Need To Know 2002-03-15

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"Star Wars star Natalie Portman says she felt like a 'whore' while filming love scenes with Darth Vader." http://uk.imdb.com/PeopleNews/2002/20020314.html ... slashdot troll community spontaneous combusts: PNG at eleven >> HARD NEWS << canal plus! So, was there really a News Corps conspiracy to haxx0r OnDigital smartcards? Well, much as we like sticking it to The (Australian) Man, we vote, as ever, for cock-up. Or rather, unauthorised zero-day warezing by boasting employees instead of sinister multinational masterplan. The core of Canal+ accusation is that News Corps leaked the reverse-engineered ROM image of the Canal+ MediaGuard smartcard to the underground back in 1999, deliberately creating the clone market for Canal+ and later OnDigital cards. The court case will doubtless reveal more evidence, but looking at the exhibit A, the SECAROM.ZIP source, you can see why Canal+ might be suspicious. The hexdump is marked "useless to us! carte was used as a testbed pull", and is signed "das deutches underground". Now, there aren't that many people in this world with a st16CF54 "testbed", but News Corps' NDS smartcard research unit in Israel is one of them. And there are even fewer Germans who can't spell the name of their own country. But even if it did come from NDS Israel, was it really a sanctioned leak? NDS's press release implies that Canal+ have been trying to poach the employee they say leaked the code; and it certainly looks like a one-man leak to us. Now, the GUARDIAN's been working hard to link this SECAROM.ZIP leak with the dodgy NDS financial transactions with a separate cardcracking Website - implying a corporate-wide plot. Of course, the truth is that *everybody's* a bit of a grey-hat in the cryptocard community. That an NDS security chief might have paid off a hacking site to rat on its users (a theory confirmed by the chipping underground) is as shocking to us as a single reverse-engineer going all "information must be free" about his latest exploit. Still, if any of these suppositions are true, it doesn't help NDS: they're still responsible for rogue employees. But it's nice to know that Murdoch isn't quite *that* machiavellian. Isn't it? http://media.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,7541,667040,00.html - funny that only the Grauniad's covering it, isn't it? http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,666690,00.html - of course the Guardian would never link to cracks, right? (see "Forget It", 3rd link down) http://www.google.com/search?q=secarom - oh sure *we'll* direct link to it. http://www.nds.com/newspdfs/NDSStatement_120302.pdf - "why would they want to hire such a bad, bad, man?" Of course, some smart cards are easier to crack than others. Wandering, as every geek posse visiting our nation's capital is wont to do, into the Trocadero, the combined office RFID tags of the 2600 London posse were enough to set off one store's anti-shoplifting alarms. Of course, the 2600 gang are no strangers to tripwires (allegedly). But how bad, wondered the curious group, will it get when the Underground introduce their RFID-based contactless travel cards in the Autumn? Well, looking through the tech specs, the London Transport PRESTIGE cards look to be a bit more sophisticated than a few coils of wire stuck up a CD. But not *much* more. 48-64 bit keys? Pah. Protected against replay attack? Young man, London's finest will be taking these things home for garage electron microscopy *every night*. Is the capital heading for the age of free-rides-for-the-l33t "Haxx0red Carriage"? And if so, which sinister corporation is going to bankroll *this* research? Brighton Council? The AA? http://www.spy.org.uk/london2600/01-03-02-zxnpp.htm - ooh, DNScon confirmation too http://www1.slb.com/smartcards/news/02/sct_london0801.html - ooh, new toys! If you want cock-ups *and* conspiracies on an almost daily basis, wander no further than the good old domain name billing system. Why just today, if you were watching the servers, you'd have seen Demon put "police.uk" (ie every cop force in the country) "on hold" for not paying their domain bill. That's rather akin to suspending the whole of co.uk until Mr Co forks over his fiver. But that's not as bad - let's face it, nothing is *ever* as bad - as NETWORK SOLUTIONS. They