating system that is compatible with Windows NT applications and drivers. The 0.2 release has the goal of booting into a functional Explorer.exe - replacing the default of a text command line interface. The final release should be on the 25th of January. The release features more additions and fixes than the ability to boot into explorer. For a complete listing, view the release changelog.
• GX::Transcoder v1.80.1085 Beta 5 - GX::Transcoder (formerly GermaniXEncoder) is a universal audio and video file transcoder. You can transcode audio files into many formats: AAC, MP4, Bonk, FLAC, LA, LPAC, MIDI, MP2, MP3, MPC, MPP, MP+, OptionFrog, Ogg Vorbis, rkAudio, Speex, VQF, WavPack, TTA ,WMA, Shorten, AC3, PCM, GSM, ADPCM, VOX, G721, G723, G726, uLaw, aLaw, DSP, Raw PCM, Monkeys Audio, AVI (Audio), AIFF, AIFR, AU, SND, MOD, Bonk and video filetypes mpeg1, mpeg2, avi with all installed codecs and wmv (supports VCD, SVCD and DVD Extensions). The Transcoder also has a Cue-Cutter, WAV and MP3 Transformer for var. sound effects, a player and a audio recorder.
• XPlayer 2.3.0.3 Beta - XPlayer (download) is an extremely fast and light-weight multimedia player that plays back all types of media files, which include avi, mpg, asf, wmv, wav, mp3.
• DVD Shrink 3.1.3 - DVD Shrink is software to backup DVD discs. You can use this software in conjunction with DVD burning software of your choice, to make a backup copy of any DVD video disc.
• DVD Region-Free 3.30 - DVD Region-Free enables you to watch and copy DVD from any region on all DVD drives! It fully supports region-protected (RPC2) DVD drives, and does not require any firmware modifications. It will work, even if you can not change the DVD drive's region anymore.
• Game XP Version 1.04.1.17 - Game XP optimizes the performance of your computer, corrects problems and helps you to set up your system to match your gaming needs. Game XP extends your operating system's capabilities and makes Windows faster and comfortable for maximum gaming experience.
• Raine 0.39.1 - RAINE (download) is an arcade emulator that emulates M68000 and M68020 based games. The emulator's main focus is on Taito and Jaleco game hardware.
• AntiVir Personal Edition 6.23.00.33 - The AntiVir Personal Edition (download) offers the effective protection against computer viruses for the individual and private use on a single PC-workstation. In order to make possible an easy operation, the AntiVir Personal Edition is developed to the essential points.
• Burrrn v1.07 (free) -  Burrrn is a little tool for burrrning audio CDs with CD-Text from various audio files. Supported formats are: wav, mp3, mpc, ogg, aac, mp4, ape, flac, ofr, wv, m3u, pls and fpl playlists and cue sheets. You can also burrrn EAC's noncompliant image + cue sheets.
• Serious Samurize 1.16 - Samurize (download) is a system monitoring utility with outstanding configuration power. The configuration program is totally separated from the client for minimal memory usage. The program displays almost any kind of information right on your desktop/taskbar and homepage.
• NFORCE v4.09 Audio Driver - A new audio driver v4.09 is available through Windows Update.
• Dual format firmware - Nu Technology have released a new firmware (beta) which will add Dual capability to your 8X DVD-RW DVD burner.  Also BenQ offers dual format firmware for DW800A, but not for free. If you want to upgrade your DW800A recorder to a dual format drive you will have to pay US$ 10.

• Microsoft Says IE Patch Done But Needs More Testing - Although Microsoft released a trio of security bulletins Tuesday, a fourth was notable primarily by its absence.  Security analysts had expected to see a cumulative patch for Internet Explorer among the mix this month that would address a series of vulnerabilities made public as long ago as November, 2003.  In a Webcast Wednesday, Microsoft officials said that they have created an IE patch, but that they're holding it until testing is completed.
