Need To Know 2004-05-14

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NTK 2007

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2004-12-10
#350
Patents, presents, privacy

2004-11-26
#349
Google recruits, history refuted

2004-11-12
#348
Geowanking for plugins

2004-10-29
#347
McCandless and Brooker - together at last

2004-10-15
#346
Web 2.0, Stirling Albion - Nil

2004-10-01
#345
Jumping the shark, gun

2004-09-17
#344
Foo, Foo, Alan Sugar, McGrew

2004-09-03
#343
Piracy good, not bad like you thought

2004-08-20
#342
Google boner, kick out the MD5

2004-08-06
#341
Yo Robot, Carry On Camping

2004-07-23
#340
from Odeon to Od-Iain

2004-07-09
#339
Browser Wars II - Electric Boogaloo

2004-06-04
MiniNTK #30
Not the NotCon final Schedule

2004-05-28
#338
Peek-a-boo Barney, Charles III "in charge"

2004-05-21
#337
Hey, Hey, Software Pa(tents) - slight reprise

2004-05-14
#336
A wip-woawing Widdecombe wollercoaster wide

2004-05-07
#335
A prawn sandwich and a BBC Micro

2004-04-30
#334
Eternal Sunshine of the Wireless Find

2004-04-23
#333
PayPal, piracy to "destroy society"

2004-04-16
#332
Loads more Gatesions, all-geek radio

2004-04-09
#331
Easter NotCon speaker hunt

2004-04-02
#330
The mass Onion-isation of pretty much everybody

2004-03-26
#329
LOAFs of spam, wifi settees

2004-03-19
#328
state of the "nanny state" nation

2004-03-12
#327
EU Ew-yew, pseudo- edutainment

2004-03-05
#326
SCO bandits, eBaywatch

2004-02-27
#325
Tidgy fridges, didgeridoos

2004-02-20
#324
ConConUK, Space 0.64 miles per second

2004-02-13
#323
All Tim O'Reilly, all the time

2004-02-06
#322
info on ebay scams only $10

2004-01-30
#321
the site now running on platform - well, whatever platform you like...

2004-01-23
#320
spam vs spam, Lisp to Perl

2004-01-16
#319
Name-calling, nuclear lan parties

2004-01-09
MiniNTK #24
Even more unpopular answers

2004-01-02
MiniNTK #23
Unpop quiz

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"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. 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) 2004 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 - with "NTK" in subject line. 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.