"Microsoft is like the invasion of the body snatchers.
Every morning you wake up and find another of your friends
works there."
- BOB METCALFE, inventor of Ethernet
...but how do we know you're really Bob Metcalfe?
>> HARD NEWS <<
soft options
The press had - literally - a field day at HIP '97, the
open air Dutch hacking conference that took place last
weekend. Endearing slice-of-life vistas were painted by the
American news sites, who described it as "Hackstock", "a
kind of politicised Burning Man", and a happy-go-lucky
party of "happy campers". Unfortunately, in their eagerness
to portray HIP as a bunch of technopagan loons, they did
somewhat miss out on the hardcore security stories. Like,
for instance, Chris Drake's overcoming of apparent security
flaws in PGP 5.0 - demonstrating how your passphrase in
plain text can end up in the Windows' swap file, for
example. Or the way that when you change your passphrase in
PGP, a backup copy of your secret keyring with the original
passphrase remains on the hard drive. But, geeks with funny
accents make for much more intriguing copy, no?
http://www.spesh.com/hip97/ we know, we were those geeks
http://www.ifi.uio.no/pgp/
and they'd just finished typing it in!
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~netsafe/
- Chris' ironically-URLed homepage
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/hackstock/hack-index.html
- Lisa Napoli's ok-ok-it's-quite-good-actually coverage. Damn.
Some 1,800 new cameras, covering every railway station and
approach road in London, are to be introduced into the
capital. The cameras are said (by the Evening Standard) to
be of a very high quality, and there are rumours that
they'll be using an automatic number plate recognition
system too. Meanwhile, Harrogate councillors are discussing
an application by spooky not-really-an-NSA-monitoring-
station MENWITH HILL for three more radomes - the giant
golfballs that host aerials able to intercept radio,
satellite and telephone communications. Because Menwith
Hill is subject to Crown privilege, the councillors have no
powers to reject the application. And if they even try, we
don't recommend them driving in to Westminster for a chat.
http://caq.com/CAQ59GlobalSnoop.2.html
- the kind of details you'll appreciate from Covert Action Q'ly
http://wkweb1.cableinet.co.uk/sedley/wagg.htm
- that Bulger kid has a lot to answer for
Seems like there's a still few places in the UK that aren't
under 24-hour surveillance. On Wed 06/08/97, the
experimental crop of oilseed rape at Tibs Hall Farm,
Kingsbury was sabotaged. The crop was owned by the US based
biotech corporation MONSANTO; the activists tore up the
genetically engineered plants while "wearing protective
clothing", and then mixed the debris with the surrounding
crops. We're a bit divided about this: okay, direct action
is always fun, but isn't this a great way of encouraging
cross-pollination? And whatever happened to preserving
biodiversity? It's all so *confusing*. Can someone please
e-mail in and tell us what to think?
http://www.envirolink.org/orgs/shag/genetix.html
- and that's why true geeks hate botany
Can we spell gullible or what? We fell for last week's
ersatz VONNEGUT commencement speech, and, admit it, you
blinked at that SAMSUNG troll. But only the mighty ZIFF-
DAVIS UK fell for the "RENAULT to sponsor UK Quake clan"
tale. Perpetrator Kevin Johnstone (aka Rorshach, of The
Quake Lords) exclusively told NTK that the rumour was an
"elaborate hoax" to enliven a "stale and bitter" UK Quake
scene; ZDNet presumably didn't check the details with, say,
Renault, before running it. ZD also got the name of the
Clan wrong, assuming it to be "Clanring" on the strength of
the line "This ClanRing site is owned by The Quake Lords".
Admittedly, we'd have believed the story too if they hadn't
confessed - and we *still* think the logo looks good on
those skins.
http://www1.zdnet.com/uk/news/ns-2486.html
- apparently Daikatana's "really good", too
http://web.ukonline.co.uk/quakelords/news.htm
- "Papa?" "NicooOOOLLLLLGHHHHH!"
