"It came as shock to learn that much of the system relies
on volunteers."
- Sally Tate, MD of Prince Plc, on the co-operative Net
and people *pay* you to be this ignorant?
[On which note, apologies to anyone who received three times the
Knowledge last weekend. We'd like to claim all the credit, but actually
it was mostly down to a bunch of "professionals" radically
misconfiguring their mailserver further down the line from us. We've put
some safeguards in to stop it affecting the list in the future, but then
again, we're volunteers: what do we know?]
>> HARD NEWS <<
continuing sagas
The ONE IN A MILLION gamble that didn't come off: two kids,
just out of college, who thought they were on to a money-
spinner reselling domains like "spice-girls.net" and
"marksandspencer.com". Instead, they got billed 60,000UKP
legal costs this week, and banned from ever registering
domains again. What future have they left? Can we suggest
that they partner with some unscrupulous lawyers, and
pursue a career in nailing all the big companies that the
litigants conveniently ignored? Like RBR Group, perhaps, a
computer hardware reseller who unaccountably owns
scaryspice.co.uk? Or what about virginbrides.co.uk, owned
by "Associated Computing Ltd" but hosted by NetBenefit -
who also run virginet.co.uk (owned by the mysterious
Virginet Ltd)... Then there's Bijoux Accessories'
marksandspencers.co.uk and Megatronix' spice-girls.co.uk -
the "unofficial home of the Spice Girls on the Web"? Or
maybe even that irrepressible NetNames millionaire Ivan
Pope, who probably thinks he got out of domain-squatting
just in time, but still, we notice, has "nscape.com"?
http://www.ntk.net/names/uknames.zip (1.8MB)
- one week only! The complete "co.uk" list legal starter kit!
Ongoing confusion at MSN, who last week said they were
pulling out of content, and this week were said to be
packing in the ISP business. That pretty much leaves them
in charge of forwarding their customers' mail, so some
backtracking was in order. To get this straight: MSN UK and
US are "toning down" content, but still providing
connectivity. MSN France and the rest of the world are
pulling out of connectivity, not sure about content. In the
meantime, MSN employees must be looking enviously to
Redmond's cosying up to big-bandwidth providers, and
thinking "why did we end up in this Web backwater"?
http://www.msn.co.uk
- well, that goes for all of us, I guess
Weird WIRED coincidences: one year ago, Wired Ventures,
after two failed IPOs, manages to get private funding -
presumably with strings attached. Six months later, after a
flurry of restructuring, colourful Wired founder Louis
Rossetto steps down as CEO; six months after *that* (this
week), there's another restructuring, and Rossetto quits
his publisher role too. Could it be that Wired Ventures
isn't hitting some performance milestones, and that
Rossetto's increasing distance from the centre of
operations are part of that deal? Au contraire - "I gave
myself a promotion", he told reporters at C|NET. Regarding
all these scurrilous stories, he added "what part of 'no
truth' do you not understand?". Tell you what Louis - we'll
admit not understanding your "no" if you admit losing
contact with "truth". Would that be fair?
http://www.weird.co.uk/
- other coincidences: we resume slagging off Wired...
http://www.spesh.com/danny/wireduk/
- days after they go to press with an NTK review. Spook!
>> ANTI-NEWS <<
berating the obvious
PC GAMER gets exclusive Quake II review/coverdisk, after
running cover stories on 2 other Activision releases (Heavy
Gear, Dark Reign) earlier this year... BILL GATES "not
buying home in Notting Hill"... Campaign's REVOLUT!ON not
quite leaping off the newstands... "Schools Buying
Computers, With No Assurance Of Payoff" reveals NEW YORK
TIMES... EMAP give "Golden Joystick '97" awards to SUPER
MARIO 64, QUAKE, LARA CROFT - and three of their own
magazines... JANET stamping down on Quakeservers (they
account for >10% of some unis' Net traffic)... PLAYBOY to
launch CYBER BACHELOR PAD... BT "hamstrung by bureacracy",
uncovers expert report... producers admit to "homosexual
subtext" in XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS... C4 will not be
recommissioning SPACE CADETS, HERE'S JOHNNY, BRASS EYE...
GUARDIAN reports software piracy in Russia at "an all-time
low" - of 91%... 2000AD features Blair droid... GILBERT &
GEORGE screensaver quite literally shit... non-tech workers
resent geek salaries, observes WALL STREET JOURNAL...
>> EVENT QUEUE <<
for the LaserJet Set
No big events this week (well, there's apparently some sort
of Java thing at the weekend, but everyone says that'll be
rubbish). Never mind: we have the perfect cheap date
instead. Pop out with your loved one between 4.30pm and 8pm
this weekend, and look up at the Moon. Surrounding it, you
should be able to spot Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and -
with a telescope or strong pair of binoculars, Uranus and
Neptune. If your partner hasn't got a Masters in
Astrophysics, you could probably even make out you spotted
Pluto. Tell him or her that the planets won't be lined up
like this for another century. Then go quiet and sigh.
