Need To Know 2003-01-10

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"Mr Blunkett launched an attack on rap musicians for glamorising gun violence..." http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/story.jsp?story=367024 - government to invade Iraq using only catapults and bows-and-arrows >> HARD NEWS << email billets-doux Into the final days of the government's Great ID Card Consultation - and the Home Office couldn't be more excited. Lord Falconer continues to tell everyone who'll listen that over 1500 people have responded, and the majority of them were extremely positive on the idea. Now, given that they're proposing a massive IT project to introduce a universal identifier for all citizens, with a centralised database of personal details, kept accurate by making a new crime of withholding your current address from the government - well, we can't help but think that more people would a bit squeamish on the principle. And maybe they were. DAN BLANCHARD described what happened when he mailed the HO saying that he didn't think ID cards were necessary. Back came the reply from the Home Office: "Thank you for your e-mail of 13th December in support of the introduction of an entitlement/identity card scheme." Now, we're not saying that something fishy is going on here. Although, obviously, yes we are *implying* it. So to double-check the government, and test the accuracy of the Lord Falconometer, the STAND folk have set up an easy-to-use web form for those wanting to express their discontent (mild or otherwise) with the Entitlement Card scheme. STAND'll keep count of the number of contributions (in a giant, centralised database of biometric - nah, just kidding), and then compare that to the results that come from Lord Falconer next time. We're hoping to get close to the 1500 entries already noted, perhaps even top it (that's only about 0.1 of a slashdotting after all). Because if the government can't even keep their database of an simple e-mail consultation straight, maybe they shouldn't be trusted with a universal database after all. http://www.stand.org.uk/ - slashdot the vote! http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/28783.html - remember that Minority Report/ Demolition Man workaround It's not *our* fault. No matter how little we try to write about space trading classic ELITE, the faster the tattered cargo cannisters come spinning into our fuel scoops. This week, it's the dramatic news that TILL HARBAUM has withdrawn his port of Elite to the Palm, after creator DAVID BRABEN declined to give his blessing to the project. But as demand rises in the spaceports for the now illicit good, one lone trader dares to run the gauntlet. Hyperspacing in under the the vipers' nose in a commandeered Thargoid Mothership - it's IAN BELL, Elite co-creator, docking with 3kg of the proscribed units. The exhorbitant price for the binary: send him an email, completing the phrase "Preventing publication of PALM OS Elite is wrong because..." in no more than 42 words. "Some entries may be featured on this site", says Ian, "libel laws permitting". http://www.harbaum.org/till/palm/elite/ - and no archive.org either... http://www.ibell.co.uk/elite/palm/ - we're keeping out of it http://www.ntk.net/index.cgi?b=02001-08-10&l=159#l - but we're still allowed one more Elite piece >> ANTI-NEWS << berating the obvious trying to be less puerile for the New Year - the year 19103, that is: http://www.google.com/search?q=%22january+19103%22 . Then again: http://www.google.com/search?q=assing+switches ... slow news at GRANADA: http://www.ntk.net/2003/01/10/dohgra.gif vs big day at BBC: http://www.ntk.net/2003/01/10/dohport.gif ... http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph/?site=linuxworldexpo.com - although, as http://www.london2600.org.uk/ point out: http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/ is running MS IIS 4.0 - honeypot to attract all those cyberspace cowboys?... The First IBB Conference on Anti-Censorship Systems - "Notes removed at the request of IBB": http://www.peek-a-booty.org/pbhtml/ ... ... unshaven, bewildered Gates wearing his watch upside-down: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2003/Jan03/01-08CES2003OverallPR.asp ... missing millions: http://www.ntk.net/2003/01/10/dohmus.gif - while TESCO recycles Christmas cards each weighing almost half a ton: http://www.ntk.net/2003/01/10/dohton.gif ... >> EVENT QUEUE << goto's considered non-harmful Because they could theoretically support up to 340 trillion trillion trillion delegates, you must pre-register to attend IPV6 & THE FUTURE OF THE INTERNET IN THE UK (from 6.15pm, Thu 2003-01-16, Cruciform Building, University College London WC1E, free), so they'll have some idea of numbers for the catering. On a slightly more whimsical note, cyberlife artiste PAUL GRANJON announces that his latest generation of BBC- Micro-controlled robotic birds will be chorusing on and off for a month from next Fri 2003-01-17 at the Laurent Delaye Gallery, 11 Saville Row, London W1S (also appears to be free). These are the "mini bonsai type for corporate lounge" variants, Granjon adds (you'll have to imagine his magnificent French accent), raising the tantalising possibility that visitors to merchant banks could soon be greeted by a non- biodegradable version of his "Cybernetic Parrot Sausage" too. http://www.uk.ipv6tf.org/events/ - UK IPv6 Task Force: assemble! http://www.laurentdelaye.com/exhibitions.forth.frameset.html - see also http://www.zprod.org/zLab/cybWurstFrame.html http://www.stopwar.org.uk/ - pub night on Sat: http://www.schnews.org.uk/pap/guide.htm http://www.lonix.org.uk/tnet-cgi/Lonix?CODE=userMeetings - also in London: Lonix goes "Loco" for Linux on Thu http://www.sci-fi-london.com/ - plus sci-fi film festival end of Jan >> TRACKING << sufficiently