• Experts: Chat rooms a haven for hackers - Computer security expert Chad Harrington regularly surfs Internet Relay Chat (IRC), one of the oldest chat technologies on the Web. The IRC networks have names like Dalnet and EFnet, but he agrees that another name works just as well: eBay for hackers.
• Europe rejects Internet content 'blocking' - The European Parliament has voted overwhelmingly to oppose the use of "blocking" as a way of regulating content on the Internet. The vote (460 in favour, 0 against and 3 abstentions) this morning means that ISPs will not be forced to restrict access to Web sites. Instead, they have been given the green light to continue with self-regulation.
• Win-XP Search Assistant silently downloads files - A little over a week ago, while searching for a file on a Windows-XP machine, I was surprised to see the Search Assistant attempting to activate my Internet connection. It puzzled me because I wasn't searching the Internet, only my local drive.
• Will we see OSX on x86? - It's not an exaggeration to say that the decision of whether or not to port OSX may be one of the most important Apple makes this decade-perhaps even rivaling Apple's much-debated decision to not allow Mac clones.
• Nomad Jukebox v3.0 Pictures - T-Break has posted some pictures from the Creative Nomad Jukebox v3.0.
• Abit AT7 (KT333) Review - Giant leap or baby step, one thing is for certain, the AT7, Abit's first board in the MAX lineup, is definitely one of the most unique boards you'll see today. The AT7 uses the newest, fastest chipset for the Athlon platform, VIA's KT333. KT333 supports most of the newest features you'll need, such as native ATA/133 hard drives, onboard 5.1 audio with digital output, support for DDR333 SDRAM, and more. Abit takes that one step further, and adds a ton of integrated components intended for the next generation of computing. This includes both FireWire AND USB2.0 controller, a 4 channel ATA/133 RAID adapter (making for an unprecedented support of 10 ATA drives onboard), onboard 10/100 LAN, and MediaXP support.
• ABIT BD7-RAID Review - VR-Zone has writen a review of the ABIT BD7-RAID board based on Intel 845D chipset.
• Pentium 4 Northwood Review - Because the multiplier of every Pentium4 CPU is hard locked, Intel leaves you with nothing but the Front Side Bus to crank up the core speed of their CPUs. The multiplier of our 2.2GHz Northwood sample is locked at 22x just as it is on all retail 2.2GHz P4 CPUs. It's time to fresh up your math folks : 22 x 100MHz FSB = 2200MHz or 2.2GHz. Now, we have increased the 100MHz stock FSB to a sweet 118MHz using our BD7-RAID motherboard. This increase of FSB speed forces the P4 2.2GHz run at 22 x 118MHz or 2600MHZ or no less than an impressive 2.6GHz!
• GeForce 4 MX Overview - Unlike the Titanium cards, which are based off NV25 technology, the MX is based on NV17 technology. Consider that the GeForce 3 is based on NV20 tech, and the GeForce 2 on NV15, you'll see where this is going.
• GF4 Ti 4600 Review -   With the stock cooling we could reach 347/765MHZ on this card! Once again an impressive overclock on a Leadtek card. This is now the third card we review from Leadtek and once again it's a great overclocker.
• Style XP 1.0 - Style XP is not a skinning engine. It uses Microsoft's built-in visual style engine, but enhances it by providing many useful tools. Style XP can import, select, rotate, and manage Themes, Visual Styles, Wallpaper, and Logons. Future versions may support sounds, cursors, screensavers, and packages of all the above.
• WinTasks Prossional 4 Review - Introducing WinTask Professional 4 from LIUtilties - a turbocharged Task Manager for Windows that offers greater resource management, improved computer security, as well as optimization and debugging utilities.
• 7-Zip 2.30 Beta 19 - This new version adds support for RAR 3.0 archives.
• PowerStrip v3.16 beta build 271 - PowerStrip 3.16 provides advanced, multi-monitor, programmable hardware support to a wide range of graphics cards - from the venerable Matrox Millennium I to the latest Radeon 8500DV and GeForce4 Ti4600. It is in fact the only program of its type to support multiple graphics cards from multiple chipset vendors, simultaneously, under every Windows operating system from Windows 95 to XP.
• CloneCD 4.0 Beta 17 - Just another beta :)
• GeForce Tweak 3.2t31 - Johannes Tuemler has just released version 3.2t31 Beta of his extremely popular GeForce overclocker/tweaker.
• VirtualDub v1.4.10 (free) - VirtualDub is a video capture and processing program that  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.
• Intervideo WinDVD 3.2 - leaked Final - xp-erience.com has posted a leaked final version 3.2 (though Trial only) of WinDVD.
• WinDVD Tweaker 3.0  - WinDVD Tweaker is designed to allow users of the WinDVD playback software to enable some hidden settings and allow for maximum playback pleasure.
• ATI DVD Player 7.6 - ATI have finally released v7.6 of their DVD playback software based on the popular Cineplayer by Ravisent.
• Official ATi Drivers - ATi has officially released a new official drivers for their RADEON and FireGL cards: ATi RADEON WinXP v6.13.10.6043 / ATi RADEON Win2k v5.13.01.6043 / ATi RADEON Win98/ME v4.13.9021 / ATi FireGL 8700/8800 WinXP v6.12.10.3028 / ATi FireGL 8700/8800 Win2K v5.12.2195.3028 / ATi FireGL 8700/8800 WinNT 4 v4.00.1381.3028.

• Memory card shortage irks PS2 buyers - U.S. game players find it tough to buy the most common add-on for Sony's PlayStation 2 console, making it difficult for these users to play lengthy games. You can also check another article at MSNBC.
• Xbox sales starting to flag in the US? - Reports of disappointing sales levels for Microsoft's Xbox in Europe and Japan have been compounded by an apparent easing off of demand in the US. Analysts yesterday said that production of the machines at Flextronics had slowed, and that Microsoft could well fail to meet its target of shipping 4.5-6 million units worldwide by the end of June.
• The Problems w/ Xbox Online - A friend and I recently came across some interesting info about the Xbox Online Service. We have obtained detailed info about how they plan to charge you for every little thing and even give you bad service. Anything that is dark grey and to the right is a direct out take from these help files. The out takes are direct from Microsoft and are not edited in any way. It also seems you'll have to purchase or some how get an update for your Xbox. At this time there is no detail info if it will be via CD or if it will be packaged w/ new games.
• Microsoft May Cripple Office .NET Unless Users Pay - Microsoft officials have resuscitated the idea that the company will move to a subscription pricing model for versions of its next Office suite, Office.NET or Office NGO. One of the proposals? If you don't pay, expect your Office features to be turned off.
• Aphex E-mail Worm Has A Way With IRC, Instant Messenger - Virus-watchers are warning Internet users about a new e-mail worm that can turn Windows PCs into one-trick Web severs that can use AOL Instant Messenger or Net chat services to lure new victims. The worm most anti-virus companies call Aphex is a combination of binary code and Visual Basic Script (VBS) and can arrive as an e-mail attachment - a file with its executable nature obscured by a lengthy name: "Psecure20x-cgi-install.version.6.01.bin.hx.com."
• Microsoft Patches Ten New Security Bugs In IIS - Microsoft released a bundle of software patches today that close several "critical" security holes in its popular Web server. The cumulative patch for Internet Information Server (IIS) addresses 10 new vulnerabilities, including three buffer-overrun flaws that could enable an attacker to run code of his choice on the server, Microsoft said. In a bulletin published today, Microsoft said that administrators of IIS 4.0, 5.0. and 5.1 systems "should install the patch immediately."
• Hacker arrested in cyanide plot - The FBI has nabbed a second geek anarchist allegedly involved in terrorism and hacking activities. Joseph Konopka, 25, who uses the pseudonym Dr Chaos, was pulled by the authorities on 9 March charged with illegally possessing sodium and potassium cyanide. He is also thought to be involved in a number of hacking incidents, as well as having loose ties to hacker magazine 2600.
• Microsoft chooses sides in DVD war - At its annual Windows Hardware Engineering Conference ( WinHEC), Microsoft plans to demonstrate software and to provide technical documentation for incorporating the DVD+RW format into its Windows operating system, according to a Microsoft Web site detailing the schedule for the conference. "This presentation explains how support for DVD+RW in Windows has been designed to become the standard storage solution for the PC and consumer electronics environments," reads the description of a presentation planned for next week's show. Microsoft will be adding support for DVD+RW into a future version of Windows, code-named Longhorn, according to the site.
• Volcano 7+ CPU Cooler Review - The 7+ swings both ways; it's a Socket A/370 cooler, _and_ a Socket 478 P4 cooler.
• Water Block 2 - how-to - WB2 is not based on any size or application, but to demonstrate that making a water block can be done using a few basic tools and materials without being a failure. I will be displaying the measurements I've used throughout making this water block, but please don't rely on these for any application such as cooling an Athlon XP CPU. So take your time and always plan ahead to ensure you don't damage any expensive equipment (which as stated above we are not responsible for).
• USB 2.0 5-port PCI Host Card Review - Looking for USB speeds up to 480Mbps and backwards compatibility. Then you have found USB 2.0! Firewire provides great speeds of up to 400Mbps.
• Gigabyte Maya AP64D Radeon 8500 Pro Review - Hardware Pub has the opportunity today to evaluate Gigabyte's current entry into the ATi-based video card market: the AP64D, better known as the Gigabyte Radeon 8500 Pro. This article will attempt to cover the features of this video card and compare its performance of this Radeon 8500LE-powered graphics accelerator to the Gigabyte Maya AP64D-H Radeon 8500 Deluxe.
• Gainward GeForce4 MX420 Review - One company that internally forecasted the hike in SDRAM prices was Gainward and they never intended on making an MX420 graphics card with SDRAM. They worked on their own design to allow the MX420 to be used with DDR and thus they already have their MX420 powered graphics card ready, while others are starting to absorb the SDR to DDR shift.
• MSI GeForce4 MX460 Review - This card is really very good when you consider the pricing. It is a little faster then the GeForce4 MX440 and is much better to over clock. It has a good software package and a lot of features like TV-OUT and Video-In. Of course I miss the lack of support for DirectX 8.0.
• SOYO P4I Fire Dragon i845 Review - A summary of features for the Soyo P4I Fire Dragon include the power and prestige of the Intel i845D chipset, ATA133 Highpoint RAID, 2 IEEE1394 FireWire ports, onboard 10/100 Ethernet, excellent onboard 5.1 surround sound with digital and SPDIF I/O and not to mention a very powerful, and fully functional BIOS. The performance was pretty much even with the other boards we tested, but the features this board provides has definitely topped the list.
• How-to setup ICS in WinXP - This is a step by step setup of how you get Windows XP to use Internet Connection sharing when you have a Cable Modem connection with the computer connected to the cable modem via NIC (1) and NIC (2) going to a hub (or a crossover cable to the other computer) and then having the secondary computer plugged into the hub also.
• mozilla.org Branches for 1.0  - mozilla.org today cut the MOZILLA_1_0_0_BRANCH for 1.0 to use. Expect to see an RC1 candidate sometime next week in order to see where the builds are as far as stability and usability.
• BSplayer 0.84 Build 483 -  BSplayer is a windows player for playing back all kind of media files (avi/mpg/asf/wmv/wav/mp3...) .
• DivX 5.0.1 - DivX Video 5.0.1 is out! So what's new? Improved:  1) Psychovisual modeling enhancements now reallocate saved bits in an improved manner, meaning the psychovisual modeling mode will produce better visual quality. 2) Improved the workaround for a DirectShow bug that causes the requested bitrate to not be respected by the codec during one-pass encoding. This affects applications (such as video capture applications) that use the DivX DirectShow interface to access the codec. This problem is due to a bug in DirectShow, not in DivX itself, but we have a workaround that should solve the problem.
• FlashFXP 1.4.4 Beta Build 844  - FlashFXP is the most powerful and popular FTP & FXP Client for Microsoft Windows 9x/Me/NT/2000/XP on the market today. This new beta fixes some problems with SSL.
• Windows XP AMD K7 Processor Driver - This is version 5.1.2600.28 and it is WHQL certified. The file itself is dated February 12th 2002.
• Savage2000 Drivers (Official) - S3 Graphics has released some new drivers for the Savage2000 video chips/cards + some others babies :) Download: Savage2000 Win2k/XP Drivers 9.21.01G /  Savage2000 Win9x Drivers 9.51.13,
  Logo'd: Twister/TwisterK Win2K/XP Drivers v13.93.24.2 No Hotkey,   Logo'd: SavageIX Win2K Driver v7.40.51 8MB NoMV AGP rev.JC, Logo'd: SavageIX Win2K Driver v7.40.51 8MB NoMV PCI rev.JC. (thanks SavageNews).
• Creative Graphics Cards Driver Update 28.32 - This is a new driver update of Creative Graphics Cards for users running on Windows 2000 and Windows XP only.  This update is meant for Creative TNT, TNT2, GeForce, GeForce2, GeForce3 and GeForce4 series of graphics cards.
• NVIDIA 17.90 W2K/XP BETA Reference Driver - This is a nVidia 17.90 beta unofficial detonator driver for Windows 2000 and XP dated 13th of March 2002. It is the latest driver in 1x.xx series currently available for download. The driver date also indicates that this driver is newer in date (only) then 28.32 or 28.35 driver. However, this 17.90 driver does not support Geforce4 and does not include multilanguage support.

• "EverQuest" coming to PlayStation 2 - Sony will announce on Tuesday the release of a PlayStation 2 version of its popular online PC game "EverQuest," as it tries to build an audience for an upcoming online add-on for the video game console.
• New notebook drive packs 60GB - Toshiba unveils a 60GB hard drive for laptops--the first of its kind, according to the company. Could it usher in more storage for all notebooks?
• Microsoft douses Office NGO flash - Microsoft has forced a number of websites to pull what appears to be leaked information about the future release of its Office.Net suite. An extensive Flash presentation on Microsoft's next release of Office, Office NGO, found its way onto the web this week.
• ViewSonic's First Wireless Monitor - Extend your computing experience with the ViewSonic airpanel 100. This innovative tool gives you the freedom to remotely access all the data on your business PC, corporate server or the web without being confined to your desk. The airpanel 100 combines a full-screen viewing experience with the remote desktop capability of a PC running Windows XP Professional and server-based enterprise applications over a wireless LAN or WAN connection.
• Innovative Alchemy Au1100 - AMD  announced the introduction of the Alchemy Au1100 processor, targeting the non-PC mobile internet appliance market, such as web pads, telematics, and PDAs. Currently being sampled, the innovative Au1100 offers an industry-leading combination of high performance, low power and high integration.
• A trio of MS-Office security vulnerabilities - Researchers at GreyMagic Software have uncovered three novel vulnerabilities provided by Microsoft Office Web Components (OWC), which can override security settings in Internet Explorer.
• Cebit 2002 Coverage - With more than 100 pictures on 6 pages Bench House tries to present this grand show. Find out about who and what was more sizzling in all IT fields - with the accent on motherboards, video cards, chipsets and the other goodies you'd like to upgrade your computer with.
• Soltek SL-75DRV5 KT333 Review - KT-333 is the first chipset from VIA to officially support 333 MHz memory operation. Most people's eyes would be fixed on this number, 333, however there should be a few facts people should know about this chipset. Firstly, there are no added functions or improvements over KT-266A, apart from 333MHz memory operation and 1/5 PCI divider
• Keyboard comparison: Zippy Technology WK-888 and Ortek MCK-280 - if you don't have a shiny keyboard to match your anodised aluminium computer. Get one now! :)
• Gainward GeForce3/4 Roundup -  Korean's DarkCrow have tested Gainward's entire range of GeForce 3/4 cards. It's not English, but the pictures and test scores are understandable.
• eVGA E-Geforce 4 MX 440 Review - For the casual game enthusiast a $300+ graphics card just doesn't fit into their budget. NVIDIA realized that they had to appeal to a wide range of consumer's budgets, enter the Geforce MX line of chips. The Geforce MX line of chips are designed to provide good gaming performance for individuals who have a limited budget. Today I will be looking at eVGA.com's e-GeForce4 MX 440.
• Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer - Microsoft has created a new tool, the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA), to analyze Windows systems for common security misconfigurations. Version 1.0 of MBSA includes a graphical and command line interface that can perform local or remote scans of Windows systems.
• Windows Management Instrumentation  - This patch has been issued to address the inadvertent cancellation of intrinsic event query registrations in Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI). This problem typically occurs with event queries made against classes that take longer than one second to fully enumerate. This problem only affects Windows 2000 SP2.
• Active Network Monitor 1.0 Beta 4 - Active Network Monitor (ANM) is a tool for the day-to-day monitoring of computers on a network. ANM runs under Windows NT/2000/XP. It lets Systems Administrators gather information from every computer (even Windows 9x/Me computers) on the network without installing server-side applications on any of these computers.
• VMware Workstation 3.1 Final - VMware Workstation is virtual machine software for technical professionals.
  It lets you work on multiple operating systems on a single computer. You spend less time configuring hardware, installing software, and  rebooting or reconfiguring systems, and more time developing, testing, deploying applications, and delivering support. VMware Workstation gives  you immediate access to the operating systems and applications you need to get your job done now
• RegCool 2.210 - RegCool (free) tool has an Explorer-like interface. On the left is a tree-like hierarchy containing the registry keys. In the right window one can see the individual values of the keys. There is a Boolean search for finding specific keys and values. The search results are listed for your review. Especially practical is the option to compare various registries.
• Bouncer v1.0 RC5 (WinALL) - Bouncer is a network tool which allows you to bypass proxy restrictions and obtain outside connections from an internal LAN. It uses SSL tunnelling, which allows you to obtain a constant streaming connection out of a proxy. 
• RivaTuner 2.0 RC 10.2 -  RivaTuner is one of the most powerful tweaking utilities for Nvidia display adapters running under WinALL.
• AsusVCR v2.1 - Asus have released a new version of AsusVCR.
• Nero DVD Speed 0.53 Beta  (FREE) - DVD Speed is a DVD-ROM benchmark which can test the most important features of a DVD-ROM drive.
• Hot CPU Tester Pro 3.2.1 LE - Hot CPU Tester Pro is a system health and stability tester. It tests CPU, and virtually all parts of motherboard for errors/bugs and defective parts.
• SiS Releases XP USB Patch -  SiS have release a patch for USB devices that fixes some problems on Windows XP with SiS USB controllers
• NVIDIA 28.35 Win2K/XP Modded Beta Drivers - By now you might have realised that Dell has recently released 28.35 driver for their Quadro4 based cards. Unfortunately this driver did not work on any other nVidia card apart from Quadro4. This is why I decided to post a reference version of this 28.35 driver. This one supports all nVidia cards to date like 28.32 did. What else...? Keep reading...Heh just modded drivers, download on your own risk :P
• ATI Radeon 6058 Win2K Drivers - A new ATI Radeon driver for Windows 2000  has been released. They are dated 03/31/2002, and its version is 5.13.01.6058.
• NVIDIA VGA BIOSes - if you need NVIDIA BIOS&Flashing tools, lcheck out this sweet website.