You'll come across as deep, and will probably have saved at
least a tenner on food and entertainment costs.
http://www.cybersky.com/
- Wintel planetarium simulator, sans "Pink Floyd" evenings
http://www.lerc.nasa.gov/WWW/PAO/warp.htm
- meanwhile, re: warp - NASA asks "are we nearly there yet?"
>> TRACKING <<
really? for me?
There is a santy claus, after all - and his name is
Carmack. The final production copy of QUAKE II went to gold
on Monday, and is now being pressed ready for sale. CDs are
expected to hit the UK on the 12th, but those who aren't
afraid of premature spooge can peruse the online manual,
which has sneaked its way onto the Id servers. Trivia to be
gleaned: the Quake II theme song is by Rob Zombie (not, one
suspects, the name he was christened with), while
soundtrack is by Sonic Mayhem (who were asked that their
work should have a "Doom" feel to it). Net play hasn't yet
been tweaked for TCP/IP, although the much improved single-
player mode should allow Id breathing space to release a
suitably enhanced patch. Ah, who cares. Let the Yule
giblets fly!
http://satan.idsoftware.com/q2manual/
- there's life in that OpenGL clan yet
Expect plenty of hoo-hah about I/O/D 4, the new piece by
net.art veteran MATTHEW FULLER and Escape. Critics will be
astounded to discover an artwork that actually does something,
rather than just some fat Director file padded out with
some school-of-ZX81 animation. But what *does* it do? Well,
as far as we can see, I/O/D 4 represents a ingenious
rediscovery of the concept of a net spider (exciting
concept circa 1994) in the form of a (Director) program
which grabs Web pages by repeatedly sucking up the HTML and
then searching through the hyperlinks while drawing pretty
patterns. The artists themselves believe this to be "an
astoundingly good program", which is dangerous talk about
something that a CS graduate could knock up in an evening.
Of course, we're sure CS graduates wouldn't understand the
deeper ramifications of the work.
http://www.backspace.org/iod/
- Nice interface though. We add, just as patronisingly.
http://www.polbox.com/a/aris/scene.htm
- *Real* astoundingly good programs. And better art, too.
INTERNET EXPLORER 4.01 is out. Lots of extras for deaf or
blind computer users (the only ones Microsoft believe
haven't yet installed the original), some tweaks for those
high publicity security flaws that no-one will ever
exploit, and improved functionality for those who "may have
experienced difficulties in installation". So this time
"hyper" Active Desktop won't completely trash our system so
we can't de-install? Oh, gimmee-gimmee.
http://www.microsoft.com/ie/
- where would you like to attempt to return to today?
And meanwhile, on the beta front: you can see the future
look of ICQ with C|Net's download.com preview release. Also
kicking about: the QuickTime 3.0 preview developer release.
http://www.download.com/ - ICQ 98 : it's in here somewhere
http://quicktime.apple.com/preview/ - those Apple guys.
>> MEMEPOOL <<
hasta la altavista
www.handykey.com ... who owns trademark to "Internet
Explorer"? Hint: it's not Microsoft... alcopop market
collapses as teenyboppers move to port, cigars... a
staggering "1 out of every 130" Icelanders own footy sim
CHAMPIONSHIP MANAGER '97/98, estimates CTW... fanfic of the
week: www.geocities.com/SoHo/Studios/7708/... emulator page
o' the month: http://ds.dial.pipex.com/town/estate/dh69/
... do Microsoft webservers serve Explorer clients
first?... www2.gol.com/users/zapkdarc/ ... amateur rocket
of the century: www.hafan.demon.co.uk/manhole.htm
...playing the Beastie Boys' Sabotage over the opening
scene from STAR WARS (as Darth emerges from smoke)...
www.alexchiu.com ... www.fsc.fujitsu.com/language/home-e.html
... 38,000 victims of Moldavian porn scam can claim
money back - if they dare... weapon of the millenium:
http://omnibus.uni-freiburg.de/~jepsen/thz/lassword.htm ...
>> GEEK MEDIA <<
i/o for those too tired to o
TV>> rivalling even BBC2's bizarre theme evenings, BBC1
dedicated today's daytime output to a celebrarion of "Red
Hair" (Fri, 9am-3.30pm), with a specially freckley Kilroy
and "links with asthma", but no really famous gingers - eg
Bonnie Langford, Chris Evans, Malcolm McLaren (or Malcolm
X)... Danish porn docu STORYVILLE (10pm, Sat, BBC2)
"contains some nudity and strong language" - thank you, the
Radio Times... Bristolian beatmasters Roni Size and Tricky
are (respectively) profiled in THE WORKS (7.30pm, Sat,
BBC2) and ARTHOUSE (11.05pm, Sun, C4) - Arthouse is maybe
the more prestigious slot, considering that The Works also
profiled Bush and Hughie Green... here's hoping for a
dramatic "-I'm Spartacus! -No, *I'm* Spartacus" end to the
horrifically entertaining I'M ALAN PARTRIDGE (10pm, Mon,
BBC2)... Tommy Lee Jones battles cook-turned-commando
Steven Seagal over how much they know about cartoons in
all-at-sea actioner UNDER SIEGE (9.30pm, Tue, BBC1)...
