Technology Vault - NewsBytes

Saturday 31 August, 2002

Nvidia admit fault with Det 40 drivers by @ 11:18 pm

Nvidia admit they have some bugs with the latest Detonator 40 drivers. The main problem seems to be with the default anisotropic filtering setting.

The drivers default setting are both the same on the old and new drivers. It seems that when the slider is moved away from the '0' position and then returned, it throws up a bug which stops the control panel from reading the settings. The only way to reset the settings is to re-install the drivers or adjusting the registry settings. Nvidia have said that they will fix this and other bugs before submitting the drivers to Microsoft for WHQL.

I have given these beta drivers a try and at first, I thought they were very good. Many 3D programs ran extremely well. I didn't find them much faster in programs that didn't use my Geforce 3 vertex shaders but they did seem very smooth. But I found that a number of my beloved demos wouldn't work and crashed out. One old benchmark program I like to use these days as a screen saver is the original X-Isle demo. (Not the interactive educational version) but the earlier fly through version. This completely hung. I tried a number of times to get it working but kept getting a true vector error. I have reverted back to my original drivers now as I must get my demo fix everyday.

Well, they are beta drivers after all. Although this is the first time I know that Nvidia have directly offered beta drivers for download. They are usually leaked. :-)

WinXP SP1 release date by @ 10:55 pm

Friday 30 August, 2002

Windows XP SP1 delayed by @ 4:02 pm

Flaw in Digital Certificate Enrollment Component by @ 3:42 pm

Thursday 29 August, 2002

Netscape 7.0 vs Mozilla 1.1 by @ 8:10 pm

Those of you who wish to try another browser and can't make up your mind whether to download Mozilla or Netscape might take some advice from our regular news contributor Eggz.

Eggz says:
Important things to note in comparison to Mozilla:

Netscape 7 comes bundled with all the plugins that web surfers commonly need. Mozilla doesnt - so NS7 is really for all of you that would like to try this lizardy goodness, without the hassle of plugin hunting and configuring.

It also includes AIM and ICQ integration (NS7 can also read AOL mail IIRC).

One downer is that NS7 doesn't include the pop up blocking of Mozilla. (This can be added back quite simply though. I'll post the details to the Newsbytes forum if anyones interested.)

NB/Anyone turned off by Netscape 6 should definately have another look at this - the codes come a long long way since then in terms of functionality, stability and speed.

To read the release notes for Netscape 7.0 CLICK HERE

To visit the main Netscape website and possibly download the latest version CLICK HERE

Once again, that you eggz!

Nvidia Detonator 40 released by @ 3:36 pm

Nvidia have just released a new unified driver for all Nvidia based graphics cards called Detonator 40.

Nvidia tells us in a press release today:
Detonator 40 is a member of NVIDIA’s renowned unified driver architecture family, the cornerstone for all of our graphics and multimedia products,” said Dan Vivoli, vice president of marketing at NVIDIA. “Because all of our GPUs are binary compatible, we’re able to deliver new functionality, innovative features and unmatched performance, across our entire family of GPUs with a single driver. No other vendor can offer this kind of flexibility.”

You can download the new drivers Detonator 40 drivers from HERE

Nvidia goes on to tell us about some of the new features of these drivers:
nView™ 2.0 multi-display technology to increase productivity and provide the necessary tools to control the way users access and view applications.

NVRotate™, enabling image rotation on today’s advanced flat panel displays.

NVKeystone™, allowing for real-time image correction on portable projectors and heads-up displays

Digital Vibrance Control 2™ (DVC2) allowing users to adjust color controls to achieve accurate, bright colors under all conditions.

In addition to these new, exciting features Detonator 40 also provides up to 25% performance improvement in popular consumer and professional applications.

Many thanks to Eggz who was first to spot these drivers and to tell Newsbytes.

Tuesday 27 August, 2002

Mozilla 1.1 released by @ 8:19 pm

Saturday 24 August, 2002

RealOne player V2 Beta by @ 4:21 pm

Kazaa hit by another virus by @ 3:47 pm

Kazaa has been hit again by another virus which uses the media network to infect users systems.

The virus known as Duload is a Microsoft Windows attachment written in Visual Basics. The virus modifies the user’s infected system registry and creates files that Kazaa users would like to download.

It loads up in "Systemconfig.exe" when Windows loadeds up. The worm virus is in two forms according to kaspersky who first discovered this virus.

- Worm.P2P.Duload.a - 18432 bytes
- Worm.P2P.Duload.b - 7680 bytes (Compressed with the UPX utility)

One modification of the worm (Worm.P2P.Duload.a) also downloads from an Internet site several Trojan programs designed to establish the unauthorized remote management of victim computers.

The defense against "Duload" has already been added to the Kaspersky Labs Anti-virus database.

Always make sure your anti-virus software is up-to-date.

Another one bites the dust by @ 3:30 pm

In another site to pack it's bags, BeSeen shows that relying on people clicking on banner ads just dosn't pay anymore.

