Need To Know 2000-04-21

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"Celera Genomics, which recently claimed to have finished the human genome sequence, inadvertently mixed some human genetic information with that of the fruit fly in a public database." http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,35814,00.html - now wouldn't that be a good idea for a movie? >> HARD NEWS << icann't refuse So who had the worst week? Was it our Lord Jesus? Or was it NAPSTER, now caught in crossover court cases with Metallica *and* Dr Dre. Good to see someone whose early career was marked by a disrespect for authority and heavy reliance on sampled works (as well as a love for words ending with "z") taking out the Napsters with Attitude. And even better to see that, while heavy metal and rap still have artistic differences, they can unite under one ne attorney - LA's Howard King, who is leading both court cases. And we're sure that if the music industy mows Napster, Inc down in a legal bloodbath, absolutely no-one will step in to take over the server duties in an illegit manner. For that would be wrong. http://www.savenapster.com/ - "don't condone piracy": Some say no to drugs and take a stand, But after the show they go lookin' for the dopeman. http://www.paylars.com/ - s'payback time Who can make Network Solutions look like a model of efficiency? ICANN! The beginning of the week saw the "at large" ICANN membership discover, painfully, that the member announce list was open to subscriber posts. "'ICANN ... to assume responsibility for the IP address space allocation, protocol parameter assignment, domain name system management, and root server system management functions' - and they've screwed this up, this badly? Jeesh.", one subscriber succinctly commented (to about 12,000 others). At the same time, NSI was sliding up to the exhausted tangle of committees and slipping over a position paper aimed at breaking the current ICANN deadlock over those long-awaited extra top level domains. NSI's plan includes whittling it down to two new TLDs - .shop and .banc. Note the euro-friendly feel of ".banc" and NSI's silky insinuation that the whinging European sector of ICANN should host the ".shop" servers. Very clever. Very... political. We also note that NSI has picked the two domains most likely to be favoured by cash-rich corporations (dropping that whole pesky ".union" slab), and naturally suggested themselves as willing to support the new domains. Good to see NSI taking part in an open discussion of the issues. Especially given what we hear about NSI's new Premier Partner program, which includes a cause forbidding members from saying anything disparaging about the company. http://www.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,14338,00.html?nl=mg - oh, so the next ICANN junket is Japan? Can we have Bali next? http://members.icann.org/ - larging it with the Dyson posse A couple of people mailed asking us about ZD Net UK's story claiming that the EU was intent on banning anonymous e-mail. Wonder who they were? Anyway, as ever, our investigative team sat around until someone else did the research for us. Thanks then to Ben "Millennium Winner" Laurie for digging up the latest status. Apparently, the European Parliament have yay-sayed the ban, and now it's back to the European Council to decide what to do with it. File it under "laws which won't get implemented by the national governments in a month of officially-redefined Sundays". We sincerely hope. http://www.ntk.net/anoneu/update.html - at least, we think Ben posted it... http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/2000/14/ns-14710.html - one year from the original story... http://www.ntk.net/index.cgi?back=archive99/now0423.txt&line=34#l - and we *still* haven't any clearer idea >> ANTI-NEWS << berating the obvious MS recommends "industrial-strength, quality focused" UNIX: http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q80/5/20.ASP ... META tags at http://ted.examiner.ie/books/books.htm - Ireland in a nutshell... "Surfers in cities with higher household Net usage spend more time online", intuits the INDUSTRY STANDARD: http://www.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,14058,00.html ... http://www.htmlsourcekid.co.uk/ uses FRONTPAGE... "The Product is not designed, manufactured or intended for use in the operation of nuclear facilities, aircraft navigation or communication systems, air traffic control, direct life support machines, or weapons systems", reveals terms and conditions for WINAMP... BT "trailing" ADSL, admits Freudian: http://www.btinternet.com/html/v90.html#what_next... BT 'fesses further: http://www.ntk.net/2000/04/21/dohnumber.gif ... MCSWEENEYS.net hijack was, gasp, prank, believes OJR: http://ojr.usc.edu/content/story.cfm?request=364 ... hot new MS algorithm: http://www.ntk.net/2000/04/21/dohcompression.gif ... CONXION/ DAVE WINER love-affair sours before your eyes: http://search.userland.com/default?q=conxion ... http://shop.bn.