Need To Know 1998-10-30

archive

"Internet Time is absolute time for everybody. Now is now and the same time for all people and places. Later is the same subsequent period for everybody. The numbers are the same for all." - NICHOLAS NEGROPONTE at http://www.swatch.com/internettime ...also, emotions are energies vibrating faster than the speed of light >> HARD NEWS << fruity chews The Net's very own degentrified no-go zone, USENET, fell further into screeching chaos this week. The newsgroup's new street drug of choice, HipCrime, is spreading fast - a simple script which replaces legitimate newsgroup posts with unreadable nonsense (and yes, the two are separable to an expert eye). No-one knows who's behind Hipcrime - some suspect it's a concerted effort by a small group, others asuume it's a generalised act of self-destruction by the usual script kiddies. Or maybe it's just like the Sixties, and the CIA are flooding the market with uncut HipCrime to prevent the Randian revolution from spilling out of alt.objectivism. http://extra.newsguy.com/~rchason/ - like anyone goes there now 'cept to score warez and whores http://www.ganesha.org/ptb/hipcrime.html - more street craziness Germany's Chaos Computer Club lost one of its leading lights (in a suitably decentralised, Erisian way) with the death of hardware hacker TRON. One NTK correspondent recalled "he possessed superior nads", but Tron may be better remembered elsewhere for his work in exposing security holes in smartcards and the GSM telephone network, as well as the first probing of the new German digital TV set-top boxes. Tron's body was found in a Berlin park. The police are treating the incident as suicide: CCC demur. http://www.ccc.de/CRD/CRD241098.en.html Happier news on our oh-so-right-on cyber-rights campaign. Word on the Downing Street is that the DTI finally unveiled the technical proposals to a few real experts. They pointed out that, as it stands, the law would preclude all but three commercial encryption systems from being used, and even they would require major design changes. The DTI (whose functions include encouraging competition, and controlling restraint of trade) had not considered this, and have now retired to patch the proposals. Which is fortunate, as we discovered that our "voter empowerment" ruse planned for this week may have contravened the Prevention of Terrorism Act. And people say we don't check this stuff out. http://www.cyber-rights.org/press/ - meet like-minded friends >> ANTI-NEWS << berating the obvious Interface's Dr KEYBOARD recommends people ignore ISP advice, install Microsoft Internet Explorer... Time Out's SPYDER apologises for misnaming "Macromedia Shockrave" - it should, he explains, be "Shockrave's Shockwave"... NT 5.0 renamed 2000 (blame rounding errors in the math library)... JIM BARKSDALE saw himself as "Stalin", reveal e-mails... Interface's Dr KEYBOARD says alternatives to NT "for experts or enthusiastic amateurs with too much time on their hands"... new Freeserve-fearing A4-size AOL mailout uses the word "Free" 27 times (not counting uses in body copy)... Interface's Dr Keyboard recommend you use Microsoft Hotmail with Microsoft Internet Mail or Microsoft Outlook Express... VM Labs rename "Project X" NUON, don't realise www.nuon.com already belongs to Dutch folk history museum.. AUDIOSTREET overestimate Prince revival: http://www.ntk.net/doh/audio981023.gif >> EVENT QUEUE << goto's considered non-harmful "The gradual co-opting of Halloween to celebrate science fiction mythology rather than supernatural tradition is symptomatic of a society that now projects its concerns towards technology rather than the metaphysical unknown. Discuss." Whatever, any excuse will do for uber-webcast SCIFI CON 3.0, the SciFi Channel's weekend-long online jamming-on-the-net sort of thing, with Real Audio author readings (KW Jeter's new Noir - from 4am GMT, 31/10/98, Bruce Sterling's Distraction - from 5pm GMT, 31/10/98), and endless scrutinising of the original Halloween/ sci-fi crossover, Orson Welles' "panic-inducing" War Of The Worlds radio show. Though we bet Jim Cameron doesn't touch on the theory that the whole "mass panic" myth was *made up* by the authorities to "prove" there'd be