Beseen.com used to provide an array of website tools from guestbooks, counters and message boards. All these services were free to use provided customers put up with occasional banner ads being shown at the top of their pages.

It goes to show the downturn in advertising revenue that fewer and fewer companies want to use banner ads and those that do, are not prepared to pay as much as they did. Web users are also blasted by banner ads everyday and click throughs just don't warrent the costs involved.

BeSeen have just posted a message on their website that says:

Due to the high cost of offering this free service, we regret that we will shortly be shutting down BeSeen.com and BeSeen services on August 26th, 2002.

A shock for Nvidia by @ 3:17 pm

The biggest purchaser of graphics card chips from Nvidia, VisionTek are allegedly shutting it's doors and closing up shop according to reports from around the web.

VisionTek is one if not THE biggest buyers of graphics card chips from Nvidia. If this news is correct then Nvidia must be very concerned as it was hoping to get it's latest high end graphics cards NV30 and it's new sister card the NV28 on the market and in the shops by Christmas.

HardOCP broke the news to the world this week and VisionTek have replied saying:

An Assignee / Trustee has been appointed, and will attempt to maximize the value of the company's assets. His belief is that the assets have a higher value as a "turn-key" operation than in a liquidation. The Trustee is continuing to operate the company to determine if a sale is a viable alternative to a liquidation, and he is currently talking to interested parties. The company is continuing to take orders, ship products, and honor rebates."

John Malley
Director of Marketing & PR
VisionTek

However, C-Net News.com are also running the story after claims that employees at VisionTek have been laid off after creditors decided to shut down the Gurnee, Ill.-based company because of unpaid debts.

Thanks to obewan1st for sending in this story.

Sunday 18 August, 2002

Moosoft updates The Cleaner by bluetracker @ 11:01 am

In what will be my final contribution before the Big silver Bird whisks me off to somewhere hot, Moosoft have released another update to their popular Trojan dectection and cleaning proggy.

The Cleaner Database v3327
.
.. dated 16/08/02 includes three new Trojan definitions and three updates to ones already serviced by the utility.

New definitions for.... Email Notify , Keykeeper, MSN Password Stealer

and Updated Defs for AIM Jacker, DTSE, Theef

As usual you can get these updates by the use of the Moolive Update facility within "The Cleaner" or by visiting the Moosoft website.

All packed (string vest and Knotted Hanky included) see ya all in a fortnight! Cheers!

Bluetracker

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Friday 16 August, 2002

Burn Baby Burn! by @ 1:32 pm

Forrester Research have surveyed a 1000 digital music lovers and conludes that CD burning, downloading MP3s and coying music has absolutely no effect on CD sales as claimed by the music industry.

Josh Bernoff, analyst for Forrester Research says "The idea that digital music is responsible for slump is completely false."

31% of people surveyed said that they copy and burn music. Forrester splits these people who do copy and burn music into to groups, "music lovers and music learners". They make up 36% of all CD sales. These people said that downloading MP3s had no effect on their CD purchasing.

So if it's not MP3 downloaders or CD burning thats causing the slump in CD sales, What is it. Forrester says "The economy is in a slump, there's much more competition from games, from DVDs - which saw an 80 per cent rise in sales - and most interestingly - from the "limited playlists" rotated by commercial US radio stations."

Forrester said "If only they (the music industry) were smart enough to embrace downloads".

You can listen to the full report entitled Downloads save the music business (16k Windows Media stream) from the main website. To read the overview or listen to the report CLICK HERE

On the lighter side of life, I just can't help but find it amusing that an analyst looking into CD burning just happens to have the name Bernoff. Sorry Josh:-)

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X-Drive by @ 12:43 pm

General Motors have just made a car with no engine, no pedals and no steering wheel. It's all controlled by a little black box called the X-Box sorry, the X-Drive.

The car is called Hy-wire and will be the world's first drivable vehicle that combines a hydrogen fuel cell with by-wire technology. The car will be on show at the Paris Motor Show on 26th Sept.


GM's hydrogen fuel cell and by-wire technology car

Larry Burns, GM's vice president of research and development and planning, said, "We are driving to have compelling and affordable fuel cell vehicles on the road by the end of the decade. With Hy-wire, we have taken the technology as it exists today and packaged it into an innovative drivable vehicle comparable in size and weight to today's luxury automobiles.

"All of the touring sedan's propulsion and control systems are contained within an 11-inch-thick skateboard-like chassis, maximizing the interior space for five occupants and their cargo. There is no engine to see over, no pedals to operate - merely a single unit called X-drive that is easily set to either a left or right driving position."

Ed Welburn, executive director of GM Design for Body-on-Frame Architectures said "The most dramatic view of this car may be from the driver's seat," Welburn said. "Imagine having no engine, instrument panel or foot pedals in front of you - an open, yet secure cockpit with a floor to ceiling view. It's like being in my living room looking out my picture window."

GM says, Hy-wire is a sporty yet elegant four-door vehicle with clean lines and short overhangs.

