• 2004 to be year of the "superworm" - 2004 will be characterised by a dramatic rise in malicious hacking, the birth of 'superworms', and the creation of sinister underground peer-to-peer (P2P) virus creation networks, a security company has predicted. The pessimistic forecast from Clearswift is based on analysis of last year's SoBig project, which, according to the email security firm, marked the emergence of long-term malware projects involving multi-stage coordinated attacks using spam, worms, Trojans, spyware and proxies.
• Bogus FBI warning file contains malware - Virus writers are attempting to trick music fans into opening malicious code with a message purporting to arise from an FBI investigation into illegal file trading. Recipients of the bogus warning are told they are under investigation. Infectious emails contain an attachment allegedly containing evidence against the 'accused' which actually contains Windows malware, the Melbourne Age reports.
• .eu domain name goes live in November - According to TheRegister, .eu Domainnames will be available from November 2004. In March preparation and translation of regulations will begin, followed in June by accreditation of .eu registrars. From September 2004 those holding prior rights to a name (trademarks) can register during a 'sunrise period'. General registration is planned for November on a first come first served basis for any name not taken during the sunrise period or otherwise blocked from registration.
• Time for PCs to get personal - Transmeta on Thursday said its chips are being used in the development of tiny computers called ultra-personal computers, or UPCs. The chipmaker is helping to bring the gadgets into the market as an alternative to handhelds and traditional 5-pound or 6-pound notebook PCs for businesses. The new computers, some of which are available now, are expected to gain in popularity this year, the company said.
• Sony Previews Wireless TV - Sony is showing off a host of new technologies here this week at the Consumer Electronics Show, including a touch-screen display that will let users wirelessly access video content around their homes, and a music download service. The 12-inch portable display will be released later this year and is partly designed to boost Sony's brand image in a market that has seen the entry of many new companies in the last few years. That image, despite new competition, still holds sway over U.S. consumers, says Hideki Komiyama, the president and chief executive officer of Sony Electronics.
• Dual-Format DVD Drives Hit 8X - EZQuest has introduced Fast Boa 8X Dual-Format DVD-RW/+RW external drives at Macworld Expo, which is being held this week in San Francisco. The new drives write to DVD+R and DVD-R at 8X, DVD+RW and DVD-RW at 4X, CD-R at 24X, and CD-RW at 10X speeds. They also read DVDs at 12X and CDs at 40X.
• Concord Shows Bluetooth Camera - Three new digital camera models from Concord Camera hit the Consumer Electronics Show here this week, including one that the company claims is the first 2-megapixel Bluetooth camera. The Bluetooth-equipped Concord Eye-Q Go Wireless digital camera is a 2-megapixel unit that can instantly beam images as JPEG files to other Bluetooth devices. It can also shoot short AVI clips. It has a 4X digital zoom lens and 7MB of internal memory, as well as an SD slot for additional storage. Priced at $149, the model was introduced at the TechXNY show last summer.
• The Toshiba Satellite M30 Notebook review -  Adrian's Rojak Pot let us know he has just posted The Toshiba Satellite M30 Notebook review.
• ASUS V9980U/TVD review -With a mediocre game bundle that needs a revamp, a utility set that borders on the weird (you want to use a L372 games accelerator to provide security on your house?), high price and a cooler that screams out for fan adjust, the ASUS is underwhelming.
• Maxtor DiamondMax9 200GB SATA HDD review - MonkeyReview have posted a review of Maxtor's SATA DiamondMax Plus 9 200GB drive.
• AMD Aircooling - Heatsink roundup 2003 - The Madshrimps put some of the best Socket A aircooling solutions out there in this round-up.
• Titan TTC-D9TB-Cu35R1 Copper Core Heatsink review - FrostyTech has posted a review of Titan TTC-D9TBCu35-R1 Copper Core Heatsink.
• TweakHound's Super XP Tweaking Guide - Version 4.0 - This version contains some significant changes. One worth noting is the removal of using the Bootvis tool in the guide. This tool is no longer available from MS and…has some issues with hyperthreading machines.
• Flash your nVidia FX5900 NoneUltra to a FX5950 Ultra - The Madshrimps picked up a translation of an interesting mod to turn your FX5900 into a fully fledged FX5950Ultra.
• Raine 0.38.4 - 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.
• HyperSnap-DX 5.41.00 (SHW) - HyperSnap-DX is a screen capture and image editing tool for MS Windows. It captures screens from standard desktop programs and even those hard-to-grab DirectX, Direct3D, 3Dfx, 3dfx, Voodoo and Glide mode games. This new version fixed problem with some settings not being saved if Windows is shut-down without exiting HyperSnap.
• AntiVir Personal Edition 6.22.09.09 - The private and individual use of the AntiVir Personal Edition is completely free of charge.
• Tiny Personal Firewall 5.1.1286 (SHW) - Tiny Personal Firewall (download) represents smart, easy-to-use personal security technology that fully protects personal computers against hackers. It is built on the proven WinRoute Pro, ICSA certified security technology.
• SphinxWall v3.0 (SHW) -  SphinxWall shields your PC and provides private data protection.
• VisualRoute 8.0b (SHW) - VisualRoute (download ~ Win32 ~ Linux) delivers the functionality of key Internet "ping," "whois," and "traceroute" tools, in a high-speed visually integrated package. VisualRoute automatically analyzes Internet connectivity and performance problems, displaying the results in an easy to understand table and on a world map.
• AirSnare 0.6.7 - AirSnare will alert you to unfriendly MAC addresses on your network as well as to DHCP requests. If AirSnare detects an unfriendly MAC address, you have the option of tracking its access to IP addresses and ports or of launching Ethereal.
• AIDA32 3.88.5 - 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.
• TVTool 9.5.5.5 (SHW) - TVTool (download) is a control center for the TV output of nVidia graphics cards. With this tool it is possible to adapt the TV output perfectly to your needs and to control the TV mode in a comfortable way. TVTool accesses the hardware directly and is able to offer a significant greater functionality and picture quality than most standard graphics card driver.
• BlindWrite Suite 5.0.7 - 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 used with a CD-Rom emulator like Daemon Tools.
• FileZilla FTP Client 2.2.3 - FileZilla is a fast and reliable FTP client and server with lots of useful features and an intuitive interface.
• Bart's PE Builder 3.0.26 - Bart's PE Builder helps you build a bootable Window CD-Rom or DVD from Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 very suitable for PC maintenance tasks.
• ASUS PC Probe 2.22.04 - Asus PCProbe is a convenient utility to monitor the computer's vital components: fan rotation speeds, voltages and temperatures.
• Nvidia Forceware Driver 53.06 Win9x/ME - Station-Drivers offer an unofficial Forceware Drivers v53.06. Try only at your own risk.

• Word password tool not for security - Microsoft has hit back at critics of Word's password-protect feature, which the company has admitted is not safe from hackers. The tool is intended to make collaboration easier, Microsoft told ZDNet UK, explaining that users should invest in digital signatures or an Adobe Acrobat-type application if they want security. In related news, SecurityFocus has published a hack that can be used to unlock Microsoft Word documents that have been password protected.
• Secret Movie Moguls - Nearly halfway around the world from Hollywood, a 17-year-old high-school student is trying to make a name for himself as a film distributor. Unlike the moguls in Tinseltown, though, he and his colleagues in a group called MysticVCD don't cut deals, take meetings or campaign for Oscars. Instead, their goal is to put a movie on the Internet first, long before it's officially released on tape or disc. If MysticVCD wins the race, the digital copy it produces will be downloaded onto tens of thousands of computers around the globe, potentially reaching more screens than the film itself did in theatrical release.
• Mobile Robots Take Baby Steps - To make their way across that kind of terrain, the drones will need legs -- maybe even four of them. So the Army's Tank-automotive and Armaments Command, or TACOM, has just doled out $2.25 million to two robotics firms to prototype a big, mechanical dog capable of carrying ammunition, food and supplies into battle. The contracts are part of a broader Pentagon look into robots that take their cues from nature. Defense Department-backed scientists are studying swarms of bees and packs of wolves for ideas on how to get drones to work together. Man-made snakes, lobsters, flies -- even elephant trunks -- are just a few of the animal-inspired devices being created by military-funded researchers.
• TI Launches Three New Graphing Calculators - Texas Instruments has announced 3 new graphing calculators to be available later this year. The TI-84 Plus and TI-84 Plus Silver Edition will be available this spring and are essentially the TI-83 Plus/SE, respectively, in a new case and with USB support. (thanks Slashdot.org)
• ATI puts 3D in mobile phones - Graphics chipmaker ATI is jumping into the handheld market with a new line of processors aimed at mobile phones, it announced on Wednesday. The Imageon 2300 product line builds on ATI's reputation in the PC gaming market, where the company competes with market leader Nvidia. ATI recently landed a contract to build graphics chips for Microsoft's next-generation Xbox gaming console.
• Gates pushes PC-TV connection - Kicking off the Consumer Electronics Show, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates demonstrated new technology for connecting digital content on Windows PCs to home entertainment centers, TVs and portable devices.  Gates said in his keynote speech that Microsoft is committed to "seamless computing," Microsoft's vision for technology that automatically shuttles information to the appropriate devices throughout a home. "We've been working very hard at Microsoft to get all these connected devices to hook up," he said. "We want to make it easy to have the same information on the devices you have at work and the devices you have at home." (Transcript of Bill Gates' CES 2004 address)
• Wireless Air Flo PS2 Controller Announced - Nyko Technologies introduces the Wireless Air Flo controller for Sony PlayStation 2, a cable-free unit that utilizes Nyko's patented Air Flo technology to provide gamers with a consistent flow of fresh air through the controller handgrips. Gamers can prevent problematic sweaty hands as well as employ increased mobility during competitive video games such as SOCOM 2 or Madden 2004.
• Philips broadcasts Internet-ready TV - Dutch company Philips Electronics on Wednesday unveiled a television set featuring a wireless connection to the Internet and PCs, enabling it to play music and view pictures and video from the Web or computers.  The product, which was shown at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas and which is not yet on sale, adds to a range of networked products manufactured by Europe's largest consumer-electronics maker.
• Winbond, ProMOS to upgrade pseudo SRAM production technology - Winbond Electronics and ProMOS Technologies both plan to upgrade their handset-use 1T pseudo SRAM (1T PSRAM) production technology this year, according to the companies. Winbond plans to migrate 1T PSRAM production from 0.175-micron to 0.13-micron this year, according to Wilson Wen, company spokesperson.
• Analyst claims AMD had Athlon 64 shortage  - An analyst at Citigroup Smith Barney claimed that AMD wasn't able to deliver enough shipments of Athlon 64s in its fourth quarter. According to reports, that was due to "manufacturing problems", and Smith Barney expected shipments of 170,000 units versus its original estimate of 350,000.
• Graphics Speed for Every Budget - For this roundup PCMag tested the ATI Radeon 9800 XT board, which is based on the company's top-shelf chip of the same name. This GPU offers a slight performance edge over the nVidia GeForce FX 5950 in some tests, but in general the race is too close to call.

