Computer jacking escalates

Personal computers that play unwitting host to "zombie" code are proliferating at a startling pace, states a new report.

According to ZDNet, anti-virus-software maker McAfee reported incidents involving the malicious code, also known as "bot" code, reached 13 000 from April through to June, quadruple the number tracked by the company in the previous three months.

McAfee estimated that 63% more machines were exploited by bot programs, and by spyware and adware, the slightly less insidious but more common cousins, in the first six months of this year than in the whole of last year.

Bloggers who previously wrote endlessly about everything from politics to how to fry an egg on a hot sidewalk can now take their commentary, advice and random experiments to the next level by filming and broadcasting their work thanks to the latest Web trend, video blogging, reports Wired.

Video blogs, also known as 'vlogs`, are blogs that primarily feature video shorts instead of text.

"We`re going from being media consumers to media makers. We`re learning how to do that," says Chuck Olsen, a documentary filmmaker and video blogger in Minnesota.

"Anyone can create media and have a distribution outlet for it that bypasses television and mainstream media. It`s like slightly curated cable-access."

Apple has released an update for its Mac OS X 10.4 operating system that fixes two security flaws, including one that potentially opened the platform up to a denial-of-service attack, eWeek reports.

The update addresses an issue with the operating system`s TCP/IP stack, which allowed a specially formed TCP/IP packet to cause a kernel panic, requiring the system to be rebooted.

A potential issue with Dashboard, in which third-party Widgets were allowed to replace Apple-supplied ones that are shipped with OS X 10.4, was also fixed.

Apple also fixed various bugs in Mail, iChat AV, Safari and the finder and made improvements to Mac syncing after changing network locations.

Intel is expected to announce next week what may be the last batch of single-core Itanium processors, CNET reports.

According to a source familiar with Intel`s plans, the chip-making giant will, on Monday, introduce two Itanium 2 processors from its 64-bit Madison line-up.

The chips will run at speeds of 1.66GHz, with computer memory cache sizes of 9MB and 6MB, respectively.

An Intel representative says the company does not comment on unannounced products, but did say the chipmaker is working with its manufacturing partners to roll-out new Madison parts as it starts to prepare for Intel`s next-generation Itanium chip, code-named Montecito.

"These are likely the last performance bumps before Montecito ships late this year," says Kevin Krewell, analyst for semiconductor research firm In-Stat.