"The challenge of identifying blacked-out words came to
Naccache as he watched television news on Easter weekend, he
said in a telephone interview last Friday. 'The pictures of
the blacked-out words appeared on my screen, and it piqued my
interest as a cryptographer,' he said..."
- technique may put an end to blacked-out official documents,
Have I Got News For You's popular "missing words" round
http://news.com.com/2100-7348_3-5209016.html
>> HARD NEWS <<
those Prussian blues
Next Monday's meeting of the EU Council of Ministers
(who, we like to think, gather in large cloaks around a huge
glowing orb) looks likely to decree that EU software patents
*will* go ahead, despite the EU parliament sticking in
amendments to the new European law saying the opposite. What
happens now? Not, unfortunately, civil war on the streets of
Brussels, but the formation of a "conciliation committee".
Fifteen MEPs and reps of the Council of Ministers will do
battle over the bill, and present a compromise bill to the
EU parliament in the Autumn. Just who will be on this
committee is undecided; and just how the Parliament will
vote is still up in the air. So, despite all the complaints
about the undemocratic nature of the EU, you can still
complain to your MEP and get a result.
http://wiki.ael.be/index.php/MEP-Position-Lobbying-Guide
- how to lobby your MEP
http://tinyurl.com/2ljpq
- the URL to watch for new developments
http://patents.caliu.info/codecisio.en.html#mecanisme
- the decision-making process, coded in java. no, really.
http://www.ldys.org.uk/web/policy/softwarepatents.html
- getting the Lib/Dem MEPs to vote the party line would be a big step
As readers with unnaturally long memories may recall, this
month marks the countdown to - and we're as surprised about
this as anyone - NTK's 7th birthday. Rather than embarrassing
Amazon-wishlist taste-revelations, here's something practical
we'd really like - please continue to mail us all the jokes
and goofs that you think no-one else will ever get, but could
you also try to put "NTK" at the start of the subject line?
(Or just reply to a previous mailout, that's good too.) Then
we'll use that as an extra "ham" test to prevent them getting
eaten by our increasingly industrial-strength email filtering,
without the overhead of some of the previously-considered
alternatives: only mailing us with self-deprecating subject
lines (fun while it lasted); rarely-used dictionary words
(something of a non-starter nowadays); or the succinct code-
phrase part-suggested by reader SIMON BATISTONI, "They Set Up
Us The Revolution - Now We Have Set Up It Them Back".
http://www.ntk.net/index.cgi?b=02003-05-02&l=31#l
- because bots can't guess "NTK" from "tips@spesh.com", see?
And actually, this could be a good time to try it out, as
we've got some really good speakers lined up for the NotCon
thing in June (proposal "deadline" midnight today UK time),
but one of them ("not really a 5-star hotel kinda guy") has
specifically asked us to recommend a "low-key" central-ish
London hotel with decent internet connection (broadband or
wifi). Obviously we rarely leave the house, so would really
like to hear any suggestions you might have - offers to "wifi-
up" existing establishments are appreciated, though less
feasible to implement in the available timescale.
www.geektools.com/geektels/showhotels.php?country=United+Kingdom&state=London
- suppose Thistle Hotels are *kind of* "low key"...
http://www.notcon04.com/
- big announcement of who's coming any day now
>> ANTI-NEWS <<
berating the obvious
new pics are a "wip-woawing wollercoaster-wide into the vewy
wings of hell": http://www.ntk.net/2004/05/14/dohwings.gif ,
reports Congwessman Jonathan Woss... no wonder Tesco are still
ahead: http://www.ntk.net/2004/05/14/dohloc.gif ... another
satisfied customer: http://www.ntk.net/2004/05/14/dohcyn.gif
... eyes behind the mask: http://qwer.org/widdyofweek0514.html ,
http://www.linx.net/tools/stats/looking-glass.thtml?site=Ann%27s%20bust
... prosecution/ London's free "Metro" newspaper to look into
feasibility of "removing hard drive from laptop computer":
http://www.ntk.net/2004/05/14/dohmetro.gif ... watch those
typos!: http://www.ntk.net/2004/05/14/dohchatnan.gif ...
inappropriate ads: http://www.ntk.net/2004/05/14/dohatkins.gif ,
http://www.ntk.net/2004/05/14/dohmom.gif - meet inappropriate
pic/headline combos!: http://www.ntk.net/2004/05/14/dohbrad.gif ,
http://www.ntk.net/2004/05/14/dohhamill.gif ...
