"My wife thinks Major might still win after all, because 'the
English love their circus people.'"
- angus@well.com
>> HARD NEWS <<
too much bloody perspective
The FINANCIAL TIMES (29/4/97) disclosed DEMON INTERNET's PROJECT
BRIGHTSTAR, the company's long-term search for a "strategic
partner". Half a dozen potential purchasers have been approached
for additional investment, in return for up to a 49% stake in
DIS. Companies mentioned include Deutsche Telecom and Orange.
The NINTENDO 64 dropped in price from #249.99 to #149.99 on
Thursday. The company claims this is a result of increased
demand projections and manufacturing capabilities, although most
retailers report lax '64 cartridge sales. Particularly FIFA 64,
which is bloody awful.
Germany's main academic network DEUTSCHE FORSCHUNGSNETZ called
off its BLOCKADE OF DUTCH ISP XS4ALL's Web site. The site was
blocked from German citizens access on April 11, after German
prosecutors warned DFN that the left-wing magazine RADIKAL,
hosted by the site, was illegal under German law. Multiple
mirroring of the webzine followed. "An effective barrier to the
illegal content was not possible," a spokesman for the network
said.
AOL UK altered its online contract, much to the horror of THE
INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE (26/4/97). The company now
"reserves the right to monitor or disclose the contents of
private communication over AOL and your data to the extent
permitted or required by law." Think that's bad? Check the small
print on *your* ISP terms and conditions.
More HYPERLINK AS COPYRIGHT BREACH shenanigans. 23/4/97:
CITYSEARCH, creator of regional listing Websites, do non-
exclusive deal with TICKETMASTER. 29/4/97: TICKETMASTER accuse
MICROSOFT (whose Sidewalk is in direct competition with
CitySearch) of "electronic piracy" after the software company
links to the TicketMaster site. Weirdly, PAUL ALLEN owns 54% of
TicketMaster. Best friends forced to fight each other!
>> CULTURE <<
New MONDO 2000. Real, new, MONDO 2000. Features include
interview with nanothinc's Charles Ostman, "DROWNED GOD" game
designer HARRY HORSE, sf author JAMES HALPERIN and compliments
aimed at YOKO ONO. Go Yoko. PO Box 10171 Berkeley, CA 94709. +1
(510) 559-2060
http://www.mondo2000.com
Bitten by a radioactive spider as a child, artist CORNELIA
HESSE-HONEGGER continues to flaunt the INSECT MUTATIONS she
finds downwind of major nuclear installations. Beautiful and
often disturbing, it still doesn't beat the Drosophilia someone
showed me once that had genitals where his antennae should have
been.
AFTER CHERNOBYL : Middlesboro Art Gallery till May 31
(+44 (0)1642 247 445)
http://www.locusplus.org.uk
Time to re-enter the MCSPOTLIGHT, as planning begins for the
MCLIBEL Verdict Day celebrations. Also worth perusing for you
dedicated direct action nuts: the uncensored copies OF EVADING
STANDARDS, the handout seized at the Docker's protest march last
month.
http://www.mcspotlight.org/beyond/evading/
This weekend sees the rematch between IBM's DEEP BLUE CHESS
PROGRAM AND GARRY KASPAROV. Expect Sunday supplement technofear
stories, followed by triumphant leaders when the evil superbrain
(in this case, not Kasparov) is vanquished. "Blue's omniscience
will make it omnipotent. It can play - fight -with the abandon
of an immortal." - Time Magazine 26/2/96.
http://www.chess.ibm.com/
In the 70s, it was Brit AI expert DAVID LEVY who used to defend
humanity against evil chess supercomputers. This week in New
York, he switched sides, and won the $2000 BRONZE LOEBNER PRIZE
for coding the "most human computer" in this annual restricted
version of THE TURING TEST. Levy's program tried to fooled the
contest's judges by wandering off topic, misspelling words, and
nattering mindless trivia about Bill Clinton with the abandon of
a puny human.
http://acm.org/~loebner/loebner-prize.htmlx
>> ANTI-NEWS <<
no surprises here
Big security bugs in Java : nation mourns... innocent Japanese
companies blackmailed by letters threatening to expose them on
the Internet... Data Protection Registrar suggests Web sites may
be breaking the law... Bill Gates now a $30 billionaire... new
Cure album 'available only on Internet'... Electric Minds in
trouble, barely making payroll, says Wired News...
>> TOKEN LINKS <<
This OSWALD PICTURE "probably gets to the heart of what was
really going on" - J.G. Ballard
http://www.aimnet.com/~carroll/oswald.jpg
The FROG LEVITATION Page
Tech specs. Do it at home.
http://www-hfml.sci.kun.nl/hfml/levitate.html
PSYCHIC PINGING
More qualitative research.
http://moebius.psy.ed.ac.uk/~psi-ping/
>> MEMEPOOL <<
expect the worst
tattooing brandnames (Charles Petzold has a Win 95 logo tattoo
on his bicep)... "Digital Storytelling Media"..... Beanie Baby
jokes we don't get... crash IE4.0 via e-mail! (see yoz@yoz.com
for details)... N64=VRML WebTV... wait until the Albanians hear
about www.sixdegrees.com... Prince Charles says that new
technology could be the "eventual murderer of the soul of
mankind" (should make for an interesting Prince of Wales Award
for Innovation)... Greg Egan hits mainstream Sept ...
mailmerge programs in political letter writing campaigns...
Amelio to buy Tamigotchi, repackage as MacOS 9...
>> OLE MEDIA NEXT WEEK <<
+yearling -"Dave Winder"
FRIDAY 2/5/97
Rob _Spinal Tap_ Reiner turns his shrewd comic eye to teen
romance in THE SURE THING (11.45pm, BBC1) with John Cusack and
Daphne Zuniga as mismatched students trekking across the US...
