"Those who try to take the piracy off the high seas and onto
their PCs face a fate worse than walking the plank. For they
risk cursin' their businesses and being left up a creek
without a paddle. They be sinkin' too with no patches to shore
up systems, and could catch something far worse than scurvy..."
- Microsoft press release marks the official "so over" point
of "Talk Like A Pirate Day"
http://www.neowin.net/comments.php?cid=281861&id=24260
>> HARD NEWS <<
with the new Shmoos
The chilly Autumn hacker festival season continues in the
bottom left bit of America - at TOORCON, the Thinking Man's
Defcon, in San Diego. And what were they thinking? Sometimes
it was a little hard to say, as with the speakers who
mysteriously disappeared across the border in Tijuana the
night before their talk. Or Wi-Fi hackers Brad Harris and
"Deker" who, they claimed, were asked by the US government to
suspend their talk on a packet-injection driver (is
inserting pictures of tubgirl and goatse.cx into browser
sessions terrorism these days?). What did make it over the
border was good stuff - if, as ever, somewhat more
theoretical than practical. DAN KAMINSKY did his
P2P-over-DNS trick; CHRISTOPHER ABAD showed how to use gzip
to fingerprint bash histories, and deduce who is typing what
on your box. But it still looks like the SHMOO GROUP are
the current leaders of the hack pack. With a backdrop of
Mike Messick's Sniper Yagi wi-fi rifle, team member
BEETLE packaged up a VBscript program that used any XP
machine as a AP scanner, and then sent the results to a
central location. His aim? Next time someone writes a worm,
hoping that they use this as a payload, thus generating a
global AP directory as a side-effect. War-lounging.
http://www.shmoocon.org/sniperyagi/
- guaranteed to drive gun and RF experts insane
http://the-mathclub.net/survey/4.html
- fingerprinting .bash history
http://forum.defcon.org/showthread.php?p=52891
- Windows Wi-Fi hacking
>> EVENT QUEUE <<
GOTOs considered non-harmful
LARRY "dear, *dear* Larry" LESSIG launches the UK versions of
the famed Creative Commons licenses, and - who knows? -
perhaps even some sort of practical applications for them, at
University College London's Edward Lewis Theatre this coming
Monday lunchtime (12noon-2pm Mon 2004-10-04, Windeyer
Building, 46 Cleveland Street, London W1, entrance free, but
please RSVP in advance to I.Brown@cs.ucl.ac.uk with "Creative
Commons UK" as the subject line). We don't know how long the
Professor is in the country, but we kind of suspect he might
also enjoy getting his teeth into next weekend's FIPR
COPYRIGHT IN EUROPE WORKSHOP ("starts Sat lunchtime and
finishes Sun lunchtime", 2004-10-09/10, Computer Laboratory,
University of Cambridge, 15 JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3,
looks free but email them to check), where the Foundation for
Information Policy Research will be considering responses to
"the EU legal framework in the field of copyright and related
rights", possibly along the lines of why increased legal
protection of "intellectual property" might actually be bad,
not good, like some people seem to think.
http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/I.Brown/ccuk-flyer.pdf
- aka http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=529241&y=181831
http://www.fipr.org/events.html
- yes, the one also known as "The William Gates Building"
http://www.brum2600.net/brumcon4/
- didn't we warn you about BrumCon IV last time?
http://www.ukuug.org/events/logging-2004/
- NTK readers: ask for members' rate at UKUUG logging tutorial
http://london.pm.org/lpw/cfp
- three weeks to get proposals in for big London Perl thing
http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/features/viewarticle.php?id=41
- crazy London Symbian-centric phone-hacking, also on Monday
>> ANTI-MEMES <<
there's smoke, flames, http://dohthehumanity.com/
nothing sexier than Viewing eBay guy's other Dr Who items
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2273864940
"as modelled by his girlfriend"... Web User gets into abstract
illustrations: http://www.webuser.co.uk/news/58259.html (*and*
introduces jpeg artefacts into straightforward line art!)...
Monty Python turns out *even funnier* in original Klingon:
http://www.geocities.com/electricmonk.geo/brainspecialist.html
- vs http://www.wweek.com/story.php?story=5539 ... Google
goofs o' the month: http://www.google.com/search?q=powershit ,
http://www.google.com/search?&q=%22it+relives+the+pain%22 ,
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22text+ban+treaty%22 , plus
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22tasteful+inspection%22 (for
the more discerning firewall)... Cambridge offers online
database of (say) recent "Criminal Damage Over UKP20":
http://www.cambs.police.uk/camcom/localinfo/crimedetails.asp
- no real competition for http://www.arcataeye.com/police04/
so far...
