Technology Vault - NewsBytes
Friday 31 October, 2003
WORM_MIMAIL.C by @ 9:48 pm
Trend Micro has issued a YELLOW alert on the WORM_MIMAIL.C virus. Trend Micro says: As of 31st October 2003, TrendLabs has declared a YELLOW ALERT to control the spread of WORM_MIMAIL.C. Initial analysis indicates that this memory-resident worm is spreading via SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) engine.
CLICK HERE for more details.
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AVG Update by @ 2:03 pm
Grisoft says that this update adds detection of new variants of Worm/Raleka, Worm/Randex, Worm/Randon, IRC/BackDoor.SdBot.
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Thursday 30 October, 2003
Gator Renamed by @ 6:55 pm
Warp2Search is telling it's readers about how Gator has changed it's name to Claria. We are told: Following the recent news of the compagny behind Gator suing everyone that called their product spyware (latest PC Pitstop), they have decided to change the name of Gator entirely. The name is now Claria, so be on the lookout for this piece of nasty software.
They provide links to other stories and the link to the history of Gator on the CNet website. CLICK HERE to read the full story on Warp2Search.
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Wednesday 29 October, 2003
Who shot the Messenger? by bluetracker @ 2:10 pm
Thanks to forum member Tone for providing the lead to this story.
XP SP2 afterthought to stop Messenger vulnerability
The infamous inbuilt MESSENGER service is not the one that many use to send instant messages but the one that runs as a 'service' enabling clients and servers to exchange information and a long time favourite of script kiddies and spammers alike.
At long last, MICROSOFT have come to recognise that the ‘service’ is no more than a Spam receiving utility that is capable of bombarding a users desktop with unsolicited pop-up advertisements.
The fact that MS shipped XP with this all-but-useless service enabled by default, was an almighty error on their part and the ‘service’ which first appeared on Windows NT systems is of no real use to the current users of XP… therefore they have decided to “switch it off” in XPsp2 due out next year.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer pledged earlier this month at a conference in New Orleans, that Microsoft will redouble its efforts to secure its users.
"Our goal is simple: Get our customers secure and keep them secure,” that worthy went on to say…”Our commitment is to protect our customers from the growing wave of criminal attacks." All well and good for new users of the OS but rather a case of shutting the stable door once the horse has bolted for the rest of us. A better way would have been to ship XP after it had been thoroughly tested ‘in house’ rather than con the public into becoming ‘Microsoft Crash Test Dummies’.
There have been utilities 'out there' for some time now that safely shut down this and other security issues with the OS. These have been identified and patches made available from third party vendors who seem to be more ‘clued in’ to these issues than the original manufacturer of the software.
For instance, AOL users have for sometime now, had the Messenger ‘service’ disabled by the ISP when they logon to the Internet, the giant ISP reacting to XP security issues a great deal faster than the authors of the software.
Microsoft have tended to ignore the ramifications of having the Messenger service enabled by default for a long time and in my humble opinion, I believe this inclusion in the service pack is nothing more than an attempt to pad out the download whilst trying to maintain a deteriorating image of a company that gives a damn about something other than profit.
Its no secret that whilst XP was hailed as the 'most secure OS yet to emerge from Microsoft' at its launch; in using the more robust Windows 2000 Kernel, it should have been, but the opposite has come to be acknowledged as the truth.
One wonders just how all these irrelevant or useless 'services' get to form the “completed” Microsoft article...How is the inclusion of the ALEXA Spyware registry entry justified in a MS operating system?
Do programmers at Redmond all sit around a table scribbling 'ideas' on scraps of paper whilst Bill Gates sits at the helm and draws out the 'lucky' winners from the ‘corporate hat’?
It would seem so, as if a little more thought had been employed at the outset, so-called services like MESSENGER, UpNp, DCOM, ALEXA et-al would've been spotted as the potential 'disaster areas' they have become and excluded from the packaged article, or at least rendered in such a way as to be non-exploitable or non-intrusive on the customers’ privacy.
Then again the staff at Redmond would be under worked, as they wouldn't have to cobble together the myriads of 'Hot-fixes' and the now familiar Service packs for the end user to download after shelling out their cash for an unfinished piece of software.
