"People underestimate what companies can do under
competitive pressure. Nobody saw Netscape coming and no-one
is really sure where we are going."
- JIM BARKSDALE, CEO of Netscape
somebody else want to look at the map?
>> HARD NEWS <<
soft wariness
"American taxpayers, companies, and government built the
Internet. This is something uniquely American." So said the
uniquely American Representative for Mississippi, Charles
"Chip" Pickering - keen footballer, farmer, and chairman of
the US House Science Committee. He was defending his
committee's decision this week to consider legislation
banning non-Americans from registering .com addresses, and
his horror at the idea of passing control of domain name
admin to a bunch of foreign Swiss guys. Also, the committee
was very concerned that NetNames (a company run by a known
British citizen, Ivan Pope) had been going around actually
*aiding* and *abetting* Libya by running its .ly domain -
in direct contravention to the USA's foreign policy. This
despicable act, of course, would go unchecked if domain
names were controlled by a neutral international body. We
at NTK applaud Mr Pickering's intent on keeping the
Internet free of foreigners (particularly the Libyan bits),
and have extradited ourselves from .com domain as a show of
support. Also, we'd like to take this space to condemn
outright the Gadaffi-lover Pope, who has already registered
the terrorist domains "net.ly" and "f.ly".
http://www.msnbc.com/news/113761.asp#BODY
- can no-one stop this evil dictator?
http://democracy.net/events/09301997/realaudio.cgi?soundbite=briefing
- fast forward to 20:20 to hear his evil plans
http://www.ntk.net/
- what? He says we can't have .net either? But .co.uk sucks!
You'll have read about NORWEB's "breakthrough in sending
data through the electrical supply" in all the papers. And,
if you're like us, you'll have greeted it with a hearty
"yeah, riight". Well, in answer to your unspoken, cynical,
questions - yes, it does include an uplink (the 1Mbps is
*bidirectional*), yes, NORWEB do have some clue about
connecting to the Net (they were involved in the setting up
of MaNAP - see NTKs passim - and have fibre all over the
North West) and no, it isn't 1Mbps straight into the home
(you'll be sharing that bandwidth with the other 200 or so
families connected via your local sub-station). In terms of
performance, it's not dissimilar to ADSL, BT's chosen
technology to ram high bandwidth up their copper telephone
wires, but then, BT aren't exactly in a hurry to make phone
access redundant, are they? BT themselves gave a muted
response to Norweb's announcement, saying they did not
believe their business would be affected because "strong
content was the key to success on the Internet." Yeah,
riight.
http://www.adsl.com/
- those Hugh Laurie ads must be worth *billions*
http://www.norweb.net/
- oh, and it won't work in the US. Phew, eh, Mr Pickering?
http://www.ntk.net/archive.cgi?back=a97/now0725.txt&line=40#l
- expect a glut of Oasis Websites by 3rd quarter 98
Thick impenetrable smoke continued to billow over the
island of JAVA this week, as current rulers SUN
MICROSYSTEMS set fire to thousands of acres of MICROSOFT
licensing contract. Sun filed suit Tuesday against
Microsoft over Explorer 4.0's implementation of the Java
language, claiming (hold your breath) trademark
infringement, false advertising, breach of contract, unfair
competition, interference with prospective economic
advantage, inducing breach of contract and dumping that
giant 'E' on Netscape's porch last week (technically a
Class A drugs offence). What Sun seem *really* riled about
is Microsoft's seeming intent to ignore Sun's plans for
future Java class libraries. The key to Java's power lie
with these libraries, which a) Sun will control and b)
Microsoft won't. But Explorer ships with a few classes of
Microsoft's own - ones that neatly seek to replace Sun's.
They can't get Gates on this trickiness - but Sun do
believe they can catch him on other tweaks to the current
libs that Microsoft couldn't resist making. So, will a
swift settlement help clear the air over Java? Judging by
the length of previous MS cases, it's going to be a long
time before the rains come again.
http://www.sun.com/announcement/
- best use of "fear, uncertainty and doubt" in a press release
http://www.macinsider.com/mozilla.jpeg more 'on e' jokes here
http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEAWIFS/IMAGES/SEAWIFS/fires.jpg
- call it pathetic fallacy
Another thing the US doesn't have - yet - is a suitable
legal recourse against spamming. Scotland Yard's Computer
Crime Unit were called in recently to assist the Isle of
Man ISP ENTERPRISE NET, following a series of bulk-mailed
messages which seemed to emanate from their dial-up
accounts. A gentleman is currently helping police with
their inquiries. And that's all we can say at this stage.
We'll keep you informed.
http://orion.webspan.net/~arny/cmuse.html
- that Computer Misuse Act in full
http://www.enterprise.net
- for legal reasons we can't make jokes in this story
>> ANTI-NEWS <<
you ran that past us - again?
