Need To Know 2002-11-01

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"Still, the rest did me good, I learnt all about the Movie Industry and got to see things from a consumer's viewpoint again. Then I noticed something. The games world had got boring. Really boring without me..." ...and relatively bandanna-free - "Games Animal" DAVE PERRY modestly announces his return http://community.channel4.com/6/ubb.x?a=tpc&f=7986032211&m=9216033741 >> HARD NEWS << photocopying fumes DAVID DOCHERTY, MD for Broadband Content for the telco Telewest, is more than just the thoughtful man in the polo neck that his Guardian column depicts. He writes thrillers too. His latest novel, Killing Jar, has just come out, and someone's clearly been thinking hard about ways to publicise it. On the 28th of October, messages pointing to a site called mcleaninternationalmining.com began popping up all over the newsgroups. Now, as frustrated Usenetter Adam Aglionby spotted using the simple sword of Google and the trusty shield of whois, McClean Mining only exists in Docherty's book. The fake company's fake domain was registered from a Bristol address and all the postings were sent from Blue Yonder, Telewest's own ISP. According to Adam, Docherty mailed him saying the posts are "not intended to be spam. It's meant to be a drama". Or could they perhaps be broadband's long-awaited killer app? Sending thousands of Usenet posts via Telewest's broadband accounts, sneakily advertising a commercial product? And if so, can we expect Blue Yonder to update its AUP accordingly? http://groups.google.com/groups?q=www.mcleaninternationalmining.com/ - if you read comp.mail.sendmail, you may also enjoy... http://makeashorterlink.com/?C1A045052 - ...Adam's detective work http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,7558,792676,00.html - the "transformation of the Net into a quality distribution medium" http://shared.blueyonder.co.uk/acceptable_use_policy.html - or the transformation of publicists with the cluestick? "But there isn't any rule against copying stuff off a website, is there?" Not at THE DAILY MAIL there doesn't seem to be, where staff have continued their enthusiastic pillaging of online content with substantial yet uncredited lifts from - this time - retro telly site TV CREAM. Regular readers will recall The Mail's similar forgetfulness in attributing the sources of material they "borrowed" from high-tech bitchfests "Things My Girlfriend And I Have Argued About" and THE REGISTER, the difference being that TV Cream have spent all the money they were saving for proper legal representation on extremely rare Clangers videos. The upshot of this is: they'd genuinely like to hear from any NTK readers who'd like to have a go at being their lawyer, on some sort of "no win, no fee" basis - email the usual tips@spesh.com if you're interested, using the cryptic subject line: "Declan Swann - You've Been Gone Too Long". http://www.guardian.co.uk/diary/story/0,3604,822207,00.html - "and here's one someone else made earlier" http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/16979.html - of course all copyright is evil, but while it's there... >> ANTI-NEWS << berating the obvious because you demanded it - all-new PUERILE GOOGLE MISSPELLINGS: http://www.google.com/search?q=%22proven+mythology%22 , and "heavy duty wench". This week's cliche: things which didn't http://www.google.com/search?q=%22arise+out+of+a+vacuum%22 - or the somewhat more poetic "The internet is like"... more old favourites - BBC sceptical about speed, efficiency of 3G: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/2367829.stm ; looking forward to their upcoming illustration "White Cat Lost in Blizzard on Moors": http://www.bbc.co.uk/oxford/news/2002/10/electricity.shtml ; the Broadbandy Landings: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2350963.stm ... "Buy A.A. Gill Is Away with A.A. Gill Is Away today!": http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0753816814/ ... who'd win a fight between: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/2367313.stm and INFLATABLE BURGER: http://www.ntk.net/2002/11/01/dohburger.gif ... http://www.oxford-union.org/usage/usage_200210.html - spot the slashdotting... good to see the IT sector picking up again: http://www.vrl.co.uk/list.html ... >> EVENT QUEUE << goto's considered non-harmful And where are they now, the hip young gunslingers of THE INDUSTRY STANDARD EUROPE? Georgia Cameron-Clarke, off in New York somewhere, Mike "Butch" Butcher, "reworking" his mbites newsletter, James Ledbetter writing a tell-all chronicle of where it all went wrong, entitled "Starving To Death On $200 Million A Year". But the one we're keeping an eye on is former London Correspondent Polly Sprenger, who's exchanged "routers" (made by Cisco) for "routers" (made by Black and Decker), and who'll be auctioning the creations of her fellow female woodworkers from 6:30-9:30pm, Thu 2002-11-07, The Carpenters' Hall, London EC1, tickets UKP10 in advance, UKP15 on the day. Say what you like, but at least she's gone out and learned a real skill - as has former Mondo 2000 contributor (and current Vice-Chairman of the EFF) JOHN PERRY BARLOW, who'll be wowing the crowds at the ICA, from 7.30pm, Wed 2002-11-06, UKP10, as part of their almost Klingon-esque WHATDOYOUWANTTODOWITHIT? "digital festival". http://www.ica.