Need To Know 2003-06-27

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>> PREVIOUS NEWS << exhaustively exhumed In a bitter-sweet double reversal of fortune, it sounds like the attempt to sneak software patents by the Europarliament next week has been averted, while the delayed EUCD is spinning backwards in time to the present. There still maybe a slim chance of stopping the SOFTWARE PATENTS LEGISLATION from arriving at Brussels in such bad shape: Ian Clarke (off of Freenet) has put up a non-anonymous, non-distributed CGI script that lets businesses write up exactly how devastating the new patents will be to them, and passes them onto the relevant authorities. It's not quite FaxYourMEP, but it'll help. Meanwhile, anonymous sources say that the UK implementation of the EUCD is pretty much marked up. Any changes there are don't have much to do with consumer rights: we'll be seeing what damage *that'll* be wreaking on the tech community after this short break. http://swpat.ffii.org/news/03/plen0626/index.en.html - full details on the shenanigans http://freenetproject.org/eusp/index.php - should have patented contactyourrepresentative when we had the chance http://www.carolinelucasmep.org.uk/news/Nanotechnology_220403.htm - some MEPS could do with a bit of help with tech issues Talking of non-anonymous, PHIL MARLEY wrote in last week to point out that the mystery NTK reader who wrote to their MP and got questions asked in the House about STAND wasn't a mystery, and had in fact mailed us a month ago to tell us what he'd done. Cheers, Phil! Your name has now been given its rightful place on the Internet. There may be a prize. http://www.spy.org.uk/cgi-bin/civilcontingencies.pl - also, it looks like the police won't be running the Internet And while we're digging through the news feedback slushpile, we're still getting folk asking if we're going to fork the Jargon File, or set up the Jargon Wiki, or join them in some anti-ESR outback militia who are - as we speak - tooling up with daisies and big hugs outside his house. Well, as so many noted on slashdot, euro-weenie anti-capitalist crypto-communist running dogs like us are the last people you'd want to take over. But maybe, we'd suggest, at least for new entries, a couple of citations each would provide more context. After all, it's what ESR requests from outside contributors. And it'd be a good filter on what might otherwise look like his own coinages. http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/submitting-new-entries.html - or you could just rename it "Dude, you've just described hacking!" http://tinyurl.com/ff6r - as he's saying about everything these days >> ANTI-NEWS << berating the obvious interminable GLASTONBURY sessions now provided with 26 hours to overrun: http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/+soundandvision/+tv/ ... at the end of a string of beers, there is: http://www.ntk.net/2003/06/27/nullbeer.png ... poorly chosen domains are the new google typos: http://www.twatravel.com/ ... ORDER OF PHOENIX now available on Web, reels MSNBC, notes that 1.8MB file is "about the size of a few digital music files": http://www.msnbc.com/news/930285.asp?cp1=1 ... "discreet maths" advised at Ncipher: http://www.ncipher.com/careers/jobs.html ... STEVE JOBS announces G5 "twice as quiet" as G4. What, only -3db? ... REGISTER flashes back to the Apple IIGS: http://www.ntk.net/2003/06/27/doh16bit.jpg ... come now, they don't look *so* bad: http://www.ntk.net/2003/06/27/dohgoogle.png ... and google typos are to be merging with BBC mistakes: http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Anews.bbc.co.uk+%22name+here%22 >> TRACKING << sufficiently advanced technology : the gathering Kevin Burton's RSS aggregator NEWSMONSTER stomps towards 1.0 and a place as one of the first respectable Java 'n' Mozilla cross-plaform apps. It sits in that barely-used Moz sidebar and grinds through RSS feeds, spitting them out as local HTML on an hourly basis. There are some kinks to being an in-browser aggro: you sometimes wish you could pop that sidebar somewhere more convenient. The semantics of a "read" blog entry are a bit strained (entries don't dim like a newsreader; their link changes colour like a browser). But there are synergies, too: being able to subscribe to a feed just by right-clicking on the page is great. Integration means you can bang through your n^2 subscriptions that much more quickly. And given Newsmonster is already sitting in the kitchen sink, there's no harm in slapping in features like Technorati and Feedster searches. The Pro version ($29.95) currently gets you more the promise of ambitious future featres than actual implementations right now - mainly because Burton's not turned on his much-awaited reputation system. But if you think of your payment as more of a Streetperformer Protocol tip-on-future-development, it seems a fair price. http://www.newsmonster.org/ - the source version is also the Pro version, btw http://newsmonster.org/reputation.html - "micropayments: still in the future" >> MEMEPOOL << ceci n'est pas une http://www.gagpipe.com/ "Brandon Trinity hopes his songs bring a little joy to everyone who listens": http://www.listentothefuture.com/ ... top trumps for bad people: http://snurfer.org/cgi-bin/cctrumps.pl ... two slightly distorted versions of the CD audio standard: http://www.rcarter.34sp.com/oldfield/tubularbells2003.html ... but who wins in a fight? http://www.illusionary.com/GNOMEvKDE.html ... what is supposed to happen in the office when you go home: www.divstivs.plus.com/iconwar/ ... camwhoring if you only have a pen: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2936199926&category=324i ... what *actually* happens in the office when you go home: http://members.chello.nl/~s.ferris/images/Dsc00065.jpg ... let the bitter internecine geek clan wars begin!: http://londongeek.org/ >> GEEK MEDIA << get out much less FILM>> Eliza "Faith from Buffy" Dushku and friends run into West Virginia's most meticulous Texas Chainsaw/ Deliverance re-enactment society, in brutal woodland chase horror WRONG TURN ( http://www.screenit.com/movies/2003/wrong_turn.html : people jump from a tall tower into a nearby tree; people shoot arrows at others, including some in a tree)... Jim Carrey bids to be hailed the god of overacting comedy in BRUCE ALMIGHTY ( http://www.capalert.com/capreports/brucealmighty.htm : this movie has problems but cheapening of God and believers is NOT one of them; [no] mention of God's Son nor any mention of our need for redemption through the precious blood of Jesus)... otherwise Laurence "Morpheus" Fishburne enters a Matrix resembling an African-American version of "2 Fast 2 Furious" - but on motorbikes - in BIKER BOYZ ( http://www.bbfc.co.uk/ : contains single use of strong language and moderate violence) ... and the full address of the killer website actually turns out to be the - slashdot-inspired? - "www.feardotcom.com" in long-delayed Natascha McElhone "The Ring" ripoff cyberbollocks FEARDOTCOM ( http://www.screenit.com/movies/2002/feardotcom.html : it's possible the film could inspire some kids to look for websites that purportedly show live deaths or torture, etc; another dead body shows bare breasts)... >> 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 "of interest to at least four people" http://www.livejournal.com/interests.bml?int=ntk.net 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) 2003 Special Projects. Copying is fine, but include URL: http://www.ntk.net/ Full license at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/1.0 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. 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