We could all be driving around in something that looks like this in about 10 years time.

To read up on the full press release, visit the GM website HERE

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Sony PS2 in first with online gaming by @ 12:19 pm

Owners of Sony's Playstation 2 will soon be able to play games online as Sony tries to get in first with online gaming.

The new online game features of the Playstation 2 are to go live in the US on 27 August 2002. Owners of the PS2 will need a network adapter which will connect their PS2 to an ISP. A disk supplied with the network adapter will come with set-up help from a number of ISP's.

By starting the online service for PS2 in August, Sony have got in at least 2 months before the planned service with Microsoft X-Box.

Sony plans to sell around 400,000 network adapters by the end of the year.

3 games will be launched with the adapters that support online gaming. These will be NFL GameDay 2003, NFL 2k3 and Madden NFL 2003. Other titles will follow like ATV Offroad Fury 2 which is due for launch on 12th November and other autumn releases include Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4, NBA Live 2003 and Tribes Aerial Assault.

Two other features that Sony hope to have an edge over Microsoft are that unlike the X-Box, users will not have to pay an annual subscription for the online service and the network adapter which will have Ethernet and modem connectivity will cost less at around the $40 mark.

I've not seen any word about when Sony plans to offer and ship network adapters to the UK yet, but I'm sure they are keen to get everything in place and up and running before their rivals.

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Opera 6.5 released by @ 4:56 am

Opera Software today released Opera 6.05 for Windows.

Opera says: August 13, 2002 Opera Software today released Opera 6.05 for Windows, a pure security upgrade that will implement changes in OpenSSL made public on Aug. 7, 2002 by the CERT Coordination Center (CERT/CC) as well as other bugfixes.

Some of the other fixes include:

- Fixed an issue where HTML content could be inserted into directory listings

- Added new certificate authority roots

- Not possible to invoke "meta refresh" in an e-mail

- Fix for Java-related slow navigation

- Fix for handling of initial Byte Order Mark (BOM signature) in *.ini files

To get the latest update from Opera visit THIS PAGE

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New Internet Explorer Cumulative Patch by @ 4:43 am

Microsoft are about to release a cumulative patch for Internet Explorer. Get all the latest fixes in one easy download.

Although Microsoft have not added this to Windows Update yet, they have made available this cumulative patch for Internet Explorer via thier download servers.

Microsoft says: August 2002, Cumulative Patch for Internet Explorer (Q323759) eliminates all previously addressed security vulnerabilities affecting Internet Explorer, well as additional newly discovered bugs. This update includes the functionality of all previously released patches. Download now to continue keeping your computer secure.

This patch is for Windows operating systems that has Internet Explorer 6.0 installed. CLICK HERE to download this patch now.

This patch will be available from Windows Update shortly.

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DoS attack via SMTP by @ 4:20 am

Microsoft have just issued a Critical Windows Update to prevent a DoS attack via SMTP on a number of Windows operating systems.

Microsoft tells us: This update resolves the "Malicious SMTP Client Can Send Malformed Command to Windows SMTP Service" security vulnerability in Windows XP, and is discussed in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS02-012. Download the Critical Update patch now to prevent a malicious user from launching a denial of service (DoS) attack via the SMTP (Simple Mail Transport Protocol) service.

The best way to keep up-to-date with all the latest critical updates is to use Windows Update via the Windows Update option under the tools tab in Internet Explorer.

This critical update will also be included in SP1 for WindowsXP systems available from 28th August 2002 or soon after.

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Tuesday 13 August, 2002

Digiguide V6 Beta released by @ 5:04 pm

The makers of Digiguide have just released a BETA version of their popular TV listings software. Digiguide V6 will be launched in the Autumn and for the first time, a US version will be available.

I have used Digiguide for a couple of years now and have found it to be the easiest way of finding out what's on TV. It's fast, easy to use and knocks spots off of Sky Digitals programme planner (Sky Guide).

Digiguide has told Newsbytes:
Thanks to a fabulous team of beta testers, the DigiGuide v6 Beta is progressing very well indeed.

DigiGuide v6 is now incredibly stable and offers so much more power and flexibilty that we feel we must share some of its exciting features with you:

* PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTING
DigiGuide 6.0 takes the standard Reminders, Favourites and Smart Search methods of highlighting interesting programmes and extends them with a new system that allows you to mix'n'match the features you want. Using the new system you can now have a reminder on a Smart Search, you can restrict the channels or times of day that reminders will fire, plus many other variations. You can also set the defaults for all of the types of highlighting programmes just like you could for reminders before.

In addition to the DigiGuide v5 methods of highlighting programmes we have also added two new marking methods that are just fabulous for planning what to watch or record.

Lastly, the system is driven in such a way as to be totally customisable. You can create new methods of highlighting programmes using the full power of JavaScript. In fact there are already some pretty cool custom 'Markers' already available in our forums.

* INTERFACE CHANGES
The toolbox has been replaced with a standard Windows menu and customisable XML driven toolbars. Any command that can be activated via keyboard shortcuts can now be placed on the toolbar and new custom toolbars can also be added.