• Critical Update for Windows Media Player (KB832353) -After applying the hotfix 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. After applying this update (Win2k/XP/2k3 ~ Win9x/ME) Windows Media Player 9 will show the version 9.00.00.3093. (thanks Neowin.net)
• FAST threatens jail for "misusing software" - The Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) is threating a harsh regime of punishments including jail for UK companies which it catches using unlicensed software. The new zero tolerance approach will see the federation participate in evidence-gathering and police raids on suspects' premises. The directors of any firm found "misusing software" will face prison if FAST gets its way.
• Move to IPv6 may damage net security - As the European Commission (EC) is preparing to launch the world's first IPv6 network this week, one respected commentator predicts that the new standard will make the internet less secure and slow it down by letting many more devices connect. At an event in Brussels this week, the EC will launch the new Global IPv6 Service, designed for the research community. Announcing the network, Erkki Liikanen, commissioner for enterprise and the information society, said, "[IPv6] is a crucial component for e-Europe and faster rollout of broadband networks."
• Microsoft's Gates purchases privacy - During the past decade, representatives for the world's richest man and his wife have purchased 11 properties, including nine houses surrounding their massive lakefront estate in this Seattle suburb. "This is a family that holds privacy very dearly to them," Gates family spokesman Joe Cerrell told The Seattle Times. "The properties create a buffer around the Gates home." Gates, the co-founder and chairman of Microsoft, has lived in a $110 million home on the five-acre estate since 1997. According to property records reviewed by the newspaper, 4.2 acres of adjoining properties were acquired for Gates between 1994 and 2003 at a cost of nearly $14.4 million.
• Florida city targets computer game violence -  A Florida city is determined to pass a law restricting children's access to violent computer games, despite legal challenges to similar attempts elsewhere and charges of censorship, its mayor said Friday. The ordinance proposed by the North Miami City Council was prompted by fury in Miami's large Haitian-American community at Rockstar Game's top-selling "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City," in which players are urged to "kill the Haitians." The proposal, which won preliminary approval from the council this week but still has to go through a second vote, would impose a $250 fine on retailers who sell or rent to a minor, without parental approval, a game in which players kill or cause harm "to a human form."
• Welcome to the Future, Mr. Gamer - Quake players didn't find themselves looking for a no-CD hack and Half-life players didn't need to connect to a master server to play single-player games, but DooM III and Half-life 2 owners just might have to
• 20" LCD S-IPS Panels review - Two IPS panels with very fast response times have entered the market at the same time. The first, by Sharp (20ms), is used in the Eizo L885. The second, an LG-Philips (16ms) is used in the Philips 200P4. IPS-type panels are famous for their very wide angles of vision and more-or-less uniform response time. So will these panels represent the ultimate solution for everyone, including gamers, graphic artists, photographers and people who just appreciate big screens?
• iRock 860 Digital Music Player review - LegitReviews has posted a review of iRock 860 Digital Music Player.
• Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu CPU Cooler review - Bjorn3D has posted a review of Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu CPU Cooler.
• WinDVD Platinum 5.3.5.22 - WinDVD Platinum 5 (download) is the ultimate DVD software player, providing you with the finest quality video and audio playback. Watch movies with a theater experience right on your computer or laptop. WinDVD Platinum 5 is loaded with features.
• PowerArchiver 2003 8.7 Beta 1 - PowerArchiver (download) is an award-winning archive utility for the Windows family of products that provides support for most compressed and encoded files, as well as access to many powerful features and tools though an easy to use interface that seamlessly integrates with Windows Explorer.
• Battery Eater Pro v2.10 - Battery Eater is a testing tool intended to reveal the potential of a notebook battery pack. Battery Eater can measure the minimum operation time of a notebook (when all power-saving options are disabled) under conditions close to the maximum workload (Classic mode). You should be aware, though, that such conditions rarely occur during an ordinary use of a notebook and should be regarded as reflecting the minimum time the notebook can work on its battery. Battery Eater will show a result closest to the maximum possible in the "Idle" and in the "Reader's Test" mode (when all power-saving options are fully enabled).