>> ANTI-NEWS <<
berating the obvious
Microsoft got cut-price stocks in Apple deal... latest
edition of ESCAPE magazine purports to be a "special SEX
issue"... "spreadsheets massively magnify tiny human
errors" - NEW SCIENTIST... MS say Apple Alliance has no
hostile intent - REUTERS... Psion, reliving old Sinclair
roots, runs out of machines... Apple "does not believe it
will return to profitability in the fourth quarter"... EAT
SOUP to close... WIRED run *another* Myst cover... Apple
Europe shipments fell 31%... stand-up comedy no longer
funny, profitable, Edinburgh Fringe discovers... Drudge
Report gets facts wrong, "professional" journalists
horrified... Apple looks to Asia to boost sales (also eyes
future Mars colonies)... Spamford's server mysteriously
hacked, files deleted...
>> CULTURE <<
celebrate your inner geek
Now then. KITES. This weekend sees the 5th East London
International Kite Festival at Hackney Marshes, Homerton
Road, E9. Saturday is set aside for the National Sport Kite
championships, while Sunday is the more entertainment-based
kitely pursuits. All weekend they'll be kite workshops,
Rokaku kite fighting, team displays, and other cool stuff.
Even if you don't make it during the day, we reckon you'll
want to pop along at 8.45pm on Sat to see the
"Pyrokitenics" demonstration. Call Jeremy Boyce at High As
A Kite (0171 275 8799) for details, or mail:
chris.matheson@dial.pipex.com
A brief reminder that the in-all-senses-of-the-word-mental
First Annual Mind Sports Olympiad is this weekend at the
Royal Festival Hall. Details at the Website: we're just sad
that they didn't include our suggestion of a friendly
"psychological mind games" competition, where people battle
ex-partners and work colleagues for control of each others'
self-esteem.
http://www.mindsports.co.uk/ - it's been a bad week, okay?
http://www.spesh.com/cgi-bin/now?b=a97/now0704.txt&l=101#l
original story, before we got so bitter
>> TRACKING <<
we know where it lives
Thought NTK was all net gossip and software upgrades?
That's why we're pleased to bring you news of the Smart
Target Activated Fire and Forget (STAFF) 120mm tank
ammunition round, a next-generation "top-attack" munition.
In US Army tests, prototypes "autonomously detected,
discriminated, tracked and attacked Soviet-built T-72
tanks" - the "top-attack" bit means "by flying over them
and firing an explosively formed penetrator downward to the
target". More fun facts from the military-industrial-
entertainment complex lurk in the impressively analysis-
free Cyber Times, a site that we returned to... 'cos
they're doing a new version of their "Modified" desktop
techno remix toy. Damn, maybe it *is* all software upgrades
after all...
http://www.modified.demon.co.uk/
- we just like saying "millimetre wave radar that can
withstand harsh gun launches"
... Talking of which (but only barely) - the beta of
Frontpage 98 is now up on Microsoft site. Whoop-de-doo. And
final version of Netcaster is to be available on Netscape
site by early next week. Yaaaaaaawn. DirectX 5.0 now
available for download. Slight flicker of emotion. Remember
how exciting these Net upgrades used to be?
http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage/
http://www.netscape.com/
- Of course, that's when the programs still worked
We take you now to Scandinavia, with its long long nights
and fine traditions of assembler programming, alcoholism
and demos that rock. We take you now to the same people who
did all those impossible Amiga effects, as they turn their
crazed gaze onto the Java virtual machine. We take you now
to the terrifying yet potentially patent-infringing reality
that is ... JAVA QUAKE!
http://hem1.passagen.se/carebear/fraggame.htm
http://www.vg.no/interaktiv/nettspill/index.html
- and the somewhat milder JAVA ASTEROIDS
>> MEMEPOOL <<
hasta la altavista
cool new euphemism#1: "bedroom techno"... team knight
rider... Tunisian customs insist R2-D2 has a passport
before allowing into the country... scientists learn how
to control "El Nino"... Myron Krueger and his keyboard
that's the size of a wall... cool new euphemism#2:
"subscribing to dircon"... Bots with their own PGP keys...