>> TRACKING <<
sufficiently advanced technology : the gathering
You know, we've had our doubts over the merits of listening to
standalone Commodore 64 game soundtracks devoid of their
original context - but here's a chance to hear them as the
Lord originally intended: burbling along in the background of
a no-nonsense four-on-the-floor old-school side-scrolling
shoot-'em-up. PLATYPUS isn't just a fantastic-looking R-Type-
alike packed with hilarious Claymation graphics, but also
features retro anthems like Rob Hubbard's "Flash Gordon", plus
"Wizball 2000" and "Comic Bakery", both by Martin Galway.
There's a weird (presumably Windows-only) preview option on
the Miniclip site, along with the option to upgrade to the
full version for about US$15 (currently UKP8.30 on PayPal),
which unlocks 3 more levels *and* the toe-tapping tunes of Rob
Hubbard's "Sanxion Loading Theme" along with Jonathan Dunn's
"Ocean Loader 4". It's a shame there's not a bit more to the
full version (like a better ending), but when the graphics,
sound and gameplay are this good, you really don't mind going
back and just playing the whole thing through again.
http://www.miniclip.com/platypus/platypus.htm
- no indication of why it's called "Platypus", unfortunately
>> GEEK MEDIA <<
get out less
TV>> "But when his drinking and lusting and his hunger for
power became known to more and more people, the demands to do
something about this outrageous man became louder and louder",
reports TIMEWATCH - WHO KILLED RASPUTIN? (9pm, Fri, BBC2)...
half-way through the series, and we'd still be more likely to
make it through an episode of GREEN WING (9.30pm, Fri, C4) if
the soundtrack didn't feature that god-awful "Gritty Shaker"
knockoff every 20 seconds... and at least they've ditched the
cheesy "Maybe Baby"-style "And the book I was writing - turned
out to be this film!" angle for subtitled part-CGI "City Of
God" TV series spinoff CITY OF MEN (12.35am, Sat, BBC4)...
it's another clip show dressed up as a popularity poll in
BRITAIN'S FAVOURITE COMEDIAN (8pm, Sun, C5), with the losers
being "voluntarily" incarcerated in Camp Endemol for new
reality show KINGS OF COMEDY (10.30pm, next Fri, C4)... in
addition to showing the US originals of THE APPRENTICE (6pm,
Mon-Fri, BBC2), BBC2 are also making a UK version with the
role of Donald Trump played by Alan Sugar... and might
previous US experience of invading countries chock-full of
AK47s possibly hold any lessons for today?, muses VIETNAM'S
BLOODY SECRET (8pm, Tue, C5)... it's "business as usual" when
the Money Programme blows the whistle on British Aerospace's
Saudi defence contract slush fund in BRIBING FOR BRITAIN?
(9.50pm, Tue, BBC2), and John Pilger highlights the plight of
the Diego Garcia islanders evicted by the UK government to
facilitate construction of a US military base in STEALING A
NATION (11pm, Wed, ITV1)... but, on a lighter note, someone
must have reshuffled the old "ultra modern trend" plus
"supposedly unfashionable artform" flash-card deck to get
FLASHMOB - THE OPERA (7.30pm, Thu, BBC3)...
FILM>> like "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within" - still
somewhat "without" a decent plot and script, but at least
there are proper actors in CGI retro-romp SKY CAPTAIN AND THE
WORLD OF TOMORROW ( http://imdb.com/title/tt0346156/trivia :
The film's "groundbreaking" new technology isn't new at all.
It is a unique combination of Adobe After Effects Plug-ins
applied to achieve the film's unique look. No new technology
was created to achieve the stylized look of the film)... then
next week, we can't envision too wide a multiplex release for
low-budget Bruce Campbell shlock-and-roll B-movie BUBBA HO-TEP
( http://www.bbfc.co.uk/ : Contains strong sex references and
language and moderate horror), at least compared to the
heavily FMV-sequence-influenced RESIDENT EVIL: APOCALYPSE
( http://www.capalert.com/capreports/residentevilapocalypse.htm :
computer nudity; graphic individualized hand-to-hand combat
with grotesque unholy beings; telekinetic killing with bloody
gore)...
>> 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
"didn't get to a million articles by sticking just anything in there"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need_To_Know
NEED TO KNOW
THEY STOLE OUR REVOLUTION. NOW WE'RE STEALING IT BACK.
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