Need To Know 1999-11-19

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"Gates also said that making the Windows secret source code public, a remedy suggested by some, would be bad for consumers... It would be bad if 'when people buy Windows they don't know what is in it,' he said." http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/reuters/REU19991115S0006 ...isn't that kind of the point? >> HARD NEWS << leave no bruise In accordance with prophecy, NAPSTER got peppered with RIAA lawyer shrapnel this week, but sensing that they had the will of the people (and an army of slashdot anonymous cowards) on their side, continued to release betas of their snazzy MP3 distribution system. In preparation for the inevitable next step, free source implementations of the client appeared for Linux - and strong rumours of a Perl server waiting in the wings, should the Napsters get kill -9ed by the music industry police. Do you think we should tell them about Hotline next? http://www.bigredh.com/index2.html - or maybe we should shut the hell up? Vote in our readers poll! http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,32559,00.html - hey Napster! Napsteroonie! The problem with exposing the villainy of the Net on consumer action problems is, short of doorstepping Tim Berners-Lee and Vint Cerf, there's nobody obvious to *nab*. Naturally, that doesn't stop our protectors having a go. Facting us until we fart next week are Sue Lawley and her CRIME SQUAD, who have been exposing hacking and software piracy online where'er they find it. And if they don't find it - what then? That's the question that some Web companies have been asking after they were contacted by the program, and asked to "hack their own servers to show how it's done". When, naturally, they declined, the programme makers hinted that they really should, because otherwise the squad and their new mates would do it anyway. And to whom are we supposed to complain about that? Also making the Net safer for the rest of us next week, an upcoming "Here And Now" looks into Web fraud. At least they had the decency to invent a *funny* fake threat: http://members.tripod.com/bellilug - ... you know, I'm sure someone was touting this at First Tuesday http://www.bbc.co.uk/schedules/1999/11/22/bbc1.html - watch out for *two* appearences by NTK platinum subscribers! http://www.bbc.co.uk/webguide/c09231999.shtml - you lay *off* her, Anne Robinson! After the war, the decommissioning. NSI have begun working out the conditions of their pax with ICANN, including this week, the announcement that they'd be redirecting the rs.internic.net whois server to the registry whois at whois.nsiregistry.net. So from December whois *won't* tell you who owns the domain, but instead refer you someone else who should know who owns the domain. Sound confusing? Well, just wait until automatic domain lookup programs start breaking on 1999-12-01 - then you'll have confusion by the lorry-load. The format to the new whois is completely different to the old service, even though it should have been possible for NSI to set up a backwards compatible, cross-registry whois (a la www.geektools.com) with just a little more coding. There could have been good tech reasons for not doing that, but we'll never know, because NSI knows best. Even, we note, when it comes to leaking out personal info on their prospective shareholders... http://www.netsol.com/ir/db/ - bit unfair. But you'd think they'd use a *proper* database, right? http://www.nsiregistry.com/ - try out the new whois. try to fix your code in time >> ANTI-NEWS << berating the obvious DAVID BRAKE doin' a Weblog ... "MP3s Popular With Students", uncovers NEWSBYTES ... MP responds to e-mail - 381 days after it was sent ... www.phonebusters.com - paging Mr Jimmy Cauty ... that's no way to talk about the Holy of Holies: http://www.ntk.net/doh/19991119pope.gif ... The MAHIR Nightmare continues: http://kiss.to/mahir ... FUTURE's futuregamer.com proudly display their top 100 web site award - from Future's .Net mag... EASYEVERYTHING block DIY nuke info ... APPLE dump British personalisation into the "trash": http://macweek.zdnet.com/1999/11/07/english.html ... how desperate for hits can you get? http://www.nationalreview.com/goldberg/goldberg111299.html ... >> EVENT QUEUE << goto's considered non-harmful WHIT DIFFIE, who looks so like Uncle Sam that the irony is almost suffocating, is in town again. Barring heckling from Mallet, he'll be speaking at the British Museum on "cracking later codes" - and given that it's being organised by the Egyptian Antiquities department in connection with their Rosetta Stone exhibition, we'd imagine that "later" here covers a lot of ground. It's on at 1800GMT, Tuesday, 1999-11-23 - call the British Museum on 0171 323 8312 for tickets and more info. http://www.nextstep.com/stepback/cycle8/99/encryption.html - a superstar, that's what you are http://www.british-museum.ac.uk/cracking_codes/ - earliest example of a HOW-TO document >> TRACKING << making good use of the things that we find No matter how many time Steve Job's minions crop-dust their homes with Agent Orange, a hardy crowd of user interface loyalists keep the MacOS look-and-feel flame alive. Their latest samizhack is SHERLOCK II WINFIX - a patch that'll remove all those ugly pseudo-metallic trimmings from the latest Sherlock app, and squeeze it back into a normal Macintosh window. Now, could somebody do the same thing for Quicktime 4? http://www.teamdraw.com/raul/stuff/stuff2.3.html - nice imagery >> MEMEPOOL << hasta la altavista AI for cats: http://www.bitboost.com/pawsense/index.html ... GOOGLE text ads ... TIM BERNERS-LEE invokes "special powers" to get E-pinions to remove trademark on "Web of Trust" ... ... as if Y2K wasn't going to be entertaining enough: http://www.nbc.com/y2k/show.html ... the funny things gaijin say: http://www.mangajin.com/ezine/bloopers.html ... for all your RALPH FIENNES Astrology needs: http://members.aol.com/IsisDawn/RFAstLnk.htm ... Oh No! They killed Kenny's mum! http://www.mtv.com/news/headlines/991116/story8.html ... after GONORRHEA boxer shorts: http://photopoint.com/dcm/features/f-micro1.html ... best embedded MIDI in years: http://www.countdownalliance.net/nashville/palpy4pres/ ... >> GEEK MEDIA << get out less TV (AND RADIO)>> Yes, the reason we're a bit early this week is to give you a chance in hell of catching Bill Gibson's favourite Velvet Underground MP3s in DESERT ISLAND DISCS (Fri, 09:00, Radio 4)... we warned SO GRAHAM NORTON (Fri, 22:30, C4) last series; if they try faking any more hilarious "website phonecalls", we will *have them*... and for some reason TV stations don't want anyone watching on Saturday night, which is why they're givng us Bruce Willis vanity project HUDSON HAWK (Sat, 00:40, ITV), Joe Dante's PIRANHA (Sat, 23:25, C4), Bob Geldof and Mel Smith in NUMBER ONE (Sat, 00:25, C5), and worthy extended Bosnia APC product placement army drama WARRIORS (Sat, 21:00, BBC1) - not to be confused with the 1979 gang movie of the same name... still, Satellite viewers can tussle with SKYROCKET (Sat, 18:00, Sky1) some kind of webcast thing featuring The Simpsons/ KotH/ Futurama/ Family Guy/ PJs, and known NTK subscriber, Ben Moor (crap site at http://www.skyrocket.co.uk/ )... then console themselves with season 3 of SOUTH PARK (Sun, 23:00, Sky1), featuring Jennifer Annistonandon... Hugh Grant/ Gene Hackman medico-thriller EXTREME MEASURES (Sun, 22:00, C4) comes on like a comatose "Coma"... while the ever-impartial BBC balances its current "Webwise" campaign with no less than *three* po-faced investigations into "cyber-crime": THE MONEY PROGRAMME (Sun, 22:30, BBC2), Kuji-featuring THE CRIME SQUAD (19:30, Mon, BBC1) [see news], Julia Sawalahalaha's guide to 21ST CENTURY STALKING (Wed 12/01, 22:15, BBC1) plus - the inevitable - TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY (Wed, 22:20, BBC1)... FILM>> at last! *another* heavy-handed fly-on-the-wall satire: ED TV (http://www.capalert.com/capreports/ : noted lesbian actress as a central figure; vulgar hand gesture, manipulation of human anatomy, and body gesture; a sexual T-shirt; homosexual presence). Ellen DeGeneres, Rob Reiner televise the daily activities (though sadly no real-life drug-bust antics) of Matthew McConaughey to an audience of confused FHM readers who inexplicably prefer Liz Hurley over Jenna "Dharma And Greg" Elfman... clearly having learned nothing from the ridiculous current ad campaign for Disney's "moo-LARN", couldn't supposedly brainy Ralph Fiennes and writer Michael Ignatieff have come up with a pronounceable title for ponderous Liv Tyler period melodrama ONEGIN (imdb: duel / russia)? We advise asking for "One Gin" at the box office - "a double vodka and a packet of crisps!"... otherwise an exceptional week for offloading nondescript rubbish: loathsome Ray Winstone romantic comedy FANNY AND ELVIS; Claire Danes and Kate Beckinsale as drug-smuggling foreign jailbait in BROKEDOWN PALACE; inspiration-free Redbus horror sequel THE RAGE: CARRIE 2; and, on limited release, "monks prefer footy to boring old religion" cultural imperialism celebration THE CUP, whose trailer is indistinguishable from a Nike ad... finally, it's not a shelf heading at your local butchers, but the name of Harrison Ford/ Kristen "Lady Penelope" Scott Thomas's mid-life desperation romance RANDOM HEARTS (imdb comment: "'In a perfect world they never would have met.' In a perfect world filmmakers would think twice before embarking on adaptations of bad '80s novels"). After this and "Six Days, Seven Nights", what is it with Harrison Ford and plane crashes? Doesn't a guy his age have simpler ways of meeting available women?... COMPO>> You! Yes, you! Do you use one of those "out of the office" autoresponder programs? You know, the one that ignores "Precedence:" headers? Don't deny it, we've got an inbox that says otherwise. Well, as a special offer to any subscribers who mail us anything that matches our magic regexp, this week we'll automatically send (free of charge) a special message: It could be an amusing Dave Barry quote, an ascii-art Bart Simpson, or even a randomly picked Project Guttenburg e-text. Share and Enjoy! And the best thing is, if your autoresponder is *really* broken, it's the gift that we'll keep on giving! (If you're not sure if you're eligible for our special offer please consult your mail administrator. If a look of panic creeps across their face, do let us know.) >> SMALL PRINT << Need to Know 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 "the lowest form of wit" (p121, Internet Monthly) NEED TO KNOW THEY STOLE OUR REVOLUTION. NOW WE'RE STEALING IT BACK. Archive - http://www.ntk.net/ Unsubscribe? Mail ntknow-unsubscribe@lists.ntk.net Subscribe? Mail ntknow-subscribe@lists.ntk.net NTK now is supported by UNFORTU.NET, and by you: http://www.ntk.net/books (K) 1999 Special Projects. Copying is fine, but include URL: http://www.ntk.net/ Tips, news and gossip to tips@spesh.com - remember your work email may be monitored if sending sensitive material. Remember: Sending >500KB attachments is forbidden by the Geneva Convention. Your country may be at risk if you fail to comply.