Need To Know 2000-08-25

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"We will firewall Napster at source - we will block it at your cable company, we will block it at your phone company, we will block it at your [Internet-service provider]. We will firewall it at your PC." - "We will never surrender", promises SONY PICTURES Senior VP ( http://www.uwiretoday.com/computing081700001.html ) ...those PS2 "Trojan Horse" claims more worrying than we thought >> HARD NEWS << open to abuse While roughly similar in actual physical dimensions, the real difference with a Mini-NTK is that we don't put as much effort into checking if the stories are actually true or not. So, for instance, wouldn't it be funny if BBC ONLINE really was "about to sign a deal" (as our source believes) for a customised version of the amusingly named ICQ-based chat/warez client POST-@ ? Post-@'s site promises "Expected" compatibility with AOL, Yahoo and MSN IM networks (and we know how keen they all are on that), plus a "Find files" facility that lets you "Search for files that other users have made public" - typically, your pre-existing "My Music" directory. After all, BBC radio has long pioneered its own CD-"sharing" protocol (permitting listeners to record streaming FM audio, often encouraging them to "request" specific tracks from a central server) - the last thing they want are upstarts like Napster coming along and stealing that entire market. http://www.post-at.com/ - they've both got a commitment to public service broadcasting http://www.unmissableTV.com/tx/talkingtv/paper/article/1,6667,26457,00.html - cash that could have been spent on more UKP100 TV shows! Dotcoms? We remember when this were all .nets and .orgs as far as the eye could see. Well, those imagined halcyon days returned briefly this week when a faulty update from NSI caused four of the net's root-servers to forget that .com ever existed - again [NTK 2000-08-04, NTK 1997-07-18]. Looks like the transition to gtld-servers.net isn't going quite as smoothly as you might expect. So with all the bad publicity, maybe now wouldn't be the best time to announce changes to the whole damn system - or would it? NSI have just announced a trial of a multilingual unicode-based domain system, hired from root-zone "competitors" i-DNS. What with all the ranting ICANN conspiracies (or ICANN-spiracies, if you will) of the post-Postel net, we've forgotten who we trust least. http://www.i-dns.net/newsroom/news/I-US000823-01.html.en - grab the amusing reverse encodings while you still can http://members.icann.org/nom.html - low interest blamed on lack of ugly, drunken dwarves And what "slow news week" would be complete without another exotic AMAZON loophole? Amazon.co.uk are currently selling the top 5 CD singles for UKP1.99, which wouldn't be *that* exciting, except that the delivery charge on 2 CDs is a mere UKP1.77 + VAT (UKP2.08), bringing your grand total to UKP6.06. Combine this with the fact that, thanks to the way they deal with VAT, an Amazon UKP5 gift voucher [see NTKs 2000-06-23 & 30] is, apparently, worth UKP5.88 against anything which is not a book (ie which includes VAT in its price), and you're looking at 2 CD singles for just 9 pence each! As with the previous "Wilbur Smith"-based scheme, the obvious flaw is the assumption that you'd be prepared to spend 18p on (at time of writing) two of: "Out Of Your Mind", "If This Ain't Love", "Rock DJ", "Music" or "I Turn To You" - though, of course, you can always send them to a friend, get another UKP5 voucher for yourself, and repeat the whole process ad infinitum. http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/tg/feature/-/67325/ - hey, they haven't kicked us off their referral scheme yet >> ANTI-NEWS << berating the obvious ALTAVISTA withdraws never-launched "free calls ISP", blames exactly the same market conditions that existed 6 months ago: http://www.foxglove.co.uk/terms_and_conditions.html ... GUARDIAN 2000-08-21's "Bluff Your Way Through Any New Media Conversation" guide contains curious references to "DoA (Denial of Access)" attacks, "Out of the box (thinking): analysts who need to get out more", and "The Need To Know network, a groovily retro HTML site for insiders: www.ntk.com" ... TIMES INTERFACE acquires a "debugged" Playstation 2 which, bafflingly, uses Japanese convention of "O" for Yes, "X" for No: http://www.the-times.co.uk/interface/insight/story802.html ... "Based on feedback from British Airways, CONCORDE flight dynamics at lower speeds have been enhanced" euphemises http://www.microsoft.com/games/fs2000/downloads_fs2000update.asp ... DREAMCAST to hit UKP149 in Sep... estate agents strangely aroused when you move pointer over "Enquiry Form" button: http://www.pearsons.com ... STEVIE WONDER fans facing wait of 11 years: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004TA39/ ... usual, perhaps excessive honesty from BIG BROTHER site: http://www.bigbrother.terra.com/news/news_main_old.html ... >> TRACKING << sufficiently advanced technology : the gathering Most of the publicity opportunities leading up to the launch of KEVIN WARWICK's new book - "QI: The Quest For Intelligence" - have now passed without incident, no doubt partly thanks to community robotics monitoring group KEVIN WARWICK WATCH, who remained at "full readiness" during the entire period. The book itself can only be described as "reassuringly bonkers", and spends most of its time recounting amazing feats of intelligence from the animal kingdom, to demonstrate how it's possible to be smart without being any good at IQ tests. In which case, Warwick concludes, how do we