XP Firewall
Another afterthought by MS is to add code to SP2 that Enables the inbuilt Firewall of XP on new installations of the OS (a slightly more USEFUL albeit limited service that for reasons unknown is switched off as a default in the current released version of the OS).
Had the ‘brains’ at Redmond thought about it a tad longer than 2 milliseconds they may have come up with a better solution thereby increasing the capability of the firewall, which is, at present, all to fragile to withstand a determined incursion attempt. That would have been a worthwhile SP release, instead they have decided against the sensible approach and merely added a few more KB’s to the download of the service pack with something that is only a couple of mouse clicks away from the XP user.
As many established XP users opt for a third party Firewall which actually does the job anyway, this ‘fix’ is likely to be switched off again by the user when the SP is downloaded.
Perhaps Microsoft should merely include a link on their Windows Update site to the Black Viper website and allow users to switch off ALL the useless XP ‘bits and bobs’ safely, thereby saving the wastage of a considerable chunk of bandwidth as users download a service pack?
Mind you it would reduce Microsoft’s wages bill if they did, and go a long way towards improving the end users’ security that they pledged to do ;-)
Nah …that would be akin to admitting they got it all wrong from the start wouldn’t it? Perish the thought! ;-)
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Tuesday 28 October, 2003
AVG Update by @ 5:20 am
Grisoft has an update available for AVG6 free and AVG7. Grisoft says this update adds detection of I-Worm/Sober, I-Worm/Voltan and new variants of I-Worm/Sexer, Worm/Randex.
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Monday 27 October, 2003
Lavasoft Ad-aware referencefile 01R228 27.10.2003 by @ 10:18 pm
Lavasoft has an updated reference file 01R228 dated 27.10.2003 for it's Ad-Aware utility. Download the update today to keep spyware and adware off of your pc.
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Friday 24 October, 2003
Coming soon....The Cleaner…’Professional’ by bluetracker @ 1:26 pm
The Cleaner ‘Professional’
To quote from a Forum submission this new ‘marque’ of the popular ANTI TROJAN utility has been said to have, “Faster scanning, better detection, improved performance, and excellent support just to name a few. Best of all, the "fewest" complaints for any A\T on the market, shows its dependability.”
In the above statement he /she was waxing lyrical on the Moosoft Forums about the latest release from the MooSoft Development stable …The Cleaner Professional.
Still in its BETA stage and undergoing rigorous testing, from what I have experienced so far, it really DOES have a faster engine and a whole new look, as well as a few ‘tweaks’ and added functionality thrown in for good measure compared to the original release which was quite boring…even for me!
For screenshots check this out
As an ‘paid up’ owner of the ‘original’ version of The Cleaner I was pleasantly surprised by the new look to the new version which actually manages to invoke more colours on my monitor than the old black grey and blue of it’s predecessor (discounting the rather ‘twee’ splash screen on start-up), on this alone it’s a definite ‘must have’ for eye candy connoisseurs.
As to its efficacy in cleaning out those Trojan Horses it was designed to do; I can’t comment, by virtue of having not been invited to test-drive a Trojan horse yet.
Although many report it to be more than capable in that department, and, if previous reviews on its predecessor are to be believed then this version will undoubtedly be a good weapon for a user to have in the fight against Trojans horses.
What of these ‘extra features’?
When compared with the previous version of The Cleaner; one such extra function worthy of note, is The Cleaner Professional’s ability to effectively hide itself from the attentions of anti- anti virus/Trojan code that is often included in viruses and Trojans that often manage to shut down your AV/AT solution’s components thus paving the way clear for the malicious code to do it’s worst. Stealth Mode…according to the Help files…
"uses randomised filenames and removes main window titles to evade so called "AV Killers". These are added on to Trojans and Worms to clear their path for infection by removing your defences. In this mode you will not see The Cleaner, TCActive! or TCMonitor in a normal task list although they will still appear in a process list."
In my opinion this is an excellent addition to the Cleaner Professional’s arsenal and should enable the user to have a greater sense of confidence that the utility is still ‘alive and kicking’ despite any attempt to turn it off by any malicious coding.
The only drawback I have found whilst using Stealth Mode is that updating is not possible and the user needs to bring The Cleaner back into ‘normal mode’ to do this important task.
