Need To Know 2000-04-28

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"Playing violent video games like Doom, Wolfenstein 3D or Mortal Combat [SIC] can increase aggressive thoughts, feelings and behaviour, say researchers" http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_720000/720707.stm ...largely out of irritation that you haven't got a more modern machine >> HARD NEWS << open wounds We were worried we weren't going to have anything nasty to say about BT's 40UKP ADSL July roll-out, at least not until they actively start buggering it up on a case by case basis. But, as ever, we misunderestimated them. If you, too, were wondering how exactly "a hidden area" of the BTopenworld site was "accessed" and the details of all those pre-registering for the service passed on to "unauthorised persons", we hope the links below help. In a nutshell: they forgot to turn off directory browsing, and stored logs of all the SQL transactions in the same directory as the PHP scripts. Not that it'd have helped if they *had* turned off directory browsing, because when the site's registration PHP script crashed, it told you the "hidden" file names anyway. BTopenworld's General Manager, Robert Salvoni assured the potential customers that BT would be contacting those who accessed this "hidden area" and get written confirmation that they wouldn't spread the data. Um, Robert: I don't think you get it. You don't have their addresses. They have *yours*. Oh, and Mr E Sheldon of London? Thanks for mentioning us in the "how did you hear about this" box... http://www.ntk.net/2000/04/28/signuplist1.gif - how very "hidden" http://www.ntk.net/2000/04/28/dohopenworld.gif - either way you look at it It's been implied (if only by the voices in our heads) that only cranks are really opposed to the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill. So, just to give you the latest list of civil rights lunatics joining in opposition: well, rather predictably, the Loyal Opposition themselves ("his marvellous new technology should not be blighted by overmighty Government interference."), followed neatly by the ISPA and LINX ("When we consulted the ISPA and LINX members, their statements have been uniformly negative, and nearly all Internet traffic in the UK is carried by the members of ISPA and LINX.") - oh, and the Data Protection Commissioner ("The Commissioner takes the view that the privacy of individuals can be compromised equally by the interception of communications, surveillance, and access to encrypted data. Indeed intrusive surveillance could be the more invasive."). Third reading is on May 8th. Let's see if the government can find someone who actually likes the new law by then. http://www.fipr.org/rip/ - strange bedfellows, indeed Viewers of C4's DOTCOMEDY (Fridays, 11pm) will no doubt already be impressed by the level of technical expertise on display: the determination to show all pages in an ill-fitting box that doesn't fill the screen; the swift collapse of their own site after the first transmission; the casual use of the term "MPEG" to describe any online video. Reassurance, of a sort, comes in an email, apparently from one of dotcomedy's researchers, received by retro-telly resource TVCREAM: "We would like to use the theme from 'Roobarb' to go with a clip on the show," the researcher explains. "I have downloaded the clip from your website, but I need to clear the publishing for use. Could you please advise me on how I go about doing this?" You know, we think we saw a "researching a telly program" FAQ page somewhere on one of these Web page things... http://www.dotcomedytv.com/rig/ - as if you hadn't been insulted enough... http://tv.cream.org - ner-ner-ner-ner, ner-ner-ner-ner, ner-ner-ner NER ner-ner >> ANTI-NEWS << berating the obvious DAIKATANA "towering mediocrity" - Daily Radar ... JOHN MARKOFF, famously trustworthy NYT journalist, leaks results of Ars Electronica award - which he himself judged ... not the stock option pack we were hoping for: http://www.ntk.net/2000/04/28/dohstockex.gif ... EXCITE's new free ISP forbids game servers, streaming video, fun: http://www.thefreeinternet.net/service.htm ... COREL says that if it's not allowed to take over BORLAND, it'll go bust... DAIKATANA "sucks the sweat off of dogs balls" - Evil Avatar ... INTERVAL LABS: a Paul "Falco" Allen special ... http://www.dailyradar.com/features/game_feature_page_646_1.html ... www.wallpaper.com is: exactly as you'd expect... DAIKATANA "best game I ever wrote" - John Romero http://www.oldmanmurray.com/realnews.wcs ... oh, and you thought that CD-ROM of director's addresses was bad: http://www.ntk.net/2000/04/28/dohscoot.gif ... oh, those Jedi Mind Tricks: