Microsoft XNA Game Studio Express released

Microsoft announced the release of their XNA Game Studio Express developer tools, which allow developers to use C# and target both Windows and the XBOX 360.

Slashdot is all over this, with some folks debating the usefulness of tools that require a $100 subscription to publish your games (in some cases), but this seems like an awesome tool release for small-scale game developers.

The $900 HP DV9005US laptop

Wowsers. $900 (after rebate) at Circuit City for all this:

• Dual-core AMD Turion 64 @ 1.6Ghz

• Windows XP MCE

• 1024MB DDR2 SDRAM (expandable to 2GB)

• Nvidia GeForce Go 6150 UMA w/ up to 128MB shared memory

• 100GB 5400RPM SATA hard disk

• DVD+/-RW w/ DualLayer + LightScribe support

• 17" WXGA+ HD BrightView widescreen display @ 1440x900

• 802.11b/g wireless

• 5-in-1 media reader

• 4 USB ports, standard audio ports, 1 FireWire port

• 10/100 ethernet

• 15.16" L x 11.65" W x 1.57" H

• 7.8 pounds

See HP's specs for the DV9005US for more details.

I'm not really in the market for a new laptop, but this is pretty nice if you go for the desktop-replacement-and-some-gaming approach.

MS Word vulnerability

from the advisory:

Microsoft is investigating a new report of limited “zero-day” attacks using a vulnerability in Microsoft Word 2000, Microsoft Word 2002, Microsoft Office Word 2003, Microsoft Word Viewer 2003, Microsoft Word 2004 for Mac, and Microsoft Word 2004 v. X for Mac, as well as Microsoft Works 2004, 2005, and 2006.
...
Recommendation: Do not open or save Word files that you receive from un-trusted or that are received unexpected from trusted sources. This vulnerability could be exploited when a user opens a file.

Well, that's just peachy. Time to fire up OpenOffice.

addition: 0959h 2006-12-06

Slashdot has a discussion on the MS Word vulnerability.