>> EVENT QUEUE <<
GOTOs considered non-harmful
And following on from next week's ID card event semi-frenzy -
you wait all year for a hard-hitting look at copyright
extensions, and then 4 or 5 of them come along at the same
time. RICHARD STALLMAN, as ever, is responsible for some of
the most uncompromising anti-IP positions, starting with the
COPYRIGHT VS COMMUNITY event (from 11am, next Thu 2004-05-20,
Ravensbourne College, 20 mins from London, nr Elmstead Woods
station, Kent, free as in "Don't sign up, just turn up", the
site advises), also featuring "cosmic" websearcher FRAVIA and
the (relatively) down-to-Earth EFF Outreach Co-ordinator CORY
DOCTOROW. RMS's tour continues with appearances in Bristol,
Dublin and Edinburgh (more below). Professor LARRY LESSIG is
meanwhile booked to explain CREATIVE COMMONS IN A CONNECTED
WORLD (7.30pm, Thu 2004-05-27, Royal Geographical Society,
London SW7, UKP10) as part of the "London International
Festival of Theatre" - and NTK's own "Dave Green" will be
picking up the slack at the ICA's RIP-OFF: CREATIVE COPYING IN
DESIGN (7pm, Wed, 2004-05-26, the ICA, London SW1Y, UKP8),
where he'll be taking the contrarian position that fewer
copyright restrictions would be a good thing, if only because
then people would get less excited about some of the truly
terrible "illegal" sampling art out there, such as that awful
"The Grey Album" and the entire output of Negativland.
http://cubicgarden.com/copyright/
- "I think that square is top of cool shape in the world"
http://www.watershed.co.uk/exhibition/digital/listings/plugincinema.html
- sort of book launch in Bristol (no Dublin URL yet, sorry)
http://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/events/colloquium/
- but Edinburgh wins the prize for scariest Stallman photo
http://www.liftfest.org/2004/
- impressively atrocious all-Flash site for the Lessig one
http://www.ica.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=13265
- plus AFFS conf tomorrow: http://www.affs.org.uk/affsac.html
http://www.stand.org.uk/mistakenidentity.php3
- and don't forget ID card thing in London this coming Wed
>> TRACKING <<
sufficiently advanced technology : the gathering
The nice thing about vi (audience groans) is that while it
doesn't include the kitchen sink, you could probably get a
kitchen sink to emulate it with little problem. With that
in mind, there was a grim inevitability about the eventual
appearence of VIWORD - the vi emulator macro for Microsoft
Word. It's early days - Mac Office X, predictably, shook
its little fists and screamed at running such a dirty thing
- but this little package of key-bindings will let you hjkl
your way around a document, as well as leap to line-numbers,
thwip through undos and fill the last few pages of any
document with :w, :wq! ZZ when you forget to install it.
http://dready.org/blog_section/viword/
- anyone got vi keybindings for bbedit?
http://insenvim.sourceforge.net/
- Vim Intellisense (Windows only)
>> MEMEPOOL <<
contains a source of http://snackspot.org/
a bit more Chris-Morris-esque than last week's "Random Times":
http://www.toothycat.net/wiki/bnf.pl?page=Rachael/TabloidHeadlineGenerator
... not an anagram of "Henry Raddick", but well on the way:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/listmania/list-browse/-/2WE01ST4Z4YY0/
... ad phrases you don't often hear on trainspotting sites:
http://www.thejunction.org.uk/flist_455.html ... play call-
centre kit (any user/ password): http://www.givemeabreak.com/
... we for one welcome our new meme-complex overlords:
http://memecodes.outer-court.com/ ... when audiophiles write
epic explanations of what's wrong with blind "ABX" testing:
http://www.positive-feedback.com/pfbackissues/0604/davis.6n4.html
... Johnny Depp, "Vladimir Putin's aunt" - together at last:
http://www.google.com/groups?selm=6gqr90hcssjh4b1cdob8d4qepmfsqbtg7f%404ax.com
... it's the only language these "Games Animals" understand:
http://www.gamesanimal.com/article.php?sid=1138 ...