"Flaming the famous is popular on the Internet" uncovers
CNN... Times INTERFACE section refers to "degauzing" disks
- that's removing the lint inside, is it?... TORY PARTY now
has fewer subscribers than C|NET's SHAREWARE DESPATCH...
EVENING STANDARD warns Blair against being taken in by Bill
Gates hype, then states "his Explorer 4 system is now the
dominant navigational software on the Internet"...
INTERFACE journalist visits EU Net regulation conference,
asks "What is PICS?"... STEVE JOBS aims to "kick ass"...
BBC clamps down on small Notts bakery for making
TELETUBBIES BISCUITS... DEMON gets EASYNET-style license to
operate as telco... bug found in Money 98, IE 4.0... RAY
HAMMOND discovers Microsoft investing in biotech, deduces
Gates is planning "immortality"... after Shift Control,
TIMES (creators of renowned INTERFACE section) to launch
on-line cyber-hip students' mag...
>> EVENT QUEUE <<
a social calendar for the interrupt-driven
Just one week till the start of DEVELOP '97, Miller
Freeman's combined exhibition/conference for games coders
and software groupies, which runs from 17/10/97 to
19/10/97. Celebs this year include ubiquitous former
Bullfrog Peter Molyneux, Dave "Earthworm Jim" Perry, and -
most excitingly - EUGENE JARVIS, the man behind Defender,
Robotron, Stargate and, er, Cruisin' USA. Taking place at
The Novotel, Hammersmith (didn't they hold Amiga shows
there once?), the event hopes to acknowledge the "growing
importance of AI, 3D and online gaming", though if the
latter's more your bag, also check out Online Games 1997,
from 4/11/97 to 5/11/97 at the Cafe Royal on Regent St. (Is
that perhaps a slightly smaller venue?)
http://www.develop96.com/
- old, but it's the same every year; replace Saturn with N64
http://www.cs.uregina.ca/~bakay/jarvis/jarvis.html
- the very essence of "essential cool"
Want to be doused in anti-matter? Want an injection of
radioactive water? Want a photo of YOUR OWN BRAIN? That's
the deal going down at the WELLCOME DEPARTMENT OF COGNITIVE
NEUROLOGY, who are on the lookout for volunteers for
experiments involving their Positron Emission Tomography
(PET) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) units. You'll
spend a couple of hours doing some simple tasks while huge
bits of impressive machinery scan your head. The
radioactivity of the water, which is injected into your
arm, is minimal (equivalent to around 9 months in Devon or
about .2 seconds in Balei, see below), the photo of your
brain can be ftp'd to the site of your choice or printed
out, and you get a free Institute of Neurology T-shirt. We
genuinely think this is a great deal. Are we mad? There's
only one real way to find out...
http://www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/volunteers.html
- or contact Dr Naranda Ramnani directly on 0171 833 7484
http://www.spb.su/times/284-285/radioactive.html
- Reclaim The Streets readers: please calm down
Continuing that old rivalry, Mr Patrick Stewart has taken
Shatner's lead in planning a new marriage. That's right -
Captain Picard has engaged the babe. His fiancee is Wendy
Neuss, a producer on Star Trek: Voyager. Stewart has been
married twice previously - once to choreographer Sheila
Falconer, and once in that Season 5 episode when he touches
the satellite thing and lives out an entire life on a
doomed planet, only to find it was all - a dream!
http://204.162.80.99/News/Items/0,1,1761,00.html
- somewhat old news, but we thought you'd want to know
>> TRACKING <<
web site come by this way two moons past
As predicted in NTK (actually, it was a joke), you can now
run Horace Goes Skiing on the PSION SERIES 5. Yup, the beta
of a Psion ZX SPECTRUM Emulator is available for download.
Even more impressively, the same company has released a
shaded 3D Doom WAD renderer. We can't wait to see what they
do when John Carmack releases the full Doom source later
this year, as promised. Or if they get hold of the pirated
Quake source that's doing the rounds. Or if they take any
more of our jokes so seriously.
http://www.palmtop.nl/spectrum.html
- the great thing is, the Series 5 has *better* resolution
http://www.palmtop.nl/encore.html
- what *is* it with RISC chips and emulators, huh?
http://www.ntk.net/archive.cgi?back=a97/now0620.txt&line=18#l
- just for the record
Connectix have released Speed Doubler 8, the MacOS-
compatible version of their popular, ah, speed doubling
software for the Mac. Extra features include a QuicKeys-
alike, which allows you to assign keys to perform sets of
Finder commands, and a folder synchronising utility. The
package costs $49.00, and they've organised a rebate system
for Connectix users - but only in the US. Guess we're not
uniquely American enough for them.
