"Film and computer superheroes, such as Keanu Reeves in the
Matrix, may not help either. Girls may want to go out with
Reeves but they don't necessarily want to fight interplanetary
wars for a living. Another factor could be the increasing move
towards hiring IT staff with computer science degrees..."
- lack of women in IT blamed on unwillingness to "fight
interplanetary wars", choice of degree also a possibility?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,1205146,00.html
>> HARD NEWS <<
bubbling fondues
Mr Blunkett's publicity campaign to gee Britons to get
inky-fingered, red-eyed and funky with their biometric
entitlement cards continued this week. "This is about true
identity," he said on Breakfast with Frost, in an apparent
attempt to win over the Vernor Vinge fans. "Being known,
being checkable, being used in order to ensure we know who's
in the country, what they're entitled to and whether they're
up to no good". And if that first mention of the cards'
unique "Santa Claus" capability to discern moral failings
in carriers isn't terrifying enough, you really should read
the government's new 160 page opus on how they'll be running
the show. It's not about the ID cards: it's about the huge
centralised biometric database the government is planning to
smuggle in on the back of it. Couldn't they just put the
biometrics on the card where we can see them, and then store
a comparison hash or some other translucent database
technique centrally? Of course not. Terrorists would win.
Feel free to add your own comments to the consultation,
which requires replies by July 20th. And we're *so* sure
they'll count all the responses correctly this time.
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/docs3/identitycardsconsult.pdf
- consultation. "Vindicated" by bomb plot, apparently:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3607141.stm
- vs http://www.spy.org.uk/spyblog/archives/000251.html
http://www.libdems.org.uk/index.cfm/page.homepage/section.home/article.6599
- why not print them out + carry with you at all times?
Regarding February's revelations about eBay-advertised pyramid
schemes: "Hi wonderful NTK people, Just read your article on
matrix scams", writes a reader whose name we'll omit for the
time being. "It's a Ponzi scheme. They're illegal. End of", he
continues (in fact, pyramid selling and other "endless chains"
don't seem to be illegal in the UK yet, though they are in
California), before kind of spoiling the whole thing by asking
"Why aren't lawmakers getting ebay to remove these ads? Decent
people working in legitimate network marketing companies (for
instance me) are getting tarred with the same brush as these
bastards". "Legitimate network marketing companies"? We really
don't want to know.
http://qwer.org/ebayUKiPodsByPrice.html
- a lot less of them nowadays, due to possible eBay clampdown?
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?query=positive+feedback
- also: guaranteed "positive feedback" from only 99c. Bargain.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994783
- in other recent story updates: Nanniebots - terminated...
http://www.fairplay-campaign.co.uk/fruit/news.htm
- ...fruit machines now slightly fairer than ever before?
>> ANTI-NEWS <<
berating the obvious
flu-like symptoms are "just flu", Chinese astronauts maintain:
http://www.ntk.net/2004/04/30/dohsars.gif ... "I'm Halle
Berry, and as the first black woman to win 'Best Actress', my
PDA has to be": http://www.ntk.net/2004/04/30/dohberry.gif ...
http://www.ntk.net/2004/04/30/dohrolf.gif - who's a clever pet
then? *who's* a clever pet?... "perfect" cat clone still some
way off: http://www.ntk.net/2004/04/30/dohlou.gif ... Widdy of
the week - if only fade-in text (top right) said "News from
the...": http://www.itvregions.com/index.php?region=Genital
... one way to pacify that "hairier and heavier foe":
http://www.ntk.net/2004/04/30/dohfoe.gif ... not all that
Mr Sterling can get on one page from the looks of things:
http://www.ntk.net/2004/04/30/dohbru.gif ... another satisfied
customer: http://www.ntk.net/2004/04/30/dohc++.gif ... mmm,
crunchy: http://www.ntk.net/2004/04/30/dohcoal.gif ...
>> EVENT QUEUE <<
GOTOs considered non-harmful
Slightly fewer "unofficial" May Day demonstrations this year,
possibly to avoid one of those awkward "Which should I go to?"
clashes with appearances by former Computer Shopper columnist/
Perl programmer turned sci-fi author CHARLIE STROSS (plus the
now living in the UK CORY DOCTOROW) at "fannish" SF con PLOTKA
3.0 (from 11am Sat-Mon 2004-05-01/03, Chequers Hotel, Newbury
RG14, day membership from UKP10). Hopefully remaining outside
the realms of science fiction, however, are plans to launch a
a tethered "cloud" of helium balloons under the curious name
of SKY EAR (7pm, Tue 2004-05-04, Maritime Museum, London SE10,
free?) - balloons which you can contact via your mobile phone
and which change colour according to the electromagnetic
environment. In other words, all the ingredients (with the
possible addition of an unexpected bolt of lightning) for the
creation of humanity's first self-aware electromagnetic flying
brain-swarm, which will then proceed to hunt down horrified
onlookers like the sentinels in "The Prisoner" or something.
http://www.schnews.org.uk/pap/guide.htm#may
- "genuinely just an anti-capitalist picnic"
http://www.plokta.com/plokta.con/programme.html
- plus Belly Dancing/ Dance Dance Revolution masterclass
http://www.haque.co.uk/skyear/information.html
- just hope those carbon fibre tethers are strong enough
http://www.corsair-records.com/
- free boot-friendly label launch in East London on Sat
>> TRACKING <<
sufficiently advanced technology : the gathering
DIRAC looks to be the BBC equivalent of a skunkworks
operation: hidden away, hardly documented - yet public
service and, in its own way, rather subversive. It's an
experimental video codec released by Beeb R&D onto a
sourceforge site under a GPL-compatible license. Now, what
we know about video encoding could be compressed into
a negative size bytestream, so we can't speak for its
viability. Off the top of our heads, its mention of
arithmetic coding is worrying, given how patent-encumbered
that area is. But still, an open source streaming protocol
with an eye to production video, and even a hint of a chance
of being adopted by a large media organisation *cough*.