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?isbn=1572316381 - Green Eggs And SPAM, more like... >> EVENT QUEUE << goto's considered non-harmful Nathan Barleys and Justin Futures alike will be converging at - where else? - London's ICA from next Fri 2000-04-28 for the imaginatively named ONEDOTZERO4. Billed as a "digital moving image festival", in fact it now seems to have settled into a traditional annual routine of pop promos, Playstation FMV, manga toons, people praising Chris "Aphex Twin videos" Cunningham and, as is now believed to be compulsory at these sorts of events, a showing of the "Meeting People Is Easy" Radiohead film. http://www.onedotzero.com/ - "Nathan Barley" credited on that new dotcomedy show, we note Oh, and someone from "Gothtart Promotions" wrote to say that, in last week's SIGUE SIGUE SPUTNIK concert details, we should have said not Sheffield University, but Sheffield *Hallam* University - "I know it's only one word difference but the two venues are on opposite sides of the city" (a long way to walk in those heels, we imagine). Didn't quibble about the "Fifth Generation of Rock And Roll *above* puppet show" jibe, though. http://www.sputnikworld.com/ - anyone going to LA2 on Sunday? Could be "interesting"... >> TRACKING << sufficiently advanced technology : the gathering On this day, beloved, we should think of those friends who were until recently hammered onto crosses and subjected to extended taunting - but who are now back, back, back, shiny and new. I'm thinking of QT - the nifty C++ class library and former Yoko Ono of open source, now released in a transcendental 2.1 form. Updates include a faster HTML viewer, an even more Windowsy file dialog, some nice network protocol abstraction and a speedier and tighter ship in general. The license is okay now from a open source POV, but tradition requires that must never develop it with the same hand that you have touched a GPL'd program. Oh, and talking of untouchable, Andrew Tanenbaum's MINIX OS is now under a BSD license. Happy now, Linus? http://www.trolltech.com/announce/qt-210.html - includes snipes at Motif: these guys really are trolls! http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/license-list.html - ah, but what about different spellings of licence? http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~perrone/oldsite/feud.html - lama sabachthani! >> MEMEPOOL << hasta la altavista Where's MUGABE?: http://www.visi.com/~sgrantz/dict_fash/ ... proof at last: http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/physics/0004034 ... avoiding kibo-like skills via anagrams: RARELY FORGED DUNCE, CAREER FUNDED GLORY, GREEDY FOUL ARC NERD... using GNUTELLA Search Monitor as "instant messenger"... forthcoming books: hardback "Travels with Samantha", "My Life with the Ars Digita Cult"... "Only 20% of internet ideas have been invented", estimates http://www.lbird.com/ - remainder derived from crashed saucer technology... MTV's TOM GREEN has cancer, Drew Barrymore... http://www.pacificnet.net/~jmh/ - must also enjoy giant Quicktime audio files (for when embedded MIDI isn't romantic enough)... of course, it was Trevor "Buggles" Horn: http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/ietf/Current/msg07156.html ... both the International Monetary Fund (IMF.INT) and Mobilization for Global Justice (A16.ORG) go through the backbone Internet via Cable & Wireless... only *virtually* impossible "for animals to consent to sex with humans" (phew), advises: http://www.goaskalice.columbia.edu/1056.html ... http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,211754,00.html - barely alive imitate ONION... >> GEEK MEDIA << the less rude http://www.tvgohome.com/ TV>> and let's not forget the *real* meaning of Easter: Bank Holiday movie bonanza!... Kelsey "Frasier" Grammer's DOWN PERISCOPE (6pm, Fri, BBC1) isn't that bad - assuming it's not finished already [i don't understand this, dave. it's still afternoon in ... oh. oh dear. - danny] ... Madonna musical EVITA (8.30pm, Fri, BBC1) doesn't even have a cameo from the performer behind the definitive stage interpretation of the role, David Essex... and Fish Called Wanda followup FIERCE CREATURES (9pm, Fri, ITV) would be more amusing if the entire cast were torn apart by Mack trucks, as in Rutger Hauer's THE HITCHER (9pm, Fri, C5)... "Live And Kicking" seems to have been ditched in favour of something called FULLY BOOKED INTERACTIVE (8.45am, Sat, BBC1) - hey, it's no "Wonky Donkey"... the TOP TEN COMEDY RECORDS (9.15pm, Sat, C4) should be far less annoying than Tim Burton's gag-free ID4 spoof MARS ATTACKS (10.15pm, Sat, ITV) - more laughs, albeit unintentional ones, in recut-from-TV-show [BATTLESTAR] GALACTICA DISCOVERS EARTH (4.40pm, Sun, C5)... while FUTURECAST (9pm, Sun, C4) has some good ideas - among the terrible sub-Max Headroom sets and acting... now grown up, Jenny Agutter sees her kids cursed to relive the terrors of her own childhood in remade THE RAILWAY CHILDREN (8pm, Sun, ITV)... Samuel L Jackson's FRESH (12midnight, Mon, C4) easily checkmates all other ghetto-chess movies... most confused title-pun of the year comes from DESPERATELY SEEKING EUTOPIA (11.20pm, Tue, BBC2)... and, while ALISTAIR MCGOWAN'S BIG IMPRESSION (10pm, Wed & Thu, BBC1) is indeed a subtly observed improvement on satirical '60s throwback Rory Bremner, does that in itself justify it being on twice a week?... FILM>> word is that we get the *uncut*, 3-way sex scene version of heavy-handed '80s satire serial-killer chick-flick AMERICAN PSYCHO (http://www.bbfc.co.uk: Passed '18' for strong sex, violence, language and some drug-taking) - the fifth in the ongoing series of "American" movies, picking up the story where "Graffiti", "History