http://www.connectix.com/html/speeddoubler.html
- run it on a 350Hz Mac, and you go back in time
A medium-to-heavily buggy pre-release of DREAMWEAVER,
Macromedia's promising HTML design suite, is available to
download from their site. Nice touches include support for
layers and dynamic HTML programming, tight source
generation, plus a vaguely-comprehensible method for
dealing with frames. Down points - we couldn't run it for
more than five minutes before it puked on our shoes. Not so
much try before you buy, as try before *they* try.
http://www.dreamweaver.com
- masochistic first adopter/designer hybrids, sign up
They're just catching on to Teletubbies and, by way of
cultural exchange (or perhaps reprisal), the US is coming
right back with SOUTH PARK, a mildly controversial pseudo-
2D/3D animation that started life as a short film depicting
a fight between Jesus and Father Christmas. The show
already seems to have been banned in Canada, but Comedy
Central are catering to fans everywhere with a themed South
Park chat area, using The Palace software to emulate
classic show activities like "kicking the baby, killing
Kenny, or making Stan puke". Also hoping to gross millions:
Ren And Stimpy creators SPUMCO, who launch their new net-
only Shockwave cartoon, The Goddamn George Liquor Program,
next Wednesday.
http://www.weirdness.net/~acd/soxmas/soxmas.mov
- 50 megs, but worth it
http://comedycentral.com
http://www.spumco.com
- let's hope it wasn't just banned 'cos it was shit
>> MEMEPOOL <<
hasta la altavista
Gameboy inventor GUMPEI YOKOI goes to that secret level in
the sky... SOJOURNER contact re-established, reports
current NTK heartthrob on +1 800 391 6654... OASIS heckled
with laser pointers... www.afterlife.org/ ... how much
would you pay to see KILLER WHALES and GREAT WHITE SHARKS
fighting?... www.westword.com/extra/conspire.html ... Best
IE4.0 error message so far "We need your fax number so that
we can respect your wish not to receive unwanted faxes"
... a recent domain name transfer document (.com, Chip!)
authorised by all five SPICE GIRLS... British company
registers TRICORDER as trademark... where is Jet Set
Willy's MATTHEW SMITH?... www.snotartwig.com/home.html ...
at last! Duke Nukem action figures!...
www.sagebrush.com/~sells/ ... when Bill Gates registered at
one UK Website, the password hint he was sent was "it's
where you work"... BBC 75th birthday warts-and-all docu
"stops" at 1987, when JOHN BIRT joined... Lego Island? LEGO
DOOMWAD! www.gyugyi.com/legocad/legocad.html
>> MO' MEDIA <<
why don't your turn in and do something less interesting?
TV>> the weekend starts with multiple deja-vu - wasn't Sam
Raimi/Coen Bros shlocker CRIMEWAVE (12.10am, Fri, BBC1)
shown on C5 just a few weeks ago?... Ross and Rachel split
up, get back together again in FRIENDS (9pm, Fri, C4),
should anyone still care... plus: there seem to be *two*
"Carry On" movie seasons running simultaneously on LWT
(CARRY ON FOLLOW THAT CAMEL, 2.55pm, Sat) and C4 (CARRY ON
CONSTABLE, 5.55pm, Sun)... CLIVE BARKER'S A-Z OF HORROR
(11.30pm, Sat, BBC2) turns its tedious attentions to
possession classic The Exorcist, but is fortunately
followed by understated black and white spookfest THE
HAUNTING (12.10am, Sat, BBC2) - tough competition for
Tiswas' favourite car chase in THE BLUES BROTHERS
(12midnight, Sat, ITV)... surprise '70s repeat of the week
is, of course, aren't-foreigners-funny sitcom MIND YOUR
LANGUAGE (4.15pm, Sun, LWT only)... whoever decided that it
should be sci-fi every week on THE OUTER LIMITS (9.15pm,
BBC2, Sun) has improved it no end... well *done* the BBC -
those out-of-date episodes of THE SIMPSONS (6pm, Mon & Fri,
BBC2) are now back twice a week - for five weeks only...
the final DECISIVE WEAPONS (8pm, Mon, BBC2) can't seem to
make up its mind about the F117A stealth fighter, while the
terminally boring EQUINOX (9pm, Mon, C4) looks, aptly
enough, at comas... it's not just rounding off 75 mins of
sitcom greats with SEINFELD and LARRY SANDERS (from
11.15pm, Tue, BBC2), THE PHIL SILVERS SHOW is on at
midnight nearly every day this week... and, in other good
news, the one with the intellectual sports heroes is by far
the best episode of SLIDERS (6.45pm, Wed, BBC2) in this (or
any other) universe...
