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      "By the time we are done reading 2000 AD, we will have a
      confident understanding of how today's world will not only
      accept, but embrace the coming anti-christ."

  - featured review of 2000 A.D. : ARE YOU READY? : How New
    Technologies and Lightning-Fast Changes Are Opening the Door for
    Satan and His Plan for the End of the World
    http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0785271880/
         ...people taking that "Judge Child" saga a bit too literally 
                                             

                                >> HARD NEWS <<
                                  mail abuse 
          
         Ubiquitous publicity for Microsoft's new "blackmail.com"
         feature for HOTMAIL, wherein the peace-loving Swedes uncover
         that the password question hint for all accounts was
         effectively "Password, what password?". A simple CGI exploit
         blew Hotmail wide open - yet tragically, it still wasn't
         simple enough the UK media to comprehend. Poor Vic Keegan at
         the Guardian became an instant net.celebrity for his
         assertion that "e-mail sent throught Hotmail differs from
         most other e-mails because it is routed through the
         internet" (big Fidonet fan, our Vic). Channel Five Teletext
         simplified that whole confusing "e-mail" jargon by referring
         to problems with "cyber posts". Online, Slashdot descended
         into a strange loop of "HAHAHA! MICROSO~1 WINDOZE LAME!"/
         "Actually, Hotmail uses Solaris"/ "HAHAHA! MICROSO~1 USE
         SOLARIS!" posts. Oldbies declaimed smugly that they'd never
         trusted Hotmail for vital mail anyway - then remembered that
         it had all their shell passwords in its pop3 download
         utility (View Source on the config form, suckers). Ziff Net,
         among others, did an excellent follow-up on a new batch of
         Hotmail hacks that had sprung up. These new exploits were
         even simpler: for full Hotmail admin privileges, you just
         e-mail your username and password to
         trick_lamers_into_giving_you_their_ids@hotmail.com for admin
         privileges and - DOH! In all the confusion, the real
         culprits - Microsoft, remember? - managed to exit unharmed
         through their own publicity backdoor. In the words of the
         Guardian again: "If Microsoft - probably the company with
         the greatest intellectual firepower in the world - cannot
         achieve [security], then what can mere mortals do?". Not be
         so fucking stupid as to engineer out the password checks in
         their scripts, maybe? Just a thought.
         http://www.cryptonym.com/hottopics/msft-nsa.html 
         - you want a real Microsoft security backdoor? Ask the NSA.

         Look forward to an interesting month for press coverage of
         the always nutty free ISP market. Let's get this straight:
         EMAP's mags are heavily involved in the well dodgy
         FREENETNAMES ISP (which offers you domain names for a fiver
         with your login, on the understanding that they'll charge
         you a fortune for moving it). They'll be far too busy
         slagging off the online competitor BBC's utterly impartial
         sponsorship of FREEBEEB to cover that story. And the
         always-objective FUTURE PUBLISHING won't have space to cover
         either - not without plugging *their* exclusive deal with
         AOL'S NETSCAPE ONLINE service. Brings a whole new (and
         opposite) meaning to the phrase "free press", doesn't it?
         http://www.futurenet.co.uk/futureonline/press/futurenetscape.asp
          - that's free as in "free publicity", not as in "free beer"
         http://www.freenetname.co.uk/admin/terms.asp 
     - 94UKP to send an e-mail to Nominet? Banner ads? "Free money", too!
          
         Was he in the bathroom? The master bedroom? The toilet? No,
         but, after over two years of wandering the levels [NTK
         1997-10-10], the current location of Matthew Smith,
         reclusive genius behind Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy has
         finally been determined. In a tell-all interview with
         comp.sys.sinclair regular Peter Mella (and a drink-all pub
         night with ex-Software Projects/Bug-Byte Chris Cannon),
         Matthew exposes the truth and lies behind his decade-long
         disappearence. FACT: He did move to a commune in Amsterdam.
         FICTION: He never phoned up Caesar the Geezer to bemoan his
         diminished status. FACT: He hasn't got a job right now, and
         can't work on games because his PC isn't up to it. FICTION:
         He doesn't want you to send him money, or offer him a job in
         your multi-million business you'd never started, if it
         wasn't for the addictive nature of POKE-ing his games. Get
         to it, manic moguls.
         http://www.jonlan.demon.co.uk/spectrum/matsmith/ 
                 - if they think he's the real thing, we're convinced
         http://www.pmella.freeserve.co.uk/copy-of-the-spectrum-site/
                      - "Not deed poll. I am Matt from Earth though."


