Need To Know 1999-04-23

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"But something snapped in the minds of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold that turned their harmless computer games into a real-life version of the popular computer game DOOM and sent them on a bloody rampage, shooting up their high school and killing 13 people before taking their own lives." - DAN WHITCOMB, Reuters report, 1999-04-22 ...hold on. If it was Doom, how come they could shoot under tables? >> HARD NEWS << light the fuse Anonymous e-mail, hey? Completely unaccountable, able to create mental anguish over vast distances with little possibility of redress, and the haunt of faceless non-entities who don't give a damn about the consequences. And that's just the legislators! Yes, the EU are at it again. This time - oh, what is it this time? Drug dealers? Cyberterrorists? Nope, it's *child pornographers* who are the excuse for a blanket ban on all anonymous e-mail on the continent. To be honest, we can't even work out at what stage this legislative proposal is at, nor how the committee's insistence that anonymous e-mail should be verboten is going to make it into the final law. All we know is that the URL is longer than the the thinking time these apparatchiks spent on the ramifications. http://www.ntk.net/anoneu/ - search for "anonymous". Weep. http://info.anonymizer.com/kosovo.shtml - let's stamp this out! http://www.gilc.org/speech/anonymous/ - signed confessions If you'd spend more time ploughing through uk.telecom, you'd know this already: LOCALTEL and TEMPO (the wannabe Dixons in oh so many ways) are stumbling closer to officially announcing their "really free" ISP. The deal is that by switching your BT account to the LocalTel reseller, you can sign up for an ISP service with free phone calls (at off-peak times) *and* no subscription charge. We have no real confirmation of this, apart from the same panicky non-confirmations from LocalTel representatives (which could just as easily be an *ingenious* sales technique). Is there a catch? Quotas? Automatic sign-offs? We damn well hope so, otherwise it'll be just days before the system gets so congested you'll be praying for someone to take your money away from you... http://www.tempo.co.uk/ - which is why more people are returning to BT http://www.dejanews.com/getdoc.xp?AN=454013658 - previously twinned with uk.telecom.mad.old.duffers Of course, if every telco offered a flat-rate tariff option for their local calls - one that actually reflected the cost of running a local loop - we wouldn't have this problem. Hell, there are probably thousands of you who, like us, would pay big fixed-rate bucks to have a chance to keep a machine online 24 hours a day. While we're at it, how about if the telco's stopped muttering about "ADSL trial periods", and actively rolled out cheap high-bandwidth connectivity for the masses? Mad as hell yet? Then cue the marching bands of the EUROPEAN TELECOMMUNICATIONS BOYCOTT. Sunday 1999-06-06 is the date when users from Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom are planning to down phone lines in protest at Europe's shoddy treatment from its telephone companies. And, yes, it is a bit like all those other Net strikes you hear about, only this time it's had a tad of forward planning; it doesn't appear to have been organised by 15-year olds; it's in the Summer so you can go out into the park and play; and with over half of the call traffic in the UK now consisting of data calls, it might even serve as a wake-up call for our evil network executives. http://www.unmetered.org.uk/ - mind you, BT charges for wake-up calls too http://www.telecom.eu.org/ - they'll make the money up on "call in sick day" http://www.wired.com/news/news/business/story/19266.html - insert "making sure the prices drop on time" joke here >> ANTI-NEWS << berating the obvious TRENCHCOAT MAFIA "played DOOM"... "without advertising, there would be NO TV, NO radio, and NO INTERNET", reports CYBERCRAFTS NEWSLETTER: no-one tell DARPA and the BBC... TRENCHCOAT MAFIA used AOL... PRINCE PHILLIP rages against Net, still pissed off at having Prestel account hacked... ... TRENCHCOAT MAFIA "had Website"... NINFOMANIA archive page ("may take a few seconds") is staggering 237KB in size... MICROSOFT mail-out CD warns of dangers in "sharing software CDs", advises "hand this CD to a colleague" on packaging... TRENCHCOAT MAFIA "spoke German"... BBC SCI/TECH NEWS is running/recycling the space tourism story *again*... REUTERS run story on HOAX Web page - includes passwords... http://www.pcworld.com/pcwtoday/article/0,1510,10527,00.html AVID dump Mac (or at least until Mr Jobs comes a-callin') ... DAVE "Gaylord" MCCANDLESS peruses www.davesclassics.com for Telegraph - even though site closed