MOVIES>> in THE GAME (imdb: thriller / mystery), Michael
Douglas plays - you've guessed it - another powerful (but
vulnerable) man whose life turns upside-down. This time,
the culprit is Consumer Recreation Services, perhaps best
described as a paintball company gone mad. Not quite as
grippingly unpleasant as director David Fincher's previous
Se7en, but then again, what is?... alternatively, there's
Disney selling public domain culture back to you in
HERCULES (imdb: adventure / animation / comedy / musical /
hercules / disney-animated-feature / legend), albeit
disguised with Gerald Scarfe sketches and oodles of self-
parody... still, probably more laughs than Gary Oldman's
gritty take on Harry Enfield's "The Slobs", NIL BY MOUTH
(MPAA rated: R for "graphic drug use, non-stop strong
language, some nudity and brutal domestic violence")... or
indeed the latest Robin Williams abomination FATHER'S DAY
(MPAA rated: PG-13 for "drug references and some sex-
related humor" - by all accounts, not enough of it)...
GAMES>> hotly awaited race-car sequel FORMULA 1 '97
(Psygnosis, PC & Playstation) did over 2 million quids'
worth of business in its first three days on sale,
apparently about as much as the UK opening weekend for the
movie Men In Black... cute-animals-in-space shoot-em-up
LYLAT WARS (Nintendo, N64) seems unlikely to knock F197 off
the top spot, but does include a vibrating rumble pack for
its UKP59.99 price tag. What we want to know: *who is it*
who won't let them use its cooler US title, STARFOX 64,
over here? Maybe George Lucas, who apparently doesn't want
anyone calling stuff "Star [Anything]"?... KURUSHI (Sony,
PlayStation) is the world's most nightmarishly Kafkaesque
gothic Tetris clone, but the only realistic fluid movement
in speedboat cash-in RAPID RACER (Sony, PlayStation) will
be your tears of disappointment and rage... and yes, we
here at Special Projects *were* involved in writing some of
the questions (though none of the rude swearing ones) in
the UK version of YOU DON'T KNOW JACK (BMG, PC & Mac,
UKP29.99), and, truth be told, it turned out much better
than we thought. Smack your own (slightly wordy) 15 meg
demo at www.jackuk.com/
COMPO RESULTS >> You didn't think anyone would take us up
on it, did you? Well, neither did we. So it was great
reluctance and irritation that we award ten pounds and a
bunch of CDs to NTK reader DAVID MERY for winning last
week's STALKING BILL GATES challenge. David, who works at
NTK's favourite hardcore top-shelf development mag, EXE,
not only met the man himself on his visit to Cambridge
(requirement #1), but also incomprehensibly harangued him
in front of the world's press about releasing the source to
the original Gates-and-Allen coded 4KB BASIC (as Gates
promised to do almost a decade ago) - winning him an extra
bonus fiver. Congratulations to David. And as for you, Mr
Gates - the clock is counting. You wouldn't want another
court case on your hands, would you? Ha ha ha. Only joking.
Please put that writ away. Thankyou.
>> XMAS COMPETITION <<
can life get much better?
But there's more. At last, NTK can reveal its long-
promised, genuinely job-threatening (for both you and us)
SUPER-DUPER XMAS COMPETITION. Winners to this *not* only
get a CHOICE GIFTS FROM THE INCREDIBLE HAMPER OF GEEKY
GOODIES, *not* only get to APPEAR IN NTK (possibly
pseudonymously), but ::drum roll:: every one of them will
receive a VIP INVITATION to the infamous ".NOT AWARDS"
celebration party, to take place this December in the
bustling metropolis of London (rated three stars by Wired
Magazine), where they will mix with the lowest shameful
ranks of this country's digeradoes. And yet, they will feel
no embarrassment for they will be treated as THE LIVING
GODS THEY INDUBITABLY ARE.
How can you win such incomprehensible plunder?
We have to say: it's not easy. To have a chance, you'll
need a keen mind - a quick wit. To stand a good chance,
you'll have to be the Webmaster of a major corporation or
financial institution. And to win the top prize - the
coveted "CAPT'N OF THE READERSHIP 1997", you'll have to be
out of your fucking mind.
For the rules, see http://www.ntk.net/compo/
This week's clue:
My top level domains would not concern Chip,
My middle, though nine bytes, is made of two bits.
Its first char is rolling - at least when it's vocal,
The transition is transport, but only the local.
My last is in kilobyte but not in computer,
My whole is a gauge for annoying commuters.
>> 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
nothing better to do. It is compiled by NTK from stuff they get sent.
It is registered at the Post Office as "e-mailing confetti".
special spesh thanks to the domainmeisters at www.123domainme.com
for saving us from domain transfer purgatory
NEED TO KNOW
THEY STOLE OUR REVOLUTION. NOW WE'RE STEALING IT BACK.
Archive - http://www.ntk.net/
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