"I'm a programmer by trade and I know probably several
hundred, and I have only ever met one woman," Mr Sear said
[end of] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/4530583.stm
- that's enough "I met a woman once" boasting from you,
Mr Super-Cool Games Programmer lording it over the rest of us
>> HARD NEWS <<
MS misconstrues
The 1400-word terms and conditions for MSN.CO.UK's strong-IP
"Thought Thieves" film competition are quite the read, even if
you're not the 14-17 year-old they're intended to be read and
understood by and complied with in their therein bywhich
entirety. Entries must be the "sole work and creation of the
person submitting the film" (no sharing your precious
intellectual property fluids with your cameraman, Mr Auteur);
must not "use third party intellectual property rights" (no
furniture, no architecture, only clouds as background); the
entry form additionally specifies "Should I be selected as a
finalist [...] I will formally licence on terms acceptable to
Microsoft, all intellectual property rights in my film and
agree to waive all moral rights in relation to my film if
requested to do so". But what we made us wonder was: where
exactly did Microsoft get this "Thought Thieves" idea from?
The idea that people can "steal your thoughts" is surely not
original. We're hoping for a class-action by paranoid
schizophrenics, who we think came up with the idea that others
are stealing the very THOUGHTS FROM YOUR MIND a good few years
before Microsoft started losing theirs.
http://www.msn.co.uk/thoughtthieves/
- send us a copy of your entry. We'll do prizes.
http://www.the-future-of-ideas.com/excerpts/index.shtm
- Lessig's book starts at the exact point the T&C gets ridiculous
On top of that, legal experts agree, it's not like there's
usually copyright in "just an idea" in the first place. It's
this (and the fact that it only seems to encourage them)
that's preventing us from having more of a pop at sampling
pranksters NEGATIVLAND, no doubt currently asking themselves
how they can possibly stay cutting-edge and relevant in a
world where pretty much any semi-talented PC owner can churn
out audio collages to their sort of standard - and beyond. One
possibility, on their new album out May 26, has been to base
their 10-min "Downloading" track around former Grammy head's
Michael Greene's anthemic "insidious virus" address - yes, the
same one that NTK readers were enthusiastically remixing
shortly after he actually made the speech, certainly not much
more than three long years ago.
http://www.negativland.com/nobiz/
- yup, also appears in the epic http://djfood.org/info.html
http://www.ntk.net/index.cgi?b=02002-05-10&l=70#l
- vs http://www.ntk.net/2003/05/09/DownloadingLivesAway.mp3
http://www.primalscreamremixed.com/
- pioneering nu-skool of collages that actually "have a tune"
>> TRACKING <<
sufficiently advanced technology : the gathering
Worried that Java is insufficiently free for your dirty
tree-hugging OpenOffice.Org? Hah - NeoOffice/J is far more
blasphemous! For those who have already SOLD OUT and are
running MacOSX, it's an OpenOffice implementation that has
been stitched, with no care for scruples, to Java *and*
Cocoa, and probably the corpses of some murdered free
software coders too. Disorientingly, it works rather well,
and rather speedily: you don't need X11, it uses Aqua menus
(no Services, mind), and you can use Mac fonts and do that
magic thing that open source practitioners have theorised
may be "actually printing" (only 300dpi mind you). And it's
GPLed too, so even when you're feeling bad, you don't have
to *be* bad. Well, not very.
http://www.neooffice.org/
- for those interested in software that is "free as in - oh shiny thing"
>> ANTI-MEMES <<
there's smoke, flames, http://dohthehumanity.com/
Morse: "This parchment - must date back to the Roman era.
Lewis, find me a Latin-speaking special constable right away":
http://www.herts-recruitment.police.uk/03_specials/03.3_profile2_2004.htm
... oh, those saucily-named Korean Nintendo DS dating sims:
http://www.touchdic.co.kr/ ... German comedy confectionery
page: http://nicoladoering.de/gbear.htm - as theoretically
rigorous as you'd expect... Google goofs of the edible/
natural world: http://google.com/search?q=%22larva+lamp%22 ,
http://google.com/search?q=%22doner+card%22 / "donor kebab",
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22endangered+spices%22 ...
PageRank to replace democracy - Andrew Orlowski's head to
explode: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sd-2/ ... Google
apparently misunderstanding that this is what a search engine
is intended to do: http://google.com/press/testimonials.html ...