chaos if first contact was made, thus justifying cover-ups of all subsequent alien activity. http://www.scifi.com/scifi.con/ - note to SFX readers... http://www.venus.co.uk/wotw/ - ..."Orson Scott Card" is not a publisher of CCGs >> TRACKING << making good use of the things that we find For those of you who tire of watching John Glenn's launch take just over five hours to "real time stream", allow us to present X-FILE. This utility can dump RealMedia files to disk even from servers using the "pnm:" protocol. So when you try to do a "Save link as..." on a RealMedia file, and all it gives you is a stumpy little ".ram" file, you'll still be able to grab the genuine article for later, full-speed playback. Unpleasantly, it's a Windows shareware utility with all the hallmarks of that ancient form (time-limited demo, "unusual" user interface, weirdo installation), but it does the job. And, hey, if he *does* die, you're going to want a permanent memento, aren't you? http://2bsystem-usa.www-hosting.net/X-FileGet/ - oh, yeah, as if you hadn't thought it http://www.pcisys.net/~mrunner/psxamp/ - next: RIAA ban Playstation >> MEMEPOOL << hasta la altavista Star Wars trailer spoiler (feel the evil rising in you): http://www.darkhorizons.com/news4/swtrail.htm ... too geeky for your wrist: http://www.orang-otang.com/ ... local weirdness: http://bltc.com/domains.htm ... John Romero and Bill Gates share birthday (28/10)... Is Your Kid A Hacker?, asks Kevin Poulsen and http://www.zdnet.com/familypc/ ... using thetrip.com to track corporate jets; deals... how about a HOWITZER? http://www.briwebsite.com/ ... NETLINK rehiring previously fired employees?... Self-Important Newspaper Explains Onion To Dumb Americans Who Don't Get It http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-10/25/063l-102598-idx.html >> GEEK MEDIA << may contain strongly-typed language TV>> the co-opting of Halloween continues - but no complaints from us - with LWT late-night abducted by ALIEN INVADERS (from midnight, Fri, ITV). Phenomena include sci-fi quiz UNIVERSE CHALLENGE (12.50am, hopefully Craig Charles-free), the forgiveably titled STARSHIP BLOOPERS (12.15am), and surely a repeat of that wildly inconclusive UFO docu, AREA 51 (1.20am)... cackling, witch-faced Davina McCall "trick or treats" around Brighton and Manchester via the mild pimping/ matchmaking overtones of STREETMATE (9.30pm, C4, Fri)... still, the big guns are out at the weekend, with twitchy Nick Broomfield's character assassination of KURT AND COURTNEY (9.30pm, Sat, BB2)... C4 hope to prove there's more on their film channel than just Trainspotting, Shallow Grave, The Madness Of King George and ultraconformist feelgooder FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL (9pm, Sat, C4)... but any sane TV will be chasing THE FUGITIVE (10.25pm, Sat, ITV) - "I didn't kill my wife!" "I *don't care*!" - then that rare original-equal remake, John Carpenter's best film, THE THING (12.55pm, Sat, ITV)... oh and we can't not mention Australian geek-hobby homage MEN AND THEIR SHEDS (7pm, Sat, C4)... Mark Kermode indeed looks like he's been watching 25 YEARS OF THE EXORCIST (12.40pm, Sun, BBC2)... but he's missing ADAM AND JOE'S FILM FOUR SPECIAL (about 9.20pm, Sun, C4), followed by an explanation, then the film, of hilarious new-heist puzzler THE USUAL SUSPECTS (from 9.30pm, Sun, C4) - and a bunch of Ewan McGregor vehicles... Paramount prove "Master Of Their Domain" with the famed abstinence classic episode of SEINFELD (9.30pm, Mon)... who would you least to want to see on TV? Armando Iannucci presenting a "Zippergate" retrospective from an oddly familiar 2028 in CLINTON: HIS STRUGGLE WITH DIRT (10pm, Mon, BBC2)? Or Mac lamer Douglas Rushkoff rambling on drugs in "experimental" narco-doc FATAL EMBRACE (11pm, Mon, C4)?... your weird friend who's into Coen Brothers films will bitterly fail to comprehend your disappointment at gangster drama MILLER'S CROSSING (12.05am, Tue, C4) (attention all "weird friends": we're joking, so don't write in, OK?)