two weeks ago... TRENCHCOAT MAFIA "wore trenchcoats"... largest doh! in universe: http://www.flatoday.com/space/explore/images/1999/042099g.jpg ... lying fallow: http://www.gardenersworld.beeb.com/ ... cover of new WIRED: it couldn't be STAR WARS, could it?... IRIDIUM CEO resigns - F-f-f-falc... shootout your own foot at http://www.ntk.net/doh/sql19990423.gif ... TRENCHCOAT MAFIA were teenage boys... >> EVENT QUEUE << goto's considered non-harmful "Unconventional *spellings*, too" say those who've seen the Viz ads for this weekend's FORTEAN TIMES UNCONVENTION '99, featuring the usual hotch-potch of outright superstition, Agfa digital camera sponsorship (clearly taking the piss), Ken Campbell and TV's Reverend Lionel Fanthorpe. Only 250 tickets are on sale on the door (UKP15 for one day; 25 for both), and the fun begins at 10.30am at - you've guessed it - London's Commonwealth Institute, Kensington W8 (location of two former sightings of "Linux wildmen" Eric S Raymond and Richard Stallman). Sources close to NTK inquire: anyone know any other good, potentially cheap, London conference-style venues? Just curious, that's all. http://www.forteantimes.com/uncon/uncon99.html - "Monsters and Marvels from Old Natural History Boks" (sic) >> TRACKING << making good use of the things that we find "And remember, Lee, when this finally blows up - I TOLD YOU SO!". Those were the assembler comments greeting archaeologists peering for into the lead coffin of 1984's GEM source code for the first time this week. GEM (and its low-level buddy GEMDOS) were Digital Research's last attempt to kill Windows before taking that final plane ride to oblivion. Now, thanks to Caldera, the fifteen-year old source is wide open and GPL'd for all the old Atari ST and Amstrad PC fans to touch and feel and painfully tweak. Customise GEM Draw! Change the desktop from that horrid check pattern! But mostly, stare and mutter "but where are all the Easter Eggs?". http://www.devili.iki.fi/cpm/gemworld.html - Lee's got the last laugh now http://www.fandom.net/~Daeron/Cyclo/Eubanks.html - kind of like when Buddy Holly died >> MEMEPOOL << hasta la altavista moral issues *and* speeder bike implausibilities at http://www.ihatestarwars.com/ ... but still no link to the king http://www.daveprowse.com/ ... FERAL CHERYL... WINDOWS only: http://www.web2go.com/coolstuff/ ... LINUX only: http://www.microsoff.com/linux ... that's the attitude: http://homestead.dejanews.com/user.simsey/files/jobhunt.htm ... TeX macro viruses... Salsa Gum Tape ... more bloody wavelets... Vitamin C-enriched coffee... spot the difference: http://www.networkweek.com/bofhquiz/ versus http://www.nssc1.org/reporter/checklist.htm ... Video-CD warez of The Matrix... Steven E De "Die Hard/Judge Dredd" Souza for LARA CROFT film... and so on: http://geeknews.net/... in case stopthewar.org doesn't work: http://www.imaginet.fr/nomemory/ ... user interface equivalent of BIRTSPEAK: http://www.bbcresources.co.uk/ ... I've seen things you people wouldn't believe: Anthea Turner on fire, off the shoulder of Orion: http://www.mentski.freeserve.co.uk/anthea.mpeg >> GEEK MEDIA << get out less TV>> new Antoine de Caunes vehicle LE SHOW (10.30pm, Fri, C4) promises "top names in British and French comedy" - be very afraid... C5 revitalises its Saturday afternoon with a new series of Beavis & Butthead spin-off DARIA (5pm, Sat, C5), plus post-apocalyptic teen soap THE TRIBE (5.25pm) - which sounds more like the "Kids Rule OK" strip in IPC's Action comic than the recent Anna Friel kit-off drama of the same name... and the best EXECUTIVE DECISION (9pm, Sat, ITV) was to kill Steven Seagal as soon as he gets off the Stealth plane, leaving Kurt Russell and Halle Berry to hunt the Psion-wielding hijacker... XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS (7pm, Sat, SkyOne) will not be scheduled episode "The Way", pulled worldwide after offending Hindus by "implying that Krishna is a fictional character"... narrating the SDI episode of COLD WAR (8pm, Sun, BBC2) is as close as Kenneth Branagh will get to Star Wars, bwahaha... and one of the worst directors of the '90s pays interminable tribute to one of the worst directors of the '50s in never-bad-enough-to-be-good ED WOOD (10.30pm, Sun, BBC2)... season 5 of STAR TREK: VOYAGER (8pm, Mon, SkyOne) returns to find someone's switched all the lights off... Abba, Roxette, Ace Of Base, The Cardigans may be products of sinister Swedish eugenics policy, posits EQUINOX (9pm, Mon, C4)... and another god-awful WEBWISE campaign (from 7.30pm, Mon, BBC2) boots with what sounds like a net-lagged version of "Treasure Hunt", followed by further inevitable lameness in TOMORROW'S WORLD (7.30pm, Wed, BBC1) plus apparently net-free Hale & Pace variety abomination H&P @BBC (9.35pm, Wed, BBC1)... bizarre '80s retrospective MARGARET THATCHER: WHERE AM I NOW? (7.50pm, Mon-Fri, C4) has pics by Guardian's Steve Bell, direction by Bob "Roobarb And Custard" Godfrey... Joe Queenan argues that Eastwood OAP romance THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY (8pm, Wed, ITV) is based on Flaubert's "Madame Bovary" - and, no, it doesn't feature brotherly acting duo Jeff and Beau Bridges... while animated DILBERT (8.30pm, Thu, SkyOne) is almost *too* weird - frankly there's more office-hell chuckles temping for psycho Kevin Spacey in SWIMMING WITH SHARKS (9pm, Tue, C5)... FILM>> Kev Costner's overlong nautical-metaphor closure-weepie MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE (imdb: romance) supports the "Sleepless In Seattle" thesis that what modern women want is a bloke totally obsessed with another woman, preferably his dead wife. And no, it's not based around the Police song of the same name, though the soundtrack does inexplicably break into the opening line of Queen's "We Are The Champions" from time to time... you'd have thought the plot of 8MM (imdb: snuff-film / private-detective / porn-makers / surveillance), in which a man tries to find the makers of a badly made, universally offensive piece of cinematic trash, might have had more resonance for Joel "Batman & Robin" Schumacher, here mauling Andrew "Se7en" Walker's interesting script with the help of Nic Cage looking like a bewildered Ross from "Friends"... otherwise the usual limited-release arty nonsense - including this year's *third* kooky prison camp comedy, THE BRYLCREEM BOYS (MPAA: rated PG-13 for language, violence and sensuality) - avoid if you can in favour of London-only microgravity Mir docu OUT OF THE PRESENT (imdb: russia / space), which implies cosmonauts spend their free time watching 2001 and Solaris... RED BOOK AUDIO - "Who needs MP3 to rip off other people's songs?">> yes, everyone thought that GERI SPICE's "Look At Me" was a witless imitation of "History Repeating" by The Propellerheads featuring Shirley Bassey, but NTK reader Ben Smith reckons "it's based around the bass jingle from those IBM TV ads [Solutions For A Small Planet]". We'll know for sure if her next single uses Intel's distinctive synth-riff theme; meanwhile the world waits to see if label-mate GARTH BROOKS sues her for using a lower-case "g" as her logo, as he attempted with WARREN G... another good month for tracks that sound oddly reminiscent of other recent hits, with - of course - BILLIE's "Honey To The B" (aka All Saints' "Never Ever"), ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN's "Rust" (aka Whitney Houston's "One Moment In Time"), SUPER FURRY ANIMALS' "Northern Lites" (which has a line just like Garbage's "Special") and the intro to B*WITCHED's "Blame It On The Weatherman" (aka Natalie Imbruglia's "Torn")... on the subject of which, not only does MARTINE MCCUTCHEON's "Perfect Moment" sound like she's singing over "Drive" by The Cars but, contrary to the impression often given, the song was originally written for one "Edyta Gorniak" (the Polish Mariah Carey) - DOM "The Dominator" MCCLANE has the full story: http://www.geocities.com/~festive/news.htm ... in other copyright news: unable to get the rights to his master recordings back from Warner Brothers, THE ARTIST FORMERLY KNOWN AS PRINCE is believed to be re-recording his entire 17-album back-catalogue - the world's first rock star to become his own tribute band... oh, and new CDs: easy- listening classic themes on STAR WARS: COCKTAILS IN THE CANTINA by the The Evil Genius Orchestra... continuing their covers of the work of Madonna, Oasis, George Michael etc, watch for THE ROYAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA Plays the Music Of U2... and it's taken us this long to save up for it, only to find that old-skool retro-fest PRODIGY DIRTCHAMBER SESSIONS VOLUME ONE http://www.isk.kth.se/~id96_kko/dirtchamber.htm has nothing like the pace or attitude of The Chemicals' excellent "Brothers Gonna Work It Out" or "Live At The Social Volume 1". Good to see that albums with more than two good tracks on them are now recognised by the music industry to be worth even more ("Dirtchamber" is UKP16.99 in HMV for what looks like a double CD, but isn't) - still, almost worth buying Brothers Gonna Work It Out as the lengthy mix tracks create enormous MP3s... >> 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 the "bloody revenge of Internet nerds obsessed with Satan and Nazis" NEED TO KNOW THEY STOLE OUR REVOLUTION. NOW WE'RE STEALING IT BACK. Archive - http://www.ntk.net/ Excuses - http://www.spesh.com/ntk/ Unsubscribe? Mail majordomo@lists.ntk.net with 'unsubscribe ntknow'. Subscribe? Mail majordomo@lists.ntk.net with 'subscribe ntknow'. 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