                                >> ANTI-NEWS << 
                             berating the obvious

         EMMA NICHOLSON announces that government "moving from 16-bit
         encryption to 32-bits" ... "Finland is home to Europe's most
         virile men," according to study cited by LINUS ... CHINA.COM
         nicks taiwan.com domain ... NETSCAPE, as ever, gives answer
         to the wrong question: http://www.ntk.net/doh/990903yes.gif
         ... WWW.ALLTHEWEB.COM say it took them ten years to develop
         their Web search engine (you can see how they'd get bogged
         down pre-1993) ... MILITARY still struggling with CAPS LOCK
         in disclaimers: http://144.170.127.189/ ... BBC WALES Online
         Editor job "not for a techie", says ad (the BBC is an equal
         opportunies employer) ... MICROSOFT lets their Commerce
         Server speak for itself: http://www.ntk.net/doh/990903server.gif


                               >> EVENT QUEUE << 
                         goto's considered non-harmful

         Most fun you can have at next week's ECTS: asking awkward
         Dreamcast questions at the SEGA stand. Suggestions so far
         include: Why was the launch delayed to sort out the online
         services, when there aren't any online-play UK games due
         until April? (No, split-screen Sega Rally 2 doesn't count.)
         Since the ad campaign trumpets a possible "six billion
         players" worldwide, doesn't the incompatibility between Euro
         and US/ Japanese machines make that an overestimate of, hmm,
         about five billion? Is the DC browser really a) developed by
         the Japanese and b) therefore "rubbish" (ie no RealAudio,
         its own proprietary MP3 audio format, and a grasp of
         cascading style sheets akin to NTK office fave, Netscape 3)?
         And finally, have the Japanese in fact given up on DC
         already, abandoned the much-touted WinCE SDK, and now
         desperately hope the spurned Microsoft will buy up the tech/
         company for their own CE network games machine when they 
         finally go under next year?
         http://www.ects.com/
                              - still, JC "Mega" Herz should be there
         http://www.next-generation.com/jsmid/news/7540.html
                       - and will need 3D/CPU upgrades every 6 months
         http://www.mentealth.com/
                    - Playstation marketing still contemptuously poor


                                >> TRACKING <<
                  making good use of the things that we find 

         Not quite the free local weekend calls everyone's hanging on
         for (see NTKs passim), but sinister sounding price plan BT
         TOGETHER will reputedly offer half-price national calls (and
         1p/min local evening rate) from 1st October for a monthly
         charge of UKP12. In an act of noble, self-sacrificing
         generosity, it also triples the laughable new "allowance" of
         one free hour of local weekend calls (per *month*) - obviously
         less of a big deal if you're currently logging in through on
         of those "shared" BT Internet accounts. Still, it's
         fractionally more palatable than their other free calls
         deal, currently trialling in Bristol and Newcastle: BT
         FREETIME tempts users with up to 10 mins of free calls (per
         *day*!), assuming you (and the person you're calling) can
         tolerate amateurish local radio-style adverts every couple
         of minutes. Data, faxes and calls to the operator are
         understandably forbidden, but maybe there are still ways of
         ringing up BT and making them listen to their own
         commercials...
http://www.yahoo.co.uk/headlines/19990902/news/news_story_89718s_9.html
       - "easy to remember", says BT (ie more competitive with cable)
         http://www.freetime.bt.com/
                          - hope the ads aren't all 3 minutes long...


                                >> MEMEPOOL << 
                              hasta la altavista

         more signs of the apocalypse: FUTURE to launch Linux mag ...
         Attention. CARMACK has learnt Perl. This is not a drill ...
         DAVID FURNISS quits DEMON ... YODA and BEEKER, DAVROS and THE
         NUN: http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/log/sitcom.htm ... so why
         is the MoD buying 100 copies of FONTOGRAPHER a week? ...
         for all you Trekkie, Web-surfing, e-commerce crazy
         technophobes: http://www.ludditereader.com/ ... protect us
         from the AMISH threat: http://home.earthlink.net/~demainz/ ...
         incoming PHRACK set for the End of File bug day, 9/9/99...
         hope the THE BLAIR WITCH COMIC is written on bits of
         leaves and bark: http://www.onipress.com/blair.html ... FAQ
         jeopardy : http://www.hmprisonservice.gov.uk/faq.asp ... honesty 
         in brochureware: http://www.fbn.bc.ca/index.html ... DUKE NUKEM
         doing Monster Cable endorsements ... UINs have *credibility*?
         http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=152398300