It is highly likely when running under stealth mode that the user may completely forget the application is in fact running and it’s more than likely you would miss an update. Although MooSoft are working to fix this small problem; because of the way the proggy hides itself, it may not be possible to update without re-initialising normal mode, a small price to pay for peace of mind methinks.
New website
To accompany the launch of The Cleaner Professional Mr Daniel Otis- Vigil the brains behind the proggy also ‘knocked up’ a new version of his website. This also is a refreshing change from the original version as it not only ‘looks the part’ it gives the viewer an insight as to what they can expect if they choose to download this latest release
Visitors see what is intrinsically the user interface of The Cleaner on the homepage (minus the buttons etc). Although not yet fully functional, in my opinion it shows promise of things to come and in any case is a great deal more pleasing to the eye than the current website offering
So do we really need…….
…a stand alone Trojan detecting and cleaning piece of software?
Having started with a quote from the Cleaners’ forum one has to measure that worthy’s statement in the light of other Anti-Virus/Anti-Trojan and other utilities that are available to ‘Joe Surfer’ these days, and the viability of a user purchasing a dedicated Trojan ‘killer’ program when this function may be included in an Anti Virus package costing virtually the same amount.
The question of the standalones efficacy in doing the job it was intended to when compared to a full package Anti-virus program, needs also to be considered.
A computer borne Trojan horse is capable of causing some damage or mischief if any scrap of it is left resident. The Cleaner Professional Anti Trojan utility and indeed many other similar A/Tapplications are designed to find ALL the pieces and neutralise them, something most Anti-virus programs whilst removing the main infection sometimes ‘miss’ all the other bit’s and bobs that the average Trojan leaves on your system.
In a nutshell, if you are prepared to search through your hard drive and Registry each time your anti-virus finds a Trojan manually removing all the bits and pieces that are always left behind when the Anti-Virus has finished, then no you don’t.
If on the other hand you want to be absolutely sure that every last scrap of the Trojan has been wiped from your system then yes you most certainly do need a dedicated AT utility like The Cleaner Professional.
So what to use to protect your system?
I would class myself as a ‘common or garden’ variety of “Joe the Surfer”.
Being introduced to The Cleaner courtesy of a ‘cover disk’ a few years ago when I was, when needs of my work required investing in a home computer.
I was (way back when…) impressed that this proggy was able to get rid of Trojans, something I was told were to be avoided and prevented from gaining access if I was to enjoy my Internet experience.
I was so impressed I bought a full copy when the cover disk ‘evaluation’ version expired and TCActive and its companion TC Monitor has sat in the sys tray on every upgrade to my hardware since.
I was protected!
Unfortunately someone with a greater knowledge of the ‘way things were’ once pointed out that although I was probably safe from Trojans, what about viruses?
“Viruses? Aren’t they the same as Trojans…no?”.…..”Oh well, what do I need now?”…
So I shelled out for an Anti-Virus solution, now I WAS safe surely? ……
“Ah but there are some beasties that can shut down AV/AT solutions to gain access to your computer” I was informed…
“Ye Gods! How do I stop that happening then?” ……
“Get something that checks your mail on the server then you can spot the potential problem mails and delete them before you download ” was the reply.
Along came Mailwasher adding itself to my systems’ protective shell.
“What about Malware / Spyware / tracking cookies etc?”….
”WHAT more? !”……..
Add AdAware/Spywareguard and Spywareblaster to the arsenal.
“Not all Trojans come via e-mail y’know, some come in through ‘backdoors’ known as PORTS”….
“Hells teeth! So what do I do to protect myself now?”…
(Bluey Adds a Firewall to the growing pile of ordnance in the sys tray)
Since that time my computer has become a ‘poor man’s’ version of Fort Knox!
Ad aware et-al have worked tirelessly away ever since; my AV solution springs to life every so often when I forget to invoke Mailwasher and view the mailbox for likely virus/Trojan candidates.
The Cleaner as of yet, hasn’t done much except take up space on the sys tray…. not one single Trojan necessitating cleaning has found it’s way onto my setup to-date.
I feel aggrieved and somewhat saddened that no one (touch wood) has yet breached ‘Fort Knox a’la Bluetracker’…although looking at the Firewall logs shows they HAVE tried on occasion, so I take solace in the fact that I’m not being totally ignored!