>> EVENT QUEUE <<
GOTOs considered non-harmful
And the award for this year's "Conference With The Most
Sessions Featuring The Letter X In Their Title" must surely be
in the bag for the event formerly known as XML Europe, XTECH
2005 (from Tue May 24, Rai Centre, Amsterdam, registration
fees from $175 for "Students without lunches" - lunch upwards
of $150 extra), where NTK readers Edd Dumbill and Matt
Biddulph have assembled an acronym-tastic lineup covering
XSLT, CMS, XAML, XUL, RSS, JFDI, ROME, XFY, IDE, FOAF, RDF and
SVG - and that's just on the first day! As Edd himself pointed
out, we've all come a long way since he first wrote to us
about how impressed he was by the "free orange squash and
choc-chip biscuits" being given away by one VC-happy exhibitor
at Kensington's "World Of Amiga" show back in July 1999...
http://www.xtech-conference.org/2005/schedule.ASP
- vs http://www.ntk.net/index.cgi?b=01999-07-30&l=244#l
http://www.dorkbot.org/dorkbotlondon/
- Dorkbot London on Wed if you're not going to E3 or anything
http://www.onedotzero.com/event.php?id=30952
- onedotzero9 digital film stuff at the ICA at the end of May
>> GEEK MEDIA <<
get out less
TV>> sure, we can understand it not being in the Top Ten or
anything, but surely it's an oversight to leave "Starship
Troopers" out of THE 100 GREATEST WAR FILMS (about 9pm, Sat
and Sun, C4) altogether?... presumably Errol "Fast, Cheap And
Out Of Control" Morris' extended Robert McNamara interview THE
FOG OF WAR (10pm, Sun, BBC2) was excluded from the chart for
slightly *too* unflinchingly depicting the real horrors of the
battlefield... while George Lucas' latest effort remains
largely uncriticised in both STAR WARS: FEEL THE FORCE (8pm,
Wed, Sky1) and GENERATION JEDI (9pm, Sun and Fri; 11.30pm, Tue
and Thu, BBC3)... expect a bit of coverage for CELEBRITY LOVE
ISLAND (10pm, weeknights, ITV), though frankly we're more
intrigued by the preposterous "past life regressions" of Dr
Fox, Anneka Rice, and Lisa I'Anson in HAVE I BEEN HERE BEFORE?
(1.30pm, Mon-Fri, ITV)... "The Money Programme" catches up
with the VOIP phenomenon in THE FREE PHONE CALL REVOLUTION
(7pm, Fri, BBC2)... and look out for http://snackspot.org.uk/
savouries correspondent Stuart Campbell sharing his crisp-
sampling expertise in the "Potatoes" edition of EVER WONDERED
ABOUT FOOD? (11.30am, next Sat, BBC2)...
FILM>> ditzy J-Lo discovers her husband-to-be is the son of
notorious serial killer Aileen Wuornos in slapstick sequel
MONSTER-IN-LAW ( http://ahafilm.info/movies/mr.phtml?fid=7651 :
[Lopez] sits on the beach with four of her canine clients when
one of the dogs tries to mount another)... "no wirework, no
CGI, and very few scenes that don't feature some form of
kickboxing" are the unique selling points of onomatopoeic Thai
beat-'em-up ONG-BAK ( http://mpaa.org/ : Rated R for sequences
of strong violence, language, some drug use and sexuality)...
and speaking of martial arts, they don't seem to retained many
of the original Jackie Chan/ Jennifer Love Hewitt/ robot suit
characters in "The Tuxedo" time-travel followup THE JACKET
( http://cndb.com/movie.html?title=Jacket%2C+The+%282005%29 :
After a heaping load of plot development, [Keira Knightley's]
character, much to our delight, decided to take a bath. She's
sitting in the tub, and her left breast can be seen for
several seconds)... then, next week, the special effects are
inevitably let down by all the mystical new-age nonsense, but
that's enough about quantum pseudoscience WHAT THE [BLEEP] DO
WE KNOW!? ( http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/badscience/ : [Jars
of] water photographed after positive words such as "love" and
"thank you" was [sic] taped to them overnight produced
beautiful patterns)... as 28 years of suffering at last comes
to some sort of end in (hopefully) the last ever "Star Wars"
film, EPISODE III - REVENGE OF THE SITH ( http://mpaa.org/ :
Rated PG-13 for sci-fi violence and some intense images)...
>> 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
"wanting high-caffeine soft drinks"
http://telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2005/05/09/cbstar09.xml
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.
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.