In place of the old toolbox is an optional sliding Panel Area that gives a legend for all listings views as well as providing programme sensitive hotlinks.


The look of Digiguide V6 Beta

* MORE DAYS OF LISTINGS
DigiGuide v6 comes complete with a brand new way of accessing the TV listings data. This provides the support needed for our US, and world-wide, support, as well as allowing us to provide TV listings as far in advance as possible.

Currently, this means that many Sky and cable channels have a couple of months advanced listings data - which is great for planning what to watch when you go on holiday. This new system also provides rolling 14 days listings for the remainder of the supported channels, which gives a constant flow of at least 14 days listings.

To download this new BETA version of Digiguide you have to sign up with the Digiguide team and become one of their beta testers. If you would like to become a beta tester for Digiguide CLICK HERE

If you would like to give Digiguide a try (normal Version5 that is) then you can download it from the Digiguide website.

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Via 4in1 driver update by @ 12:21 pm

Via have updated their 4in1 drivers to version 442v(a)p2. These are the official drivers for all boards with via chipsets.

You can download them from HERE or visit the main Viaarena website HERE for any information about installing new Via chipset drivers.

Viaarena says that these updated drivers now support 8 x AGP for #400 chipset series. The inf file is v1.701 and the AGP driver version is now numbered 4.30b2.

Unless you have a motherboard with the latest chipset that can handle 8 x AGP then there is little point in updating your system as this is the only change. However, from what I have read around the web, don't expect to double your speed with 8 x AGP, but it will make things run a little bit faster than 4 x AGP.

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Monday 12 August, 2002

Are you ‘Googling’ in safety? by bluetracker @ 10:27 pm

Are you alone when you’re "Googling"?

Most of us Google now and again; some of us Google directly from the site itself whilst others Google by opting for the use of an installable toolbar that is downloaded then integrated into your browser.

A recent discovery by Grey Magic Software informs us of a series of vulnerabilities in version 1.1.58 of the search engine toolbar.

When the Google toolbar is installed ,it appears along with the Internet Explorer, allowing users to use the Google search engine without having to return to the Google home page.

However, due to a number of security problems, an attacker could reroute searches through their own website and profile the victim by the nature of
their search entries.
Also, by using URLs with script inserted, the attacker could read local files on the victim's PC and even execute this script.

Google has corrected these vulnerabilities and released version 1.1.60 of the toolbar with all the vunerabilities that were in the previous version fixed.

Those of you who are using the Google searchbar are advised to download the latest version to enable you to once again Google in safety!.

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Winamp3 by @ 7:57 pm

Nullsoft have updated their popular Winamp player. Winamp3 is now available for download.

Nullsoft tells us that this new version has freeform skins, it plays video, manage playlists, has advanced components along with "All our old tricks"

3 versions are available, Lite, Standard and Full. Non of them have ads and they are all free. The download is a tiny 3.18mb's for the full version. For a media player, that's small!

To see the new features and to download your upated player CLICK HERE

Newsbytes would like to thank Fitzy who told us about this update. Many thanks Fitzy.

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Sunday 11 August, 2002

UK National Lottery Results Checker Update by @ 12:13 am

Jason Brooks at Muckypaws, the creator of the UK National Lottery Results Checker has just notified us that he has updated his lottery checker to verion 1.8 build (1804). If you already have version 1.8 build (1803) a patch is available from his website HERE

The UK National Lottery Checker is a free utility to make life easy when checking multiple lottery numbers and checking stats. It works with Windows9x/Me/NT4/2000/XP. You can get the latest full version from Jasons site HERE

Your lottery check details should now look like this:

The about screen on Jason Brooks UK National Lottery Checker

Jason would also like some feedback from users to find out what OS we are using to run the lottery checker on. The results from this survey will help Jason to develop a new version of the lottery checker in the future. You can answer his questions HERE

I have used Jasons Lottery Checker for a number of years now and it makes checking my 'other halfs' work numbers off really easy. Jason also has a number of free games he has programmed. My favourite is the old C64 classic 'BLITZ'. You can view all of Jasons work on his website at Muckypaws

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Saturday 10 August, 2002

XP-Antispy Update by @ 8:50 pm

An Updated version of the popular XP-Antispy utility has just been released.

Version 3.6 has just been released and you can get it from HERE

We can't see any details about this new version on the website yet, so we don't know if it has any new features or bug fixes.

For those of you who don't know what XP-Antispy is or does, the makers of this utility tell us:

XP-AntiSpy is a little utility that let's you disable some built-in update and authetication 'features' in WindowsXP.
For example, there's a service running in the background wich is called 'Automatic Updates'. I don't know what this service transfers from my machine to other machines on the internet, especially the MS ones. So I play it safe and disable such functions. If you like, you can even disable these function manually, by going through the System and checking or unchecking some checkboxes. This will take you approximately half an hour. But why wasting time when a little neat utility can do the same in 1 minute?