• Sony shrinks PS2 chips--cuts costs - The company has combined the Emotion Engine and Graphics Synthesiser chips into a single unit using a 0.13-micron manufacturing process. In addition, Sony is widely expected to cut prices on the PlayStation 2 console some time this year, possibly at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in May.
• Will Wi-Fi overwhelm satellite radio?  - Satellite radio stations say the growth in popularity of Wi-Fi wireless networks could shove them off the airwaves. But many Wi-Fi proponents call the prediction "absurd."
• BMG puts kibosh on copying promo CDs - That means free samples of new albums sent to U.S. radio stations, retailers and the press will come packaged with software that prevents songs from being copied onto computer hard drives. BMG will begin the trials with the April promo releases from artists Cee-Lo and Donnel Jones.
• Apple sings praises of DVD-RW - Apple says it has shipped more than 2 million DVD recording discs and nearly half a million computers with DVD recording drives. But analysts expect its lead to vanish as PC manufacturers jump onto DVD recording.
• Expert warns of Trojan explosion - The warning follows the news last week that peer-to-peer file sharing software Kazaa contains a Trojan that puts millions of machines at risk. In a federal securities filing last week, it was revealed that Kazaa contains another program designed to create a second underlying distributed computing network made up of unwitting Kazaa users.
• Russian technology waves goodbye to strained silicon - A Welsh start-up has linked with Russian technologists to develop a transistor architecture that could go against strained silicon as a way of boosting transistor performance without forcing the industry to move to much smaller devices.
• A unified theory of software evolution - Meir Lehman has been studying the life cycles of computer programs since he was a researcher at IBM 30 years ago. One of these days he's going to get it all figured out.
• MS gets leaked Win2k USB 2.0 drivers pulled, cites DMCA - Microsoft has acted to suppress unofficial/unauthorised sources for the USB 2.0 drivers for Windows 2000, citing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in a complaint to the hosting company of Littlewhitedog.com, (LWD) which has been hosting leaked drivers since January
• NVIDIA Interview with David B Kirk - VR-Zone has posted the interesting highlights from the interview with David B Kirk, the Chief Architect of NVIDIA. "NVIDIA is enthusiastic to to use new 0.13 micron process technology but right now it is still not matured yet but the next generation NVIDIA GPU NV30 is most likely to be 0.13 micron based and it will take place in the second half of this year."
• The Rumoured Nvidia NV30 Specs - Here is a list (thanks NVNews): AGP 4x and 8x, Copper Core Gpu Processor 0.13 m default clock 450 MHz, 73M transistors, 8 Pipelines, Quad Vertex Shader, Dual Pixel Shader, Dual Z-Buffer, Advanced Anisotropic ("12nvx mode"), T&L "co-processor" (can anybody say 3dfx/Sage?) , Glide capable (this makes you wonder...), 256-bit memory interface, 750 MHz DDR..hmm sounds nice :)
• SUMA GF4 Ti4600 SE 128MB - SUMA are launching a new GeForce4 card and it's the SUMA GeForce4 Ti4600 SE 128MB!
• QDI USB Disk Review - The USBDisk is a mini-movable electronic hard disk with the storage media of Flash memory. You can exchange data very simply between several computers. The USB disks gives with up to 256 MB.
• CeBit 2002 Coverage - In this article you will find: latest details on AMD Hammer, Intel Pentium 4 and Celeron on Willamette-128 core; i845G/GL/E chipsets; VIA P4X333 and P4X600; VIA KT33 and KT400, the whole bunch of new and upcoming solutions from SiS; new chipsets from ATI and NVIDIA, and the endless rivalry of the latter in the graphics market; SerialATA protocol; some extremely cool solutions for your home system, and... and over 200 pics! You can't miss it!
• Everglide Giganta/Mouse Skatez Review - After sticking the Skatez to the mouse I immediately had to test out the setup and hopped into a quick game of Wolfenstein. The mouse glided across the Giganta absolutely smoothly. There was none of the sticking that had occurred before. I even tried just the Mouse Skatez on my desk and, while absolutely being smoother, it wasn't as good as the Giganta/Skatez combo
• eVGA e-GeForce4 MX440 Review - For the avid gamer you will want a card that performs like no other, solid when gaming and gives you bragging rights because your FPS is better than anyon else's. For the regualar user that games very little, but surfs the internet like a champion you will want a video card that has some of the new technologies, but still cheap enough that you won't worry when it goes to crap.
• Inno3D GeForce4 MX 440 Review - The Inno3D Tornado GeForce4 MX 440 is angled as a value gamer card. But I found the performance and overall use to be crisp, clean and very impressive. Being an MX card I did not have high hopes in way of performance or feature set.
• GeForce4 MX 440 shootout - Hardware Extreme has posted a shootout between the eVGA & X-Micro GeForce4 MX 440 graphics cards.
• Leadtek Winfast TV 2000XP Review - OC Prices has written a new review of the Leadtek Winfast TV 2000XP.
• ATI Radeon 8500 64MB Review - GreenJifa has posted very positive review of ATI's Radeon 8500 64MB.
• Iomega 40x12x40x CD-Writer Review - One thing we always like about this drive is the consistency in ripping digital audio. We can do the above test another 10 times and it will give the same ripping speed (+-0.5x) . Our experience with other drives didn't show the same in this test, you can do the test 10 times, and 2 or 3 times out of that you get a speed that is slower than the rest. It is this consistency that make Plextor's drive well known for its audio recording capability. And it is nice to know that this Iomega drive has the same traits except at a much lower price
• AOpen AK77-333 Review - This board (KT333CE chipset) sports a sleek black PCB with a silver chipset cooler and support nice features such as ATA133, Realtek 6 Channel Audio, USB 2.0 and up to 8 USB ports! We have check out in detail the features, BIOS, overclockability and performance and pit it against the fastest KT333 boards out there.
• Abit NV7-133R (nForce 515) Motherboard Review - Unfortunately, the BIOS is not up-to-par with the hardware features. In fact, we were quite shocked to see the lack of features in the BIOS- especially considering that it's an Abit board. There are only two options for tweaking the memory: CAS Latency and DRAM Command Rate (which is referred to Memory Timings). Quite disappointing.
• LED Light Roundup  - My latest LED light roundup is actually more relevant to tweaky PC users than usual, though, because I've checked out a few Lumileds Luxeon Star lamps, plus a couple of flashlights that use these new ultra-powerful LEDs. The coloured Luxeon lamps are getting the attention of case modders looking for more PC-illumination punch than any ten normal LEDs can deliver, and they work well in flashlights, too.
• CPU/RAM Price List - Okay, the 256MB PC2100 DDR SDRAM went down by almost $30.00 - This MIGHT BE A MISTAKE, so if you want to get in on this price, order some now! As for the CPU's, who cares! Here's your chance to get some cheap DDR RAM! Heh, actually CPU's dropped quite nicely this week all around, but nothing really big.
• The best way to kill MS Messenger - A Reg reader who wishes to remain anonymous has dashed off a little script for eliminating the Messenger irritation.
• Windows 2000 Server Resource Kit Free Tools - if you don't have Win2K Resource Kit CD, you can leech over 300 free tools from Microsoft website.
• Red Hat Linux ISO 7.3 Beta 2 - Red Hat Linux features installation options more powerful, support options more complete, and high availability clustering more advanced than ever before. We've also included some of the world's most popular Internet applications, Apache and Sendmail.
• Macromedia Shockwave Player v8.5.1  - With Macromedia Shockwave Player, you can enjoy multimedia games, learning applications, and product demonstrations on the Web, using exciting new 3D technology. There is the version for MSIE users / Netscape
• Macromedia Flash Player v6.0.23.0 - Macromedia Flash Player is the leading rich client for Internet content and applications across the broadest range of platforms. There is the version for MSIE / Netscape.
• DivFix v1.07 - This program was created to be able to watch partially downloaded DivX (AVI) movies. It can rebuild or strip the index part of the movie, which is at the end of the file. There are also a basic error detection, which can detect serious errors in the audio/video stream.
• Beautiful Calculator 3.13 - Beautiful Calculator is a handy replacement for the standard Windows calculator with many additional features. It has a skinnable interface and many beautiful skins.
• Trojan Remover 4.6.3 - Trojan Remover was written to aid in the removal of Trojan Horses from a computer where standard anti-virus software has either failed to detect the Trojan Horse or is unable to effectively eliminate it.
• Erunt 1.0 - ERUNT - The Emergency Recovery Utility NT will help you Backup, restore and optimize your NT/2000/XP registry.
• ICQ Plus v3.31 - ICQ Plus allows you to change the appearance of ICQ. When installed, ICQ Plus integrates with ICQ by adding a menu item to the main menu. This version fixes some minor bugs.
• Ad-Aware v5.71 - Ad-aware is a free multi spyware removal utility, that scans your memory,registry and hard drives for known spyware and lets you remove it safely.
• Napster 3.1.3.37 Beta Build 20020405-1309 - Napster is a completely new way of thinking about music online. Imagine...an application that takes the hassle out of searching for MP3s. No more broken links, no more slow downloads, and no more busy, disorganized FTP sites. With Napster, you can locate and download your favorite music in MP3 format from one convenient, easy-to-use interface.
• DVDIdle 1.03 - When you watching DVDs on PC, do you have worried about DVD-ROM's life? It works all the time, never rests awhile. By using Smart Read-ahead Cache, DVDIdle lets DVD-ROM work only awhile, keep cool and quiet, and the DVD's playback is continuous at the same time.
• SMBIOSW 2.01 - This small program will  display the DMI (Desktop Management Interface) and SMBIOS (System Management BIOS) information in your computer.
• SpeedFan 4.04 - SpeedFan is a freeware program that monitors fan speeds and temperatures in computers with a known monitoring chip. Its main feature is that it can control the speed of the fans according to the temperatures inside your pc, thus reducing noise and power consumption. Currently the only recognized (and useful) chips are WINBOND W83782D, which is found in ABIT BP6, and WINBOND W83627HF.
• CloneCD v4.0.0.0 Beta 14 - No info, just download link.
• ClonyXXL v2.0.0.4 - ClonyXXL Version 2.0.0.4 is a copyprotection detection scanner, wich can show what kind of protection is used on a disc. It will provide you with the right settings for CloneCD, so you can make a working copy of the disc.
• Asus PCProbe 2.16.02 - PCProbe is a convenient utility to monitor the computer's vital components: fan rotations, voltages and temperatures.
• NVIDIA BIOS Editor v1.0RC3 rev221 - This tool can be used to edit bios image files for all NVIDIA cards, except old TNT and TNT2 cards with Control Block version less than 3. This new version features an improvements for support GF4MX bioses and new GF4 Ti bioses which have new NVIDIA Control block location.
• nVHardPage NVIDIA Tweaker v0.82.5b -  This program serves on enabling/disabling hidden features in NVIDIA control panel and tweaking NVIDIA Direct3D & OpenGL settings.
• Detonator Drivers Comparison -  The Guru3D has updated their Detonator driver performance overview with all recent Detonator releases included. Included in this first test run are detonators: 20.80, 21.81, 21.83, 21.85, 21.88, 22.40, 22.50, 22.80, 23.11, 23.12, 26.25, 26.53, 27.00, 27.10, 27.20, 27.23, 27.30, 27.42, 27.50, 27.51, 27.52, 27.70 and 28.32.
• Savage drivers mania - Leech drivers for SuperSavage/IXC16:   TP T23 v12.90.51 WinXP / TP T23 v12.90.53 Win2k / TP T23 - v12.32.26 Win9x/ME / TP T23 v12.02.47  WinNT4 / TP A22e (Pentium models), T20, T21, T22 v7.90.34 WinXP.
• NVIDIA Stereo Control Panel Update - Gainward has posted  the NVIDIA Stereo Control Panel for use with the 28.32 Detonators. This panel allows those with 3D Glasses to adjust various settings.
• Adaptec U160 WinXP RC1 Drivers - Adaptec have some updated drivers for the U160 range of SCSI adaptors under WinXP.
• Promise Fasttrak 100 TX2 IDE RAID Drivers - Promise has released an updated BIOS & Drivers for the Promise Fasttrak 100 TX2 IDE RAID controller, they features 48bit LBA Support.

• Win XP to upgrade with more--or less - The software maker says it plans to start testing Windows XP Service Pack 1 as early as next month, with a final release slated for late summer. The update will introduce support for Mira wireless devices and the Freestyle digital media interface. More importantly, the update will let consumers and PC makers remove access to about a half-dozen of Microsoft's so-called middleware technologies integrated into Windows XP
• Sony: PC price hikes on the way - On Friday, Sony said it would raise prices of notebooks and desktops in the United States and Japan. Some new high-end notebooks have already been increased in price by $100 to $200. The price of other notebooks and desktops will also go up, although desktops will see less of an increase, a Sony representative said.
• Is Office NGO really the next version of Office? -  A number of readers alerted me this week to a fascinating Shockwave animation that purports to demonstrate some of the online/subscription features of the next version of Microsoft Office, which will be called Office .NET. Code-named Office NGO ("Next Generation Office") in the animation, this Office version will include links to a number of of online services, including a secure My Office Web site; a consolidated email account with Web-based Inbox; Office .NET Notifications; online scheduling with a sharable calendar; Meeting Workspaces for viewing agendas, pending tasks, and related documents, SharePoint Team Services-based Team Workspace for sharing information with team members; and a set of online content such as templates, online training, communities, and the like.  So is it real? Is Office NGO really a sneak-peak at Office .NET? It's hard to say, and though some UI inconsistencies have me thinking that this is an April Fools prank, I will say this: If it is fake, it's the most elaborate fake I've ever seen. Let's take a look.
• NVIDIA ChameleonMark Review - ChameleonMark is a performance tool for measuring pixel shader performance for a variety of shaders. It is based upon the popular "Chameleon" demo released by NVIDIA with the introduction of the Geforce3 line of GPUs. The test uses three of the Chameleon "skins". These are the "real", "shiny" and "glass" skins. The test for each skin is run separately.
• Fire-i Digital Camera (Firewire) Video-Review  - The Fire-i has great image quality, very small and the reliability that Firewire technology offers. A fantastic idea if you need Home/Office Monitoring.
• Athlon XP 2000+ Review - The XP 2000+ still rides the Palomino bus. What this means is achitecturally, the CPU is unchanged from the XP 1800+ we've looked at earlier. As most enthusiasts know, XPs are fast, and they run cooler than the previous generation Athlons, but we're getting to the point that heat is becoming an issue again. Dissipating in the range of 70W of heat, you'll still need a quality heatsink and fan combination to cool the processor.
• Microstar GF4 MX440 Graphics Card Review - GeForce 4 MX440 being the most affordable among the new line of video cards from nVidia (most affordable and still providing some 3D power that is) is very interesting for most end users. No wonder there are so many reviews of cards based on this chip all over the net. There is not much difference performance and looks wise between manufacturers, but some do stand out - either with price, or overclocking options, or rich package. Microstar International, besides being among top 5 motherboard manufacturers, is number one manufacturer of video cards for the OEM market. Besides making cards for others, MSI has a very good line of its own video cards and G4MX440 is one of the best examples why MSI is so successful.
• ATI Radeon8500 Review - ATI is aggressively positioning the Radeon 8500 as a viable upgrade for those users who still have older graphics technology but can't afford a GeForce4 Ti card.
• MSI KT3 Ultra ARU Vcore Mod Guide - Mods4ME has publisher a MSI KT3 Ultra ARU Vcore mod guide.
• System Tweaking Guide - Tweaking is the manual adjustment of specific settings and performance options in both software and hardware. Tweaking can start well before any operating system is installed as this guide will show, and can even be implemented as soon you install your brand spanking new motherboard into your case.
• Internet Connection Guide -  As windows sets the MaxMTU to 1500 bytes in the first place, almost any personalization will be of benefit. Taking the examples earlier in this guides, Windows claims by default it can handle 1500 bytes in one packet. For a connection that can only handle 800 means data is packaged into 1500 byte units and then has to be fragmented by the modem, which takes time and slows your connection down.
• Codecreatures Benchmark - The Codecreatures benchmark is written with Microsoft's DirectX 8.1 API and incorporates the use of Vertex and PixelShaders popular on next generation 3D accelerators. The benchmark plays a photo-realistic nature scene and calculates the performance of the graphics adapter by measuring the fps that it can display at 1024x768, 1280x1024 and 1600x1200 resolutions. The score is a geometric mean of those three resolutions called the Codecreatures number.
• Apache 2.0.35 Released - Apache 2.0 offers numerous enhancements, improvements and performance boosts over the 1.3 codebase. The most visible and noteworthy addition is the ability to run Apache in a hybrid thread/process mode on any platform that supports both threads and processes. This has shown to improve the scalability of the Apache HTTP Server significantly in our testing. Apache 2.0 also includes support for filtered I/O. This allows modules to modify the output of other modules before it is sent to the client. We have also included support for IPv6 on any platform that supports IPv6.
• IE6 SP1 beta leaked - Download IE6 SP1 Beta build 2800.1005 (10.9MB) Mirror / Install instructions.
• HyperSnap-DX 4.40.01 - HyperSnap-DX 4 is a screen capture and image editing tool for MS Windows. It captures screens from standard desktop programs and even those hard-to-grab DirectX, Direct3D, 3Dfx Voodoo and Glide mode games. What's new in version 4.40.01: Non-rectangular window capture (e.g. rounded corners of WinXP windows, or arbitrary shape windows, like Media Player in "skin mode"), PNG files now support transparency and interlace attribute, Saving ICO files now correctly sets transparency mask according to transparency color selected, Color reduction from true colors to palette, now provides less "reddish" colors., GIF files can now be saved in any of 1, 2, 3, ... 8 bits per pixel, resulting often in smaller file sizes and of course bugfixes.
• Mozilla 0.9.9 Build 2002040506 - The next Mozilla 0.9.9 builds are out. MathML is now enabled on all win32 and UNIX builds and the JavaScript Debugger now does profiling. Other highlights include TrueType font support for UNIX and SOAP support.
• FlashFXP Beta 1.4.840 Beta - FlashFXP is a powerful and popular FTP & FXP Client for Windows. It is loaded with features for the power user, but has an intuitive user interface that takes only minutes to master. This new beta finally adds SSL support!
• CloneCD 4.0.0.0 Beta 9 - This is the full version, including the setup program. There is no word of what's new yet.
• WinOnCD 5 SP2 - The second service pack for WinOnCD 5 is available.
• nVHardPage NVIDIA Tweaker v0.80.9b - Do you seek an easy way to en/disable overclocking options or vsync option in your detonator drivers without the burden of importing registry entries or the need to go in that registry yourself ? Basically CoolBits and more within your fingertips. This program serves on enabling/disabling hidden features in NVIDIA control panel and tweaking NVIDIA Direct3D & OpenGL settings.
• Fixed Epox KT333 BIOS - Quite a few people have been having problems with the Epox 8K3A+ (KT333) while overclocking to anything above 143MHz FSB even at full VCore. There is an updated beta BIOS which seems to have fixed the problem.
• Sound Blaster Extigy Drivers - This webpackage updates already installed software to the bracketed versions as well as updating the drivers themselves:
  PlayCenter 3.01.22 (to 3.01.23), RemoteCenter 1.40.14 (to 1.40.15), Recorder 2.00.22 (to 2.00.24), Mixer 2.01.11 (to 2.01.12).

• Microsoft preps content locks for devices - Microsoft is preparing an upgrade to its anti-piracy technology aimed at bridging the gap that continues to separate online music subscription services and portable devices such as MP3 players.
• DivX plots course to block pirates - Video compression provider DivXNetworks has teamed with the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics to develop a system to protect digital video and audio from copyright violations.
• Implantable microchips - The Federal Drug Administration has ruled that an implantable microchip used for ID purposes is not a regulated device, paving the way for the chip's immediate sale in the United States, the manufacturer announced today.
• EBay closes password security hole - Online auction powerhouse eBay Inc. closed a security hole in a password-maintenance feature late Tuesday that could have allowed attackers to take over a user's account and commit fraud.
• 'Rent-A-Hacker' Site Says It Offers Cracking For Hire - A group of Chicago Web site operators say they will break into school, government and corporate computers and alter records, for fees starting at $850. But at least one security expert thinks the operation probably is a scam. Among the services promised by Chicago-based 69 Hacking Services, is changing "bad grades" and other records on elementary, high school or college computer systems. The site is co-owned by a 23-year-old identifying himself as Akbar "Andy" Hooda.
• IBM Microdrives encrypted by Trust Digital's PDASecure - A new encryption software allows users of IBM Corp.'s Microdrive hard drives to use the same drive in different mobile devices without having to reconfigure its security settings.
• DDR333 modules get OK for VIA chipsets - Early results for the validation programme it's running with Advanced Validation Labs (AVL), of California, show that Kingston Technology and Micron's DDR333 memory modules work just fine with its new chipsets, VIA says.
• Intel vs. AMD ROUND 2 - 2.4GHz vs. 2100+ - Due to overwhelming demand, we decided to do another Intel vs. AMD battle with their highest end products. We recompiled all our results, and even included results from their previous high end models, the 2.2GHz and 2000+, and came up with another huge comparative article.  We also consider the performance increase offered by both model upgrades. Find out if AMD's 60 MHz increase offered much in terms of performance compared to Intel's huge 200 MHz increase! Intel won the first round, but will the win the WAR?
• Shuttle AK35GTR v2.x KT333 Mainboard Review - The Shuttle AK35GTR v2.2 has amazingly great performance. In terms of Content Creation it's one of the top notch performer. As for gaming and graphical applications, we can see the results in 3DMark2001 and Quake3 that it tops the charts among the KT333 and KT266A.
• ATI vs. NVIDIA -  TechReport  has rounded up a total of nine-count 'em-different graphics card configurations, ranging from the Radeon 7500 and GeForce4 MX to the new 128MB Radeon 8500 cards and GeForce 4 Titaniums.
• Graphics Shootout - The GeForce4 Ti series doesn't bring a whole lot of new 3D technology to the scene, but the refinements since the GeForce3 deliver gobs of real-world performance. VisionTek's Ti 4600 card pretty much blew away everything else in our tests. It's really no contest. If you want the fastest card on the planet, get a Ti 4600.
• Thrustmaster controllers compared - I've checked out five Thrustmaster game controllers - three of their Top Gun joysticks including the hefty HOTAS Afterburner II, and two of their FireStorm gamepads. One wired, one wireless.
  It's difficult to tell if a joystick's going to last without looking inside it. So I did. Many pictures of joystick giblets resulted.
• Nvidia Geforce 4 Ti 4600 Review - There are the MX's, the budget cards of the range, which are based upon the NV17 chipset. Then, based upon the NV25 chipset, there is the Ti Series - the cheaper Ti 4200, the middle range Ti 4400, and finally there is the top gun, the Ti 4600.
• Windows XP Patch: CD Burning Update Again - This update addresses several CD Burning issues that are discussed in Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) Article Q309691 and Q320174. Download now to prevent problems with CD Burning.
• BackOffice 4.0 and 4.5 Web Administrator update -  This update is only intended to correct the problem described in KB article Q316838 and should only be applied to systems that have been determined to be at risk of attack. For more information, see the KB article.
• Unchecked buffer in the Multiple UNC Provider - Patch - Microsoft has released a new security patch for the Unchecked buffer in the Multiple UNC Provider Could Enable Code Execution problem.
• Opening Group Policy Files for Exclusive Read Blocks - Patch - Microsoft has released a new security patch for the Opening Group Policy Files for Exclusive Read Blocks Policy Application problem under Windows 2000 Server.
• PHP 4.2.0 RC2 - Release candidate 2 for PHP 4.2.0 has just been packed. This build is used for testing the readiness of the release branch. By providing feedback to this build, we can make sure the actual release (planned for April, 22nd) has as few bugs as possible. This release candidate is NOT meant for production servers, only for helping out the PHP-QA Team finding weak spots. 
• Antivirus databases feed - McAfee VirusScan 4.x / 5.x DAT file v4195, McAfee VirusScan SuperDAT File v4195 (engine v4160), Norton Antivirus 4.0/5.0/2000 Definition Update (March 4, 2002), F-Prot, Kaspersky Antivirus (AVP).
• MyIE 3.2 (Free) - MyIE is a browser based on the Internet Explorer core. It can open more web pages in one MyIE instance but only occupy very little in the way of resources.
• Mozilla 0.9.9 Build 2002040411 - The second Mozilla 0.9.9 (FTP)builds are out. MathML is now enabled on all win32 and UNIX builds and the JavaScript Debugger now does profiling. Other highlights include TrueType font support for UNIX and SOAP support.
• Nero Burning Rom 5.5.8.0 Changelog - A week after the software was released Ahead Software managed to get the changelog online.
• Perfect Disk 2000 5.0 -  PerfectDisk 2000 V5.0 defragments drives faster than Diskeeper V7. PerfectDisk V5.0 is specially designed to perform on disk drives and RAID sets of 100 gigabytes to a terabyte or more.
• KaZaA P2P 1.60 - The KaZaa Media Desktop is a second-generation peer-to-peer file-sharing service with which you can search and download media files from other KaZaa users. You can also organize and play/view your media files through an integrated media jukebox, publish your own work, reach an audience, and communicate with other KaZaa users. KaZaa supports audio, video, software, games, images, and documents.
• Memtest86 2.9 (Free) - Memtest86 is thorough, stand alone memory test for x86 architecture computers. BIOS based memory tests are only a quick check and often miss many of the failures that are detected by Memtest86.
• NetCaptor v7.0 beta 4A - NetCaptor is the a powerful web browser enhancements. Unlike other browsers which only view one site at a time or crowd multiple windows together, NetCaptor opens sites on separate browser tabs.
• VCool 1.8 Beta 7 - This little utility will cool your Athlon/Duron processor on Via KT133 or KX133(A) (VT8363, VT8361, VT82C691/693A/694 or VT8371 +VT82C686x) chipsets during idle.
• PowerStrip 3.15 - PowerStrip 3.15 provides advanced, multi-monitor, programmable hardware support to a wide range of graphics cards - from the venerable Matrox Millennium I to the latest Radeon 8500DV and GeForce4 Ti4600.
• NVIDIA Linux Drivers 1.0-2880 - New Linux drivers are available. They features GeForce4 and Quadro4 Support,
  OpenGL 1.3 with NVIDIA extensions and compatibility fixes (see the NVIDIA_Changelog installed with the release).
• Turtle Beach Santa Cruz driver v5.12.4161 - Voyetra has released a new driver for the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz card.