know that robots aren't already cleverer than us - just in ways that we don't readily appreciate, with our all-too human biases favouring (say) the ability to fend for yourself, to effectively recognise a wide range of real-world objects, and/or move unassisted across a variety of terrains? Nice big writing, too, offering perhaps a hint of the professor's next target audience: the larval geeks of THE ROYAL INSTITUTION CHRISTMAS LECTURES (from 2000-12-14) which, with their usual emphasis on practical demonstrations, will hopefully feature several youngsters receiving live neuro-electrical implants, all the better to receive his wordless instructions to "rise up" against their fleshy human masters. http://www.kevinwarwick.org.uk/ - sorry, still processing the backlog of old sightings http://www.ri.ac.uk/Christmas/details2000.html - "Science fiction gives us ideas". No kidding, Kevin... >> MEMEPOOL << hasta la altavista ELIZA software out-smarts AOL chat users (if you only read one, read "five"): http://fury.com/aoliza/ ... elitism-free NATHAN-only HOTMAIL clone http://131.111.234.28/~ro/faq/ accidentally reveals "Society"-style hideous, extendable, grasping arm: http://131.111.234.28/~ro/about/poster.html ... nothing sacred any more - TVGOHOME guy diversifies into symbiotic Radio Times parasite THE INNOVATIONS CATALOGUE: http://www.zeppotron.com/unnovations/ (and asks "please stop mailing me http://www.trollied.com/scooter.jpg ")... DANCING STAGE makes kids imitate Carlton from Fresh Prince Of Bel Air: http://www.ddrfreak.com/videos/Mel_B_-_Put_Your_Faith_in_Me.mpeg ... MS gives over-literal answer to "What's your handicap?": http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2000/aug00/08-18gamers.asp ... famed POWER OF GRAYSKULL hasn't faded as much you'd expect: http://www.he-man.org/fun_stuff/grayskull_tour/ ... GOD vs OPEN SOURCE: http://www.thedailybread.net/users/cudi/main.html ... >> GEEK MEDIA << the less sold-out www.tvgohome.com TV>> the BBC begins its Bank Holiday bonanza with Rik Mayall, Jane "Tesco Ad" Horrocks and Danny Aiello - together at last! - in the notoriously poor BRING ME THE HEAD OF MAVIS DAVIS (10.20pm, Fri, BBC1) - we'd rather they Televised Mayall's Quad-Bike Head Injuries... C5 wheels out another of its "Sci- Fi Weekends", with Christopher "Nigel Tufnel" Guest's misfiring remake ATTACK OF THE 50FT WOMAN (12.50am, Sat, C5), and a Gerry Anderson-a-thon incorporating old SPACE: 1999 (12.40pm, Sun), JOE 90 (1.40pm, Sun), and STINGRAY (4.50pm, Sun)... up against, presumably, the "You're about to see some serious *stuff*" version of the first BACK TO THE FUTURE (1pm, Sun, BBC1) film, plus a bumper bunch of overrated sci-fi spoofs: THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (9.55pm, Sat, BBC2), David Cronenberg's SHIVERS: THE PARASITE MURDERS (11.30pm, Sat, BBC2), and Duran Duran-inspiring '60s soft-porn yawn BARBARELLA (11.55pm, Mon, BBC1)... bracketing these treats are a deja-vu-ish batch of semi-recent repeats, including Carrie- Anne "The Matrix" Moss shoot-em-up SABOTAGE (9pm, Sat, C5), last shown September 1999; Christopher "Back To The Future" Lloyd's summer-camp comedy CAMP NOWHERE (10.35pm, Tue, ITV), last shown December 1997; comedy-free "Groundhog Day"-alike 12:01 (1.45pm, Tue, C4), last shown August 1998; and HORIZON's "New Asteroid Danger" (9pm, Tue, BBC2) - well, maybe it was "New" when it was last shown in March 1999... genuine novelties include Heinz Wolff applying a little Germanic scientific rigour to his reports from the NOTTING HILL CARNIVAL (11.20pm, Mon, BBC2)... plus, inexplicably, a double tribute to CHARLES BRONSON: BRITAIN'S MOST DANGEROUS PRISONER (9pm, Thu, C4), and the rather less judgemental CHARLES BRONSON: BRITAIN'S HARDEST MAN (10.55pm, Tue, C5)... FILM>> "not a particularly good Jackie Chan film, but not a bad Owen Wilson one" is the verdict on sub-Rush-Hour kung-fu comedy Western SHANGHAI NOON (http://www.capalert.com : urination in public; two men in bath tubs; sex "kittens"; pictograph of animal intercourse) - oddly, it doesn't feature the really big train explosion that's in the trailer, though there's a hint of the BBFC relaxing their famed anti-nunchuks stance http://www.dvd-debate.com/Archive/april3.shtml#17.04 ... otherwise it's "battle of the post-modern teen slashers" with Joshua "Dawson's Creek" Jackson's bad-meme-rising GOSSIP (http://www.screenit.com : NORMAN REEDUS plays their other roommate, a multimedia artist who similarly goes along with the gossip plan, smokes, and drinks to the point of passing out)... and an intriguing reversal of Joe-Bob Briggs' "everyone who has sex must die" rule in the virgin-murdering CHERRY FALLS (imdb trivia: cuts include graphic sexual activity during the climactic orgy sequence and the death of a character named Annette - supposedly the longest in horror movie history)... and no killings - though you may find yourself wishing for some - in Robert Carlyle/ Ray Winstone/ Gina "Brass Eye" McKee's kids' footie fantasy THERE'S ONLY ONE JIMMY GRIMBLE (http://www.bbfc.co.uk/ : passed '12' for moderate violence and sex references)... >> 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 "the bar in Blackpool that looks like a Photoshop fake, but isn't" http://www.ntk.net/2000/08/25/bar.html 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 All communication is for publication, unless you beg. Press releases from naive PR people to pr@spesh.com Remember: Your work email may be monitored if sending sensitive material. Sending >500KB attachments is forbidden by the Geneva Convention. Your country may be at risk if you fail to comply.