You can get full detail about XP-Antispy from there website HERE. The website is in Germany, you will have to click on the union jack flag to read the text in English.

Only use this program if you are worried about security and what information WindowsXP sends back to Microsoft.

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Klez still the top menace by bluetracker @ 6:17 pm

In Over the last four months, the "I" variant of Klez has been the virus that has infected most computers according to the information data gathered by PandaActiveScan.

The information collected from the free online virus scanner reveals that Klez.I accounted for nearly 20 percent of all incidents recorded, followed a long way off by Elkern.C (5.39%).
Next came Klez.F (2.87%), Help (2.54%), Sircam (2.49%), Nimda (2.46%), and Hybris (2.26%).
Kazoa, Magistr.B and Bck/SubSeven completed July's top ten list of computer Nasties.

-"The undisputable dominance of Klez".
With the first and third positions in the ranking taken by the "I" and "F"
variants of Klez, and second place by Elkern.C, which, by the way is closely associated to the Klez worms.Adds credence to the reports of Klez's dominance.

The old enemies.
Despite the ferocious SirCam sliding down a place, July has been notable for the persistence of old enemies and the *relative* absence of new viruses appearing on the scenes. Perhaps the writers of the code are taking their summer vacations?
Both Nimda and Hybris have crept up the rankings again, Magistr.B is back in the table once again, an indication to the recipients of these oldies that their anti-virus software is in dire need of updating or worse still they do not have ANY protection at all!

To help users keep their computers out of the reach of viruses, Panda Software offers Panda ActiveScan, completely free of charge, on their Website

Trojans/Viruses...Viruses/Trojans...my brain hurts!

Why if your anti-virus is up to date do you need protection against Trojans?
Surely an antivirus application should be enough?

In my experience ( two kids worth!) I have found that whilst an up-to date anti-virus program be it Norton/McAfee/Panda/AVG or whatever, are excellent ways of stopping/removing VIRUSES many of the many available A/V solutions can fall short when a TROJAN invades your system.

Without getting technical (which is beyond me anyway!) What IS a TROJAN?
Basically it's a WORM...at this point, think about a garden worm....cut a bit out of it's middle the two remaining bits wriggle away as if nothing had happened becoming two separate and fully functional entities! This is EXACTLY how the computer based WORM reacts.
A simple description I know, but it works for me!

Many AV's CAN detect and remove BITS of the malicious code within the make-up of a Trojan worm ...BUT... they fail to spot the other bits wriggling away... both capable of replicating themself and spreading!
Applications such as Moosoft's The Cleaner can remove ALL the BITS thus leaving nothing to wriggle off!



Moosoft updates The Cleaner twice in one week!

"The Cleaner" Database v3324 appeared on 07/08/02 and details of this have already been shown in these columns.

v3325 followed directly after on 08-08-2002.
To those who are regular readers of The Technology Vaults' Newsbytes column, it is indicative of Moosoft's Daniel Otis-Vigil's new found ability to limit 'hookey copies' of his software flooding his servers, enabling more of his time to be dedicated to the business of supplying legitimate users with regular updates of his software.

This latest update includes removal/cleaning abilities effective against 3 more Trojans -
JustJoke Backdoor, JustJoke Joiner and JustJoke Trojan.

Daniel has also included in this release updated definitions for Chatspy and Y3K
Users should update their copy by using the "MooLive" updater that is packaged with their software or via the Moosoft website.


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StyleXP Update by @ 5:17 pm

TGTsoft have released a beta version of StyleXP that will work with Service Pack 1 for WindowsXP users. StyleXP lets users with WindowsXP add new themes. TGT says that this BETA update version 1.01i will work with Service Pack 1 v. 1050 - 1065, 1068, 1073, 1079, 1081,1086,1089 only. Only download and use this version if you are having problems with version 1.0.

This new version fixes some minor bugs like some install problems and some boot up problems. It also adds some new lanuage files for Russian, Polish, and Hungarian.

TGT says: Style XP is themeing software that helps customize the way your XP system looks. Style XP can manage and rotate Themes, Visual Styles, Backgrounds, and Logons. Instead of old square buttons and limited colors, the Windows® XP visual style engine natively supports the use of true color bitmap buttons.

You can visit the StyleXP website HERE to dowload the new beta or version 1.0.

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TVTool Update by @ 4:44 pm

The utility that makes using the TV-Out control on graphics cards easier, TVTool from H.O.T has been updated to version 6.5.2. Registered users of TVTool can download this updated version using the same link (version 6.5.0) that was emailed to them. If your new to TVTool and would like to know more about it, you can visit their website HERE

This small update fixes a few outstanding bugs found in the previous version.

• Sync problem with Chrontel chips (some users got a worse picture quality on TV with version 6.5)
• Adaption to big fonts
• The position for NTSC 768x576 mode is saved now
• a few smaller bugs

TVTool is a very easy way to use TV-Out on your PC and works with almost all nVidia cards and Windows 95, 98, Me, NT4, 2000, XP.