• Microsoft publishes program to blast MSBlast - Microsoft released a removal tool for the MSBlast worm on Monday after Internet service providers complained that home users' PCs infected with the malicious program are still causing network congestion.
• AOL Goes After Spyware - An upcoming software release from America Online will add spyware protection to the list of standard features for its broadband and dial-up Internet customers, the company says. AOL Spyware Protection will be included with other enhancements with the release of AOL 9.0 Optimized software in coming weeks. The feature will enable AOL users to scan their computer hard drives for spyware or adware programs and, optionally, remove programs that it finds, the company says.
• BT and pals launch free Wi-Fi - Public hotspot provider BT Openzone is offering free Wi-Fi access to PDA and wireless-enabled laptop users who register with the telco during Wireless Broadband Week, 26 January to 1 February. By registering online at www.btopenzone.com, existing and new users will be able to access wireless broadband free for a week using BT's 1,700 Openzone public hotspot locations, including Costa Coffee, Hilton Hotels and many airports, restaurants and hotels around the UK.
• Quake makes it to Smartphone - Romanian software house exoSyphen Studios has made available a beta version of Quake (download beta), iD Software's groundbreaking 3D first person shooter, for devices powered by Microsoft's Windows Mobile for Smartphone platform. A work in progress, the beta version enables users to walk around and utilize weapons in a full 3D environment, however frame rates are indicated by users as not being overly impressive at the current development stage.
• Gaming Console from VIA - It seems that VIA is going to be announcing a "gaming platform" that is completely VIA-based hardware as a personal gaming system and DVD player. It will have non-propietary hardware including a standard hard drive and even component video output. The video processor behind the box will be VIA's S3 DeltaChrome graphics processor, and VIA 5.1 "Vinyl" audio will supply 5.1 sound.
• Sony pencils November for PSP global launch - Newly-promoted Sony Europe boss Chris Deering has revealed that the company is planning to roll out the PlayStation Portable worldwide by the end of the year, with a global launch aimed in November 2004.
• Toshiba Unveils Multimedia Notebooks - All Satellite A45 versions come with SRS TruSurround XT sound technology and a DVD-ROM/CD-RW multi-function drive. Each model comes with a 15-inch display and weighs 7.7 pounds. The notebooks also contain Microsoft's OneNote application. At the low end of the new series is the Satellite A45-120. The $1049 notebook includes an Intel Celeron processor and 256MB of RAM. For $1399, the Satellite A45-150 features a Mobile Intel Pentium 4 Processor and more memory--512MB of RAM. It also includes a TV-out port, allowing the user to create an enlarged viewing area by plugging the notebook into any size TV. Toshiba offers complete wireless use with the A45-150 through integrated WiFi (802.11g) wireless connectivity.
• Researchers create first ever integrated silicon circuit with nanotube transistors - In an important milestone in the fields of nanosciences and nanoengineering, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University are announcing that they have created the first working, integrated silicon circuit that successfully incorporates carbon nanotubes in its design.
• DVD, EVD, now FVD: OES announces new development - Following on the heels of the EVD (enhanced versatile disc) movement, the Opto-electronics & Systems Laboratories (OES) under the government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) is developing a new DVD standard, tentatively called FVD (finalized versatile disc), according to OES deputy director Huang Der-ray. Originally reported in local news media in the fourth quarter of 2003, the FVD standard has appeared in the news now as Philips is considering a change in its royalty charging mechanism, according to local drive makers. As with EVD, FVD is seen as a way for local manufacturers of DVD drives to minimize royalty payments. FVD adopts the video/audio compression technology WMV9 (Windows Media Video 9) and WMA9 (Windows Media Audio 9) developed by Microsoft, which is different from the MPEG technology developed by the DVD Forum.
• Plextor Enhances ConvertX Video Capture Device with Hardware DivX Encoding and MPEG-4 Editing - Plextor today announced the next generation of the ConvertX  Digital Video Converter, a real-time hardware digital video converter and editing device for personal computers. The Model PX-M402U now supports hardware DivX encoding, converting video to DivX in real time while the video is captured to the computer's hard disk. This can save hours of time for users compared to converting video to DivX after capture using a software encoding program, as well as allow users to store up to 10 hours of video on recordable DVD discs.
• "iPod mini" due to launch next month - Apple Computer Inc. on Tuesday said it would introduce a smaller and cheaper version of its popular iPod music player next month to challenge rivals in the market for flash-memory-based digital devices.  The new "iPod mini" will be priced at $249 -- $50 cheaper than the current entry-level iPod. The device, smaller than most cell phones, will offer 4 gigabytes of storage -- enough to hold about 1,000 songs -- and will be sold in five colors, Jobs said.
• FujiFilm Readies 1GB XD Picture Card - Fuji Photo Film expects to see the maximum capacity of its XD Picture Card flash memory format double before the end of this year. Pricing details for the 1GB card are not expected to be announced until nearer commercialization. At present the 512MB card costs around $235 in Japan.
• IBM to manufacture chips for VIA - IBM will manufacture the "Esther" microprocessor for Via. The chip is due to be released in the second half of the year. The chip will be made with the 90-nanometer manufacturing process. In related news, VIA plans to speed its line of processors to 2 GHz before the end of the year. The company also expects to see its processor business turn a profit for the first time this year, according to a company executive. VIA plans to introduce 2-GHz versions of its low-power C3, Eden, and Antaur processor lines, with the first 2-GHz chips to enter production during the second half of this year, says Steven Lee, head of VIA's Embedded Platform Division.
• Prescott will be no faster than Pentium 4? - According to AceHardware, the Prescott will have better cache and a slightly improved branch predictor, however these effects will probably be "totally negated" by the higher branch misprediction penalty. Says the article: "This means that some software will not run, clock for clock, faster on the Prescott than on the Northwood P4". It says that a 3.4GHz Prescott will perform similarly to a Northwood 3.4GHz. (thanks TheInquirer)
• NVIDIA nForce3 ready for New AMD Athlon64 - NVIDIA announced that its NVIDIA nForce 3 media and communications processors fully support the new AMD Athlon64 Processor 3400+ announced yesterday.
• AMD Launches Mobile A64 Processors - AMD yesterday introduced a new Mobile AMD Athlon 64 processors 3200+, 3000+ and 2800+. The mobile chips are priced at $293 for the 3200+, $233 for the 3000+, and $193 for the 2800+, all in 1000 unit quantities.
• Abit AI7 (Intel 865PE Springdale) motherboard review - The specific feature of the board is the presence of an additional mGuru chip (or micro-Guru) with which the engineers at Abit implemented several additional functions. Note that recently it's not the first occasion when proprietary chips are installed on motherboards. Take, for instance, MSI boards (MSI KT6 Delta and MSI 865PE Neo2) on which there is the CoreCell chip.
• KT Hyperam PC4200 1GB Dual Channel Kit review - ClubOC as posted a review of  the competitively priced KT Hyperam PC4200 Dual Channel RAM Kit.
• AOpen Aeolus GeForce FX 5700 Ultra / Inno3D Tornado GeForce FX 5700 Ultra / Sparkle GeForce FX 5700 Ultra comparison - All the cards look equal, though it's difficult to give a palm of supremacy to the 5700 Ultra based cards as the FX 5900XT have nearly the same price. I just want to say that Sparkle's card is equipped with VIVO and ships in a beautiful box. Inno3D's card will be cheaper than the rest, but it has a good software suite and boasts of the effective backlight.
• HIS AIW 9200SE/9600Pro Roundup - HIS 9200SE AIW:  8/10. No where near as fast as the 9600Pro, and the overall feature set seems slightly less polished, but the value is great. Perfect for the TV/Video capture users who don't have any need for intense 3D application. HIS 9600Pro AIW - 9/10. Fast like a normal 9600Pro, and absolutely amazing feature wise. If you want the best of both the gaming and video/tv capture worlds, this is the card to get, however, users not wanting any 3D performance at all should probably look towards the 9200SE AIW, as it isn't exactly cheap.
• Artec BKM-52X16 (52x24x52x/16X DVD) CD-RW/DVD Combo Drive review - Explosive Labs has posted a negative review of the Artec BKM-52X16 (52x24x52x/16X DVD) CD-RW/DVD Combo Drive.
• TDK Cyclone 52x32x52x review - Summing it all up, the CyClone 52x32x52x CD-Writer, probably the last to bear the CyClone name from TDK is a definite keeper providing perfect competence in Digital Audio Extraction, a generous bundle considering its low retail price, good media compatibility and sound overall performance. This is one purchase you probably won't regret.
• Zalman Theatre 6 Surround Sound Headphones  - The sound from these headphones is rich, vibrant and best of all very very loud. The surround effect is perfect and you can tell which direction sound is supposed to come from with ease. One reservation I did have though is the lack of a volume control on the headphone cord. The cord is really long which is great if you need to move about during listening sessions but the lack of a volume control means you have to leave a game or movie to adjust sound levels which kind of sucks.
• Revolution 7.1 High-Definition 7.1 Surround Sound Card - The Revolution 7.1 sound card based on the Envy24HT chip. With support for 8 outbound streams the VIA Envy24HT can easily support the latest theatre quality 5.1, 6.1 or even 7.1 surround sound systems. For enhanced playback the VIA Envy24HT enables hardware downmixing that allows customers to experience the complete surround sound experience whether using four, or even two speakers. The Revolution 7.1 sound card is a good solution for music listening and playback of DVD movies.
• AOpen H600B Case review - The H600B has great looks and provides superb air ventilation. The price is affordable and quite reasonable especially since it comes with a nice powersupply. Its drive-rails, 300Watt power supply and 9 drive-bays will be attractive to people looking for a midsize tower with a lot of expandability and the moniker of Super Midtower is well deserved.
• AOpen A600 Aluminum ATX Case review  - The new all-aluminum AOpen A600 case is a prime example of AOpen engineering; an elegant design combined with a quality build. What more could you really want? The A600 includes a 350W power supply standard, but for those of you with beefier systems, you may want to swap that PSU out for something a bit bigger on the wattage scale.
• Samsung SyncMaster 172X TFT-LCD Monitor review  - The only negative aspect of this product where the slight ghosting images noted during game play and the missing power and DVI cable which were not included with this package.
• Samsung ML-2151N & ML-2150 Digital Laser Printers - If you only require a normal stand alone printer that pumps out a quick 21 pages per minute, the ML-2150 would be perfect for you.
• Exploring Hyper-threading Performance - Part I - Here is an excerpt: "The DivX benchmark, and for the most part all video encoding, is all about accessing system memory as fast as possible. The data sets are so large that they can't always be stored in the processor(s) cache, so it's constantly hitting the bus to fetch data from main memory. The processors being used in that article were 2.0 and 2.4 GHz Xeons. All four logical processors in those test machines were sharing its plodding 400MHz bus. There probably just was not enough bandwidth available to meet the needs of four logical processors all wanting access to the bus at the same time."
• ProblemSolver: Tips for Fixing XP File and Printer sharing - Don't you just hate it when Windows' File and Printer sharing isn't working correctly? If one-way file sharing and invisible computers have you tearing your hair out and flattening a spot on your forehead, check out THG's latest ProblemSolver.
• RADEON 9800 Flashing Guide - Think Computers have poublished a flashing guide for turning the ATI Radeon 9800 Non-Pro or SE card into a Radeon 9800 Pro.
• Bandwidth Monitor Pro 1.28 - 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. You can let Bandwidth Monitor Pro run in the background and it will log all your incoming and outgoing traffic for you to view later in the transfer log, or in real time if you wish.
• K-Lite Codec Pack 2.21 RC16 -  The K-Lite Codec Pack (download) contains everything you need to be able to playback the most popular audio and video formats.
• BeSweet 1.5b25 - BeSweet 1.5b25 correctly handles samplingrate change requests from Nero, so it will automatically downsample to the proper samplingrate required for a certain bitrate and you don't have to worry about proper downsampling anymore.
• A-Tuner 1.7.40.5304 - A-tuner is a small tool for changing Anti-Aliasing (including all unofficial modes), Anisotropic Filtering, Vsync, MipMap LOD (Level Of Detail) Bias settings on your ATI and Nvidia cards and should work with Nvidia Detonators 23.11 - 53.04 and ATI Catalyst 3.0 - 3.10.

The most interesting questions about the A64 3400+, however, aren't strictly about its performance. Many enthusiasts will have a hard time forking over the cash to build a system based on AMD's 754-pin socket. Socket 754 only allows for a single-channel memory configuration, and AMD has already made clear its intention to move all Athlon 64 products to a new 939-pin socket later this year. If you're hoping to to upgrade your processor to a higher speed grade down the road, Socket 754 isn't a very good bet. Then again, as fast as things move in motherboards, chipsets, and memory these days, many of us have just resigned ourselves to performing a motherboard upgrade along with each processor upgrade.

AMD has priced the 3400+ at $417, exactly at price parity, at least for now, with the Pentium 4 3.2GHz. The Athlon 64 FX-51 will remain at $733, making it an almost irrational purchase decision. The 3400+ is nearly as fast as the FX-51 in most applications, if not faster. The FX-51's need for regisitered memory makes for two strikes against it: higher costs and higher latencies. Strike three, perhaps, is the need to purchase DIMMs in pairs because of the dual-channel config. Overall, the 3400+ is much more economical than the FX-51.

• Belgian watchdog sues record biz over copy protection - Belgian consumer watchdog Test-Achats (Test Aankoop), known for its crusade against Nokia's "unsafe batteries", starts the new year with a fresh assault on the music industry. It is taking the music giants EMI, Sony, BMG Music and Universal Music to court for installing anti-piracy systems on their audio CDs.
• IE Flaw Processing '.lnk' Shortcuts Lets Remote Users Execute Arbitrary Code - A vulnerability was reported in Microsoft Internet Explorer in the processing of shortcuts via scripting code. A remote user can create HTML that, when loaded by a target user, will execute arbitrary code. It is reported that if active scripting is enabled, the 'Shell.Application' ActiveX object can be used to modify a known shortcut ('.lnk' file) and then execute the modified shortcut. The report indicates that the shell link (i.e., shortcut) can invoke 'mshta.exe' to execute arbitrary HTA code located at a remote site. The Microsoft HTML Application Host process (mshta.exe) will reportedly execute the remote HTA code on the target system. A demonstration exploit HTA file that will apparently create an executable on the target system can be found here. And the demonstration HTML file that will trigger the flaw is available at here.
• Off-topic: NASA attempts a return to Mars tonight - Whether the NASA's solar-powered, six-wheeled craft survives the dangerous trip, or becomes scrap like many of its predecessors, will not be known until it sends a radio signal home -- and that could take hours or days. It is scheduled to land Saturday night. If it succeeds, the new rover could be the first of several on Mars. There is a slight chance that the $400 million rover, named Spirit, could contact Earth minutes after it undertakes the most complicated part of its seven-month journey -- going from 12,000 mph travel through space to a complete rest on the surface. In addition,  NASA has released Maestro, a public version of the primary software tool used by scientists to operate the Mars Exploration Rovers from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Anyone can download Maestro for free from mars.telascience.org and use it to follow along with the rovers' progress during the mission (thanks Slashdot.org)
• Off-topic: Ancient site hints at first US settlers - Stone-age people lived in the lands north of the Arctic Circle before the peak of thelast Ice Age - much earlier than had been thought, suggests new findings. The discovery of the site in eastern Siberia also hints that people might have moved from the Old World into the Americas at a much earlier date than believed. The site along the Yanu River, carbon-dated as 30,000 years old, is twice the age of the oldest previously known Arctic settlement, report Vladimir Pitulko of the Institute for the History of Material Culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and colleagues.
• Corsair XMS PRO 3200LL review - SubZeroTech has posted a new review of Corsair XMS PRO 3200LL.
• Actiontec Wireless 802.11b+g Kit review - HardwareHell has posted a new review of the Actiontec Wireless 802.11b+g Kit.
• AMD nForce2 memory timings explored - The Madshrimps clear the confusion that might be there with memory timings on your nForce2 setup.
• The ATI Radeon Cooler Mod Guide - Andrian Rojak has posted a new guide called "The ATI Radeon Cooler Mod Guide" Here is a bit: "Modding a CPU cooler onto my Radeon would be the best alternative in my opinion. It is easily available and very cheap, especially if you have that aluminium AMD stock cooler lying around. That makes it practically free! Such coolers would work very well with graphics cards since they were designed to handle much hotter processors. But not all CPU coolers are suitable for your graphics card. Sticking to a cooler with heat sink dimensions of 6 x 6 cm is highly recommended"
• Windows XP Service Pack 2 Info - In Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2, Microsoft is introducing a set of security technologies that will help to improve the ability of Windows XP-based computers to withstand malicious attacks from viruses and worms.
• WinXP - National Security Agency Security Recommendation Guides - NSA has developed and distributed configuration guidance for Microsoft Windows NT and Windows 2000 in the form of configuration guides. These guides are currently being used throughout the government and by numerous entities as a security baseline for their Windows systems. To assist our Windows XP user community, NSA has developed security configuration guidance for Windows XP, with the cooperation of other government agencies and industry partners who provided their expertise and extensive technical review.
• Microsoft Portrait 2.2 - Microsoft Portrait is a research prototype for mobile video communication. It supports .NET Messenger Service, Session Initiation Protocol and Internet Locator Service on PCs, Pocket PCs, Handheld PCs and Smartphone. It runs on local area networks, dialup networks and even wireless networks with bandwidths as low as 9.6 kilobits/second. Microsoft Portrait delivers portrait-like video if users are in low bandwidths and displays full-color video if users are in broadband.
• phpMyAdmin 2.5.5pl1 - phpMyAdmin (changelog) can manage a whole MySQL-server (needs a super-user) but also a single database.
• RightMark 3D Beta 3 - RightMark 3D is Independent DirectX 3D Benchmarking Project with support for API DirectX 9.
• X-Setup Pro 6.5 beta 1 - X-Setup Pro is the ultimate in system configuration or tweaking as some people would say. It covers all types of options and has many useful features - for more information please read the rest of this section or browse to the authors hompage link. X-Setup Pro is not yet another Windows Hacker; it is the ultimate tool for black belt system tuning and tweaking, running on Windows 95, 98, NT 4.0, 2000, ME, XP and 2003 Server.
• CleanCenter 1.33.28 - CleanCenter (download demo) is a user-friendly application developed to clean hard drive by deleting junk files that are no longer used by any software on your system.
• DSCALER v4.1.18 beta - DScaler (download) is a piece of software that captures video, processes it, and scales it for presentation on a projector or computer monitor. Unlike most existing software that processes video, DScaler implements highly sophisticated algorithms that work in real-time, providing PC owners with a level of image quality unknown up to now.
• ChrisTV Professional 3.55 (SHW) - ChrisTV (download) was created due to a need for a better software, than the one delivered by Pinnacle Systems with their PCTV (Pro) Tuner card. Their software has no features like: On-Screen-Display, Channel Settings for each channel, MSP Settings & other necessary features.
• RAM Idle Le 1.46 - RAM Idle LE is a smart memory management program that will keep your computer running more efficiently, faster, and longer. The program's intelligently manages the free RAM that is available to Windows, and prevents your computer from running progressively slower over time.
• Game XP - GameXP is a free tool that 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.
• Fresh UI 6.80 - 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.
• Adobe Reader Speed-Up 1.12 - 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.