• Cut cable slows Internet traffic - A damaged cable in New York causes a backup of rerouted Net traffic, slowing Internet access across the United States.   So don't be surprised Gameguru is kinda slow now :(
• Judge Says Hacker's Damage Too Trivial For Federal Crime - The second-ever conviction under federal laws to discourage computer hackers was nullified last month when a judge in Miami ruled that an e-mail virus launched by a Broward County man didn't do enough damage to rate as a federal crime.
• Aussie worm hits Europe - A new worm emerging from Australia has put antivirus companies and IT managers on red alert. 'Mylife' is a mass-mailing virus with a destructive payload that sends itself to everyone in the recipient's Windows address book. This worm usually arrives as an email attachment named 'My Life.scr'," warned antivirus experts F-Secure.
• Could digital pen kill off keyboards? - The data-entry VPen--a stylus with a tiny optical laser at its point--writes on a variety of surfaces, from computer screens to human skin. It could replace the century-old keyboard.
• Cell phone learns to lip-read - Engineers at NTT DoCoMo have developed a prototype and hope to have a lip-reading cell phone available in about five years.
• SONY CD crashing computers   Celine Dion's latest release is generating heated discussions on Internet message boards. Epic/Sony released "A New Day Has Come" embedded with Key2Audio copy protection in Germany and several other European countries. On the German discussion boards at MacFixit, Mac users claim that the CD will not eject using normal methods and that the intentional corruption of the disc's session data could unpredictably affect the drive's firmware.
• Ultra Compact VIA EPIA Mini-ITX Mainboard - VIA Technologies today announced the worldwide availability of its ultra-compact, highly-integrated EPIA Mini-ITX mainboard through the VIA Platform Solutions Division (VPSD).
  Offering the choice of a VIA Eden ESP processor for fanless systems with power sensitive requirements, or a VIA C3 E-Series processor for more multimedia rich applications, the highly integrated VIA EPIA Mini-ITX mainboard features integrated 3D graphics, AC'97 audio, Ethernet and TV-Out connectivity. Measuring only 170mm x 170mm, it is the perfect platform for developing the next generation of small footprint Digital Information Appliances and Entertainment Devices.
• GeForce 4 MX440 Reset Bug? - According to darkcrow the MX440 has a reset bug on many mainboards, including the MSI nForce.
• Ti4200 Pictures - HardOCP has posted some nice pictures of what is the Geforce4 Ti4200.
• GeForce 4 MX420 to use DDR Memory - According to digitimes, NVIDIA will use DDR memory on all its products because of the rapidly increasing price of the SDR type. This move should increase performance whilst keeping the cost the same, hopefully providing a cheapo version of the MX440 that in our reviews has had a more negative response due to its high price. (thanks NVNews)
• The Final Battle: P4/2400 vs. Athlon XP 2100+ (2400+) - In the last "AMD vs. Intel" comparison, the Athlon XP 2100+ took the leading position by a nose, but now, the Pentium 4/2400 easily overtakes its arch rival. Meanwhile, you should keep in mind that that the P4 has a 666 MHz core clock advantage over the Athlon XP.
• Gainward & Leadtek GeForce 4 MX440 Review - Bench House joins the GeForce 4 frenzy with a couple of reviews of its own. First of are the cards coming from overclocking promoters Gainward and Leadtek. There seem to be two schools of thought in the GF4MX manufacturing community. The one follows the reference design in almost every possible aspect, while the others at least introduce a slightly faster (and therefore overclockable) DDR memory. Gainward and Leadtek belong to the second ones and provide us with good, overclockable GF4MX cards.
• Sub $100 Budget Videocard Roundup - Today we're going to take a look at seven videocards that are priced under $125 CDN ($80USD) and see how they fair in various applications from Winbench to SPECviewperf to 3DMark. After all, offices, schools, and other normal places do not need to buy really expensive video cards just so their staff or students can surf the web or type up a repor
• Benchmarks including Ti4600 and GF4 MX440 - 3DWin has published some interesting benchmarks from 9 different graphics cards.
• KDE 3.0 Released -  The KDE Project today announced the immediate availability of KDE 3.0, the third generation of the free and powerful desktop for Linux and other UNIXes.
• Intel Application Accelerator 2.1 final build 2124 WHQL - The Intel Application Accelerator is a new performance software package for Intel desktop PCs. It reduces the storage sub-system bottleneck, enabling the processor and other system level hardware to be more productive and efficient.
• BlindWrite v1.2.5 - BlindWrite suite is a tool designed to perfectly reproduce most CD. RAW mode is needed to produce perfect backups of some protected CDs.
• UltraEdit32 v9.00b - UltraEdit-32 is a text, HTML, and hexadecimal editor.
• Matrox Technical Support Tweak Utility Updated - Matrox has released new version of their Technical Support Tweak Utility v 4.03.004.
• Terratec DMX 6fire 24/96 WDM Drivers 5.0.2000.123 - download.
• AMD Windows 2000/XP AGP Driver 5.33   - AMD has released a new Microsoft Digitally-Signed Windows 2000/XP AGP Driver Version 5.33.
• AMD Power Management Setup v1.22s for WinALL - AMD have released a new Windows 98/98SE/ME/2000 Power Management Setup (Microsoft Digitally-Signed) v1.22s for Motherboards with the AMD-768T, AMD-766T, or AMD-756T Peripheral Bus Controller.

• Gamers snub Microsoft's Xbox - Microsoft's Xbox has so far failed to capture the hearts and minds of the gaming community. According to The Independent newspaper, analysts are reporting that the software giant has been seeing poor sales in Japan, Europe and the US, coming a clear second to Sony's PlayStation 2. Sales have been so poor that Microsoft may be forced to slash the £299 price tag, which is over £100 more expensive than Sony's device.
• Security Flaw Opens Ebay Accounts To Hijack - Officials at Ebay today said they had no immediate plans to repair a security flaw in the password system at the online auction site that could give criminals the ability to steal users' accounts. The vulnerability enables attackers to easily change the password of nearly any Ebay user, as long as the attacker knows the victim's user ID, according to a Canadian security expert who discovered the flaw and reported it to the company last week.
• New antivirus software plugs worm holes -  The new program, called ThreatScan, is intended to add a proactive tool to the defensive technology now used by system administrators to protect their networks. Current antivirus software scans for malicious code on potentially infected computers or in e-mail attachments, waiting until a virus or worm has already attacked a system to react to its presence.
• anti-Unix site runs Unix - A Web site - "We have the way out" - sponsored by Microsoft and Unisys as a way to steer big companies away from the Unix operating system is itself powered by Unix software. Representatives at Unisys and Microsoft weren't immediately available for comment.
• Judges find computer ban illegal - U.S. appeals court rules that a man convicted of receiving child porn over the Internet should not be restricted from using computers after his jail term.
• Newest phones morph into PCs - With the coming of 3G networks and wireless data services, cell phones aren't going to just function like PCs--they're going to be built like PCs.
• P4 "Northwood" 2.4 Ghz chip Review - The main difference between the Northwood core and the previous P4 core, Willamette, is that now Northwood is built with 0.13µ (micron) production technology and has 512 KB L2 Cache. Moreover the copper material enables the use of thinner wires compared to the aluminum used in Willamette. (To help you get a better idea of the size, say that, hair has 60µ diameter). Willamette was using 0.18µ technology and had 256 KB L2 cache. Moreover, it offered frequency cores within 1.3 GHz to 2.0 GHz. range and had two models either using PGA423 or mPGA478. (You can also check some other review at Tweak3D, VR-Zone, Hardcoreware, HotHardware, HardwareAnalysis, ExtremeTech).
• Innovatek Water Cooler innovaCool Rev.3 Review - TobiTech.de have tested the "Innovatek Water Cooler innovaCool Rev.3" As they say, it's very easy to install, very reliably, quietly and extremely powerful.
• OCZ PC3200 Memory Review - Today we reviewed the world's first memory to be rated to run at a 400MHz System Bus speed. This equates to PC3200, and is brought to us by OCZ for a first look. OCZ is proving to be a highly formidable player in the high performance computing game.
• ATI Radeon 8500 Review - The Radeon 8500 is a dual head card, this means it supports another device as an extra output in windows. Good implementation of this feature by using two DACs (Digital to Analogue Converter) means two different refreshes can be supported like 50hz for a PAL television and 85Hz for your monitor.
• How to uninstall Windows Messenger from XP - NTcompatible.com has posted a very simple hack which will allow you to use the Windows add/remove feature in Control Panel to get rid of the offending progie. Use a text editor to open C:\WINDOWS\inf\sysoc.inf and change msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7 to msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,,7.  That's all. Messenger will now appear in the add/remove application under Windows Components where you can uninstall it.
• Command & Conquer: Renegade Tweak Guide -  3D Spotlight's new tweak guide will take you through setting up the Game, along with other informational tips regarding graphics, audio and controls
• Windows Messenger "Trojan" update - Windows Messenger may repeatedly try to log on to the Microsoft .NET Messenger Service in the background, and when Windows Messenger cannot log on, no error messages are generated. Download update.
• XMPEG v4.5 - XMPEG is a modification version of FlaskMPEG. This program decodes MPEG1 (Audio & Video) and MPEG2 streams and offers you the possibilty to reencode theses streams in the format you want. Actual evolutions makes this XMPEG faster, more stable, and add a lot of options.
• Customizer XP 1.7.9 Build 1000 - Customizer XP is an integrated suite of programs that can help you to tweak your Windows 2000/XP to its fullest potential performance or just keep it running like new. It offers a wide range possibility to customize and optimize your Windows program. Whether you want to tweak your Windows registry, cleanup your harddisk, or increase your multimedia and 3D games performance, Customizer XP will does it all for you.
• Hardware Info v4.84 & Hardware Info32 v1.06 - Hardware Info is a powerful system information utility designed especially for detection of hardware. It's able to identify a large scale of system components and supports the latest technologies and standards.
• Asus BIOSes - Asus has released plenty of new BIOSes.
• Jetway-ATI Radeon Driver v7.68 - Jetway have released a new ATI drivers version 7.68 for Win95/98/ME, WinNT4, Win2k, WinXP.

• Dr. Ian Lane Davis On AI in Video Games - When Dr. Ian Lane Davis isn't busy running his game development studio Mad Doc Software, he's also coding the AI for his own games. This understandably makes him an incredibly busy person, but somehow he's also found the time to answer some questions for missingmatter about the current state of AI, computer games, and the future of it all.
• Nullsoft Considers Charging for Advanced Player - In a poll recently posted on its Web site, Nullsoft queried visitors on whether they would pay a small fee for an enhanced version of Winamp3 with added features such as CD burning, MP3 encoding, and DVD playback. While the development team would like to offer such functionality as certain competitors do, licensing fees would make it cost prohibitive for a company that is struggling to establish its worth. While visitor response to the proposal has been mixed, the majority say they are simply happy with Winamp as it is. But fans can rest easy, for whether or not the additions see the light of day, Nullsoft is clear on one point: Winamp will eternally remain free.
• Apache Security Configuration Guide - This document should be used as a guide to the installation and configuration of Apache Servers in conjunction with an agreed security plan for the identified system. The document is designed for use by experienced IT administrators
• Encrypted Outlook Mail Certificate Update Win2k - This update resolves the "'Certificate Revocation List Is Not Available' Error Message Appears with Encrypted Outlook Mail" issue in Windows 2000 and is discussed in Microsoft Knowledge Base Article (KB) 308707. Download now to prevent an error message from appearing when you receive an encrypted e-mail message.
• New V.92 Modems Improve Narrowband Surfing - According to a study by research firm In-Stat/MDR, new modem technology known as "V.92" soon will revolutionize the narrowband online experience.
• Gigabyte GA-7VRXP v1.1 Review - Gigabyte has sure loaded this board good. Starting off, this board has an integrated NIC, USB 2.0 as well as ATA-133 RAID powered by the PROMISE chip. Audio onboard is also powered by a Creative chip- which is a lot better than the AC'97 codec and even the CMedia chip. Also found on the board is the Gigabyte-invented Dual BIOS which helps against BIOS attacks and corruption
• Top motherboard companies guide - This little large comparison is meant to help some people that just don't know what to get. There are many people tired of reading countless reviews that conflict each other, and make a mess of things when it comes down to buying their new board. 
• CH Flight Sim Yoke & Pro Pedals USB Review - I assume you have a worthless game controller or at the very best you are using one of Microsoft's less-than substantial offerings. It's time to grow up and become a game god. Ask me how you can fulfill this destiny. Ask me! O.K. I'll tell you. You go to CH Products' website and you buy their expensive game devices. Yes, I did say expensive, but you get what you pay for. Today we are focusing on the Flight Sim Yoke and the Pro Pedals. And together, we will explore the high and lows of these two products.
• Beyond3D's ATi Radeon 8500 Review - Along with the standard benchmarking I've concentrated on AA performance & IQ, Texture Filtering, along with some T&L and Multi-texturing tests. Read more.
• Case Cooling Guide - Tweakers Australia has published their Case Cooling Guide.
• MS PortQry Command Line Port Scanner (Win2k) - Portqry.exe is a command-line utility that you can use to help troubleshoot TCP/IP connectivity issues. Portqry.exe runs on Windows 2000-based computers. The utility reports the port status of TCP and UDP ports on a computer you choose.
• GNOME 2.0 Desktop Beta 3 -  GNOME 2.0 Desktop Beta 3 has been released, this new beta includes new versions of Nautilus, Yelp, and the control center, as well as bugfixes all around. Download it from gnome.org or one of the mirrors.
• Easy CD-DA Extractor v4.7.1 - Easy CD-DA Extractor is a powerful and easy digital audio extraction utility that makes digital copies from audio CDs and saves as audio files such as MP3, Windows Media Audio and Windows Wave.
• Easy CD Creator Basic v5.1.1 update - Easy CD Creator Basic goes way beyond the software that came with your CD recorder. Now you can burn and share anything on CD - your music just the way you like it, your photos, your videos - even backup your critical data - faster and easier than ever. Download an update v5.1.1.
• WinAMP 2.79c -  This silently updated version adds new waveOut and Crossfading DirectSound outputs (PP).
• ATI RefreshFix 0.99 Beta - A new ATI RefreshFix has beeen released and it's version 0.99 beta. Note that this tool only works for Windows 2000 and XP.
• NVIDIA BIOS Editor v1.0 RC3 Revision 200 - NVIDIA BIOS Editor enables you to do virtually anything with your graphic card BIOS (as long as it's NVIDIA's). This version first try to support GeForce4 MX BIOSes.
• Promise Raid BIOS&Drivers - These new bios/drivers will allow 48 bit LBA. The drivers are dated 3/28/2002.
• Aopen BIOSes - Download Aopen BIOSes for AK77 Plus(A)-133 R1.05 / AK77 Pro(A)-133 R1.05 / AX34-U R1.07 / AX3S Plus, AX3S Pro II R1.11 / MX36LE-U R1.07 / MX36LE-UN R1.07.
• Asus BIOSes - Download new Asus BIOSes for A7V133 1008.A Final / A7V133-C 1008.A Final / A7V 1010.A Final / A7pro 1010.A Final.

• Intel unveils fastest Pentium 4s, chipsets - April and May will be a busy time for the Santa Clara, Calif.-based chipmaker as well as its archrival, Advanced Micro Devices. Early next week, Intel will release a 2.4GHz version of the Pentium 4, which will be seen in new PCs coming from major manufacturers the same week. Besides being the fastest member of the Intel processor line, the new 2.4GHz product will also be the smallest version of the chip to date, measuring only 131.4 square millimeters, according to a company representative. That makes it 10 percent smaller than current high-end Pentium 4s, a change that will ease manufacturing costs. The 2.4GHz chip will sell for around $560 each in volume quantities.
• PC makers hike prices - in Asia - They are increasing prices in Asia, citing increased component costs. This is the first time that PC prices have risen in Japan for five years, according to Bloomberg.
• "Critical" holes trouble Microsoft - The software giant releases a patch for a pair of security holes in its IE Web browser but is still investigating a vulnerability in Windows NT and Windows 2000.
• Any User Can Root Windows NT and 2000 - A new hole in Windows NT and Windows 2000 opens the door for any user (even guest) to gain complete control of your machine. This bug  called a privilege escalation vulnerability allows an unprivileged user to obtain administrator privileges.
• Turning PDAs into chatterboxes - Handhelds from Hewlett-Packard and IBM with built-in talking capabilities are still in development. But one talking PDA, known as the Phraselator, is due to be shipped in the next few days to U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
• Compaq Releases iPAQ Telephony Kit - Compaq said Thursday that it has released a kit for its iPAQ Pocket PC handhelds that turn the devices into GSM/GPRS mobile telephones.
• First disposable/recyclable cell phones available - Hop-On.com apparently started distributing the first versions of their disposable/recyclable cell phones, which will offer 60 minutes for $30
• Tech companies set on MPEG-4 box - Seven companies including Pioneer and Sharp agreed this week to build a system that would bring MPEG-4 to cable set-top boxes.
• Researchers move closer to plastic, cheaper solar power cells - Custom-tailored molecules and spray-on plastic could someday create the next generation of solar cells -- more flexible, more efficient and much less expensive than existing sources of solar power.
• Logitech Cordless Freedom Optical Review - Logitech is one of the leading companies to offer great new technology to keyboards and mice with the release of the Logitech Cordless FreedomT Optical. The design, technology, performance and great looks of the combination are absolutely stunning. Not only that but the ease of use with shortcut buttons make this combination very functional. No cords to get tangled, no mouse ball to clean, no more having to sit on your uncomfortable desk chair in order to work or play. Take a look at that comfortable sofa, couch or bed, grab your keyboard and have the luxury of computing in your favorite couch.
• Gigabyte Maya AP64D-H Radeon 8500 Deluxe Review - Based on benchmark scores, the Gigabyte Radeon 8500 Deluxe offers the best performance of any Radeon 8500-based video card we have come by. It even bests ATi's. Gigabyte also takes an extra step by making the package attractive by including a plethora of good computer games and useful utilities. Definitely a plus for gamers and tweakers alike.
• Creative Geforce 4 Ti4400 Review - Creative like most of the other manufacturers, are releasing all 5 of the GeForce 4 series at one point or another, the Ti4400 is only bettered for clockspeeds by the more expensive Ti4600 card. Creative were kind enough to send me the card that most people except the most fps hungry of game players will be buying, the Ti4400.
• ATI & NVIDIA Game Developers Conference 2002 Presentations - Both ATI and NVIDIA have posted their Presentations from this years Game Developers Conference 2002.
• MultiRes v1.40 - Freeware MultiRes is a small, 32-bit alternative to QuickRes, with refresh rate and multi-monitor support for up to nine display devices under Windows 9x/Me and Windows NT/2000/XP. This release includes a few refinements to batch processing and improvements to the optional driver-independent lock on refresh rates.
• Nero Burning ROM v5.5.8.0 - Nero (mirror1, mirro2, mirror3) is a flexible, reliable, and easy-to-use application designed to write both data and CD audio to CD-R and CD-RW discs. It supports ISO 9660 images as well as ISO mode 1 and XA mode 2, and allows for on-the-fly disc recording in addition to overburning (if supported by hardware). No changelog available yet.
• Sonique v2.0 alpha 2.1 (built 03/29/02) - Sonique 2 is a Media Player application that is currently in production by Team Sonique. Sonique 2 expands on many design ideas from Sonique 1.x but is built on entirely new technology. 
• Turtle Beach Santa Cruz beta Drivers Win2K/XP - Turtle Beach have released some new Windows 2k/XP beta drivers v.4159 for the Santa Cruz sound card.
• Leadtek WinFast Drivers - Leadtek have released new drivers for their WinFast TV2000: WinFast TV2000 XP driver 2.3 BETA CD2.312 (2002/3/28) for Win9x/ME , WinFast TV2000 XP driver 2.3 BETA CD2.312 (2002/3/28) for WinXP/2K
• Sparkle Nvidia GeForce4 BIOSes  - NVIDIA GF4 Ti 4600 SP7200T6 DDR SDRAM 128MB 650MHz 4.25.00.26.WP3 / NVIDIA GF4 Ti 4400 SP7200T4 DDR SDRAM 128MB 550MHz 4.25.00.26.WP7 /
  NVIDIA GF4 MX 440 SP7100M4 DDR SDRAM 64MB 400MHz 4.17.00.30.WN2 / NVIDIA GF4 MX 420 SP7100M2 SDRAM 64MB 166MHz 4.17.00.30.CN6
• NvFlash V4.14 - download.
• ELSA Detonators v28.32 -  ELSA Detonator Driver 28.32 for Win9x/Me, ELSA Detonator Driver 28.32 for Win2k/XP, ELSA Detonator Driver 28.32 for WinNT4.

• Faster Pentium 4 desktop chips on tap - Chipmaker Intel will bring out a new, faster version of the Pentium 4 for desktops next week, and other PC performance improvements are on the horizon.
• Net anti-piracy debate heads for House - The legislation would be based on a bill introduced last week by Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings, D-S.C., which has drawn sharp criticism from across the technology industry. That bill would force computer and consumer-electronics companies to include anti-piracy technology in every "digital media device."
• E2Sec encryption - unbreakable - In very simple terms, the person at each end of a communication has an identical copy of a real or electronic "book," in which each page holds a different randomized method of encoding and decoding a message. The person at one end uses a page from this book to encrypt a sentence or individual word, and the person at the other end uses their identical copy of the page to decrypt it. Then the page (also know as a "key" because it locks and unlocks the encryption) is destroyed by both parties, and a new one is used for the next part of a message. The complexity of each random page in the "book" makes it nearly impossible to crack the code. And even if someone intercepts the message, there's no pattern to it that might help them decode the entire transmission.
• Hackers make chop suey of wireless security - According to underground culture, the staple diet of hackers is Jolt cola and Ramen noodles. But the food could be could be picked up for free after hackers discovered a gaping security hole in the network of noodle house Wagamama. vnunet.com today received an email from an anonymous hacker who claimed to have gained access to the wireless network at the Wagamama branch on London's Lexington Street, just down the road from vnunet.com's centre of operations and its investigative news team base. The hacker told us: "It wasn't that the wireless security was weak. It was crap. There was no security at all."
• GPS Personal Locator for children -  Children have a natural urge to explore. Parents have a natural desire to know their children are safe.  That's why Wherify created the world's first Personal Locator to help you determine your child's location in minutes. Wherify's GPS Personal Locator helps keep loved ones safe by combining Wherify's patented technology with the U.S. Department of Defense's multi-billion dollar Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites plus the largest 100% digital, nationwide PCS wireless network.
• VIA Technologies plans to expand to the DVD/CD-RW market - VIA said it has set the goal of unseating MediaTek as the world's largest supplier of chipsets for optic disk players next year. The company will roll out chipsets for CD-RW players and DVD-RW players this year, following its introduction of chipsets for CD-ROM players.
• Four 1200 dpi Scanners Under Scrutiny - Tom's Hardware Guide has posted a review on four 1200 dpi scanners.
• How To UnCap Motorola Surfboard Cable Modems - Step by Step guide even with pictures :)
• Cumulative Patch for MSIE - This is a cumulative patch that includes the functionality of all previously released patches for IE 5.01, 5.5 and IE 6. In addition, it eliminates the following two newly discovered vulnerabilities: 1)
  A vulnerability in the zone determination function that could allow a script embedded in a cookie to be run in the Local Computer zone. 2) A vulnerability in the handling of object tags that could allow an attacker to invoke an executable already present on the user's machine. A malicious user could create HTML web page that includes this object tag and cause a local program to run on the victim's machine.
• Antivirus database feed - Update your scanners : VirusScan 4.x / 5.x DAT file update(4194), VirusScan SuperDAT file update (4194), Norton Antivirus 4.0/5.0/2000 Definition Update (March 27, 2002), Kaspersky AVP Daily update March 29, F-Prot 3.12 for DOS & Linux. Definitions.
• Nvidia NVSDK 5.2 - NVIDIA is proud to release the NVSDK5.2, an upgrade to the major components of the developer's toolkit.
• ICQ Plus v3.3 - ICQ Plus allows you to change the appearance of ICQ. When installed, ICQ Plus integrates with ICQ by adding a menu item to the main menu. Choosing this menu item brings up a dialog which lets you configure ICQ's appearance in several ways.
• Santa Cruz WDM v.4159 Win 2000/XP beta drivers - download.
• RADEON 8500 beta driver - Max Reboot has posted another beta version of ATi's RADEON 8500 drivers. This one is for Win9x/ME and the version number is 4.13.9023.
• Gainward Detonator 28.32 Drivers - As usualy, Gainward have released their own version of Nvidia Detonator 28.32 drivers for Win9x/ME, Win2k/XP, Win NT, a new WDM driver v1.11, and also new 3D stereoscopic driver v28.32.

• Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring DVD Plans - LOTR will be released in no less than four versions this year. On 8/6, separate widescreen and pan & scan versions will be released, each a two-disc set with identical extra features. Disc one includes the film presented in English Dolby Digital Surround EX and Dolby 2.0 surround (sorry, no DTS). Disc two is where all the goodies are at, and retail will be $29.95 for either the pan & scan or widescreen editions.
• FBI to divulge more Carnivore details - A federal judge this week ordered the FBI to expand its search for records about Carnivore, also known as DCS1000, technology that is installed at Internet service providers to monitor e-mail from criminal suspects. The court denied a motion for summary judgment and ordered the FBI to produce within 60 days "a further search" of its records pertaining to Carnivore as well as a device called EtherPeek, which manages network traffic.
• Facial Recognition Coming To Cops' Cell Phones - Crooks and fugitives have one more thing to worry about in their quest to keep one step ahead of the law. The age-old police dragnet will soon have the help of a 21st-century tool that enables cops to see the faces of wanted criminals in their mobile phones via a new facial recognition application.
• Boffins fight hackers with the Therminator - Scientists at California's Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey are using hacker methodology to beat the bad guys, by incorporating automated scanning routines in a network perimeter guardian known as the Therminator.
• Amiga returns with AmigaOne PPC hardware - The next generation of Amiga hardware is being designed by Eyetech of the UK, which is currently taking orders for developer boards (details in Bill's bulletin). This, the AmigaOne, is a PPC machine with a G3 or G4, USB, built in Ethernet and built in modem. It takes up to two gigs of memory, has a 2xAGP graphics adapter and four PCI slots.
• GF3 Almost Gone -  NVIDIA has already managed to sell out almost all GeForce3 Ti500 chips. So, the graphics cards on Ti4200 should come out in time, without any delays, that is in late April. Ti200 chips are still available in stock, however, NVIDIA has over a month at its disposal to complete this useful process
• Creative GF4 Ti 4400 Review -  The 3DB4 Ti4400 comes equipped with 128MB of 2.8v, 3.0Nns Samsung 144-Ball FBGA memory and as we saw further up the page it's placed with four chips on the front and four on the rear. Synchronous features with Data Strobe allow extremely high performance up to 2.8GB/s/chip. I/O transactions are possible on both edges of the clock cycle Range of operating frequencies, programmable burst length and programmable latencies make this an extremely flexible memory choice.
• Leadtek GeForce4 Ti 4400 Review- After seeing how some people run 1.4GHZ systems with merely a GeFORCE 2 MX card, I decided to find out: How would a GeFORCE 4 card run on a PIII/440BX system? Okay, so you caught me, in actuality I need to upgrade my system, still though, the results are solid and do tell us a thing or two. Check them out.
• gobe Productive 3.03 Office XP killer? - Ars reviewed the 2.0 version of gobeProductive for BeOS back in the day, and if you read that review then you know that this was a software package that no BeOS power user could live without. Well, now version 3.0 is out, and it's a solid, updated port to both Windows and Linux. In this review, I'll be looking at the Windows port with an eye to introducing the package to users who aren't familiar with its particular feature set. That being the case, I don't feel the need to hit on any features that we've all come to expect in a word processor or a spreadsheet program (e.g., spell check).
• Visual Studio .NET IDE Review - When I first decided to write a review of Visual Studio .NET, I thought it would be simple and straight forward. I mean, it was not a review on the .NET initiative, but of the Visual Studio IDE itself, and all integrated development environments are pretty much the same. You have an editor to write the code in, a way to compile your application with a single command, and most have nice debugging features built into the system. However, the Visual Studio .NET IDE has left me feeling a bit overwhelmed by the vast number of features and options that are available without making it complicated to use.
• ClonyXXL v2.0.0.3 - ClonyXXL is a good copy protection detection scanner, wich can show what kind of protection is used on a disc. It will provide you with the right settings for CloneCD, so you can make a working copy of the disc.
• DriverSpyNT 1.20 - DriverSpyNT is an advanced I/O request packet (IRP) monitoring tool for Windows NT/2Kk/XP. DriverSpyNT can monitor and display IRPs sent to any device on the system. Additionally, it has the powerful feature of displaying the input and output buffers of device I/O control requests. (download)
• Apache Web Server 1.3.24 - Apache 1.3.24 is principally a security and bug fix release. Of particular note is that 1.3.24 addresses and fixes the issues noted in CAN-2002-0061 (mitre.org) regarding escaping of command line args on Win32.
• ATi Multimedia Center 7.6 - ATi has posted an updated version of their multimedia software called ATi Multimedia Center.
• FSAA Tester 1.04 - ToMMti-Systems has updated the FSAA tester to version build 1.04.
• OCPad 0.7 RC7 - It calculates most needed values for overclockers - Memory bandwidth, fillrate, memory speed by NS rating and it will have more features in next releases. You will be able to calculate results of your overclocking and understand speed of future pre-released hardware. Overclocker's Pad understand SDR, DDR memory as well, as future QBM and even un-anounced DDR-III. And best of all - it's FREE!

• Pioneer cuts recordable DVD disc prices - The company halves prices to tempt buyers, but a major obstacle remains: how to give its recordable-DVD discs the mainstream acceptance enjoyed by read-only products.
• Mobile P4 prices "to drop dramatically" - In 1K tray quantities, the 1.6GHz and 1.7GHz P4-M processors cost US$401 and US$508. In May, Intel could (our italics) reduce prices to c.US$210 and US$250, Currently the 1.6GHz and 1.7GHz desktop P4s US$133 and US$163, also for 1,000 units.
• 1024-bit encryption is 'compromised' - According to a security debate sparked off by cryptography expert Lucky Green on Bugtraq yesterday, 1,024-bit RSA encryption should be "considered compromised".
• Microsoft .NET promo reveals personal info - Microsoft has adopted an unusual approach to community building - by disclosing the personal information of thousands of applicants for a Visual Studio web promotion. Despite being alerted to the privacy breach, the personal details of several thousand individuals are still online.
• Vitesse slips as others ship 10-Gbit net processors - Vitesse Semiconductor Corp. has postponed development of its 10-Gbit/second network processor, citing a weak market for such high-end devices. The company is following the lead of at least two sizable competitors, though a few other suppliers are delivering 10-Gbit/s devices, including Applied Micro Circuits Corp., which started sampling its nP7510 processor this week.Blade II - Electric Boogaloo
• Blade II - Electric Boogaloo Review - The story (which I urge you to ignore) is that Blade must team up with the "BloodPack" to defeat a new, powerful and virulent strain of vampires known as the "Reaper" strain which poses a threat to the Vampire Nation and to Humanity alike. Read more at Slashdot.org
• Early Xbox sales low in Europe - report - In the first three days in Germany MCV says only 10,000 Xboxes got into the hands of consumers, and this position was mirrored in France. In the UK it chalked up a healthier 48,000 in the first three days. MCV speculates however that large quantities of machines will have been bought by dealers; so although they might show up in any sales claims Microsoft makes (it hasn't, yet), they're only real say when (or if) they go out of the shop door.
• Chaintech AG321 GF3 Ti200 (gold edition with 128MB) Review - In our tests, we overclock the card using nvmax. Although we are able to run steadily for q3 at 250/570, 3Dmark2001SE fails. To demonstrate maximum overclockability, we reduce it until 3Dmark2001SE works and all 3D graphics applications do not show any tearing. The performance gains over standard timings 175/400 is around 2.3% ~ 24%, the differences is larger when operating at higher resolutions.
• Leadtek GeForce 4 Ti4600 WinFast A250 Ultra TD Review - HotHardware has posted their review of  Leadteks latest Nvidia based graphics card.
• ATi Radeon 8500 Videocard Review - After its initial release back in October the Radeon 8500 was met with mixed emotions. The card had immense potential, and with such a powerful chip it should have done well but in true ATi fashion the 8500 was plagued with driver problems. With subsequent driver updates the card got better and better, and now it's performance is even better than the GeForce3 Ti500 in certain benchmarks! ATI built in support for DirectX 8.1 features so the Radeon 8500 is still one of the most advanced videocards on the market today. Yes, even more advanced than the GeForce4 Ti line of videocards! (Ed. flame here) The core of the Radeon 8500 is clocked at 275 MHz and backed up with 64 MB of DDR RAM that runs at 550 MHz. The 8500 is a videocard to be reckoned with by any measure.
• Global DivX Player v1.9.5 - Global Divx is program that allows for a much more efficient movie watching experience. Consuming less memory and CPU Cycles than Windows Media player, this player provides a better looking, familiar interface to watch movies on your Windows PC.
• APK NTFSMax 2000++ - A program that speeds up NTFS filesystems a great deal by tuning the filesystem at the registry level in many areas to stop NTFS from having to make some entries on each time a file is accessed, thus less entries made & less time spent by the filesystem drivers having to do them. It also tunes whether the Operating System itself pages itself to disk as well, thus keeping it in RAM for faster access/reaccess as well.  (freeware)
• Opera 6.02 build 1066 - Opera Software have released another beta version of Opera 6.02Build 1066.
• VIA Twister and TwisterK Drivers - Logo'd: Twister/TwisterK Win2K/XP v13.93.22 w/Hotkey / Logo'd: Twister/TwisterK Win2K/XP v13.93.22 no Hotkey / Logo'd: Twister/TwisterK Win2K/XP v13.93.22 Rotation.
• VIA ProSavageDDR Drivers - Logo'd: ProSavageDDR Win2K/XP v13.93.24 Rotation / Logo'd: ProSavageDDR Win2K/XP v13.93.24 w/Util / Logo'd: ProSavageDDR Win9x/ME v13.00.33.
  VIA SuperSavage Drivers - Logo'd: SuperSavage Windows9x v12.32.26.
• Hydravision 3.00.120 beta - ATi has released newer version of their multi-display software. This version version works with ALL-IN-WONDER RADEON 8500DV, ALL-IN-WONDER RADEON 7500, RADEON 8500, RADEON 7500, RADEON 7000 and RADEON VE on Windows ALL.
• Refresh Rate Fix for 28.32 Detonator Drivers - French Site NVchips have released a Refresh Rate fix compatible 28.32 Detonator for XP/2K. Note : These drivers work Great - tested in Counterstrike and Quake III. (thanks trader)
• Mustek XP Drivers - Mustek has released new XP drivers for the BearPow and 1200, USB scanner series.

• Movie studios tout first DVD bust in U.S. - The Motion Picture Association of America said it helped the New York police department shut down an unlicensed DVD-copying operation based out of a Bronx apartment. These types of raids and closures have become increasingly common in the past several years when it comes to videocassettes and illegally distributed CDs. But this was the first such raid on a DVD-production operation in the United States, the MPAA said.
• Sax-playing Clinton worm stages attack - A new variation on the MyLife virus slips into mailboxes in the guise of former President Bill Clinton tootling a saxophone. It could delete victims' Windows files.
• Half scientist, half robot? - A controversial British robotics scientist has had his nervous system wired up to a computer in an experiment he hopes will eventually give paralyzed people more control over their own bodies.
• Hypergravity experiment in a spin - Short, young and male human guinea pigs are being sought for a hypergravity experiment - they must be willing to withstand G forces up to twice that on Earth for up to 22 hours.
• Hackers 'could gain missile secrets' - In its latest act in the 'war on terror', the US government has ordered officials to check that any information held about "weapons of mass destruction" is stored securely. The government fears that hackers could access the details and use them to their own ends.
• XBox 2 'designed with AMD CPU  - Microsoft engineers are busy designing the second version of Xbox around an AMD CPU, according to Fechtor Detwiler, the Boston-based investment bank.
• Sony kit will turn Playstation 2 into Linux desktop - Sony Corp. will release a kit in May that will turn its Playstation 2 game console into a Linux desktop, and is also working on a browser, e-mail and instant-messaging capabilities for the platform.
• Object-based video coding challenges MPEG - Pulsent Corp. is announcing an object-based video coding algorithm that departs from the block-based coding used in all MPEG standards, raising questions about the industry's ability to move beyond entrenched standards to future-generation digital video compression technologies.
• Star Wars Galaxies and PlanetSide optimized for GeFo4 - Star Wars Galaxies and PlanetSide Are Among First Wave of New Games Optimized For GeForce4 Series of Graphics Processors.
• Casio EG-800 PDA Review - The EG-800 is a bit bulky but it definitely deserves its `professional' title with its ability to take a large manor of abuse and splash. The PDA is about the size of a Small Kleenex box and about 20 times as heavy, but yet, it can still fit in your pocket with a bit of jamming. This particular model comes in an ombre blue colour and contains a sleek rubberized closure for any opening holes leading into the device such as headphone jack an AC adapter ports, to prevent water damage.
• RipFlash Recordable MP3 Player Video Review - Small, affordable, and more features then you can shake a stick at! Not only can you listen to MP3's and add extra memory, but you can record audio using a internal mic and if that's not enough you can listen to audio through a built-in speaker.
• EPOX 8K3A+ Review - Designed with VIA's KT333 chipset, the EP-8K3A+ is a high quality motherboard built by EPoX in the industry standard ATX format. In addition to the AGP interface for high performance graphics, this board offers six industry standard PCI, one 4x compatible AGP expansion bus as well as many other advanced system and BIOS features.
• ASUS A7V266-EX Motherboard - T-Break has posted some pictures&specs of the upcoming ASUS A7V266-EX motherboard.
• ASUS 40/12/48 CDRW - T-Break has posted some specs of the upcoming ASUS A7V266-EX CDRW burner. Oh    Max 40 Write/ 12X Rewrite/ 48X Read? - gimme this baby! :)
• Shuttle AK35GTR v2.x KT333 Review - Shuttle recently introduced another model after the successful AK35GTR (KT266A). In fact, this board looks exactly like the AK35GTR which we reviewed last year. The main difference is that it has DDR333 support via KT333 chipset. VIA 8233A south bridge supports the ATA-133 and the HPT372 supports ATA-133 RAID 0/1/0+1. 
• Engelking AP2 6300SFC A Power Supply - The Ap2-6300 ordered differently than most power supplys at the back a AC power socket, those that attach a monitor made possible. Since itself the ATX standard established does many (most) manufacturers without this useful addition. The disadvantage on the renouncement of this socket is clearly obvious. The monitor must be switched off separately and consumed in the possible Standby enterprise still rather much achievement. With this connection the problem can be gone around. The moreover still another rocker switch finds around the PC from electricity mains to to completely separate on the back.
• Radeon 8500 AT008 vs. ATi Radeon 8500 - HardwarePub has posted a comparison review between the Radeon 8500 AT008 against the ATi Radeon 8500 video card.
• Optical Mouse Comparison - Optical mice did have some advantages though. In general, their overall usability was better than the ball mice they were upgraded from. The big selling point though was the fact that there were no moving parts, more notably, no ball. Why was this such a big deal? Ball mice get dirty, and when it gets to a specific point of, erm, dirtiness, the performance scales downwards. Optical mice never suffered this problem, hence performance stays even.
• 3DMark2001 SE Review - Having troubles on deciding what to upgrade? Trying to figure out who's PC is better yours or mine? Well look no further 3d Mark 2001 SE is the tool for you. The main function of this tool is to provide a standard benchmark for comparison purposes and to demonstrate new DirectX features that your video card is capable of.
• BeOS 5.0.4 Developer Edition - DeveloperEdition -  it's free for use! You've to download the boot and the main image, then burn it to CD... it's bootable. BeOS 5.0.4 is based on, BeOS 5.0.3 Personal Edition, but with updated programs and more drivers for current hardware.
• Mandrake Linux 8.2 is USB 2.0 Ready - Mandrake has just released version 8.2 of it's popular Linux operating system platform. Among the new and improved features is support for USB 2.0, the increasingly popular high speed connectivity solution. Downloads are currently available and preorders for the CD version are being accepted at the Mandrake web site. 
• Antivirus database feed - There is weekly update for Kaspersky Antivurus (AVP) and there is the latest virus definition data file update for Norton Antivirus 4.0/v5.0/2001.
• MAME v0.59 - MAME stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator, and currently runs 1800+ classic (and even some not so classic) arcade games! Believe it or not, MAME now even runs Neo Geo Games. Download: Windows version / DOS version.
• Intel Application Accelerator beta 2.1 -  This Beta version contains many new features that may or may not be incorporated into a future production release
• LimeWire 2.3.1 Beta - LimeWire is a software package which enables individuals to search for and share computer files with anyone on the internet. A product of Lime Wire, LLC, LimeWire is compatible with the Gnutella file-sharing protocol and can connect with anyone else running Gnutella-compatible software.
• nForce Ethernet Drivers - AeroWB has posted a new NForce 2000/XP Ethernet Drivers v2.23 from his friends at Compaq.
• Nvidia Detonator 28.32 Review - PC-Extreme tested the new official Detonators from Nvidia using 3DMark 2001SE / Aquanox / Q3 / Unreal Tournament. Also  Dark Crow has posted a driver comparison   using the "fixed" 28.32 set.
• Hercules NVIDIA/ATI Drivers - I don't speak French, but check this article and try download links :)
• Nvidia 28.32 Detonator Drivers for Win2K/XP with Refresh Rate Fix - NVchips-fr have posted modified Nvidia v28.32 Detonators for Win2k/XP with the refresh rate fix. (here is another mirror)
• ASUS Detonators v27.42 - Download: ASUS v27.42 - Win98/Me, ASUS v27.42 - Win2k/XP, ASUS v27.42 - WinNT4.

• PlayStation 3: The next generation - Sony moves ahead with development of the next version of its video game console. Right now, distributed computing is the name of the game.
• Microsoft Outlook's so-so security - An Internet privacy researcher releases a list of four yet-to-be-fixed security problems with the software giant's mail program.
• MS E-Mail Trojan Harvests New Victims - Flaws in the W32/Gibe mass-mailing worm have prevented it from becoming anything like the Internet epidemics of Melissa and LoveBug. But the recent malicious code has introduced a new technique that could help future worms spread fast and wide, experts said Tuesday.
• Excite in web mail hijack drama - According to the experts, when a user logs in to their account through Excite's web interface, the session is authenticated by a unique URL. By sending an HTML email which includes an image based on another server to the victim, an attacker can easily get the unique URL from the referrer field in the HTTP header. Simply pasting this into a web browser would drop the attacker straight into the victim's mailbox with complete control of the account.
• GDC Coverage -  Here's what's come out of the Game Developers Conference: SoundMAX audio toolkit released, Dolby Introduces Pro Logic II For PS2, G.A.N.G. Launches at GDC, RenderWare Studio Announced, Epic Reveals Unreal Performance Test 2002, Big Ape choose Alchemy Engine, Sega Chooses Alchemy Engine, Sony Online Selects Fidelia's NetVigil.
• Yahoo charges for email services! - Yahoo! is to start charging for its email forwarding and POP3 services. Users of the service have until April 24 to decided whether to cough up for the service. Yahoo! said it will offer existing users the service for a special promo price of $19.99. The normal fee is $29.99 a year.
• Soviet Moon rocket secrets revealed - Previously unseen pictures of the giant rocket the Soviets hoped would help them put a man on the Moon before the United States have been revealed on a Russian website.
• Epic Games Releases The Unreal Performance Test 2002 - We recieved a press release that  Epic Games today unveiled the Unreal Performance Test 2002, the first and only game benchmark indicative of the future of gaming. The performance test was recently put to task on leading hardware Web site Anandtech.com. The site compared 15 of today's leading cards at five different resolution settings.
• Where, oh where is MS DirectX 9.0? - We can freely say that DirectX 9 will make some big differences in future games programming since it will include some interesting parts that programmers will love to use. Rather unbelievably, Eva Glass' friend tells us that Microsoft will skip DirectX 9.0, expected by us all, and plump for DirectX 9.1 instead.
• DDR333 Roundup - The contenders are Micron, Kingston, KingMax, Nanya, TwinMOS and Winbond. We have put these memories through a series of high FSB overclocking tests. IWill XP333 was used to test the max FSB these RAMs can go while EPoX 8K3A+ was used to test out the max FSB these RAMs can achieve under most aggressive memory timings. Some of the DDR333 memories are able to attain over 210Mhz and some are able to run over 190Mhz at CAS2!
• HighSpeedPC Athlon XP Unlocking Kit Review - As most of you may know, AMD has released a new line of processors which cannot be unlocked by the old way which was called the, pencil trick. The new Athlon XP CPU's have a sunken bridge which will need to be filled in. The dots will also need to be connected in parallel for the CPU to be unlocked. I'm not sure why AMD chose to go this way but, enthusiats will always find ways of getting around it.
• 5 Fan HDD Cooler Review - As you may already know, IBM Deskstar GXP HDDs, well, suck. IBM has recently informed people that their HDDs are not conditioned to run for more than eight hours straight. Unfortunately, I found this out to be true. I think it's pretty sad and unfortunate to have a 7200RPM HDD to "overheat," and I must tell you, these do run hot. The cooler kept my HDD considerably well cooled.
• Gainward GF4 Ti4400 Review - Along with the Ti4600, nVidia also announced the Ti4400, a clocked down version of the Ti4600 with a lower price-tag. The Ti4400 seemed like a perfect choice for people with not-so-deep pockets, especially considering the overclocking nature of graphics card. And we all know how good overclocking is when it comes to Gainward. Thus, we were quite interested to check out the performance of the Gainward Ti4400 and even more interested to see if it could reach Ti4600 speeds without sacrificing stability. Say hello to Gainward GeForce4 PowerPack! Ultra/700XP Golden Sample.
• Nero InCD Update 3.24.3 - Ahead has released a new InCD Update of their packet CD reading/writing software.
  This is version 3.24.3 and dated 20 March 2002. This version offers enhanced support for Windows2000 SP1 and Windows XP.
• WinAmp 2.79 -  Nullsoft have released a new version of the famous audio player WinAmp.
• Sonique v2.0 alpha 2 - Sonique 2 is a Media Player application that is currently in production by Team Sonique. Sonique 2 expands on many design ideas from Sonique 1.x but is built on entirely new technology.
• Netscape 6.2.2 - Netscape 6.2.2 has been released.
• RAM Idle Pro v1.2 - RAM Idle Pro is a smart memory management program that will keep your computer running better, faster, and longer. RAM Idle works by freeing up physical RAM wasted by Windows and other applications.
• VIA 4-in-1 4.28 - VIA released the 4.38 version (1.07MB) of their 4-in-1 drivers for VIA-based motherboards. This new version added ATA133 feature under WinXP, updated AGP driver (4.10b),  Fixed Memory dump issue under WinNT (dual-p) and fixed AGP driver uninstall issue.
• IDE Bus Master Version 1.43s Driver - AMD has released new IDE Bus Master drivers.
• NVIDIA Detonators XP 28.32 - Nvidia has released a new official Detonators XP drivers: Win 9x/Me, Win XP/2k, and WinNT. What is new? Well, Full Acceleration and support for the GeForce4 and Quadro4 families nView, Multi-Display Support (User's Guide available at left), NVIDIA's patented Unified Driver Architecture (UDA) - supports all products in single a driver binary Highly optimized DirectX 8.1 and OpenGL 1.3 with NVIDIA extensions pipelines...
• Asus Detonators 27.20 - Download these Asus babies for W9x/Me, W2k/XP and NT4.0.
• Asus Final BIOSes - Download: A7V133 1008.A Final, A7V133-C 1008.A Final, A7V 1010.A Final, A7pro 1010.A Final.
• NVIDIA Detonator 28.32 Tested - NVIDIA has updated their 28.32 drivers with Control Panel key so it is back to normal now. I have done some quick testing on the official Detonator 28.32 drivers and tried it with a GeForce3 Ti200 and a GeForce4 MX440. (another test is here)
• Yamaha CRW3200 Firmware - Yamaha has released new Firmware for the Yamaha CRW3200 CD-RW series.

