Need To Know 2002-12-13

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"In a statement to BBC News Online, eBay said it 'never asks its users for their user ID and password'..." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2564725.stm ...which can make logging in a bit tricky >> HARD NEWS << inflammable trews It's the trial of the century! And, look, over there, by that fjord - another trial of the century! DMITRY SKLYAROV and JON JOHANSEN are the coders in court this week, both caught in the crossfire of the US DMCA. Though, as it happens, neither are being prosecuted under it. Dmitry isn't, because he had his case postponed in return for testifying about his employers, Elcomsoft. Jon isn't, because he's not even in the US (not that that helped Elcomsoft). Jon is in Norway, and there, the state prosecutors are insisting very hard that they're not after him because US MPAA wanted him smacked down for DeCSS. No, they're prosecuting him because - one dark, Norwegian night - he did knowingly break into his own computer and steal proprietary data (which he'd previously bought) right from under his very own nose. Meanwhile, Dmitry is testifying in a foreign country in a foreign case that accuses his Moscow-based employers of wilfully breaking a law whose jurisdiction is six thousand miles away. "Did you *care* you were breaking US law?", asked the prosecutor of Dmitry, damningly. "No. I didn't care.", said Dmitry, going on to explain that, at the time, sitting in a Moscow flat working for a Russian company, he was rather more concerned with quaint local customs. A related Quebec case against Elcomsoft for not publishing their program in French, and an ongoing Saudi case against all women currently driving cars in London, will be eagerly awaiting both court's conclusions. http://www.oblomovka.com/entries/2002/12/09#1039499520 - from our court correspondent in San Jose http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=6686 - the inquirer reports from their newspaper-reading Norwegian desk We've seen Artificial Intelligence departments on fire, off the Cowgate underpass - this week's incineration of Edinburgh University's 80 South Bridge building is sad for many reasons: the loss of the AI library (possibly containing early copies of a proto-NTK-style newsletter - called "The Mighty Napkin" - we did there in 1991), plus the AI dept's undisputed position as one of the UK's few world-class computing facilities situated directly above an amusement arcade. On the plus side, no-one was injured, and if it *was* the work of a Terminator- like freedom fighter from the future, attempting to prevent the creation of a sentient AI which would one day exterminate all mankind, then at least they missed the robotics facility, just up the road at Forrest Hill. We can think of no greater tribute to the staff and students' hardcore credentials than this last-ditch email sent by Head of Department Michael Fourman to anyone tempted to take advantage of the increased terminal availability: "There is a fire in South Bridge," he wrote, at around 11.30pm. "This message is intended to advise anyone who might be in the building. LEAVE IMMEDIATELY." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/2558655.stm - we can rebuild it... http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/28531.html - just weeks after the Twente NOC went up. You do the math. Long time NTK subscriber and suspected agent provocateur STEFAN MAGDALINSKI writes of the government's ongoing, near invisible ID card consultation: "for those who don't enjoy 30 meg PDFs, I've htmled the doc and put it here." Where the PDF is the UK government's 10 bazillion page consultation doc on "Weapons of Card Entitlement". You've still got until January 31st to read it, and perhaps change the government's belief that their plans "have one backing from most of the people who have given [us] their views". Oh, and the here bit is... here. http://www.isness.org/idcard - no, no back there. You missed it. http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/dob/ecu.htm - knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake... >> ANTI-NEWS << berating the obvious special seasonal GOOGLE MISSPELLING - would you like a taste of my http://www.google.com/search?q=%22home+pate%22 ?... another brave attempt to transcribe those broad Scottish accents: http://www.air-scotland.com/main.asp ... they don't appear to be monks, and they're certainly not "fighting" either: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004CPQJ/ ... "and our customers? Hey, you leave them out of this": http://www.ntk.net/2002/12/13/dohbto.gif ... test data with a sense of humour: http://www.startribune.com/stories/1757/ ... to have one "blah" in your name is a misfortune, but two?: http://www.ntk.net/2002/12/13/dohblah.gif ... truth in filenames - first image under "Dance Lines and Cheer Teams": http://www.cord.edu/faculty/pyle/pedagogy/99410/team6/99410t6p04.htm ... "those with a high-speed connection" surf net more, study says: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/2562289.stm ... to go with your "poo salad": http://www.ntk.net/2002/12/13/dohpiss.gif ... >> EVENT QUEUE << goto's considered non-harmful No info on whether they got that 48-port 100mbit switch they were asking for, but "day tickets" are still available for the G2002 BACK TO THE BUNKER LAN EXTRAVAGANZA (from 9am-8pm, Sat 2002-12-14 to 2002-12-16, Kelvedon Hatch, Essex, UKP10 per day) - though, as we recall, the "tourist attraction" part of the facility remains open to the public during daylight hours anyway, providing bemused visitors with a sobering tableau of life after nuclear armageddon. Our suggested dress code for the event would be - as ever - United Nations Weapons Inspector (blue shirt, flak jacket, large white four-wheel- drive vehicle), though you have to make more of an effort if