• Mitnick Offers Cash to Hackers - Noted computer hacker Kevin Mitnick is offering cash in exchange for tales of hacking escapades to fill a new book he is writing for publisher John Wiley & Sons. Mitnick used e-mail messages to online security discussion groups and his Web page to issue a call to the hacking community for stories of online derring-do, promising an award of $500 for the "most provocative story," according to Mitnick.
• Microsoft IIS Fails to Log HTTP TRACK Requests - AQTRONIX reported that the server does not log HTTP 'TRACK' requests. As a demonstration exploit, you can reportedly connect to the target server and send the following text followed by two carriage return/line feed sequences: TRACK / HTTP/1.0. The report indicates that IIS version 6 is not vulnerable.
• Japan, China, S. Korea developing next Net - Japan, China and South Korea are reportedly planning to jointly develop Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6), the next-generation Internet standard, a move that will challenge the U.S.-dominated market for current IPv4-based Internet technology. The report in Nihon Keizai Shimbun, a Japanese business daily, said the countries aimed to take the lead in Internet technologies, with a broad move to adopt IPv6 beginning in 2005.
• Off-topic: Kill Bill Vol. 2 Pics - Oh yeah, check it out!
• Off-topic: Bomb blast simulator looks to 'harden' structures - The world's first bomb blast simulator aims to catapult "battle hardening" from a medieval black art into a 21st-century science. A University of California, San Diego, team thinks it can extract precise computer-aided design parameters that characterize a 'bomb-proof" material's strength with the $4.2 million simulator.
• More video recorders, prototype fuel cells, slim and trim notebooks debut - Japanese electronics makers are unveiling their new devices for the new year, and (much like last year) video is key. NEC's latest video recorder, the PX-AX300H, is due on sale in Japan in January and packs an impressive 300GB of hard-drive-based recording space, IO Data's AVLP1/DVD looks like a conventional DVD player, but if you peer a little closer at the connectors on the rear, you'll notice something different: an Ethernet socket, JVC is matching its GR-HD1 high-definition camcorder, launched in 2003, with a portable video player and Sharp has become the first personal computer maker to announce a machine based on Transmeta's new Efficeon processor.
• China makers delay EVD players - Chinese optical drive makers have delayed the release of EVD (enhanced versatile disc) players, China’s self-developed DVD format, for one month, according to the Chinese newspaper Nanfang Metropolitan Daily. The companies planned to offer EVD players at the end of November, but none has done so yet. One manufacturer may offer products in early 2004 with others following in the middle of the year.
• Motorola launches V303, V690 and V878 camera phones - Motorola introduced three new handsets yesterday, featuring built-in VGA cameras and 65,000-color displays. The V303, with a price tag of NT$12,900 (about US$379), will be on store shelves in mid-January worldwide, Motorola said. The V690 and V878, available now in Taiwan and China, are aimed at the Asia-Pacific region. As earlier reported, the V690 and V878 are made by Taiwan’s Chi Mei Communication Systems (CMCS) and both feature flash, zoom lens and digital cameras with video capability. The V690 and V878 are priced at NT$17,800 (about US$523) and NT$15,800 (about US$464), respectively.
• Liquid nitrogen CPU cooling and 5-GHz Overclocking  - Just how much cooling can the P4 withstand for maximum overclocking? We cranked the CPU down to -196°C with liquid nitrogen and, with compression cooling for the chipset, we managed to clock the processor at 5.25 GHz. For those of you with any doubts, it's all on the 11th THG video.
• Roundup: 12 Graphics cards - The year's late dream Christmas gift on the graphics card front is definitely Radeon 9800 XT. ASUS, GeXCube and Sapphire has some different attributes. Sapphire with its advanced tweak/overclocking tool Redline Tweaker and two enclosed games and ASUS with its large bundle and Video In. GeXCube has also a good software bundle and furthermore it has the lowest average price of the three cards. In most of the stores ASUS' card is somewhat more expensive than Sapphire's, GeXCube doesn't exist in many shops but it is cheap where you can find it.
• Enermax EG375P-VE SFMA - The Enermax EG375P-VE SFMA certainly DOES NOT fall into that category. The new "Noisetaker" series has two separate 12v rails, one for the MB and one for the CPU and drives. The Fans continue to run after power down for up to 2 minutes to help cool your system down to a safe level. Two SATA drive power connectors are built in. No adapters are needed.
• Andio frame series speakers review - Ninjalane has just posted a review of the Andio frame series speaker system.  The speakers are very lame and underpowered but do have the ability to show off your favorite photos.
• Logitech MX900 review - The Logitech MX700 has been the "king rodent" for quite a while now; today, however, we have a new contender, the Logitech MX900. It's very similar in design to the MX700, but with several new additions; the most major being the integrated Bluetooth, which will enable you to use your base station as a hub for PDAs, cell phones, headsets, or even printers, all just as wireless as your mouse.
• iRock 730i Digital Music Player review - How can you fault something for doing exactly what it claims to do? The 730i is a solid little player with plenty of options, plenty of memory + expansion, and a few bells & whistles to let you play with. It's not overly expensive, overly large, and the display is more than adequate.
• DVD X Copy Express review - Backing up a DVD isn't easy. DVDs are protected by the Content Scrambling System (CSS), which encrypts the data on the DVD and a key is needed to decrypt the content. This form of copy protection isn't perfect though, as with a bit of work, it is possible to rip out the content, decrypt it, then recopying it to a blank DVD. This process involves anywhere between 2-5 different software tools (usually free), and a good deal of time on your part.
• Windows CE.NET running on Xbox - First reports of Windows CE.NET 4.2 being ported to the Xbox gaming console from Microsoft, hit the Internet today. The project was run by the independent developers, and intended to make use of small and quick OS, running on cheap hardware that might soon become obsolete to its original owners - the next door gamers. It's a 100% legal distribution (if you own a licecence for Windows CE), but still requires modded/exploited Xbox in order to run it.
• InstantGet 1.80 - 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.
• CacheSentry 1.59 - This is a program that fixes serious bugs in the Internet Explorer cache manager (versions 3.0 on up through and including Internet Explorer for Windows XP, and IE6). This program basically takes over the job of managing the cache from Internet Explorer, and the result is your web browsing session will be more enjoyable.
• Tray Helper v3.9 - Tray Helper it's compact award winning application with many features (f/e: email checker, auto mail responder, anti-spam, popup-killer, event reminder and more).
• XGI Volari Reactor Drivers v1.01.51 - XGI have released a new set of Volari drivers v1.01.51 called Reactor.
• LiteOn removes latest firmware upgrades for DVD burners - LiteOn has removed the latest firmware updates for their DVD burners LDW-411S and LDW-811S from their website due problems when writing to DVD+R at 2.4x.

• New IE flaw allows easier phishing - According to analysts from the X-Force division of security firm ISS, the flaw can allow website addresses or URLs to display incorrectly in the browser's navigation bar, thereby allowing scams that trick users into trusting a bogus website. The flaw, which ISS says is trivial to exploit, may be triggered when individuals navigate to URLs from within emails or hostile web pages.
• MySQL Quashes Defects in Database Release - According to its study, Reasoning officials said the company found 21 software defects in 235,667 lines of MySQL source code. The report's Defect Summary noted 15 defect instances of NULL Pointer Deference, three defect instances of an allocated memory leak, and three defect instances of an uninitialized variable prior to usage.
• Bollywood in Internet download deal  -  India's film makers are offering Internet movie downloads on website Kazaa in a move that could lower costs and boost revenues in Bollywood, the world's most prolific film production centre. Some 35 producers will be able to sell movies using Kazaa, a file-sharing program owned by Australia's Sharman Networks, according to company statement. The industry started its first download last month when Kazaa's users were offered "Supari" (A Contract for Killing), a slick thriller, for $2.99. The file was programmed to self destruct after being viewed and could not be copied.
• Asimov's "I, Robot" - The movie - Isaac Asimov's classic collection of short stories about the role robots play in humankind's future is being made into a movie set to release on July 16, 2004, starring Wil Smith. (thanks Slashdot.org)
• Xdrive launches video-sharing service - Xdrive has added videos to the list of file formats supported by the company's services. People can now store video clips encoded in formats such as MPEG, Windows Media, RealNetworks, QuickTime and AVI. The service then lets people e-mail outside contacts and invite them to view these files. The same holds true for Xdrive users who store other types of files, such as music, photos and documents. Xdrive charges $9.95 a month for 500MB of storage and progressively up to $49.95 a month for 5GB.
• Kingmax intros cheap DDR 500 DIMM  - Kingmax said it has released a DDR 500 memory module which it described as "hard core" and "hyperband".  This DDR 500 DIMM, said Kingmax, is tested for "hyperband" compatibility with all 875/865 motherboards currently in the market.
• Intel’s Xeon 3.2 GHz / 1MB Processor review - Amazingly, Intel has stayed fairly inanimate over the past few months, until now only releasing one updated Xeon processor, the 3.06 GHz w/ 1MB L2 cache. The 3.06 GHz/1MB was the Xeon equivalent of the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition. It utilizes a more expensive processor core and moves it down to a lower price point in order to make the standard Xeons competitive versus the Opteron.
• Intel Aircooling - Heatsink roundup -  MadShrimps reviewed the Scythe Kamakaze, Swiftech MCX478-V, Speeze EE429B0 CopperSnake and the Thermalright SLK947-U.
• Gigabyte K8NNXP review - The K8NNXP has left a strong impression, just as the K8VNXP did. Having said this, which motherboard should you purchase assuming the decision is to use a Gigabyte branded Athlon64 motherboard? Or more to the point, which motherboard is better? The K8VNXP, sporting the VIA K8T800 chipset or the K8NNXP boasting the NVIDIA nForce3 chipset. Let’s analyze the key differences between these two motherboards first.
• Asus P4S800D-E SiS 655TX review - HotHardware has posted a review of Asus P4S800D-E SiS 655TX Motherboard.
• BFG Asylum GeForce FX 5950 Ultra 256MB - BFG's Asylum GeForce FX 5950 Ultra 256MB performs like a slightly overclocked 5900 Ultra, and that's basically what it is. In most cases, it performs better than its older brother, the 5900 Ultra, and its (the 5900U's) archrival, the 9800 Pro. A price search at the time of this review shows this board going for around $410.
• Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro Ultimate Edition - If you're desperate for silent computing I'd take a serious look at water cooling first, but if that's not for you then this is probably the next best solution.
• IBM ThinkPad T41 TC12FUK review - The T41 is based on Intel's Centrino standard and you'll find a 1.4GHz Pentium M processor at its heart. Surprisingly, there's only 256MB of RAM supporting the processor, which is a little below par by today's standards. That said, at least there's a free SODIM socket so you can upgrade your memory complement at a later stage. Storage is more adequately taken care of by a 40GB 5,400rpm hard disk. If you do feel the need to offload some data, there's also a DVD/CD-RW combo drive present.
• Hitachi 7K250 Serial ATA Drives in RAID_0 review  - EnvyNews has posted a review of two 250GB Hitachi 7K250 Serial ATA drives in RAID_0.
• AOpen XC Cube & Soldam Pandora Claire review - With cool features like PSU muffler and swingable PSU, Soldam has really perfected what Shuttle has created in the XPC. Soldam can really claim to be the Rolls Royce of computer cases.
• 2.1 Speaker Smackdown: Xhifi versus Logitech - The fit and finish of Xhifi's Xducer 2.1 speakers are certainly welcome in the PC speaker market, where such considerations often get sacrificed at the bill of materials altar. The Xducers' wood veneer, gold-plated connector posts and overall aesthetic clearly put them in a class by themselves. That said, the Xducer 2.1's $795 price tag can't be justified by their audio performance. In fact, at nearly an eighth of the cost, Logitech Z2200s were much more pleasing to our ears on almost all the test music. For the cost of the Xducers, you could outfit a seven-man LAN party with Z2200s and still have money left over for beer and munchies.
• Cube House - This is what happens when a person gets a brilliant idea and a little free time :)
• ASUS PC Probe 2.22.03 - ASUS PCProbe is a convenient utility to monitor the computer's vital components: fan rotation speeds, voltages and temperatures.
• Tweak FX 3.26b -Tweak FX is a powerful configuration tool for Windows. It uses plugins written in VBScript and provides all functions included in the VBScript language specification.
• Maxtor Maxboost utility - MaxBoost (download Trial ~ lic.until June 30th 2004) is performance-boosting driver software which operates under Microsoft Windows 2000 and XP and which is designed to complement your Maxtor ATA or SATA hard drive. The MaxBoost driver intelligently caches data in the host system RAM before it is written to and read from the Maxtor disk drive, enhancing the effective storage speed of your system under a variety of system conditions and applications.

• DeCSS Creator Cleared on Appeal - An Oslo Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court's ruling clearing Jon Lech Johansen of charges related to his development and distribution of DeCSS, a software tool that can be used to crack copy protection on DVDs. Johansen, also known as DVD Jon, was acquitted in January by the Oslo City Court. Okokrim, the Norwegian National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime, decided in March to appeal the verdict. Okokrim had called for 20-year-old Johansen to be given a 90-day suspended jail term.
• Apple issues patch for Mac OS X hole - Apple Computer has issued a security update that, among other fixes, closes a hole in Mac OS X that could have allowed hackers to take control of a computer under particular circumstances. The patch, which the Cupertino, Calif.-based manufacturer released late Friday, essentially changes the default settings for connecting to a Dynamic Host Communication Protocol (DHCP) server on Mac OS X 10.2.8. (aka "Jaguar"), Mac OS X 10.3.2 (aka "Panther") and the corresponding server versions of these operating systems.
• Mythic Sues Microsoft Over Mythica Title  - Mythic Entertainment, developer of Dark Age of Camelot, today filed suit against Microsoft for trademark infringement and unfair competition. The title of Mythica, Microsoft's in-development MMORPG, apparently sounds a bit too much like "Mythic" for their tastes, and represents a case for legal action. Mythic's lawsuit claims that the resemblance between the two names, although the one refers to a game and the other refers.
• Sony Ericsson tests multiplayer m-games - Sony Ericsson has begun trials on a multiplayer mobile gaming system that will allow up to eight players to compete in real-time. The multiplayer mobile gaming service will initially include two games. The first is Rally, which can be played by up to four players and the other is RC Battle, which can be played by up to eight players. The games can be played on a variety of Sony Ericsson phones, including the T300, T230, Z608 and T630 handsets. The games will be available for download from the Sony Ericsson Web site from January onwards.
• Mobile Battery Problems Explode - When lithium-ion batteries replaced nickel metal hydride, researchers increased the energy density (the amount of power they could pack into the space), eliminated the memory effect, and made batteries lighter. But lithium ion in most cases uses cobalt oxide, which has a tendency to undergo "thermal runaway," explains Joe Lamoreux, vice president of research and development at Valence Technology. "When you heat this material up, it (can) reach an onset temperature that begins to self-heat and progresses into fire and explosion."
• Taiwan makers to face 8x DVD Dual price pressure from Japan and Korea in 1Q - Main Taiwanese producers of optical disc drives anticipate a further drop in the OEM price of 8x DVD Dual burners in the first quarter of 2004 due to increased supply from Japanese and South Korean competitors.
• Global notebook sales exceed 10 million mark in 3Q 2003- Quarterly notebook sales in the global market broke the 10 million mark for the first time in the third quarter of this year, reaching 10.36 million units, according to International Data Corporation (IDC). Wow I still don't own even one :)
• Prices for 3-megapixel DSC-use controllers down below US$10 - According to sources, 3-megapixel DSC-use controllers without integrated MPEG-4 and audio functions are priced at below US$7, while integrated solutions are quoted at close to US$10. Currently, prices for 2-megapixel DSC-use controllers are between US$5 and US$8, sources said.
• Athlon64 3000+: 64-bit at Half the Price - The Athlon64 3000+ is the chip that answers the need for a lower cost Athlon64. At just over $200, the 3000+ cuts the cost of entry for Athlon64 computing in half. This in itself is significant and should have A64 3000+ chips flying off dealer shelves. Value, however, is not just about price; it is about performance for your dollar. The Athlon64 3000+ delivers value in spades. Running at the same speed as the 3200+, the reduction in cache to 512k has only a minor impact on performance. In almost every benchmark, the 3000+ is only a few percent lower in performance than a 3200+. Even more important, the 3000+ performs very well compared to Intel’s 3.2 GHz Pentium 4 — a chip that sells for almost double the cost of the Athlon64 3000+.
• The Matrix Trailers re-encoded - The chaps at The Matrix website, have re-encoded all nine trailers from the original Matrix, bumped up the resolution and uploaded them for readers to enjoy, including a never before released trailer. (thanks Slashdot.org)
• Registry Repair Utility for Win2k-based computers - The Windows 2000 Registry Repair Utility can be downloaded on to floppy disks and then run on the system with the corrupted registry. You must have six floppy disks to download this utility. The utility will try to repair the corrupted registry and permit the computer to start again.
• Windows XP SP2 Beta 1 Build 2055 Download  - For all of you testers that didnt make it to the official list Geeknewz have the express install file ( you can download without registering) here for the latest Windows XP SP2 beta 1 that was released to testers yesterday.  Remember to make a restore point before you install, enjoy.
• Python 2.3.3 final - This is a bug-fix release for Python 2.3 that fixes a number of bugs, including a couple of serious errors with weakrefs and the cyclic garbage collector.
• PHP 5.0.0 Beta 3 - The third beta of PHP is also scheduled to be the last one (barring unexpected surprises). This beta incorporates dozens of bug fixes since Beta 2, better XML support and many other improvements, some of which are documented in the NEWS file.
• F-Prot Antivirus for Linux v4.3.2 - This newest version of F-Prot Antivirus for Linux (tar ~ RPM ~ DEB) contains new system startup scripts (rc-scripts) for the Mail Server component. These new scripts allow for a far simpler and more precise setup and configuration procedure. This results in a more secure system and increased peace of mind for network administrators.
• WGP System Protect 5.6.15 - WinGuard Pro Free is a program that lets you lock some features of your system so that nobody can use them while you are away.
• WinRAR 3.30 Beta 4 - WinRAR is a general purpose archiving and compression program competing with/replacing programs such as PKZip, ARJ, and others. RAR offers significantly improved compression ratios.
• Media Player Classic v6.4.7.3 - Media Player Classic has been updated to version 6.4.7.3.
• Alcohol 120% v1.4.8.1222 - Alcohol 120% (download) can handle the creation of 31 virtual CD & DVD-ROMs, allowing the user to play discs whithout needing the physical disc. It also allows users to make copy CD & DVD to CD-R / CD-RW / DVD-R / DVD-RW / DVD-RAM / DVD+RW.
• TVTool v9.5.5.2 - TVTool (download) was developed to replace the poor support video card manufacturers had for TV_OUT. TVTool works with most NVIDIA based cards such as TNT, TNT2, TNT2 Ultra, GeForce cards with BT86x (e.g. Viper 550, Erazor 3, Xentor 32, 3D Prophet, etc.).
• NVIDIA Linux drivers v1.0 5358 -  These new drivers support latest GeForce FX and Quadro FX GPUs, UBB and FSAA Stereo, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0. and  support for GLX_SGI_swap_control.
• ATI Omega Drivers Based on Catalyst 3.10 - The new Omega Drivers for Win9x/ME/2k/XP are available for download. According to Omega website, "this set will be the LAST set of drivers for Win9x/ME".
• Massive BIOS Update - PCTunning has posted a lots of new BIOS updates (Czech website, but download description is in English) from last week, also OnlyNews has posted its massive BIOS/Drivers update.

