Need To Know 2002-11-15

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>> HARD NEWS << absent acutes The new edition of the Shorter OED came out too early (or too late) to include medireview, the Yahoo-generated alternative to medieval [NTK 2002-07-12]. We have higher hopes for the next edition and "risumi" - a new autocoinage spotted by Jeremy Ardley and still, it would seem, growing in popularity. A "risumi", word fans, is a special kind of "resume" that has been written with a ISO-8859-1/14 character set and then sent through a mailer that drops the high bit. Lowercase e with an acute accent, minus the top bit, turns into an "i". Hence, risumi. Our favourite citation for the new dictionary entry: an article by Peter Kaufman, "creative strategist" at clickz.com, who confidently declares "Why would anyone hire a person with spelling errors in a document? Several risumis I've seen over the years have had spelling, grammar and syntax errors that would make you either laugh or cry". Coincidentally or not, Kaufman's piece is now the highest hit on Google for the neologism. How diclassi. http://www.clickz.com/article.php/838241 - touchi http://www.google.com/search?q=risumi - google translates 621 pages into South African Obviously we're suspicious of whether AMAZON.COM APPAREL have made their recommendations exceptionally bizarre in a bid to get viral publicity for the launch of their spinoff clothing store. Nonetheless, many of you felt their winter wardrobe suggestions worthy of comment, from the hint of e-shopping nudity in the tagline "Customers *who wear clothes* also shop for:" (our emphasis), to the fact that, presumably due to insufficient sample data, it regularly proposes a fetching ensemble consisting of "Clean Underwear, Ladybug Rain Boots, Suede Headwraps and Cheetah Print Slippers", for all the more adventurous Rod Stewart impersonators out there. In fact, it advises a purchase of "Clean Underwear" to go with pretty much everything (is "Used Underwear" also an option?) - including, as reader JONATHAN BEESTON soon discovered, the unexpectedly apposite title, "Overcoming Incontinence: A Straightforward Guide To Your Options". http://www.ntk.net/2002/11/15/dohpants.gif - those "Ladybug Rain Boots" could also come in handy http://www.ntk.net/2002/11/15/dohuse.gif - cashmere top, clean pants, and no trousers: a look which is *never* going to go out of style... >> ANTI-NEWS << berating the obvious probably not the kind of "attracting girls to IT" that they had in mind: http://www.ntk.net/2002/11/15/dohbpi.gif - but then again: http://www.ntk.net/2002/11/15/dohinout.gif ... slightly more exotic double-entendre GOOGLE MISSPELLINGS: http://www.google.com/search?q=%22thrust+me+on+this%22 , plus "retart your computer", "bridget jones dairy" - making up for: http://www.empireonline.com.au/new/html/home/content.html#bjones ... hit "click to enter" - and it 404s, "at the speed of thought": http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/book/ ... hello? Brighton Uni? I think I've found three faults all on one page: http://www.brighton.ac.uk/is/faults.shtml ... your shtoopid English names are UNACCEPTABLE, barks the German: http://www.ntk.net/2002/11/15/dohte.gif ... why he's called "Rabbit"?: http://www.ntk.net/2002/11/15/dohhop.gif ... >> EVENT QUEUE << goto's considered non-harmful Chris's MORRIS and CUNNINGHAM - together at last! - at this weekend's digital and lowtech film festival RESFEST (from today Friday 2002-11-15, various London venues, from UKP7.50 per showing) - a great opportunity to catch the state of the art in pop videos for anyone who doesn't have MTV2. Somewhat less disturbing entertainment should be available in the form of gangling NTK fellow-traveller BEN MOOR, whose whimsical pseudophysics odyssey A SUPERCOLLIDER FOR THE FAMILY bounces around the Chaplaincy Centre, Bath (7.30pm, next Friday 2002- 11-22, UKP5) - email su1fish@bath.ac.uk to reserve your tickets today. http://www.resfest.com/cities/london.html - is this different to "onedotzero"? And if so, how? http://www.bath.ac.uk/~su1fish/ - aka "Brian O'Green" in "Time Gentlemen Please" http://www.koerperwelten.com/en/aktuelle.htm - on Wed: live human autopsy at London's Body Worlds show http://dorkbot.org/dorkbotlondon/ - plus: advance notice of DorkBot December spectacular >> TRACKING << sufficiently advanced technology : the gathering OS X developers must sometimes feel like the early American colonists (oh yes they must). Under the guide of good King Steve, they bravely build on the very edges of the known world - only to have a bunch of laughing natives slinking through every Winter and plundering their stores of new ideas to use on their Free Unix teepees. Next up, we hope, for booty, is the Mac's genius (and $20) LaunchBar app. With LaunchBar installed, OS X's surprisingly bad keyboard accessibility is cured. It's a menubar app which keeps a list of all the popular appplications, documents, and bookmarked URLs on your machine. To reach any of