Those flashing red eyes and the “wee-wha wee wha” warning sound of TCMonitor only spring to life on a ‘Windows update’ or an installation of a new program, just to let me know it’s still working away in the background watching for changes in my systems’ files, thus reminding me it hasn’t withered away from malnutrition!
There comes a time in every Joe’s’ life, when he sits back and ponders on just how to be as safe as possible whilst surfing the Net; he looks at his system and wonders is there any more he could do to stop the script kiddies, the virus/Trojan writers and crackers from getting at his data? He comes to the conclusion…no he can’t, at least not until Microsoft release an operating system that is immune to such ‘nasties’. Then he reads about LINUX……………………………..!
As more and more turn down ‘Linux Avenue’ breaking free of ‘Microsoft Road’ with all it’s potholes bumps and ‘road’ repair hold-ups, one has to wonder about the future of AV/AT programs…personally I haven’t made that turn yet, but the indicator is flashing!
I would miss the “wee-wha wee-wha” should I decide on making that turn into “Linux Ave”. I’ve become accustomed to seeing those ‘cute ikkle eyes’ of TCMonitor peering a me from the sys tray.
Until that turn is made however, if I was still the newbie “Joe” not knowing what I know now, I probably would shell out my hard earned cash for The Cleaner Professional .
After all, you can NEVER be too safe can you?
Then there is the likelihood that as Linux becomes more and more popular it will become a prime target for Virus writers and their ilk in the future, much in the same way that Microsoft’s operating systems are at this time.
There are, even now, one or two such ‘wee beasties’ out there that like the taste of Linus Torvald’s baby, but none that I am aware of that can do much damage if the user takes the proper precautions when using the OS, but as I’m still reading up on Linux don’t quote me on that.
Now in the light of all of the above, would I reallyspend $49.95 or £30.00 (ish) on The Cleaner ‘Professional’?
Probably not, although I’ll still use the old version of The Cleaner (version 3.5) if for no more than sentimental reasons so…. what to do?
Personally I think I’ll pass on the offer of another bit of software and stick with what I have…for now……………………or shall I?
As of time of writing there hasn’t been any firm date for The Cleaner Professional’s public release although it is suspected that it will emerge sometime in November this year as that is when the BETA version is due to expire.
Test drive the BETA version yourself via this link
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Wednesday 22 October, 2003
AVG antivirus update by @ 6:33 pm
Grisoft tells us that this update adds detection of Win32/Sakao, Win32/Dupate, Worm/Seben, Worm/Lasia and new variants of I-Worm/Yaha, I-Worm/Swen, Worm/Agobot, Worm/Spybot, IRC/BackDoor.SdBot, Downloader.Tooncom.
Also, on the Grisoft Website they have a couple of photographs of their recent stand at Invex, The International Fair of Information and Communication Technology in Brno, Czech Republic.
Always keep your antivirus software up to date whatever make it is!
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Monday 20 October, 2003
ATI speaks out regarding alleged bugs in Catalyst 3.8 by @ 11:18 pm
Terry Makedon and Chris Hook from ATI have posted a statement at driverheaven in response to allegations that Catalyst 3.8 cause monitors to blow up and Radeon cards to overheat.
RESPONSE TO ALLEGED MONITOR FAILURE ISSUE:
We have spent a great deal of time trying to reproduce this problem and analyzing our driver code. There is nothing in our driver code that has changed since CAT 3.7 to CAT 3.8 that could possibly cause this behaviour. We believe that our drivers are not causing these alleged problems. We do not currently believe these stories are valid. We have already confirmed that of the nearly 100 OEM customer programs have asked for and received this driver, we have received no reports on any such problem from the OEMs. We have also run comprehensive QA tests on the driver before releasing it and have had no cases of failed monitors.
Since we announced CATALYST 3.8 on October 8th, we have recorded hundreds of thousands of downloads, and thus far there have been absolutely no reports whatsoever to ATI’s Customer Support department to report monitors failing.
TECHNICAL REBUTTAL OF MONITOR FAILURE ALLEGATIONS:
There have been many posts in the forums discussing this issue, it seems it is a common theory, picked up from one place and keep being circulated. One such theory suggests the following: “Instead of reading the refresh rates from the PRIMARY display INF files, it is reading the SECONDARY display INF refresh rates.”