• Chats led to Acxiom hacker bust - A Cincinnati man who plead guilty Thursday to cracking and cloning giant consumer databases was only caught because he helped out a friend in the hacker community. Daniel Baas, 25, plead guilty Thursday to a single federal felony count of "exceeding authorized access" to a protected computer for using a cracked password to penetrate the systems of Arkansas-based Acxiom Corporation -- a company known among privacy advocates for its massive collection and sale of consumer data. The company also analyzes in-house consumer databases for a variety of companies.
• Software shares out spare processing power - Software to be launched in January will let PC users run as many "distributed computing" projects as they like. The program will let PC users search for aliens, help predict climate change and perform advanced biological research - all at the same time.
• Secret of "strained silicon" chips revealed - Intel has taken the wraps off a secret technique it is using to increase the speed of its Pentium and Centrino chips. The technique boosts the rate at which transistors switch, without having to make them smaller.
• Borland Delphi 8 for the MS .NET Framework Ships - Borland announced the immediate availability of Borland Delphi 8 for the Microsoft .NET Framework. This latest edition of  Delphi development environment outlines a clear path for the future of Delphi, enabling Delphi developers to use their existing Delphi language and Framework skills to create .NET Framework-based applications and migrate existing Win32® Delphi applications to the .NET Framework.
• USB Powered Miniature Christmas Tree with Oscillating LED Light - Addlogix (formerly CompuCable) is introducing a new way of celebrating this holiday season, with the USB Christmas Tree (USB X-MAS Tree) for your computer. What better way to brighten the holiday spirit in the office and home by plugging in a stand-alone mini X-MAS tree with LED cycling through 6 different colors.
• AMD opteron 146 review - At this time I can’t fault the Opteron 146, it is a great chip for the gamer and home user especially if you need that bit of extra power and considering that performance can only improve when 64bit support is added to Windows things can only get better for the Opteron.
• Intel 3.2GHz 800FSB review - The Intel Pentium 4 "C" revision processor offers excellent overclocking potential along with incredible out of the box performance. Compatiblity is not an issue and the Pentium 4 has never been known as a bad apple when it comes to heat and durability, an issue that has plagued AMD in the past. Look for the Pentium 4 "C" to continue its popularity trend until AMD lowers the price of the Athlon 64 FX.
• NVIDIA 5950 vs 9800 XT - Looking at the speed of the 2 cards they are both very fast. In all DriverHeaven tests, other than Call Of Duty, the XT is faster than the 5950 Ultra.
• Soyo KT600 Dragon Ultra Platinum Motherboard review - Soyo’s performance and optimisations was top notch, with a resounding victory in all the benchmarks it is hard to put a damper on this product. All the features like Firewire, additional Serial ATA RAID controllers and Gigabit Ethernet with hardware 6 channel sound makes this motherboard one for those who want to overclock without paying for a simple name that doesn’t guarantee the fastest or most feature-packed product of its kind.
• Thermaltake Aquarius III Water Cooling System review - If you’re after a quiet cooler and don't really care about overclocking and hardcore gaming, then get one of these water coolers today. But if you're looking for better than air cooling for aggressive clock speeds, then you'll want to either look elsewhere or build your own water cooling rig.
• Samsung 957MB 19-inch CRT Monitor review - Like almost all Samsung monitors, the 957MB does come with Magic Bright. This is a nice, handy tool that you can quickly hit a button to set the screen brightness to preset levels for what you are doing. Also Samsung includes a button called Highlight. This feature allows you to make one area of the screen brighter than the rest. You can adjust the size of this area if you wish. The benefit is that you can open a window that you are working on and highlight that window so it stands out more. I myself have never found a use for it, but some of you might have one.-
• BrookGPU 0.2 - Brook for GPU is a compiler and runtime implementation of the Brook stream program language for modern graphics hardware. The goals for this project are: Demonstrate general purpose programing on GPUs, Provide a useful tool for developers who want to run applications on GPUs and Research the stream language programing model, streaming applications, and system implementations.
• Adobe Reader Speed-Up 1.09 - Adobe Reader Speed-Up (download) 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.
• FastVoodoo2 4.0 XP Gold Edition driver -  3dfxzone.it has posted FastVoodoo2 4.0 XP Gold Edition driver (download) that supports 3dfx Voodoo2 video cards with Win2k/XP.

• "Open source" IE patch withdrawn for further patching - The third-party "open source" patch for Internet Explorer that I mentioned yesterday contains more than a few potentially nasty surprises.  German tech site Heise had already warned (German article -> babelfish) of dangerous buffer overflows. In addition, the authors of the patch also enabled a Windows Registry key used by spyware. IEmsg.dll. There's no doubt this was a truly poor attempt at a fix - buffer overflows, memory leaks, and a nice liveupdate.exe hidden in the registry. So rather don't install it!
• Software glitch brings Y2K deja vu - Software maker PTC, a specialist in product lifecycle management applications for engineers and product designers, has rekindled memories of the Year 2000 bug, or Y2K, as it scrambles to patch a glitch that will render most of its products inoperable after Jan. 10. The flaw involves the way the programs handle date entries, Gavaghan said. To be able to recognize dates, PTC programmers had to set a date for infinity. They chose 2 billion seconds since 1970--when the Unix operating system was developed and Year Zero for many Unix applications. That number brings PTC software up to Jan. 10. After that, the software will be unable to recognize dates and will no longer operate.
• Online gamer in China sues over virtual theft - A Chinese court has ordered an online video game company to return hard-won virtual property, including a make-believe stockpile of bio-chemical weapons, to a player whose game account was looted by a hacker. Li Hongchen, 24, had spent two years, and 10,000 yuan (750 pounds) on pay-as-you-go cards to play, amassing weapons and victories in the popular online computer game Hongyue, or Red Moon, before his "weapons" were stolen in February, the Xinhua news agency said on Friday. Li asked the company, Beijing Arctic Ice Technology Development to identify the player who stole his virtual property, but it declined, saying it could not give out a player's private details, it said.
• Nanotubes break speed record - Semiconducting carbon nanotubes are significantly better at conducting electricity at room temperature than any other known material, according to recent tests at the University of Maryland. The findings are the latest evidence that nanotubes could form the basis for future generations of powerful electronics.
• Swedish firm to offer 100Mbit/s broadband for L70/month - A Swedish supplier will introduce an amazing 100Mbit/sec broadband connection for 895 kroner in April next year. That's about L70 a month, and that speed is in both directions. Bredbandsbolaget will cap downloads to 300GB as part of the service it's offering.
• S3's DeltaChrome Preview - The core of the DeltaChrome S3 is 300Mhz and has around 60-80 million transistors, and yet it still "hangs" with the other cards. While the initial numbers are impressive It is almost certain that this card will be "fine-tuned" by PCB revisions, BIOS updates, and driver improvements. After these changes it will possibly challange ATI & nVidia for a piece of the mainstream ~$150 video card market share.
• Artec's WSM-52Z & WRR-52X CD-RW Drives review - ExplosiveLabs has posted a review of Artec's WSM-52Z & WRR-52X CD-RW Drives.
• The North Bridge Wet-Sanding Guide - As you all know, the NVIDIA nForce2 is a very, very hot chipset. I can't even leave my finger on the south bridge for more than 6 seconds, let alone the north bridge. The early revisions of the nForce2 chipsets shared one common flaw - the north bridge chip's surface wasn't flat. An imperfect contact surface is one of the best excuses to wet-sand your north bridge and that's exactly what I did. Believe it or not, the result was fantastic. .
• Daemon Tools 3.43 - DAEMON Tools (download) is an advanced application for multiprotection emulation. It is further development of Generic Safedisc emulator and incorporates all its features. This program allows running BACKUP copies of SafeDisc (C-Dilla), Securom or Laserlock protected games.
• ZoneAlarm Pro 4.5.538.0 - ZoneAlarm (download) includes five interlocking security services that deliver easy-to-use, comprehensive protection.
• Opera 7.50 Tech Preview 1 Build 3494 w/a Java - Opera for Windows (download) introduces the looks and the performance of an exceptional Web browser. Opera's user interface has received a major overhaul with the new start-up dialog, and new default buttons, skin and panels in a blue and white color scheme that can be changed back to classic Opera look or another design. At start-up you can select a single or multiple document interface (SDI/MDI).
• MSN Messenger 6.1.0207 - A new MSN Messenger version is available.
• WinAmp 5.01 Final - WinAmp is an audio player that can handle audio CDs, MP3 audio files and streaming audio broadcasts. It combines extensive functionality with an intuitive interface. WinAmp features a playlist editor and a 10-band graphic equalizer with user-definable presets that can automatically load specific files. It also includes Windows Media Technology 4.0 input/output support and the industry-standard Fraunhofer MP3 decoder. This download no longer includes VIS/DSP plug-ins; you can download them separately.
• ASUS PC Probe 2.22.02 - The ASUS PC Probe is a simple utility that monitors vital information in the computer such as fan rototations, voltages and temperature.

• Eighteen people arrested in England for piracy, more raids today - Eighteen people were arrested in a joint anti-piracy operation involving industry bodies BPI, FACT and ELSPA on Sunday December 14 at Inglistone open-air market near Edinburgh airport. Over one hundred officers from the Lothian and Borders police force took part in the raid where they seized an estimated Ł10 million-worth of counterfeit CDs, DVDs, as well as business and games software.
• B'buster chief: End regional codes, thwart pirates -  Blockbuster Inc. president and chief operating officer Nigel Travis on Thursday called for an end to regional coding on DVDs, saying they merely create more opportunities for piracy. "I believe, in addition to the elimination of two-tier pricing, the studios should also make another significant strike against piracy with the elimination of regional coding," he said.
• Israeli Gov't Moves Away From Microsoft  - Y-net reported that the Israeli Treasury has decided to walk away from the Government's contract with Microsoft. Signed two years ago, the contract expires this month, and the ministry is testing localized builds of Mandrake Linux.
• Off-topic: Techie makes "WMD" treasure hunt game - As computer programmer Shane Messer watched U.S. forces look for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the search struck him as a perverse sort of treasure hunt. So he created an international treasure hunt called "Find Those Weapons: The Hunt for the Real WMD" by using actual public documents related to the American invasion as clues.  The game he created, which started shipping this week for $39.99 a copy, is also a clever piece of self-promotion that Messer hopes might generate enough profits to put him through law school. The game includes a booklet with 10 clues and a master clue; a map of Iraq; and a CD-ROM that contains 3,000 public documents, leaflets dropped in Iraq and text transcripts.
• Off-topic: EA Bans Players Over Fan Newspaper - According to this Salon article, Peter Ludlow, professor of philosophy and linguistics at the University of Michigan, was banned recently from EA and Maxis' The Sims Online. Ludlow, who goes by the name Urizenus in the game, writes a blog in which he exposes the dark side of Alphaville, a large city within the game. (thanks Peter)
• Off-topic: Tiny nanowire could be next big diagnostic tool for doctors - A tiny nanowire sensor -- smaller than the width of a human hair, 1,000 times more sensitive than conventional DNA tests, and capable of producing results in minutes rather than days or weeks -- could pave the way for faster, more accurate medical diagnostic tests for countless conditions and may ultimately save lives by allowing earlier disease detection and intervention, Harvard scientists say.
• Off-topic: New 'smart' highways could warn drivers of trouble - Transportation Department officials are testing the technology at an intersection in McLean, Virginia, where sensors can automatically warn a motorist when another car is approaching, thus helping to avoid a collision. The technology, still five to 10 years away from being installed in cars and along highways, also could use a beep, a dashboard light or an electronic voice to tell drivers when it's safe to change lanes, or when to put on the breaks to avoid rear-ending the motorist in front.
• Off-topic: 100 Years Of Powered Human Flight -  In this centennial year we celebrate the world's first manned powered flight of 17th December 1903 and mark a century of achievement that has changed the whole of society. Another nice article can found at Time.com
• Windows XP 64-bit Edition delayed again?  - TheInquirer is reporting that the 64-bit version of Windows XP for AMD x86-64 processors is now scheduled for release at the beginning of Q2 2004, so all being well that should be sometime in April next year, with, we presume, the hype happening at CeBIT in March.
• Intel to launch WiMax chip in Q2 - Today's Economic News from Taiwan is reporting that Intel will start selling a WiMax chip in the second quarter of 2004. According to the report, the 802.16a broadband chip will throw data over the aether at speeds of 70Mbs and at distance of a staggering 50 kilometres.
• SiS ships mobile Athlon XP chipset - SiS yesterday unveiled the mobile incarnation of its SiS741 integrated chipset for the AMD Athlon XP. The SiSM741 supports a 333MHz frontside bus and DDR SDRAM clocked at up to 400MHz. The integrated DirectX 7 graphics core - SiS' Real 256E - utilises a portion of the main memory as video RAM, communicating at the memory's own speed rather than that standard AGP 8x connection rate. It can support display resolutions of up to 1920 x 1600. The chipset's South Bridge is SiS' SiS963, which provides Serial ATA, ATA-133, six USB 2.0 ports, 5.1-channel surround sound, a 56Kbps modem and 10/100Mbps Ethernet.
• Toshiba Adds VOIP to PCs - Toshiba America Information Systems' Digital Solutions Division released a software program Tuesday that can turn a desktop or notebook PC into a VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) telephone, the company says. The Toshiba SoftIPT SoftPhone costs about $200 per software license depending on the number of licenses purchased and the system for which the software is designated.
• Java-powered home audio device frees music files from computers -  A new Java powered home entertainment audio device design promises to simplify sharing computer music files among computers and stereos in connected homes. The Gloo middleware can theoretically run on any device that supports Java, and Gloolabs's first customer is MacSense, which built its $250 HomePod around embedded Linux and a hardware design of its own. Both MacSense and GlooLabs have hardware reference designs that device manufacturers can license.
• eMachines T6000 review - Like most of the company's systems, the T6000 ($1150) makes trade-offs to hit a sweet price, but breaking with past practice, the CPU isn't one. In fact, with a fast AMD Athlon 64 3200+, 512MB of DDR SDRAM, and a 160GB, 7,200-rpm drive, the T6000 turned in a 21.6 on Business Winstone 2004 and a 31 on Multimedia Content Creation Winstone 2004-productivity performance comparable with that of our recent Editors' Choice high-end box, the Velocity Micro ProMagix DX-W, which has twice the memory and a RAID 0 configuration. Unfortunately, the pep stops with productivity apps.
• Titan TTC-CW9TB/SC Copper Pentium 4 Heatsink review - FrostyTech has posted a review of Titan TTC-CW9TB/SC Copper Pentium 4 Heatsink.
• VIA EPIA CL10000 Mini-ITX  - When building a HTPC, size and noise are two key factors. The guys at ViperLair take a look at an all-inclusive motherboard that addresses these concerns.
• Leadtek WinFast TV DV2000 TV&FM Tuner review - The Leadtek WinFast TV 2000 Expert tuner leaves an unclear impression. On one hand, it integrates the 10-bit CX23881 ADC from Conexant and has a user-friendly user guide; on the other hand, the audio quality in the FM mode is not that good.
• HIS RADEON 9600SE 128MEG VIVO review - If you do not need a $350 video card, why would you buy one? If you are not apt to use all of its features, then save yourself a couple hundred bucks and buy something that isn't as powerful. The HIS Excalibur 9600SE is a good little video card, albeit flawed. However that one glaring fault (the 64bit memory bus), does not ruin the card.
• Plextor Premium-U (52/32/52) review  - Based on one of the most popular internal writers available, the Premium-U is great looking, easy to install and overflowing with features. The Premium-U also performed pretty well overall. However, there were times when it did not deliver the level of performance we've come to expect from Plextor.
• Plextor PX-708A review - The PX-708A is a real monster, not only does it write DVDs at speed, but it supports both DVD writing standards (+/-). Add to this the fact that it is currently one of the fastest DVD+R writer available today makes for one appealing upgrade.
• DVR-A06 4x DVD+RW review - DukGamers take a look at Pioneer's DVR-A06 4x DVD+RW drive which is the retail version of the popular 106 drive.
• ATX Case round-up - THG have tested over 25 ATX cases (If you are looking for the MicroATX cases, check their earlier MicroATX case madness).
• D-Link i2eye DVC-1100 review - D-Link's i2eye DVC-1100 Wireless Broadband VideoPhone lets you videoconference with friends and family using just your TV. No wires. No PC. The device lets you videoconference over the Internet wirelessly using Enhanced 802.11b. The DVC-1100 can send and receive video at up to 30 frames per second. An optional telephone handset can be attached for enhanced voice quality.
• Creating an Unattended XP CD Guide  - Have you ever wanted a Windows XP CD that would install Windows XP by automatically putting in your name, product key, timezone and regional settings? Followed by silently installing all your favourite applications along with DirectX 9.0b, .Net Framework 1.1 and then all the Pre-SP2 hotfixes, updated drivers, registry tweaks, and a readily patched UXTheme.dll without any user interaction whatsoever? Then this guide will show you how you can do just that!
• AutoPatcher 4.2 (December 2003) - This release contains over180 fixes for your Windows operating system. If this works as advertised, you might be my new best friend this week.
• .NET Compact Framework 1.0 SP2 Final - The Microsoft .NET Compact Framework 1.0 SP2 Redistributable includes everything you need to run .NET Compact Framework applications, including the Common Language Runtime and the .NET Compact Framework class library. The Microsoft .NET Compact Framework 1.0 SP2 Developer Redistributable includes the latest .NET Compact Framework 1.0 SP2 CAB files for all supported processor types.
• MySQL 4.0.17  - MySQL 4.0.17, a new version of the popular Open Source/Free Software Database Management System, has been released.
• RegSupreme 1.1.0.24 - RegSupreme is the superior standalone, ultra fast and lightweight registry cleaner.
• Macromedia Flash Player 7.0.19 - Macromedia Flash (download ~ changelog) lets designers and developers integrate video, text, audio, and graphics into effective experiences.
• DeepBurner v .1.0.89b (free) - This new version (download 1.58MB) adds check for audio files consistency (44 Khz, 16 bit), Ogg Vorbis audio format support, check for updates via Check for New Version on the Help menu and displaying progress of files while creating image.
• Hotmail Popper 2.1.1  - Hotmail Popper (download) is a small application that allows you to check your Hotmail account e-mail from a normal POP mail client (such as Eudora). Unlike standard mail accounts which allow users to retrieve their e-mail through a POP mail client.
• Official DeltaChrome drivers -  A new Logo'd: WindowsXP Drivers for DeltaChrome (DevID 8E00) v15.06.33.4 are available (with InstallShield version / No InstallShield version) (thanks longo213)
• CATALYST Windows XP 3.10 Driver (Dec 17, 2003) - ATI CATALYST drivers (fixed in this driver) provide fully qualified display support for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 systems with Radeon display cards, but requires a special version of ATI's Video Capture (WDM) drivers for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 systems with All-in-Wonder boards, which will be provided by your computer manufacturer.