>> GEEK MEDIA <<
get out less
TV>> non-viewers of THE EUROVISION SONG CONTEST (8pm, Sat,
BBC1) can reassert their confused masculinity with FIGHT CLUB
(9.15pm, Sat, BBC2), or simply "love it when a plan comes
together" in the company of the original HANNIBAL: THE MAN WHO
HATED ROME (8pm, Sat, C4)... PANORAMA (10.15pm, Sun, BBC1)
avoid fuelling terrorist hysteria by exploring a possible
chemical attack on London in handy mock-documentary format...
a "Big Brother psychologist" reveals the "unconscious signals"
given off by politicians in pointless post-hoc rationalisation
BODY TALK (8pm, Mon, C4)... and CELEBRITIES DISFIGURED (9pm,
Mon, C4) asks how - a heavily made-up - Craig Charles will
cope with what the Radio Times describes as being "pitied,
ignored and avoided" at a Red Dwarf convention... as we always
maintain, ALMOST FAMOUS (11pm, Tue, ITV) is uncannily similar
to our introduction to IT journalism, but with Lester Bangs in
the role of ZDNet's Rupert Goodwins - plus it finishes in time
to catch the end of Romero's 1985 DAY OF THE DEAD (11.50pm,
Tue, BBC2)... the "largely unregulated internet marriage
industry" (Radio Times again, sorry) brings together a Russian
bride and a 49-year-old American DJ in DJ RAY'S BIG DAY (10pm,
Wed, BBC2)... basically, if "Mad Max" is about a policeman's
personal odyssey to recreate social order, why not other civil
servants?, asks Kevin Costner in ham-fisted post-apocalyptic
hilarity THE POSTMAN (8pm, Thu, C5).. though fortunately
*that* ends in time to catch "most of" the ever-entertaining
WILD THINGS (10.30pm, Thu, C4), if you know what we mean...
FILM>> a strong cast struggles to get any tension whatsoever
from the tale of a journalist whose 1998 made-up hacker-
turned-consultant story was trivially exposed by the basic web
searches of the unfortunately named e-zine "Forbes Digital
Tool", in made-for-TV-esque non-thriller SHATTERED GLASS
( http://www.screenit.com/movies/2003/shattered_glass.html :
[CAUTION, POPUPS] Although it shows the negative results of
doing so, it's possible the film could inspire kids to make up
extravagant stories)... "Trainspotting" meets "Fever Pitch" -
and gives it a bloody good hiding - in controversial Brit
hooliganism glorification THE FOOTBALL FACTORY (imdb comment:
"lovely to see Chelsea boys kicking the crap out of the rest
of the football fans. The Millwall fight was done brilliantly
and very believable")... or "Turns out that [retarded football
mascot Cuba Gooding Jr] has 'the right stuff' and becomes an
outsider artist superstar, which forces [Ed Harris] to kill
himself by crashing the space shuttle into the football
field", extrapolates "reviewing movies by their trailers" site
http://homepage.mac.com/joester5/prereview/page2.html#Radio
re RADIO ( http://www.capalert.com/capreports/radio.htm : Even
though Radio's future at the school was in danger because of
him going into the girls' locker room, Radio would not tell
Coach Jones who convinced him to do such a thing. [He] decided
to sacrifice himself rather than get Clay into trouble. Whom
else do we know sacrificed Himself for our sakes?)...
>> 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
"rarely worth checking more than once a week, anyway"
http://www.robfisher.net/newblog/archives/000254.html
NEED TO KNOW
THEY STOLE OUR REVOLUTION. NOW WE'RE STEALING IT BACK.
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