Need To Know 2002-03-08

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"Microsoft has built a FreeBSD version of Linux, but this is more of a publicity gig than a serious endeavour..." http://www.cw360.com/article&rd=&i=&ard=110220&fv=1 ...still, that's what we'd hoped about their DOS version of CP/M >> HARD NEWS << delicate truce To the BIG BROTHER AWARDS: traditionally a bit of a friendly get-together for those who fight for personal privacy while desperately attempting to get "monitored" by the press doing so. This year, however, saw a bit of extremist entryism - principally in the form of those chubby young men in their uncomfortable suits, the Orthodox Libertarians. And, on discovering that everyone else wasn't quite the government lickspittles the pamphlets implied, how pleased they were! Seeing both Mark Thomas and the Telegraph editorial team join forces to protest the government's recent invasive policies, they fell to their knees and thanked the gods of Critical Rationality that everyone had promptly united behind the libertarian cause. "Could they possibly come to any conclusion other than the ownership of self and the sovereignty of the individual?", marvelled the Libertarian Alliance's David Carr looking with new eyes upon those who he had previously dismissed as "wall-to-wall dreadlocks". Well, we'd have asked them all down the pub after the ceremony, but what with David Shayler getting pied by a bunch of anarchists and someone else throwing a pint over the Telegraph's Deputy Ed, it was a little tricky to ask how they'd all managed to put aside their differences. Still, nice to see those unidealistic libertarians as grounded in the real world as ever. http://www.privacyinternational.org/bigbrother/uk2002/ - usual suspects sweep the board again http://samizdata.blogspot.com/?/2002_03_03_samizdata_archive.html#10429119 - same blogs, different planet "I wonder if the average NTK reader thinks as highly of .name as I do?", writes - well, somebody. Putting aside the truth that there are no "average" readers, only less extreme outliers, we certainly believe that they do. It is, after all, a silly domain. Any single-issue TLD is going to get trashed sooner or later, unless they're really careful with the nominees. And so desperate are all the registrars to make a buck, that just isn't going to happen. And, as if to prove us right, the Hithertofore Nameless One continues: "Well, I've registered a .name which I felt conveyed my feelings. If anyone wants to share and have their own free subdomain under bork.bork.bork.name, they can", says the subscriber, who we'll call Judge Bork, "provided they a) email hostmaster@bork.bork.bork.name with their nameserver IP numbers and subdomain request and b) it's amusing enough". So there you are. Pollute the namespace: It'll annoy Esther Dyson, and make Vernor Vinge's "True Names" look a bit silly (although we still believe Mr Vinge was predicting IRC 'nicks', not the global DNS framework)._ http://www.almac.co.uk/chef/chef/chef.html - the Instant Chef ... it's borken! http://www.icannwatch.org/ - still naming names >> ANTI-NEWS << berating the obvious modern music all sounds the same, admits MINISTRY OF SOUND: http://www.ministryofsound.com/radio/features/mix_template.asp ... bad typo: http://www.ntk.net/2002/03/08/dohwop.gif ... makes you wonder where they're going to "stick" the modem: http://www.ntk.net/2002/03/08/dohblue.jpg ... case of missing EUROs: http://www.ntk.net/2002/03/08/dohmoto.gif ... revving nearly 1000 hits per day: http://www.suziperry.com/stats/ ... crimes of the future: http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns05861.html ... book well in advance for gigs by TEST in the year 2099: http://www.wayahead.com/dotmusicmaj/price.asp?code=65000 ... "Long Lead Time Expected" for ever-popular EMPTY PACKAGING: http://www.dabs.com/products/prod-info3-info.asp?&m=y&quicklinx=B6P ... or display it to the whole Internet, whichever you prefer: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22please+delete+this+slide%22 ... true banners: http://www.ntk.net/2002/03/08/dohlies.gif ... hugely reassuring choice of database engine from ORACLE: http://www.ntk.net/2002/03/08/dohoracl.gif ... experience in frickin' FLASH preferred: http://www.ntk.net/2002/03/08/dohcock.gif >> EVENT QUEUE << goto's considered non-harmful At time of writing, there are 893 events that have declared themselves part of NATIONAL SCIENCE WEEK (from today Fri 2002- 03-08, various venues around the UK), from "How To Find A Water Vole" (The Ivel Valley Countryside Project, Biggleswade) to "Every Tree Tells A Story" (Odell Country Park, Harrold, Bedfordshire). The listings for rival digital arts festival LOVEBYTES 