advanced technology : the gathering Remember we said, sixty lines back, that we're allowed one more ELITE piece? Frontier: First Encounter was the Braben-led sequel to Elite, an ambitious, astronomically correct epic that suffered from a rather more "open-ended" gameplay than the kids like these days. These days, Braben's Elite Club offers a patched DOS version as shareware: but unfortunately, due to its use of Borland's DPMI memory manager, it doesn't work under Windows. Step forward John Jordan, who, in the true spirit of Elitedom, decompiled the binary, patched in a new memory manager, and then recompiled it. But that's not enough, is it? Now he's reworked it even more to use Allegro, the cross-platform games library. And ported it to Linux. http://www.jaj22.demon.co.uk/index.html ...a fine way to blow our last Elite allowance. For now. http://www.alioth.net/Fiction/index.html - Frontier fanfic while you wait >> MEMEPOOL << ceci n'est pas une http://www.gagpipe.com/ ELVISH lives: http://www.imdb.com/Sections/Languages/Elvish/ ... getting trickier to spot the spoof news stories nowadays: http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0212/S00082.htm - vs http://www.onlinecasinonews.com/ocn/article/article.asp?id=1508 ... yup, fighting crime and dishing out justice ain't pretty: www.icra.org/cgi-bin/test.cgi?lang=EN&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.courtservice.gov.uk ... ANANOVA teams with SUN to find Britain's oldest household appliance: http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_735558.html , http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_736608.html ... next step in urban exploration: http://www.entrances2hell.co.uk/ ... not to be confused with the home of the SubGenius Xists, though has similar problem of imminent apocalyptic "sell-by date": http://www.hiddenmysteries.com/blindsided/ ... Europop anthem: http://www.deutschepost.de/dpag?lang=de_EN&xmlFile=33424 ... just liked the name: http://www.euclid-hitachi.com/ ... pic of mouse at: http://www.johnwilde.co.uk/ - operating the PC from "the other side"?... >> GEEK MEDIA << get out less TV>> Spielberg's Gray masters will be pleased indeed with his latest piece of post-X-Files pro-abduction propaganda, TAKEN (9pm, Sat, BBC2)... the psychiatric disturbances continue with Ken Stott murder mystery MESSIAH 2 (9pm, Sat & Sun, BBC1) - postponed from the week of the Soham killings; Mike Myers' underrated SO I MARRIED AN AXE MURDERER (9pm, Sat, C5); and Jack Nicholson driven bonkers by all those trademark Kubrick long-shots in THE SHINING (10.30pm, Sat, BBC2)... while David Cronenberg stars in talky Canadian imminent-apocalypse philoso-fest LAST NIGHT (12midnight, Sat, C4) - not based on The Strokes' song of the same name... Kathleen "Event Horizon" Quinlan Week begins with lame middleclass nightmare BREAKDOWN (10pm, Sun, C4) and continues with ill-judged Billy Crystal sizeism comedy MY GIANT (8pm, Mon, C5)... Timothy Hutton pops up in distasteful military murder-rape investigation THE GENERAL'S DAUGHTER (9pm, Sun, C5) and apparently hilarious RoboCop knockoff DEAD BY MIDNIGHT (12.40am, Mon, BBC1)... as only the glaring gun-related goofs mar the unexpectedly amusing BEAVIS AND BUTTHEAD DO AMERICA (11.45pm, Sun, BBC2) http://web.archive.org/web/19970605035547/www.recguns.com/MGM-BABDA.html ... that TVGoHome TV show bloke stars in local newspaper spoof THE HARRINGHAM HARKER (11.20pm, Mon, BBC2)... BURIED (10.30pm, Tue, C4) aspires to be a British version of brutal prison drama "Oz", and is followed by Jan 2001's long-delayed season 8 of NYPD BLUE (11.35pm, Tue, C4)... Asia "XXX" Argento plays a nudity-prone cat burglar in Brit crime romance B MONKEY (11.55pm, Tue, C4)... Mel Gibson discovers that nothing impresses girls so little as an intricate CONSPIRACY THEORY (9pm, Wed, C5)... while a new generation of anti-narcolepsy medicines ought to make it easier to stay awake during HORIZON (9pm, Thu, BBC2)... FILM>> Jennifer "Office Space" Aniston once again explores the perils of workplace romance in grimily dark comedy THE GOOD GIRL ( http://www.cndb.com/movie.html?title=Good+Girl,+The : the shadowy outline of [Aniston's] erect nipples. Even with the poor light conditions, this is a glorious scene!)... to paraphrase The Onion's Jackie Harvey, De Niro's career takes an unexpected direction - playing either a mobster or a cop - in atmospheric domestic drug-dealing tragedy CITY BY THE SEA ( http://www.screenit.com/movies/2002/city_by_the_sea.html : [Eliza Dushku] lives near a peep show. We don't see anything inside it, but do see the sign, and on one occasion hear feint sexual sounds)... speaking of which, Martin Scorsese combines many of his previous interests - period drama, New York, mobs, fighting - into ponderous near-3-hour epic GANGS OF NEW YORK ( http://www.screenit.com/movies/2002/gangs_of_new_york.html : it's possible some kids could imitate the racist comments and actions of [Daniel Day-Lewis]; [DiCaprio] and [Diaz] passionately kiss and he wonders how to open her corset)... while CGI, wirework, Chan's advancing age, and elementary entomological errors undermine kung-fu buddy flick THE TUXEDO ( http://www.suntimes.com/ebert/ebert_reviews/2002/09/092705.html : There are about 500 species of gerrids in the world and, as far as I know, not a single one is eusocial)... >> 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 "trolling for middle class BBC Micro Fauntleroys" http://labs.google.com/cgi-bin/webquotes?num_quotes=38&q=www.ntk.net 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) 2003 Special Projects. Copying is fine, but include URL: http://www.ntk.net/ Full license at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/1.0 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. 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