... an extended EPK promises a look INSIDE THE X FILES (11.35pm, Wed, BBC1)... leading into little-known Kurt Vonnegut thought-control satire HARRISON BERGERON (12.20am, Wed, BBC1)... HORIZON (9.25pm, Thu, BBC2) sounds deadly serious about drug-free laughter therapy for ADHD kids... but the hilariously Reaganite patriotic synth-pop over the end titles will always be the best bit of RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II (9.35pm, Thu, C5)... FILM>> they rave about the head-spinning f/x but it's the psychological horror that really shakes the bed in unbettered classic THE EXORCIST (imdb: priest / religion / vomit / based-on-novel / blockbuster / demon / devil / exorcism / occult / ouija / possession). That, and the scary X-ray machine, and the fact that nothing much happens in the first 45 minutes... an even worse first-date-movie is extreme Austrian Natural Born Killers-style shocker FUNNY GAMES (imdb: controversial / hostage / murder / psychological / torture / violence) - we certainly find violence more titillating when it's presented as a critique of the media portrayal of it... and not many laughs either in so-bad-it's-awful Brit Vampire trash RAZOR BLADE SMILE (imdb: filmed in Kent and Buckinghamshire)... "It's The Full Monty meets Spinal Tap!" says the PR for Clement/ La Frenais rock reunion scam STILL CRAZY (imdb: comedy / romance). Er, no, it's not... famous heterosexual Emma Thompson intriguingly cast as Hillary in tiresomely accurate behind-the-times Clinton spoof PRIMARY COLOURS (imdb: "Set in 1992, features Lucent phones. Lucent wasn't spun off from AT&T until 1993")... and you'd have to be sick indeed to become sexually obsessed with Rachel "Chain Reaction" Weisz, as shown in harrowing Northern drama I WANT YOU (imdb: sexual-awakening / suicide / tape-recorder / color-filter / hairdresser / murder / mute / probation / psychological / puberty) - which *does* seem to be based around the Elvis Costello song of the same name (though not the ones by The Beatles, Cheap Trick, Savage Garden, Bob Dylan, Melissa Etheridge or Cabaret Voltaire)... BONERS>> Thanks to everyone who wrote in complaining that it *isn't* Dana Carvey in the movie version of Blue Thunder [see NTK 02/10/98]; his role is played by Daniel Stern (Billy Crystal's pal in City Slickers, also the "inner voice of Kevin Arnold in the Wonder Years")... also, ALISTAIR BURNS clarified that U2's Sweetest Thing [NTK 16/10/98] first appeared on the B-side of When The Streets Have No Name, which, in August 1987, was released a month before T'Pau's Bridge Of Sighs album (featuring China In Your Hand). But, still no clearer on just *who copied who*... reassuringly, no-one queried our claim that "China In Your Hand" is in fact a tribute to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, so that must now be considered irrefutable fact... two people asked for the URL of the "Dominator" page of current UK music releases (one of which turned out to be the guy who runs it), so for all of you whose search engine of choice doesn't let you use highly distinctive terms like "Dominator", it's: http://www.sonicstate.com/dom/reviews.htm ... oh and NEIL MILLAR correctly pointed out that it's "Ace Of Base", not "Ace Of Bass" [NTK 16/10/98, again] - those wacky Swedes preferring to name themselves after a street term for cocaine instead of the perhaps more obvious low-frequency audio... WAYNE WILLIAMS proposed that "LM" [NTK 23/10/98] didn't stand for "Leisure Monthly" but "Lively Magazine", or possibly "Lloyd Mangram" after the ego-tripping editor of Crash who (briefly) ran it. Frankly who cares - does anyone remember weekly multimedia newspaper BANG? Or what about SPEED AND POWER?... also last week we recommended MacOS 8.5: you might like to read http://www.macintouch.com/m85_diskdamage.html before taking our advice again... boner to the power boner! We omitted to mention in the last BONER that Michael Wolff doesn't write for the NY Times magazine, but New York magazine. Apparently, there's some subtle difference... >> 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. It is registered at the Post Office as "we blagged our way into the BAFTA Awards ceremony, and all we got was this lousy special citation" http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/entertainment/newsid_204000/204258.stm NEED TO KNOW THEY STOLE OUR REVOLUTION. 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