2002 (from Thu 2002-03-14, various venues around Sheffield) are, if anything, even more exciting, with a performance by Robin "Scanner" Rimbaud, that Linklater rotoscope movie, Star Wars parody films - and NTK's very own DIY web-publishing workshop, currently scheduled for 6pm at the Redundant Technology Initiative's "Access Space" HQ on Fri 2002-03-15. But we're not listed on the Lovebytes site at the moment - 'cos we like to keep it underground, and don't want to play that corporate game with the likes of Lego and Apple. http://www.lovebytes.org.uk/2002/ - vs http://access.lowtech.org/ http://www.the-ba.net/the-ba/page.asp?selectPage=193 - no less than 3 science-oriented Mother's Day events http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/programmes/webcasting/surveillance.htm - sensors detect Duncan "Zircon" Campbell tomorrow at the Tate >> TRACKING << sufficiently advanced technology : the gathering You've read his blistering indictment of a world imprisoned by universal surveillance - now buy the contacts manager to rule it! Simson Garfinkel, author of dystopian non-fic "Database Nation", exemplary risks journalist and ex-NeXT hacker, is sneakily previewing the next incarnation of his decade-old address book applet SBOOK - now up to version 5, and ported via metempsychosis to the Mac OS X platform. It's a sweet little program which looks innocently like one of those freeform cardfile databases, but hides terrifying "proprietary search techniques" and sinister "artificial intelligence" to allow speedier monitoring of all your victim's names and addresses. Have a file on everyone! Dial their number using the internal modem! Send them blackmail letters using the "print envelope" functionality! http://www.sbook5.com/ - no relation to S Book 7, the teenage literary circle http://www.simson.net/sbook/92.4.Winter.BarlowLavin.html#SBook - still think it should have been called DataFinkel >> MEMEPOOL << ceci n'est pas une http://www.gagpipe.com/ ELECTRONIC TAGGING of lager-swilling troublemakers begins at last: http://www.ananova.com/yournews/story/sm_538560.html ... MS unwittingly hothousing next generation of macro virus writers: http://www.microsoft.com/uk/visualstudio/terrarium/ ... once you've popped one wireless network, you can't stop: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1860000/1860241.stm ... alternative explanation of how he got that "DIZZY" nickname: http://www.monkeon.co.uk/gallery/html/1c.html ... http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~dgreenf/lesson2.html ... ... "it gets so lonely here in space", rambles ROCKET MAN: http://www.spacedaily.com/news/oped-02b.html ... former BORG DRONES reunited?: http://www.globe-guardian.com/borg.htm ... scarier than http://web.mit.edu/aram/Public/godkills.jpg : http://www.claancy.net/index.php?area=lunacy&showcat=Domo%20Kun ... hmm, maybe "cocking Action Script" is somehow to blame: http://www.macromedia.com/support/flash/ts/documents/crushinghead.htm "Happy Valentine's Day from Potty Bear Goes Poopy": http://www.pottybear.com/ ... >> GEEK MEDIA << get out less TV>> and who'd have thought it'd be Winona Ryder whose career hit the skids out of the cast of Ben Stiller Gen-X classic REALITY BITES? (1.05am, Fri, BBC2)... Orson Welles double-bill CITIZEN KANE (1.40pm, Sat, BBC2) and THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS (3.35pm, Sat, BBC2) collides with THE HINDENBURG (3pm, Sat, ITV): http://www.theonion.com/onion3209/hindenbergguy.html ... and a weekend of interesting but flawed movies continues with Kevin Bacon worm battler TREMORS (11.25pm, Sat, BBC1); Gina "Brass Eye" McKee London drama WONDERLAND (10.20pm, Sat, BBC2) - apparently features a character who works in Micro Anvika on Tottenham Court Road; Kevin Costner baseball bash BULL DURHAM (12midnight, Sat, ITV); and Terry Gilliam's semi-bearded Robin Williams fantasy THE FISHER KING (10.55pm, Sat, C5)... that bloke out of "Coupling" joins Samantha "Game On" Janus in spooky Buffy-spinoff-spoiler STRANGE (9pm, Sat, BBC1)... for all you Paul Auster fans, SMOKE (12.45am, Sat, BBC2) is way better than improvised "companion piece" BLUE IN THE FACE (12.40am, Sun, BBC2), as hinted by the latter's casting of Roseanne Barr and Madonna... and there's an impromptu tribute to the late Charlotte Coleman in posh Brit self-stereotyping exercise FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL (10pm, Sun, C4) plus asylum-seeker comedy BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE (12.30am, Mon, C4)... C4 marks science week by demonstrating key principles on a budget of just UKP25 in UKP25=MC^2 (7.55pm, Mon-Thu, C4), presumably as a bizarre protest against grant cuts for pure research... after last