"PlayStation 5 will probably be as powerful as the human
brain... it's possible to think of a smart yoghurt some time
after 2020 or 2025, where the yoghurt has got a whole stack of
electronics in every single bacterium..."
- "Britain's leading thinker on the future", BT's Ian Pearson,
sees humanity superseded by hyper-intelligent games consoles
and dairy products; the "strawberry-flavoured goo" scenario
(via http://www.livejournal.com/users/occular/48050.html )
>> HARD NEWS <<
social sudokus
And, after 8 long years, who better than NTK's most brutally
affectionate critic LLOYD WOOD to look back at "what the
landscape was like" when NTK launched in May 1997. "Slashdot
wasn't the force it is now", Lloyd reminisces (in fact, they
only showed up the following September), "the blogosphere and
its ability to churn crud to the top was nowhere to be seen,
there was no Fark getting all the amusing links. There was a
sense that something was needed to counteract the American
view of things, but we're all Americans now". "And that's
why", Lloyd predicts, "NTK is switching to a monthly format".
Careful what you wish for, Lloyd - NTK will be going monthly
"for essential maintenance" over the summer, though you can
still follow our other antics at the various URLs below. And,
who knows, maybe even come up with something constructive for
this year's BACKSTAGE.BBC.CO.UK OPEN TECH 2005 (proper "Call
For Participation" follows), which we're helping to put
together along with the UK Unix User Group, aiming for
something a bit like last year's "NotCon" and 2002's "Extreme
Computing", though with a more coherent theme and better
organised. But, you know, in a good way.
http://www.eff.org/minilinks/
- Danny blogging for the EFF, up to several times a day
http://www.snackspot.org.uk/
- Dave's "international nutritional activism community"
http://www.hexkey.co.uk/lee/log/
- Lee: the Kevin Smith of spam-battling sysadmin-ing
http://www.xcom2002.com/doh/
- where the "dohs" go to when they die
>> OPEN TECH CFP <<
* Call for Participation - Please Redistribute Freely *
The UK Unix User Group, NTK.net, and the organisers of NotCon '04 present:
backstage.bbc.co.uk Open Tech 2005
Saturday July 23rd - The Reynolds Building, Hammersmith, London W6 8RP
http://www.ukuug.org/events/opentech2005/
Sponsored by backstage.bbc.co.uk, Open Tech 2005 is an informal
one-day conference about technologies that anyone can have a go at,
from "Open Source"-style ways of working to repurposing everyday
electronics hardware.
So far, the line-up features:
* Ted Nelson, inventor of hypertext, on where the web went wrong
* The official launch of the backstage.bbc.co.uk developer network,
opening up BBC content for you to play with
* Plus: able to record an entire week of all Freeview TV and radio
channels, probably the UK's largest (fridge-sized) PVR
More speakers will be confirmed over the next few weeks - but, as the
title implies, we're very much "Open" to suggestions. If you're
reverse-engineering proprietary protocols, making useful information
available in a way people couldn't get at before, pioneering
unexpected methods of knowledge sharing - or (equally likely) doing
something so cool we haven't even thought of it yet, then please get
in touch via the submissions form at:
http://www.ukuug.org/events/opentech2005/offer/
The deadline for submissions is midnight UK time Saturday June 25th,
and we'll aim to notify everyone who's submitted a proposal by July
1st.
We'll be trying to fit in as many talks (and lightning presentations)
as possible, so the shorter you can make yours, the better.
Alternatively, if you have an idea for a panel discussion, or a
workshop, or anything else that's vaguely in keeping with the theme of
the event, then we also can't wait to hear from you.
And there'll most likely be some sort of internet access at the event,
but offline demonstrations are strongly encouraged, as bandwidth may
not be guaranteed.
* Further information *
You don't have to suggest a session to take part; you can stay
informed about the event by subscribing to our low-traffic
announcement-only mailing list - send a blank email to:
notcon-subscribe@socialswirl.com
(your address will only be used to contact you about the event and
will not be passed onto third parties).
- or you can email opentech@ukuug.org if you've any other questions.
backstage.bbc.co.uk Open Tech 2005
Saturday July 23rd - The Reynolds Building, Hammersmith, London W6 8RP
http://www.ukuug.org/events/opentech2005/
Final programme may be subject to alteration. Thanks for reading!
>> EVENT QUEUE <<
(other) GOTOs considered non-harmful
At time of writing, the lineup for next month's LINUX USER
GROUP RADIO LIVE 2005 (Sat 2005-06-25, The Terrace Bar,
Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton, UKP5/ UKP3 concessions) looks
a little like one of those sports games where they haven't
licensed the actual player names, and thus features "Rufas"
Pollock (the crime-fighting pseudonym of Foundation for a Free
Information Infrastructure's "Rufus" Pollock) and Sarah "Ewan"
(a close relative of Linux-on-the-PS2 guru Sarah "Ewen"). Oh
and digital-Dr-Who-in-waiting Bill Thompson, "What's up with
that?" PC recycler James Wallbank, and co-creator of Elite,
Ian Bell (all of whom appear to be spelt correctly). Speaking
of Big Mouth Billy Bass Thompson, expect similar high-spirited
debate (though slightly less emphasis on webcasting) at the
Cambridge-based firebrand's annual GEEK PUNT PICNIC (setting
sail around 12.30pm, Sun 2005-06-05, from The Mill public
house, Cambridge, punts charged at around UKP2 per hour per
person, please RSVP direct to Bill). "We will be heading
upriver", maintains Bill, in a perhaps unconscious echo of
"Apocalypse Now", though not quite as far as the "heart of
darkness" itself, the William H Gates Comp Sci building.
