Need To Know 2000-02-04

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"I asked them why, and they said that they considered it to be so advanced that they had to take it in, because it was a Nokia 9110. And I did have, in fact, a backup of the source on it." http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/01/31/johansen.interview.idg/ - JON JOHANSEN, the DeCSS 1, on why the police took his mobile phone ...yeah, wait till they see us play pirate DVDs on our *chipped phones* >> HARD NEWS << the rules are Boole's Cease and DeCSS! Yesterday, Judge Kaplan published his official decision explaining exactly why a bunch of American sites couldn't link to the DeCSS code - like everyone else in the Free World. Defence attorneys from the EFF, because they're constitutional kind of guys, played the First Amendment card. Unfortunately, said The Man, the First Amendment, can't be used to permit (from a precedent formed to prevent strikers from restraining trade by expressing their grievances) a "grave abuse against an important public law". Of course, the problem here is that DeCSS is the important public against a grave, abusive law: the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Kaplan was convinced that DeCSS's purpose was to rip off DVDs (which you can do anyway, without all that tedious coding nonsense). The DMCA stops such reverse-engineering - unless there's a "commercially significant purpose" behind the act. Like its real purpose, maybe? To allow Linux users watch the films they've bought? What's copyright for, say the founders? To advance public welfare, through the "promot[ion] of the Progress of Science and useful Arts". The useful Arts? That'll be the commercially significant ones - and apparently free software *still* isn't commercial enough. And the Progress of Science? Well, in the Digital Millennium, if science thinks it's progressing out of the moguls' grasp, it's progressing straight to jail. Day of action's today. http://www.2600.com/ - don't restrain any trade with those flyers now http://www.enel.ucalgary.ca/~mastracc/opendvd.html - more useful art http://cryptome.org/dvd-mpaa-3-mo.htm - "another step in the evolution of the law of copyright" http://www.mpaa.org/ - running IIS4. this is a set-up, right? In the British courts, we have more serious matters to consider. Like those Dixons-style "Dreamcast for -9.99" e-commerce snafus: should they stump up the goods, or what? Perhaps it's time for a test case. Enter JONATHAN SWIFT, aptly named reader of uk.tech.digital-tv, who spied the satirical potential in a Tandy Webpage, offering a terrestrial digibox for just 1p. Tandy have explained that that the box (RRP 300UKP), isn't much use without a ONdigital subscription. But they're wrong: you can still get the free BBC and ITV channels. For a penny. The page is still up, and Tandy's Netbanx system instantly charges your credit card, making it in legal terms, a done deal. And if isn't, we're sure your local Trading Standards would be very interested to know why not. http://www.tandy.co.uk/dev/1518130.phtml - vision of boo.com sales to come http://www.ntk.net/2000/02/04/dohtandy.gif - in case they fix it. or you need evidence in court http://www.deja.com/viewthread.xp?AN=580002177 - we have witnesses, m'lud! Who says that the Tory's aren't responsive? We're pleased to announce that the SMTP spam relay at tory.org pointed up in last Friday's NTK was fixed by Saturday morning. Sadly, the Conservatives were a little tardier in stopping one supporter from subscribing to their free ISP service this week. Within minutes, he'd taken advantage of their homepage Webspace offer, and was offering a special "cash for questions" e-commerce service - hosted, naturally, at www.tory.org. The page was deleted swiftly, leaving the volunteer no alternative but to subscribe again, this time running the appeal on a new page: http://www.tory.org/home/bollocks/ . Tory.org has now suspended all new subscriber registrations. Presumably to stop Jeffrey Archer trying the same trick. http://www.ntk.net/2000/02/04/dohtory.gif - hey, they should team up with Netbanx! http://www.theregister.co.uk/000202-000011.html - Register pals deliver the upper cut >> ANTI-NEWS << berating the obvious more Y2K hubris: http://www.chaosprotocol.com/news.htm ... VERIO applies for trademark on the term "whois" ... nine percent of Germans admit to having kissed their computer, says MICROSOFT poll ... colleague not available for comment: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/000203/1/9zquj.html ... Lottery "is tax on poor for benefit of the rich" uncovers THE TIMES ... ex-CIA chief used home computer to study secret files, porn sites ... uprising students fight for dull Aphex Twin video at britsvoting.com ... ONDIGITAL's new teletext service gets a flying start with Thomas Cook advertising holidays departing on "Feb 30" ... a doh so doh-ish, it contains the word "doh": http://www.cafe.barclaysquare.com/gadget/ ... pretty much exactly the opposite of what the author intended: http://www.bbc.co.uk/tickets/radionew.html ... >> EVENT QUEUE << goto's considered non-harmful Thanks to everyone who wrote in complaining about the plasma gun "goof" in our recent Transmeta story [NTK 2000-01-21] - in fact, there actually *is* a plasma gun in Q3A, to be put to good use, no doubt, at this weekend's BAD LAN RISING party, from 9am, Sat 2000-02-05, UKP12 per day, the Highfield Hotel, Middlesborough (the location has moved around in the past, presumably in accordance with a "no camping" policy). http://www.badlanrising.co.uk/ - also features a TV + N64, for anyone who needs to "relax" http://www.telefragged.com/q3faq/index2.html - "also makes some splash damage near the point of impact" And spring's in the air, when a young man's fancy turns to... what else but PETER SOMMER'S INFORMATION SECURITY COLLOQUIA at the LSE in London, which get back into the swing of things on Tue 2000-02-08 with Robert Ayres discussing the commercial possibilities of the Computer Emergency Response Team, and perhaps addressing why CERT advisories have been so lame recently. http://www.cert.org/advisories/CA-2000-02.html - warns of risks in "promiscuous browsing" (ie: "browsing") http://csrc.lse.ac.uk/Events/Colloquia.htm - if Hugo Cornwall teamed with Knight Rider's Devon Miles, they could call themselves "Devon And Cornwall"! >> TRACKING << sufficiently advanced technology : the gathering There's a fair argument that states that if you don't already know about NMAP, the remote port-scanner, OS guesser, and snoopy IP packet miscellanea reporter, you probably shouldn't be using it. Thankfully, the authors now recognise that almost any ten year old kid understands YACC grammars these days, and to that end have added a cool new "$kR1pt K1dd13z" filter to the output. |<3333wl. http://www.insecure.org/nmap/ - "worthy" >> MEMEPOOL << hasta la altavista life imitates Onion: http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/01/31/spider.surgery.ap ... write to the Answerman, and he'll make up some answers: http://www.dailyradar.com/features/game_feature_page_311_5.html ... when the makers of "Taxicab Confessions" find out just how much people will pay for a lame apartment cam, somebody's going to have a http://www.crushedplanet.com/ ... wouldn't it be great if code reviews were like film reviews? http://www.deja.com/=dnc/getdoc.xp?AN=579432658 ... doesn't even count her "Falklands bonus" http://web.inter.nl.net/users/Paul.Treanor/thatcher.html ... just how often are these grand alignments, anyway? http://www.currents.net/newstoday/00/02/03/news9.html ... this week's scripture quote: "When her scheme is nearly accomplished, Bibleman naturally foils her and unveils his weapon to mute the mouthy and menacing Gossip Queen." - http://www.bibleman.com/... life *really* imitates Onion: http://www.theonion.com/onion3603/local_prostitutes.html vs http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/asia-pacific/newsid_627000/627012.stm >> GEEK MEDIA << get out less TV>> "Is it Father Dougal in tights?" inquired last week's Radio Times, perhaps unnecessarily, of lame new Ardal O'Hanlon superhero spoof MY HERO (8.30pm, Fri, BBC1) - apparently he has super powers, but - get this! - *doesn't understand normal human behaviour!* Promisingly, future episodes may indeed tackle the problems of human/superbeing sexual relationships: http://www.blueneptune.com/~svw/superman.html ... overrated black and white yawnathon THE HAUNTING (11.40pm, Sat, BBC2) (recently remade as "The Haunting" and based on the book "The Haunting Of Hill House") is showing in some sort of confused non-tie-in with current movie "The House On Haunted Hill"... while sources inside Rapido, makers of "Eurotrash" and new American filth frolic YANKY PANKY (10pm, Sat, Sky 1), reveal that employees can be disciplined for not having *enough* porn on their work PCs... in case you hadn't noticed, BBC2 is showing Will Smith hipcom THE FRESH PRINCE OF BEL AIR (6.20pm, Mon, BBC2) from the beginning again, complete with interminable title sequence... Simon Davies is banging on