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              "In our opinion, every week should be year 2000 week."
         KARL FEILDER, MD of Greenwich Mean Time (a Y2K consultancy)
                            - isn't that what we're trying to avoid?


                               >> HARD NEWS <<
                                soft wariness

         A couple of hacker gangs got Warhol-portions of fame after
         YAHOO's front page was uhh... redesigned for 15 minutes on
         Monday. The world's favourite bulleted list got replaced
         with a manifesto that mixed fanciful threats (worldwide
         virus infections set to go off on Christmas Day) with a
         sadly accurate protest regarding Kevin Mitnick's
         mistreatment as he ends his third year in jail without
         trial. Unfortunately, the only Yahoo server to be broken
         was one feeding Lynx users - and while it's refreshing to
         find something that's *only* viewable on that text-only
         browser, if that's not preaching to the converted, we don't
         know what is. Meanwhile, Brit journalists missed two
         potentially juicier Webhacks - the fall of the equally
         technically adroit (no, really) Demon, whose nameserver was
         hacked on Sunday, [1] and the just as politically-charged
         sabbing of the The British Field Sports Society's site.
         Meanwhile, the spate continued with the zapping last night
         of Murdoch's www.fox.com. What is this, Christmas holiday
         homework from the Bugtraq boys?
       [1] Actually, it was a Demon customer. Update in next NTK - Ed.
         http://www.hacked.net/        - catch 'em while they're hot
         http://www.kevinmitnick.com/  - hold 'em 'till they're cold
         http://www.bfss.org/
                   - is this still hacked or was it always this bad?
         http://www.geek-girl.com/bugtraq/1997_4/0451.html
                - Aleph One's mailing list. But you can call him Al.

         Oh, the hubris! On the eve of Quake II's appearance in the
         shops, Id's JOHN CARMACK achieved the other qualification
         for Code God. He fragged Microsoft. In a joint press
         release with SGI, Microsoft agreed to officially
         endorse SGI's 3D API OpenGL on its platforms. While the
         statement doesn't actually say that Id was right all along
         and Microsoft's competitor Direct3D sucks giblets, everyone
         knows that's what it *means*. The pointed omission of
         Carmack from the industry figures quoted just goes to show
         how hard his nailgun rants about OpenGL superiority hit
         home. But just as deification looked a sure thing - what's
         this? A bug report from Id? Some debug code accidentally
         left in the CD of Quake II that sends a heartbeat packet
         from any Quake 2 server on the Net to Id's own internal
         servers? Debug code which itself is buggy, causing the
         packet to be sent not every 300 seconds as planned, but
         every 300 *milliseconds*, thus effectively wiping out Id's
         own Net connection? Carmack - fallible? The horror!
         http://www5.zdnet.com/zdnn/content/zdnn/1211/262353.html
                                         - It's almost Shakespearian
         http://www.sgi.com/Headlines/1997/December/ddk_release.html
         - Also, the deal obliges manufacturers to do a D3D driver too
                                             so Bill's *still* Satan

         The US DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE on Thursday declared that
         while Microsoft weren't necessarily guilty of breaking their
         anti-trust agreement, they did look pretty shifty.
         Accordingly, the judge ordered them to stop obliging
         manufacturers to bundle IE with Windows 95, and appointed a
         "Special Master" to investigate further. The "Special
         Master", Lawrence Lessig lives alone in a swamp at Harvard
         Law School, Dagobah system, and is an expert, disturbingly,
         on "cyberlaw". He has until May 31st to give his opinion -
         which is close enough to the release date of Windows 98 to
         give Microsoft the willies. On the other hand, if you were
         a hardware manufacturer whose existence depended on keeping
         in with Gates, would *you* suddenly switch sides, just
         because you can?
         www.law.harvard.edu/Academic_Affairs/Faculty_Directory/l.html
                                             - monopolistic you are!


                               >> ANTI-NEWS <<
                             berating the obvious

         STEVE BALLMER says IE4 had quality-for-deadline tradeoff...
         72% of hacking attempts originate from outside US... "Web
         Based Journalism Often Includes Rumours", opines the
         rigorous FORBES MAGAZINE... 54% of Webmasters hate
         "Webmaster" title - but they still can't come up with a
         better one... Wired Ventures' NEWSBOT "down for repairs"
         ... Christmas cards "really do make people happy",
         scientists report... BMG claim GRAND THEFT AUTO stock
         nicked by "ram raiders"... APPLE's Website makes $12
         million a month; Dell makes $6 million a *day*... MS's
         Nathan Myhrvold investigating how dinosaurs moved so fast.
         Wonder why? ... MICROSOFT advises Govt. on online self-
         employed registration project: forms turn out to be
         Explorer only... 66% of IT Managers have experienced
         "complete project failure", survey says... NEIL TENNANT to
         produce NOEL COWARD covers album...