week's "Disco" episode, the BBC bafflingly seems to be remaking all of C4's "Top Ten" music shows with WHEN ROCK RULED THE WORLD (10.35pm, Wed, BBC1)... so thank heavens you can always rely on Channel 5, this week showing Bill Murray golfing goof-off CADDYSHACK (9pm, Mon, C5), Kim "Sex And The City" Cattrall chase-em-up BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA (9pm, Tue, C5), and parallel-reality Nazi thriller FATHERLAND (9pm, Thu, C5), starring - who else? - Rutger Hauer... FILM>> continuing the intriguing trend of US soldiers "just happening" to find themselves in impossible situations then having to bravely fight their way out, Mel Gibson discovers further practical flaws in that "leave no (dead) man behind" attitude in 'Nam-set "Black Hawk Down"-alike WE WERE SOLDIERS ( http://www.screenit.com/movies/2002/we_were_soldiers.html : people who are shot have blood squirt out and/or are bloody; [Gibson] and others urinate on hot mortar equipment to cool it off; we see a bad looking blister on one of the men's feet)... while Anthony Hopkins ditches Stephen King's "Dark Tower" continuity for a more conventional tale of smalltown coming- of-age "Tomorrow People"-style telepathy in HEARTS IN ATLANTIS ( http://www.capalert.com/capreports/heartsinatlantis.htm : sneaking out of house by a child; sexual humor to a child; sin of "filthy communication"; beating with a bat)... DRESS DOWN FRIDAY>> we're as surprised as anyone, but PayPal has caved to our thinly-veiled threats of NTK 2002-01-25, and non-US citizens can now buy a http://www.ntkmart.com/ t-shirt on their credit cards without having to sign up for a full PayPal account. Prices are still in dollars (hey, it's good practice for converting everything into Euros) - and thanks to everyone who alerted us to http://www.paypalsucks.com/ and the like, which appear to primarily document the claims of users who naively allowed thousands of dollars to accumulate in their PayPal accounts. Our tip: don't do that then... new this month is the "404 /SHIRT/TIE: NOT FOUND" design submitted by reader CAMILO MESIAS back in NTK 2001-12-07, and a (slightly) less sexist variation of DAVID J BODYCOMBE's "Hi-Score Table" idea http://www.geekstyle.co.uk/images/hiscoresf.gif which has been kicking around since NTK 2001-08-24. Both receive at least UKP2 per shirt sold (Bodycombe quite a bit more in fact because he funded this new design from royalties from the "Encoded" one which he co-designed and which will be back in stock real soon now)... the latest runners-up include PAUL COOPER's "IANAL" (prone to misinterpretation), JEREMY ARDLEY's "b4 i gt my pHn / i cdnt evN Spll / DslXc Mrn / nw IR1" (a bit harsh towards dyslexics, we felt), PAUL RANDALL's copyright- infringing http://www.darkwave.org.uk/~gribbley/gauntlet.txt , and MATT "Yahoo Serious" JONES' proposed series of footballing physicists: http://www.blackbeltjones.com/sagan_shirt.gif and http://www.blackbeltjones.com/feynman_shirt.gif (we don't do these kinds of shirts yet, but when we do)... though we were quite tempted by JAMES SWIFT's currently embryonic suggestions of http://www.geekstyle.co.uk/images/jamesswift1.gif and http://www.geekstyle.co.uk/images/jamesswift2.gif - the second might go quite nicely with a "Fly al-Qaeda" slogan if anyone out there is any good at designing fake airline logos. And we'd still like to see some parodies of the classic Designer's Republic "look": http://www.thepeoplesbureau.com/ - rather than, say, IAN STUART's elaborate spoofs of our current range: http://vlucas2.ucs.ed.ac.uk/roverspotting.800x600x300.png ... not much action at the moment in the parallel "Buy One, Subvert The Mass Media, Get One Free" competition, as NTK's own Dave Green continues to plough his own lonely digital-TV furrow: http://www.geekstyle.co.uk/images/ , although ALASTAIR ALEXANDER did spot someone in an "I Got 80million" shirt at a recent London Fetish Fair, but was unable to supply evidence as, kinkily, "cameras aren't allowed" - so we may never know if its cheery orange schadenfreude now forms an essential part of any modern gimp costume... >> 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 "superb", apparently http://www.base58.com/booms/archives/2002_03_03_archive.html 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.ntkmart.com/ (K) 2002 Special Projects. Copying is fine, but include URL: http://www.ntk.net/ Tips, news and gossip to tips@spesh.com All communication is for publication, unless you beg. Press releases from naive PR people to pr@spesh.com Remember: Your work email may be monitored if sending sensitive material. Sending >500KB attachments is forbidden by the Geneva Convention. Your country may be at risk if you fail to comply.