                               >> GEEK MEDIA << 
                  the less rude http://www.ntk.net/tvgohome/

         TV>> something of a special week for fans of overblown
         two-hour-plus movies, kicking off with Terry Gilliam's
         hideously ham-fisted Terminator remake TWELVE MONKEYS
         (9.30pm, Sat, BBC1)... THE SHINING (10.30pm, Sat, C4)
         launches a Kubrick season that continues with an arty
         "making of" promo for EYES WIDE SHUT (9pm, Sun, C4) and FULL
         METAL JACKET (10pm, Sun, C4)... while THE BRIDGE ON THE
         RIVER KWAI (8.10pm, Sat, BBC2) lays down supporting fire for
         *yet another* WORLD WAR TWO NIGHT (from 6.05pm, Sat,
         BBC2)... Keith "Cheggers" Chegwin presides over an ancient,
         nobler way of settling European disputes in C5's revived
         IT'S A KNOCKOUT (8pm, Fri, C5)... the BBC continues its
         decline into prurient porn nonsense with daily strand ADULT
         LIVES (from 9.40pm, Sun, BBC2)... season 7 of SEINFELD
         (12am-ish, Mon-Thu, BBC2) returns in a near-daily slot -
         Soup Nazi next week!... and Monday's pretentious epic is
         Ollie Stone's NATURAL BORN KILLERS (11.10pm, Mon, C5);
         Tuesday's INDEPENDENCE DAY (9pm, Tue, C5)... atrocities of
         60 years ago at last get the ratings they deserve, as ITV
         presents - we kid you not - THE SECOND WORLD WAR IN COLOUR
         (10pm, Thu, ITV)... while this week's discouragingly
         cable-friendly themes - Nazis and sex - come to a
         spectacular climax in another of those worthily dull
         editions of SECRET HISTORY (9pm, Tue, C4) entitled "Sex And
         The Swastika"...

         FILM>> the long-awaited alliance of Katie Holmes (House
         Dawson's Creek), Scott Wolf (House Party Of Five) and Jay
         Mohr (House Jerry Maguire) comes to impressive fruition in
         pacey Swingers / Pulp Fiction / "Driver" on the Playstation
         hybrid GO (imdb: black-comedy / grocery-store / independant
         / multiple-time-frames / revenge / scam / comedy / drama /
         drugs / gay) - which turns out to have a plot at almost
         exactly the same point that "Human Traffic" turned out not
         to.  Oh, and it's not particularly based around the current
         Simon Lewis novel, Moby's 1991 techno hit,or the Japanese
         board game of the same name... anyway, it's more fun than
         John "Die Hard / Thomas Crown Affair" McTiernan's
         ultra-violent Viking fest THE 13TH WARRIOR (capreports:
         walls, piles, and pillars of bloody human skulls; rabblery;
         child nudity; praying to many gods; implied intercourse by
         cohabitation)... ageing hippy stand-in odyssey YELLOW
         SUBMARINE (imdb: beatles / surreal)... or Tim Roth's
         predictably hard-hitting child abuse whistle-blower THE WAR
         ZONE (bbfc.co.uk: Passed '18' for adult theme, language and
         nudity)..

         PRO-CELEBRITY FEEBDACK>> ROB ROSENBERGER, maintainer of 
         "Computer Virus Myths", is so impressed with the far-seeing 
         predictions of not-at-all panic-mongering tech consultancy 
         MI2G [NTK 1999-08-27], he's devoted an entire page to them: 
         http://kumite.com/myths/opinion/thoughts/1999/mi2g.htm . 
         "We'll win the battle eventually," he confides in a 
         covering email - and we don't think he means the one 
         against Serb viruses, "e-bombs" and "cyber warfare 
         attacks"... both REBECCA EISENBERG and DAVE WINER seem 
         oddly pleased with their recent mentions [1999-08-06 and 
         08-27]; perhaps they have different inflections to "career 
         capping" and "manifestly full of shit" over there... and, 
         not waiting for us to insult him before getting in touch 
         this time, "Your zine is fuckin' great. This Ungoed-Thomas 
         thing kills me. I even read the lame British sci-fi TV 
         listings sometimes," enthuses BRUCE STERLING, who 
         (apparently) knows a thing or two about lame sci-fi... most 
         exciting of all for us fame-hounds at NTK was a missive 
         from SOMEONE AT NESTLE: "Much as we'd like to take the 
         credit for Mars's confectionery products," he confessed, 
         "Twix isn't one of ours" [see NTK 1999-08-20]. Nonetheless, 
         he did offer to look into a "Chunky Unix - then perhaps 
         offer it as a trademark to Sun, Hewlett-Packard et al"... 
         and finally, no sooner had STUART CAMPBELL contacted us to 
         promote his comprehensively career-spanning archive 
         http://come.to/worldofstuart/ than we stumbled across his 
         ideal headgear - at last, you, Stu, can "be" SPIDER 
         JERUSALEM: http://www.transmetropolitan.com/newsfeed.htm ...


                               >> 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 "related to Street of Shame?"
                        http://www.ntk.net/private_eye/

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