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If you are interested in adding news to the main page here, at Mistical.com, sign up at the forums if you have not already and send me a private message.

I like topics that deal with technology, gaming or anything interesting/abnormal that should be posted? I guess.

On another note, anyone interesting in running ideas with me for a new look for Mistical.com, send me a PM on the forums or whatever.

No need to worry for you people, I think. Sure it’s true, but, also just trying to scare you people away more, I’m sure.

quote:

Arrests could come soon after investigators from several agencies made a bust that revealed one of the most sophisticated piracy operations they have ever seen.

Law enforcement officials said the raid was the first of its kind in the country. That’s because investigators usually find tangible items like CDs, videotapes and DVDs, but in this case they said they found the “brains” of a piracy operation and the computers behind it.

The North Carolina Secretary of State’s Office, the North Carolina Anti Counterfeiting Association and the Motion Picture Association all participated in the investigation. They searched a nondescript store in Morganton called Harbison Electronics on Tuesday. They said their search revealed a entire room filled with computer equipment they said was being used to get movies, music and pornography illegally.

At the center of this investigation is the store’s owner Charles Robert Harbison. Investigators said he called himself “dr^strangelove” in Internet chat rooms.

Investigators said the high tech, high security computers in his store were used for pirating thousands of movies, music titles, even Playstation and X-Box games. They said the computer system also incorporated an underground 200 channel Internet Relay Chat (IRC) system.

“It usually goes undetected, that’s what makes this case unique,” said Chuck Hausman, an investigator for the Motion Picture Association of America.

IRC systems are servers that act as virtual meeting places that allow people from anywhere in the world to meet and talk, or even share computer files. Users of these systems join channels that usually have a specific topic of interest associated with them. Once a user has joined a channel they can send messages or files to other people in the same channel. In this case those channels allowed people to obtain pirated copies of copyrighted material, and information on hacking.


Source: Charlotte.com – use username: [email protected] and password: bugmenot – to get passed the sign in/without having to sign up.

Jack Kilby, the inventor of the integrated circuit, died on Monday at age 81 after a brief battle with Cancer. His invention, the integrated circuit, was first demonstrated on Sept. 12, 1958. The invention made the creation of computers, the space program, the Internet and everyday items such as digital watches possible.

“Humankind eventually would have solved the matter, but I had the fortunate experience of being the first person with the right idea and the right resources at the right time in history.” Said Kilby upon accepting his Nobel prize in 2000.

Kilby has won dozens of awards, including the coveted Nobel Prize in 2000 and the National Medal of Technology in 1990. He has also continued to inspire major players in technology.

“Few people can say they really changed the world. Kilby would be one of them,” said Gordon Eubanks, CEO of the techology company Oblix.

Source: Texas Instruments / Jack Kilby

“Ransom-ware” is relatively new term that Panda Antivirus researchers have dubbed for a new form of malicious code that infects PCs, and then demands money in return for cleaning up the machine. “This is just another plain example of how hackers are increasingly driven by greed”, said Luis Corrons, the director of Panda’s research lab in a press release. Now SpywareNo, joins the increasing list of this new form of spyware.

Downloaded almost automatically when users visit certain porn or pirate Web sites, SpywareNo exploits various vulnerabilities found in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer to get onto a PC. Once it installs itself, it creates an icon on the desktop and displays a bogus warning that the user’s PC is infected with spyware. It can also modify the windows system registry to make sure that it starts again even after a user thinks that he/she has deleted it.

The on-screen alert encourages users to purchase the full version, which costs $20 US. for a month’s subscription, or $60 US. for an annual plan. Only those who pay that fee see the supposed “threats” disappear.

“If users fail to register, this commercial software will ‘detect’ threats that don’t actually exist on the computer, and which will ‘disappear’ as soon as users pay for the product,” said Panda in its own warning.

“Within 48 hours of the first report we had of SpywareNo, we had reports from all over the place,” said Eric Howes, a contributor to the popular Spyware Warrior site.