them, you just hit ALT-<SPACE> then the first few letters of the title you want. With a bit of training (it learns from your choices), it's not long before you wish that every OS had this - and wonder when Gnome and KDE will get the feature. http://www.obdev.at/products/launchbar/ - we may have got American history mixed up. The natives won, right? >> MEMEPOOL << ceci n'est pas une http://www.gagpipe.com/ Aussies not as "up for it" as popular stereotype makes out: http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_700109.html ... BUSH counts "millions of peaceful-loving Muslim Americans": http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=topnews&StoryID=1734219 ... slightly harsh description of popular kids' character: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57430-2002Nov15.html ... Radio 1 claim "100th Window" = "threat of internet piracy": http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/news/altnews/021114_massiveattack.shtml - though the book of the same name seems to suggest otherwise: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/068483944X/ ... so, how's my driving?: http://www.changingtheclimate.com/ ... browser games which don't need the latest Flash plugin: http://kisrael.com/features/gb.html ... when ANTI-AUDIOPHILES STRIKE BACK: http://home.cfl.rr.com/happysurfer/audio_bs.htm ... ORWELL by name: http://www.orwellpolice.com/Crimetip.htm vs http://www.easycar.com/eng/core/nossl/OverdueCars.asp ... >> GEEK MEDIA << get out less TV>> the stealth bomber's special "passengers" configuration is unveiled by in-flight "Die Hard" romp EXECUTIVE DECISION (8.55pm, Fri, ITV)... "there's more" to Isaac Newton than just the Principia Mathematica, argues GREAT BRITONS (9pm, Fri, BBC2)... and Z-list celebrities murdering pop standards is the theme of the week in what seems to be most of BBC CHILDREN IN NEED (7pm-2am, Fri, BBC1), SONGS OF BOND (9.15pm, Sat, ITV), THE UK'S OFFICIAL 100 BESTSELLING SINGLES (9pm, Sat, C4), and CELEBRITY BIG BROTHER (9pm, Wed, C4)... there's a rare chance to see the first two episodes in a double bill of THE NORM SHOW (3.55am, Sat, C4)... porn star Kobe Tai avoids typecasting by playing a prostitute in botched stag night black comedy VERY BAD THINGS (10pm, Sun, C4)... and director Danny Cannon's thirst for justice served him well as he went on to direct and produce CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION (9pm, Sat, C5) a few years after JUDGE DREDD (10.55pm, Sun, BBC1)... it's unclear whether NTK t-shirts form part of Violet Berlin's cute new outfit in GAME-PAD 3 (4.30 & 7.30pm, Mon-Fri, Bravo)... "Alistair McGowan's Big Impression" impersonation DEAD RINGERS (9pm, Mon, BBC2) is only loosely based on the David Cronenberg gyno-horror film of the same name... the fruits of C4's "digital animation scheme" are premiered in MESH (7.55pm, Mon-Thu, C4)... and GROUNDHOG DAY (9pm, Mon, C5) gets its third terrestrial showing this year, aptly enough... Channel 5's late-night schedule becomes increasingly self- referential in masturbation docu HISTORY OF SELF-PLEASURE (11.40pm, Mon, C5) - not to be confused with controversially weird Bjork musical DANCER IN THE DARK (11.40pm, Mon, C4)... as the Guardian Guide usually puts it, Dirty Harry encounters some cops even more right-wing than he is in MAGNUM FORCE (9pm, Wed, C5)... bookmark the new location for that site on how CONTACT (8pm, Thu, C5) - and Morrissey - predicted Diana's death: http://home.cogeco.ca/~veganmozfan/part3.html ... while Adam Buxton and Alice "Garth Marenghi" Lowe play struggling rock stars in COMEDY LAB: THE LAST CHANCERS (11.40pm, Thu, C4)... FILM>> if you don't mind Moore's overbearing manner and the terrible poster tagline ("Are they a nation of gun nuts or just nuts?"), then hire your shoes for BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE ( http://www.screenit.com/movies/2002/bowling_for_columbine.html : Marilyn Manson wears makeup that includes a black stripe across his face; we see some women in skimpy swimsuits [...] holding various guns; some may view Moore as having a bad attitude for his apparent liberal approach and anti-gun agenda with the film)... that pesky Internet Movie Database said it was out a month ago, but this week appears to be the real release for gross-out stoner police slapstick SUPER TROOPERS ( http://www.screenit.com/movies/2002/super_troopers.html : two local cops answer a call about a man having sex with a bear)... and even professional movie reviewers seem to be having difficulty distinguishing between the previous film http://www.ntk.net/2002/11/15/dohpotter.gif and the somewhat Freudian-sounding HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS ( http://www.bbfc.co.uk/ : contains mild language and horror, and fantasy spiders)... >> 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 "ZDNet's top mp3z" http://techupdate.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t481-s2125586-p2,00.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.