• BWMeter 1.2.1 - BWMeter (download) is a powerful bandwidth meter and monitor, which measures and displays all traffic on your network. Unlike other products, it can analyze the data packets (where they come from, where they go, which port and protocol they use).
• MyIE2 v0.9.13 - MyIE2 (combo ~ lite) 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).
• 1by1 1.43 -  1by1 (including IRAssistant + mpglib.dll 0.92 + Compressor & Wider 1.1 bonuses) is a very small sized player which is not only small: It plays whole directories without any playlist. Navigating through your tracks has never been so easy.
• Chipset Identification Utility 2.87 - The Intel Chipset Identification Utility provides an easy way to identify the specific Intel chipset that is located on your motherboard. This information can be used to determine if your system supports the Intel Application Accelerator.
• Realtek ALC650 drivers v3.54 - The ALC650 incorporates proprietary converter technology to achieve a high SNR, greater than 90 dB. The ALC650 AC'97 CODEC supports multiple CODEC extensions with independent variable sampling rates and built-in 3D effects.  
• Linksys WRT54G firmware v2.00.8.1 - Linksys has released a new firmware for WRT54G Router.
• Lite-On CD-RW firmware - LiteOn have released a new CD-RW firmware updates for: SOHC-5232K, SOHC-5232KX and EXTERNAL SLIM COMBO Drives.

• FBI probes pirated Oscar films - The FBI has confirmed that it has entered the case of the pirated "screener" videos sent to Academy Award voters. It is looking into four films - "Something's Gotta Give," "The Last Samurai," "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" and "thirteen." According to multiple studio sources, illegal copies of those films that have appeared on the Internet have been traced by their respective studios to screeners intended for use by character actor Carmine Caridi, a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The studios have turned over information to both the Academy and the FBI, sources said.
• Off-topic: Windows 1.03 - The following is the installation and boot-up sequence for the first release version of perhaps the most important software currently in the world: Microsoft Windows. Really scary, to think that this was only one floppy! (thanks Bink.nu)
• Centrino Gains 802.11g Support - Intel announced its first 802.11g wireless chip for notebooks bearing the Centrino banner, the company says in a release on Thursday. The Intel Pro/Wireless 2200BG chip allows users to connect to either 802.11b or 802.11g wireless networks. Intel is shipping the chip to its notebook customers with systems expected worldwide during the first quarter, says Dan Francisco, an Intel spokesperson. The Centrino package of the Pentium M processor, a mobile chip set, and the Intel Pro/Wireless 2100 chip was introduced in March of last year with 802.11b capability.
• Matrox Graphics Prepares PCI Express x16 Graphics Processor - While nearly all observers and analyst are looking for ATI and NVIDIA to release their next-generation graphics powerhouses, a company almost all have forgotten about, Matrox Graphics, is also getting ready to introduce something new this year. The graphics processor will presumably be intended for PCI Express x16 and will sport at least some Microsoft DirectX 9 caps.
• Lite-On IT to begin shipments of 8x DVD Dual to Sony in February - Lite-On IT, Taiwan's largest producer of optical disc drives, will begin to deliver 8x half-height (H/H) DVD Dual burners to Sony in February, according to the company. Sony, because of uncompetitive costs, stopped own production of DVD drives beginning with 8x models late last year. Sony sold three million 8x DVD burners last year and the sales volume may double to six million units this year, Lite-On IT said. If Lite-On IT can absorb all of the OEM orders for 8x DVD burners, the monthly shipments would average 500,000 units, according to the company. However, Lite-On IT thinks that Sony is unlikely to rely on only one OEM supplier.
• ASRock P4S61 vs Gigabyte GA-8S661FXM - Overclockers New Zealand has reviewed the ASRock P4S61 and Gigabyte GA-8S661FXM motherboards.