If could even give Ogg Theora a bit of a kick, and that's
got to be a worthy way of spending your license fee.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/projects/dirac
- well compared to "Pet TV", anyway
http://xparam.sf.net/
- you'll need this (it's getopt on OOP steroids) to compile
http://www.theora.org/
- due last year, coming soon!
>> MEMEPOOL <<
contains a source of http://snackspot.org/
usecrime in progress - British Sign Language for the
*extremely dedicated*: http://www.learnbsl.org/index2.html ...
US orchestras not playing at Proms this year - because BBC
couldn't clear webcast rights?... one for the "tinfoil wallet"
brigade: http://www.spy.org.uk/spyblog/archives/000198.html -
more to the point, how many previous journeys can newsagents
read off your Oystercard?... the ultimate goal of all true
revolutionaries - dental insurance *everyone* can afford:
http://www.hyperdictionary.com/dictionary/political+activism
... double URL-tendres of the month: http://bendertimes.com/
http://www.muffinfilms.com/ , http://www.munters.at/ ,
http://www.labia.co.za/ ... more seamless Beeb photoshoppery:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/berkshire/features/2004/01/gervais_streetname.shtml
... swap http://www.skip.org.uk/ hardware for the interface of
http://www.localliberty.com/swap/TubeSearch.aspx?cityName=London&cityID=1
>> GEEK MEDIA <<
get out less
TV>> amount spent promoting healthy eating in the UK = less
than individual food companies' annual advertising budgets,
reveals the "Fat Pushers" edition of new current affairs slot
30 MINUTES (6pm, Sat, C4)... C4 follows a repeat of its 100
GREATEST SEXY MOMENTS (9pm, Sat, C4) with number 64 entry
CRASH (1am, Sat, C4) - beating off Bollywood taboo-breaker
"Jism" at number 92... and then appears to be cynically
targeting its own viewers with I LIKE TO WATCH (11.05pm, Thu,
C4), a hard-hitting documentary on all forms of voyeurism...
Rome wasn't built in a day, but London can be cobbled together
in a couple of hours, argues part-CGI reconstruction LONDON:
THE GREATEST CITY (4.05pm, Mon, C4)... the D-Day landings were
conveniently scheduled over the Bank Holiday weekend, imply
anniversary showings of D-DAY: THE ULTIMATE CONFLICT (9pm,
Mon, C5), DESTINATION D-DAY (8pm, Wed, BBC1) and Michael Bay's
vacuous yet visually entertaining PEARL HARBOUR (8.30pm, Mon,
BBC1)... or there's a double bill of talking canine companions
in Chris Morris' MY WRONGS #8245-8249 & 117 (2.30am, Mon, C4)
and Don Johnson's post-apocalyptic A BOY AND HIS DOG (2.45am,
Mon, C4)... estate agents, banks - and self-righteous
investigative reporters? - are among the main objections of
BRASSED OFF BRITAIN (7pm, Tue & Thu, BBC1)... child hothousing
horrorshow IN SEARCH OF GENIUS (9pm & 11.20pm, Wed, BBC2) is
hosted by Tony Buzan - almost the UK's own Edward de Bono, and
not in a good way... and among the means examined of obtaining
REVENGE: GETTING EVEN WITH YOUR EX (10pm, Wed, C5) is what the
Radio Times can only describe as "a repulsive pie"...
FILM>> Michel Gondry extracts convincing performances from
Winslet and Carrey, wheels out the best of his mind-boggling
video effects http://www.director-file.com/gondry/D.html in
heartfelt Charlie Kaufman romantic head trip ETERNAL SUNSHINE
OF THE SPOTLESS MIND ( http://www.cndb.com/ : [Kirsten Dunst]
dancing in a see through white shirt and in pink panties;
[Mark Ruffalo] puts on his underwear but the shot is always
cut to give us no more than the top part. Perhaps we'll get a
better view in the widescreen version on DVD)... nothing else
even comes close this week, though word is that Stephen King
got the rights to "Kingdom Hospital" in some sort of "swap"
for 12A-cert Johnny Depp short story adaptation SECRET WINDOW
( http://www.ahafilm.info/movies/moviereviews.phtml?fid=7565 :
includes a morbid depiction of violence against an animal as
well as mild action involving a mouse and a squirrel)... it's
Orlando "Legolas" Bloom, Ronni "Big Impression" Ancona, and
Billie "bloody" Piper - together at last! - in Brit fish-out-
of-water comedy THE CALCIUM KID ( imdb keywords: milkman/
boxer/ boxing/ champion/ england/ mockumentary)... while Drew
"50 First Dates" Barrymore and Ben "Along Came Polly" Stiller
are imaginatively teamed in fortunately-not-based-on-the-
Madness-song mad old nightmare neighbour contrivance OUR HOUSE
( http://www.ahafilm.info/movies/moviereviews.phtml?fid=7538 :
a scene of mild action involving dogs and one with a mouse)...
>> 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
"using the exclusive NTK Science Scoring System"
http://www.peerview-institute.org/ntk/ntk.nsf/html/ntkscience.html
NEED TO KNOW
THEY STOLE OUR REVOLUTION. NOW WE'RE STEALING IT BACK.
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