Need To Know 2005-02-04

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NTK 2007

NTK 2006

2005-12-02
#366
Revealing the totaliser for this year's appeal

2005-11-04
#365
November spawns a Dorkbot

2005-10-07
#364
Mery, Cory, Buzz and Ning

2005-09-02
#363
Cheap books and backronyms

2005-08-01
#362
Digital Rights vs The Management

2005-07-01
#361
Open Tech registration, WhatTheHack, Aibo Nation

2005-05-27
#360
*Not* NotCon 2005, Punt Picnic Ahoy!

2005-05-13
#359
The XML Factor, Microsoft mind robbery

2005-04-29
#358
oh no, not again

2005-04-15
#357
not a(nother) pathetic MP quiz

2005-04-01
#356
Temptation and the Supremes

2005-03-18
#355
O'Reilly Factored

2005-03-04
#354
There's money in them thar licenses

2005-02-18
Mini NTK #31
Contentions, M and S pants

2005-02-04
#353
Round up the usual patents

2005-01-21
#352
Mucker, Tucker, Ducker - and Spaz

2005-01-07
#351
Freedom of Information, Vectors of Zorn

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"I feared women the way lots of people fear the Windows operating system. (But Apple products) are easy to use and people are empowered by this..." http://money.cnn.com/2005/01/26/technology/personaltech/apple_fans/ ...ah, Windows - she is a mistress of pain. And the "pleasure" that pain sometimes brings... >> HARD NEWS << mmm, petits filous Everyone else likes to worry about Google's gathering conflict of interests, but Verisign's S.P.E.C.T.R.E.-level skills still take some beating. This week, orbiting crypto analysts Ian Grigg and Adam Shostock belatedly pointed out to ICANN that perhaps Verisign couldn't trusted with .net. Why? Well, Verisign these days offers both top level domains and SSL certificate authentication. They also, with their NetDiscovery service - sell ISPs a complete service for complying with law enforcement surveillance orders. So, if an American court demands an ISP wiretap its customers, and the ISP turns that order over to Verisign to do the dirty: well, Verisign can now fake any domain you want, and issue any temporary fake certificate, allowing even SSLed communications to be monitored. What's even more fun is that they are - at least in the US - now moving into providing infrastructure for mobile telephony. Yes, NOT EVEN YOUR RINGTONES ARE SAFE. http://forum.icann.org/lists/net-rfp-verisign/msg00008.html - you know, this is probably a little late http://iang.org/ssl/ - but then, this is the year of the snail http://www.thefeature.com/article?articleid=101334&ref=5459267 - stupid network vs stupider company Seems like yesterday when the anti-software-patents movement was being slighted for their confrontational approach. Impudent letters to MEPs? Railroading national parliaments to condemn their own commissioner's railroading of the patent directive? Real, live, protests in Brussels? These are not the subtle negotiations of which the EU is enamoured. It worked though: against all the odds, the software patent process was hard-reset this week. Now it all starts again: and with groups like the FFII, for better or worse, taken much more seriously this time. Plus, it looks like Microsoft has taken a leaf from the free software protesters' book. Rather than simply lie down and take the EU's forced unbundling of Windows and its media player, Microsoft have cheekily named their new, legal, software "Windows XP: Reduced Media Edition". We're thinking "Windows XP: Suck My Pastel-Coloured Balls, Euroweenies" might have been mildly more confrontational, but only just. And wll it work? Angry citizens are one thing; petulant, sulking, multinationals are distinctly less ennobling. http://www.xenoclast.org/free-sklyarov-uk/2005-February/006042.html - lobby your MEP to sort out their position (unless Green or UKIP) http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/06/29/open_source_prepares_to_kiss/ - who's kissing whose ass goodbye now? >> EVENT QUEUE << GOTOs considered non-harmful If you were tasked to come up with online equivalents of the 12 mythical labours of Hercules, where would you start? Perhaps with contesting THE NETIMPERATIVE BEST DIGITAL MEDIA BLOG AWARD, whose closing date, we are assured, is now next Monday 2005-02-07, and whose entry fee (for the blog category at least) has now been waived - yet you must still capture the site's fearsome "PDF of Adobe" (and print it off and mail it to them) in order to be accepted within their hallowed walls. Similar tales of informational heroism shall echo round the campfire at THE OPEN KNOWLEDGE FORUM ON CIVIC INFORMATION (from 7pm, Thu after next 2005-02-17, Stanhope Centre, London W2 2HH, free), as bare-chested PHP-warriors Tom Steinberg, Francis Irving and Stefan Magdalinski recount their battles wrestling the golden chalice of local and national government data from the secretive high priesthood of Hansard. And, just to top it all, you probably won't have to tie yourself to a rock to endure the national tour of THE TWELVE TASKS OF HERCULES TERRACE (from next Tue 2005-02-08, Riverside Studios, London W6 9RL, tickets from UKP9, venues around the country from Feb 24) - a similarly contemporary take on the ancient legend from the fertile mind of Rich "Lee And" Herring who, it must be said, has shown considerable dedication to the actor's craft in "bulking up" for the role. http://www.netimperative.com/awards/ - no, we're not sure what a "digital media" blog is either http://www.okfn.org/wiki/OpenKnowledgeForums - we don't normally link to wiki pages, but what the heck http://www.richardherring.com/hercules/gigs/ - yes, tying yourself to a rock was someone else, we know http://www.deadmansboots.co.uk/ - dancing to the rhythms of the dead, in London on