Microsoft is pulling its socks up & getting the latest version of its browser out to the masses ahead of schedule. That's right, folks, IE 7 is almost upon us... :o

"A beta, or test, version of Internet Explorer 7 will debut this summer, Microsoft's chairman and chief software architect said in a keynote address at the RSA Conference 2005 here. The company had said that it would not ship a new IE version before the next major update to Windows, code-named Longhorn, arrives next year."

Video Cards

Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro Toxic Edition @ VR-Zone

Motherboards

Foxconn WinFast NF4UK8AA @ the TechReport

RAM

OCZ PC3700EL Platinum @ AuphanOnline

Etc.

Fossil Abacus AU4002 SPOT Watch @ Designtechnica  Lian Li V2000 Tower @ GruntvillE

Heh. When I first saw the subject line of this email, I thought it was a review of something. Oh, how wrong I was. Good stuff here.

"Welcome to the 21st century. The age of conservation, renewable materials and Jolene Blalock. As we're urged to replace our gaming equipment on a weekly basis, many tonnes of silicon, lead, and copies of Daikatana make it into our planet's landfills. Aspiring to save the planet but don't know how? Why not do it over breakfast with your very own energy-efficient CPU-powered hotplate."

Motherboards

Albatron K8 Ultra-U Pro @ Madshrimps  Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI @ Hexus

AOpen i915Pa-PLF @ OverclockerCafe

Etc.

Thermaltake Silent 775 @ TechTastic  JAHT Bluetooth Accessories @ Techniz

4 Channel Wireless Camera System @ BigBruin

Whelp, looks like Qwest's bid has been rejected, even though it was for more cash than Verizon's. The telecom industry certainly is a tumultuous one at the moment, isn't it?

"Verizon edged out rival bidder Qwest Communications International, which had offered $7.3 billion, sources said. Qwest was seen as the weaker suitor because of its hefty debt load and its smaller share of the corporate market."

New to the *nix shell? Grep is a good place to start, & IceTeks have a decent write up on how to get searching with grep.

"Grep is a linux command that is often overlooked but can be very useful when searching for stuff from a single string to a complicated regular expression. This article scratches the surface on it's power and should leave you with enough information to discover new uses for it."

Expect some news from Cisco on upgrades to its security products, most notably the SSL VPN, this week.

"One of the more important upgrades to be announced next week is on Cisco's SSL VPN product, sources say. SSL VPNs allow users to remotely connect to the corporate network using a standard Web browser. Currently, Cisco's product only supports Web-based applications. The new version will allow users to access some non-Web applications, too, such as e-mail residing on a corporate mail server."

More contests coming your way from several different sites today. You can win anything from RAM to lightbuses if you've got the will to get out there & throw your name in the hat. Hit up FastLaneHW for a chance to pick up one of four sets of Corsair 3200XL-PRO if you hurry. You've got to enter your email address by tomorrow. If you've already got some phatty stix in your rig, you could head over to XYZComputing for a chance to win a bunch of quality Danger Den Maze4 gear. This one's a forum posting contest, so be prepared to exert minimal effort! Finally, BigBruin's part two in its Sunbeamtech giveaway is upon us. This time around, they're putting a Chameleon lightbus up for grabs if you answer some product questions correctly.

Yet another company's antivirus software has been hit with a security flaw that could allow attackers to gain access to users' PCs. This time, it's F-Secure, & eighteen of their products are affected by the hole. You can grab your patch here if you need it. 2004-2005 product users should have had the hotfix auto-distributed by now.

"By creating a specially crafted ARJ archive file, an intruder could use a buffer overflow to run arbitrary code on an unpatched machine, said Tony Magellanez, a systems engineer at F-Secure."

SFF

Shuttle XPC SB95P V2 @ the TechReport

Motherboards

ASUS P5AD2-E Premium @ Hexus

RAM

Mushkin PC3700 1GB Hi-Perf Dual Pack @ XYZComputing

Kingston 1GB PC2-5400 HyperX DDR2 @ ARP

Cases

Cooler Master CoolDrive 6 & Lite HDD Enclosures @ 3DGameMan

Coolermaster Praetorian 731@ MadShrimps  Cooler Master Wave Master Special Edition @ hi-techreviews

Arctic Cooling Silentium T2 @ BigBruin

Mice/Pads

XTracPads Hybrid Mouse Pad @ ExtensionTech  I-rocks IR-7220 Cross Direction Optical Mouse@ XYZComputing

Flexglow xRaider and FX Gamer Mousepads @ Controlled-Insanity

Etc.

Thermaltake Beetle CPU Cooler @ Techniz  Pinnacle Liquid Edition Pro 6 @ Hexus

Ultra Glossy Fans @ OCIA  BTC Ultra-Slim 6300 Keyboard @ Techniz

Crazy stuff here. Can you imagine once this technology becomes mainstream enough that every household will have one? It'd put the entire fashion & garment industries straight out of business, that's for sure.

"The Brother GT-541 uses ink jet technology that prints on many garments in high quality color directly from a computer, with a 14" by 16" printable area. The GT-541 marks the progression from screen printing technologies to a cleaner, faster, and more productive way to imprint images on garments."

Hrrmmm... ok, I suppose that they teach marketing logic on the MS campus as well? Can't argue with number of patches, but it's still a flawed argument to begin with...

"Year-to-date for 2005, Microsoft has fixed 15 vulnerabilities affecting Windows Server 2003. In the same time period, for just this year, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 users have had to patch 34 vulnerabilities and SuSE Enterprise Linux 9 users have had to patch over 78 vulnerabilities."

These guys want to actually collect on someone making a nude skin for a game? Yeah, good luck with that, buddy. Who're you actually going to sue? The gaming community's been doing this kind of stuff for years... ain't nothing gonna stop it now; especially something like a lawsuit for cryin' out loud.

"The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Chicago, accuses Web site administrators Mike Greiling of Eden Prairie, Minn., Will Glynn of Davie, Fla., and others of knowingly infringing on Tecmo's proprietary software for the games, which run on Microsoft's Xbox console."

If you're looking to get some background information on this up & coming disc storage technology, this article is for you. The TechZone gang are taking an in-depth look at Sony's new baby, & what it will mean to the home entertainment industry.

"Movie people want it because if you want to copy a movie across >the Internet today you "can" do it. Okay it takes 2-3 hours to accomplish but it is possible. To do the same in high def would require 8-10 yours. In addition, the new formats - HD DVD and Blue-ray - are being designed at the outset with stronger digital rights management so making copies will be more difficult."