• Pioneer drops price on new DVD drive - The drives, which are included in many new PCs, will cost $150 less and run faster than the current model.
• All-in-one firewall/DSL modem planned - Business users get the first combined unit from Swiss company Lightning, but one will follow that is aimed at wires-only DSL users at home.
• RealNetworks Goes Global With Game-Distribution Platform - RealNetworks said today it is making its RealArcade platform for computer games distribution more attractive internationally, announcing partnerships with Internet service providers (ISPs) on three continents who will help promote the software in six languages.
• Hackers Deface Thousands Of Domains Parked At Verisign - Attackers compromised a system that hosted thousands of "parked" domains that had been registered through Network Solutions and were still under construction, according to a Verisign representative.  According to its Web server banner, the system was running Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS) on Windows 2000.
• North Magnetic Pole could be leaving Canada - The magnetic pole, which has steadily drifted for decades, has picked up its pace in recent years and could exit Canadian territory as soon as 2004, said Larry Newitt of the Geological Survey of Canada.
• Instant message, cracker tricks - That's according to an alert by security clearing CERT issued yesterday. This warns that script kiddies are tricking gullible users into downloading and executing malicious software using the services. These risks are well known but CERT's comment that "tens of thousands of systems have recently been compromised in this way" makes the warning more timely.
• Virtual Keyboard - A full-size fully functional virtual keyboard that can be projected and touched on any surface is shown by Siemens Procurement Logistics Services at the CeBIT fair in Hanover, northern Germany, on Monday, March 18, 2002. The virtual interface from Developer VKB Inc. from Jerusalem in Israel can be integrated in mobile phones, laptops, tablet PCs, or clean, sterile and medical environments and could be a revolution for the data entry of any mini computer. The mini projector that detects user interaction with the surface also simulates a mousepad.
• Serial ATA, A New Standard - Serial Advanced Technology Attachment is an evolutionary high-speed serial link replacement for the parallel ATA attachment of internal storage devices. It connects hard disks, DVDs, CD-R/Ws, zip drives and all other ATA and ATAPI devices to the motherboard in desktop and mobile PCs, servers and network storage.
• PCI Version 2.3 Specification released - Revision 2.3 is an evolutionary change to the PCI Local Bus Specification. Revision 2.3 makes a significant step in migrating the PCI bus from the original 5.0 volt signaling, to a 3.3 volt signaling bus. Revision 2.3 supports the 5V and 3.3V keyed system board connectors (as did revision 2.2) but revision 2.3 supports only the 3.3V and Universal keyed add-in cards. The 5V keyed add-in card is not supported in revision 2.3. PCI 66, PCI-X, Mini PCI, and Low Profile PCI support only 3.3 volt signaling on 3.3V keyed system board connectors and 3.3V and Universal keyed add-in cards.
• Creative Inspire 5700 5.1 Digital Speakers Review - The decoder is capable of decoding Dolby Pro Logic, Pro Logic 2, Dolby Digital, and DTS (Digital Theatre System) surround signals. But that's not all it can do, feed a stereo signal in and it is capable of mixing the signal across all 5 satellite speakers via its CMSS options, but more on those a bit later. As you can see, the decoder features seperate controls for master volume, subwoofer volume, centre speaker volume and surround speaker volumes.
• Intensor Gaming Chair Flashback - After we played Unreal Tournament for about 1/2 hour we heard a loud static charge like sound emitted through the speakers. This was kinda scary since we had the chair cranked up when it happened. Thank god we didn't toast any of the speakers! Well we turned it down and started to try and figure out what caused it. The only thing we could guess was causing the sound was the connection that plugs into the base of the chair from the power supply. The only way to get a good look was to tear the puppy apart and get a look for ourselves.
• Twelve 19 CRT Monitors Comparison - Choosing a monitor is no easy matter because typically the mere mortal is unable to distinguish between the various technologies. We have all heard terms like Shadow Mask, Trinitron, DiamondTron, Chromaclear or EDP, but what do they mean? Each of them has a different way of deflecting the electron beams to the screen, or rather, to the mask that they must penetrate before they reach the screen. Each technology has its advantages and drawbacks in terms of cost and image quality.
• SiS 645DX Chipset Review - As we mentioned earlier, the 645DX is basically the 645 chipset supporting 133MHz FSB for the Pentium 4. Thus, there aren't many new features on this chipset- think of it as an A version of a VIA chipset which tweaks performance. We did find a couple of new things in the BIOS. Firstly, the BIOS supports DDR-400 as there is an option to configure your memory to DDR-400. However, if you do so, the memory timing are set to lowest such as CAS 2.5 etc
• VisionTek GeForce 4 MX440 - In the first of our GeForce 4 reviews nvmax.com tests the Visiontek GeForce 4 MX440, a product using the NVIDIA NV17 chipset. But the MX440 has strong competition, not from another vendor but from the VisionTek GeForce 3 TI200, available at the same price.
• NVchess beta - 3Dwin have posted a NVchess beta  (demo from CeBIT). It's a completely 3D rendered game that show the newest technology.
• Free Monitor Diagnosis & Adjustment for CRT/LCD - MonitorsDirect is housing an online tool to adjust and test your CRT or LCD monitors. Featured tests include: Focus - Convergence - Color Purity, Geometric Distortion - Brightness & Contrast,  Ghosting and Streaking .
• DVD Decrypter 3.0.0.14 - DVD Decrypter contains UDF parsing and lets you copy DVD content to your harddrive. This new version has improved multiangle processing allowing you to select which angle to keep (in the settings screen), brute force CSS cracking for people with RPC-2 drives wanting to rip a disc of a different region, adds a "check for update" function, the drive detection routines have been partly rewritten, ISO mode can now split files at 4GB when writing on a FAT partition and there are some minor GUI chagnes and some bugfixes.
• BootXP 1.85a - A new version of Boot XP has been released.
• F-Prot 3.12 - I almost forgot this cool antivirus which I liked a couple years ago. Surprisingly this antivirus still exists and has been updated already to version 3.12.
• Official RADEON Drivers - ATi has officially released a new nonbeta driver set for their RADEON series:  ATi RADEON WinXP Drivers 6.13.10.6037, ATi RADEON Win2k Drivers 5.13.01.6037, ATi RADEON Win98/ME Drivers 4.13.9016.

• Morpheus using new address intercept tool - Some users of the popular Morpheus music sharing program are angry over a browser extension program distributed with the latest preview version of the software.   When installed by Morpheus, the Wurld Media BHO causes addresses including radioshack.com, ebay.com, amazon.com, and toysrus.com, among others, to be intercepted and redirected to the shopping sites through affiliate marketing systems run by LinkShare Corp. and Be Free, Inc.
• Terra Lycos jumps into online gaming - The service will make Terra Lycos the first portal to come up with subscription games and will offer Web surfers a variety of games to rent, such as "Centipede" and "Roller Coaster Tycoon."
• Whew! Stealth asteroid nearly blindsides Earth - The space boulder passed Earth within 288,000 miles (461,000 kilometers) -- or 1.2 times the distance to the moon - on March 8, but since it came from the direction of the sun, scientists did not observe it until four days later. The object, slightly larger than one that flattened a vast expanse of Siberia in 1908, was one of the 10 closest known asteroids to approach Earth, astronomers said.
• T1: A Survival Guide Book Review - The book starts off at a good pace, talking about the history of the telephone network and its evolution into the digital age (the reason we have T1 available as a data service). It discusses the different terminology related to T1's, and the equipment that connects them to our routers, but makes very few analogies or examples to solidify the relationship of these terms to each other or to the big picture of networking.
• SiS shows visionary next-generation graphics at GDC 2002 -   Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) announced today that they will demonstrate the next generation GPU, SiS330, at annually GDC show. The outstanding performance and lifelike shading that SiS330 provides will revolutionize the 3D graphics power of PCs at GDC 2002. Anyone who experiences the unforgettable hail of bullets in the most popular FPS game at the SiS booth will have no doubt about the true definition of "next-generation graphic chip."
• Creative Jukebox 3.0 Pictures - T-Break has posted some pictures of Creative's Upcoming Jukebox 3.0 MP3 player.
• Kyro and PowerVR FAQ Version 3 - ParaKnowYa has updated their Kyro and PowerVR FAQ to Version 3.
• NVIDIA GeForce4 440 Go Mobile Review - Quake 3 performance on the GeForce4 440 Go was remarkable as the results at 1600x1200 surpassed 60 frames per second under high quality settings. The OpenGL performance of the GeForce4 440 Go is unmatched in the mobile arena and in some cases exceeds the performance of high-end desktop systems equipped with GeForce2 class graphics cards.
• Auriga ATI Radeon 8500 64MB Review - With the Auriga branded Radeon going for about $470 AUD, and the Asus Geforce3 T2 Deluxe card sitting around the $520 mark, your not only saving $50, but you getting performance like a Ti500.
• AOpen AX45-V SiS 645 Socket 478 Motherboard  - PC Stats has posted a review of  AOpen AX45-V SiS 645 Socket 478 Motherboard.
• EPoX 8K3A+ Motherboard Review - By now, most of us are aware of the new KT333 chipset that is hitting the streets in force. But what can it do that the KT266A can't? Come join TweakTown as they take a look at the EPoX 8K3A+ Motherboard. It features this very same chipset, and we'll let you know just what it can do... and what it can't.
• Cumulative VM Update 2.0 - Revised info only - On March 4, 2002, Microsoft released the first version of this bulletin. On March 18, 2002, Microsoft re-released this bulletin to make customers aware of an additional vulnerability that is eliminated by the updated VM (Microsoft VM build 3805). Customers who have previously installed the new build do not need to take any additional action.
• MS SQL Server 2000 Fix - The xp_msver extended stored procedure may return null for most of the SQL Server properties if you run a non-localized version of Sqlservr.exe on a non-English SQL Server installation. Typically, hotfixes for Sqlservr.exe that run on a non-English installation meet this condition.
• WPA Article Updated - So else what do I have to say? Not much really, but here's a thought that should enlighten some of the WinXP naysayers, ...if you want it, buy it. If you don't want it, keep your wallet in your pocket. Like computer hardware, there isn't any point griping about technology moving too quickly. If you don't need an upgrade, there isn't a reason to. If you want the latest, then buy it.
• Stay Secure Scripts for Win2k - These scripts are part of the Security Operations Guide for Windows 2000 Server, which you should read before using these scripts. The guide provides how-to instructions for system administrators to use after a Windows 2000-based server is up and running, and is part of the Windows Secure Technology Protection Program (STPP). If you are responsible for maintaining a secure Windows 2000-based server, this guide is for you.
• Mandrake Linux 8.2 Available! - Mandrake Linux is a powerful operating system that is available for many platforms: 32 bit processors such as Intel Pentiumr, AMD Athlonr, PowerPCr; and 64 bit processors such as Intel Itaniumr, SPARCr, AXPr. Mandrake Linux includes many graphical administration assistants & wizards that make it intuitive and fun to use while providing all the power and robustness of other Linux systems. Hundreds of included applications make it an ideal solution for both enterprises and individual users. (mirror1 USA, mirror2 USA, mirror3 USA, mirro4 German, mirror5 France, mirror6 Italy).
• Opera 6.02 build 1061 - The guys over at Opera Software have released the next beta version of Opera 6.02 Build 1061. No info what is new.
• LimeWire 2.3.0 Beta - LimeWire is a software package which enables individuals to search for and share computer files with anyone on the internet. A product of Lime Wire, LLC, LimeWire is compatible with the Gnutella file-sharing protocol and can connect with anyone else running Gnutella-compatible software. The LimeWire program will connect at startup, via the internet, to the LimeWire Gateway, a specialized intelligent Gnutella router, to maximize the user's viewable network space. Download: LimeWire 2.3.0 for Windows / LimeWire 2.3.0 for Linux (no Java VM).
• IomegaWare 3.1.1 - This new version corrects lot of bugs under Win XP and update the Active Disk utilities.
• 3Dlabs Wildcat III 6110/6210 Drivers - These new drivers improves D3D performance, fixes a problem with other textures being corrupted, in global texture mode, when subloading a large part of a very large texture, fixed Wildcat 5110 bug where the wrong monitor's information was presented when the maximum number of screens was one and many more. Download: Wildcat III 6110/6210 WinXP Driver 06.05.03.15 / Wildcat III 6110/6210 Win2000 Driver 05.05.03.15.
• Savage/MX/IX Driver - Download: Logo'd: Savage/IX WinXP Driver 7.90.34 / Logo'd: Savage/IX Win2000 Driver 7.40.50.

• CIA Web Site Tracks Visitors With Cookies - A Web site operated by the Central Intelligence Agency is marking visitors with a unique identification tag or "cookie" that violates federal privacy guidelines and the agency's own privacy policy, according to Public Information Research, a non-profit group. The CIA's Electronic Reading Room site, which provides online access to previously released CIA documents, places a "persistent" cookie on visitors' computers when they visit the site.
• Security flaws leave Oracle users exposed - Oracle was left red-faced last week when security watchdog Cert released an advisory pinpointing no less than 37 security problems in Oracle's "unbreakable" database.
• MandrakeSoft, SuSE add new life to Linux - SuSE's software touts itself as the first to use the KDE 3.0 graphical user interface, which adds graphical enhancements similar to those found in Windows XP or Apple's Mac OS X. Mandrake Linux 8.2, expected to arrive in the next few days, is a relatively minor revision, introducing technology like encrypted filesystem support and a "minimum installation mode" that squeezes the essential parts of the operating system into 65MB of hard-drive space.
• GeForce 4 To Retail - NVIDIA today announced that graphics cards based on  GeForce 4 series of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) are now available from leading retailers worldwide. NVIDIA's add-in board partners have stocked retail shelves with products based on NVIDIA's GeForce4 Ti 4600 and GeForce4 Ti 4400 GPUs, as well as NVIDIA's GeForce4 MX 460, GeForce4 MX 440 and GeForce4 MX 420 GPUs. Graphics cards based on NVIDIA's GeForce4 Ti 4200 GPU are expected to be available at the end of April.
• PlayStation 2 gets kicked out of CeBit - Microsoft complained to the show organizers, Hannover Messe AG, that Sony was breaching show rules by letting people play on Sony PlayStation 2 game consoles. Technically, this was right and the Messe was forced to act on the complaint. Sony approached Microsoft to find a compromise and entered into protracted discussions with the Messe for a deal acceptable for all parties, but none could be found. On Sunday morning Sony started packing up its 27 PS2s. The show, in Hannover, Germany, officially finishes on Wednesday.
• Microsoft's move into CPU, chipset market - But is the suggestion, based on sources, and her sources are good, so crazy? We know that Microsoft is eager to get the price of its console down, down, down, and that it's not only been talking to Nvidia and Via about bidding for cheaper chips for the Xbox 2, but also had its staff sniffing round the contract manufacturers in Asia big time.
• DDR 400 on April 8th - This press release announces the availability of DDR 400, otherwise known PC3300.
• Nvidia intros DDR333 support for nForce - Nvidia is to introduce support for DDR333 fast memory with the 615-D and the 620-D, the latest members of the nForce chipset family. Both products will launch "within 60 days", according to Drew Henry, general manager, of Nvidia's platform processors division.
• The IBM 120GXP Revisited - Also of note is that IBM has never emphasized this 333 hour-per-month usage rate before on any of its products. While the specification exists in the technical literature for the 120, 75, and 60 GXP drives, websites reviewing these drives for months have recommended them for placement in low-end servers.
• Intel Pentium 4 2.0AGHz "Northwood" Review - In this review we are covering one of Intel's newest brainchildren, the PGA-478 Northwood Pentium 4 2.0A GHz. Intel has so kindly provided us with not one, but two chips for review, so we will also be testing for manufacturing consistency.
• Pentium 4 2.2 GHz & Athlon XP 2000 - As a frequent consumer of computer products, I just have to mention that the pricing strategy for both Intel and AMD is quite far apart. The Intel Pentium 4 2.2GHz is probably twice as much as the AMD XP 2000+ based on current retail pricing. This is a big factor for the penny-wise home consumer.
• 19 Motherboards With The 845 Chipset for DDR - Seems the guys at Tom's Hardware Guide pretty likes (cough) Intel because they posted a comparison of 19 motherboards with Intel's 845 Chipset :)
• Sound Blaster Extigy Review - It uses the new Audigy sound chipset and creates an external sound experience that makes upgarding a breeze. Come see whether or not it can live up to the Sound Blaster reputation.
• Plextor and LiteOn 40X/12X CDRW Review - The LiteOn 40/12/48 is similar specification wise to the Plextor. The LiteOn like the Plextor makes use of Zone CLV to reach top writing speed. One difference in speed is that the LiteOn drive has a faster CD read speed. 48x over the 40x from the Plextor unit. This should give the LiteOn a bit of an advantage as we have a couple of benchmarks that test out reading performance of the drive.
• Gigabyte ATi Radeon8500 AP64D-H Review - Do you want to pay a lot of money for a 10% difference in performance ? If No is your answer, the Gigabyte AP64D-H might be the answer to your question. ATi based cards have always been praised for it's clarity in display. We compared it to GF4ti4600, GF3 Ti200 128MB.
• ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 8500DV Review - Now that we have thoroughly put the All-In-Wonder Radeon 8500DV through its paces at the 3D Chipset Lab, we can safely say that the All-In-Wonder Radeon 8500DV is a highly sophisticated product, complete with detailed refinement. However, with glaring gaming compatibility flaws, you will need patience, and plenty of patience, for these compatibility problems to be resolved.
• Creative GeForce 3 Ti200 with TV-OUT Review - With framerates such as those shown in the card in our benchmarks, the avid gameplayer can use features such as FSAA (Full Scene Anti-Aliasing) to enjoy better game quality without the game stuttering to a halt. The GeForce 3 Ti 200 is well up to the task.
• M-BOX BW3210 MP3 CD Player Review - The M-Box MP3 Player hits the mark on affordability and easy of use. Something distinctive with this kind of product is the ability to record many MP3's directly onto regular inexpensive CDR media.
• DivX 5.0 Review - The popular 'DivX' MPEG-4-Codec takes on a professional look with a new start-up, new developers and marketing, plus a cool Web site and a product that millions are using. On the streets they call it the 'MP3 of video.' But is it strong enough to survive?
• Enabling the hidden 5th security zone in IE - Yep, you can protect yourself from your own system. It's normally kept hidden on purpose because the average user doesn't need to lock down their system THAT tight. But if you're a regular here, you're not that average. One other possible reason (just a guess) is that it might help stop the spread of trojans and bad ActiveX controls.  Browse to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\InternetSettings\Zones (key 0 = nul)
  using Regedit (Start -> Run -> Type "Regedit" and enter)   "Flags"=dword: 0X00000021 (33) is the default, change this to:   "Flags"=dword: 0X00000001 (1) Now reboot or logoff and back on. My Computer should now be visible in the IE Security Zones selection. (thanks IBElite.com).
• Demo for Pocket PC 2002 - In order to run the Interactive Enterprise Demo on your Pocket PC, you will need to install Macromedia Flash 4 Player for the Compaq iPAQ (regardless of what type of Pocket PC 2002 device you have). This version is the only one compatible with Pocket PC 2002.
• Easy CD Platinum update - This web update is designed to update English versions of Easy CD Creator 5.xx Platinum to version 5.1. It can be installed in All Windows Operating Systems. It adds new drive support and some fixes. This update will install Windows XP specific drivers and make the necessary registry entries allow Easy CD Creator to operate correctly in Windows XP.
• Easydivx v0.80 - Easydivx is a all in one rippack or graphical user interface. Or what ever you want to call it. 
• FlashGet 1.2 - FlashGet is specifically designed to address two of the biggest problems when downloading files : Speed and management of downloaded files.
• Bouncer v1.0 RC3 - Bouncer is a network tool which allows you to bypass proxy restrictions and obtain outside connections from an internal LAN. It uses SSL tunnelling, which allows you to obtain a constant streaming connection out of a proxy.
• MiTweak-XP v2.3.2 r1 - miTweak-XP is one of Viettre.NET featured software that is in its development phase. The primary goal of miTweak-XP is to help the end-users who are running Windows XP to unleash the hidden features of Windows XP so that your system's performance will be maximized.
• WinRAR v3.00 beta 5 - This is a newer beta of WinRAR. What's new: "Cascaded context menus" option did not work properly, removed unnecessary second password prompt issued by WinRAR when adding files to archive with encrypted file names, switch -p encrypted contents of archive comment, so it was not visible without a password, though normally it should be encrypted only by -hp switch, not -p.
• Radeonator LE 1.1b - Radeonator LE is a little overclocker. Radeonator LE lacks all the extra features that come with the full version of Radeonator. Radeonator LE allows you to overclock your Radeon at Windows startup. That way you are sure you always play your games at Full speed.
• Nvidia BIOS Editor v1.0 RC3 Build 170 - This program will support all BIOSes from TNT2 and up to Ti 500. Except TNT and TNT2 with old version of Control Block (less than version 3). Does not require any .dll, and will work under any version of Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP. The new version added option to change Memory clock speed. Now must work 8-). Be careful with GF4 Ti cards. If you open your bios and see wrong default values for GPU or Moeyr don't try to change and flash it! Some otpions still not supported like SBA and FastWrites.
• Abit Siluro Drivers - Abit has released their customized set of 27.xx drivers for their Siluro Nvidia lineup.
• nForce WinXP WHQL Drivers - This nForce Win2K/WinXP Driver package contains Gpu Driver 27.70 (WHQL),
  Audio Driver 2.26 (WHQL), Audio Utlilities 2.26, Network Driver 2.17 (WHQL), Gart Driver 2.17 (WHQL), SMBus Driver 2.17 (WHQL), Memory Controller Driver 2.26 (WHQL), Installer 2.28+ .
• ATI Radeon Beta 6.13.10.6052 WinXP Drivers - This version is the latest known release and core files OpenGL and D3D are dated March, 10th 2002. This driver supports the following ATI cards:  Radeon 7000 / Radeon VE, Radeon 7200 / Radeon, Radeon Mobility, Radeon Mobility 7500, Radeon Mobility 7500 GL, Radeon 7500, Radeon 8500, Radeon 8500 DV Edition.

Gainward GeForce4 Ti4600

Water cooling and Case Modding

P4 clocked at 3GHz!

Not with AMD but with ASUS the fastest PC of the fair was to be found. While AMD presented only the XP2100+ and Intel the 2,4GHz P4, ASUS set by means of VapoChill still a few coals drauf and presented the "World's fastest computers" with 3GHz Pentium4 (also for AMD available) !!
And in such a way the schnuckelige part sees out;-)). Large attention is to be put on the large louvers, which are to bring the warmth to the cooling system outward. The PC can be used also as combined heat and power station. In the red LED display the temperature is indicated, which already were in past VapoChill devices of negative kind (approx. -20°C), which is to be seen down very good.