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=9621 - and when do you want to do what you want to do with it? Now! http://www.fifty.cc/womeninbuilding/ - "often as a second career" http://gllug.linux.co.uk/20021102.html - on Sat: gathering of the local Linuxmen's guild http://www.robots.ox.ac.uk/~aisoc/events.html - in Oxford on Monday: Kevin Warwick once again at large >> MEMEPOOL << ceci n'est pas une http://www.gagpipe.com/ CORPORATE ANTHEMS re-relaunched by ZDNet - but for how long?: http://techupdate.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t481-s2122414,00.html ... "people might consider a double cheeseburger and milkshake to be the same [...] as a milkshake and double cheeseburger": www.asa.org.uk/adjudications/show_adjudication.asp?adjudication_id=34845 ... "be" Geordi LaForge: http://www.cab.ca/ ... "Sometimes Credited As: Ima Cunt": http://us.imdb.com/Name?Anonymous ... http://www.barclaycard.co.uk/ has firm grasp of international sign-language gesture for "wanker"... one reason to Google before naming your company: http://www.roman-showers.com/ - vs http://www.odd-sex.com/info/gloss661.htm ... EASYGROUP: http://www.easygroup.co.uk/NewIdeas/condtitions.html believes "in the free flow of ideas" - vs "no use should be made of the 'easy' name (or anything similar to it) without our consent": http://www.easygroup.co.uk/NewIdeas/ideas.html ... oh, we'll give them a link just for laying off the "Dave Green" trolls: http://www.antics.org.uk/memes.htm ... >> GEEK MEDIA << get out less TV>> they've fast-cut it to keep it interesting, but THE OSBOURNES (9.30pm, Fri, C4) could still possibly be improved if it was about a family of "portable" CP/M machines instead: http://www.davemathews.com/osborne.html ... the dangers of mod-chipping your kids are explored in SOUTH PARK: THE MOVIE (10.30pm, Fri, C4)... and Sigourney Weaver battles a psycho sending her enormous email attachments in COPYCAT (11.05pm, Sat, BBC1)... "Gay Nazi" week kicks off with a homosexual infiltration of the National Front in TRUE SPIES (9pm, Sun, BBC2), the curiously titled YOUNG, NAZI AND PROUD (9pm, Mon, C4) and the obligatory REVEALED: WAS HITLER GAY? (9pm, Tue, C5)... it still takes nearly 3 hours to get through even the non-director's cut of Jim Cameron's THE ABYSS (9pm, Mon, C5)... and Julie Burchill exploits her passing resemblance to a squeaky-voiced Dana Scully in WHAT KILLED MY DAD? (9pm, Mon, BBC4)... the good news is, of course, that those bloody Ewoks would never have survived the destruction of Death Star II in STAR WARS EPISODE VI: RETURN OF THE JEDI (8pm, Tue, ITV): http://www.theforce.net/swtc/holocaust.html ... each week, Jamie Oliver kills and eats the least proficient would-be chef who dares to chance their luck in JAMIE'S KITCHEN (9pm, Tue, C4)... Louis Theroux stops asking annoying questions and just films the bizarre behaviour of Tony Blackburn, Leo Sayer and Bernard Manning, aka THE ENTERTAINERS (10pm, Tue & Thu, BBC2) ... and it's http://www.mcsweeneys.net/ collaborator Arthur Bradford behind special-needs vox-pop one-off HOW'S YOUR NEWS? (11.40pm, Tue, C4) - an improvement on "Have I Got News For You?" any day... FILM>> "Resident Evil" meets the BBC's 1981 "Day Of The Triffids" in Danny Boyle's brutal largely-shot-on-video post- apocalypse zombie-fest 28 DAYS LATER ( http://www.bbfc.co.uk/ : Contains very strong language, strong violence and horror), starring Naomie "Tomorrow People" Harris... Ben Affleck and Samuel L Jackson remake "Planes, Trains And Automobiles", but with less emphasis on the laughs, in urban revenger CHANGING LANES ( http://www.capalert.com/capreports/changinglanes.htm : adolescent disrespect; adult tantrum with property damage; portrayal that a few good deeds offset intentional wrongdoings, ease the conscience of the wrongdoer)... the Halloween horrors continue with WES CRAVEN PRESENTS: THEY ( http://www.bbfc.co.uk/ : Contains frequent strong threat and menace) - and surely it should be "Them", or "Those"?... as Adam Sandler plays his usual man-idiot in Capra bastardisation MR DEEDS ( http://www.screenit.com/movies/2002/mr_deeds.html : [Winona Ryder] wears a shirt that looks somewhat transparent - and we can somewhat see the shape of her breasts and nipples beneath it in her bra)... >> 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 "when someone asks you if you're a God... you say YES!" http://www.googlism.com/index.htm?ism=dave+green&type=1 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.ntkmart.com/ (K) 2002 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.