http://www.ntk.net/2000/04/28/dohamazon.jpg ... IBM provides software with which to hang yourself: http://m.doubleclick.net/viewad/342415-light_468x6010k3loopaaaa.gif >> EVENT QUEUE << goto's considered non-harmful Another fun-packed Bank Holiday for agitators everywhere, with not just the much-advertised fight between rival anarchist factions [see NTK 2000-03-31] at the FORTEAN TIMES UNCONVENTION (2000-04-29/30, Kensington's Commonwealth Institute, London), but also MAYDAY 2000 (from today, we think, all across London) - a "Festival of Anti-Capitalist Ideas And Action". The latter seems to be the one advertised around town with stickers featuring that notorious stooge of the military-industrial complex, Cartman - leading the casual reader to perhaps misread the "Capitalism Sucks Ass!" slogan as "Cartman Sucks Ass!", and to conclude that the whole thing's some sort of misguided protest against South Park. http://www.forteantimes.com/uncon/uncon2000/ - unconventional lack of "index.html" page http://www.freespeech.org/mayday2k/index2k.htm - now even the anarchists have a Flash "skip intro" >> TRACKING << sufficiently advanced technology : the gathering The super-distributed super-distributing super-spamming MP3 glory that is Gnutella would be even more super, we feel, if we could ever get it to work. Never fear: for lamers who could never find a decent server to connect to, comes Cap'n Bry's GNUTELLA WEB GATEWAY. Search the Gnutella Net for your favourite, uh, backup copies, and download via simple URLs: that's the theory. In practice, we couldn't get this to work either, leading us to believe that either a) the latest Gnutella clients don't allow anything but other Gnutella's from grabbing files over HTTP, or b) its collective mind hates us. Never mind: link included because it's fun to play with, has the PHP source so you can tweak and copy, and because it's also got a nifty affiliate link to myplay.com's "music locker" service, so you don't even have to download the files to your own machine. Particularly hilarious, given MyPlay's CEO's recent dissing of Napster. "A business model built on theft" is how Doug Camplejohn described his competition to Red Herring, while MyPlay "operate this side of the legal line". Line just got closer, Doug: whose side are you on? http://capnbry.dyndns.org/gnutella/gs.php - nutty! http://www.artistdirect.com/metallica/ - "this is Metallica, after all. They can take it" >> MEMEPOOL << hasta la altavista inevitably: http://resumes.dice.com/mozilla ... the people's AERON (altho not sure how many would want to sit on a Caper) ... asking "does JEEVES have an evil twin?" ... SHATNER to cover Numan's "Cars" ... that whole "anti-posers" thing? surely just - A POSE! http://www.stevoland.co.uk/posers/ throw 'em a curve: http://www.enormicom.com/09.html ... PHIL KATZ dies trying to compress world's alcohol into smallest possible space ... Falco remix album by 'noisy noisenik' Kid 606... interesting Amazon recommendations for http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0860914623/ ... it *is* 2000AD: http://www.newscientist.com/news/news_223622.html >> GEEK MEDIA << get out less TV>> after the over-literal interpretation of last week's 100 Greatest TV *Moments*, here's hoping they play each of THE 100 GREATEST TV ADS *in full* (9.05pm, Sat, C4) - they should do 100 Top TV Title Sequences next, we reckon... Cindy Crawford / William Baldwin actioner FAIR GAME (11.10pm, Sat, ITV) has few redeeming features - except Crawford's, Steven Berkoff's terrible overacting, and a sex scene in which Baldwin shoots a bad guy... and, continuing the "curse" of the actually OK-ish THE CROW: CITY OF ANGELS (10.50pm, Sat, C5), we heard that someone was once killed while inking the comic-book... after last Sun's "Happy Birthday Shakespeare", this week's BBC1 9pm Sunday evening 30-something nonsense starring Dervla Kirwan and Amanda Holden is called HEARTS AND BONES, should you care... C5's supernatural chicks night, featuring original SMG-free movie BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER (9pm, Sun, C5), spills over to infect Neve Campbell's unacknowledged "Charmed" inspiration THE CRAFT (10pm, Sun, C4)... and child-genius composer Daniel Pemberton mails to alert/warn readers of his "speed metal theme from Dallas" contribution to DALLAS NIGHT (from 8pm, Mon, C4)... chipping away at your natural objections to "going digital", ITV2 starts running ultra- recent episodes of topical uber-chat LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN (11.50pm, Mon-Fri)... tough call though for anyone who has to get up for animated STARSHIP TROOPERS (7am, Tue- Fri, Sky1) - who just lost the "Heavy Gear" contract to the Reboot