about privacy or something on COUNTERBLAST (7.30pm, Mon, BBC2)... Philip "The Saint" Noyce's best film, Nicole Kidman floater DEAD CALM (9pm, Mon, C5) is Alien - but on a boat!... and a brief cross- channel Nicolas Cage Wig Out Season begins with white folks' Driving Miss Daisy chuckle GUARDING TESS (10pm, Mon, C4) and ends with overlong but carnage-packed Michael Bay shoot-out THE ROCK (9pm, Tue, C5)... FILM>> yes, traditionally we should be heaping praise like "Not just the best kids' film - but one of the best films *ever*" upon Pixar's high-res CGI follow-up TOY STORY 2 (http://www.capalert.com/capreports/ : theft; fighting; a video game killing; threat with physical violence; many Barbie dolls dancing in swimwear while characters ogle at them with sensuous expressions)- basically the same fricking film as "Toy Story", but with some of the scenes in a different order, plus quite a good rendering of "Newman" from Seinfeld, an unecessarily heart-rending song about being abandoned by your owner, and endless scenes of Tom Hanks shouting. You do get "Luxo Jr" as a short, though we'd rather see "Knick Knack"... otherwise there's a bunch of low-rent Brit shit - Shane "Twentyfourseven" Meadows' Midlands Grange Hill-alike A ROOM FOR ROMEO BRASS (whose poster implies it's "just pants"), plus Craig Ferguson's unhilarious hairdresser mock-docu THE BIG TEASE (MPAA: rated R for profanity, homosexual themes)... so, although we don't have high hopes for it, we'd go for trashy William "The Tingler" Castle remake THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (http://www.capalert.com/capreports/ : asylum madness with knife "surgery"; firearm threats, including to the head; unseen threat throughout most of story; kissing a woman that is implied to be dead; multiple nudity; multiple excessive cleavage/breast exposure; vulgar touching; bizarre and evil- looking/sounding introduction; invisible force operating computer; murder by an evil manifestation; murder with several pencils through the neck)... RED BOOK AUDIO>> hasn't been much on the soundalike pop front for a while - copyists no doubt stunned into silence by the sheer blatantness of R KELLY'S "If I Could Turn Back Time" tribute to the Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody"... but, in a brand new first-ever *double* link-up rip-off, ANDREAS JOHNSON'S "Glorious" closely resembles a Swedish cover of the Manics' "Design For Life", while the Manics' own impassioned rant against object-oriented programming, "The Masses Against The Classes", is curiously reminiscent of Ultravox's "Hymn" (you know: "The power and the glory/ til my kingdom comes!" http://foxleap.fortunecity.com/hymn_ultravox.mid )... in other pop news, we can't remember what that collaboration between Limp Bizkit and Method Man is called, but we're fairly certain it features sound samples from Defender... never mind the hoo- ha about William Orbit's "Pieces In A Modern Style" previously hitting the shops about 5 years ago - now that Daphne And Celeste's "Ooh Stick You" has (at last!) been released, Servalan from Blake's Seven [NTK 1999-09-10] has mysteriously disappeared from the video! Well, either that or NTK teeny-pop correspondent NICK DRAGE *hallucinated the entire thing*... speaking of which, the nation still eagerly awaits the radical cyber-rock of LYSERGIC DOWNLOAD, as plugged extensively in January's Time Out (and nowhere else) - the band who've worked out (you've guessed it) "how to communicate the effects of hallucinogenic substances... through a modem". Assuming they actually exist, they should register lysergicdownload.org (or .com) pretty sharpish; it would be "unfortunate" if their anarchic anti-music biz stance included using legal threats to evict squatters from their domain name... back with the soundalikes, first-time caller JOHN HARTNUP reveals that "When johnny-come-lately girl band Atomic Kitten generously invite you to 'Give It To Me Slowly'", it "doesn't half" remind him of the Communards' "Never Can Say Goodbye"... while, concluding our "suggestive girl bands" strand, XY-rockers HEPBURN have notably failed to provide a satisfactory lyrical interpretation of their "Deep Deep Down" track, fuelling net speculation that it "might be about oral sex"... >> 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. Registered at the Post Office as "skewed wags" http://www.independent.co.uk/news/Digital/Features/2000-01/appleaqua310100.shtml 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) 2000 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.