• 7 Years of Graphics - This article should really be called "7 Years of 3D Graphics" because 3D acceleration seemed a suitable starting point. For this reason I decided to chart the endeavors of those companies that have produced 3D graphical processors. Some of these have also produced their own boards, but to cover all of the board manufactures would be too great an undertaking. For this reason most of the images in this article refer to the chip used and not the board name.
• Verizon Sets Wireless Data Price Plans - Targeted primarily for the enterprise market, the rate plans start at US$35 per month for 10 MB -- the equivalent of thousands of e-mails or hundreds of Web pages -- and increase to $55 per month for 20 MB, with fees available for up to 150 MB of data, Verizon Wireless said. Business customers will pay the set amount, regardless of download times.
• AMD Athlon XP 2100+ Processor Review - Since we have reviewed the 1800+, 1900+ and 2000+ previously, the Athlon XPT 2100+ did not shock us with its grocery list of features/ specs. In recent days, however, there is one specification listed that has warranted much attention, and that is the use of the 0.18-micron manufacturing process. Intel has already made the leap to 0.13-micorn, and AMD will soon be following close behind with the AthlonXP 2200+.
• 100GB WD 1000JB 7200 rpm Special Edition Review - Until recently, if you wanted the fastest EIDE drive on the market, IBM's Deskstar 60GXP series were the drives to get. Not content with their Caviar series of EIDE drives taking second place, Western Digital decided to take the speed crown by introducing the first ever EIDE drive to feature an 8 megabyte buffer, the 100 gigabyte WD 1000JB Special Edition. It is an enhanced version of their regular Caviar series 1000BB. The JB model features the 8MB buffer, up from 2MB on the standard drive.
• SiS645DX Chipset Performance Review - SiS645DX chipset is one of the highlight by SiS at CeBIT where this chipset will provide 533Mhz support for Pentium 4 and of course DDR333 support as well. VR-Zone has a chance to take a look at the SIS645DX reference board from SiS and we have evaluated its performance under DDR266, DDR333 and even DDR400 modes. More interestingly, we have tested out the 533Mhz FSB support on this chipset by using a 533Mhz P4 2.4Ghz (18x133) processor.
• Shuttle AK35GTR KT266A Motherboard Review - Coupled with a VIA KT266A Northbridge chipset, and the integration of the Highpoint ATA133 RAID controller, the AK35GTR is an outstanding performer in every aspect. Supporting upto 4GB of DDR memory and 6-channel onboard surround sound, no wonder why the AK35GTR is such great value!
• GF4 MX Reviews -  if you plan to buy  GeForce 4 MX, check out these reviews at ExtremeTech (Visiontek Xtasy GeForce4 MX440), OCTools (Leadtek Winfast A170 DDR-T), AthlonXP (PNY GeForce4 MX 440), Overclockers New Zealand (GF4 MX 440 comparison), VR-Zone (Triplex Millennium Silver GeForce4 Preview).
• Security Operations Guide for Windows 2000 Server - This guide delivers procedures and best practices for system administrators to lock down their Windows 2000-based servers and maintain secure operations once they're up and running. Through effective use of Group Policy, proper patch management, and auditing and intrusion detection tactics, this guide provides administrators with the key information to manage risk of attack from avoidable malicious code (such as viruses and Trojan horses), unauthorized access, and data theft.
• MSXML 4 SP1 - MSXML 4.0 SP1 offers a number of new features and improvements over the MSXML 3.0, including support for the XML Schema language and substantially faster parser and XSLT engine. MSXML 4.0 SP1 is a complete replacement for MSXML 4.0 RTM and provides a number of bug fixes.
• Weekly Antivirus Feed - Leech new virus definition data for Norton Antivirus 4.0/v5.0/2001, McAfee Dat, McAfee SuperDat, Kaspersky Antivirus (AVP).
• BearShare v2.5.0 - BearShare is designed to let you share files with everyone on the Internet, and download files that other people are sharing. The program works with all types of files, and lets you search for files that contain specific words or phrases.
• Seismovision v2.00 -  Seismovision is a versatile demo player for Quake 1, Quake 2, Quake 3 Arena, Half-Life, Unreal Tournament, Star Trek Voyager Elite Force and Return to Castle Wolfenstein. The AVA (Auto-Version Adaptation) 'technology' makes Seismovision the best demo player for Quake 3 Arena, Half-Life (Counter-Strike) Star Trek Voyager Elite Force and Return to Castle Wolfenstein players and its `Demodiversity' makes it a must for every professional gamer.
• WinStyles 1.0 - WinStyles does not in itself skin or theme your desktop. Instead, it tells Windows + third party applications what they need to do to apply an XPTheme. To get the best experience, here are the applications you will want to have on your system. WinStyles gives you control over which applications are actually used. These are the best of the best out there. More will be added as we learn how to support them.
• Official Macromedia Flash MX Trial - Download: Flash Player 6.0.0.307,  Flash MX Trial English for Win, Flash MX Trial German for Win, Flash MX Trial French for Win, Flash MX Trial Japanese for Win, Flash MX Trial for MAC.
• NVMax 4.01.00 LE (last edition) - NVmax is due to terminate at 25th March 2002, after which NVmax will be removed from nvmax.com and will not be supported. Source code will be released on 23th March 2002 as complete unrestricted freeware. The decision to end NVmax is final and will not be reversed. This decision was made by the author in order to divert time into a future project. Sadly, all good things come to an end.
• Abit 27.x Graphics Cards Drivers - Abit has released 27.x version drivers for their nVidia based graphics cards.
• Creative Graphics Cards Driver Update 27.50 NT 4.0 - This is a new driver update of Creative Graphics Cards for users running on WinNT4,   Win9x/ME and Win2k/XP. This update is meant for Creative TNT, TNT2, GeForce, GeForce2, GeForce3 and GeForce4 series of graphics and includes better support for newer graphics card and improves performance in some graphics-intensive games.
• Abit MB BIOSes - Leech: KT7(A)-Series Rev 1.0/1/2 7N, KT7(A)-Serie Rev 1.3+ 7P, KT7E 7N, NV7-133R 7H, SD7-533 7S, TH7-II 38.
• Aopen MB BIOSes - Leech: AK73-Series R1.17, AX4B R1.03, AX4B Pro R1.03, AX4BS Pro R1.05, AX4BS-V R1.05
• EPOX BIOS - Leech: 8K7A, 8K7A+ 4.3.

• Blood crazed zombies on the loose - Blood and zombies will be the focus of the next big screen adaptation of a video game. Resident Evil the movie launches in the US today, and the film's heroine may have to battle more than a horde of blood crazed zombies - the big test is whether the film can beat last summer's blockbuster, Tomb Raider, at the box office.
• Recordable-DVD buyers cry foul - Hewlett-Packard backs down on its offer to upgrade its first-generation DVD+RW drive to be compatible with newer, less-expensive DVD+R discs.
• Nokia launches first phone-based VPN - The VPN client should address such shortcomings, and it makes the 9210i one of the first handheld devices to enable end-to-end encrypted links. "You can get VPN clients for Palm, but those devices don't have the power to run 3DES," said Grace. 3DES is an encryption protocol.
• Definitive guide to writing a Linux virus - This document describes how to write parasitic file viruses infecting ELF executables on Linux/i386. Though it contains a lot of source code, no actual virus is included," reads the abstract for the site.
• Back Orifice for Unix flaw emerges from obscurity - A vulnerability involving an obscure UDP protocol might permits crackers to obtain remote control of Unix workstations, security experts have warned. Security firm ProCheckUp has issued an advisory warning that anonymous XDMCP connections allow remote attackers to obtain a remote console identical to a local X-Windows session, using a command enabled by default on most Unix boxes
• US Military Scours Windows Systems For Hacker Back Doors  - NAVCIRT received several computer incident reports involving the installation of RemotelyAnywhere on compromised computer systems which in turn enables scanning, probing, and compromising of additional DOD systems," said the memo, a copy of which was received by Rob Rosenberger, an independent virus expert who consults to the military on information security matters.
• Macromedia ships Flash MX - Macromedia, Inc. today announced the immediate availability of Macromedia Flash MX, the latest version of the Macromedia Flash development environment, and Macromedia Flash Player 6. With support for video, application components, and accessibility, Macromedia Flash MX will enable the creation of a new generation of rich Internet content and applications.
• CeBIT Coverage - The world's largest computer show, CeBIT in Hannover, reveals the signs of a weakened economy. After years of steady growth in the number of visitors, this year registers 7962 exhibitors - a decrease of about 130 exhibitors compared to the previous year, and a first in the 16-year history of the event. Still, the show goes on - Tom's Hardware brings you news from AMD, Intel, ATi and Hercules. (Day 1 / Days 2 & 3).
• GeForce 4 MX440 Video Card Shoot Out - I have an older generation of 3D card, e.g. TnT, TnT2, etc, and I want to get a GF4MX as the replacement. But there are so many options on the market, which one do I buy? I also want to find out if different GF4MX boards have significant speed difference. No worries, this review compares and contrasts 4 popular and affordable GF4MX, ChainTech GF4MX SE, Gainward GF4MX Golden Sample, Leadtek A170T, and PixelView GF4 MX.
• CloneCD 3.5 Preview - CloneCD has undergone some major changes in the way it is used. The focus is now on Profiles and people/users don't have to figure out the proper settings for each disc. A major advantage for less experienced users of course. The Profile-focus may be a little odd for experienced users but luckily you can still access the advanced settings.
• Hack The XP Boot Screen - This is a very simple trick to do if you have done the same for the logon screen and the start button. There are 2 ways to do this trick that I know about one is doing it manually and the other is using a program called bootxp. I am going to tell you the manual way to do it, but if you want to know the other way just let me know, so I can do an update to the guide.
• Nvidia GeForce 4 Ti Demos -  Nvidia has posted five new GF4 Ti demos, these babies requires specific GF4 Ti OpenGL extensions so that these may not return the desired results when run even on GF3 cards.
• ICQ 2002A Build #3706 - it's a leaked shit (mirror2, mirror3) but I heard it features major performance improvements and a somewhat revamped interface (XP).
• The Playa 2.0 Alpha 2 For DivX 5 - DivX Networks have released an update to the video player that is included in the DivX 5 bundle. The new version includes various fixes and can be applied over your existing installation.
• VIA AGP driver 4.10b for XP - A little present for performance freaks: Part of the 4 in 1 driver set is an AGP driver. Now available, is an AGP driver version 4.10b which is Microsoft certified. In due course it will be put into the next update of the 4 in 1 drivers. The version of the AGP driver in the current 4.37(a) 4 in 1 drivers is the 4.05c. The 4.10b has been designed to enhance performance under Windows XP. Tested on a KT266A chipset motherboard with a GeForce 3, and WinXP, this driver provided an extra 3 fps in Quake III and an extra 100 marks in 3D Mark 2001.
• Dell-Nvidia GeForce4-440 Go Nv17 WDM Driver 27.50 Win2K/XP - Dell have realeased a new Nvidia GeForce4-440 Go Nv17 WDM driver 27.50 for Windows 2000/XP.
• ATI Radeon Driver v4.13.9009 (Win98/ME) -This is new ATI Radeon Display Driver for Windows 98/Me.

• Xbox Launched In Europe - After a massive preordering program where customers could already buy an empty Xbox box as a guarantee to get their console today in store the Microsoft gaming console finally has arrived on the shelves.
  The launch is accompanied with the availability of 31 games in Europe including Halo, Max Payne, Project Gotham Racing and Nightcaster. Microsoft will also hold a big launch party in Berlin, Germany. The Xbox will approximately cost 479 Euro. It's damn expensive - at least for me :(
• Uniform that makes soldiers invisible in the works - The Army is hunting for a new military uniform that can make soldiers nearly invisible, grant superhuman strength and provide instant medical care. AP/MIT An artist's illustration depicting the possible look of the U.S. armed forces battle uniform of the future. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is up for the task. The school said Wednesday it has been awarded a five-year, $50 million dollar grant to develop the armor, which could detect threats and protect against projectiles and biological or chemical weapons.
• How codebreakers cracked the secrets of the smart card - The challenge handed in the autumn of 1997 to a team of scientists working quietly at a laboratory in Haifa, northern Israel, was to crack the encryption technique used to unscramble TV signals delivered to many paying customers through cable and satellite across Europe and the US.  The so-called "smart" or "conditional access" cards used to access Sky, ITV Digital, and other premium channels contain wafer-thin computer chips holding complex codes to make sure viewers see only what they have paid to see.
• Russia Unveils Space Shuttle for Tourists - American businessmen and Russian engineers unveiled the first space shuttle designed exclusively for tourism on Thursday, paving the way for tourists on a budget to taste life in zero gravity. For under $100,000 would-be astronauts will be able to take an hour-long flight aboard the Cosmopolis XXI, a snub-nosed rocket-powered shuttle about the size of a minivan.
• Has your Internet sex habit become addictive? - Take this self-test :P
• Monkeys Able To Control Computer By Thought - An experimental brain implant the size of an M&M's candy has allowed a monkey to control a computer cursor by thought alone, Brown University researchers announced. The new device uses a special mathematical formula to translate signals from a few motor neurons on the surface of the monkey's brain into movement on a computer screen, with no need for the extensive training previous experimental techniques have required.
• Cable Modem Hacking Tricks Uncapped Online -  It wasn't long before Hallacy, 21, devised a trick for modifying an obscure configuration file used by the service to control the settings in his 3Com cable modem. A few tweaks later, Hallacy's $50-per-month service, which had been downloading data at a poky 75 kilobits per second (Kbps), was sweetly humming along at much brisker speeds in both directions.
• New Worm Is 'Turning Japanese' (When Needed) - Symantec's Security Response team says the worm also known as Impo.gen, Zircon, Fidao and DotaJaypee has 16 different Japanese subject lines it can use in e-mail messages when it sends itself to addresses ending with Japan's dot-jp top-level domain. All other e-mail addresses are sent a message with the subject: "Important." Antivirus company Central Command said today that attached to Fbound's messages is an executable file named "patch.exe" that, when launched, sends a copy of the worm to contacts in the recipient's Windows Address Book.
• Law-enforcement DIRT Trojan released - Disgraced former policeman and convicted felon Frank Jones of Codex Data Systems has had his Web site hacked and his overpriced cop-spy Trojan, aptly named D.I.R.T., released to the public.
• Microsoft, zlib, and Security Flaws -  As reported earlier this week, a flaw in the zlib software-compression library could leave much of the systems based on the open-source operating system Linux open to attack.  On Thursday, researchers reported that at least nine of Microsoft's major applications--including Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, DirectX, Messenger and Front Page--appear to incorporate borrowed code from the compression library and could be vulnerable to a similar attack.
• Creative Tracks Down "Squeal of Death" - Executives at Creative Technology Ltd. said they believe they've isolated the so-called "squeal of death" associated with the company's Audigy sound cards, and that it's not tied to the sound card itself.  The "squeal," which consists of a shrill tone caused by an audio loopback after a PC locks up, has been tied to a specific PCI bridge chip used in at least one motherboard from Soyo Computer Inc. The same squeal has also been tied to a PCI glitch in PCs manufactured by Dell Computer Corp., according to Steve Erickson, vice-president of audio development at Creative Labs, Fremont, Calif.
• VIA Launches P4X333 Chipset - VIA Technologies today announced the VIA Apollo P4X333 chipset. With DDR333 support, 533MHz processor bus, AGP 8X, ATA-133, USB 2.0 and Double-Speed V-Link chip interconnect, the VIA Apollo P4X333 brings an unmatched suite of new memory, system and I/O technologies to a single platform. In combination these technologies enable Intelr Pentiumr 4 systems and servers to achieve heights of performance never scaled before. The VIA Apollo P4X333 is shipping in OEM quantities now.
• USB 2.0 Driver for Windows 2000 Delayed - The final release version of USB 2.0 drivers for the Microsoft Windows 2000 operating system has been delayed. The final release version of the drivers for the Windows XP operating system were released to the public on January 30, 2002. At that time, the Windows 2002 version was promised "shortly thereafter'. Other reports made the release date February 2002.
• ABit Reveals Legacy-Free Motherboards - ABit's recently announced 'MAX' line of motherboards has proved interesting, with several new features and changes to the current boards on the market now. With both AMD and Intel platforms, the aptly named AT7 and IT7 are ABit's new bundles of joy.
• Rio Receiver Review - The Rio Receiver accesses music on your PC without interfering with your PC's operation. Check e-mail and browse the Web - all while your digital music collection is playing in another room. Control the Rio Receiver using the full-function remote, just like your other stereo components. There's no need to interrupt your activity when skipping a track or changing playlists.
• Matrox Millennium G550 Dual-DVI Review - Looking at the Matrox site, I noticed that there was a new driver that was recently released, v5.82. Matrox make every component on their video cards, and this means they have 100% control over performance tweaks in their driver sets. I was currently using the XP certified 5.72 driver and thought I would do a performance comparison with the new 5.82 driver. Have a look for yourself... I was quite surprised by the results!
• Plextor 40X CDRW Drive Review - The Plextor PC-W4012TA combines both pure speed and features to impress anyone who might look at its specifications. Today Hardware Pub will evaluate it to see if said drive stands up to all of the hype that it has been receiving.
• Creative SoundWorks SW320 Review - The Creative SoundWorks SW320 is one of the latest additions to the Cambridge SoundWorks 2.1 Speaker systems, which based on what Creative's website says, should be considered into the Music listening speakers category. So for $49.99 (actually a bit less than that), is this system really a worthwhile buy for those of you who are more interested in good musical reproduction than positional audio for Games?
• The Dual Trap: Athlon MP 2000+ vs. Xeon 2200 - Tom's Hardware Guide has written an interesting comparison review of the Athlon MP 2000+ against the Xeon 2200.
• HighSpeed PC Athlon XP Unlocking Kit Review - When the new Athlon XP hit the streets, many overclocking enthusiasts were concerned about the new style of L1 bridges. You couldn't just grab a pencil and unlock the processor anymore. But then along came HighSpeed PC with their unlocking kit and they claimed that life would be good again saying that it was very easy and effective. Come join TweakTown as they delve into this little kit to find out if it works, and if it really is as easy as claimed.
• Adobe Photoshop 7 Preview - Functionality is one reason for its immense popularity: Unlike many applications that become bloated with useless features, each new version of Photoshop adds unique and innovative tools designed to make Adobe's product even more powerful.
• XP Update: Resuming From Standby - This update addresses the "Devices May Not Power Up Properly When Resuming From Standby" issue in Windows XP, and is discussed in Microsft Knowledge Base (KB) Article Q311542.
• 1001 Free Fonts - This site offers tons of TrueType and PostScript fonts for Windows or Mac.
• ePSXe v1.5.1 - ePSXe is a new freeware PSX emulator that takes advantage of the PSEmu Pro plugin system. Nowadays it supports some comercial games, featuring sound, mdec, memory cards, and enhanced playstation graphics thanks to include support for the psemupro plugins. Right now, it is the best freeware Playstation emulator out there.
• Visual Boy Advance v0.9 - Visual Boy Advance is a Game Boy Advance and Game Boy emulator that runs with Windows system. This the SDL version. SDL stands for Simple DirectMedia Layer. It is a cross platform library for graphics, input, audio, threading, etc... that can be used for games, emulators, etc. To some people, the SDL version on Windows may be faster than the DirectX version.

• Athlon XP 2100+ - AMD will unveil its Athlon XP 2100+ processor at CeBit. The 1.73GHz chip outperforms Intel's 2.2GHz Pentium 4 on several benchmarks, the company claims.
• Intel Releases new Xeon MP - The three versions of the Xeon MP (for “multiprocessor”), designed for servers using four or more processors, clock at 1.4 GHz, 1.5 GHz, and 1.6 GHz. The chips feature three levels of integrated cache memory, adding as much as 1MB of Level 3 cache to the already existing 8KB of Level 1 and 256KB of Level 2 cache.
  The 1.4-GHz and 1.5-GHz Xeon MP processors each have 512KB of Level 3 cache. The 1.4-GHz Xeon MP is priced at $1177, and the 1.5-GHz chip at $1980, in 1000-unit quantities. The 1.6-GHz Xeon MP has 1MB of Level 3 cache and is priced at $3692 in 1000-unit.
• Jac virus targets Linux - The Jac virus follows the recent trend of infrequent Linux infecting malware, as the first to hit the platform in three months. Jac infects the Linux binary files in the Linux Executable and Linking Format that exist in the same directory as the virus.
• Teen Hacker's Offer To Help Leads To Felony Charges - A Kansas teenager who the FBI says hacked a California city's Web site and then offered to secure it was charged Thursday with 11 felony counts of computer crime. Matthew T. Kroeker, 18, allegedly used the nickname "Artech" while defacing more than 50 Web sites in 2000.
• Backdoor Worm Disguised As Microsoft Security Bulletin - The "W32/Gibe" worm masquerades as an "Internet Security Update" from Microsoft, according to the Computer Emergency Response Team at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. While the worm is largely non-destructive, the attached file "q216309.exe" when executed installs a backdoor on the infected system that could give intruders near total control over the victim's computer, CERT said.
• Microsoft plans new Filesystem -   CEO Steve Ballmer says, "We want to evolve our storage system." Allchin says the OFS unified storage concept is again in development and will be a major part of Longhorn, the code name for the next version of Windows.
• New Nokia Phones - with Java - : Nokia just released a slew of new phones (including the 9210i) at CEBIT.
• Triplex Millennium Silver GeForce4 Series - Triplex will showcase distinctive new range of Millennium Silver products, based on a shiny silver printed circuit board (PCB). But this silver is more than just a cool design feature; it is also a part of the products leading-edge technology. Triplex has pioneered advances in cooling and EMI performance with its silver PCBs.
• Hercules 3DProphet 4800 Announced - Hercules' european department has released a press info in which they announce the new 3DProphet 4800 - a value placed graphics card based on the KYRO2 SE chipset.
• AMD Athlon XP 2100+ Review - VIAHardware have posted  a review of the latest and posibly last of the Green Palomino core Athlon XP running at 1.7GHz.
• Epox 4DBA2+ Review - All advanced CPU settings can be done in BIOS: multiplier, FSB selection, AGP/PCI ratio, CPU voltage, AGP voltage. The multiplier can be modified between 10x and 19x, the FSB can be increased up to 200Mhz in 1Mhz increments, the AGP/PCI clock can be selected between Auto, (AGP - PCI * 2/3, PCI - FSB/3), and (AGP - 66Mhz, PCI - 33Mhz) and the memory frequency can be adjusted between Auto, FSB and FSB * 4/3.
• MSI GF4 Ti4600 Review - OC Workbench has posted a review of MSI GF4 Ti4600 video card.
• ATI Radeon 8500 64MB Video Card Review - This Video Card has crisp 2D and dual display support, excellent 3D gaming performance and it's affordable. Bang for the buck, this card is hard to beat.
• ATi All-In-Wonder Radeon 7500 Review - As ATI's latest addition to the award winning All-In-Wonder family, the All-In-Wonder Radeon 7500 combines the 2D and 3D graphics of a Radeon 7500 with the unparalleled multimedia features of the All-In-Wonder line. In addition to great graphics performance, the All-In-Wonder Radeon 7500 offers: built-in TV tuner, TV-On-Demand, Interactive Program Guide, up to MPEG-2 video capture, industry leading DVD playback, and a wireless RF remote.
• Iwill XP333 Vcore and IO mod - Before we get started I must make it VERY clear to you that these mods WILL void your warranty and can very easily kill pretty much every piece in your computer. If your IO voltage is too high it can easily burn up anything in your PCI and AGP bus which includes your IDE devices. Pushing your CPU voltage up too high can very easily burn up your CPU. Pushing your RAM voltage too high can of course kill your RAM. Also 1 slip with your soldering iron can also kill anything that it touches. These mods should NOT be used unless you understand that you will be running things at a higher voltage than they are supposed to run at.
• Windows .NET Server pre-RC1 (Build 3615) - Microsoft has released a new interim build of the Windows .NET Server family to official beta testers on its WindowsBetaWeb (password required).
• Ahead Software Nero Express - Nero Express supports virtually every CDR/RW and DVDR/RW drive imaginable and is compatible with new DVD standards ensuring the user top-quality recording every time. Nero Express allows new users to feel comfortable by having an effective wizard walk them through the process of recording audio, video and data CDs.
• copyToXP 1.2 - Registry tweak to enable the useful - but not installed by default - functions of XP and w2k that allow you to copy or move multiple files to any directory, and even create directories on the fly.
• NVmax v4.00.47 - Want more control over your NVIDIA graphics card? Use NVmax to control DirectX, OpenGL and System properties that effect performance, quality and stability.
• Rage3D Tweak v3.1b -Another minor update of this tweaking program.
• Gainward GeForce4 Power Pack BIOSes - Gainward have released new BIOSes  for their GeForce 4 Power Pack series of cards: Download GeForcr4 Powerpack: Ultra/750 XP 128MB Golden Sample BIOS v4.25.00.21, Ultra/700 XP 128MB Golden Sample BIOS v4.25.00.21, Pro/650 XP 64MB Golden Sample BIOS v4.17.00.30, Pro/450 TV 64MB Golden Sample BIOS v4.17.00.37.10, ExperTool v2.84 for Win9x/ME/2000/XP and Nvidia Drivers v26.50 3D glasses for Win9x/ME/2000/XP (English only)
• Leadtek Tools&Driver - Leadtek has released a new Detonator 27.50 drivers and TV2000 drivers. Download: LEADTEK Winfox v2.02.03.40, LEADTEK Winfast Titanium Detonator 27.50 drivers (Win9x/ME / Win2K/XP /
  WinNT4), LEADTEK Winfast 320 Detonator 27.50 drivers (Win9x/ME / Win2K/XP, WinNT4), LEADTEK TV 2000 driver v2.03.08 (Win9x/ME, Win2K/XP), LEADTEK TV 2000 USB drivers v2.03.08 (Win9x/ME, Win 2K/XP).
• Creative Graphics Cards Web Update - This update (Win9x/ME / 2k/XP) is meant for Creative TNT, TNT2, GeForce, GeForce2, GeForce3 and GeForce4 series of graphics and includes better support for newer graphics card and improves performance in some graphics-intensive games.