In XP and 2K, we don’t have access to monitor INF information in our driver component that manages display capability. We have never used this monitor information for any purpose. We rely on EDID data or user override information to determine monitor capability. Even though the OS may use the monitor information to expose high refresh rate based on monitor INF content, the driver always restricts the actual refresh rate going to the monitor based on EDID or the user override. In essence, the user may be able to select from OS controlled monitor page (in advanced property pages) a high refresh rate but internally driver will restrict the refresh rate going to the monitor based on EDID information or user override information. If user set the override information incorrectly then incompatible signals would be sent to the monitor. In 9x, we can access monitor INF information but due to issues with how OS maps the INF to a monitor, we had disabled reading the monitor INF via registry. Unless someone deliberately changes the registry setting for this in 9x, they would not run into any monitor INF related issues.
RESPONSE TO ALLEGED HARDWARE OVERHEATING ISSUE:
We have spent a great deal of time analyzing the temperatures due to the CATALYST 3.8 drivers. We do not under any circumstance see anything near a 10 degree Celsius increase in temperature (but we don’t overclock our test cards either). We do see a slight increase in temperature in certain cases (3Dmark2003 Nature Scene for example). However any temperature increase is well within our safety range. Investigation continues and we are trying to determine why this change in temperature exits. At this point we are reproducing individual driver packages with code being checked in and measuring the temperature. However nothing shows the alleged increase in temperature. One independent website (DriverHeaven.net) even tried to reproduce this issue, and found no measurable difference in temperature between CATALYST 3.7 and 3.8.
You can read the full text at driverheaven.net
I feel disapointed that Terry and his team have had to put up with this kind of hysteria. Terry and his team put huge amounts of hard work into producing the Catalyst Suite of programs and Terry was very proud to be part of what was the biggest software re-vamp in the history of ATI. It would be interesting to find out who the culpets were of this scandel which caused mass hysteria amoung the Radeon user community. Time will tell, but it looks like just a few people were hell bent on spoiling ATI's moment of glory. Well, it looks as though they suceeded.
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Friday 17 October, 2003
Windows XP SP2 by Christmas...HUMBUG by bluetracker @ 10:35 pm
Thanks to forum member Triplea for providing the lead to this latest MS gaff
Microsoft's 'Ghost of Christmas present' usurped by 'Ghost of Christmas Future'
In a 'not so surprising' statement just a couple of days after the announcement that the Caretaker took his lead from to create his story MICROSOFT have done a U-turn on their first statement.Richard Kaplan the worthy who spouted the XP SP2 before Christmas claim to a 2000+ strong audience at the Citrix iForum conference has seen his comments refuted in the latest Windows gaff update(press release SP1).
On Friday 17/10/03 MS issued a statement which informs that only a BETA version of XP SP2 will be available this year; the 'real deal' is to be released mid 2004.
BETA version? I was under the impression that all MS's offerings were BETA's whatever the marque, but unlike other software manufacturers Microsoft charge people for their Beta software...perhaps I'm wrong;-)
The full 'blurb' can be seen on ZDNET but being a born cynic I'm expecting Windows Gaff Update (Press Release sp2) to be released on Monday.
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AVG Updates by @ 4:27 am
Grisoft have updates for both AVG6 free and AVG7. Check for updates now to keep your system protected. Grisoft says that this update adds detection of I-Worm/Sexer, Worm/Warlor, Worm/Remcom, PSW.Mafia, IRC-Worm/Lade and new variants of I-Worm/Napsin, Worm/Tzet, Worm/Spybot.
Users of AVG7 also have a program update available. Grisoft says that this update fixed problems in Resident Shield, Core, Update Manager, Control Center and Remote Admin diagnostics. The AVG icon in the Icon Tray may be grayed after this update. New version of AVGADMIN 7.0, requiring and compatible with this update.
The icon of AVG Control Center is grey - Personal E-mail scanner is not configured
This state is caused by the fact that your EMS is already installed but not correctly configured. It means that your e-mail is either not protected or the Personal E-mail Scanner is installed needlessly (i.e. you are using e-mail scanning on a server or you use plugin for MS Outlook, Eudora or TheBat!).
Possible solutions:
1. Open AVG Control Center, select E-mail Scanner component and choose Activate or directly invoke plugin configuration and correct EMS settings.