The latest version of NVRT version 1.0, the tool that fixes the refresh rate on Win2000/XP PCs has been designed to work with TVTool now. Unfortunatly, the website of NVRT seems to have been down for some time now. Until it returns, those of you who would like to use this utility can download it from my webspace HERE. To get it to work with TVTool, just click on the top Extras tab and pick TV-Out resolution. Set both settings to 800x600 and 640x480. Click OK, save settings and re-boot. Then forget it. You will have top refresh rates and you can use TVTool.

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Friday 9 August, 2002

UKPC has closed down it's website by @ 11:01 am

UKPC has closed it's website down in a voluntary move by the owners who have had problems over the past few months. UKPC have promised to fulfill every single outstanding order.

UKPC was the sponsor for the CDRW competition held here at The TechnologyVault and have told Newsbytes that they will still provide the winners with their prizes as well as fulfill all outstanding orders.

Visitors to their website today are confronted with the following message from UKPC:

Important Message Regarding ukpc.tv
It is with great regret, that today we are announcing the closure of ukpc.tv. We have had a great few years, but over the last 12 months we have had several things go wrong which has caused many problems for ourselves and our customers. Although the website has now closed, we will still fulfill Every Order without fail.

Todays closure has been voluntary and we believe it is the right thing to do.

At present we do have a bit of a back log of orders. As mentioned above, all of these orders will be completed within the next 30 days. From today no new orders will be taken.

We can be contacted on the email address below, this will be the only email address in use from today. Because of this annoucement we expect a large influx of emails, because of this please give upto 5 working days for a responce.

We would like to re-iterate our message above, ALL outstanding orders will be completed within the next 30 days.

If you have an outstanding order, you will find an email contact address under this message at www.ukpc.tv on their website.

UKPC would also like to take this chance to thank everyone for their support over the years and to apologise to everyone who has been effected by the problems we have had over the last few weeks.

I know many TechnologyVault members have ordered items from UKPC in the past and I'm sure you would like to join Newsbytes in wishing Phil and all his staff at UKPC the very best in what must be a very difficult time for them.

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Thursday 8 August, 2002

New "Cleaner" database! by bluetracker @ 12:52 pm

The latest released Database (v3324 08-07-2002) comes with the added protection against the following 12 Trojans.......

Chatspy, Fake Trojan, Getfiles, HK, KKiller, MinStaller, Reverse Trojan, Screw Notify, ServU Trojan and TheCookieMan

It also updates protection against variants of -
Assasin, Asylum and OptixKiller. trojans.

For maximum protection, owners of The Cleaner software are advised to update their copy by using the Moo-live updater functionality on-line, or by visiting the
Moosoft website where non users can also try the software for 30 days FREE.


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Macromedia Flash Player Update by @ 10:20 am

Macromedia have released an update to it's flash player. Version 6,0,47,0 is now available from Macromedia. It only takes 1min to download on a 56k modem and is for all Windows systems.

You can either download it now from Macromedia or if you visit a website that uses the new flash 6 player you will be prompted to download it to enable you to view the content.

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Detonator 30.82 by @ 4:30 am

Nvidia have just released a new set of official detonator drivers for Windows95/98/ME and 2000/XP.

These official Detonator drivers are unified drivers which means that they are for ALL Nvidia based cards from TNT right through to Geforce4.

The Windows95/98/ME version comes as a 8.3mb download from Nvidia and a massive 10.1mb for the Windows2000/XP flavour.

CLICK HERE to download these new Detonator 30.82 drivers from Nvidia. Click on your OS and you will be presented with a number of download mirror sites.

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Wednesday 7 August, 2002

WindowsXP SP1 BETA by @ 10:11 am

Another version of WindowsXP Beta service pack 1 has been released, this time it's version 1089. There is alot of speculation that this will be the final release version from Microsoft as the splash screen that said "For testing purposes only" has been removed.

My advice is not to try this version as we can only be just a few weeks away now for the final release. The final release will be available on CD's on the front of many popular computing magazines and also from Windows Update. However, if your eager to see whats available in SP1, then by all means give it a try WinXP SP1 BETA at your own risk. Beta versions are active for 30 days only.

Also available is Windows Media Player 9 BETA
Where do they all come from? Xbetas.com have some great pictures of this new BETA version which now comes with a very cool Toolbar player.
Toolbar player on Windows Media Player 9

To view all the pictures CLICK HERE. To download this BETA version CLICK HERE

It gives us all a taste of things to come. New cool visualisations, toolbar player, volume adjustments and many other new features. Just left for me to give you the usual warnings. These are BETA versions and not the final releases, So download them at your own risk. Only proceed if you know what you are doing!

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Monday 5 August, 2002

The biggest party ever! by @ 7:20 pm

What must be one of the biggest demo parties this year took place this weekend. Assembly 2002 has just finished and the result of this massive party are now in. Thanks to sites like Scene.org we can all download and view some, if not all of the entries.

