Need To Know 2003-11-14

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"Using 'k3wl' instead of 'cool' and making sure the 'a' is always replaced by '4' may seem insignificant habits any teenager living in an SMS world might do. But by talking the talk and virtually walking the walk, IS/Recon has gained the trust of nearly 100 different [hacker] groups..." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3246375.stm ...and literally gigabytes of 0-day warez and serialz! >> HARD NEWS << shuffling in the pews Think you had a bad week? Well, you did. You just didn't hear about it. First up: after extraordinary scenes in the House of Lords on Wednesday, the government managed to push through its five standing orders of the apocalypse - to let a smorgasbord of local authorities monitor email and phone traffic, plus proposals to force ISPs to retain traffic data. All the proposals have been watered down a little since they were first aired. But it's all still pretty bad, as was indicated by the Tories' desperate attempt to introduce a "fatal amendment". Fatal amendments - which basically add "This house believes the following law should be taken outside and shot:" - are the Nuke-From-Orbit of the Lords' arsenal. They haven't been successfully used in the House for thirty years. Taken aback by this approach, the government went on the offensive, threatening to use similiar tactics on future Tory administrations. It all got a bit nastily party-political from there on in. When the mist cleared, the Lib-Dems had caved on data retention, the Tories went off muttering about doing some angry squeaking in the Commons, and we got a fistful of bad law. Worse: you didn't know any of it was happening until it was far too late. http://qwer.org/idcards.html - (from Hansard) LORD RICHARD: You're doing *what*? http://www.stand.org.uk/ - "not just bad, but maybe illegal too" The ID cards roadshow that Blunkett launched this week had a little more warning: and perhaps their longer timetable (due in 2013) will allow them to be stopped. Especially if the government keep on getting over-excited about the biometric bits. The reason we need new cards is because of this exciting new technology, goes the current spin. Exciting new technology, such as retinal scans, which haven't been proven to work with large populations, and are *just* like passwords, only you can't change them when they're compromised, and with a long history of false negatives. Particularly impressive is Fiona McTaggart's current pitch. An ex-chairwoman for Liberty and now a Minister in the government, she attributes her entire volte-face on ID cards down to the marvels of biometric magic. "If I'm honest, one unstated reason why I have opposed ID cards is my fear that this is another thing for me to lose", she gushes, before explaining that, because she can't lose her eyes or fingerprints, these new ID cards must be okay. We have to say: if the government's so excited about new tech, why did the ID card consultation still mistake thousands of responses from the STAND relay as being automated responses from "an organised opposition campaign"? http://www.official-documents.co.uk/document/cm60/6020/6020.pdf - paragraph 11. That's your democratic contribution right there http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1083804,00.html - "another thing to lose". As if we're not losing enough here http://www.sideshow.idps.co.uk/smay03.htm#23at1537 - why Liberty isn't http://www.ntk.net/2003/11/14/dohpiracy.gif - EU targeting "large scale privacy outfits" too >> ANTI-NEWS << berating the obvious Arnie's response to sexual harassment claims - "Bring on der dancing girls!": http://www.ntk.net/2003/11/14/dohrevue.gif ... kids today, eh?: http://www.ntk.net/2003/11/14/dohlit.gif ... that "Army macho" culture goes a little further than you thought: http://www.ntk.net/2003/11/14/dohbum.gif (actually one of those expressions that means something different in the US): http://www.google.com/search?q=%22going+to+be+bummed%22 ... meanwhile, "Inclarity" telco offers global net "foaming": http://www.inclarity.co.uk/Prices/Calling_Card_Instructions.htm#vo ... old thrill revisited - return of Widdecombe of the Week: http://www.moneydemon.co.uk/result/keyword/UTTERLY+useless ... banner ads: http://www.ntk.net/2003/11/14/dohsquat.gif staying nice and morbid: http://www.ntk.net/2003/11/14/dohdrown.gif ... "War On Terror" apparently having the exact opposite of intended effect: http://www.ntk.net/2003/11/14/dohscare.gif , http://www.ntk.net/2003/11/14/dohterror.gif ... >> EVENT QUEUE << goto's considered non-harmful Assuming you're not busy helping Tim Ireland create a site where you can SMS pictures of your arse to George Bush (or should that be the other way round?), hopefully you haven't already missed too much of the DMZ MEDIA ARTS FESTIVAL (11am- 6pm, today and Saturday 2003-11-14 & 15, Limehouse Town Hall, London E14, free) featuring a wide range of usual suspects such as MUTE MAGAZINE, CONSUME.NET and no doubt a couple of wireless psychogeographic film-making co-operatives based in Hoxton and Eastern Europe. And if you're looking for a few quirky Xmas gift ideas, maybe Thomson & Craighead will bring along some of their Google tea-towels, "Teach Birds 2 Sing" ringtone CDs, or Walkmans fitted with endless play cassettes of genuine mobile phone conversations from the mid 1990s. http://www.bloggerheads.com/ - vs http://www.stopwar.org.uk/ (not