I’ve been playing this game for the past 3 days and I just can’t stop thinking about it. One multiplayer match lasts for about 15 minutes, or maybe even less if there’s teamwork, but be sure to allot a minimum of 4 hours. Once you’ve begun, “One more game!” will be your word for the day. World in Conflict is definitely an addictive RTS game. This game isn’t just about the graphics. More importantly it’s the gameplay that counts.

My Ancient System Specs

You may not believe it but I was able to run the game (which is by the way, in beta at the time of this writing) with less than the minimum system requirements. Don’t expect stunning graphic details, of course.

• CPU: AMD Athlon XP 1500+ Palomino @ 1327 MHz, 133 MHz FSB
• MOTHERBOARD: ECS L7VMM2 (VIA KM266-8236 Southbridge), 266 MHz bus speed
• RAM: 2 x 256 MB DDR, 133 MHz FSB, Generic
• GRAPHICS CARD: nVidia GeForce FX5500 256 MB 128 BIT
• HARD DISK: Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM Ultra ATA, 200 GB PATA
• SOUND: CMI 8738
• HEATSINK FAN: Thermaltake Extreme Volcano 12 @ max speed: ~5625 rpm
• MONITOR: AOC 7En, 17″ @ 1024 x 768, 32-bit
• Operating System: Windows XP SP2
• DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c
• Bandwidth Speed: 384 Kbps DSL (400 Kbps downstream, 291 Kbps upstream)

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Opera 9.22 build 8800 has already been released last July 10, 2007. This is the latest build (8801) which addresses several security issues.

You can now download the offline installer from the official Opera download page.

From the Opera Changelog page:

Release Notes

This release is a recommended security upgrade…

Security Issues Fixed

• Fixed an issue that could occur when removing a specially prepared torrent transfer, as reported by iDefense.
• Prevented an issue where data URLs could be used to display the wrong address in the address bar.
• Improved the display of long domain names in authentication dialogs. Long domain names will now scroll instead of using ellipsis.
• Added Trustcenter class 3 G2 root certificate.
• Fixes for a problem with certificate import from PKCS #7 Signed and Netscape Multicert files.

We had an interesting discussion earlier on countries that have the fastest bandwidth speeds. The data from the OECD however, wasn’t quite up to date. A report from Yahoo! News came up recently stating that a 75-year-old woman is now cruising the Internet with a 40 Gbps fibre-optic connection in Karlstad, Sweden and is believed to be the fastest residential uplink in the world, according to Karlstad city officials. It turned out that she was the mother of Peter Lothberg, networking expert who said he wanted to demonstrate the new technology while providing a computer link for his mother. The report also gave a hint of how fast the connection is:

In less than 2 seconds, Lothberg can download a full-length movie on her home computer — many thousand times faster than most residential connections, said Hafsteinn Jonsson, head of the Karlstad city network unit.

I have an average of about 50 Gigabytes of uploaded and downloaded data per month with my 384Kbps ADSL connection. This is a small figure compared to those with fibre optic lines, assuming that no quota is set by the ISP. If I had a 40 Gbps connection, I’d be an ISP in our village. Too bad Pete Lothberg’s mother only uses her Internet connection to read Web-based newspapers.

Firefox 2.0.0.5 has been released. The latest update addresses multiple vulnerabilities including the Firefox “firefoxurl” URI Handler Registration Vulnerability which was labeled by Secunia as highly critical. Please update your Firefox Web browser ASAP if you don’t have auto-update enabled.

Bugs/Vulnerabilities Addressed

• MFSA 2007-25 - XPCNativeWrapper pollution
• MFSA 2007-24 - Unauthorized access to wyciwyg:// documents
• MFSA 2007-23 - Remote code execution by launching Firefox from Internet Explorer
• MFSA 2007-22 - File type confusion due to %00 in name
• MFSA 2007-21 - Privilege escallation using an event handler attached to an element not in the document
• MFSA 2007-20 - Frame spoofing while window is loading
• MFSA 2007-19 - XSS using addEventListener and setTimeout
• MFSA 2007-18 - Crashes with evidence of memory corruption

Download

The update is already available in the official Web site. Other platforms and languages for Firefox are also available.

For those who don’t have auto-update enabled, click Help - Check for Updates…

An update for Yahoo! Messenger has been released. It isn’t confirmed yet if this is an emergency update in response to a vulnerability found in the software which could be exploited by a specially crafted address book entry.

A direct download link for the offline installer is provided below:

http://download.yahoo.com/ycs/msg/dl/msgr8/us/ymsgr810_413_us.exe

You can also try updating via the Yahoo! Messenger application (Help - Check for Updates) or through the YM download page.

Sources:
Yahoo! Messenger and Trillian Hit With Critical Vulnerabilities via A Little Tech + Photoshop
Critical IM Bugs Hit Yahoo, Trillian via PC World
Yahoo! Messenger 8.1.0.413 via 9Down

According to a BBC article on global broadband prices, countries that had switched to fibre networks had the best speeds at the lowest prices.

Japan has the cheapest price for broadband per Mbps at $0.22. The most expensive is Turkey at $81.13. In the US, the cheapest megabit per second broadband connection is $3.18 while in the UK it is $3.62.

Data is based on the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report. The OECD represents 30 of the leading democratic economics, from Australia to the US, France to Japan.

Cheapest Entry Level Broadband Per Month:

1. Sweden $10.79
2. Denmark $11.11
3. Switzerland $12.53
4. US $15.93
5. France $16.36
6. Netherlands $16.85
7. New Zealand $16.86
8. Italy $17.63
9. Ireland $18.18
10. Finland $19.49

*Source: OECD. Figures for October 2006

Read more about Global Broadband Prices Revealed.

Secunia released an advisory last July 10, 2007 regarding a URI handler in Firefox (including the latest version, 2.0.0.4) that allows it to execute arbitrary commands in a user’s operating system (remote command execution). Secunia has labeled the said vulnerability as highly critical. No patch has been released yet.

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