The competitions in this years Assembly had massive support. You could join the Game Development, Fast Music, Oldskool Music, Oldskool Graphics, Oldskool Demo, Analog Graphics, Instrumental Music, Raytraced Graphics, Flash Demos, Drawn Graphics, Vocal Music, Combined 4k Intros, Combined 64k Intros, Mobile Demo, Wild Demos, Animation, Full Combined Demos, Quake 3 Arena, CounterStrike Team, Return to Castle Wolfenstein Team, Forum Nokia 24h, Street Basketball, Socker, Disk Throwing and even Cd Throwing competitions.

My favourite section is the Combined Demos. This years winner was haujobb with Liquid. A black and white demo in what we have come to expect in the way of high quality from haujobb. However, in my view haujobb have used this format too many times now and their demos are getting a tad borring to say the least. But hay, what do I know, it did win.

My favourite so far was the second placed winner by Moppi. In a demo called halla we see and hear the story of a sad, cold little girl who has very life like movement. The somba voice over is sinister and dark. The demo opens with a scene of a cold snowy New Years Day in the city. The little girl is sitting in the snow next to a street bench. She lights a number of matches and through the flames we get scenes of home and a sinister insight into why the girl is out on the streets. It's very good, not the best demo I've ever seen but it's put my faith back into the demo scene as the results from the last major party VIP4 were very disappointing.

The opening credit scene from Halla by Moppi Productions


The little girl from Halla by Moppi Productions

To see all the result from Assembly 2002 CLICK HERE. Those wishing to download and see some of the party winners work have 3 choices. You can download from the main Scene.org site HERE or from 2 ftp mirror sites. FTP Mirror site 2 or FTP Mirror site 3

There are lots of entries to see and I'm off now to download some more. Enjoy!

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Sunday 4 August, 2002

Spot the "Cheesy grin" by bluetracker @ 1:15 pm

A ‘fluke’ find could stop facial rot!

We have all been there.....stood in front of the bathroom mirror inspecting the 'Bomb damage' to our youthful looks by that dreaded teenage malady....ACNE!
However hard you try the condition refuses to be controlled...sneaking up on you like a Biological Ninja.
Oxycution potions, pills or scrubbing your face with emery paper each morning fails to deter the adolescent affliction from ruining one's visage.

Fear not.. the solution to the problem is probably lurking in your fridge as you read this....but no one knew until now!


Reports around the WWW tell us of two Food microbiologists in the USA (Clemson University ) Susan Barefoot and doctoral student Priya Ratnam who have made the ‘spot bustin’ discovery as they searched for bacteriocin proteins a tiny bit of antibiotic-like matter produced by the bacteria used in the making of Swiss cheese that act as natural food preservatives.

"It was really serendipity," Barefoot said. "We were looking for a bacteriocin from a close relative of the Swiss cheese bacteria. We found one, but it did not work as a new food preservative".

For whatever reason, perhaps they Spotted the not dissimilar appearance of a acne scarred face and a slice of Swiss cheese; far from abandoning their find, discussions erupted and they began to wonder if the bacteriocin would be effective against the acne bacteria which it would appear is a distant relative to the Swiss cheese bacteria.

For the study, they secured acne samples (Yuck!) from dermatologists and then isolated 150 acne bacteria to test the bacteriocin's effectiveness. "The acne bacteria was controlled in every single test. Every strain, every culture, two different testing methods -- all had the same results," said Barefoot.


The researchers have now signed an agreement with the ImmuCell Corporation, a Portland, Maine -based biotech company, to jointly develop their work. Jenseniin P is the name given to Barefoot's new anti-microbial, has the potential to make a very potent product in the fight against acne, according to Richard T Coughlin, (the firm's senior director of research and development) who has been quoted as saying..
"Such a product could reduce the use of conventional antibiotics to treat non-life-threatening diseases and the rise in antibiotics resistant bacteria,"
All in all good news for acne sufferers, not so good for manufacturers of the plethora of so-called 'anti acne' preparations currently available, but perhaps also a money spinner for the vendors of Swiss cheese who's sales are about to rise methinks.

The next time your acne infested Son or Daughter gives you a Cheesy grin it’s not because they’ve been raiding the drinks cabinet or snorting some illicit substance, the probable reason is that they have previously used the contents of your sandwich to kill a few spots!

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Friday 2 August, 2002

Storm hits Californian Internet users by bluetracker @ 9:59 pm

Surfers must PAY to read their news on-line


Since it’s conception in 1962 as a military communications facility funded by the US Dept of Defence The RAND Corporation laid the first building blocks of todays Internet in place.

At that time, the facility was only available to residents of the USA and at the time in a very limited fashion of what it has today become, freely available to those who were lucky enough to own a computer.

In the 1970’s e-mail became popular on ARAPNET (as the word INTERNET would not come into being until the late 80’s) and news is circulated freely between companies friends and families; even our own Queen Elizabeth goes online with the first Royal email message.