                              >> EVENT QUEUE <<
                             stacking the "odds"

         We've had a few, shall we say, disbelieving e-mails about
         the .NOT Awards, and we're not afraid to say that we find
         your lack of faith... disturbing. Okay, so we've moved them
         to January. So what? The 1997 Oscars are in *March* for
         God's sake. But we are nothing if not bounteous in our
         generosity. Take this e-mail as your official invite to THE
         NEED TO KNOW CHRISTMAS PARTY, which takes place on SATURDAY
         20th DECEMBER at 8pm onwards at BACKSPACE, a funny little
         cyberplace with comfy seats in CLINK ST, LONDON, ENGLAND.
         Space is a bit limited so please RSVP tips@spesh.com to let
         us know if you're turning up. The enforced fun will include
         MIDI Karaoke, videogame charades, a Gates/Jobs shooting
         gallery, the rapier wit of your fellow subscriber
         contributors, and some free drink. Please bring a floppy.
         http://www.backspace.org/clink
         - the phrase you're looking for is "Yes. Am impressed."

         Fancy yourself as a bit of a retro coder? Then perhaps you
         could win the UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER's competition to
         write a new program for the first ever stored code
         computer, Baby. There are a few restrictions: firstly, the
         program has to fit in 1024 bits of memory (yes, bits), and
         there's no output apart from one blinking light and a
         binary dump of the core on a primitive cathode ray tube
         (maybe mini-Tetris?). Winners will get a chance to see
         their code entered into the replica of Baby being built for
         its 50th anniversary next year. To help you, there's a
         smart emulator to download, which runs only in DOS and
         isn't guaranteed to run under Windows. Wow - these guys
         take their O/S preservation *seriously*.
         http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/prog98/
           - "as powerful as a child's calculator"? What, the TI-58?


                             >> ANTI-TRACKING <<
                   stuff you thought you needed. but don't

         JAVASOFT have, with much pomp and circumstance, released
         the Activator, a plug-in that allows you to run JDK 1.1
         Java apps on any browser, even the non-compliant Netscap-
         er, Microsoft Explorer. A clever and sneaky hack? Well, we
         could think of cleverer: the plugin first demands your
         viewers download the full 3MB Java 1.1 virtual machine and
         class library (why didn't they just release patches to the
         present Netscape/IE4.0 libraries? Or is that *too*
         sneaky?). Secondly, you have to rewrite all your HTML to
         embed the Java app within a plug-in tag, so that it's
         invisible unless you download the plug-in. And at the risk
         of repeating ourselves, isn't that what all this was trying
         to avoid?
         http://www5.zdnet.com/zdnn/content/zdnn/1211/262353.html
         - write once, run anywhere (if you've got all the
                                        stuff pre-downloaded anyway)

         DAVE WINER (what ever happened to that Winder chap,
         anyway?) has released the first version of his Frontier
         scripting language for the PC. First reactions (from
         accredited Frontier fans): Middling to "oh dear". He's done
         that stupid stick-all-the-floating-windows-in-the-Mac-app-
         in-one-big-unmanageable-Win95-window mistake, and the
         interface is too Macish by half. Worth a look if you're
         part of the Apple diaspora, but otherwise, "uncoooooooool".
         http://www.scripting.com/
                      - and Aretha Franklin sucks. Nyah, nyah, nyah.

         Death to record companies! Empower the artist! And charge
         them for the privilege! That's the plan for Manchester-
         based MUSIC NETWORK INTERNATIONAL (nb: not the Music
         Network formerly known as part of Webmedia), who'll be
         showcasing the music of unsigned bands via "secure" Liquid
         Audio from next Jan. They think listeners'll pay a quid to
         download individual MPEG3-quality tracks (after enjoying a
         RA-quality preview), of which 40 or 50p goes straight to
         the band - and they think musicians'll pay UKP100 a time to
         join the scheme. Well, maybe it really is digital
         distribution sidestepping the middleman (ie the one that
         normally pays big advances), rather than just an online
         variant on those music mag small ads that go "will put your
         lyrics/poems to music for small fee"...
         http://www.music-www.com/
                            - link to Liquid Audio, but no more info
         http://www.mp3.com/                       too legit to quit


                                >> MEMEPOOL <<
                              hasta la altavista

         selling ad-space on "404"s ... no UK release for JACKIE
         BROWN till at least May?... Netnames, witness for Virgin in
         ONE IN A MILLION court case has "telecom.bt" ... Pursuits++
         - http://www.trivial.net ... ICQ say "eh-oh"...  Brit
         Newshub: www.newsnow.co.uk ... Ross' guide to hacking GSM :
         http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/19.48.html#subj5 ... company
         that pitches an "accelerated device for routing packets"
         for $3 at Internet Expo is - the US POST OFFICE... No
         Sisters of No Mercy: http://members.xoom.com/ssv/ ...
         www.ronthemusicmaker.org/p_jpg/listen.htm ...selling link
         placements... new PRODIGY video available as "Duke Nukem"
         mission pack... PAUL LEYLAND, other Cambridge cypherpunk
         make the move to Microsoft... STARSHIP TROOPERS *is* just
         as violent, ridiculous, and crypto-fascist as everyone
         says... http://av.yahoo.com/bin/query then hit reload...


                               >> MO' MEDIA <<
           why don't you turn in and do something less interesting?