2.If you do not need the Personal E-mail Scanner, you should uninstall it - it only uselessly use harddrive space and system resources. Uninstallation process is described in FAQ #72
Of course, you can also ignore component status status (Select Properties of E-mail Scanner component, choose General and ther tick Ignore faulty condition of the component checkbox).
To automatically make the component to ignore component status, you can use file IgnoreEMS.reg
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Thursday 16 October, 2003
Windows XP SP2 by Christmas by @ 8:53 pm
Thanks to winxpcentral.com for posting this news on their site. They have reported about another report on zdnet.co.uk where Microsoft have brought forward the release date of Windows XP Service Pack 2. The long awaited service pack had been put back till 2004. WinXPCentral has issued a warning to all admins that SP2 will activate the revised firewall by default. Saying "That's gona be fun!". I'm not sure if they mean that it cannot be uninstalled as with SP1. If this is the case, lovers of ZoneAlarm might find a few problems.
You can read the original story HERE
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Windows Update by @ 4:26 am
It's time to head on over to Windows Update again where you will find 4 new critical updates. Microsoft have issued 4 new critical Windows Updates.
1. Buffer Overrun in Messenger Service Could Allow Code Execution (828035)
2. Buffer Overrun in Windows Help and Support Center Could Lead to System Compromise (825119)
3. Vulnerability in Authenticode Verification Could Allow Remote Code Execution (823182)
4. Buffer Overrun in the ListBox and in the ComboBox Control Could Allow Code Execution (824141)
These are the 4 that come up for WindowsXP. From what I can see on the Mivrosoft site, others are also available if you have Windows 2000.
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Monday 13 October, 2003
New Omega Driver Available by @ 4:35 am
www.omegacorner.com have released their latest ATI Radeon family drivers. Omega tells us about the new features:
* Based on the leaked Dell drivers (I'm sure almost nobody heard about these, it was a small leak and it was controlled in time by ATI). (2k/XP)
* New Control Panel option, the WMV hardware support. (2k/XP)
* More Smartshaders effects for OpenGL. (2k/XP)
* Fixed the TV out problems, now the monitor is no longer locked at 60Hz with TV enabled. (2k/XP)
* Fixed the mutiple monitor problems in the device manager and ATI CP. (2k/XP)
* Fixed the "Soft-Mods", some games should no longer crash. (2k/XP)
* Enabled Overclocking support in the normal and soft-moded drivers for ALL CARDS based on the following chipsets, even if they are locked: RV250/RV280/R300/RV350. (2k/XP)
* Removed rTool from the driver package as it is no longer needed. (2k/XP)
* Added the ATI Software uninstaller. (2k/XP)
Important Update: If you are experiencing crashes or black screens just a few seconds after entering a game, DISABLE VPU RECOVER, that should fix it.
Important Update 2: I have found that the 9700->9800 soft mod seems to be dammaged (there is something wrong with the scripts used), just install the NORMAL driver, that will fix the lockups and black screens.
Head on over to www.omegacorner.com if you prefer to use Omega drivers over the official ATIs.
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Sunday 12 October, 2003
Hidden and Dangerous game free to download by @ 7:47 am
Talonsoft have released their game Hidden and Dangerous free to the web. The full game is 264mb plus the latest patch is also available at 4.1mb.
Description of Hidden and Dangerous:
It's 1941. Your four man commando squad has been assigned to covert ops deep inside enemy territory. You're far from home with hostiles closing in on all sides. Do you have the skill and cunning to execute your orders and get your team safely back home?
Thanks to 3dgamers who have the links on their pages.
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Wednesday 8 October, 2003
Catalyst 3.8 Software Suite and Interview with Terry Makedon and Andrew Dodd (Part 2) by @ 7:21 pm
The Multi-media centre has been upgraded to version 8.7. The 'Lunchpad,' which is a covenant bar where you can select the player you wish to use, is simple and easy to use. Included in the Multi Media Centre package is an outstanding DVD player, which I have got to say, produces some of the best quality DVD playback I've ever seen. You also get a Video CD player, CD Player and File Player.
Catalyst 3.8 DVD Player
You can select the look of each player although I'm not totally in love with any particular style that comes ready installed. If I had to choose, the default player is probably the best looking. I would have preferred the classic version to have square buttons but this is probably due to me being an old funny duddy who likes a DVD player to look like a DVD player and not some kind of UFO.