• Digital TV provider sues rival for piracy - France's Canal+ Group files a suit alleging British rival NDS employed a high-tech lab to break its smart-card security and posted the info online.
• 'Hi Sexy' SMS scam hits mobile users - Mobile phone users are being warned over a text message scam that could end up costing them hundreds of pounds. A message saying "hi sexy" is reported to be luring unsuspecting victims into signing up for a premium rate reverse charging service. Simply replying to the message registers the user to the service. Once signed up, the user is then bombarded with sexually explicit texts for which they have to pay
• Intel's incredible shrinking chip - Intel's experimental SRAM memory chips measure approximately 109 square millimeters and contain up to 52 million bits of data, making them the densest SRAM chips ever produced.
• Fujitsu shrinks fingerprint sensor for portable apps - Fujitsu Microelectronics America Inc. said it has developed a tiny fingerprint sensor that is about one-tenth the size and less than half the cost of conventional fingerprint sensors.
• Atheros WLAN chip set ready for upcoming .11g spec - Atheros Communications Inc. said Monday (March 11) that it is sampling a wireless LAN chip set that supports both IEEE 802.11a and .11b wireless LAN standards and is capable of supporting the 802.11g specification once it is finalized later this year.
• Nix security pandemic - major zlib/libz vuln details - The problem here is a stuff-up in a decompression routine which can corrupt the internal data structures of malloc by a double call to the free() function (double-free), discovered by Matthias Clasen. This enables memory space to be cleared twice, and can crash virtually any program. At the moment there are no known exploits circulating, but of course it's only a matter of time before there will be.
• Intel Demonstrates Prescott's 0.09-micron L2 Cache - Just two weeks ago Intel officially introduced the successor to the Pentium 4 under the codename Prescott. To be released in the second half of 2003, Prescott will be Intel's first 0.09-micron (90nm) CPU that will feature the following: Hyper-Threading technology, Micro-architectural enhancements, Additional L2 cache,   800MHz FSB (200MHz Quad-Pumped),  90nm manufacturing process, Close to 100,000,000 transistors.
• HP Unveils USB 2.0, FireWire DVD+RW Drive - Hewlett Packard today announces two new drives supporting DVD+R/W formats. One of the drive is also HP's first USB 2.0 drive, which happens to get FireWire as well. The new DVD Writer dvd200x-series supports the new DVD+R format, which improves compatibility with consumer DVD players and DVD-ROM drives.
• Thermal Compound Comparison - Dan's Data has tested six premium thermal compounds, from Arctic Silver, Cooler Master and Nanotherm.
• EPOX 8K3A+ Review - EPoX 8KHA+ was one of the best selling KT266A boards for the past months. If you have been following our reviews, EPoX 8KHA+ is one of the best selling and performing boards. This time round, they threw in HightPoint HPT372RAID on board which provides ATA-133 RAID. The EPoX 8K3A+ is an improved version of 8KHA+ based on the VIA KT333 chipset. The Southbridge is VT8233A which supports ATA-133 HD. A 6 channel audio chipset ALC201A is also implemented on board for digital audio.
• FIC RADEON 8500 AT008 Review -  At it's conception the ATi RADEON 8500 created quite a stir. What was the big deal with the RADEON 8500? With the release of the ATi RADEON 8500, ATi finally held the fastest video card title, which for a long time had been held by NVIDIA based video cards. Of course this title was short lived, but it showed the computer gaming world ATi was on the right track and wasn't going to lay down and play dead .
• Leadtek A170 GeForce4 MX440 Review - We've been hearing an awful lot about the new GeForce4 MX cards, but how about from one of the big players in the overclocking world? Join TweakTown as they take you on a tour of the Leadtek A170 GeForce4 MX440 Video Card. Can the Leadtek folks make a winner out of a budget card? Come on in and find out.
• March 2002 PCstats Dream Machines -  There are the current March 2002 PCstats Dream Machines!
• Dual booting Redhat 7.2 and Windows XP - This HOWTO specifically details how to create a dual boot system using Redhat Linux 7.2 and Windows XP with a NTFS file system using the GRUB boot loader.
• Adobe Photoshop 7.0X054 BETA Shots - Some betatester claims that Photoshop 7 starting much faster then version 6.0 and all files include a big size files opening faster then in version 6.0. The final version should to be released very soon, maybe in the end of this week... :) . Check out some screenshots: Screenshot 1, Screenshot 2, Screenshot 3, Screenshot 4.
• The GIMP 1.2.3 For Windows - Wohoo, finally after more than a year a new version of The GIMP - GNU Image Manipulation Program for Windows has been released!
• PHP 4.1.2 for Windows - Following up from the previous annoucement, PHP 4.1.2 has been released for windows. The delayed release is due to the fix of a further security issue only relating to the PHP for Windows version.
• MSN Messenger v4.6.0077 - Leech it though I have no idea what is new inside :)
• PCMark 2002 - PCMark2002 is the first unified personal computer benchmark from MadOnion.com and is suited for testing all kinds of PCs, from laptops to high-end workstations. PCMark2002 tests the following: The CPU, The memory subsystem, Graphics memory, The hard disk drive(s), New Microsoft Windows XP GUI features, Video performance and quality, Laptop battery.
• PowerDVD XP 4.0 Build 1329d Trial- PowerDVD XP 4.0 is the latest evolution of the world acclaimed DVD software program that offers maximum video and audio playback entertainment on the PC. It comes complete with numerous customizable video/audio controls that can deliver the highest quality viewing and listening experience.
• ZoneAlarm Pro v3.0.082 - ZoneAlarm is designed to protect your DSL or cable-connected PC from hackers. This program includes four interlocking security services : a firewall, an Application Control, an Internet Lock, and Zones.
• Rage3D Tweak v3.1 - Rage3D have posted a new version of  their tweak tool.
• Soundblaster Live Drivers v35.12 WHQL with liveware3 for WinXP - Station Drivers have got their hands on CREATIVE's sound blaster live series Drivers v35.12 WHQL with liveware 3 for windows XP.  These new drivers fixes HCT 10 RTM Midi Test failure, pop sound after resuming from hibernation, no sound problem after resuming from S3 Standby mode, center channel lost after resuming from S3 Standby mode, MP3 cannot continue playback from Standby mode.
• VIA VT686A/B and VT8321 v2.20 Drivers - Via has released some new sound drivers for there VT686A/B and VT8321 onboard sound chips. They are dated 12 March 2002. Download: VT686A/B and VT8321 for Win9X/2K/ME/NT/XP,  VT686A/B and VT8321 for Linux RedHat 7.1.
• Creative Labs Detonators - Download: Creative 27.50 Win9x/ME / Creative 27.50 Win2K/XP / Creative 27.50 WinNT4 (GeForce 4 cards added. Performance improved),  If you want WHQL certified drivers, leech these:  Suma 27.42 WHQL Win9X/ME, Suma 27.42 WHQL Win2K/XP, Suma 27.42 WHQL WinNT4.
• Epox 8KHA+ & 8K7A/+ BIOS - New BIOSes for Epox has been released - download.

• Midnight launch for Xbox - Microsoft's first gaming console, the Xbox, will be launched in the UK on 14th March. In response, games retailer Electronics Boutique is opening its stores late on the 13th March, so that customers can receive pre-ordered Xboxes at midnight.
• "Phantom Menace" Typing Just A Microsoft Speech Feature - Random words and characters mysteriously appearing on the screens of some Windows XP and Office XP users are not the work of phantom hackers or a sign that users' systems are possessed by demons. It's just Microsoft's voice recognition system running slightly amok, the company said. In recent weeks, several XP users have posted messages to Internet discussion lists and newsgroups reporting that text is automatically appearing in Internet Explorer's address bar or in Outlook e-mail messages or Word documents as users compose them.
• ICQ hack theories flood into Vulture Central - A search of the AOL Mirabilis ICQ whitepages reveals hundreds of accounts all with this address (registered in countries such as China and Egypt). We began to suspect a mass hack.
• AOL embraces Linux and Mozilla, plans to drop MS Explorer - Sources inside AOL and Red Hat say AOL is making a major internal switch to Linux, and the long-rumored AOL default browser switch from Microsoft's Internet Explorer to Mozilla -- or at least Mozilla's Gecko rendering engine -- is well under way, but AOL will probably not offer an AOL client for Linux in the forseeable future.
• Flaw weakens Linux computers (updated) -  A buffer overflow causes key memory-management functions in the zlib compression library to fail, a condition that could allow a smart attacker to compromise Linux computers.
• New drives rewrite HP DVD+RW line - Hewlett-Packard announces two new DVD+RW drives that aim to address one of the major criticisms of the DVD rewritable and recordable formats: compatibility.
• Virgin and Playboy in porn pact - Mobile operator Virgin is considering jumping on the porn bandwagon. The UK mobile operator is in talks with Playboy over the delivery of soft porn via the handset.
• Exploding star may have sparked Earth disaster - Piecing together clues from astronomy, paleontology and geology, scientists have proposed that an ancient supernova may have damaged the protective ozone layer around the Earth and wreaked havoc on terrestrial life.
• Hunger Hormone Found - British researchers said on Monday they had isolated a "hunger hormone" that dramatically boosts human food consumption, raising the prospects of new treatments for both the obese and the malnourished.
• Recordable DVD Drives ~ Plus and minus all over again  - I'll start by giving a brief overview of each drive and its capabilities. Later on, we'll explore the performance of each drive, as well as the compatibility of the various types of media.
• Sony Introduces Two Handhelds - Sony Japan has just introduced two new cutting-edge handhelds. The PEG-NR70 and PEG-NR70V both have built-in keyboards and 320 by 480 color screens. They also have built-in MP3 and ATRAC3 audio players. In addition, the PEG-NR70V has a built-in camera.
• GeoCities offers new paid services - As previously reported, Yahoo recently told GeoCities' home page publishers it would begin charging fees for people using FTP. A Yahoo executive attributed the price change to abuse by nonpaying users of FTP and remote loading, and to attempts to address costs of offering the service. One new GeoCities feature, called GeoCities Plus, will cost $4.95 a month with a one-time $10 setup fee. The service doesn't serve ads and offers 25MB of storage, FTP access and additional bandwidth. 
• Creative Buys 3D Labs - Creative Technology today announced a definitive agreement under which Creative will acquire 3Dlabs Inc., Ltd.for a combination of US$1.20 per share in cash and US$2.40 per share in Creative stock for each share of 3Dlabs.
• Star Wars II Trailer #4 - Leech the new starwars trailer just here. Enjoy :)
• ASUS A7V333 KT333 Motherboard Review - The ASUS A7V333 is the first motherboard we are reviewing based on the high-performance KT333 chipset from VIA. It seems that ASUS is one of the first motherboard manufactures to deliver a KT333 based board, making use of nearly every feature and enhancement the chipset supports. Incorporating DDR333 (PC2700), ATA133 RAID, high-speed USB 2.0, 6-Channel Audio, as well as a host of incredible, innovative and unique features. So sit back and take a deep breath as we uncover the latest board to appear on the scene - the ASUS A7V333.
• SiS 645DX - Is This The Best Chipset For The P4? - The Intel Pentium 4 has a problem: the Rambus platform, based on the Intel 850 chipset, has not enjoyed widespread penetration of the market. Only a few manufacturers have a motherboard with this chipset in their portfolios. Rather, the Pentium 4, fitted with an 845 board and SDRAM, is sold as a complete system by the major chain stores.
• What You Need To Know About IT Certifications - This article goes into the world of computer certifications, covering popular Microsoft exams such as MCSE, MCSA, MCDBA, and MCSD, as well as other exams such as A+, N+, i-Net+, S+, RHCE, CCNA, CCNP, CCIE, and more! If you're interested in getting certified, or if you think you know what you're doing, check this article out for some handy information and great tips and tricks.
• Official Mediaplayer Xbox Skin - The ultimate game system meets the ultimate media player! The official Xbox skin combines Xbox-inspired styling with the top digital media experience of Windows media player. (Win9x/ME/2k / XP)
• Mozilla 0.9.9 - Mozilla.org has released the next version of Mozilla, version 0.9.9. Highlights include MathML enabled by default on Unix and Win32, and TrueType font support on Unix.
• Blackbox for Windows 0.30 - Blackbox for Windows is yet another addition to the long list of alternative shells for Microsoft Windows. It is based stylistically on the Blackbox window manager for Linux by Brad Hughes.
• SpyStopper 1.75 - This small utility can block intrusive spyware, Web bugs, worms, cookies, advertisements, and scripts. Protect you from being profiled and tracked.
• DVD Decrypter v3.0.0.13 - DVD Decrypter 3.0.0.13 has improved ISO read and write modes, read commands are now set to timeout after a configurable delay, the drive detection code has been rewritten, the ability to change a drive's region code has been added, the CPU usage has been reduced and as usual there are some bugfixes.
• R-Studio 2.0 - R-Studio is a family of powerful and cost-effective data recovery and undelete utilities. Empowered by the new unique data recovery technologies, it is the most comprehensive solution for data recovery from FAT12/16/32, NTFS, NTFS5 (created or updated by Windows 2000) and Ext2FS (LINUX file system) partitions.
• ALI AGP Driver 1.83 - TweakUp has posted a new ALI AGP drivers 1.83.
• nVidia Leaked Detonators v27.52 - Maximum Reboot has posted a leaked nVidia 27.52 detonators for Win2k/XP.

• Geneva International Motor Show - The new GM Autonomy fuel cell technology vehicle is presented Tuesday, March 5, at the 72nd Geneva International Motor Show in Geneva, Switzerland. Check out new cool cars! :)
• U.S. Works Up Plan for Using Nuclear Arms -  The Bush administration has directed the military to prepare contingency plans to use nuclear weapons against at least seven countries and to build smaller nuclear weapons for use in certain battlefield situations, according to a classified Pentagon report obtained by the Los Angeles Times.
• Visiontek Xtasy 6564 GeForce3 Ti 200 Review - In modern times NVIDIA has been trying a new method by releasing video cards completely different to the old style which was to just come out with a new card that had faster speed and add a Pro or Ultra on to the end of the normal card. Now they have done something completely new by coming up with a whole new series of cards and basically creating a GeForce3 Pro and MX but naming them the Ti 200 and Ti 500.
• Matrox Millennium G550 Dual-DVI Review - Matrox being Matrox just isn't interested in the 3D side of things and is still a couple of generations behind the competition, but there is reasoning behind this. Their line of graphics cards focus heavily on image quality, 2D performance and advanced features - the way it's been all along for Matrox. So without further a due, we bring you the latest creation from Matrox, the G550 Dual-DVI.
• Windows XP Patches - Microsoft has released an update that addresses the "Original Keyboard Layout Appears after You Configure a New Default Input Method Editor (IME)" issue in Windows XP and also patch that addresses the "System has recovered from a serious error" issue in Windows XP.
• Symantec pcAnywhere 10.5.1 Patch - Symantec has just released a free patch 10.5.1 for pcAnywhere. This new patch updates pcAnywhere with enhanced support for Windows XP Fast User Switching, addresses laptop computer video and power management issues and adds support for cross domain authentication on Windows NT.
• GNOME 2.0 Beta 2 - The second beta of GNOME 2.0 it out. The GNOME 2.0 Desktop is a greatly improved user environment for existing GNOME applications. Enhancements include anti-aliased text and first class internationalisation support, new accessibility features for disabled users, and many improvements throughout GNOME's highly regarded user interface.
• Mandrake 8.2 RC1 - Mandrake 8.2 RC1 (3CDs) is out. Mandrake also announced that it will appear at CeBIT. 8.2 final will most probably be available at that time.
• Easy CD Creator patch - Roxio has released a new patch for their Easy CD Creator Basic CD burning suite. Easy CD Creator 5.1.1 adds drive support and several fixes for all operating systems; it adds support for DVD-R and DVD-RW, as well as adding Windows XP support.
• XMPEG v4.31 alpha - XMPEG is a modification version of FlaskMPEG. This program decodes MPEG1 (Audio & Video) and MPEG2 streams and offers you the possibilty to reencode theses streams in the format you want. Actual evolutions makes this XMPEG faster, more stable, and add a lot of options.
• BSPlayer v0.84 beta build 481 - It's windows player for playing back avi/asf/wmv/mpeg video files or any other file for which you have a codec. I very like this one.
• Sound Forge v5.0e build 259 - It's my favourite one, Sound Forge is two-track digital audio editor that includes a powerful set of audio processes, tools, and effects for manipulating audio.
• Opera v6.02 beta build 1056 - This is a newer beta version of Opera browser.
• PowerStrip 3.15 Final Build 268 - PowerStrip 3.15 provides advanced, multi-monitor, programmable hardware support to a wide range of graphics cards - from the venerable Matrox Millennium I to the latest Radeon 8500DV and GeForce4 Ti4600.
• CPUCooL 7.0.14 - CPUCooL is a program that monitors temperature, fan speed, and voltages for many motherboards. It works with all chipsets from Intel, ALI, VIA, AMD, and SIS 5595 motherboards. This new version adds KR7A (RTM560-266R) PLL support, VIA KT333 chipset support, ITE87XX sensor fix, Dell notebook monitor support.
• GeForce Tweak Utility v3.2 t28 - This utility allows you make a lot of modifications to the registry settings of any GeForce videocard. GeForce256 DDR, GeForce2/MX/Pro/Ultra, GeForce3, Quadro, Quadro2/Pro/MXR, Quadro DCC.
• SBLive To Audigy Conversion Results -  MaxReboot has recieved this e-mail from vcept. He included a screenshot with it: I tried the SBLive -> Audigy shit, and it appears to work as far as I can tell, not much testing done at the moment. Included is a screeny of the device manager showing my SBLive using the Audigy drivers for itself and the gameport with a benchmark in the background showing the cpu usage before and after, notice the huge drop in % and that the second scores are exactly what an Audigy would get apart from the two spikes to 46 and 44% but that was probably because I was doing other shit while the benchmark was going. For more info check Maxreboots coverage of the conversion and download Audigy.rar (54MB) with instructions on how to proceed. Mirrors: HC TechNews, TweakUp, Hardware Online.

