_   _ _____ _  __               27/06/97       NEED TO KNOW NOW
| \ | |_   _| |/ /   _ __   _____      __ o Gulping up big flagons of
|  \| | | | | ' /   | '_ \ / _ \ \ /\ / / o pure data, then elegantly
| |\  | | | | . \   | | | | (_) \ V  V /  o hawking a pearl of UK
|_| \_| |_| |_|\_\  |_| |_|\___/ \_/\_/   o sloosh right into your mail


         "People will always raise this Prince of Darkness thing."
         - Hermann Hauser on Microsoft's move to Cambridge, NEWSWEEK
                          it's not the *raising* we're worried about


                               >> HARD NEWS <<
                                 soft targets

         White boy riots swept the US following the SUPREME COURT's
         repeal of the Communications Decency Act. For the rest of
         the world, the (surely impractical) threat that non-US
         residents would be fined up to $100,000 for smut-peddling
         to Yanks has finally been lifted. Phew. Elsewhere, China
         threw up more controls on IP access, Indonesia stated its
         intention to censor Net access, Notts County Council
         continued to pursue the JET report and life goes on,
         constitutional or not.
         http://www.eff.org
            - God forbid that the American voice should not be heard

         MICROSOFT announced J/Direct, a method that lets Java
         programs use native Windows 95 code. Lazy programmers can
         now write Java that looks cool, runs fast, but only
         executes on PCs running Windows. In other words, Microsoft
         wins. Sadly, many will be tempted - even hardened Java
         hacks are having problems coping with Java's current
         treacly speed and lousy interface. But help *is* on its way
         with a new, optimised Java interpreter that runs up to
         forty times faster than current efforts. Will it arrive in
         time to save Java? Probably not - it's Microsoft's new Java
         interpreter - with built-in J/Direct! Doh! That Bill Gates!
         http://www.microsoft.com
               - Who hath raised the Dark One twice unto this place?

         British Digital Broadcasting obeyed the regulators and
         dumped BSkyB from its ranks; their vital digital
         terrestrial broadcasting license was granted as a result.
         BDB now consists of mainly Carlton and Granada, although
         BSkyB and the BBC will provide much of the content. It's
         been a bad month for Murdoch: his head honcho at BSkyB, Sam
         Chisholm quit (reputedly over clashes with Rupertkinder
         Elisabeth Murdoch) and various headaches in the US sent his
         international rep plummeting. Revenge might still be sweet:
         his satellites start broadcasting a range of digital
         services next year, wayyy before BDB. And he's still pals
         with Mr. Blair...
         http://www.sky.co.uk
                        - Great. Now we've invoked all three of them

         Sad and glad tidings for lovers of ancient geek heroes.
         JACQUES COUSTEAU, master of sea and scuba, inspiration to
         John Denver, Jean-Luc Picard and science weenies worldwide,
         passed away this week aged 87. Slim recompense can be
         gained from the news that elder technoluster PETER SNOW is
         leaving Newsnight to join Tomorrow's World. He will be
         assisted by PHILLIPA FORRESTER, the Internet's darling. We
         think Jacques would have been approved.
         http://acin.edi.fr/cousteau/csteqius.htm
                                   - the things that you've shown us,
         http://www.bbc.co.uk/tw/newpres.html
                                             - the stories you tell.

         NETSCAPE and ... who are those other guys? both won the
         right to export 128-bit 'strong' encryption from the US
         this week. Usage, however, is strictly curtailed: the
         facility won't be available for e-mail, and strong
         encryption will only be possible when working from licensed
         servers. Meanwhile, no-one seems to have noticed that
         British company UK WEB have been selling patches to give
         128-bit security since last year. Now how did that happen?
         http://stronghold.ukweb.com            Supreme court *that*


                               >> ANTI-NEWS <<
                            news we knew you knew

         65% of polled "experience rude language" in chat rooms,
         survey finds... "Virtual Private Line enhances customers
         service for Honey Baked Chicken" - Compuserve press
         release... Digital shelve Altavista IPO ... 72% of users
         have visited porn site, survey finds... Good news for
         twins: Vatican reveals clones will *not* have same soul as
         original... 50% of executives overwhelmed by e-mail, survey
         finds... Mir in dangerous accident; Queen in live net
         broadcast... McDonalds won...  BT schools plan "favours BT"
         - politicians surprised, appalled... 33% of Internet users
         quit after 6 months, survey finds...  Four words: "Star
         Wars Monopoly Game"