Unfortunately, I was unable to test out some of the new TV features that Terry explained about, as I don't have an All in Wonder card. (You never know, maybe Terry can fix this for me one day;-) He told me about the programme guide where you can select programs to record. EAZYLOOK lets European users gain integrated control and on screen display of Teletext information. The new Remote Control has buttons you can use to select pages, scan and even save pages as a bitmap image.
A feature called FastTVTV lets you browse online listings regional broadcasters and schedule recording events.
The File Player is fun. This lets you create slide shows while you play your favourite mp3s.
For users with an All in Wonder 9600 pro also get a FM Player. This can also double up as an alarm clock, as the player has an alarm and sleep function.
Terry and Andrew where pleased to point out that the drivers now contain a unified Linux driver. They recognise the increase in popularity of Linux as a computing environment and feel that their products should support it.
Another useful addition is an ATI uninstaller. This will completely remove any existence of anything ATI from your computer. I strongly recommend you use it before installing Catalyst 3.8. I found some errors pop up in my event log when installing the new software suite without using it. The uninstaller was my only area for complaint though. I explained to Terry that it doesn’t inform you what you are uninstalling prior to hitting the ‘yes’ button. It had removed every ATI demo I had installed on my system (apart from the ATI treasure chest demo for some strange reason). He said this was a very valid point and this would be fixed in a future release.
It wasn't all work, Terry, Andrew and I chatted for around 3/4 of an hour in all. Terry commented about my enjoyment of the demo scene. I explained that I have around 350 demoscene demos and everytime he brought a new driver version out, I would test each demo. I explained that I keep a folder called 'dead demos'. He remembered fixing a demo called Miracle for me, which had lost a shadow a few versions ago. I explained that I had one demo in my dead demo folder called 'Legomania' by Doomsday, which made his VPU come into play. I've given him a link to the demo and he's interested in looking at why it won't run correctly. I say this man enjoys a challenge!
I’m not going to chunter on about what I think of the display drivers performance, that’s not what this article is about. I will say that I have run my usual array of benchmarks and demos and all seems up to the usual high standard we’ve come to expect. The only comment I will make is that I was pleased to see Terry has got OpenGL programs now run correctly. A glitch in the previous drivers made OpenGL games and demos look as though they were rendered in 16bit instead of 32bit.
Terry Makedon explained that he had just come from a press tour of San Francisco and he had used one of my quotes from a previous news report that I had made about Catalyst 3.4. He sent me a copy of the Powerpoint presentation with the slide included.
Slide from ATI presentation
Fame at last!
Well, maybe Terry and Andrew might like to quote me again when they do their next presentation, because the only way I can describe Catalyst 3.8 is awesome! A tremendous amount of work has gone into this package. I’ve never had so much value from a graphics card. Catalyst 3.8 is a top quality, state of the art suite of programs that has enriched my computing experience beyond recognition. Each part of the suite works flawlessly with the other components. I only wish I was able to see some of the stunning TV features Terry and Andrew spoke about.
It just leaves me to thanks both Terry and Andrew for spending so much time with me. It has been a truly memorable experience for me, something I will treasure for many years to come. I’ve found this section of the news article one the hardest to write, lets face it, Terry and Andrew have transformed ATI, they have become legends in our own time. I am totally in awe of their combined knowledge. They both must be among the top earners on the planet (or ought to be) and yet at the end of the day, they are two of the nicest people you could ever wish to meet. Both are totally relaxed and down to earth. When Terry sent me his PowerPoint presentation, only to find that I didn’t have PowerPoint on my system (OK, when have I ever had to do a PowerPoint presentation), no problem, Terry said, “I’ll convert it to pdf file and email it to you”. Talk about embarrassing;-)
You’ll all probably read about Catalyst 3.8 on 100s of other graphics related websites, I’ve purposely not copied out the official press release word for word, I’m sure you would much prefer to hear it as it is. Catalyst 3.8 is simply awesome!