just sent a bill to ARIN. For in-addr.arpa. http://www.freesoft.org/CIE/Course/Section2/15.htm - long technical explanation of aforementioned joke http://www.netsol.com/cgi-bin/whois/whois?STRING=root-servers.net&SearchType=do - 2003-07-05 could be a fun date >> ANTI-NEWS << berating the obvious After "Developers, Developers", a new BALLMER catchphrase: http://makeashorterlink.com/?O30C2698 ... "arrogance of science" revealed: http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_493478.html vs http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,50930,00.html ... Third phase not looking good: http://www.ntk.net/2002/03/15/dohtony.gif ... http://www.thermaltake.com/ chooses "TT BOY" as mascot, unaware of sordid past: http://www.google.com/search?q=%22TT+Boy%22 ... oh these popstar riders I: http://www.ntk.net/2002/03/15/dohbragg.gif and II: http://www.ntk.net/2002/03/15/dohass.gif ... GAS: setting your child on fire : http://www.cambridge-gas.co.uk ... then killing the rest of your family: http://www.ntk.net/2002/03/15/dohgas.gif ... those awful WEB BUGS: (hit View Source and page to the bottom) http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1493000/1493152.stm ... and ah, the unobtainable Fender Strat: (try clicking on form) https://secure.room101.co.uk/turnkey.pl?item1=Fender+strat&price1=?0.01 ... >> EVENT QUEUE << goto's considered non-harmful Thanks to everyone who's mailed with suggestions of what they'd like to see at NTK's increasingly less hypothetical 5th birthday convention: big-league speakers like "Gonzo- Cluetrain-RageBoy-Locke" (Steve Johnston); "Wendy Grossman appearing as a folksinger" (Anon); and, it goes almost without saying, "DECENT BITTER in PEWTER TANKARDS" (J-P Stacey). We'd estimate there's a fairly good chance of all three at the potentially like-minded RICHARD STALLMAN event in Cambridge the Monday after next (4.15pm, 2002-03-25) - the musical element being Stallman himself who, it seems, can provide impromptu performances of his "Free The Software" song at the slightest provocation. "Software Patents - Obstacles To Development" is the unapologetically partisan theme of the talk, it's free to get in - RSVP to rmstalk@fipr.org to let them know numbers - but it marks the launch of the "Friends of FIPR" fundraising initiative so bring your cheque book. In the spirit of defiance that the Foundation for Information Policy Research is famous for, the venue is actually the "William Gates Building" where, local legend has it, the spirit of Microsoft is so powerful that even the dual-boot PCs automatically revert back to Windows after half an hour. http://www.fipr.org/stallman.html - aka the "University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory" http://graphics.stanford.edu/~eldridge/random/rms.html - vs http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/eserver/linux/fun/freethecode.html And the DECENT BITTER in PEWTER TANKARDS? Well, that'll be consumed - metaphorically, if not literally - at THE INQUIRER FIRST BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION (from 6pm, next Fri 2002-03-22, upstairs at the Coach and Horses, Poland St, London W1). And no, we don't know if anyone from The Register is going. NTK has never been at war with The Inquirer... http://www.oofg.co.uk/OOFG_21_09_01/Images/Image11.jpg - NTK is at war with The Register. Do try and keep up... http://www.moralsupportonline.org/events.htm - assuming you get this before 8pm on Fri... >> TRACKING << sufficiently advanced technology : the gathering "Found haiku" are lines "haiku", a python that match the five seven five two point two script will parse your syllable form of... own text files for these. ... japanese verse, but to count syllables which occur by accident it needs both the cmu in normal text files. pronunciation Most are quite ugly word list and a great and unpoetic; still now deal of time. And yeah, we know and then a gem shines. they're not real haiku. Quit whinging, art boy: True art needs the human touch. Or python two three. http://www.oblomovka.com/code/haiku.php3 - bad poetry; bad code http://www.phenry.org/junkdrawer/haiku/ - bad attitude >> MEMEPOOL << hasta la altavista thank god: http://squeep.com/~fek/think-of-the-domokun.jpg ... http://www.tamponhenge.co.uk/... let's play hunt the BOEING: http://www.asile.org/citoyens/numero13/pentagone/erreurs_en.htm