>> HARD NEWS <<
about 7.31 ECUs
Yes, we, your absentee landlords of your mind, have
returned! And where have we been? Well, partly, we've been
kicking the tyres of the now firmly launched OPEN RIGHTS
GROUP, which is taking your payments *right now* to become,
hopefully, the paramilitary wing of NTK's audience. So, if
you'd always wondered whether there wasn't more you could do
(than just saying sarcastic things in a quiet voice) against
Krazy Kopyright enforcement, brain-dead Parliamentary
legislation, internet breakage, media ignorance about tech,
and surveillance society sleep-walking, then go right ahead.
You can now pay up your fiver a month with aplomb, and
change the world for less than the cost of that ID card
you'll be burning soon.
http://www.openrightsgroup.org/support-org/
- form generates a PDF standing order, or Paypal "Pay now"
http://list.openrightsgroup.org/mailman/listinfo/org-discuss
- there's also a (privately archived) mailing list, and a wiki!
Even the most dedicated sports-hater can't help but notice
that it's an Olympic year, which - on recent evidence - means
it's also time for one of those evenings where we grab a few
Brits who spoke at O'Reilly's Emerging Technology conference,
then get them to (briefly) describe what they talked about -
and any other decent stuff they saw. This year, ETech runs
from March 6-9, and we're just in the process of confirming a
lineup for a central London location on the evening of
Thursday 2006-03-23, so don't say we never give you advance
notice or anything. Admittedly, most of the UK speakers we
recognise are from the London area, but we may be able to lure
the creators of social personal web archiving tool HANZO:WEB
over from Bristol as well - who describe their creation as
both "in public beta" and "the best bits of del.icio.us and
archive.org, rolled into a big sticky Katamari Damacy ball".
http://wiki.oreillynet.com/etech/index.cgi?ConConUK
- like this, with (slightly) different people, and not in 2004
http://conferences.oreillynet.com/pub/w/43/speakers.html
- Armitage! Bryant! Willison! Yoz! (mostly TBC at this stage)
http://hanzoweb.com/
- not to be confused with AbuHamza:Web, for all your race-hate clerical needs
>> EVENT QUEUE <<
GOTOs considered non-harmful
As social software theorist Danah Boyd seemed to be arguing
last year: don't we all "remix" culture when, for instance, we
buy clothes or furniture and then combine them in a way that
isn't exactly the same as depicted in the shop? What do you
mean, "No, not really"? Expect somewhat more pragmatic
insights at Rufus "Open Knowledge Foundation" Pollock's FORUM
ON OPEN CONTENT (7pm, next Wed 2006-02-22, Stanhope Centre,
Marble Arch, London W2 2HH, free but pre-register if you can),
where Paula "iCommons" Le Dieu, Tom "Remix Reading" Chance,
Jennifer "BBC Creative Archive" Rigby, and Cory "DRM's gonna
get ya!" Doctorow will be considering: Who will be producing
open content and how will it be funded? Does copyright hinder
the process, or help? And is the vibrant DJ culture of the UK
at least partly inspired by our culinary tradition of taking
boiled root vegetables, like the potato, then "mashing them
up" (perhaps with other tasty ingredients) to produce the
ideal accompaniment to a meal of sausages and baked beans?
http://zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2005/10/08/remix_is_active.html
- and books: you can read the pages in any order you like!
http://collisiondetection.net/mt/archives/2005/11/theres_been_a_l.html
- the end of this one's got to be a joke though, surely?
http://www.openknowledgefoundation.org/okforums/content/
- big-budget copyright works still oddly popular on P2P, of course
http://www.nlondon.bcs.org/
- the same night as Richard Barbrook addresses the London BCS
http://www.geekdinner.co.uk/
- London Geek Dinner with Paul "Boagworld" Boag, on Thu 23rd
http://www.dorkbot.org/dorkbotlondon/
- Processing Hacks at Dorkbot London the Monday (20th) before
http://www.nodel.org/calendar.php
- then a whole month of mad (multi) media art, from March 1st
>> ANTI-MEMES <<
there's smoke, flames, http://dohthehumanity.com/
taking that whole "computer forensics" attitude a bit far:
http://matt.west.co.tt/spectrum/csi-miami/ ... speaking of
Spectrum games: http://geocities.com/wildwesthero2004/ ...
this month's "people and institutions"-themed Google goofs:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22sith+form+college%22 ,
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22set+a+president%22 ,
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22happily+marred%22 ,
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22does+Antone+know%22 ,
http://google.com/search?q=%22The+Animals+Of+Farting+Wood%22
- and usually an unintentional typo for "parish". Usually:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22pariah+church%22 ...
back by popular demand - hideously photoshopped DVD covers:
http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B000CCE25K.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
... GIMP unveils Adobe-beating "Stallman's head on a stick"
plugin: http://davyd.ucc.asn.au/images/gpl3-reloaded.jpg (via
http://davyd.livejournal.com/163930.html )... old joke, always
liked it: http://www.widdy.demon.co.uk/rainbow/comic.htm ...
