Need To Know 2002-12-20

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"They're the ones looking to expand their tentacles into more consumer markets," Baker said. "And they're likely to butt heads somewhere" with HP, who is trying a similar strategy. http://news.com.com/2100-1040-958889.html - in the grey corner: Cthulhu, The Many-Tentacled Horror, defending his title here at Hydra-Headed Octopus Smackdown >> HARD NEWS << break out the booze Good news makes us feel dirty - and this week the world has been draped in filthy, filthy optimism. CREATIVE COMMONS launched in the US, together with a Flash movie that manages to explain the encroachment of copyright, and the import of the public domain to your few remaining friends that you haven't bored silly with your strange "Star Trek politics". JON JOHANSEN's trial continues, but it doesn't look good for the prosecution: their summing-up trailed off with accusations of "gang crime" (because Jon is on a few mailing lists). And the SKLYAROV/ELCOMSOFT trial ended with the jury collectively channelling what the cynics knew the public would never understand. They certainly had problems digesting some concepts: "Under the eBook formats, you have no rights at all - and the jury had trouble with that concept", said their foreman, and refused to throw the ebook at anyone but the bin. It feels like we're stuck in one of those overly extra-sentimental Christmas specials. http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/ - could someone out there convert this to a free-er format? http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2127640,00.html - actually, Gangsta Software Movement has a nice ring to it http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2340-2002Dec17.html - next year: some UK good news http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=6730 - hell, they even arrested a Microsoft employee for fraud And it came to pass that LONDON 2600 did decree that their Christmas party shall be held in the basement of a nearby hotel, for there was no room at the Trocadero. In fact, the computer security enthusiasts' club are considering moving on from their traditional bottom-of-the-escalators meeting place, following the nearby fancy dress photographer's allegation that they were losing him business to the tune of "UKP15,000 a year". True, the presence of 20-30 hackers - often wearing a hint of fancy dress themselves - for as much as an hour each month must be the only explanation for the disappearance from the Troc of Alien War, Segaworld, music TV studio whereits.at and, most recently, the Pepsi Max Drop ride. Tomorrow's event runs from 3pm to 11pm, Sat 2002-12-21, in the "underground" room at the Thistle Hotel, Piccadilly Circus, London W1D - and if that goes mysteriously goes out of business in the manner of previous 2600 hangouts Webshack and the Global Cybercafe, then that photographer guy might just be onto something. https://www.fastweb.co.uk/spy.org/cgi-bin/xmas2002.pl - promises bemani games, karaoke, and "present testing" http://whereits.at/ - exciting new Trocadero attraction: dodge the tumbleweed >> ANTI-NEWS << berating the obvious those puerile GOOGLE MISSPELLINGS - I'm not psychic, you know: http://www.google.com/search?q=%22physic+readings%22 , "first aid tit" - and, can you believe, we've had "artits" but not "arstist" (or "arsing from") before?... "I'm sorry, Sir, the piss http://www.ntk.net/2002/12/13/dohpiss.gif is off today - but can I recommend the alternative choice of 'liquid shit'?": http://www.ntk.net/2002/12/20/dohpoo2.gif - vs "biological buffet": http://www.geocities.com/hotelannelies/ha2e.html ... "Style" alludes to Queens Park Rangers - Of The Stone Age: http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=SEARCH&sql=B5jnsa9cgl23u missing millions served - why not supersize that $435 loss?: http://money.cnn.com/2002/12/17/news/companies/mcdonalds/ ... ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND "launder" $1.2bn into just UKP750,000: http://www.ntk.net/2002/12/20/dohrbs.gif ... Boba Headhunter: http://lists.irev.net/pipermail/lan/2002-February/001290.html ... banner could only be more appropriate if in "skyscraper" format: http://www.ntk.net/2002/12/20/dohfly.gif ... >> TRACKING << sufficiently advanced technology : the gathering It's not software, it costs real money, but it's got more decent code in it than most - and, hey, if you can't kowtow to the scarcity economy at Christmas, when can you? Last updated in 1997 (AD), O'Reilly's UNIX POWER TOOLS has finally hit its third edition. Compiled by a clan of experienced hacker-editors (including Eponymous Tim), then broken into tiny bite-size chunks, Power Tools is compactly written but as thick as a brick. Unashamedly lifting from every source it can find - internal procedures, newsgroup postings, other O'Reilly books you've already bought - Power Tools answers the questions Unix newbies couldn't begin to ask, and wizards are too ashamed to admit they don't know. Just by randomly flicking through pages in this edition (the PC Magazine approved way of reviewing books), we learned how to fix cut and paste between Xterm and Mozilla, a better "for" loop in zsh, and how to disown processes in bash. If you've just bought a bargain-basement Lindows PC, or stolen a TiBook, this is what you should spend your gift certificates on. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/upt3/ - or you can wait 14 years for it to become public domain >> MEMEPOOL << ceci n'est pas une http://www.gagpipe.com/ what might be encrypted into this peculiarly redundant book title?: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0192803158/ ... unconscious subtext that "free software = COMMUNISM": http://www.google.com/search?q=%22richard+stalin%22+gnu ... the problem of attracting more women to work in IT - cracked at last: http://www.cdc.uk.net/ ... actually playable Flash game of the year: http://www.thzclan.com/games/sonar/ ... why you didn't get that "monkey in a box" toy you asked for: http://www.improb.com/airchives/paperair/volume6/v6i4/postal-6-4.html ... suicide delivery boys?: http://pizzaidf.org/ ... THE FRIDAY THING "in no way affiliated with The Cheeky Girls" maintains futile http://www.thefridaything.co.uk/slapwaterman/ protest - when you could be busy boycotting NESTLE this Xmas: http://www.guardian.co.uk/famine/story/0,12128,863356,00.html ... and there must be times when kind-hearted folks like this make receiving all those lame comedy 419 responses worthwhile: http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,5652168%255E1702,00.html ... >> GEEK MEDIA << get out less TV>> POSH TOTTY (8pm, Fri, C5) appears to be a one-off documentary rather than an inadvertent description of C5's subsequent movie lineup: Yasmine "Baywatch" Bleeth in THE FACE (9pm, Fri, C5); Charlotte "Grange Hill" Lewis in MUTUAL NEEDS (10.55pm, Fri, C5); plus Lynda "Wonder Woman" Carter in HOTLINE (12.40am, Fri, C5)... Superbowl terrorist thriller BLACK SUNDAY (11.20pm, Fri, BBC1) was postponed from two months ago for some reason... confused African-American anti- advertising rant DROP SQUAD (1.35am, Fri, BBC2) was exec- produced by Spike Lee... and, you know, it just wouldn't be Christmas week without waking up to a daily helping of THE WORLD AT WAR (around 9.50am, Sat-Fri, BBC2)... pseudo- Tarantino heist romance OUT OF SIGHT (10.25pm, Sat, BBC1) remains one of the few major motion pictures to feature two actors who've both played Batman (Keaton and Clooney)... but frankly not much competition against the likes of I LOVE TOYS (9.05pm, Sat, BBC2), plus nightly showings of THE OFFICE (11.05pm, Sat, BBC2) and I LOVE 198X (12.05am, Sat, BBC2) - remember, TV Cream readers, the latter "is not a documentary": http://www.ntk.net/index.cgi?b=02001-04-20&l=262#l ... the seasonal festival of the overrated continues with FIGHT CLUB (9pm, Sun, BBC2) - not as good as EVENT HORIZON (10.30pm, Thu, BBC Choice); WHEN HARRY MET SALLY (10.35pm, Sun, C4) - not as good as ANNIE HALL (1.35am, Sun, ITV); CHICKEN RUN (4.50pm, Wed, BBC1) - not as good as A BUG'S LIFE (5.45pm, Tue, BBC1); and THE MUMMY (8.05pm, Tue, BBC1) - not