CLICK HERE to download Catalyst 3.8 Software Suite
To see some stills from Terry Makedon's Powerpoint presentation you can download the slides in pdf format (for a limited period only) CLICK HERE
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Catalyst 3.8 Software Suite and Interview with Terry Makedon and Andrew Dodd (Part 1) by @ 7:08 pm
ATI have released their latest Catalyst software suite version 3.8. This is a major release for ATI and represents the biggest ever update in the history of ATI. I was very fortunate to have a personal interview with Terry Makedon, Senior Software Product Manager and Andrew Dodd, Software production Manager at ATI prior to the release today. Terry and Andrew would like to emphasis that Catalyst is not just about display drivers, but a complete suite of programs that combine to makes the best use of the hardware.
This software suite is so full of new features I hardly know where to start. Well, I had better start by showing you the display driver's control panel, which confirms that these drivers are indeed Catalyst 3.8
Andrew explained that one of the problems with the control panel on older versions was that for new users, they could appear complicated. So they have worked on the control panel to make it simple for the newer user. With a single simple slider bar the user can pick general settings for performance, balanced or quality. A simple tab switches between OpenGL and DirectX settings.
Catalyst 3.8 D3D control panel
Catalyst 3.8 OpenGL control Panel
At the bottom of this tab is a compatibility setting. This can help make some older applications work if your having problems running older games.
To cater for more experienced users, there is a custom button which brings up another panel where they can adjust Anti-Alaising, Anistropic filters, Texture performance, Mipmap level, Vertical sync and Truform.
Now we come to another brand new feature called Smartshader. Smartshader allows you to adjust the way your 3d graphics look. You can select some very nice effects from this Smartshader. Depending whether you select the smartshader menu from the DirectX menu or OpenGL, you get slightly different options for each, but the main options are Black and White, Classic, Porthole (my favourite) and sketch.
SmartShader Control Panel
Here are some screenshots that shows off some of these effects.
SmartShader Sketch (image: from noc_schism demoscene demo)
SmartShader Porthole (image: Aquarium Screensaver
from SereneScreen.com)
SmartShader Classic (image: 3DMark 2003 from Futuremark.com)
Yet another very welcome feature of these new drivers is found on the tab marked VPU recover. Andrew and Terry explained that this is a feature that will be requirement in the next generation Windows environment called Longhorn. To be ahead of the game, they decided to add it to this version. Andrew explained that hardware crashes might occur when a hardware device and the corresponding software device driver are no longer able to communicate with each other. VPU Recover prevents many of these situations from happening and saves you from having to reboot your system. The VPU can also create a log, which the user is given an option to send the error log to ATI. This would further help ATI improve the stability of future driver versions.
Terry and Andrew went on to explain another new driver feature called Overdirve. The best way I can explain Overdrive is it's VVT for graphics cards. In a similar way to a cars variable valve timing which automatically adjusted to various load conditions, Overdrive uses the feedback from a thermal temperature monitor on the latest ATI 9800 xl and dynamically adjusts the clock settings on the fly. In other words, when a card is running cold, Terry claimed that a 5% increase could be achieved in performance without any user intervention and without any fear of damage to the card. I'm sure this is a feature that's going to be talked about alot in the future. Alas, older cards do not have this feature.
Another neat and very welcome feature of the control panel is the ability to set profiles. You can save display settings for each game you play and they are easily selectable from the bottom of both the OpenGL and DirectX menu.
Enough about the control panel lets take a look at some of the other new goodies included. Andrew explained that the same clear and simple approach that has gone into the control panel has been adopted with ATI's HYDRAVISION™. Hydravision now comes as two versions. The basic edition enables users to activate multiple display setups with a simple check box, adding the flexibility to move applications between displays using the application taskbar and restoring minimized applications to any display.
CLICK HERE for Part 2
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Tuesday 7 October, 2003
Critical Windows Updates by @ 10:39 pm
You'll find 2 new critical updates. One is for Windows Media Player and the other is Octobers collection of goodies for Internet Explorer. If you download both, it's about 4.9mb in size.
Microsoft explains the details of the patch for Windows Media Player HERE
Head over to Windows Update and pick up your critical updates now!
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Wednesday 1 October, 2003
SpywareBlaster Update by @ 8:24 pm
SpywareBlaster has a new updated definitions file. Check for updates now to keep your pc free of spyware.
Updates include Navpass dialer, Total velocity Speedblaster, Hometab toolbar, jeired hijack, Xupiter/Search Squire variant and a Gator variant.
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