• ASUS K8V Deluxe Wireless Edition Motherboard review - TweakTown take an in-depth look at ASUS’s brand new Athlon 64 motherboard, complimented with a never-before-seen inclusion of a wireless AP card and an omni-directional antenna.
• MSI 865PE Neo2 Platinum Edition review - What this board lacks in features, it makes up in Stability and compatibility. MSI provides a book with all the tested CPUs, graphics cards and memory modules which adds up to over 200 products- definitely very impressive. This board is made up of very high quality components and should not trouble anyone.
• ASUS' RADEON 9800 XT/TVD & RADEON 9600 XT/TVD review - Everything that makes the RADEON 9800 XT/TVD such a good card also applies to the RADEON 9600 XT/TVD, with the added bonus that ASUS also outfits the card with high quality memory (although we do know that Sapphire and Powercolor also use very good memory on their 9600 XT boards). Samsung's 700MHz memory modules were used on our board.
• Albatron FX5700 Ultra Video Card -  The FX5700 Ultra features the NV36 GPU from nVidia. This is one of nVidia's newest GPU's and features support for DDR-II. The memory that Albatron chose for this card is Samsung 2.0ns ball grid array DDR-II. This memory is rated at 500MHz (1.0GHz DDR). This card is only running at 900MHz, so it's begging to be overclocked.
• Sparkle Geforce FX 5700 Ultra review - MadShrimps take a look at the Sparkle FX5700Ultra Platinum edition (SP8836U-PT), it improves upon nVidia's FX 5600 Ultra, while sporting ViVo features. Pitting it against the Radeon 9800 Pro to see how it holds up in popular benchmarks and games.
• Gigabyte 9600XT review - Neoseeker take a look at Gigabyte's GV-R96X128D 9600 XT. - "There were a few anomalies with the Gigabyte R96XT. Two things that were missing included screen rotation as well as Overdrive. Screen rotation is like Nvidia's Nview utility that allows users of LCDs to rotate their screen. Gigabyte explained that ATI does not enable screen rotation in 3rd Party products which is very odd. Overdrive's benefits are a bit on the questionable side but for that to be missing also is a bit strange since that was one of the more highly touted improvements between the Pro and the XT line from ATI".
• Hercules Prophetview 920 Pro DVI review -  Hercules Prophetview 920 Pro DVI sports a 17" LCD with a very respectable 20ms pixel response time.
• PSU reviews - Enermax NoiseTaker 420W PSU | Seasonic Super Silencer 460 PSU
• DangerDen Maze 4 CPU & GPU Waterblocks review - Bryan McDaniel at Overclockers Club has written a review on the DangerDen Maze 4 CPU water block & GPU water block.
• Zalman TNN 500A review  - The guys at THG take a hard look at the TNN 500A to find out if it lives up to its hefty price tag - The TNN 500A's high price will certainly curtail the number of purchasers who are willing to pay such a high price for an almost totally silent case solution. Most users will be happy with a semi-silent solution for far less, perhaps costing as little as 1/8 of the TNN 500A's retail price. However, if you have a high requirement for an almost totally silent solution, it doesn't get much better than the TNN 500A.
• Microsoft Wireless Intellimouse Explorer 2.0 -  Microsoft estimates that the batteries provided (2x Energizer AA) can last up to 6 months, but if you constantly use your PC as I do, I'd expect about 2-3 months of battery life. For the RRP of $139.95AUD, it isn't cheap but neither is the MX700 which weighs in at about the same price.
• Exchange Server 2003 Message Security Guide - This book discusses how, when using S/MIME, encryption protects the contents of e-mail messages and digital signatures verify the identity of a purported sender of an e-mail message. In addition, this book provides guidance on how to implement S/MIME with Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. In addition, this book provides guidance and pointers to other resources where those are necessary.
