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Thursday, December 15, 2005

New DirectX 10 for Gamers

All gamers may all happy as Microsoft releasing DirectX 10 for public. Not only pre - Direct3D 10 Microsoft also releasing 326 MB new version of developer tools available for download.

This Kit armed with several tools including Microsoft Windows Game Explorer. With this feature game developers can add auto-update and parent control onto their game.

Microsoft will only ship DirectX 10 dan DirectX 9 on their new Operating System, Windows Vista. as they willing to use both kit simultaneously.

But, unfortunedly users can not access all features and advantages of DirectX. Why ? According to Developers of Direct3D and OpenGL Microsoft, Rudolph Balaz, DirectX 10 will only run fully on new Windows Vista Operating System.

Windows XP can not support DirectX 10. Microsoft will launch DirectX 9 on the end of next year for Windows Vista, they said it is compatible with all graphic cards.

DirectX Software Development Kit also contain updates for tools, utilities, samples, documentations and runtime debug for x64 and x86 platform. Also pre-release tools Microsoft Cross-Platform Audio Creation and Managed Direct Code (2.0 CLR).


Monday, December 12, 2005

Happy New Year - WORM_SOBER.AG (Low Risk)

There have been reports that the new year will start with a bang possibly on
the 5th of January or 6th of January, when a new SOBER variant is suspected
to be released by the same group that caused the recent WORM_SOBER.AG
outbreak in November.

The reports may have been based on the analysis that WORM_SOBER.AG
will download an executable file (Sober.exe) possibly on either January 5,
2006 or January 6, 2006 from certain URLs that are hard-coded and
encrypted within the SOBER.AG worm.
These "predefined" URLs are not the exact sites that may used - an algorithm
based on the date is used to generate the exact URLs that will be used on the
target date itself.

For more information on WORM_SOBER.AG, please visit virus-alert-wormsoberag

Top 10 Most Prevalent Global Malware
(From December 2 to December 8, 2005) chosen by Trend Micro:

1. WORM_SOBER.G
2. SPYW_DASHBAR.300
3. JAVA_BYTEVER.A
4. SPYW_GATOR.F
5. HTML_NETSKY.P
6. WORM_NETSKY.P
7. WORM_MOFEI.B
8. ADW_LOP.A
9. TSPY_SMALL.SN
10. TROJ_BAGLE.AH


Friday, December 09, 2005

Yahoo Officially Announces VOIP using Messenger

The Associated Press is reporting that Yahoo is tweaking its existing Yahoo Messenger VOIP offering to add Skype style call out features and let Yahoo Messenger users receive calls from traditional phones to their Yahoo Messenger system. This is a rather large and anticipated step for Yahoo, which was reportedly involved in the Skype bidding war, which led to the eBay acquisition of Skype. Yahoo is probably wanting to get their Yahoo VOIP system rolling and widespead before Meg Whitman revolutionizes Skype to the eBay demographic and Google begins adding similar features to Google Talk.

The new service will include "Phone Out," which enable users to place VoIP calls to traditional phones, similar to "SkypeOut." Yahoo also will launch a "Phone In" service, which enables VoIP users to receive traditional phones calls, al a "SkypIn."

The kicker is Yahoo Messenger calls to the US would cost half that of Skype's 2.1-cents-a-minute rate. Yahoo spokesperson Terrell Karlsten said it would charge one cent per minute for VoIP calls to the US.

And calls made to more than 30 international countries are expected to cost less than 2 cents a minute with Yahoo, she said. That includes the UK, China, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Korea, Karlsten said.

The company plans to launch a localized version of the service in "a handful of countries," but not everywhere," Karlsten said.

Yahoo's Phone In service, which allows users to select their phone number, is expected to cost a flat rate of $2.99 per month or about $29.90 annually. That's in line with the SkypeIn 12-month subscription price of 30 euros (or roughly $35), or 3 months for 10 euros (about $11.80).

Yahoo's new service will be based on Dialpad's technology, "in addition to developing our technology in-house," Karlsten said.

Podcast is Word of the Year 2005

The word "Podcast" has been selected by New Oxford American Dictionary as Word of the Year for 2005
About 12 months ago, the term Podcast was only a minor active word on the Internet search engines. Now, Podcast become one of the most popular used word when searching online.

Oxford University Press defines podcast as "a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player."

New Oxford American Dictionary editor in chief, Erin McKean said "Podcast was considered for inclusion last year, but we found that not enough people were using it, or were even familiar with the concept. This year it's a completely different story. The word has finally caught up with the rest of the iPod phenomenon."

"Podcast" will be added to the next online update of the New Oxford American Dictionary, due in early 2006.

Words beaten by "Podcast" are bird flu, lifehack, persistent vegetative state, reggaeton, rootkit, squick, sudoku and trans fat.


Thursday, December 08, 2005

Mandriva Linux Globetrotter 2.0 released!

Many of you will remember Globetrotter, the innovative portable Mandriva system.
Globetrotter is a customised version of Mandriva Linux on a portable
hard drive. Plug it into any PC that can boot from a USB device and
access your own Linux desktop! A boot CD is also provided so you can
boot the system on PCs which cannot boot from a USB disk.
Now version 2.0 of the Globetrotter is available.
Globetrotter 2.0 is based on a newer version of Mandriva and comes in
higher capacities than the original Globetrotter - 40GB and 80GB
versions are available. You can read more about Globetrotter 2.0, and
buy one from the Mandriva Store today!
http://store.mandriva.com/product_info.php?products_id=277

Mandriva Linux 2006 Free released!