>> TRACKING <<
sufficiently advanced technology : the gathering
Did you, like us, read that "Britons waste the equivalent of
around two power stations' worth of electricity each year by
leaving TV sets and other gadgets on standby" - in a room lit
only by the muted, submarine-movie glow of power supply LEDs?
And did you also wonder if only there was a semi-elaborate
technological solution to this ongoing wastage, rather than
the physical and mental effort of constantly switching
everything off at the plug? Step forward the ONECLICK
INTELLIGENT MAINS PANEL, an 6-way surge-protector which
keeps your PC (or hifi amp, or TV?) on standby as normal, but
completely cuts power to all the other sockets when the master
device "shuts down". They cost UKP 24.95-29.95 from Maplins or
the manufacturer's site - unless you're installing, like,
millions of them, you're not likely to save the planet, but a
PC Pro review estimates this pioneeringly electronically-
assisted laziness could save you upwards of UKP14 per year.
http://www.oneclickpower.co.uk/home.htm
- or, in the US: http://kk.org/cooltools/archives/001087.php
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/71652
- OK, UKP14 is just using one socket, it has 4 more
http://hardware.slashdot.org/hardware/06/01/23/0549203.shtml
- Slashdot comments: Maybe I need all that "waste" heat...?
>> GEEK MEDIA <<
get out less
THE VICTORIAN AFFECTATION>> We've always sympathised with Egon
in "Ghostbusters" when he declares "Print is dead [...] I
collect spores, molds, and fungus - I think it's the food of
the future". But, nonetheless, kudos to those NTK readers who
still dabble in this self-consciously "retro" artform,
especially when they're as forward-thinking as CHARLIE STROSS,
who's saved you the trouble of OCR-ing his latest multiply-
award-nominated posthuman scifi ACCELERANDO by sticking it all
online: http://www.accelerando.org/2005/06/28/ . This kind of
undermines ANDREW CHAPMAN's claim of a "UK publishing first"
for his company's "entirely free download of a full-length
novel": http://readreverb.com/?s=content&p=get - said novel
being C M Taylor's LIGHT, a "poignant story of love, loss and
English summer" set amid the "art and media world of the late
1990s". Still, if you don't like it, you can always use their
http://whatshouldireadnext.com/ page to find something else...
Tragically, they "currently have no recommendations" if you
type in either "DEVIL'S DANDRUFF" GUIDE TO NIGHTLIFE (UKP 6.39,
http://amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0715634658/needtoknow0e -
compiled and expanded from the Guardian Guide cartoons by NTK
reader DANIEL PEMBERTON, when he wasn't writing the scores for
Lionhead's "The Movies", apparently), or even MAPPING HACKS
( http://amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596007035/needtoknow0e ,
UKP 13.82) - congratulations to JO WALSH and co-authors for
what we believe is the first full-colour outing for O'Reilly's
"Hacks" series, even if it isn't quite as glossy as the UKP
11.55 aspirational hardware-hacking coffee-table tome MAKERS
http://amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596101880/needtoknow0e
...
In case it's another year or so until we run this feature
again, we should probably also mention the latest from MICHAEL
FUCHS, a former Suck.com contributor previously best known to
us as the guy who wrote in boasting about the "extremely
attractive young woman" he eventually "gathered the nerve to
go speak to" at NotCon 2004. All of which now sounds more like
a scene from his upcoming tough techno-thriller THE MANUSCRIPT
( http://amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0230000096/needtoknow0e ,
hardback UKP 8.57, due 2006-04-07) - we've only read the first
50 pages, but we're already intrigued by the premise that you
might be able to find the "Da Vinci Code"-style secret of human
existence on *Usenet* (of all places), just by coming up with
the appropriate Google Groups search terms. Well, they do tell
you to "write about what you know", don't they...
>> SMALL PRINT <<
Need to Know is a useful and interesting UK digest of things that
happened last month or might happen next month. 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
"do it so differently to everyone else"
http://itnewsblog.blogspot.com/2005/09/problem-with-charging-for-content.html
NEED TO KNOW
THEY STOLE OUR REVOLUTION. NOW WE'RE STEALING IT BACK.
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