vs found it! http://www.multimap.com/map/photo.cgi?client=photomap&X=492000&Y=142000 ... http://www.digitalconsumer.org/bill.html : a nice start, but maybe add these: http://maroney.org/CrowleyIntro/Texts/Book_77.html ... photo then shop your pals: http://flashface.flashmaster.ru/ ... clear infringement of Twisted Sister copyright, officer: nick 'em http://members.aol.com/matt999h/PoliceReform.htm ... vote tit! vote tat! vote for http://alfimp.port5.com/poll.shtml ... www.tourettes.com fails to counterract www.tourettes.co.uk and http://www.hare.yucom.be/Useless/Tourette/tourette.html ... latest news from http://www.go2africa.com/kenya/amboseli/lake-chala/ ... >> GEEK MEDIA << get out less TV>> it's a big week for classic sci-fi movies whose memories might otherwise be tainted by recent travesty remakes, with 1970s "2001"-style arthouse beat-em-up ROLLERBALL (11.15pm, Fri, BBC1), 1960s technicolor treat THE TIME MACHINE (5.30pm, Sat, BBC2), and, er, MORTAL KOMBAT (12.30am, Fri, ITV)... innocent working-class teenagers are put through the most degrading, horrifying experience imaginable, but that's enough about Daisy Donovan's topical entertainment quiz DOES DOUG KNOW? (10.30pm, Fri, C4) - BBC2 have also recreated the WW1 experience in pop-history reality show THE TRENCH (9pm, Fri, BBC2)... and hopefully Michael Parkinson's 2001 TV MOMENTS (9pm, Sat, BBC1) will include the "100 Greatest TV Treats Of The Year" shown by C4 over Christmas... the camera may have caught reader Jenny Colgan not wearing an NTK t-shirt during phone-based docu-soap MOBILE LIVES (11.55pm, Sat, BBC2)... CCTV "thriller" THE END OF VIOLENCE (12.55am, Sat, C4) is leisurely even by Wim Wenders standards... Freud's relatives imitate "They Live" in the history of subliminal consumerism THE CENTURY OF THE SELF (8pm, Sun, BBC2)... while C5 provides its own thought-provoking examination of the id in Sly Stallone/ Teri Hatcher action trash TANGO AND CASH (9pm, Sun, C5)... watch out for Simon Beaufoy's god-awful Syntegra ad in the breaks during THE FULL MONTY (9.30pm, Sun, C5)... Monday is "Blade Runner" alumni night, with bonkers Sean Young psychothriller A KISS BEFORE DYING (9pm, Mon, C5) and Joanna Cassidy home alone comedy DON'T TELL MOM THE BABYSITTER'S DEAD (10pm, Mon, C4) - intriguingly scheduled *before* the vastly superior Linda Fiorentino noir THE LAST SEDUCTION (12midnight, Mon, C4)... tough choice between the first hour of Michael Bay technocrane epic ARMAGEDDON (9pm, Tue, C5) and hints of Alan Partridge in WHEN LOUIS MET KEITH HARRIS AND ORVILLE (9pm, Tue, BBC2)... a single mum attends Burning Man in LOOKING FOR KICKS (11.30pm, Tue, C4)... there'a a teen tearaway double- bill on Wed, with Christian "American Psycho" Bale in WW2 Spielberg flop EMPIRE OF THE SUN (8pm, Wed, C5) followed by John Leguizamo's freakish hispanic "Ferris Bueller" vehicle THE PEST (10.50pm, Wed, C5)... as E4 transplant MAKE MY DAY (10.30pm, Thu, C4) imitates TVGoHome's "Boom Goes Lovergirl": http://www.tvgohome.com/3006-2000.html ... FILM>> it's Bill Murray, Gwyneth Paltrow, Gene Hackman and the kid who plays "Harris" in "Freaks and Geeks" - together at last! - in the almost unbearably whimsical extended-"Rushmore" curio THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS (imdb: bathtub-scene/ black-comedy/ deadbeat-dad/ dysfunctional-family/ incest/ off-beat/ sex/ bb-gun/ bird/ child-prodigy/ dalmatian/ delinquent/ divorce/ dog/ family-reunion/ high-blood-pressure/ hotel/ interracial- relationship/ mice/ narrated/ playwright/ rat/ smoking/ tennis/ terminal-illness/ wealth/ wedding/ wooden-finger) - and not as many jokes as "Not Another Teen Movie" either... unfortunately, "from the makers of The House On Haunted Hill" doesn't bode too well for CGI William Castle remake THIRTEEN GHOSTS ( http://www.cndb.com/movie.html?title=Thirteen+Ghosts I saw Shannon Elizabeth's name in the credits and assumed she would be the one getting naked. Instead it was this ghost that was painted in blue makeup. Granted, the ghost had nice breasts, but it did not do anything for me)... >> 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 "och, put your money away Wendy, this one's on the house" http://www.theinquirer.net/08030211.htm 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.geekstyle.co.uk/ (K) 2001 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.