you'd prefer to take part in this year's parade of the drunken Father Christmas's, aka SANTACON (Saturday 2002-12-14, mystery start time/ location somewhere in central London) - the cheaper and shoddier your Santa costume, the better. http://g2002.bash.sh/ - vs http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/home/gaming.asp http://www.santacon.co.uk/ - Bloody Hotmail. Bloody secret meeting point. Ho Bloody Ho. >> TRACKING << sufficiently advanced technology : the gathering Most multimedia management programs (iPhoto, etc) concentrate on the arduous task of organising home photography archives - naturally the largest repository of visual data kept on hard drives. Uhuh, right. Thankfully, trem0r's PORNVIEW has its priorities right. Pornview is an, ahem, Linux image and multimedia previewing program dedicated for those times when "tweaking", "rearranging", and "touching up" a large cache of source images is both the first and last thing on your mind. It doles out small but legible thumbnails, has a big old preview space, and lets you zoom, rotate and slideshow on the fly - heck, with one hand tied behind your back. And its preview engine is powered by the Xine library, which means it can cope with many AVIs, MOVs and ASFs. It's fast and easy to use. While it's only at 0.1.3 right now, it's pretty much ready for - well, perhaps not the prime time. Friday night on Channel Five - maybe. http://pornview.sourceforge.net/ - or apt-get install -t unstable pornview http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=171988 - Debian users show their kink >> MEMEPOOL << ceci n'est pas une http://www.gagpipe.com/ a new addition to the GPL: http://zynaddsubfx.sourceforge.net/ ... revealed at last, the usability secrets of goatse.cx: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/073571150X/ ... if you have four hours to kill, hate radio and yourself: http://wfmu.org/~davem/docs/radio.html ... they *can* draw after all http://southparkstudios.com/behind/staffart.html ... using http://www.jwz.org/gruntle/infographic.html , locate Zawinski on the http://www.brunching.com/geekhierarchy.html ... elder gods attempting to breach USENET XP support forums: http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%22signaling+halotrichite%22 ... nice to see Galileo getting the last word on that Papal row: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/finger.html ... life imitates Kevin Warwick: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2534689.stm ... cleavage at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/2546375.stm too unsubtle? try the virtual tour: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2551367.stm ... local minima of funk: http://www.joannajordan.com/web_riders.mov >> GEEK MEDIA << get out less TV>> ITV, to their credit, are tongue-in-cheekily promoting SPEED 2: CRUISE CONTROL (8.30pm, Fri, ITV) as "the one without Keanu in it"... rhyming-rehab week continues with prison poetry drama SLAM (12.55am, Fri, C4), real karaoke convicts in FELTHAM SINGS (10.30pm, Tue, C4), plus the belated musical episode of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER (6.45pm, Thu; 12.55am, Fri, BBC2) - not to be confused with Sheryl "Laura Palmer" Lee in JOHN CARPENTER'S VAMPIRE$ (10.55pm, Sat, C4)... in addition to the "repeated public urination" and McDonald's breakfast gag, Adam Sandler's BIG DADDY (6.10pm, Sat, BBC1) features an all-too-rare tolerable performance by Joey Lauren Adams from "Chasing Amy"... never mind the "gamma radiation", how did that freelance reporter guy ever make a living?, is among the mysteries not revealed by the pilot of THE INCREDIBLE HULK (6.10pm, Sun, C5)... as the same-every-year BRITISH COMEDY AWARDS (9pm, Sat, ITV) narrows its eyes to face off against A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS (9pm, Sat, C4), followed on Sun by FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE (10pm, Sun, C4)... don't hold out for a happy ending for either terrorism docu 21ST CENTURY WAR (8pm, Sun, C4) or this series of the excellent "Homicide Street Blues" cop tragedy THE SHIELD (10.40pm, Sun, C5)... maybe a run presenting Anneka-free TREASURE HUNT (6pm, Mon-Fri, BBC2) will get Suzi Perry's stats up: http://www.suziperry.com/stats/ ... and a "bad trip" double-bill sees side-effects expose CANNABIS PSYCHOSIS (11.05pm, Mon, C4) followed by an Errol Morris FIRST PERSON (12.10am, Mon, C4) on a guy who stole his mum's cryonically frozen head... WIT (9pm, Tue, BBC2) is about Emma Thompson getting cancer, rather than the amusing Tom Sharpe farce with Griff Rhys Jones in it... DOOMWATCH (12.55am, Thu, BBC1) is the none-too-thrilling movie of the BBC environmental monitoring sci-fi show... though the title might be more accurately applied to god-awful Sean "Eastenders" Maguire US sitcom OFF CENTRE (4.20am, Thu, C4)... FILM>> sadly, no Naomi Klein quotes on the poster for juvenile Nike/NBA product placement orphanage wish-fulfilment LIKE MIKE ( http://www.capalert.com/capreports/likemike.htm : bully tactics; bad fall after electrical shock due to unwise risk- taking; nothing of the sexual nature, a victory indeed)... bloody Audrey "Amelie" Tautou is back, hopefully bringing that same air of studied zaniness to gritty London-set organ- legging thriller DIRTY PRETTY THINGS ( http://www.bbfc.co.uk/ : contains strong language, moderate sex and grisly images)... and imdb "trivia" confirms it *is* Clint Poppie's "Requiem For A Dream" theme on the theatrical trailer for out-next-Wed THE LORD OF THE RINGS 2: THE TWO RONNIES ( http://www.bbfc.co.uk/ : contains intense combat and fantasy horror scenes)... >> 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 site has back issues? *Major* back issues, we'd say" http://www.dunx.org/persona/media-web.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.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.