The fact that reports of SpywareNo had come from numerous sources, at about the same time indicate that it had been seen on multiple Web sites.

Source: DSLReports Topic

ICann has given the go-ahead to plans for what has been described as a “virtual red-light district”, with the creation of a .xxx TLD. Negotiations are to begin with ICM Registry Inc, which will run the domain. It is headed up by a British businessman, Stuart Lawley.

It was suggested the first of the domains could be up and running before the end of this year. Each will cost $60 – something which would seem small change to an industry which is worth some $12bn a year. Experts hope many adult sites will move over from .coms voluntarily, making it easier for worried parents to filter out porn. But with a much higher price than for a traditional .com, it’s not clear how many will make the switch.

The new TLD joins others recently approved, including .jobs and .travel.

Source: Yahoo

Finally!

Some new features:

First native multi-installation scanner
On PE boot CDs as well as on any system with multiple installations of Windows 2000 or later, Spybot-S&D 1.4 is able to scan the other installations as well, including the registry. From what we know, Spybot-S&D is the first anti-spyware solution that offers inactive registry scanning as a native feature.

Speed boost-ups
Spybot-S&D 1.4 should work noticably faster than 1.3 during scans. And if you still don’t like to wait, you can play our easter egg while scanning.

Improved tools
We’ve improved the Tools section that Spybot-S&D offers in advanced mode – the process list now offers a list of open network connection per application (Windows 2000 or newer only), helping you to quickly identify which applications are local and which do use connections to the outside. Our detection mechanisms have also been updated, from detecting and cleaning services over protocol filters to the afore-mentioned scanning in inactive installations registries.

Graphics remake, and more
We’ve replaced the old home made icons with a bunch of great graphics provided by the guys at Yellow Icon Studio to make the user interface look smoother. But while this is highly visible on the surface, there have been more than 104 important changes underneath.

Download: Spybot Search and Destroy 1.4 Final

Rodi is a small-client P2P application, written in Java, that improves on BitTorrent by allowing both content searches and full anonymity. It’s released under the General Public License (GNU). The client can be accessed here.

Even your IP address can be hidden using Rodi through a process called “bouncing.” That is, if A wants a file from B, they get C to agree to stand-in on the exchange. B gets C’s IP address, not A’s. Through IP Spoofing A can even hide their identity from C.

Rodi can also be used from behind corporate firewalls and LANs using Network Address Translation (NATs), something most home gateways have.

The person behind Rodi (the name means pomegranate in Greek) identifies himself only as LaryTet, an Israeli male living in Tel Aviv. He is publicizing his creation because he wants some help, both financial and technical, in making the user interface something that anyone can use.

Despite all these advances, LaryTet does not believe p2p technologies will stay ahead of the Copyright Police. “It depends on how tolerant ISPs are going to be to the ‘parasitic’ traffic,” he told Integrity P2P. “Traffic analyzers can be very effective. Enforcement of this or that policy is technologically possible today and getting cheaper and easier every minute.” When ISPs are content owners ? as with AOL ? there is a huge financial incentive to control IP access centrally. ” I guess that Rodi will not survive 10 years, but I hope that some ideas from Rodi will,” he concludes.

Source: zdnet

Winamp 5.092 Released, Download: Lite | Full | Pro
Windows Media Player 11: “Early 2006”: Read More: WinInfo
XP Update Skimps WiFi Security Compliance: Read More: eWeek
Netscape 8 ‘breaks’ IE: Read More: zdnet
Yahoo says rolling out new PhotoMail service: Read More: Reuters
Neowin Interview with Justin Uberti (AOL/AIM): Read More: Neowin Interview
Xbox 360 set to cost around $300: Read More: GamesIndustry
Star Wars Galaxies: the Total Experience E3 movie: Watch It: Download Here
Ghost Recon 2 reaches new Summit: Read More: GameSpot / Screenshots
Azureus v2.3.0.2 Released: Download Here
ATI Catalyst 5.5 Drivers Released: Download Here

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