guys http://www.roughneckchronicles.com/ ... while, finally, good to see the genetic expertise acquired by Debra Messing in PREY (1.30am, Thu, C4) going to good use in her new ad for Clairol "Nice And Easy" hair colouring, in which she attributes her "lovely auburn hair" to the superior genetic heritage of "[her] mother"... FILM>> "Far closer to the spirit of Trek fandom than many actual Star Trek films" seems to paraphrase the general feeling about surprisingly satisfying spoof GALAXY QUEST (http://www.capalert.com/capreports/ : torture [some unseen but heard]; monstrous alien with evil intent; death by weapon; fantasy gore of spewing alien flesh; accusation of sexual immorality in a bravado style; progressively exposing damage to woman's clothing; at least 23 instances of excessive cleavage) - Sigourney "Ghostbusters" Weaver hilarious as ever, while Tim Allen does a better Shatner than even Shatner does nowadays... "all bets are off" chortles Jenny McCarthy-killer SCREAM 3 (http://www.capalert.com/capreports/ : fights; firearms and gunfire to kill; a mannequin beheaded; reckless driving to rescue; woman in shower; woman in towel only; adults in underwear; vulgar accusation; story telling of immoral sex), though even these self-referential teens have to admit they won't win over many non Scream 1 & 2 viewers at this late stage... otherwise there's the easily confused arthouse ponderings of Jim Jarmusch's GHOST DOG: THE WAY OF THE SAMURAI (imdb: independent-film / assassination / bird / hip-hop / hitman / ice-cream / mafia / samurai)... Wim Wenders' Bono-scripted THE MILLION DOLLAR HOTEL (imdb: sequel / murder / painting / retarded / suicide / video-footage / detective / hooker / love / independent-film / misfit)... or, for the real purists, Ralph Fiennes in the limited-release "personal history of modern Hungary", spanning "150 years" (Time Out) SUNSHINE (imdb: austria-hungary / independent-film / epic / fencing / holocaust / jewish-culture)... FOREIGN FOODS>> following NTK 2000-04-07's rallying call for sightings of this year's new ice-cream crop, Finland's MICHAEL WALSH wrote to say "The only thing new about WALLS SOLERO ICE is that it's from Walls," going on to boast - "We've had Solero Ice here for at least a couple of years. It's basically a francised internationalised scam like Magnum - only in the case of Solero it's orange ice with a vanilla ice-cream filing on a stick. Sounds very much like what you've been able to buy for years doesn't it?" Well, now you mention it, yes it does - but there is, we're sure, something "different" about the "ice" version. It's always nice to get a fresh perspective from the Linus-homeland, though - as proved by Michael's subsequent description of the terrifying arrival of Weetabix BANANABIX in that normally peaceable and progressive nation... elsewhere in the Linux-branded edible world, SIMON HEWISON recommended the import-only Penguin-branded caffeinated PEPPERMINTS from http://www.peppermints.com/ - "ideal if you like Altoids and coffee". "What's more," he adds, perhaps in reference to their 'Warning: for use while driving or operating heavy machinery', "the guys who make it seem rather bizarre"... JAMES "CRAZYNET, CRAZY GUY" WALLIS spotted a "French-fry vending machine with integral deep-fat fryer" http://www.tastyfries.com/machine.cfm ... while music-hall star ADAM ATKINSON spoke highly of New Zealand's "bewilderingly large range of strange but wonderful chocolate bars", including the "MORO ENERGY BAR - a revved up plain chocolate Mars Bar"... but globe-trotting confectionery kings of the month (and not just 'cos they sent us a whole box of the stuff) are, indeed, "those guys who do American snack imports" CYBERCANDY http://www.cybercandy.co.uk . Imagine numerous weird, alternate-reality analogues of familiar UK brands, (though often divided into two small Bounty-like sub- bars, and almost invariably featuring peanut butter), like: OH HENRY! (fudgey Snickers), 3 MUSKETEERS (a rich, dark, giant Milky Way, with "45% Less Fat Than Average Of The Leading Chocolate Brands"), BABY RUTH (a curious, wafer-free Picnic or Lion), 100 GRAND (Nestle Dairy Crunch?), ALMOND JOY (self- explanatory Bounty-alike), and of course infinite variations on REESE'S PIECES - with the promise of Antipodean and Japanese sweets to come! Plus, they're the only online food e-tailer we've seen to operate a pay-you-in-chocolate affiliates scheme... >> 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 "gone native" http://www.icioregon.com/Personnel/OBrien.htm NEED TO KNOW THEY STOLE OUR REVOLUTION. NOW WE'RE STEALING IT BACK. Archive - http://www.ntk.net/ Unsubscribe? 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