         TV>> extreme violence ought to spice up tonight's FRIENDS
         (9pm, Fri, C4) in the form of an "Ultimate Fighting"
         contest, though sadly it only involves Monica's
         CEO/Swingers boyfriend, and not useless guest stars Billy
         Crystal and Robin Williams... yes, it was us who sent them
         the net tips on cool stuff to put in microwaves in the last
         ADAM AND JOE SHOW (11pm, Sat, C4) until New Year's Eve...
         maybe the Star Trek movies would have got more "hits" if
         they'd used AltaVista to carry out THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK
         (3.35pm, Sun, BBC1)... MOVERS AND SHAKERS (8pm, Mon, C4)
         rolls the d20 on table-top battlers like Warhammer...
         compared to Jeremy Hardy & Jack Dee's lame efforts, Paul
         Merton ought to do a better paranormal spoof with DOES
         CHINA EXIST? (10pm, Mon, BBC2)... HG Wells pursues Jack The
         Ripper through modern-day San Francisco in intelligent Time
         Machine rip-off TIME AFTER TIME (9pm, Tue, C4), up against
         Shane-Black-scripted action classic LETHAL WEAPON (9pm,
         Tue, ITV)... it's rare that a remake is this much better
         than the original, but of course that's kind of the point
         of 1978's appallingly scary version of INVASION OF THE BODY
         SNATCHERS (11pm, Wed, BBC1)... oh, and the cute wobbly
         robots in eco-space fave SILENT RUNNING (6pm, Thu, BBC2)? -
         apparently they're midget amputees *walking on their
         hands*...

         MOVIES >> they say TOMORROW NEVER DIES (imdb: action /
         james-bond / spy) but someone really should put the James
         Bond franchise out of its misery: Brosnan, Jonathan Pryce
         and Michelle Yeoh gurn through a catalogue of tedious
         stunts, technical inconsistencies and appalling dialogue,
         and Teri Hatcher's hardly in it at all, after negative
         reactions from test screenings... the not-very-ironic teen
         serial-murders of I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER (imdb:
         horror / thriller / mystery / hit-and-run / slasher /
         revenge) shows why Miramax wanted to make Sony take "From
         the creator of Scream" off their poster - probably one for
         only the most deeply psychotic stalker-fans of Sarah
         Michelle Gellar (aka TV's Buffy The Vampire Slayer)... and
         strangely, Stephen Rea's IRA philanthropist in A FURTHER
         GESTURE (imdb: unclassified) isn't supposed to be a sequel
         to his role in The Crying Game, though you could pretend it
         was if you liked...

         SHINY TEXT>> disappointingly, MINISTRY (UKP 2.40) isn't a
         glossy fanzine devoted to "Weird" Al Jourgensen's
         industrial goth-metal outfit, and turns out to be a sort of
         Bizarre/Stuff-style badly designed consumer guide to
         clubbing, sex, toilets, sex in toilets, and drug
         paraphernalia. The free CD isn't bad though... so, in a
         month when Q (UKP 2.70) runs Noel Gallagher's Antinews
         revelation that he "nicked" some of David Bowie's tunes,
         instead we're going to review the free Xmas music mag CDs
         that sometimes become mysteriously detached from the covers
         and that you can then presumably take home for nothing. The
         Q one, needless to say, is terrible (Chemical Brothers,
         Primal Scream, Texas - and Bush!)... MUZIK (UKP 2.40)
         reckon that theirs covers "1997: the tunes", and they may
         well be right, if you spent the last year listening to
         nondescript jungle, speed garage and the world's worst ever
         remixes of Underworld and The Prodigy... our surprise
         recommendation is therefore the "House Puts The Breaks On"
         compilation stuck to MIXMAG (UKP 2.30) - just a weird out-
         there obscure retro-techno fest, plus an interesting
         reminder that if music publications can put a decent CD on
         the front without doubling their cover price, then *why
         can't computer mags*?... and as NTK went to press, news
         reached us of the UK's first monthly Tamagotchi mag
         (1.35UKP) , with free stickers classifying their
         developmental stages. Still think they should have called
         it "Tamagazine-otchi", though...


                                 >> COMPO <<
                       void where not prohibited by law

         Congratulations this week to Keith Lawler, who asks "Well,
         I found it. Now what do I do?". You celebrate, Mr Lawler,
         the imminent arrival of the almost self-defeatingly titled
         The Best Rock Ballads In The World Ever! (Volume 2) and the
         nonsensical graphic novel Tarzan vs Predator At The Earth's
         Core ("Guards! Seize him! SEIZE HIM!").

         Almost time to wrap up the competition for this year. But
         you still have one more chance to write in with the
         now.html you have secreted as an internal security test on
         a Website you administer. Remember - external hacks are
         heavily frowned upon (though we'd probably have bent that
         if those guys had sent us www.yahoo.com/now.html - Fools.)
         Full details, as ever on http://www.ntk.net/compo/

         This week's clue for an URL of the form http://www.******.***:

                            "Spot the extra dot."


                              >> 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 "never using My Briefcase again".

                                 NEED TO KNOW
            THEY STOLE OUR REVOLUTION. NOW WE'RE STEALING IT BACK.
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