Michael Douglas loses his job, finds a bag of guns, and goes on
an ironic everyman's shooting rampage in the frankly under-rated
FALLING DOWN (10pm, BBC1). We've all had days like that, haven't
we?
SATURDAY 3/5/97
There's at least three hours of Brussels-style democracy in
action, with THE EUROVISION SONG CONTEST (8pm, BBC1)... As if
mocking the much-maligned Cyber Cafe with an even later timeslot
and (one hopes) even smaller budget, CYBERNET (5am, LWT) claims
to be a _computer magazine, featuring games, Web sites and CD-
ROMs_ for the terminal insomniac, from the same people who make
the marvellous Movies, Games And Videos... Arnie takes a
satirical swipe at network TV (and numerous costumed goons) in
THE RUNNING MAN (10.15pm, LWT), all the while preparing some
valuable groundwork for...
SUNDAY 4/5/97
...the real-life future-nightmare game-show parody that is
WANTED (6.30pm, C4), back for a new series with the added bonus
of a #1000 bonus if you turn in the feisty fugitives... John
_The Last Seduction_ Dahl practises his modern-day film-noir
chops in KILL ME AGAIN (10pm, C4) ... or should that be _Kilmer
Again_, as it stars both Val and Joanne Whalley-K...
MONDAY 5/5/97
A real Bank Holiday trash movie treat: the flying robots in
Disney's THE BLACK HOLE (11.30am, BBC2) are cute but the film's
still way duller than you remember... Bob Hoskins struggles to
translate video game motifs to celluloid in SUPER MARIO BROS
(3.30pm, C5)... Wouldn't it be cool to go back in time and stop
Michael J Fox from making the wholly unnecessary BACK TO THE
FUTURE PART III (6.40pm, BBC2)?... BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE
APES (6pm, C4) concludes the battling monkey movie serial, while
hairy bipeds Noel and Liam Gallagher bang pieces of wood
together and grunt their way through OASIS: UNPLUGGED (12.55am,
BBC1)...
TUESDAY 6/5/97
A child has his head permanently wired to an electronic backpack
_ that's how they find out if you're epileptic at the CHILDREN'S
HOSPITAL (8pm, BBC1)... It's hard to tell if similar apparatus
is required to watch pun-happy comic Tim Vine's new skill-free
game show, FLUKE (6.25pm, C4)... Brat-packers take on invading
Commies ... it must be the 1980s ... in RED DAWN (9pm, C5)...
KING OF NEW YORK (10.45pm, C4) features career nutso Christopher
Walken as a New York drug baron in arguably the most watchable
film of Abel _Driller Killer_ Ferrara's lively career...
WEDNESDAY 7/5/97
TOMORROW'S WORLD (7.30pm, BBC2) investigates the Israeli _hot
hedgehog_, a solar power generator which could provide energy
for the next century, apparently... Mark Lamarr meets US chat
king David Letterman (the inspiration behind spoofs like Larry
Sanders, Jonathan Ross and Chris Evans) on PLANET SHOWBIZ
(8.30pm, C4)... And if you're a fan of Dan Aykroyd and Eddie
Murphy, then TRADING PLACES (10.35pm, BBC1) is precisely the
film you deserve...
THURSDAY 8/5/97
With the passing of their Third Rock From The
Sun/Horizon double bill, BBC2's Thursday night line-up is
possibly the worst it's ever been, with only THE PHIL SILVERS
SHOW (11.55pm, BBC2) enlivening the Quantum Leap/Ab-Fab/This
Life-induced gloom... And if I'm not mistaken those are
previously unshown episodes of Tea Leoni's paparazzo sitcom THE
NAKED TRUTH (11.30pm, C4) tucked away there after Northern
Exposure without so much as a Cheers repeat to buffer them from
late-night art films...
THIS WEEK'S NEW MOVIES
SCREAM - Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, Drew Barrymore. Wes
_Nightmare On Elm St_ Craven's funny, scary, self-referential
teen slasher homage, currently tying with Jerry Maguire as our
film of the year so far.
DONNIE BRASCO - Al Pacino, Johnny Depp. Acclaimed as-it-really-
is mob-infiltration drama (apparently based on a true story)
directed by Mike _Four Weddings And A Funeral_ Newell. But not,
by any account, a comedy.
THE BOY FROM MERCURY - James Hickey, Rita Tushingham. Coming-of-
age movie about a space-travel-obsessed Irish kid. Not sci-fi
blockbuster material, perhaps, but might be better than it
sounds.
LIAR, LIAR - Jim Carrey, Jennifer Tilly. A typically
unrestrained Carrey (playing a lawyer) is forced to tell the
truth for a day, in entertaining slapstick that re-teams him
with Ace Ventura director Tom Shadyac.
MARGARET'S MUSEUM - Helena Bonham Carter. Tragic romance set
among the coal-mining communities of Nova Scotia. Settle down at
the back there.
IT TAKES TWO - Steve Guttenberg, Kirstie Alley. Identical twins
contrive to match-make their widowed parents (one rich, one
poor) in lame feel-good nonsense.
FEMALE PERVERSIONS - Tilda Swinton. Arty meanderings on the
nature of feminity, probably without the gratuitous sex and
nudity that the poster mildly implies.
OTHER
Phill Jupitus performs his oh-so-unlicensed Star Wars spoof JEDI
STEADY GO at the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith on Sunday. Hilarious,
we're sure, but would you pay 7.50 upwards to see a stand-up who
is under the impression that the word _Jedi_ rhymes with
_Steady_?...
>> SMALL PRINT <<
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