• Off-topic: Studio Warns Kung Fu Site  - For the past three years, Mark Pollard has been writing reviews and posting news on his website Kung Fu Cinema. But while he's used to feedback from fellow fans of kung fu movies, Pollard was caught by surprise recently when he heard from a new correspondent -- Miramax Film. In a letter drafted by its legal affairs department, the studio demanded that Pollard stop selling copies of a Chinese film for which it owns the distribution rights.
• Brother Updates Office Laser Printers - Brother International has introduced a pair of midrange office laser printers, the HL-6050D and the HL-6050DN. Aimed at office desktops and small workgroups, the new printers provide up to 25 page per minute speed, built-in duplex capability, expandable paper capacity, a wireless networking option, and more. Priced at $549, the HL-6050D comes standard with USB 2.0 and parallel interfaces. The HL-6050DN costs $699, and comes standard with a 10/100baseT Ethernet print server. An internal 802.11b/g Ethernet print server is also available.
• Toshiba Creates World's Smallest Hard-Disk Drive  - Toshiba Corp has developed a hard-disk drive that measures 0.85 of an inch in diameter, smaller than the record 1-inch HDD that Hitachi Global Storage Technologies released in November, company sources said on December 13. The drive, which is small enough to be used in mobile phones, can store up to two hours of high-definition moving images and just under 60 hours of music. Its tiny size will likely lead to the development of extremely small video cameras.
• Java Wrist Watch with JBlend -  In an report from the Tron show K-Tai Impress highlights Java based Wrist Watches. Aplix develops the Mobile Java environment JBlend. The wrist Watches running JBlend can have different uploadable applications. Aplix plans to introduce the JBlend Java environment for wrist watches to Watch manufactures in the future. WOW!
• T-Cube revelaed - At the TRON 2004 Show Japanese Personal Media Company shows off the T-Cube a pocket-size PC running T-Engine. T-Engine is somekind of OS standardization project for networked computers in Japan that started in 2002. Seems they want to build something that does not require to license Windows. (thanks Mark)
• Bapco releases Sysmark 2004 - Benchmark consortium Bapco has released the latest version of its PC performance testing suite. Sysmark 2004 uses an "updated" range of commercial applications in its scoring system, including Adobe's Acrobat 5.0.5, After Effects(R) 5.5, Photoshop 7.01 and Premiere 6.5; Discreet 3DS max 5.1; Macromedia Dreamweaver MX and Flash MX; Microsoft Windows Media Encoder 9 Series, Access 2002, Excel 2002, Outlook 2002, Word 2002, PowerPoint 2002 and IE 6.0; Network Associates McAfee VirusScan 7.0; and WinZip 8.1.
• Hercules 3D Prophet 9800XT Classic 256MB review - After seeing what ASUS has done with its 9800XT card and package, Hercules' bundle seems meagre in comparison. There's only a coupon for Half-Life 2, redeemable some time next year. There's not much else from a gaming perspective. We expect a bundle jam-packed with goodies if we're shelling out L375, really. The problem with the 3D Prophet 9800XT Classic, and every other 9800XT card for that matter, is price. One can purchase a standard 128MB-equipped 9800 Pro that performs to within a few percent of an 9800XT for L240.
• Arctic Silver 5 Extensive review - The Madshrimps let us know they have tested Artic Silver latest compound.
• Dlink's DI-624+ wireless router review - PyroPort let us know they have posted a review of Dlink's DI-624+ wireless router.
• The SiS, VIA and Intel Chipset comparison - In most benchmarks, SiS' 655TX was able to outperform VIA's PT880 and its predecessor 655FX. Assuming the lead in the odd category is VIA's PT880 chipset, which will grace the first boards mid December. Intel's 875P remains an outstanding yet very pricey option. Its biggest advantages lie in the manufacturer's solid reputation and its integrated CSA network interface. SiS' 655TX is a lot cheaper and offers the bottom-line best price/performance ratio in our comparison.
• UnixWare 7.1.3 review - If you want to use a commercial Unix for x86 (and one not targeted by SCO – at least not yet), then Solaris x86 is a very strong offering, with far more enterprise applications available, is far less expensive, and leverages a much larger install base than UnixWare.
• Winamp 5.0 Final - Nullsoft has released the final version of Winamp 5.0. This new version features support for classic Winamp 1.x/2.x/2.9x skins and Winamp 3 ("Modern") skins, Integrated video, AVS, and Milkdrop support, CD ripping support (AAC@2x in free version, MP3 at unlimited speeds in pro),
  CD burning support (limited to 2x in free version), Support for playback of AAC and VP6 in NSV files/streams and much  more. An article about this new version can be found at ZDNET.
• VisualBoy Advance 1.7 Final - Visual Boy Advance (download) is a Game Boy Advance and Game Boy emulator that runs with Windows systems.

• Off-topic: Saddam Hussein has been captured alive  - Eight months after the fall of his government, Saddam Hussein was captured by coalition forces near his hometown of Tikrit, where he was hiding in a farmhouse cellar, U.S. officials said Sunday. The arrest was a major victory for the coalition that has been battling an insurgency for months.
• Self-assembled "nanorings" could boost computer memory - Recent nanotechnology research at Purdue University could pave the way toward faster computer memories and higher density magnetic data storage, all with an affordable price tag. Just like the electronics industry, the data storage industry is on the move toward nanoscale. By shrinking components to below 1/10,000th the width of a human hair, manufacturers could make faster computer chips with more firepower per square inch. However, the technology for making devices in that size range is still being developed, and the smaller the components get, the more expensive they are to produce.
• Radio-fueled credit cards could end swipe -  For more than a year, MasterCard and American Express have been testing "contactless" versions of their credit cards. The cards need only be held near a special reader for a sale to go through -- though the consumer can still get a receipt. The card companies say the system is much faster and safer because the card never leaves a customer's hand
• iRiver introduces a compact & light 1.5GB Microdrive MP3 player  -  IGP-100 combines the compact size and light weight of a flash based player along with the high storage capacity of a hard drive based player. Its internal hard drive stores up to 1.5GB of music; enough for up to 24 hours of 128kbps MP3 playback..
• The Corsair 512MB Low Latency PC3200 TwinX Memory Modules Review - Adrian's Rojak Pot let us know he has posted a review of Corsair 512MB Low Latency PC3200 TwinX Memory Modules
• ASUS DRW-0402P/D DVD±RW/DVD±R Drive review - The DRW-0402P/D DVD is one of its latest products; actually, it was designed in collaboration of Pioneer and ASUS and it's one of OEM versions of the DVR-106.
• MSI DR4-A DVD±RW/DVD±R Drive review - Digit-Life has posted a  review a multiformat DVD recorder DR4-A from MSI - the company that goes with Sanyo's technologies and hardware which are rarely used today.
• AOpen DRW4410 DVD+RW Burner review - Being one of the first DVD burners to break below the US$100 barrier, the AOpen DRW4410 is almost a steal just to be able to burn DVDs. So if you are on a tight budget and want to spend under $100, we will go ahead and tell you now that the AOpen DRW4420 is our #1 choice. If you are interested in faster speeds and price is not a number one concern, we suggest you look at some of the newer 8x burners.
• Digital Pen Roundup - The Pens integrate with all your regular packages such as Outlook or Lotus Notes, Calendar and Word, enabling you to send your writing or sketches where needed.  To briefly summarise the differing appeal of the individual pens reviewed, the Logitech io Pen is the most advanced for editing your handwriting once synced with your PC. The Nokia SU-1B Digital Pen is the only one that has the ability to send images directly to Bluetooth phones (and PC via USB). If you want to email directly from your digital pad without a PC involved then the choice must be the Sony Ericsson CHA-30 Chatpen.
• QCD Build 66 - Quintessential Player brings a huge arsenal of quality features, and uses simplicity as its decoy. It is truly the most unique player available. Supports MP3, CD Audio, Ogg Vorbis, WAV, VQF, MP+, Windows Media, and streaming audio including SHOUTcast.
• K-Meleon 0.8.1 - Meleon is a fast, customizable, lightweight web browser for the win32 (Windows) platform based on the Gecko layout engine (the rendering engine of Mozilla). K-Meleon is free, open source software released under the GNU General Public License.
• MyIE2 v0.9.11 - MyIE2 (download) 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.
• Intel NIC Drivers 7.2.18.10 WHQL - Intel has released a new Win2k/XP drivers for their GigaBit NIC adapter series.

