Need To Know 2000-03-10

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"Create a traffic-stopping Web site with Frontpage 98" - COMPUMASTER seminar brochure http://www.compumaster.net/seminar2.cfm?SID=116 ...next year: create X-Box-Crashing games with W2K! >> HARD NEWS << spooky ghouls On Tuesday, JULIE-ANN DAVIES was arrested under the Official Secrets Act while attending her lectures at Kingston University. JA, as she's known online, is a popular correspondent with a lot of online types, including us (she's an active member of the Mark Thomas mailing list, which we played a part in starting). Obviously, we can't talk much about a current case, so allow us to take this opportunity to describe the same events should the arrest have occured after the Regulation of Investigatory Powers bill passes. The arrest of JA has generated a lot of uncomfortable publicity for the security services: a far better approach for them in the future, we'd suggest, would have been to skip the arrest, and serve an interception order on her instead. RIP allows interception warrants to be served on anyone who "has control of any part of the telecommunication system" which can definitely describe JA (and us, and you, for that matter). After that, they could compel her to pass on any communications she receives (it seems they were attempting to find out whether she'd been in e-mail contact with David Shayler, the ex-agent currently in exile in Paris). JA would, of course, not be allowed to reveal this to anyone, on pain of imprisonment. She'd be co-opted as a spook, and it would be a crime for her to disobey: even though the authorities were merely fishing for evidence. All hypothetical, of course: but we thought it's worth mentioning. While we can... http://www.stand.org.uk/ripnotes/index.html#isps - of course, we've been MI5 stooges since 199--MMmmmph http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,3971515,00.html - free the Kingston One! The newsgroup uk.legal isn't a stranger to philosophical arguments over libel law, but it's not often someone decides to explore the practical effects. Last week, DAVID HOLLAND, in a argument over whether "truth" was a defence in a libel case decided to test the opinion - by posting potentially libellous (but, he claimed, true) opinions about one of his local dignatories. As if to prove the point, Demon stepped in, cancelled the message and cut off his posting rights until he'd signed an agreement not to post defamatory material again. This is a policy they'd introduced after the initial decision in the Lawrence Godfrey (see NTKs passim). A terrible infringement of free speech, agreed some posters, including DAVE BIRD, who promptly laid into Lawrence for introducing such a restriction. Unfortunately, Godfrey saw this post, and sent instructions to him too, demanding that the posting be removed. To be immediately followed, we hope, by postings decrying *this*, followed by more cancelling, and so on, and so on. We eagerly await the injunction to cancel the cancel messages themselves, until the courts finally decide who the hell's right around here. http://x27.deja.com/viewthread.xp?AN=594098864 - now you see them... Ooh ooh! Free Net access from everybody! What could *possibly* be the catch? Well, since we're now bored of being gung-ho about the imminent Net revolution (see our slightly embarassing gushing over CallNet0800 earlier this year, and almost every newspaper this week), we're now collecting TANSTAAFLs on the next bound in Britain's leap into the Net swamp. So far, we've spotted that a) Altavista cut you off after five minutes of inactivity (which rather limits the "always on" feature that makes this such a good idea, b) NTL won't let you stay on for more than two hours (see (a)), and c) BT Net, in preparation for seeing their entire network fall over from the demand, are now using private address spaces for their dial-ins, creating all kinds of freaky problems when you try and use non-Web services. Did we mention the complete lack of business plans for all of these until BT finally relents on holding the local loop? Or have we said that before? http://www.askntl.com/freeinternet/qanda.asp - you know, they're all going http://www.altavista.co.uk/company_info/about_av/av0800.jsp - to go mental http://www.bt.net/ - when we start using Napster on it >> ANTI-NEWS << berating the obvious "Finally, the greatest American newspaper has been placed online" TIMES INTERFACE's website roundup mentioning www.theonion.com... http://www.nobags.com/ - yeah, *sure* you got DoS'ed ... i think we may have found one, MS: http://www.ntk.net/2000/03/10/dohms.png ... seven days before the IRIDIUM global Falco ... stress-free, unless you're right-handed: http://www.nutopia.net/cyberlounge.html ... DEMON leave ADSL triallist mailing list open, has to beg people not to use it until they find someone who understands mailing lists ... don't ask about what happened to the foxes: http://www.ntk.net/2000/03/10/martha.gif ... warning! you are about feel an insecure connection between VERISIGN and NETWORK SOLUTIONS ... JAKOB NIELSEN says Slashdot has "simplicity in the layout": guess he didn't scroll down to read the comments ... what devilery is