X", "Pie", and "Beauty" left off. Phil Collins and Huey Lewis tracks are in the film, but sadly not the soundtrack album... Tim Robbins' rent-paying role in last week's "Mission To Mars" ("Where's Woody?" "He - didn't make it") presumably partly funded his right-on Orson Welles "let's do the show right here" theatrical historo-pic CRADLE WILL ROCK (http://www.capalert.com : arrogance against a father; argumentation; implied intercourse; intercourse with nudity; no idea what the plot was, if any) - a slightly incongruous sequel to evil-nanny thriller "The Hand That Rocks The Cradle"... bickering with your spouse of 15 years? Then it's unclear whether you should or shouldn't take them to ailing "Spinal Tap" director Rob Reiner's extended arguing- divorcees Bruce Willis/ Michelle Pfeiffer "comedy" THE STORY OF US (http://www.capalert.com : violent displays; "Does God exist?"; belittlement of marriage; necking in underwear; sex talk with explicit descriptives and adulterous activities provided teasings of the lower levels of AH Maslow's hierarchy of needs)... otherwise it's one-joke kiddie nonsense like KEVIN AND PERRY GO LARGE (http://www.bbfc.co.uk : Passed '15' for frequent, moderate sexual references and infrequent strong language)... Chevy Chase's SNOW DAY (http://www.capalert.com : "Kiss my [backside]"; urine-soaked snowball; disguised foul word; gratuitous flatulence; organized child aggression against adult authority; suggestive picture; ghosting of female anatomy through clothing; clear theme of trying to make any adult look like a buffoon; no noted issues of cult/ occultism or other issues of great offense to God)... or, a record-breaking attempt that never seemed to make it onto the Roy Castle/ Norris McWhirter/ Cheryl Baker TV show - the world's biggest gang-bang, as documented in SEX: THE ANNABEL CHONG STORY (http://www.bbfc.co.uk : Passed '18' for strong sexual themes and sex), though of course the 251-man record has long been surpassed by such dedicated attempts as http://www.houston500.com ... FEEBDACK>> "You fixed all the typos in the netmarket message," accused ever-vigilant NTK enforcer LLOYD WOOD, referring to the opening "practical memetics" quote in NTK 2000-04-07. "Not on - what is (sic) for?" Well, Lloyd, it might be handy if, say, the author, SALIM FADHLEY (of mindless.com), chose to contact us again, along the lines of "What a shock to see myself featured in the 'silly idiot' bit of NTK... I better be more carefull (sic) where I hyperbolate (sic) in future, I had no idea that such distinguised (sic) eyes would be reading my partially thaught out (sic) comments!" Happy now?... in other news, DAVID QUANTICK and pals finally caved to the demands of heroin users without the Quicktime plugin, and have encoded their "Junkies" smack-com [NTK 2000-03-31] in Real Player as well: http://www.dred.demon.co.uk/junkies/thejunkiespilot.rm ... while ANDY COX complained that he was unable to find the large "pron.wav" file on his copy of Office 97 Professional [NTK 2000-04-14], though he did find a 72 meg "pron.vox" - and now, perhaps understandably, wants to know "What's it for?"... last week's dead-tree round-up contained a couple of omissions (if you see what we mean), at least according to LEE MAGUIRE, who has "seen but not bought" CLICK IT!, the "family internet magazine" - "Doubtless it has an editorial along the lines of 'an internet magazine not targetted at anorak-wearing speccy geeks'," he rages, "but when has there *ever* been a UK internet magazine targetted at anorak-wearing speccy geeks?" - while ADRIAN MOULDER had news of yet-unseen launch MEN'S QUEST (UKP2.45), edited by Angus Kennedy (Angus "Rough Guide To The Internet" Kennedy?), and covering, Adrian believes, "health, travel, books, and fatherhood", rather than being, say, "a 'Forum'-style spin-off of the 'Mayfair' letters page"... but, as ever, it was NTK 2000-04-07's Confectionery Corner that prompted the largest postbag (watch for our US candy import report sometime real soon now), with PAUL BLEZ recommending the "new Yorkie bar *with honeycomb pieces* - but why oh why won't they make a plain chocolate version?", BOBBY MARSH discovering a controversial abuse of the new TREBOR MIGHTY EXTRA STRONG MINTS: http://www.sghms.ac.uk/tictac/trebor.htm , and, brimming with confidence after his appearance in last week's Dead Trees, KEVIN "ALAN" CECIL uncovering a 15p "Strawberry Milky Way" in Suffolk earlier this week - "so revolting", he claims, "it actually did ruin my appetite between meals." His appetite for what, exactly, Kevin fails to specify... >> 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. And have a temporal displacement vortex handy. It is compiled by NTK from stuff they get sent. Registered at the Post Office as "part of the family" http://www.mafiaboy.com/ NEED TO KNOW THEY STOLE OUR REVOLUTION. NOW WE'RE STEALING IT BACK. Archive - http://www.ntk.net/ Unsubscribe? Mail ntknow-unsubscribe@lists.ntk.net Subscribe? Mail ntknow-subscribe@lists.ntk.net NTK now is supported by UNFORTU.NET, and by you: http://www.ntk.net/books (K) 2000 Special Projects. Copying is fine, but include URL: http://www.ntk.net/ Tips, news and gossip to tips@spesh.com Press releases from naive PR people to pr@spesh.com Remember: Your work email may be monitored if sending sensitive material. 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