• Virginia Arrests Man for Spam Email Under New Law - Virginia authorities said on Thursday they had arrested and charged a North Carolina man for sending "spam" e-mail in the first use of a new state law that could bring penalties of up to 20 years in prison. irginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore said Jeremy Jaynes had been arrested earlier Thursday in Raleigh, N.C., on four counts of using fraudulent means to transmit spam.
• Microsoft gets Windows XP update ready  - The beta version of Windows XP Service Pack 2 is expected to be made available to testers soon (before the end of this year) via Microsoft's developer Web site. The final version is expected to be released in the first half of next year, Microsoft said. During this beta, Microsoft hopes to garner significant feedback from developers and IT professionals that will be incorporated into and improve the final product. Among the security improvements in Service Pack 2 are a beefed-up version of Windows Firewall, previously called Internet Connection Firewall, and software designed to block pop-up ads and prevent the unintended downloading and installation of software. The company also turned off the Windows Messenger service, which had been abused by some hackers.
• Windows Patch Arrives Late -  A glitch in Microsoft's Windows Update automated patching service caused a security fix that was released last month to be delivered to computer users on Tuesday. The patch was delivered on the same day Microsoft proclaimed December would be a patch-free month. The software patch fixes a serious vulnerability in a set of Web site management tools called FrontPage Server Extensions, which are part of Microsoft's Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Office XP software, according to Microsoft Security Bulletin MS03-051. Exploiting the flaw could allow an attacker to gain control over a user's PC, Microsoft says.
• Windows 98 Remains Widespread - Microsoft is planning to end support for Windows 98 next month, but many businesses still have computers running on the operating system, a new study shows. AssetMetrix, an Ottawa-based IT asset analysis tool vendor, collected data on over 370,000 PCs from 670 businesses in the U.S. and Canada. It found that 80 percent of those companies have at least one PC running either Windows 95 or Windows 98. The older operating systems accounted for about 27 percent of operating systems found.
• Sony and Toshiba close to sampling Cell technology -  Trial runs of the advanced semiconductor manufacturing process which will eventually create the much-vaunted Cell microprocessor are set to start at Toshiba's fabrication plant in March of next year. According to a statement from Sony and Toshiba issued today, work on the 65nm chip production technology - which is more advanced than any system in commercial use today, as most companies are still coming to grips with the switch from 130nm down to 90nm processes - is proceeding to plan.
• Hitachi to squeeze fuel cell into PDAs - Japanese electronics giant Hitachi is teaming up with Tokai, a maker of disposable cigarette lighters, to produce commercial fuel cells for handheld computers in 2005, the companies said this week.  Several electronics companies are investigating fuel cells as an alternative to existing nickel cadmium batteries and lithium ion batteries, which will inevitably hit a barrier when portable devices become more power-hungry. Fuel cells, just one of the alternative techniques under investigation, could create a long-lasting and cheap power source in a small package.
• Intel Pentium M "Dothan" Launch Date Revealed - Sources close to Intel Corporation said today the company has a big week for mobile announcements starting from the 16th of February 2004 - the first day of Intel Developer Forum Spring 2004. The company unveils new highly-anticipated Dothan processor, new LV and ULV Pentium M and Celeron M chips and a more advanced WLAN adapter. Intel Pentium M “Dothan” processor with 2MB of L2 cache will start at 1.80GHz speed-bin. Given its higher core frequency and 2MB of cache instead of only 1MB featured by its predecessor, the CPU will consume more energy compared to the Banias despite of thinner 90nm fabrication technology. Earlier this year it was said that TDP of higher-end Dothan processors will be 29W to 31W, while thermal design power of current Pentium M “Banias” chips is just about 24.5W.
• Mini-server review - Sudhian has posted a review of EmergeCore's "IT in a Box" IT100 which comes equipped with a Transmeta Crusoe 533MHz, 128MB RAM, 20GB IBM TravelStar, 802.11b Access Point, and boots from a 32MB Flash card.
• Axis' 205 Network Camera: Inexpensive, Small and Different - The new Axis 205 Network Camera is the smallest of the network attached cameras that we have seen so far. However, this claim to fame comes with a few trade offs. While Axis's Model 205 represents a unique network attached camera for less than $200, the device also lacks features otherwise taken for granted.
• ASUS SCB-2408-D CD-RW/DVD-ROM review - CDRLabs.com have taken a close look at the external ASUS SCB-2408-D combo drive.
• AMD Athlon 64 Motherboards Head to Head - Albatron vs. EPoX  - While Albatron have quite a nice looking motherboard on their hands, the package is not the most exciting and overall performance is lacking.  If you're interested in a motherboard that brings the latest Athlon 64 chipset at a more affordable price, the EPoX 8HDA3 might be a better option.
• ATi Radeon 9600 XT 256 MB review - The ATi Radeon 9600 XT is an excellent buy for only $199.00 MSRP you can easily find this product cheaper online, from different partners of ATi, or even OEM (bare, no retail packaging). For your money the Radeon family of products has truly delivered from the 9200 SE (low end for ATi) to the monstrosity 9800 (high end for ATi) we've found performance for decent prices. We just wish we all could afford a 9800 XT.
• Image Quality Analysis Fall 2003: A Glance Through the Looking Glass  - Unfortunately, defining image quality is a more difficult task than it seems. Neither ATI nor NVIDIA produce images that match the DX9 reference rasterizer (Microsoft's tool to estimate what image should be produced by a program). There is, in fact, no "correct" image for any given frame of a game. This makes it very hard to draw a line in the sand and say that one GPU does something the right way and the other one does not. There is the added problem that taking screenshots in a game isn't really the best place to start when looking for a quantitative comparison.
• The Trouble With AVI Movies In Windows XP Editorial - Adrian's Rojak Pot let us know he has posted The Trouble With AVI Movies In Windows XP editorial.
• Bart's PE Builder 3.0.24 - Bart's PE Builder (download) helps you build a bootable Window CD-Rom or DVD from Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 very suitable for PC maintenance tasks. It will give you a complete Win32 environment with network support, a graphical user interface (800x600) and FAT/NTFS/CDFS filesystem support. Very handy for burn-in testing systems with no OS, rescuing files to a network share, virus scan and so on.
• Serence KlipFolio 2.5a Beta - Klipfolio is a small, efficient and easy to use desktop application that allows you to collect, view and manage live information channels.
• Winamp5 Full RC 666  - Nullsoft Winamp 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). This beta fixes a potential crashbug in ml.
• 7-Zip 3.13 - 7-Zip is a file archiver with a high compression ratio. The program supports 7z, ZIP, RAR, CAB, GZIP, BZIP2, and TAR formats. Compression ratio in the new 7z format is 30-50% better than ratio in ZIP format. It also compresses to ZIP 2-10% better than PKZip and WinZip.
• Avant Browser 8.02.207 Stable - Avant Browser is a custom Web browser application based on Internet Explorer with versatile multi-window support. It allows users to browse multiple Web sites simultaneously and block all unwanted pop-up pages. This new version has Improved Download for FavIcon; Display FavIcon in Favorites, Links and Address Box; Create Favorites with FavIcon; Improved kernel for speed and stability; Improved Support for groups; Fixed a bug of favorites band drag-and-drop and Some other fixes. 
• HijackThis 1.97.7  - HijackThis is a small software that scans for all objects which may be affiliated with Web Browser activity. StartList scans the system for all objects that are in all startup sections of the registry.
• RivaTuner 2.0 RC 14.2 - RivaTuner is the most powerful tweaking utility for NVIDIA display adapters running under Windows 98/ME/Win2k/XP. The purpose of this utility is to give you access to all the undocumented features of the Detonator drivers. This RC adds support for ForceWare 53.xx drivers.
• A-Tuner 1.7.32.5216  - A-Tuner is a small tool for changing/tweaking settings on your NVIDIA based graphics card. Includes Anti-Aliasing (including all unofficial modes), Anisotropic Filtering, VSync, and MipMap LOD Bias.

• Security Experts Warn of New Way to Attack Windows -  Security experts have found a new way to exploit a critical vulnerability in Windows that evades a workaround and enables the attacker to compromise a number of machines at one time. Microsoft Corp. issued a patch for the vulnerability in November, but the security bulletin also listed several workarounds for the flaw, including disabling the Workstation Service and using a firewall to block specific UDP and TCP ports. But penetration testers at Core Security Technologies, a Boston-based security company, discovered a new attack vector that uses a different UDP port.  The attack takes advantage of several characteristics of the UDP protocol. Unlike TCP, UDP is "connectionless," meaning that there is no TCP-style handshake, and you need not establish a connection with a remote machine in order to send a UDP packet. Also, because the Internet's DNS service uses the protocol, UDP packets usually have no trouble traversing firewalls.  If someone hasn't applied the patch but blocked the ports as they should have, they're still vulnerable," said Max Caceres, a product manager at Core Impact.
• IE bug lets fake sites look real - A vulnerability has been identified in Internet Explorer, which can be exploited by malicious people to display a fake URL in the address bar. The vulnerability is caused due to an input validation error, which can be exploited by including the "%01" URL encoded representation after the username and right before the "@" character in an URL. Successful exploitation allows a malicious person to display an arbitrary FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name) in the address bar, which is different from the actual location of the page. This can be exploited to trick users into divulging sensitive information or download and execute malware on their systems, because they trust the faked domain in the address bar.
• Group wants P2P files to pay - The Content Reference Forum is hoping to create a kind of intelligent file that can be distributed through file-sharing networks like Kazaa, Web pages, e-mail or almost anywhere else online. Instead of containing a song or movie itself, the file would set up a process that automatically delivers files in the right format and potentially triggers an automatic payment system that could be changed moment to moment by the content distributor.
• Sun sets Solaris x86 free - Starting this week, Sun has removed the $20 price-tag for the OS - versions 8 and 9, replacing it with a red FREE sign instead. A fair number of Sun users have kept a close eye on this saga and will remember that it was way back in Jan. of 2002 when Sun first said it would halt development on Solaris x86 only to buckle and bring the OS back at cost.
• P4 chipset prices dip below US$10, sources say - Seeking the number two position in the Pentium 4 (P4) chipset market, VIA Technologies is said to be quoting some of its P4 chipsets to first-tier motherboard makers at below US$10, according to local industry sources.
• Sony DRU-530A 8x DVD Burner review - ExtremeTech has posted a review on the Sony DRU-530A 8x DVD Burner.
• Windows Longhorn Preview - Windows-Help.NET has published a review on the PDC build of Windows Longhorn.
• BattleStar Galactica Trailers - Scifi.com has posted the first trailers for the new BattleStar Galactica miniseries the remake of 1980's hit show.
• Visual Boy Advance v1.7 beta 4 -  Visual Boy Advance (download) is a GBA and GB emulator that runs with Windows systems. According to the offical website, this will be the last 1.7 beta and contains numerous fixes to the GUI problems since the GUI migration. It also reverts some of the timing back to 1.6a timing due to problems caused by the new timing. Also, several Gameboy bugs are now fixed.
• DVD Backup Guide - Techimo have published their new two part DVD Backup Guide (part #1 ~ part #2).
• UltraEdit-32 v10.10b (SHW) - UltraEdit-32 is a Windows text editor with support for unlimited file sizes, a spell checker, drag and drop, full HEX editing capabilities, user configurable syntax highlighting (pre-configured for HTML, Java, C/C++, VB, Perl), column editing, sorting, and a configurable toolbar
• 7-Zip 3.12 - 7-Zip is a file archiver with a high compression ratio. The program supports 7z, ZIP, RAR, CAB, GZIP, BZIP2, and TAR formats. Compression ratio in the new 7z format is 30-50% better than ratio in ZIP format. It also compresses to ZIP 2-10% better than PKZip and WinZip. It has an additional powerful command line version and FAR Manager support.
• Oficial ForceWare Drivers 53.04 for Win9x/ME - For those who haven't noticed, NVIDIA has released also new ForceWare Drivers v53.04 for Win9x/WinME.

• Microsoft -- No security bulletins for December - Microsoft currently has no security bulletins to release as part of the monthly release cycle for the month of December. That would be fine if there were no any outstanding issues......but there are - A CHINESE RESEARCHER has discovered 7 new security holes in Internet Explorer and Microsoft is looking into them, or perhaps through them. According to Russ Cooper of TruSecure, two of the holes are critical vulnerabilities which could permit an attacker to remotely execute malicious programs.
• Police arrest iPod email suspect - A 21 year-old Cambridgeshire man has been arrested and released on police bail after a hoax email on Friday had thousands of worried people jamming Cambridgeshire Police's main switchboard. The arrest was made just hours after the email began to circulate around the country, which led consumers to suspect that their credit card details had been used to buy an iPod. The email, from a company called Huntington Mail Order, appeared to be an invoice for a 40GB iPod music player. It informed recipients that UKCards Ltd would charge L399.99 to their credit cards.
• Mafia muscles in on spam and viruses - Organised crime is moving online into spam and virus writing - which means attacks may become less common but more dangerous, a Russian antivirus expert has warned. As criminal gangs get involved, the 'independent' operators that currently dominate the spam and virus market will be squeezed out, reducing the total number of attacks. Another story can be found at TheRegister.
• Virus hunter: It's a "horrible world" - CNET has conducted an interview with Symantec's CEO John Thompson as he talks the growing problem of worms, spam legislation and other security issues.
• Developers take Linux attacks to heart - During the last four months, unknown intruders have breached the security around servers hosting programs and code published by the Linux kernel development team, the Debian Project, the Gentoo Linux Project and the GNU Project, which manages the development of many important programs used by Linux and other Unix-like systems. The attacks have convinced open-source project leaders to take another look at their security.
• Dell BIOS DoS (Invalid Characters in BIOS Password - Dell Inspiron 2650 System BIOS, A11 (A11 is the current BIOS as of writing, and was released in late September of this year). Unfortunately, once a Hard Drive Password is set which contains one or more of the following characters , < > . ; : ' [ ] { }. It can not be later entered to access the machine. It appears as though a bug in the BIOS code prevents those characters from being taken as input when the user is asked for the password - however, the BIOS incorrectly allows users to set passwords containing those characters.
• W32/Mimail.L-mm Hits with Offensive Porn Message - Last week, we witnessed the appearance of yet another couple of Minmail strains. Designated W32/Mimail.L-mm and W32/Mimail.M-mm, these viruses typically arrive as explicit, pornographic messages that try to entice the reader into opening the virus attachment. With a twist to the Mimail mass mailing scenario, W32/Mimail.L-mm will attempt to replicate in a porn message, with a copy of itself in an attachment. However, if that fails, Mimail.L will then try to send another message without an attachment, but claiming your credit card will be charged weekly for child porn.
• Oracle Patches Security Flaws  - Oracle has issued a security alert and software patches for a set of serious vulnerabilities in the security protocols used by some of its server products. The flaws affect certain versions of Oracle's 8i and 9i Database Server, Oracle 9i Application Server, and versions 8 and 9 of the Oracle HTTP Server, according to the alert, which is dated December 4.
• Coca-Cola Delves Into Digital Music - Coca-Cola is aiming to enter the growing music download market by launching its own download service in the U.K. in January. Run by European digital music company On Demand Distribution, the music service will offer 250,000 tracks from over 8500 artists. Tracks will cost $1.72 each, Coca-Cola said.
• Creator of Tetris works at Microsoft  - In 1985, Alexey Pajitnov developed Tetris as part programming exercise and as something fun to do. He got the idea for Tetris from a popular puzzle game called Pentamino. When Pajitnov saw Pentamino, he thought about adding a time element to gameplay, so he added the twist of having the blocks drop. Alexey Pajitnov wanted to produce more computer games, but he felt that the Soviet Union did not have a large enough consumer base to support such a market. He moved to the United States in 1991 after visiting in 1990. Pajitnov ended up working for Microsoft's gaming division.  Pajitnov likes puzzle games the best. He is not a fan of shooters. He is currently working on a second version of Pandora's Box. (thanks WinXP.Bink.nu)
• Off-topic: Battlestar Galactica: Will You Be Watching? - For some fans, the name stands up there with Star Wars and Star Trek. The battle lines are drawn and two foes await to clash. However, instead of the remnants of humankind fighting a fight of desperation again the robotic Cylons, the foes are fans of the original sci-fi epic. One camp remains dedicated to the classic incarnation of the show led, perhaps, by Richard Hatch (Apollo) of the original cast. They saw their beloved show on one historic season on network TV. The other camp gets their shot starting tonight in a four hour miniseries on the Sci-Fi Channel.
• Sharp Shows First Efficeon Notebook - Sharp has become the first personal computer maker to announce a machine based on Transmeta's new Efficeon processor, the companies said Tuesday. The Sharp Mebius Muramasa PC-MM2-5NE will go on sale in Japan on January 2 and is expected to be priced around $1675, says Miyuki Nakayama, a spokesperson for Sharp in Tokyo.
• VIA to sample PCI Express P4 chipset in January - VIA Technologies will begin sampling the PT890, an 800MHz FSB (front-side bus) Pentium 4 (P4) chipset supporting dual-channel DDR400 DDRII and PCI Express, next month.
• DeltaChrome update - For S3's DeltaChrome, Club3D receives a few "DeltaChrome S8" chip samples from S3/VIA and work on board samples now. S3 will bring the DeltaChrome S8 to hardware reviewers in the next weeks and into the market in the first weeks of 2004.
• MicroATX Case Madness - The MicroATX form factor continues to grow in popularity. THG take an in depth look at a variety of MicroATX chassis solutions prior to our full ATX mid tower case review. However, not all MicroATX solutions are the same and only a few made the grade here.
• 512MB Mushkin PC4000 Dual Pack Memory Modules review - Adrian's Rojak Pot let us know he has posted a review of two revisions of the 512MB Mushkin PC4000 Dual Pack Memory Modules.
• Plextor PX-504A review - OCModShop have posted a positive review of Plextor PX-504A."The drive was also able to quick erase a DVD+RW in 9 seconds and do a full erase of the media in 25 minutes. I have to say that I am very impressed with the amount of time it takes to burn 4.7GB of data."
• News Interceptor 1.10 - Version 1.10 of News Interceptor is now available. This new version fixes a problem which caused errors for some users when trying to log in. Also, a modification done to the LiveUpdate feature will allow better and more reliable software download updates.
• HyperSnap-DX v5.40.06 (SHW) - HyperSnap-DX (download) brings you professional quality, convenient Windows screen captures. It was designed for ease of use, with powerful and useful features - including capture from DirectX and 3dfx Glide games, and some DVD/Video players - to aid the professional as well as support the needs of the occasional user.
• Capturex v1.4 - Capturex is a DirectShow image grabber designed to save stills from videos to a wide range of image formats. It has a intuitive GUI with an instant preview of every grabbed frame and the possibility to open the image in any external image editor direct from the application.
• Avant Browser 8.02 Build 207  - Avant Browser is a fast, stable, user-friendly, versatile web browser. Avant Browser is a multi-window browser which features with many functions such as Pop-up Stopper, Built-in Google Searching, Safe Recovery, Integrated Cleaner and Advanced Browsing Options.
• AntiVir Personal Edition 6.22.09.09 - The private and individual use of the AntiVir Personal Edition is completely free of charge.
• AVG antivirus Free Edition 6.0 Build 550  - With AVG 6.0 Free Edition and you will be able to use it without any limitations for life of the product. However you must agree to the AVG Free Edition license agreement and fill in the simple questionaire form. (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)
• Integrated VGA driver for the KN400 / KM400 chipsets for Win2K/WinXP - Microsoft's recently changed their requirements to a minimum frame buffer of 16MB, however KPLE's maximum frame buffer is 8MB. Therefore, KPLE drivers can no longer fulfill the requirements to get Microsoft's logo - download.
• Serial ATA and RAID driver for the VT6420 controller and the VT8237 South Bridge - The advanced VIA DriveStationt V-RAID Controller is featured in the VT8237 South Bridge, currently (August 2003) shipping with most KT600 chipset mainboards and soon to ship with PT800 chipset mainboards (and future chipsets as well). If you are not sure what South Bridge chip is featured on your motherboard, please check your manual. The VT6420 Serial RAID controller also utilises the same driver package - download.
• DeepBurner version 1.1.0.85b (free) - DeepBurner is a new CD/DVD burning software that utilize power and effeciency. With DeepBurner you can create data, bootable, and audio CDs as well as data DVDs.
• RightMark Audio Analyzer 5.2 - RightMark Audio Analyzer 5.2 has been released. The test suite performs various tests of electroacoustical performance of sound cards and other real-time audio devices.