• Xbox and PS2 in online combat - Sony has looked to steal a march on Microsoft's plans for online gaming with its Xbox console, to be launched next Thursday [14 March]. Sony has said it will launch its own online services in the US this August. It is currently trialling UK versions of the service with cable operator Telewest, with additional trials due to start shortly. Sony will start selling a network adapter for $39.99 in August. Microsoft's Xbox has a built-in Ethernet port and the software giant has said it would begin to roll out online services later this year.
• First 3D Simulations of Complete Nuclear Detonations - The National Nuclear Security Administration on Thursday issued a news release about the first full-system 3D simulations of a nuclear weapon explosion, a significant achievement for Los Alamos and Science Applications International Corp.
• MyLife worm tries to delete Windows files - MyLife (w32.mylife@mm) is a 30,720-byte worm written in Visual Basic and compressed using UPX. If executed, the worm will attempt to mail copies of itself to everyone in the user's address book and will attempt to delete critical Windows files. Fortunately, a bug in the current worm code prevents MyLife from deleting any files.
• Sun to sue Microsoft for $1 billion - Sun Microsystems Inc. sued rival Microsoft for more than $1 billion Friday because the software giant made the Windows XP operating system incompatible with Sun's Java programming language.
• Flaw is an OpenSSH case - Multiple Linux distributions released a security advisory yesterday detailing a security flaw in the OpenSSH connectivity protocol. OpenSSH is a secure encrypted suite of tools often used to replace Telnet, Rlogin and FTP, and is commonly used for remote administration.  But a security bug in versions 2.0 up to 3.0.2 can be exploited to execute arbitrary code on the process under attack. This can mean the local SSH client, userID of a connected client user, or a remote secure shell daemon that has an authenticated user session running, attacking the root account of the remote system.
• Pringles: the latest hacker tool -  Security experts have demonstrated that even an empty Pringles tin can be used to help hackers break into insecure wireless networks. It has been a well documented fact that armed with a wireless-equipped laptop and antenna, hackers have no shortage of victims around London.   But security firm I-sec recently demonstrated that using an empty Pringles tube as an antenna could boost the hacker's chance of picking up a wireless signal by as much as 15 per cent.
• Corel Calls on GRAPHICS SUITE Beta Testers - Corel GRAPHICS SUITE includes a world-class vector illustration and page layout application, an intuitive vector animation application, and a powerful image editing and painting application.   We are looking for individuals on both PC and Macintosh platforms, with experience using CorelDRAW, Adobe Illustrator, Macromedia Flash, Adobe Photoshop, Corel PHOTO-PAINT, and Micrografx Picture Publisher.
• Is Netscape 6 Spyware? - Anytime a Navigator user performs a search by typing terms into the browser's URL bar and pressing the adjacent Search button, or by using the Search tab on the browser's My Sidebar feature, the user data is sent to a server at info.netscape.com using a uniform resource locator (URL) forwarding system.
• ITExpo 2002 Coverage -  Join TweakTown as they determine if ITExpo has got what it takes to compete with the likes of Taiwan's Computex and USA's COMDEX.
• ATI TV Wonder USB Review - A good TV Tuner should ultimately not only be a replacement for a television, but should also integrate well with the PC to bring features that would not normally be available on a conventional TV.
• Intel Northwood 2.4GHz Review - The main difference between the Northwood core and the previous P4 core, Willamette, is that now Northwood is built with 0.13µ (micron) production technology and has 512 KB L2 Cache. Moreover the copper material enables the use of thinner wires compared to the aluminum used in Willamette. (To help you get a better idea of the size, say that, hair has 60µ diameter).
• EVGA e-GeForce4 MX 440 Review - The Geforce4 MX series lacks one of the biggest features that differentiates between the Geforce3 and Geforce4 series of graphics cards, nVidia's new nfiniteFX II engine. The nfiniteFX II engine is comprised of dual Vertex and pixel shaders. Without these two extra pipelines the MX440 is being held back significantly. The MX 440 also misses on the DirectX mark by failing to include full DX8.1 support.
• Inno3D Tornado Video Card Review - This card sports a brownish-black PCB and equipped with a Silver Orb cooler. It is fitted with 4 x 16MB 4ns Samsung DDR memory which is above the memory specifications of the GF4 MX440 and we have managed to overclocked the card from 270/400Mhz to 320/500Mhz. Check out its performance against the GeForce3 Ti200.
• VIA KT133 & AMD 760 Chipset Tweaking Guides - Mods4ME has published a KT133 and an AMD 760 Chipset Tweaking guides.
• Decode the Trillian Password - Trillian has a save password function. The save password function is default and many users do not bother to untick it. I was shocked at how they store the passwords. They store the passwords in a file with all the other users details. In any of these .ini files, you will find something like this: "password=9E5FF1A54AF5ACFD03C7"  An easy way to get into someones MSN via Trillian is to copy this and put it in your own .ini file and of course changing your email address to their's, then sign in... But say you wanted to know what their MSN password was. (thanks Ibellite.com)
• Antivirus Updates (March 08) - Kaspersky Anti-Virus (AVP) Weekly Update, Norton Antivirus 4.0/5.0/2000 Definition Update.
• PowerDVD XP 4.0 Patch 1329b - No words found on the Cyberlink website what's new in this version - just download it.
• Active@ Partition Recovery 1.0 - Active@ Partition Recovery is a very small, easy to use DOS Program (only 150k in size) using which you can: Recover deleted partitions (FAT and NTFS), Restore deleted FAT and NTFS Logical Drives, Create Drive Image - for backup purposes,  Scan hard drives and displays deleted FAT and NTFS partitions and/or Logical Drives, Preview files and folders on deleted partition or drive, to recover proper data, Do backup MBR (Master Boot Record), Partition Table, Boot Sectors, Restore MBR, Partition Table and Boot Sectors from backup if damaged.
• Kerio Personal Firewall 2.1 - Freeware Kerio Personal Firewall (KPF) is a software agent that builds a barrier between your personal computer and the Internet. KPF is designed to protect your PC against attacks from both the Internet, and other computers in the local network.
• Radeonator 1.70/Radeonator 1.1 LE - Radeonator is a tool for tweaking your ATI Radeon 8xxx/7xxx/64DDR/LE/VE/32DDR cards. This tweaker only works on Microsoft Windows 2000/XP for now but there will be 9X/ME support soon.  Radeonator 1.1 LE is simplified version that allows you to overclock ATI cards - nothing more, nothing less.
• ATI Radeon 4.13.9021 Driver - It's dated 02/28/2002 and it contains updated OpenGL ICD among other files thus expect a few bug fixes over the last set and perhaps performance increases :) The following cards are listed as being supported: Radeon 7200 / Radeon, Radeon 7000 / Radeon VE, Radeon 7500, Radeon 8500 leech it now (Win98/ME).
• Sparkle Detonators 27.42 - Sparkle have posted their 27.XX series of drivers v27.42 for 95/98/ME & 27.42 WHQL for 2000/XP.

• Computer spy methods found in LED lights - Scientists have discovered a way to remotely eavesdrop on computer data by monitoring optical signals from the little flashing lights on everything from monitors to modems and routers.
• Online virus generator will return - The creator of the now infamous online virus generator, shut down earlier this week after vnunet.com's exposé, has vowed to bring the site back. The 15 year-old Romanian coder, who only identifies himself as Smecher Piratul, which translates as 'sly pirate', told vnunet.com that "the site will be resurrected for sure somewhere else".
• Holes found in Sony's online game plan - Sony Computer Entertainment of America (SCEA) executives announced that a PS2 network adapter, with an Ethernet port for broadband Internet and a modem for dial-up access, will go on sale in August, along with games from Sony and third-party publishers that support online play. The network adapter will work with any ISP (Internet service provider), and Sony's installation CD will include software for automatically setting up customers of popular online services such as America Online and EarthLink, SCEA President Kaz Hirai said in a conference call.
• No Pain, No Game - Have you ever had a hankering to play a computer game that allows you to inflict real pain on your opponent? Ever wondered how it would feel to shock, burn and lash your opponent into submission? Well, wonder no more. Two German designers have addressed this yawning gap in the gaming industry with a fiendish invention called, appropriately enough, the Painstation.. The concept is simple. Two players eyeball each other over a table console. The left-hand is positioned on a sensor field -- otherwise know as a PEU, or Pain Execution Unit. When both players have made this electric contact, the game, and the real fun, commences.
• Online population nears half billion mark - The company said some 498 million people could surf the web from home by the end of 2001, a jump of 5.1 percent from the figure in July-September.
• Teen Anarchist Back Online Despite FBI & Big ISPs - Sherman Austin has not been charged with breaking any laws, but that hasn't stopped two of the biggest Internet service providers (ISPs) from running the California teenager off their property for his anarchist views. Last month, after incarcerating Austin, 18, for more than a week, federal prosecutors decided not to file charges against Austin for publishing bomb-making information at his site Raisethefist.com and hacking into several sites to post revolutionary calls to arms.
• Removable dreams come true - As predicted on the news pages this week, eight firms, among them some of the largest names in Japan's electronics industry, have formed a consortium to promote and license a new removable hard disk system. Prototype systems look to give modular, scalable hard drive capacity at the consumer and small office home office (SoHo) level. One version of the vision looks very similar to a small, cutesy Raid array system (pictured).
• Raytown Corporation Anti-Keylogger 1.12 - Fight back! New software promises to disable the spyware that monitors keyboard strokes.
• Compex WP11 - WLU11 Wireless Network Review - Both of these products are based on the 802.11b wireless networking standard, the most popular standard for wireless LANs. These products are designed for home users, or small office networks - where great transfer speeds are not required. A maximum theoretical throughput of 11Mbps (claimed effective throughput is 7.5Mbps) will not be fast enough for running large applications over a network, but will be enough for tasks such as network gaming, file sharing, internet sharing etc.
• Abit BD7 Raid I845 DDR Review - BD7 Raid's overclocking ability is amazing! I was able to push our good old P4 1600Mhz to 1944 Mhz stable around 121 FSB.
• MSI G4MX440-T Review - Hardware Mania has written a review of MSI G4MX440-T video card.
• Abit Siluro GeForce4 MX440 Review - TweakTown has posted a review of Abit Siluro GeForce4 MX440 Video Card.
• Visiontek GeForce 3 Ti500 Review - Viper's Lair has posted a review of  Visiontek's GeForce 3 Ti500.
• Hercules 3D Prophet FDX 8500LE Review - T-Break has posted  a review of Hercules 3D Prophet FDX 8500LE graphics card, based on the ATI Radeon 8500 chipset with a clock/core speed of 250MHz.
• Eizo FlexScan F931 21'' Monitor Review - The Eizo Flexscan F931 with it's 31.0kg weight is certainly one of the bigger if not one of the biggest competitors in the CRT monitor market but in our opinion is one of the most desirable one's because of it's excellent technological features like the capability to display a resolution of 1600 dots x 1200 lines flicker-free at 104 Hz which is most ergonomic and eye pleasing or the ability to connect two PC's to the monitor. If you now feel like your old 17'' CRT monitor has grown of ages maybe it's time to head for a bigger one.
• Canon Photo Printers: S900 and S9000 Review - The start of a new year seems to have given Canon the inspiration to pull out all the stops in its inkjet printer offerings. While Canon's competition is remarkable for its absence (i.e., none of them announced any new products), the Japanese manufacturer has launched no less than six new models.
• Operation Flashpoint Tweak Guide - Operation Flashpoint was one of the big PC Game hits of last year, thanks to a healthy combination of good AI, realism, squad management & some great missions. 3D Spotlight's guide will take you through the mass of options available for the Game, along with other tips & hints.
• Turn Your Creative SB Live! 2 SB Audigy - Well if you want to know how to do this and how to modify the driver hit read more
• Unchecked Buffer in Windows Shell Could Lead to Code Execution - download patch
• The All-Seeing-Eye v1.7.5 - This popular game server browser has been updated to support: Shadow Force Razor Unit (demo & retail), C&C Renegade (demo & retail), Star Trek: Bridge Commander, Half-Life Steam (Counter-Strike 1.4 beta).
• Tweak XP 1.29 - This new version features:  Integration of the new 'Minimizer-XP' application, several internal optimizations and fixes to a few tweaks, updated language files and several changes.
• Customizer XP v1.7.8 Final - Customizer XP is an integrated suite of programs that can help you to tweak your Windows 2000/XP to its fullest potential performance or just keep it running like new.
• BlindWrite v1.2.3 - BlindWrite suite is a tool designed to perfectly reproduce most CD. RAW mode is needed to produce perfect backups of some protected CDs! DAO mode is even better.
• NTFSMax 2000++ - A  program that speeds up NTFS filesystems a great deal by tuning the filesystem at the registry level in many areas to stop NTFS from having to make some entries on each time a file is accessed, thus less entries made & less time spent by the filesystem drivers having to do them. It also tunes whether the Operating System itself pages itself to disk as well, thus keeping it in RAM for faster access/reaccess as well.
• dRAMatic 6.1-  It allows you to optimize (not just free) your system memory with its advanced defragmentation and garbage collection algorythms.
• pcTuner 1.8 Beta 2 -  With pcTuner you will able to configure hundreds of Windows 9x/ME/2K hidden settings, from the Start Menu, Desktop, Accessories, Windows Explorer.
• Matrox Tweak Utility 4.03.002 - A tweaking tool for Matrox Video cards.
• Asus Tweaking Utility 3.50 - This utility is provided for fine tuning your ASUS display card.
• ATI Refresh Rate Fixer 0.99 Beta - This programs main function is to set refresh rates under Windows 2000 and XP in OpenGL and Direct3D modes. Supported videocards: - ATI RAGE 128/RAGE and 128 PRO/RADEON
• Alcatel Speed Touch USB Modem 1.6 Beta Drivers - A new 1.6 beta drivers for the Alcatel Speed Touch USB modem are available.
• ATI BIOS Editor RadEdit v1.0 - This is the first universal BIOS editor for Radeon-based videocards. This program let you modify clock speeds and BIOS fonts for any videocard based on R100, RV100, RV200, R200 chips.
• VIA PCI Latency Patch 0.19d - This version is designed to maximize the performance of RAID IDE and SCSI controllers. It has not been tested for compatibility with sound cards. Please use this on a trial basis only, and report your findings to Feedback. Be sure to mention which version of the patch you are trying, and what model of motherboard is in your computer. This version has a known issue: copying from a PCI network card to a local RAID hard disk is slow.
• NVIDIA Tech Demos - Nvidia has released 3 small effects demos - Explosions, Cloud Cover and Brushed Metal.
• NVIDIA Linux Drivers -  New Nvidia Linux Drivers 1.0-2802 has been released. This new drivers features GeForce4 and Quadro4 Support (see products supported list), OpenGLr 1.3 with NVIDIA extensions, Improved IGP and mobile support, Overlay support for Quadro products, MPEG acceleration for GeForce4 MX and Anisotropic filtering support.

• Gigabyte flooded with e-hate mail - The 17 year-old girl who wrote the Sharp virus has been attacked by other virus writers in a torrent of sexist abuse. Just one day after Gigabyte denied claims that she was using her virus writing ability to fight against sexism in IT, her website was flooded with personal attacks from 'enlightened' members of the hacker community.
• Dozens of human embryos cloned in China - Chinese scientists are claiming a great leap forward in human cloning - the creation of dozens of cloned embryos advanced enough to harvest embryonic stem cells.
• PS2 Linux Kit Shipping in May - Sony announced through an e-mail that the Linux PS2 kits were available for pre-order. The kits should be shipped May 22nd.
• More on MPEG4 Fees - On Jan. 31, the agency charged with licensing MPEG-4, a standard for digital audio and video compression, announced a series of new fees. Manufacturers of software programs that incorporate MPEG-4 would be required to pay 25 cents for each copy they sell (up to a cap of $1 million per year). More controversially, the alliance of companies pushing the MPEG-4 standard also proposed a "use fee" -- a 2 cents an hour charge that either users or manufacturers of the software would have to come up with.
• Hack Turns iPod into PDA - Provue Development has released a personal info and contact manager app called iPod Organizer. The program enables use of iPod for storing and retrieving phone numbers, email addresses, flight numbers, appointment times and other data. It also comes with a sync feature.
• Hercules 3D Prophet 7500 All-in-Wonder Review - The All-In-Wonder series have extra capabilities, we're not talking about the nifty 3D features and performance here, no built-in Stereo TV tuner, MPEG playback that translates itself in DVD, VCD and basically any video format hardware decoding.
• Abit KR7A-133R Review - The KR7A-133 is an updated version of Abit's popular KR7A, a premier KT266A motherboard. The KR7A-133 features the same KT266A Northbridge as the KR7A, but has an updated Southbridge, the VT8233A, which has native ATA/133 support. The KR7A uses the VT8233 Southbridge, which only supports up to ATA/100 speeds.
• MSI-645Ultra Motherboard Review - MSI offering of the 645 platform performs extremely well and very stable with no suprises throughout the testing phaze but a major bug in its AMI BIOS have somewhat hindered its overall score.
• IBM ThinkPad A31p - Tom's Hardware Guide has posted an exlusive first look at IBM ThinkPad A31p.
• Thermaltake Active Memory Cooling Kit Review - RAM module is more often clocked in last time, through that the memory modules warm up more strongly. The Cooling Kit is supposed to add to the improvement of the refrigerating capacity. The question Needs normally a customer this Kit? or it is a alternative only for Overclocker.
• EPoX and Visiontek GF 4 Ti4600 problem solved -
• More on Creative Audigy Rumor - Apparently, a Chinese or Taiwanese user hacked the drivers and made his SBLive! card into a fully fuctional Audigy, minus the Firewire ports (and, presumably, the Philips DAC). Now, even if this is all true, I'm not sure this one rises to the level of real news. I haven't paid attention to it much myself, but I have heard from folks in the know that the Audigy's 24-bit/96KHz capabilities don't run all the way through the card's audio pipeline. This Audigy review at GamePC doesn't indicate any real advances in the Emu 10K2 chip. And we all know about Creative's traditional (ahem) breakneck pace of innnovation.
• WinSuperSite Updated -  yeah some articles seems to be useful: The Road to Windows "Longhorn" ,  Office XP Tips and Windows XP Tips,  Windows .NET Server Family FAQ, Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1) FAQ.
• Windows XP Configuration Tweak Guide - This guide is designed to help you get the most out of your Windows XP system. It will provide you with tips and instructions on how you can tweak/hack/modify your own Windows XP configuration for better performance, functionality, and usability. Use at your own risk.
• Unchecked Buffer in SNMP Service Could Enable Arbitrary Code to be Run - download patch.
• ZoneAlarm Pro 3.0 - ZoneAlarm Pro 3.0 contains a redesigned interface for a smoother user experience with even stronger security. ZoneAlarm Pro 3.0 'hardens' security further with enhancements to its powerful Program Control feature. Program Control allows users to determine which programs are allowed to communicate with the Internet, thus preventing Trojan horse programs from 'calling home' and transmitting a user's information or opening a back door on the PC that a hacker can manipulate remotely.
• Active Network Monitor 1.0 Beta 3 - Active Network Monitor (ANM) is a tool for the day-to-day monitoring of computers on a network. ANM runs under Windows NT/2000/XP.
• XP Skins v0.9 beta -  XP Skins change the look of older windows programs with one click of the mouse: now all your programs will support xp skins (Windows XP themes).
• Winamp Pilot 3.00 - A new version of Winamp Pilot (download) has been released. This is a plug-in to control Winamp outside the program itself.   This new version has been completely rewritten, it should be more stable and all EInvalidOperation errors should be finally gone now.
• WebSite-Watcher 3.40 - You can use this baby to track your favourite websites or software for changes.
• KaZaA 1.5.1 - The KaZaa Media Desktop is a second-generation peer-to-peer file-sharing service with which you can search and download media files from other KaZaa users.
• LimeWire v2.2.3 - LimeWire is a software package which enables individuals to search for and share computer files with anyone on the internet. LimeWire is compatible with the Gnutella file-sharing protocol and can connect with anyone else running Gnutella-compatible software.
• CpuUsage System Service - Have you ever faced a situation where you have waited for a program to complete and had the feeling the program may have crashed? Wouldn't it be nice if you could always see if your CPU is really working? Well, you could have the task manager window in front, but how about a program that doesn't waste valuable screen space? CPUUsage System Service is a free tool that displays the cpu load as a tray icon image. It's very easy to use and utilizes minimal resources.
• ALI AGP ver. 1.83 Driver - ALI support have released a new AGP Driver v1.83 (release notes).

• Clock's ticking on Klez worm time bomb - A new version of an old worm is set to trigger its destructive payload on March 6. Klez.E (w32.Klez.E@mm) is sometimes called the Twin Virus because the worm is used to spread an upgraded version of the ElKern virus (w32.elkern.b). The new version can now infect Windows 98, Me, 2000, and XP, attempting to corrupt files on these systems without changing their sizes.
• CIA details found on Google - Security experts demonstrated today just how effectively determined attackers can use freely and openly available information on the internet to gather intelligence about a target organisation. Without using port scans or direct probes of the CIA network, and employing methodologies entirely within the boundaries of UK and US law, Matta was able to "build a clear network map" of the CIA's infrastructure. 'Whois' and DNS requests identified the CIA's global points of presence and listed the domain names and network blocks used by the organisation, which consisted of the CIA.gov, UCIA.gov and ODCI.gov hosts.
• New RADIUS vulns exposed - Numerous holes in the ubiquitous RADIUS (remote authentication dial-in user service) protocol can be exploited with results including denial of service and running arbitrary code on the target device, a Russian security researcher has demonstrated. The risk of the DoS attack is considerably greater, and can be achieved two ways. 3APA3A has a simple tool for testing RADIUS vulnerabilities available here.
• New Drug Stops Liver Damage from Alcohol - Now called Ceplene, the recycled drug has been shown to reverse liver damage in rats injected with ethanol. Usually, untreated rats injected with ethanol would exhibit symptoms related to alcohol abuse. The ones who received Ceplene had their damage "completely reversed".
• eVGAs GeForce4 MX 440 Review -  The GeForce4 MX 440 is powered by Nvidia's newest GeForce4 graphics core. However, appearances can be deceiving as with the GeForce4 MX. One should think of this in terms of the GeForce2 MX. The original GeForce2 MX was essentially a GeForce2 core clocked slower and minus two rendering pipelines. Taking the same concept, the GeForce4 is basically a twin-pipelined, lite version of a GeForce3/4 hybrid. Today, with the support of eVGA, Hardware Pub will demonstrate eVGA's GeForce4 MX 440 against the contemporary and similarly priced GeForce3 Ti200 and ATi Radeon 7500 video cards.
• Gainward GeForce4 Ti4600 Review - T-Break has posted a review of Gainward's GeForce 4 Ti4600 graphics card and compared it to the ASUS GF4 Ti4600.
• Western Digital WD1200JB With 8 MB Cache Review - Western Digital makes the headlines on a regular basis - in a positive way. Once the company began focusing on high-end IDEs around the end of 1999, it wasn't long until we saw the results: WD was the first manufacturer to offer an IDE drive with 100 GB and 7,200 rpm. Some weeks later, a 120 GB version followed. To increase the performance of these drives even further, the top models (-JB, instead of -BB) are equipped with 8 MB rather than 2 MB cache memory. Will this be enough to compete with the fastest SCSI drives as well?
• ADS USB 2.0 Drive Kit Review - While most companies offer full hard drive packages, ADS opted to allow users to expand their own storage devices to USB 2.0 with their USB 2.0 Drive Kit.
• Audiovox DVD-1500 Portable DVD Player Review - Monster Hardware has written a review of the Audiovox DVD-1500 Portable DVD Player.
• Adobe Premiere beta update 6.02 - The Adobe Premiere 6.02 update provides fixes to known issues in Premiere. Please note that this update is still in beta.
• HyperSnap-DX v4.31.01 - HyperSnap-DX 4 is a screen capture and image editing tool for MS Windows. It captures screens from standard desktop programs and even those hard-to-grab DirectX, Direct3D, 3Dfx Voodoo and Glide mode games.
• Opera Browser 6.02 Build 1052 - Opera Software have released new betaversion of  Opera 6.02 build 1052.
• Customizer XP 1.7.8 Beta 2 - Customizer XP is an integrated suite of programs that can help you to tweak your Windows 2000/XP to its fullest potential performance or just keep it running like new. It offers a wide range possibility to customize and optimize your Windows program.
• DriverManager 1.02 - DriverManager (freeware) is a tool designed to allow System Administrators, Power Users and Driver Developers an easy means to view, modify or remove drivers and their information on Windows NT 4, Windows 2000 and Windows XP platforms.
• 2xExplorer v1.3.1.10 - This freeware combines the user-friendliness of the latter with the increased efficiency and advanced features of good-old dual-pane file managers like Norton Commander. It is a package that will appeal to the power user, yet its similarity with Explorer will ensure that less experienced users will not be driven away either.
• ATIVX player - This player is not like the others players, because it's the first player capable to extend itself the desktop when you start it and cancel this extension when you close it! This function is very useful when you have a dual head card like Radeon VE / 7500 / 8500, because you have the video only on the second screen (the tv or the second monitor). However, if you have a mono head card like Radeon 7200 / ViVo / AIW, it works on the first monitor.
• GeForce Tweak Utility 3.2 t24 Beta - Download new beta here.
• Audigy Driver vs SB Live - Check this article (the other articles in English has been already removed by request of Creative)
• Shuttle BIOSes - Download new Shuttle AK35GT non-raid edition bios / Shuttle AK35GT/R version bios (updated RAID BIOS).
• NVIDIA WDM Personal Cinema driver v1.11 - download.
• Creative WebCam Drivers - Creative has released new drivers for Video Blaster WebCam and Video Blaster MovieMaker.
• Asus MB BIOSes (betas) - Asus has released tons of BIOS updates for their motherboards.
• Asus 27.70 Detonators (XP/Win2k) - Techno-Garb have modded the latest 27.70 Nvidia Detonator drivers for Windows 2000/XP to work on Asus cards. They removed multilingual support. These still don't work right as far as AGP mem goes for A7A266 people.
• Gainward-nvidia Detonators v27.50 - Gainward have released new version their detonators v27.50 for WinALL. Download: v27.50 Drivers for Win9x/ME, v27.50 Drivers for Win2k/XP, v27.50 Drivers for WinNT.