• Server Power & Performance: A Buyers Guide To Upgrading Your System - Server performance and tuning is such a broad area, that literally hundreds of books have been written on the subject. This article focuses on hardware only, tuning an operating system or software application is an entirely different subject best left for another day. For the purposes of this article we will assume that the software is running and configured properly.
• Code Name WinFS: Revolutionary File Storage System - MSDN has posted an article on the WinFS file storage system.
• Serial ATA Explained – What's the big deal? - Serial ATA is here and it's ready. Companies guarantee its future-proof and, despite being better than its Parallel ancestors, it's much simpler to handle. The price is right and the economy seems to be heading in the right direction for a successful replacement of Parallel ATA. There isn't much more an industry could ask for in changing what it calls a standard. Only time will tell. As for the enterprise, Serial ATA has a definite future and we'll go deep into that with the follow up to this overview in a few weeks.
• Windows XP SP1 and Windows Server 2003 clients cannot connect to some third-party wireless implementations of 802.1x - This problem occurs because the wireless 802.1x implementations in Windows XP SP1 and in Microsoft Windows Server 2003 are not compatible with some third-party Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) solutions -- for example, SecuID technology from RSA Security, Inc. A fix is now available that permits client computers that are running Windows XP SP1 or Windows Server 2003 to connect and to authenticate by using some third-party EAP solutions.
  Windows 2000 post-SP4 hotfixes pack - This website has 95 post sp4 hotfixes packed in 1 file (95MB)
• Internet Explorer pre 6.05 build 0008 - Softpedia has posted a new build of the Internet Explorer 6.05 (extracted from Longhorn). It's still very buggy so download&install only at your own risk.
• IA-32 Execution Layer 4.3 - The IA-32 Execution Layer is a software driver designed to improve performance of 32-bit applications running on Windows Server 2003 for 64-bit Itanium-based Systems.
• Microsoft Virtual CD -  This MS tool lets you mount ISO images so you can access them as they are in your CD drive.
• Windows Services for UNIX Version 3.5 - Windows Services for UNIX 3.5 (free registration required) provides a full range of supported and fully integrated cross-platform network services for enterprise customers to use in integrating Windows into their existing UNIX-based environments.
• Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 Trial - Virtual PC is a powerful software virtualization solution that allows you to run multiple PC-based operating systems simultaneously on one workstation, providing a safety net to maintain compatibility with legacy applications while you migrate to a new operating system. It also saves reconfiguration time, so your support, development, and training staff can work more efficiently. This is a 45-day time-out, full version of the Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 product. No serial number is required.
• Mozilla v1.6 - Mozilla 1.6 (download ~ changelog) is an open-source Web browser, designed for standards compliance, performance and portability.
• Fresh UI 6.85 - 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.
• SecureFX 2.2.1 (SHW) - The SecureFX (download) client application lets you choose between SFTP or FTP over an encrypted SSH2™ connection for secure transfers, or standard FTP for non-secure transfers.
• SecureCRT 4.1.1 (SHW) - SecureCRT (download) gives you an encrypted SSH session with both SSH1 and SSH2 servers. SSH security goes far beyond the basic secure logon, rerouting data or local applications using TCP/IP ports through an encrypted channel. The VCP utility secures file transfers using SFTP.
• WinDVD Tweaker Pro 4.45 (SHW) - WinDVD Tweaker is designed to allow users of the WinDVD playback software to enable some hidden settings and allow for maximum playback pleasure.
• Realtek RTL8139(A/B/C/D/8130)/810X series Drivers v6.11 - Realtek have released a new drivers for the RTL8139 (A/B/C/D/8130)/810X series, version 6.11 for windows 98/ME/ 2k/XP.
• Chipset Identification Utility 2.87 - The Intel Chipset Identification Utility provides an easy way to identify the specific Intel chipset that is located on your motherboard. This information can be used to determine if your system supports the Intel Application Accelerator.