• Halo 2 for Xbox To Be Released 4/4/04 - According to Neowin (confirmed by several Microsoft Xbox insiders), the 4th of April 2004 will mark the date for the widely anticipated Xbox game - Halo 2. Following on from its father (Halo), Halo 2 is expected to be packed full with better weapons, more intelligent enemies, online multiplayer gaming with Xbox Live! and the ability for optional voice commands to team mates in single and multiplayer.
• Lian Li EX-23 Hard Drive review -  The Lian Li Aluminum HDD Module for the 6077 series is yet another accessory that adds both form and function to the case. The ROM drive covers and now the hard HDD Module are just more proof of the level of thought that Lian Li has placed into their cases. If you have a 6077 series case or possibly other PC60 series cases with two empty upper bays then the HDD module would be a great accessory for you.
• Plextor 708A review - The 708A's 8 speed DVD writing in around 8mins is a far cry from the days of Pioneer A03 (which was our first reviewed DVD writer) and would write a DVD in around 1 hour. At 8 speed the 708A gave the fastest DVD writing times of any DVD writer we have tested. Since 8 speed DVD+R isn't an official standard the Plextor 708A can write to a few good quality 4 speed +R at 8 speed (saving you a few quid in the process).
• Audio Revolution 7.1 Sound Card - HardExtreme has posted a review of M-Audio Revolution 7.1 Sound Card.
• Power Color Radeon 9800 XT 256MB review - As of now it would be almost pointless upgrading to the Radeon 9800 XT over the Radeon 9800 Pro, unless you have the cash to blow. However, if you want an impressive game bundle at the cheapest possible price and are on the market for a high-end graphics card or are upgrading from a graphics card which is a year or more old, the Radeon 9800 XT from Power Color would be a good move to choose as we await intensive games to be released next year.
• 2.4Ghz Wi-Fi Directional cAntenna review - Matt Cameron at Overclockers Club takes a look at two comercially avaliable 2.4GHz cAntenna's.
  Debian GNU/Linux 3.0r2 - The Debian GNU/Linux 3.0r2 CD images are finally available.
• WMP9 Plugin for Opera 7.x v0.90 - NVMax's forum member Rejzor has updated his Windows Media Player plugin for Opera 7.xx.
• foobar2000 v0.7.5 Final - Foobar2000 is an advanced audio player for the Windows platform. Some of the basic features include ReplayGain support, low memory footprint and native support for several popular audio formats.
• Mozilla Thunderbird 0.4 Final - Mozilla Thunderbird (what's new) is a redesign of the Mozilla mail component.
• Yahoo! Messenger 5.6.0.1356 - Yahoo!'s Instant Messenger (download) service has been updated to fix security issue.
• WinRAR 3.30 Beta 3 - WinRAR (Win32 ~ DOS ~ Linux) is a powerful archive manager. This new beta fixed: Volume size autodetecting did not work properly with self-extracting volumes, Combination of -v -st switches could produce corrupt volumes so now RAR automatically turns off -v in such sitution,
  "Rename" command did not work in the flat view mode for files in archive subfolders and  Command line -f and -u switches could fail to work when extracting files.
• jv16 PowerTools v1.4.1.248 (SHW) - Jv16 PowerTools provides the best solutions to maximize the performance of your PC. You can diagnose, monitor and tune up your computer.
• Koepi's XviD Codec 1.0 Beta 2 Build 05122003 - Koepi's XviD Codec is a video codec just like DivX. Many new movies and videos are being encoded with this codec.

• Vulnerability in Yahoo! Instant Messenger - A vulnerability in Yahoo Messenger can result in the execution of arbitrary code on the vulnerable system. Yahoo Messenger's yauto.dll ActiveX/COM component is registered under a ProgID called YAuto.NSAuto.1. Inside this component, a function named Open(String URL) can cause a buffer overflow if an attacker sends a long stream of data in the form of a URL. Because yauto.dll is an ActiveX component, the attacker can exploit the vulnerability simply by creating a Web site with the correct ActiveX class ID (CLSID) and calling the function directly. The company said it immediately began working to validate the flaw and address the issue, so keep checking their security page for updates.
• ASA slaps .eu domain name seller - The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ordered a Cambridge-based company to stop sending emails implying that it is accredited to offer .eu domain names. .EU Registry Services claimed it was the operator of the .eu suffix, which is actually the responsibility of a non-profit organisation, the European Registry of Internet Domain Names (Eurid).
• Police hit in iPlod spam attack  - Cambridgeshire Police is investigating what it describes as "a deliberate attempt" to affect its services, after being inundated with phone calls when its number was listed in a hoax email. The email claims to be an invoice for a 40GB iPod music player and tells the recipient that their credit card will be debited L399.95. It then directs customers with questions to call a 'customer services' number.
• Microsoft warns on Xbox prize hoax - Microsoft is warning of a hoax email which claims that the recipient has won an Xbox games console. The email from US based company Prize-Giveaway.com says: 'Congratulations on winning, from Microsoft and the Prize-Giveaway.com team!' The lucky 'winners' are then directed to the company's website.
• Humans and computers compete in virtual creature game  - An online game that lets contestants build and race virtual beasts is being used to pit humans against a variety of artificial intelligence algorithms. The objective of Sodarace, which started at the end of November, is to construct a two dimensional creature that can travel over a certain type of terrain in the shortest possible time. Each creature is constructed of "mass", muscles", "limbs" and "joints" which control the way it moves. These creations can then be raced over a piece of terrain. Creatures can have many limbs or none at all and can walk, wriggle or even jump along. It is relatively simple to construct a creature by hand. But the game has been written so that a creature's key parameters can easily be fed into another computer program and artificial intelligence (AI) programmers are being invited to take part.
• Off-topic: The best physics humour ever - Robert P Crease selects the funniest jokes about physics and physicists from his readers' poll.
• FAT File System Technology and Patent License - Microsoft is offering to license its FAT file system specification and associated intellectual property. With this license, other companies have the opportunity to standardize the FAT file system implementation in their products, and to improve file system compatibility across a range of computing and consumer electronics devices.  For example, a license for removable solid state media manufacturers to preformat the media, such as compact flash memory cards, to the Microsoft FAT file system format, and to preload data onto such preformatted media using the Microsoft FAT file system format. Pricing for this license is US$0.25 per unit with a cap on total royalties of $250,000 per manufacturer.
• Taiwan second-tier makers hope to turn out 8x DVD+R/-Rs in 1Q 2004 - Taiwan's second-tier optical disc makers are preparing to begin production of 8x DVD+R/-R discs in the first quarter of 2004. The top three makers indicated that they have started or will start production of 8x DVD+R/-R discs this month.
• Smart Phones May Go Wi-Fi - Chip design company SyChip is testing software for its secure digital I/O (SDIO) wireless LAN card so it can be used to add Wi-Fi capability to smart phones. With the card and the software, smart phones will be able to use a WLAN to transmit data and double as a cordless Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone when linked to a corporate IP telephony service, says Navi Miglani, SyChip's director of marketing.
• The Fujtisu Lifebook-P5010 review - The sleek, diminutive Fujitsu Lifebook P5020 is one of the most feature-rich laptops in the sub-notebook market. If you prize the portability and uniqueness of a sub-notebook laptop but have hesitated to give up on features, the 3.7lb Lifebook P5020 might be what you are looking for. It is a tiny laptop that still packs in Wi-Fi, a CDRW/DVD combo drive and five hours of battery life. Priced starting at $1,549, this is one laptop built for the road, similar to the Sony VAIO TR2A.
• Pinnacle ShowCenter: Symbiosis Between PC And Hi-Fi Device - The device is hooked up to a television via S-VHS or SCART and imports all data - video, audio and photos - from a PC. Data transfer occurs via either 100 Mbit/s Ethernet or wireless WLAN. For that reason, it doesn't need mechanical components such as a DVD drive or hard disk.
• Soltek SL-87CW-EL Motherboard review -  Soltek are a company who are known for producing many different value-end motherboards. TweakTown have got their SL-87CW-EL motherboard based on the Intel Canterwood chipset for the Pentium 4 on the test bed which offers great value for money.
• VIA PT880 Reference Preview  - Performance was very impressive, and more so when you consider VIA's history with pricing. If they can get these boards to market at a competitive price, Springdale boards are going to have a real fight on their hands.
• Corsair XMS 1GB DDR400 Registered Memory - The Corsair XMS modules came in the common clear plastic clamshell that also housed detailed directions with pictures and the first ever "Powered By Corsair" sticker that we have ever seen. The CMX512R-3200C2PT is a 512 MByte, registered, two-bank memory module that has been created with gamers and enthusiasts in mind. Corsair tests their PC-3200 registered memory on currently available platforms such as the ASUS SK8N motherboard, which just happens to be the board that we will be using for our benchmarking.
• GeXcube GC-R9800XT 256MB ATI R9800XT VGA review - How can you improve one of the best gaming VPU on the planet? The short answer is to raise the clock and memory frequency. That's the basic philosophy behind ATi's latest VPU, R9800XT. Let's take a look at the clock speed of the R9800 and R9800XT series.
• Gigabyte GeForce FX 5950 Ultra Review - HardwareZoom has posted a review of Gigabyte GeForce FX 5950 Ultra video card.
• Black Iceman Gaming mousing surface review - The Icemat comes with what it calls "Pad Surfers". These are strips of Teflon with adhesive on one side that allows smoother movement of the mouse. The company suggests you should stick strips of them over the bottom of your mouse. It also includes instructions on how to apply the Pad Surfers.
• Razer Boomslang Boomer Speed (2100) - With an "opto mechanical" interface (the ball is still there, but so is an optical system, which reads the movement of the ball) the Boomer Speed has a maximum DPI of 2100. This statistic alone is promising, but how did it fair when I got it on the desk?
• How to Volt-mod your ATI Radeon videocard - Right out of the box, Radeon 9700s (and upwards) are extremely fast cards and will, according to John Carmack, run next generation games such as Doom 3 just fine.  If you decide to go with the mod you should be aware of the fact you may turn up with dead board, they recommend you to follow this guide closely and verify at least twice your own readings and calculations. This mod can very well be performed by you as long as you are cautious.
• Build It: A Speedy PC for $800 - Extremechech has posted a guide how to build the best PC for just $800.
• Tutorial on how to burn an ISO image - This article will cover how to burn the ISO image of the distro that you chose.
• ACDSee 6.0.2  (SHW) - ACDSee makes it easy to get, view, organize, print, enhance, and share your digital photos. I used in the past (v.3.1), but now it is a horrible piece of bloatware :( I rather recommend you to try IrfanView which is smaller, faster and free.
• Fresh UI 6.70 - 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.
• MS Autoplay Repair Wizard - The Microsoft's AutoPlay Repair Wizard (Windows Server 2003, Windows XP) scans your computer devices to find defective AutoPlay settings, and attempts to fix those it finds.
• SecureCRT 4.1 Final (SHW) - SecureCRT (download) gives you an encrypted SSH session with both SSH1 and SSH2t 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 Final (SHW) - The SecureFX (download) lets you choose between SFTP or FTP over an encrypted SSH2t connection for secure transfers, or standard FTP for non-secure transfers.
• AntiVir Personal Edition 6.22.09.09 - 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.
• MySQL 4.1.1 Alpha - MySQL (download) is the world's most popular open source database, recognized for its speed and reliability.
• Koepi's XviD-1.0-Beta1-30112003 - XviD (download) is a video codec just like DivX. Most new movies and videos are being encoded with XviD.
• Total Commander 6.01  - A new version of Total Commander v6.01 has been just released. This upgrade corrects some problems, mainly with the new functions introduced with Total Commander 6.0.
• Win9x/ME nForce System Drivers - A new Nvidia nForce system drivers (v3.75 for Win9x/ME) are available on the MSI site. This nForce Win9x driver package contains the below components: Audio driver 3.62 (WHQL), Audio utilities 3.62, Ethernet driver 3.13 (WHQL), GART driver 3.34 (WHQL), Memory controller driver 3.38 (WHQL), SMBus driver 3.38 (WHQL) and Installer 3.42. (thanks Warp2Search).
• Nvidia ForceWare Driver 52.18 - Station-Drivers have posted a new set of Nvidia ForceWare drivers 52.18 (13.8MB) for Windows 2K/XP. The drivers can be also found at HardwareOnline.dk.