By 1980 a new Internet host was being added daily to the growing numbers. By mid-80 a boom in the personal computer and super-minicomputer industries; the combination of inexpensive desktop machines and powerful, network-ready servers allows many companies to join the Internet for the first time. Corporations begin to use the Internet to communicate with each other and with their customers. Newspapers see a medium by which they could spread their news to a wider ever growing audience, supplementing their hard copy daily sales in recent years by selling advertising space on their websites.

Today you can get the Gist of the daily news by surfing along to your newspapers’ own website, (sometimes for a small fee) you can also get the FULL edition delivered straight to your e-mail inbox saving you the walk to the Newspaper shop from many erstwhile sources.

What would YOU pay to read the news on-line?


Four well-known newspapers whose Head offices are located in the California region of the US have decided to CHARGE surfers to their website for the online content of their newspapers.

Two daily rags, the Northwest Florida Daily News of Fort Walton Beach and The News-Herald of Panama City, and the twice weekly Destin Log and weekly Walton Sun from Thursday (01/08/02) implemented charges for their online content. With prices ranging from around $7 to $9 (depending on where you live) their head office claim the charges are "Way cheaper" than having the actual newspaper delivered to your door AND the on-line version contains everything (including adverts of course) that the hardcopy version contains.

Needless to say they have been inundated with complaints from Internet users, many of them locals who have also paid good money for the physical versions of the newspapers.

Surfers to the websites are faced with the usual layout but when clicking on the TEASER to a story are faced with an online subscription form. There is no choice in the matter, you either pay up or you don’t get to read the news!

Oh by the way those who DO subscribe to the physical versions receive a discount on the on-line versions. Which I am informed “Is very big of them” by my relation….

What do YOU think?

Should we be expected to pay for on-line news? Could this be just the Tip of the Iceberg that will finally sink the good ship “Free Internet News”? Let me know Your feelings on the subject in the Newsbytes Forum!

Before you reply... take a look HERE or here to find out just what I mean.


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AVG update by @ 9:19 pm

Newsbytes would like to thank Tony and Slarty for giving us the details about this update.

AVG has just been updated to Virus Database 214. This is Update 381 and was released on 02/08/2002.

Grisoft tells us: This update adds detection of new viruses, I-Worm/Assarm, I-Worm/Dotor, I-Worm/Holar, I-Worm/Lama, I-Worm/Langex, I-Worm/Urick, W97M/Cisi, Worm/Kazeus a Worm/Ladex.

Also added new variants of known viruses, I-Worm/Zoek, Win32/Chir, Worm/Surnova a Worm/Sytro.

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Thursday 1 August, 2002

Movie Pirate uses neighbours Wi-Fi by @ 7:05 pm

A movie parate who lived next door to a Wi-Fi user, used his neighbour system to send a pirate copy of a movie over the internet. AT&T Broadband was contacted by an agency representing the movie's producers.

The Wi-Fi user was advised to encrypt his signals by AT&T Broadband. It seems that all Wi-Fi systems have the ability to use encryption but it is not activated by default when people purchase the equipment.

It shows up some of the dangers of Wi-Fi which is becoming more popular. It's been sugested that Wi-Fi users could be found liable for any improper use in some situations.

Newsbytes would like to thank Ornivas for this story and take this opportunity to remind you that anyone can send in stories to Newsbytes. As with our friend Ornivas, we always give recognition for your story. All we ask is that it's your own work (Don't just send in links to news stories!) and is in keeping with a Technology theme. It also helps if it's intresting! Plug over!

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Bug removal software by @ 5:50 pm

The inventor of a unique bug removal software has just updated the software to include cockroaches and rats.

The software technique which was originally written to get ride of mosquitoes has now been updated to include cockroaches and rats. This unique software program uses your computers speakers to emit high frequency sounds that bugs like mosquitoes will hate. That's according to the owner of this software Saranyou Punyaratanabunbhu.

Anti-Mal Version 2.0

It's just what I need living next to a marsh area as I do where I get bitten to pieces by mosquitoes in this hot and humid weather.

You can download this little gem from Thaiware.com. Be warned, this webpage is not fully in English but you should be able to navigate to the download tab to download this 510kb program. The program is for Windows95/98/ME only. If you do install it, tell me if it works!

ADDED Here is the download link for Anti-Mal version 2.0

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Nvidia Detonator Driver 30.82 Beta for Win2000/XP and 98/ME by @ 5:22 pm

The folks over at warp2search and driverheaven have just released new BETA Detonator Drivers version 30.82 for Win2000/XP and 98/ME.

First benchmarking reports show that these new BETA drivers are slower or the same as the 30.30 drivers released by Gainwood a few weeks ago.

Warp2Search says that these drivers are version 30.82 and are dated 07/16/2002. This is a generic release so all Nvidia cards to date are supported.

Newsbytes would like to remind you that these are BETA drivers and not official drivers released by Nvidia. Only install these drivers if you know what you are doing. You install them at your own risk!

You can download the Windows98/ME Detonators HERE (Driver Heaven mirror site) and the Windows2000/XP Detonators from HERE

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