literally!) http://www.ntk.net/2003/11/14/dohbush.gif - for that, you could buy everyone in the UK an ID card http://dmz.spc.org/talks.html - not making this up: http://www.dot-store.com/system/ http://www.uklanparty.com/ - tomorrow: all-day (free?) LAN party in Luton pub http://www.gamesmeet.net/ - advance warning of another bunker bash at the end of Jan >> TRACKING << sufficiently advanced technology : the gathering Good Ideas To Steal From MacOS X Applications, No. 443: VOODOOPAD is another app that wins by flipping the runs-on-server/runs-on-desktop bit. It's a local Wiki masquerading as a free-form database. You type, and WikiInterCapped words are automatically turned into links to fresh pages. Images and links can be dropped into the text; unicode is supported. And in case you still crave the wilds of the Web, it can also act as a responsive frontend for wikis that support author Gus Mueller's simple XMLRPC wiki API. Oh, and you can dump all your thoughts to HTML - or an iPod, should you be so freaky. http://flyingmeat.com/voodoopad.html - $20! You pay $20! http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/developer/2003/09/05/innovators.html - it won an award and yet still does not suck >> MEMEPOOL << contains a source of http://snackspot.org/ now *we* want some of that Britney "has a level 14 Cleric" Googlejuice: http://www.six-something.org/projectbritney.php ... ftp://www.japan.steinberg.net/ tagged - you're it... you know you've "arrived" when: http://lordrich.newmail.ru/ican/ (and is the original hosted under www.bbc.co.uk/dna/ because it's "mostly harmless"?)... don't want to know what they're up to here: http://www.ntk.net/2003/11/14/dohgrif.gif ... "These BOFH stickers on my monitor? Well, they each signify one of my 'support kills'": http://www.ntk.net/2003/09/12/dohbofh.gif ... caution - one of these pics is not safe for work like the others: http://www.altavista.com/image/results?q=potatoes ... (comparatively) new thrill - amusingly (in)appropriate GOOGLE TEXT ADS: http://www.ntk.net/2003/11/14/dohshuck.gif ... http://www.google.com/search?q=bluejacking - "Did you mean 'barebacking'?" (now *that* would surprise a stranger)... >> GEEK MEDIA << get out less TV>> it's not clear whether it's the collision detection, the level design, or the terrible cheerleader non-choreography that really lets down CGI would-be "Robot Wars" FIGHTBOX (7pm, Fri, BBC2)... what if Robin Ince and resident Friday Thing Photoshop-wiz Charlie Skelton were the "real" victims of extended "Gotcha Oscar" format THE PILOT SHOW? (11.15pm, Fri, C4)... and implausible-odyssey fan Ray Mears apologises for the Monster-Manual-meets-road-movie structure of THE BIG READ: THE LORD OF THE RINGS (9.15pm, Sat, BBC2)... at least it's Miranda Sawyer - and not, say, Jonathan King - explaining SEX BEFORE 16: WHY THE LAW IS FAILING (9pm, Sun, C4)... part of an "Adult at 14" season that also includes *another* "The Real Lord Of The Flies" reality show 14 ALONE (9pm, Tue, C4), plus web filth roundup KIDS ON PORN (10.40pm, Tue, C4)... though note that it's a pesky 17 year-old who shoots his parents then claims THE MATRIX DEFENCE (10.40pm, Wed, C4) - presumably that the act was entirely justified if we live in a VR illusion: http://www.interiorcastle.net/chapel/morality_and_matrix.htm ... yes, you can laugh at the weirdoes in CHILD PRODIGIES (9.30pm, Wed, BBC2) - but really you're chuckling at yourself ...speaking of which, Joel "rathergood.com" Veitch's cult Flash animations "are intercut with memorable music videos" in RATHER GOOD VIDEOS (1.50am, Wed, C4)... then HORIZON (9pm, Thu, BBC2) shouldn't have too many problems poking holes in the statistical coincidences that make up "The Bible Code": http://politics.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4561031-107865,00.html ... FILM>> lots of staggered-release schedules right now, which means you've got more chance of previewing Will "Old School" Ferrell in what the posters imply is a film called ELF JAMES CAAN ( http://www.capalert.com/capreports/elf.htm : Christmas without Jesus; repeated display of provocative women's underwear, once in an implication of perversion)... compared to Robert Downey Jr/ Katie Holmes intertextual musical itcher THE SINGING DETECTIVE (imdb: based-on-tv-series/ remake)... the closest thing to a national release is Jackie Chan/ Lee Evans CGI-heavy "Indiana Jones"-lite actioner THE MEDALLION ( http://www.screenit.com/movies/2003/the_medallion.html : [Chan] and [Claire "Press Gang" Forlani] do some brief passionate kissing; comedic and misinterpretation-based homosexual innuendo)... otherwise at least you get a choice of older women living it up in LA arthouse romp LAUREL CANYON ( http://www.cndb.com/movie.html?title=Laurel+Canyon+%282003%29 : Kate [Beckinsale] has more exposure in this movie then anything she has done in 4-5 years)... or London comedy THE MOTHER ( http://www.cndb.com/movie.html?title=Mother%2C+The : Born 1935 Anne ["Dinnerladies"] Reid, in the title role, has two sex scenes with a young carpenter in which she's naked, but largely concealed by fancy editing)... >> 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 "ntk.*net* Richard - if you don't mind" http://news.google.com/news?q=ntk.org NEED TO KNOW THEY STOLE OUR REVOLUTION. NOW WE'RE STEALING IT BACK. Archive - http://www.ntk.net/ Unsubscribe or subscribe at http://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. 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.