• Intel Prescott on Feb 2nd 2004 - Source close to Intel Corporation said the company plans to formally launch its 90nm desktop processors code-named Prescott on the 2nd of February, 2004. As expected, the firm will ship a family of Prescott chips at different frequencies under Pentium 4 with SSE3 brand-name. Monday, the 2nd of February will be a big day for Intel, as the company unveils 7 new desktop microprocessors on that date. The list includes 4 Prescott processors with 1MB of L2 cache, 800MHz Quad Pumped Bus, SSE3, HT technology, running at 3.40GHz, 3.20GHz, 3.00GHz and 2.80GHz.
• Microsoft's DirectX Next Preview - Beyond3D has published an interesting preview of Microsoft's DirectX Next and what sort of fuctions and features you can expect from DirectX Next compatible hardware.
• Gigabyte's GO-M1600A Multimedia In A Box For PCs - Gigabyte Claims its GO-M1600A serves as an all-in-one MP3, FM radio and DVD player in a single box. While it fits in the 5.25" PC slot inside the case, the device can surprisingly still operate independently without having to turn on the PC. THG tested the device to see how well it performed and measured the speed of its operations. keywords
• Audio Sonica Theater - USB 7.1 Surround Audio  - The M-Audio is an interesting product that should certainly be of interest to anyone wishing to upgrade the audio in their home theater PC without occupying the PCI slot in their computer. It has several attractive features which will endear it to many people. These include its tiny size, lack of external power supply and high-quality 24-bit/96kHz recording and playback capabilities. Home theater enthusiasts will be delighted by the support the SRS audio processing and impressed by the thundering bass and dialog clarity it brings to even low end speaker systems.
• Apple iPod 20GB Review - One of the greatest things about the iPod is that it isn't just an MP3 player. In reality, it's more of a portable hard drive with the ability to play MP3's. Now you can transfer files and applications straight from my computer onto the iPod. This is very handy if you have large files you wish to share with your friends.
• The Pentium 4 3.2 GHz Extreme Edition review - The Pentium 4 3.2 GHz Extreme Edition appears to be the most powerful singular X86-based processor Intel has ever released, it's a pretty amazing little processor. The chip easily can best previous Pentium 4 processors in gaming, continues to run creative applications great, and should run any software which is cache or memory intensive very quickly.
• Dual CPU Shootout: Opteron versus Xeon  - Most of Extreme Tech coverage revolved around single processor systems, including our examination of Opteron on the desktop and the Athlon64 line of PC processors. They've also looked at Athlon64 in the small form factor arena and the first shipping mobile Athlon64 notebook PC.
• The Intel Pentium 4C vs. AMD Barton Comparison - Since the launch of AMD's Athlon 64 & Athlon 64 FX one and a half months ago, the hardware community has been hit by the Hammer fever. Despite being delayed for many months, these revolutionary K8 chips are finally here! Long touted by AMD as fully capable of executing current 32-bit and future 64-bit applications, can they meet our expectations?
• AMD Athlon XP 3200+ review - The only difference to the XP3200 is the FSB speed has been increased to 400MHz, apart from that the core is still based on AMD's 0.13 micron manufacturing process and the processor has 128KB of level 1 cache and 512KB of level 2 cache. The XP3200 core is clocked at 2.2GHz which is only a 33MHz increase from the XP3000 which is clocked at 2.167GHz.
• Motherboard round-up - ABIT IC7-MAX3 i875 (1) | ABIT IC7-Max3 i875 (2) | ABIT KV8-MAX3 S754 | AOpen AX4C Max II  | ATI RADEON 9100 IGP | DFI LANPARTY "B" Canterwood and Springdale | FIC K8-800T K8T800 | VIA PT880 and SiS 655FX Showdown 
• Soltek 5600 FX review - The Soltek Geforce FX 5600 is certainly not the fastest card out there, but it wasn't as slow as I had imagined. You will be able to play most recent games fairly well with this card, as long as you have a decent CPU and don't feel like using the highest resolutions with a lot of anisotropy and anti-aliasing.
• PNY GeForce FX 5700 Ultra 3D - The FX5700Ultra really is a card that is equal to the CBR600RR in as much as the impact that it will have. The middle range of cards are becoming so good that they are relegating the larger cards to mainly show and benchmarks.
• Tyan Tachyon G9800Pro-M review - Chaps at HardOCP compared Tyan Tachyon G9800Pro-M against three other cards, the 9800XT, 9600XT and 9500Pro using realworld gameplay evaluation.
• The AOpen Aeolus FX5600S - The most impressive feature of this card, however, is the 256MB of Dual DDR RAM on board. AOpen chose 3.6ns Hynix memory chips, which should leave us some room for overclocking this card.
• Leadtek WinFast A380 Ultra MyVIVO 256MB and ASUS V9950SE 128MB reviews - Leadtek WinFast A380 Ultra MyVIVO 256MB is a high-quality product with an excellent accessory pack. The developers do not pack cards into jackets anymore, and the cooler now looks very effective and not that bulky. However, the first PCI slot can hardly be used. It's for you decide whether to buy such an expensive card or not - if it's cheaper than the RADEON 9800 XT, the choice isn't going to be difficult. / ASUS V9950SE 128MB follows the Albatron GeForce FX 5900CP, i.e. it will drop in the niche between the FX 5700 Ultra and FX 5900. But the card can stand against the RADEON 9800 of approximately the same cost only if the vendors keep down their appetite.
• Leadtek's WinFast A360 Ultra TDH & WinFast A380 Ultra TDH MyVIVO review - Now Leadtek is back again, with their GeForce FX 5950 Ultra based A380 Ultra TDH MyViVo and GeForce FX 5700 Ultra-based WinFast A360 Ultra TDH. Let’s take a look at what Leadtek has done to make them stand out from the competition.
• GeXcube GC-R9800XT 256MB ATI R9800XT VGA - Thanks to the higher core/memory frequency, R9800XT is around 5~11% faster than an R9800Pro in benchmarks. The R9800XT truly shines when comparing with Nvidia's flagship, FX5950Ultra. The FX5950Ultra's performance is on par with R9800XT at standard setting; however, ATi's R9800XT takes a commanding lead (up to 40%) when FSAA is enabled
• Hitachi Deskstar 7K250 250GB (SATA) - The Deskstar 7K250 is built with three 80GB/platter disks, each with two read/write heads. Total that up and you get about 240GB. How did the extra 10GB come about? Well, if you look at the specification sheet, you'll notice that the track density of the 250GB model is much higher than those at with 120GB or 160GB capacities. The track density of the 250GB is rated at 93.5 KTPI (thousands of tracks per inch) as compared to the 160GB model which is only 90 KTPI. If you calculate the difference between these two, you'll find that it's about 3.8% more, and that equates to roughly 10GB more.
• Zalman 5.1 ZM-RS6F Headphones - Yes, 5.1 headphones, and very odd things they are. These could prove to be a god-send for the LAN gamers amongst us who hate having to downgrade from a 5.1 setup to a 2 channel headphone setup when gaming! Zalman have attempted to create the true 5.1 (6 speaker) surround effect within a pair of headphones.
• Hercules Digifire 7.1 soundcard review - The Digifire 7.1 features a Line/Mic Input, 4 Stereo Line Outputs, an Optical S/PDIF Output (no S/PDIF input) and a MIDI/Gameport add-on bracket. Additionally 2 FireWire ports are provided on the bracket (as opposed to one on the Audigy/Audigy 2) and a third extra port is available internally.
• Qpad XXXL gamer mousepad  - First and foremost, invest in quality Q-PAD mousepads are manufactured from 100 % natural rubber, with a textile surface. They stay still on the desk, giving optimum friction to the mouse. They are anti-static, do not fray at the edges, and are washable.
• Professional Mouse Pad -  The SteelPad 4D isn’t steel, but a huge double sided, flexible plastic mousing surface measuring in at 290 x 257mm. The pad is only 2mm thick and rests on a separate non slip rubber surface. The rubber surface does not attach to the mouse pad, so the pad can be quickly swapped from side to side, depending on your preference and/or type of mouse.
• XGI Volari Duo Score 5370 On 3DMark2003 - XGI said that its dual graphics processor Volari architecture will be available on December 8th. The firm, which previewed its architecture at last September's Computex, claims that its Volari Duo systems will nearly double the performance of what it describes as "traditional" GPU technology. In related news, Club3D is the first firm to announce their XGI V8 Volari Duo card. The card has two V8 Volari cores which are running at 350MHz with 256MB DDR II RAM running at 400MHz.
• One Internet Connection - Two Private LANs - Sometimes having everything on one LAN doesn't cut it for security and other reasons. Fortunately, inexpensive routers have made this an easy problem to solve. THG's new Problem Solver will show you how.
• ACDSee 6.0.2.0014 - ACDSee digital photo software (update 6.0.2 for standard edition / powerpack edition) makes it easy to import, view, organize, print, enhance, share and archive your digital photos. ACDSee is easy to use for everyone from beginner to professional level, and also powerful and flexible enough to meet your needs as your image collection grows. "Indispensable," says American Photo Magazine of this picture viewer.
• Outlook 2003 Video e-mail - This is a new version, updated December 3rd, 2003, that fixes an issue with a link in the body of the video e-mail.
• SlimBrowser 3.86 Build 003  - SlimBrowser is a multiple-site browser based on tab-page interface. It incorporates a large collection of wonderful features like recoverable popup killer, skinned window frame, form filler, site group, quick-search, auto login, hidden sites, built-in commands and scripting, online translation, script error suppression, blacklist / whitelist filtering.
• foobar2000 v0.7.5 beta 1 - Foobar2000 is an advanced audio player for the Windows platform. No changelog is available.
• OpenGL Extension Viewer 2.06 - This program displays the vendor name, the version implemented, the renderer name and the extensions of the current OpenGL 3D accelerator.

• Hacker gets 1 1/2 years in the Federal Pen for hacking former employer's retail website -  A former employee of American Eagle Outfitters was sentenced in a Pittsburgh court to 1 1/2 years in federal prison on Tuesday for posting passwords online to the retailer's Web site and orchestrating an Internet attack. Kenneth Patterson, 38, of Greensburg, must also pay more than $64,000 in restitution as part of his September guilty pleas to password trafficking and computer damage.
• Web Virus Authors "Winning Battle" - Creators of computer viruses are winning the battle with law enforcers and getting away with crimes that cost the global economy some $13 billion this year, a Microsoft official said Wednesday. Counterfeit centers are shifting from California and Western Europe to countries including Paraguay, Colombia and Ukraine said David Finn, Microsoft's director of digital integrity for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In Asia, pirate plants have emerged in Vietnam, Macao, and Myanmar (Burma) in addition to more established facilities in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.
• Yahoo Instant Messenger contains security flaw - Security researchers are warning of a security hole in Yahoo Inc.'s Messenger that could allow attackers to run their own code on computers using the instant messaging program. The buffer overrun vulnerability was discovered by researcher Tri Huynh in a file named "yauto.dll," which is an ActiveX component of Messenger software versions up to 5.6.0.1347, according to a security alert released Wednesday by Secunia Ltd. of Copenhagen, Denmark.
• Banks to miss Chip-and-Pin goal - Programme Management Organisation (PMO) has said that the vast majority of the UK's 42 million cardholders should be using chip-and-Pin cards by the end of 2004. But as the deadline approaches, its goal is starting to look increasingly unlikely. Lloyds TSB and Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) have announced that most of their customers will be chip-and-Pin enabled by that time, but both have conceded that it will probably be mid-2005 before they can update all of their cardholders.
• Tiscali shuts forums following "racist" complaints - Tiscali UK has closed its news forum after recieving complaints from a "small number" of users concerning the posting of allegedly racist comments. The ISP denies that pulling the plug was an overreaction.
• Off-topic: Exploding black holes rain down on Earth  - Are mini black holes raining down through the Earth's atmosphere? It is possible, says a team of physicists. They think this could explain mysterious observations from mountain-top experiments over the past 30 years. Ordinary black holes form when stars explode at the end of their lives. The heavy stellar core can collapse into a superdense "singularity" whose gravity is so strong that nothing - not even light - can escape. These black holes would be invisibly small, with a mass of only 10 micrograms or so. And they would be so unstable that they would explode in a burst of particles within around a billion-billion-billionth of a second.
• Your Next OS: Windows 2006? - In PCWorld's preview code (the official beta isn't due until the second half of 2004, and rumor has it that the upgrade may not ship until 2006), Windows Explorer routinely displayed much more information about files and computer resources than it does in Windows XP.Explorer's attractive displays of files and properties come courtesy of Longhorn's new graphics subsystem, code-named Avalon, which will hand much of its work to the PC's graphics subsystem. Minimum requirements for the preview call for an 800-MHz Pentium III processor, 256MB of memory, and a graphics card with 32MB of video RAM. Such specs are beefier than XP requires, but Longhorn-capable systems should be commonplace by the time the OS ships.
• Intel accelerates its Celeron shift - The chipmaker has begun shipping a new 800MHz "ultra low voltage" Celeron chip to tablet PC manufacturers such as Motion Computing, a company spokesperson said. New mobile Celeron processors don't always make headlines, but the 800MHz chip marks the beginning of a transition for the Celeron line to a new generation of underlying technology--a few months earlier than expected. Unlike past mobile Celerons, which were based on the Pentium III-M or the Pentium 4, the ultra-low-voltage chip borrows its circuitry from Intel's more recent Pentium M. The company had been expected to make the circuitry transition in the first quarter of 2004.
• AOL offers PCs for $299 - The move follows AOL's announcement that it plans to launch a new discount Internet access service to combat the growing threat from both cheaper alternatives and speedier broadband offerings. The stripped-down service is expected to launch in early 2004 for $9.95 a month and offer fewer of the bells and whistles found on AOL's $23.90 a month service, according to a source close to America Online.
• 15-Inch LCD Prices Rising - If you've been holding off on that 15-inch flat-panel in hopes of a better deal, you may have waited too long. After years of falling prices, high demand is driving the costs of 15-inch LCDs up, and analysts say they're unlikely to drop anytime soon.
• Asus Radeon 9800XT/TVD - As you might expect the Asus 9800XT produced some fantastic performance scores, beating the reference GeForce FX 5950 in most tests, if only by a small margin. In 3DMark03, at a resolution of 1024 x 768, it hit a score of 6024 to the 5950's 5912. In Unreal Tournament at 1600 x 1200 with 4x anti-aliasing and 4x anisotropic filtering enabled it won out with 75.2fps over the 5950's 70.2fps.

• "Anonymous" file-traders arrested - Japanese police have arrested two people suspected of distributing pirated films and computer games through a supposedly anonymous file-sharing network. Police also raided the home of the programmer who created the program used to connect to the network. His program, called "Winny", is meant to hide the identity of a user from everyone else on the network. So far he has only been identified by his online pseudonym "47". It is unclear how the two suspects were traced but their arrests have raised concerns about the security of the Winny network. According to the Japanese Association of Copyright for Computer Software around 250,000 regularly use it to trade files.
• Hackers used unpatched server to breach Debian - A security alert issued by the Debian says that a known Linux kernel code vulnerability was used to break into the project's servers, bringing development builds to a halt. An encrypted program (encrypted using the TESO BurnEye obfuscator) used an overflow in brk() which allowed the user process to get executable access to kernel space. It's a local exploit, which was only possible because a hacker used a stolen password, then escalated the privileges. All passwords on one of the development machines were invalidated.
• Mimail variant attacks anti-spam sites. Again -  A new variant of the infamous Mimail worm attempts to knock anti-spam websites off the Net. Mimail-L typically spreads as an attachment (wendy.zip) to a pornographic email claiming to come from a woman called Wendy. Windows users who run an infectious file (for_greg_with_love.jpg.exe) within the compressed attachment get a compromised PC and not the compromising pictures promised by the email.
• Symantec fixes product activation glitch - The security software maker patches a flaw in its product activation technology that was causing its Norton family of security applications to fail.
• Microsoft finds flaw in server software - The problem affects all customers who installed SharePoint Services after Nov. 24. SharePoint, which is used to create a company intranet, is included as part of the standard and premium editions of the recently launched Small Business Server 2003 package, which also includes the Windows Server 2003 operating system and Microsoft Exchange e-mail software. The problem prevents SharePoint from installing properly.
• Largest prime number ever is found  - A 26-year-old graduate student in the US has made mathematical history by discovering the largest known prime number. The new number is 6,320,430 digits long. It took just over two years to find using a distributed network of more than 200,000 computers. Michael Shafer a chemical engineering student at Michigan State University used his office computer to contribute spare processing power to the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS). The project has more than 60,000 volunteers from all over the world taking part.
• Breaking the Gigapixel Barrier -  Max Lyons has just posted on his site what seems to be the first 1 Gigapixel picture (tnx Slashdot.org), created from 196 separate photographs taken with a 6 megapixel digital camera, and then stitched together into one seamless composite.
• China implements new Wi-Fi security standard - The Dec. 1 deadline for all Wi-Fi gear makers to start using the Wired Authentication and Privacy Infrastructure (WAPI) specification was set by the Standardization Administration of China, which manages standards in various industries in China. Support for WAPI is not included in current or upcoming security specifications, such as Wi-Fi Protected Access or 802.11i, developed and enforced by industry groups the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the Wi-Fi Alliance. WAPI is to be used with Wi-Fi standards in the 2.4GHz radio band, according to a notice from the Standardization Administration of China.
• Sony sets date for PSX - Electronics giant Sony announced that it will begin selling the PSX, a new multifunction version of the company's PlayStation 2 game machine, in Japan on Dec. 13. The PSX will combine a PS2 game machine with a digital video recorder and and a DVD player/recorder. The device is set to become available in other parts of the world next year.
• PlayStation 3 "concept image" (?) hits web - A picture purporting to be concept art of Sony's next-generation console, the PlayStation 3, has been circulated on the Internet, showing a sleek silver console with a slot-loading DVD drive.
• Napster Offers Free Trial - It may not be a return to the heyday of free-and-easy song-swapping, but old-school Napster users have a chance to try out the newly launched service with a three-day free trial period this month. The free installation of Napster 2.0 is for users in the U.S. only and is currently only compatible with systems running Microsoft's Windows XP or Windows 2000, according to Melissa Foo, Napster's retail marketing manager in the U.K. As an added incentive to sign up for the Napster service, the company is also offering five free tracks that can be burned to CD or transferred to one of 40 compatible portable music devices for those who subscribe to the service for $9.95 per month after their free trial ends.
• VirtualDub 1.5.10 - VirtualDub (download) is a video capture and processing program. It features fast capturing, process files larger than the 2 gigabyte limit, optimized for linear editing, support for Motion-JPEG, MPEG-1 video and layer 3 audio, real-time and near-realtime video processing, video job queues, and much more.
• Media Player Classic 6.4.7.1 - Media Player Classic (Win9x/ME ~ Win2k/XP) is similar to windows media player 6.4 but with features pertained to minimalist advanced users. It also supports DirectX 9 and VFW drivers for capture. It supports viewing through ActiveX controls of Real and QuickTime files.
• VIA Hyperion 4in1 v4.51 -VIA Hyperion drivers (download) are suitable for any VIA chipset and all Microsoft Windows Operating Systems (Win95/98/98SE). If you are looking for VIA 4in1 drivers, these are the drivers you are looking for. They fixed the issue of the Delayed Write Failed only for special condition. Note: Please install 4in1 4.51 on safe mode if the issue happened.
• Nero 6.0.0.28 - Nero (Nero 6.0.0.28 ~ Nero Vision Express 2.0.1.15 ~ Nero Media Player 1.4.0.14 ~ Nero Mix 1.4.0.14) has been updated, however no change log is available.