                                >> CULTURE <<
                            the philistine mindset

         Which kind are you? Alan Hood, research scientist at
         Britain's Defense Evaluation and Research Agency says that
         the hacking community is fracturing into separate social
         groups. Among the breeds documented by DERA are 'elites',
         'darksiders', 'information brokers' and 'meta-hackers'.
         "Meta-hackers are one of the most sinister things I have
         run into," Hood says, "They scare the hell out of me." So
         this isn't Emacs these people are hacking? No - "Meta-
         hackers monitor other hackers without being noticed, and
         then exploit the vulnerabilities identified by the hackers
         they are monitoring." Oooh. Like DERA, maybe?
         http://www.dra.hmg.gb/    Always scary to find a .gb domain

         Talking of hackers, do *not* forget that Saturday 5/7/97
         marks ACCESS ALL AREAS III and the official beginning of
         the '97 hacking con season. Among the AAA^3 speakers will
         be the dryly entertaining Ross Anderson (cryptomaster
         extraordinaire), unstoppable sex-panther Cherie Matrix and
         that evil journalist Michael McCormack. Inevitably, media
         whores the NTK editors will also make an appearance: we're
         speaking on "Tearing the Shrinkwrap: Your Absolute Moral
         Right To Rip Stuff Off". Come along! It'll be fun!
         http://www.access.org.uk  hey! Who let the meta-hackers in?

         The iBS INTERNET BOOKSHOP has confirmed many prejudices
         with its current top 20 bestseller list for the period May
         to June 1997. Straight in at number 1 is Neverwhere by Neil
         Gaiman (people figuring that it might work better as a book
         than as a TV show?), with Iain Banks (Excession), JM
         Straczynski (Babylon 5), Scott Adams (The Dilbert
         Principle), and - you've guessed it - Terry Pratchett (3
         separate entries) filling out the top 10. Bab 5 reappears
         at number 17 in comprehensive A-Z form, there's a couple of
         Pride And Prejudice spin-offs for those more sensitive
         souls, and the only non-fiction titles are Creating Killer
         Websites by David Siegel and Larry Wall's Programming Perl.
         http://www.bookshop.co.uk
                               - I don't get it. Where's the TekWar?


                                >> TRACKING <<
                    we do not want what we've already got

         You haven't been there in years, and you delete those
         HotFlashes as soon as they arrive, so you might not know
         that HOTWIRED is to get a redesign on July 1st. It
         certainly needs one: top story last week from the flagship
         of the digital revolution was "How to use e-mail with your
         browser". Hardly "Aux armes, citoyens" is it?
         http://www.hotwired.com              whinge, whinge, whinge

         Fancy helping out with a good cause? How about a good,
         massively parallel cause that involves home computers, the
         Internet, and the search for extra-terrestrial
         intelligence? Where do you sign? At...
         http://www.bigscience.com                        hallelujah

         Looks like the game you dreamt of while reading Microserf's
         will soon become a reality. ADVENTURE ON LEGO ISLAND is
         slated for release this Autumn: aimed at kids, it's also
         said to have "adult appeal". I'll say. Build your own lego
         world, and fight an enemy - made of lego! Published by
         Mindscape, multiple platforms, RRP UKP22.95, coded, we
         think, by Above The Garage Productions.
         http://www.atgp.com/
             And is this Clarke-Willson guy Michael or Bug Barbecue?


                                >> MEMEPOOL <<
                            ideas turbulence yard

         IBM VoiceType in the sales top ten for three weeks - good
         word of mouth or appalling games sales? ... X-Files film to
         star killer bees... "Someone just walked over my
         homepage"... Squid caching... new look for summer - highly
         visible nipples (and that's just the *boys*) ... <GEEK>
         NYTT TEGNESERIEBLAD! JEPP, JEPP! ... Plot Coupons...
         Murdoch takes over Sky, Turner takes over Time Warner...
         Fifth Element and the Euro-SciFi renaissance... Kevin Bacon
         to lead in "Life of Erdos"... icq - covert israeli password
         snaffler?... www.ditherati.com ... black boxes for cars...
         next food scare: chlorinated chicken... Calling Bill Gates...