http://www.andfinally.com/geek.html
- Bill "will provide more food/drink" (Jesus-Christ-style?)
http://www.lugradio.org/live/2005/
- plus paintball, talks on Ubuntu, GreaseMonkey and phishing
http://www.nmk.co.uk/event/2005/06/07/inthecity-nmk-2005
- UKP125 "convergence" day at ICA, with "NTK's Dave Green"
http://sca21.wikicities.com/wiki/Blue_nose_day
- wiki set up to combat global warming on Friday June 10
http://reboot.dk/reboot7/show/HomePage
- "new ways ahead" outlined at Reboot7, Copenhagen, June 10-11
http://www.supernova2005.com/
- fancy-shmancy business tech from June 20 in San Francisco
>> TRACKING <<
sufficiently advanced technology : the gathering
Scott R. Turner self-aggrandisingly writes: "It has always
been my dream to get mentioned in the TRACKING section of
NTK. For many years, my biggest claim to fame was adding
Keystone Kops to Nethack. Now, however, I've created a
Firefox extension that might be worthy of your notice:
PLATYPUS. It has all the ingredients for instant success: a
nerdy-but-hip name, a fashionably angry-looking logo, and
usefulness to only a tiny portion of Internet users. As if
that weren't enough, it's actually very useful: it allows
Firefox users to visually edit a web page and then save
those changes (via the Magic of Greasemonkey (TM)) to be
applied again the next time the page is viewed. Oh, sure,
that sounds trivial but then you didn't have to implement it
in a foul language like Javascript. Check it out, I think
you'll enjoy it!" And so we will, just after putting this
Platypus-coded Dave-Winer Tourettesifier through its final
paces.
http://platypus.mozdev.org/using.html
- key old-skool hint here: hit "?" to see a list of commands
>> GEEK MEDIA <<
get out less
TV>> laughing in the face of TS Eliot's dictum that "Human
kind cannot bear too much reality [television]", there's yet
another series of BIG BROTHER (basically all the time from
9pm, Fri, C4)... followed, more promisingly, by car-crash
variety show JOHNNY VEGAS: 18 STONE OF IDIOT (10.15pm, Fri,
C4)... and we don't believe the purists approve, but it's
still possible to enjoy David Hasselhoff Marvel adaptation
NICK FURY: AGENT OF S.H.I.E.L.D (12.55am, Fri, ITV)... ITV
ditches "Celebrity Wrestling", imaginatively replaces it with
another cast of near-unknowns in unlikely costumes in X-MEN
(6.10pm, Sat, ITV)... THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR (10.55pm, Sat, C5)
remains arguably the most Greg-Egan-esque of all "The Matrix"-
alike movies... HOW ART MADE THE WORLD (9.30pm, Mon, BBC2)
riffs in an thought-provoking, if largely unsubstantiated,
manner on the notion of "the hero's journey"... as ingeniously
parodied in Verhoeven/ Schwarzenegger tour-de-force TOTAL
RECALL (10.50pm, Mon, BBC1)... Tuesday showcases 23 years of
computer graphics "progress" with the all-new CAPTAIN SCARLET
(4.30pm, Tue, ITV) up against Disney's 1982 original TRON
(1pm, Tue, BBC2)... and two different views of "geek culture"
are contrasted in Kieren "The Register" McCarthy's tale of
domain-hijacking derring-do THE SEX.COM STORY (11.05pm, Wed,
C5), vs the Star Wars/ Eastenders obsessions of autistic
children ostensibly requesting that Channel4 MAKE ME NORMAL
(9pm, Thu, C4)...
FILM>> half-term means fun for all the family, with Danny
Boyle's Children's Film Foundation version of "Shallow Grave"
MILLIONS ( http://www.bbfc.co.uk/ : Contains one scene of drug
use)... and Paul "Dennis Pennis" Kaye playing a "fish out of
water" character *again*, this time a deaf DJ in IT'S ALL GONE
PETE TONG (imdb: clubbing/ drug-use/ ibiza-spain)... so, we
suspect the cooler kids will want to hold out for next week's
overlong 18-certificate chiaroscuro comic-book conversion SIN
CITY ( http://www.capalert.com/capreports/sincity.htm : vulgar
and flippant impure language, dense sexual immorality and bold
disregard for life; though Sin City is a technological
masterpiece with high wattage thespians, it is deeply dark,
vulgar, sinister and ugly cinematic cyanide)...
>> 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
"more 'stoppable' than you might think"
http://barnski.blogspot.com/2005_02_01_barnski_archive.html
NEED TO KNOW
THEY STOLE OUR REVOLUTION. NOW WE'RE STEALING IT BACK.
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