Scully faces brain cancer (caused by alien abduction, or
just a warning from the producers not to hold out for a
massive payrise?), and the Lone Gunmen return as true
heroes of THE X FILES (10.15pm, Wed, BBC1)... oh, and Steve
Martin's last *great* film, ROXANNE (9pm, Thu, C5) is
actually based on some French literature, and not the
Police/Puff Daddy song of the same name...
MOVIES>> basically a week of good ideas for movies spoiled
by ropey execution, whether it's the gripping casting of De
Niro, Stallone, Keitel - and Janeane Garofolo! - in latter-
day Western COPLAND (imdb: crime / drama / police /
vigilante / small-town / conspiracy)... or the Sister-Act-
On-The-River-Kwai singalong PARADISE ROAD (MPAA rated: R -
for "fairly graphic scenes of women being beaten and
tortured, as well as some nudity")... then there's 2
way-too-unpleasant crime thrillers: Billy Zane and Gina
Gershon in THIS WORLD, THEN THE FIREWORKS (imdb: crime /
incest / drama), or the remake of the inspiration for
Keitel's role in Pulp Fiction, CURDLED (MPAA rated: R - for
"violence/gore, and brief language")... big old John
Goodman and a semi-Britcom cast will warm the heart of any
Micro Machines fan in THE BORROWERS (MPAA rated: PG - for
"mild peril and some crude humor")... while for outright
seasonal sentiment, check your cynicism for the re-released
Capra classic IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (imdb: drama /
frustration / angel / suicide / christmas / bank / fantasy)
- not to be confused with Nikki Sinn's adult video homage,
TITS A WONDERFUL LIFE (imdb: sex / hardcore)...
"REAL" RADIO>> pompous discussions of the word "baggy" in I
WANNA BE ADORED (9pm, Sun, R1), as Radio 1 mourn the
passing of the Stone Roses *only* 14 months after they
split... this week, it's secret river bathing that's
apparently BETTER THAN SEX (9.15pm, Mon, R4) - well, for
Radio 4 listeners, maybe... sporting a pair of Harry Palmer
specs a decade before Jarvis, mad lo-fi veteran Jad Fair
twiddles Half Japanese's knobs in another session for JOHN
PEEL (8.40pm, Tue, R1)... they probably won't be
namechecking Sid and Hattie's "Wedded Bliss" agency in
Carry On Loving when THE NETWORK (8.30pm, Tue, R4) explores
the history of computer dating... foul-mouthed screenwriter
Kevin Smith gets 25 minutes to explain just *why* she had
that annoying squeaky voice, as the writer/director of
Clerks, Chasing Amy (but not Superman Lives) gets
interviewed in POSTSCRIPT (10pm, Wed, R3)... FINDING
FELLOWS (2.00pm, Thu, R4) is the bizarre title for another
of R4's seemingly endless supply of posh geek dramas, this
time about "identity on the net"... with Brass Eye
incredibly passed over (in favour of Whose Line Is It
Anyway) in C4's depressing democratic evening, Radio 1
continues to pass over BLUE JAM (12midnight, Thu, R1), just
in case anyone complains about those live reports from
crucifixions...
>> COMPO <<
will swap "livelihood" for "shoddy gifts"
Only one more week to go in our increasingly perilous hack-
an-URL-win-a-prize contest (http://www.ntk.net/compo/ for
details and disclaimers). Last weeks' winner is David Cross
of... ahh, a government organisation. Congrats, David - you
win a "FIGHTING FORCE" disk for the PlayStation (no
instructions, but how complicated can it be?) and,
fittingly, a life-size poster of James Bond that we nicked
from a press launch. We have no idea how we're going to get
that it to you, though. Could you just send the boys
around?
This week's clue is for an URL in the form
http://www.********.co.uk, where the blank is filled with
the answer to this question:
What product "hyper"links pro golfer KARRIE WEBB with
ad agency LOWE HOWARD-SPINK?
(and you can't do this using normal search strings. We checked.)
>> 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 "as seen on the Jennicam".
( http://www.jennicam.org/gallery/j31.jpg )
NEED TO KNOW
THEY STOLE OUR REVOLUTION. NOW WE'RE STEALING IT BACK.
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