LineOne subscribers hit double figures... The Redneck
Manifesto... microelectromechanical madness!... "The
Reduced Heinlein Company presents"... just how out of date
is AltaVista now?... (this->life)... movieoke... CHRISTIAN
SLATER to face MIKE TYSON in cannibal face-off?...
www.acme.com/labelmaker... cool new euphemism#3: BSE MAY BE
transmitted "horizontally"... no, Be *Here* Now:
www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Alley/1909/sounds.html
>> MO' MEDIA <<
drug of the nation
TV >> ...never thought we'd say this, but tonight's ROOM
101 (10pm, BBC2, Fri) sounds like a cracker, with
intriguing guest-choice Terry Wogan condemning another show
made by Hat Trick Productions - the loathsomely worthless
Have I Got News For You... still, it is up against another
top-notch episode of FRASIER (10pm, Fri, C4), this time
involving Niles vs someone even dweebier than he is... ITV
clearly agrees with NTK's glowing assessment of the "geek"
episode of SABRINA: THE TEENAGE WITCH (5.20pm, Sat, ITV),
as this is the second time they've shown it in the space of
4 days... the weekend brings bad news for Asian Elvis fans
as the 50th anniversary of Indian partition coincides with
the 20th of The King's death - themed evenings all round...
ARENA (10.40pm, Sat, BBC1) pays tribute to the late William
Burroughs; C4 shows Naked Lunch next Fri; similar
food/porn/insect themes are worked through in repeats of
LIGHT LUNCH (Mon-Fri, 12.30pm, C4)... the LOGAN'S RUN movie
(9.20pm, Sun, BBC2) is probably duller than its TV series
spin-off (does Jenny Agutter keep her clothes on? what do
you think?); but good to see them preserving the Ray
Bradbury novels in book-burning dystopia FAHRENHEIT 451
(12.05am, Sun, BBC2)... the rebels in the last (and best?)
RENEGADE TV (11pm, Mon, C4) include night-club murderers,
comics god Alan Moore, and some idiots who think an hour of
interactive avatar "It's A Knockout" could possibly be
watchable ( www.channel4.com/renegadetv/heaven_hell/ )...
so, for real pioneer spirit, check nerd-triumphant-turned-
DIY-flight-fan Bob Cringely having an on-screen nervous
breakdown in the all-too-appropriately titled PLANE CRAZY
(10pm, Tue, C4)...
MOVIES >> Well, there's SPEED 2, but The Onion says it all
www.theonion.com/onion3201/speed2chart.html . Stay at home.
BIO >> Ritalin is now being prescribed in vast amounts to
children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD),
for which you should read either children who are too
clever for the class and therefore disruptive, too stupid
for the class and therefore disruptive, or just plain
disruptive. CH.A.D.D. ( www.chadd.org ), a rapidly
expanding, "nonprofit parent-based organization" for ADD
sufferers and their parents in the USA, is a staunch
advocate of Ritalin and receives 'donations' for its good
work in raising public awareness from the drug company Ciba
Pharmaceuticals. Guess who makes Ritalin? Ciba Geigy...
Decade of the Brain, a publication of The National Alliance
for the Mentally Ill ( http://www.nami.org/ ), reports that
most elderly suicide victims pay a visit to their doctor in
the week before committing suicide. The report suggests the
problem is that doctors don't recognize depression in older
people, but I think there's some kind of conspiracy going
on... Talking of depression, 'venous leak syndrome' is
something we men all know and love as one of the major
causes of erectile impotence. Californian doctors have
risen to the problem and come up with a solution in the
form of a "fully adjustable penis band" (the BAND, not the
penis, is adjustable). The band is said to differ from
existing bands in that it is "self-adjustable". If you know
what I mean... - doctor@spesh.com
>> .VACATION.MSG <<
You know how we pride ourselves on having no life? Well,
for the next four weeks, we're hiring some. As a
consequence, we'll try - even less hard than usual - to
cobble something together for the weekly NTK now, but this
time, there are no guarantees. Whatever happens, we promise
we'll make it all up to you in September, when there'll be
news of a faster, stronger, better NTK, with more brutal
ASCII for you to sneer at. In summary:
Q. Are we going to sell out?
A. If we are, we're getting the hell out. See you soon.
>> SMALL PRINT <<
Need to Know Now is a useful and interesting UK digest of things that
happened last week or might happen next week. You can read it
on Friday afternoon or print it out then take it home if you have
nothing better to do. It is compiled by NTK from stuff they get sent.
It is registered at the Post Office as "telepathically uploadable".
( http://www.urigeller.com/now.html )
NEED TO KNOW
THEY STOLE OUR REVOLUTION. NOW WE'RE STEALING IT BACK.
Archive - http://www.spesh.com/cgi-bin/now
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They worry about us, but we don't worry about them.
(K) 1997 Special Projects. Non-biz copying ok, but retain SMALL PRINT.
Tips, news and gossip to tips@spesh.com.