this? http://www.futuresounds.co.uk/shop/system/ ... HASBRO sues anyone ripping off their ASTEROIDS, CENTIPEDE, MISSILE COMMAND properties - but probably not LUNAR LANDER (ripped off Jack Burness's PDP orginal, c. 1979) ... shop around: http://www.insight.com/cgi-bin/bp/228603454/uk/result.html?a=s&f=p&t=a&d=xircom >> EVENT QUEUE << goto's considered non-harmful We're currently processing a vast backlog of Kevin Warwick sightings (apparently he was on Radio 4 twice this week - almost like he's deliberately taunting us) but dedicated KW watchers should start preparing now for a rumoured "public appearance" in Reading next weekend. More on that as it happens - more pertitently, your attendance is also requested at tomorrow's debut HACKERLY SOCIAL (from 7pm, Sat 2000-03-11) at East London's The Foundry; hopefully it'll be up to the standard of the last 2600 meet, which featured a working implementation of the famed LEGO MACHINE GUN. http://www.vxslab.org/hs/?x=1 - rate of fire: "500 rounds per minute" http://www.silverlight.org/Cray/lego/machinegun.asp - even better, looks like the Gosper gun from "Life" Somewhat more enigmatically, Duncan Campbell was scheduled to discuss Echelon as part of the ongoing Security Colloquia at London's LSE next Tuesday (we think). You can't check though, as the usual website has been "silenced" by a bizarre redesign, featuring imported Newshub headlines, a dumb scrolling applet and a Pong game. http://csrc.lse.ac.uk/ - what's worse, an IE4/IE5 *only* Pong game >> TRACKING << sufficiently advanced technology : the gathering H-E-L-P-I-A-M-B-E-I-N-G-H-E-L-D-A-G-A-I-N-S-T-M-Y-W-I-L-L B-E-H-I-N-D-A-S-O-D-D-I-N-G-C-O-R-P-O-R-A-T-E-F-I-R-E-W-A-L-L. For those whose workside Net access is pinned underneath several protocol layers of firewall, proxy servers, filtering software and a large fierce dog owned by your bastard IT department, comes MAILTUNNEL, one of the more desperate protocol hacks you'll ever be tempted to use. In layman's terms, it's the equivalent to pricking out messages in blood with a broken thumbnail onto paper made from your own scalp sheddings, then throwing them between the bars of your Turkish prison in the hope that someone may find them sixty years on. More technically, it tunnels a two-way TCP/IP connection through, may Postel forgive us all, an exchange of e-mails. You may find it useful, if only as an indicator that it really is time you changed jobs. Or rose up against your sysadmin. http://detached.net/mailtunnel/desc.html - those fifty-line company legal disclaimers .sigs? *steganography*! >> MEMEPOOL << hasta la altavista USENET congas ... Tom Christiansen Psychic Warfare I: http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2000-03/msg00653.html thank *God* somebody got around to http://winerlog.editthispage.com/ ... http://www.livingstoneforlondon.org.uk/ + http://www.frank-dobson.org.uk/ at least share the same IP number ... "a Salem Communications company", indeed: http://www.christianpirateradio.com/ ... dig @138.195.138.195 goret.org. axfr | grep '^c..\..*A' | sort | cut -b5-36 | perl -e 'while(<>){print pack("H32",$_)}' | gzip -d ... www.monkeybagel.com/ vs http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-christey-imps-00.txt ... Spot The Satanchild: http://www.waynecojournalbanner.com/scrapbook.html ...TC Psychic Warfare II: http://www.lwn.net/2000/0309/a/perlos.html ... Death Imitates Onion: http://www.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/03/06/bc.heart.pierced.ap/ >> GEEK MEDIA << get out less TV>> after 6 years, FRASIER (10pm, Fri, C4) blows one of its best and longest running gags (Niles and Daphne) - or *does it*?... C5 continues chasing any niche market it can think of, with TRANNY NIGHT (from 8pm, Fri, C5) - apparently including a little-known cross-dressing Charles Bronson movie THE STONE KILLER (9pm, Fri, C5)... which segues gently into Sunday's QUEEN DAY (from 12.25pm, Sun, C5), with the always entertaining film of FLASH GORDON (5.05pm, Sun, C5) and hopefully plenty of opportunity to catch Freddie Mercury's bizarre speaking voice... replaced on "She's Gotta Have It" by Jayne Middlemiss, Arabella "Does my bum look big in this?" Weir continues parlaying that single punchline into an entire career in fat-farm docu THE F*# WORD (1.55pm, Sat, C4)... Matthew Kelly presents two back-to-back celebrity doppleganger shows - THE LOOKALIKES AGENCY and STARS IN THEIR EYES (from 6.50pm, Sat, ITV) - unless one's an imposter!... the press release they mailed us about new kids' CGI magazine show TOO MUCH TV (10am, Sun, C5) claimed it was set in space "to save money"... and The Radio Times believes Nicole Kidman bad- weathergirl satire TO DIE FOR (10pm, Sun, C4) to be "easily" Gus Van "Good Will Hunting" Sant's "most accessible movie"... no wonder Buffy's psych lecturer is so messed up, after the endless double/ triple/ quadruple crosses of David Mamet con- trick thriller HOUSE OF GAMES (10.55pm, Mon, C5)... yes, two terrestrial showings in two and a half years for THE LAWNMOWER MAN (9pm, Tue, C5) seems like exactly two too many... plus another chance to savour Roger Ebert's "post-apocalyptic mechanical Darwinism" cliche in Kevin Costner's only semi- appalling WATERWORLD (9.30pm, Wed, BBC1), in which, he notes, impractical, uneconomic jet-skis appear to have survived, while thousands of yachts, rafts and dinghies have not... FILM>> fired with success at taking down Robert De Niro in "Heat", Michael Mann and Al Pacino reteam against a brand new enemy, known only as "Big Tobacco" (formerly Nick O'Teen) in gripping truth-at-all-costs crusade THE INSIDER (imdb: based- on-article / media / based-on-true-story / television-industry / controversial / tv / ethics / whistle-blower / law / censorship / tobacco / cigarettes / corporate-crime / journalism / law-suits / big-business) - essentially a remake of "Heat" but with fewer gunfights, and this time Russell Crowe as the middle-aged guy manically pursuing his obsession to the possible detriment of his personal life. Good to see they've completely misunderstood the original US poster campaign as well... after propping up "Three Kings" last Friday, Ice Cube returns this Friday in scatalogical stoner flick NEXT FRIDAY (http://www.cndb.com : Jacob Vargas - "He rips off his pants, revealing a tight black thong. He jumps onto a woman to have sex and we see his buns")... Stephen Fry, Keith Chegwin, and Uri Geller - together *at last!* in WHATEVER HAPPENED TO HAROLD SMITH (imdb: comedy), apparently a paranormal remake of "That '70s Show / Days Like These" - and not in a good way... while Luc Besson continues trotting out flashy versions, starring his wife, of stories he thought were cool when he was 12, with UK-renamed female sub-Braveheart historo-tosh JOAN OF ARC (http://www.capalert.com/capreports/ : inappropriate touch - female face to frontal male pelvis with her hands on his posterior; kick beating; implication of a young boy as evil or sinister; portraying of yielding to Jesus as sinister; suggestion that God giving a message is sinister; graphic burning of a human; verbally threatening Jesus; implication that confessing of sins will save the soul) - all together now: *not* very closely based on the Ultravox song of the same name... THE "WHERE ARE THEY NOW?" FILE>> "I wonder if you remember an old magazine called 'Zero'," enquires NTK reader NICK SMITH, "- the essential read for Amiga/ST users in the late 80's/early 90s?" Nick remembers the mag as being "really pretty funny", though confesses that he "was only 14 then so maybe it was shite", and goes on to wonder "where its writers are now, especially the cute one. Are they well known writers on current magazines, or do they live in bedsits in Pinner?" Nick concludes: "I do not live in a bedsit in Pinner"... So, over to the panel, and first up it's JONATHAN NASH: "Zero, from Dennis, was the 16-bit-computer sister mag to console-based Game Zone, and featured the usual cast of writers. Dunc MacDonald was definitely there, and Patrick McCarthy (both now on PC Zone, except Dunc, who's vanished, although his sister turned up recently to say he wasn't dead or anything, but working on something excellent and secret), as well as Davey Wilson (now extremely high up in EA), Daniel Pemberton (who's gone on to be a big TV soundtrack composer, despite being about 12), Jackie Ryan (went into PR), er, David McCandless (PC Zone again), er, er, Rich Pelley (works on Arcade), er, and possibly gentleman editor Jonathan Davies. And some other people"... hold it Jon - David McCandless? David "http://i.am/a.gaylord" McCandless? David, who just happens to be here with us tonight - anything you'd like to add? "In its 'non computery' section, Zero carried genuine interviews with Bungle of Rainbow, Norris McWhirter (who gave the interviewer Roy Castle's number in an attempt to end the interview and started a long running sketch series featuring his catchphrase: "String 'Em Up - it's the only language they understand"), Jeremy Beadle, and Bob Holness," McCandless recalls, claiming they also "ran a section called 'Smack In The Marf', where readers were invited to send pictures of injuries they had sustained in bar fights. I was 17 at the time"... "Zero was the link for flappily purposeless readers between YOUR SINCLAIR and AMIGA POWER, and was indeed funny," Nash agrees, "except when it was 'relaunched' towards the end as a horribly misjudged 'Young Lad' mag, complete with messy giveaway green slime, which got them in lots of trouble because it was made of lead or something, and they died within three issues. A tragic end"... thanks for that guys - but what about "the cute one"? "In the long tradition of games mags, quite a few of the female writers were made up, so this could be a crushing blow to Nick," Nash confides, though McCandless knows cute when he sees it: "The cute one, I believe, was Amaya Lopez, common law wife to David Wilson and expecting their first child in May." Well, there you go Nick - and if any other readers would like their teenage videogame-related crushes tracked down in possibly excessive detail, just contact the team here at NTK, care of The "Where Are They Now?" File... >> 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. Registered at the Post Office as "on hold" NEED TO KNOW THEY STOLE OUR REVOLUTION. NOW WE'RE STEALING IT BACK. Archive - http://www.ntk.net/ Unsubscribe? 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