Mondays http://homepage.ntlworld.com/kate.darby/page8.html - another "Club Le Strange", London, next Thu http://www.ukuug.org/events/winter2005/ - UKUUG winter conference in Birmingham at end of the month >> ANTI-MEMES << there's smoke, flames, http://dohthehumanity.com/ an alarming return for "one of these is not like the others": http://images.google.com/images?q=%22ainsley+harriot%22 (cached at http://xcom2002.com/doh/?s=05020416pic - along with the very latest in stupid Amazon mis-recommendation tricks: http://xcom2002.com/doh/?s=05020415eco )... hard to work out what "3D-like" means in "High-definition gives incredible, 3D- like pictures and surround" - other than "not 3-dimensional": http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/4210551.stm ... inevitably, EU online consultation on eAccessibility - not very "eAccessible" itself: http://lists.virus.org/ukcrypto-0501/msg00049.html , http://europa.eu.int/yourvoice/forms/dispatch?form=369 ... all-video-game-themed puerile Google misspellings, all the time: http://www.google.com/search?q=%22games+consul%22 , http://www.google.com/search?q=%22price+of+persia%22 , http://www.google.com/search?q=%22motal+kombat%22 , and http://google.com/search?q=%22cannon+fooder%22 ... Happy Computers is "Great Place To Work (R)" - for disclaimer lawyers: http://www.happy.co.uk/greatplace/#greatplace ... >> TRACKING << sufficiently advanced technology : the gathering SUPERWABA! Superwaba! Soo-per. Wab-ah. Why is it that the Brazilians always come up with the most mellifluous project names? Superwaba is a mildy cut-down java compiler and class library that can spit out native-code, cross-platform apps for Palms, WindowsCE, desktop machines - and now, with version 5.0, Symbian phones. It's for people who can't quite bring themselves to use J2ME and its policy of "ooh I don't think a little mobily thing like you should be trying big boy work like that do you?". This version also marks a change in their business model, which involves commercial folk paying a license for a LGPL'd version. Free peoples can use the GPLd SuperWaba for free just fine. You can tell this has something to do with business models and commercial respectability, because the new corporate-looking website is unnavigable, and tells you nothing about the software. Ah well, there's always the Wiki. http://www.superwaba.com.br/etc/SuperWaba.pdf - or the README PDF http://www.superwaba.com.br/ - uh-oh, strong relationships >> GEEK MEDIA << get out less TV>> disappointingly, THE FRIDAY NIGHT PROJECT (10pm, Fri, C4) appears to be an "11 O'Clock Show" format from the makers of "Dot.Comedy" rather than the eagerly-awaited TV debut of The London Friday News Review Project Thing, or whatever they call themselves nowadays... the all-new CSI: NY (9.05pm, Sat, C5) faces off against Farrelly brothers/ Jack Black/ Gwyneth Paltrow post-PC fat-suit feelgooder SHALLOW HAL (9.05pm, Sat, C4)... inexplicably shunting comparatively coherent Oliver Stone sporting movie ANY GIVEN SUNDAY to the PVR-wasteland slot of 12.40am, Sat, C5... Jimmy Carr can surely not ignore the Hasselhoff body of work if they do a "Worst of" roundup as a break from THE 100 GREATEST POP VIDEOS (8pm, Sun, C4)... for some reason, the suspension of disbelief just doesn't seem to work in these extended 30-min editions of LOOK AROUND YOU (10pm, Mon, BBC2) ... and the "Storyville" documentary strand visits a Nokia sweatshop/ factory in MADE IN CHINA (9pm, Tue, BBC4)... both Kurt "Slaughterhouse Five" Vonnegut and Stewart "Jerry Springer: The Opera" Lee appear in THE CULTURE SHOW (7pm and 11.20pm, Thu, C4) - though probably not at the same time... THE GADGET SHOW (7.30pm, next Fri, C5) pits Google "against some academics" - in a similar fashion to, a quick Google reveals, that Guardian article from a few months ago: http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,1210455,00.html ... while NTK's "Dave Green" maintains that his cameo is "heavily disguised" - if it even appears at all - in Charlie Brooker/ Chris Morris TVGoHome spinoff NATHAN BARLEY (10pm, next Fri, C4) - http://www.trashbat.co.ck/ ... FILM>> the stars are back in the coolest heist caper ever - but enough about next week's SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS: THE MOVIE ( http://www.capalert.com/capreports/spongebobsquarepants04.htm : Patrick portraying sadomasochism; best friends SpongeBob and Patrick were the only ones in the show to flash bare backsides; two other characters [...] were noted gleefully rubbing their posteriors together but at least they were clothed)... the gag about one of the actors playing themselves is possibly the only original bit in extended David Holmes video/ modern-day "Pink Panther" retread OCEAN'S TWELVE (imdb: rome/ heist/ amsterdam/ sequel/ criminal-gang/ thief/ sequel- to-remake/ train)... otherwise half-term is traditionally commemorated by a load of talking animals - oh and adolescent "my dad's the President" wish fulfilment frolic FIRST DAUGHTER ( http://www.screenit.com/movies/2004/first_daughter.html : We see [Katie "Dawson's Creek" Holmes] in some sexy-looking pajamas; We see [her] in small shorts, a low-cut top that shows cleavage, high-heeled boots and a blonde wig. After drinking too much, she gets up on a bar's runway and starts doing some sexy dance moves)... >> 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 "Nathan Barley's *personal* lampshade, if you don't mind" http://www.livejournal.com/users/internetsdairy/4504.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) 2005 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 the subject, cheers. 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