as good as Stephen Sommers' previous CGI monsterfest, DEEP RISING (10.30pm, Mon; 12.05am, Tue, BBC Choice)... C4 helps dispel that slightly nauseous "Boxing Day" feeling with a double bill of JACKASS CHRISTMAS SPECIAL (10.40pm, Thu, C4) and Mayall/ Edmondson atrocity GUEST HOUSE PARADISO (11.10pm, Thu, C4)... while Steve "Movie Chart Show" McKenna and Katy "son of Jimmy" Hill use science to produce a chartbusting garage hit in CAN'T GET ENOUGH MUSIC (11.40pm, Fri, BBC2) - of which more later... FILM>> well at least more people will get our hilarious jokes about "Ents [short for Entertainments] Committees", thanks to tiresome CGI-fest sequel THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS ( http://www.capalert.com/capreports/lotr-towers.htm : evil beast attack; planning murder; full side nudity, male, repeatedly; woman on man kissing, clothed; "all-knowing wizard"; mockery of the Transformation; gaiaism - talking trees - repeatedly)... otherwise Reese Witherspoon proves you *can* be a top-flight fashion designer and a decent down-home housewife in woman-friendly wish-fulfilment SWEET HOME ALABAMA ( http://www.capalert.com/capreports/sweethomealabama.htm : two approx. 10 year old kids kissing sensuously; adultery, many examples; excessive breast exposure, repeatedly; homosexual presence, repeatedly)... or three TV episodes are stitched together into feature-length animation HEY ARNOLD! THE MOVIE ( http://www.capalert.com/capreports/heyarnold.htm : two nine year olds kissing on the mouth; jailbreak - through a commode; obsession with fetishes; putting children in control of things well beyond the capabilities of the age stratum; a child driving a transit bus with the excuse of experience at video games as justification)... DRESS DOWN FRIDAY>> in a gesture of pseudo-seasonal goodwill, we've teamed up with embittered North-of-England comedy site martian.fm to bring you yet another amusing t-shirt variation on the word "fuck": their pioneering "UCK WA" logo. "Fuck War/ Not Children/ Said the slogan/ on your t-shirt", their backprinted poem explains. "[But] Mostly it said/ uck Wa/ ot Chi," it continues. "You were wearing/ a coat". On sale now - with new stock of "++ungood" - at http://www.ntkmart.com/ , and there should still be time to get one before Christmas if you order before midnight UK time tonight (Friday)... in terms of new design suggestions, reader SEAN D SOLLE continued the poetic theme with his suggested back print haiku for the "Elite" shirt: "Spaceship from junkyard/ Trade, fly, battle; fly, dock, trade/ Right On Commander!"; "Nexus" provided a lengthy antispam rant which nonetheless astutely concluded "WHEN THE FUCK WILL THE 419 SCAMMMERS LEARN WHERE THE FUCKING caps lock KEY IS???"; while the delightfully named BAZ PANCHAL submitted "IF IN DOUBT, << COUT <<", ("'COUT' being C++ code", he went on to advise)... but the real action this month has shifted over to the "Buy One, Subvert The Mass Media, Get One Free" department, which saw PHIL PURNELL's jaunty photomontage http://www.geekstyle.co.uk/images/geeky.jpg just lose out to a barely more plausible appearance by DJ NOISY MINORITY - also wearing an "Elite" shirt - on the "What's on your Cover CD" pages of the current issue of KNOWLEDGE, "the UK's finest" drum and bass magazine: http://www.geekstyle.co.uk/images/ . Mr Noisy wins a t-shirt of his choice for his pains - as might reader ED FEAR, who was wearing a "FairPlay" campaign shirt while being filmed at Sony Europe for the programme "Can't Get Enough Video Games", due to be shown at 11:40am on BBC2 on Sunday 2002-12-29. Ed thinks it should appear in "the last part" of this 40 minute documentary - though you should also look out for just a glimpse of the "airPla" text in the middle, because Ed, as appears to be the fashion nowadays, is "mostly" wearing it "under a coat"... >> 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 http://hoho.com/ NEED TO KNOW THEY STOLE OUR REVOLUTION. NOW WE'RE STEALING IT BACK. Archive - http://www.ntk.net/ Unsubscribe? 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