Now's the time for everyone who's not a Club member or not ready to
buy a Mandriva pack yet - the free edition of Mandriva Linux 2006

Mandriva Linux 2006 Free, is now available! Free is both 100% free /
open source software and downloadable at no charge. Because it's 100%
free / open source software it's also freely redistributable - this is
the edition to use to introduce your friends to Mandriva! Free is a
fully functional and comprehensive distribution which comes on three
CDs or one DVD and can be supplemented with all the packages from our
public mirror sites. The community Easy URPMI website can help you to
access packages from the public mirrors through Mandriva's easy
package management tools. Mandriva Linux 2006 features easy desktop
search, our new interactive firewall, improved wireless network
roaming, and updated versions of all your favourite tools and
applications, including kernel 2.6.12, KDE 3.4, GNOME 2.10 and more!
Remember, the commercial versions of Mandriva Linux 2006 include more
packages on the CDs / DVDs and extra commercial software, including
applications, plugins and drivers, which is not available on the Free
edition. Club members can download commercial versions of Mandriva
Linux 2006, and also have exclusive access to GNOME 2.12 and
OpenOffice 2.0 packages.

With official support for Intel's Centrino mobile technology, the
newest versions of popular applications, and advanced tools such as
the Interactive Firewall, Mandriva 2006 empowers everyone to start
the year with the next step for Linux.

Discovery/Lx is the product resulting from convergence between
Mandriva and Lycoris technology. With a new look and feel, a new
theme, a new set of icons and better ergonomics, Discovery/Lx is the
ideal product for beginners looking to switch to Linux.

Buy a pack from the Mandriva Store or join the Club to get access to
these commercial editions! To download Mandriva Linux 2006 Free today,
visit the downloads page http://store.mandriva.com.


Friday, December 02, 2005

Risk Virus Alert - WORM_MYTOB.MX

As of November 24, 2005 2:34 AM (Pacific Standard Time, GMT -8:00),
TrendLabs has declared a Medium Risk Virus Alert to control the spread of WORM_MYTOB.MX.
TrendLabs has received several infection reports indicating that this malware is spreading in Eastern Europe, Japan, India, China, Sweden, France, Spain, Austria, and Germany.

This memory-resident worm spreads copies of itself as an attachment to email messages, which it sends to target addresses, using its own Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) engine. Through this SMTP engine, it is able to easily send the said email message even without using other mailing
applications, such as Microsoft Outlook.

The email message that it sends has the following details:

From: (Spoofed)

Subject: (any of the following)
? DETECTED Online User Violation
? Important Notification
? MEMBERS SUPPORT
? Notice Account limitation
? Security Measures
? WARNING MESSAGE YOUR SERVICES NEAR TO BE CLOSED
? You have successfully updated your password
? Your Account is Suspended
? Your Account is Suspended For Security Reasons
? Your password has been successfully updated
? Your Password has been updated

Message Body: (any of the following)
Dear {User Profile} Member,

Your e-mail account was used to send a huge amount of unsolicited spam messages during the recent week. If you could please take 5-10 minutes out of your online experience and confirm the attached document so you will not run into any future problems with the online service.

If you choose to ignore our request, you leave us no choice but to cancel your membership.

Virtually yours,
The {User Profile}, Support Team

===========

Dear user {User Profile},

It has come to our attention that your {User Profile}, ( x ) records are out of date. For further details see the attached document.

Thank you for using {User Profile}!
The {User Profile} Support Team
+++ Attachment: No Virus (Clean)
+++ "Name" Antivirus - www.{User Profile}.com

===========

Dear user {User Profile},

You have successfully updated the password of your {User Profile} account.

If you did not authorize this change or if you need assistance with your account, please contact customer service at: register@{User Profile}.com

Thank you for using {User Profile}!
The {User Profile} Support Team
+++ Attachment: No Virus (Clean)
+++ "Name" Antivirus - www. {User Profile}.com

===========

Dear {User Profile} Member,

We have temporarily suspended your email account {User Profile}.
This might be due to either of the following reasons:
1. A recent change in your personal information (i.e. change of address).
2. Submiting invalid information during the initial sign up process.
3. An innability to accurately verify your selected option of subscription due to an internal error within our processors.
See the details to reactivate your {User Profile} account.
Sincerely,The Support Team
+++ Attachment: No Virus (Clean)
+++ {User Profile}Antivirus www.{User Profile}

NOTE: {User Profile}, is equal to the computer's Domain User Name

Attachment: (any of the following file names)
? accepted-password
? account-details
? account-info
? account-password
? account-report
? approved-password
? documeng
? email-details
? email-password
? important-details
? new-password
? password
? readme
? updated-password


This worm also propagates via network shares. It searches for available shared folders within the network and attempts to drop copies of itself into these shares. It also generates random IP addresses and attempts to drop copies of itself into the said addresses' default shares. It uses the account details of the currently logged user to gain access to password-protected shares.

It has backdoor capabilities, which enable a remote malicious user to perform commands on the affected system, thus compromising system security.

It runs on Windows NT, 2000, and XP.

TrendLabs will be releasing the following EPS deliverables:

TMCM Outbreak Prevention Policy 189 - released
Official Pattern Release 2.967.00 - released
Damage Cleanup Template 682 - being created
NVW 10233 - being created