                               >> MO' MEDIA <<
                         full motion video by e-mail

         TV >> And who are those cheeky geeky guys popping up on
         CYBER CAFE (2.45am, Fri pm/Sat am, LWT; regions may vary) -
         could it be the editors of NTK now?... and are we the only
         people who thought RAIN MAN (10pm, Sat, BBC1) was about the
         hassles of having to look after an annoying yuppie younger
         brother?... The "Into The Unknown" season concludes by
         delving into the human psyche, with behind-the-scenes docu
         MILLENNIUM: FACT OR FICTION (11.05pm, Sat, ITV), 'Nam
         psycho-thriller JACOB'S LADDER (11.55pm, Sat, ITV), and
         Chris Carter going way darker than the X Files in the 'real
         thing', MILLENNIUM (10pm, Sun, ITV)... sticking with sf,
         this current series of THE OUTER LIMITS (9.35pm, Sat, BBC2)
         is pretty dumb - but better than you'd think, at least
         compared to incoherent sixties nonsense like BARBARELLA
         (11.35pm, Mon, BBC1)... sending celebrity lookalikes -
         including Fergie, Madonna, and Nelson Mandela - into
         singles bars is the intriguing premise of all-week
         10-min slot SINGLES (7.50pm, Mon-Fri, C4)... that one with
         the cows and the veggie cult heralds (at last) a decently
         understated episode of THE X FILES (10.20pm, Tue, BBC1),
         followed by  the suspiciously similarly themed movie
         DEEP RED, starring Michael "Terminator" Biehn... and,
         finally, when they call THIS LIFE (9pm, Thu, BBC2) a
         "twenty-something" drama, are they referring to the age of
         the cast or how many sodding episodes it seems to
         have been dragging on for?

         MOVIES >> No-one's dared put out anything decent in the
         same week as Joel Schumacher's BATMAN AND ROBIN (Clooney,
         Arnie, Thurman, blah blah blah) - and that, tragically,
         seems to include BATMAN AND ROBIN. If you haven't yet
         enjoyed the test-screening responses for this $200-million-
         plus stinker, they include such gems as "deplorable", "the
         dialogue was *all* one-liners!", "I would not wish it upon
         my enemies", and, most succinctly, "DEATH TO SCHUMACHER!".
         The full review (from the same reassuringly deranged
         source) reports that punters are now *booing* the
         director's name as soon as it appears on-screen...
         http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com/cool61.html        prelude
         http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com/reviews.html       to doom

         BIO >> Remember reports that LEPTIN is secreted by mice
         when they've had enough to eat? And how everyone scurried
         off to prove that fat people suffer from low levels of
         Leptin? Well, no: turned out we all have the same levels of
         Leptin after all - people are just greedy bastards. Now,
         just as the Leptin funds were vanishing, UK scientists have
         found two obese children with Leptin gene defects. It's so
         nice we now have a human model of a mouse disease... For
         those of us with plenty of sit-down-and-stay: the AMERICAN
         COLLEGE OF SPORTS MEDICINE says that vigorous exercise does
         nothing to improve your health. Moderate occasional
         exercise, however, is of value. This may involve walking,
         playing with children (your own, presumably), breathing and
         moving your bowels. Just do it... A hominid specimen has
         been found in Spain which may be the ancestor of HOMOS
         NEANDERTHAL and SAPIENS. Scientists say it has features of
         both Neanderthal man and Homo Sapiens. Well, so do many
         people I know... CHARLES MURRAY, co-author of the Bell
         Curve, claims in a new study on siblings that IQ correlates
         with higher income, more education, fewer offspring and
         less illegitimacy. Well, I have plenty of degrees and no
         children - so why aren't I earning more? Maybe it's Leptin-
         induced illegitimacy...                 - doctor@spesh.com



                              >> SMALL PRINT <<

    Need to Know Now 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
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         It is registered at the Post Office as "consumerist trash".
               Archives now at http://www.spesh.com/cgi-bin/now

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