>> HARD NEWS <<
super-cheap truths
Always top of our list of "people we'd like to do keynotes at
a one-day conference if they're ever in the UK" is of course
cyberpunk-pioneer-turned-environmental-agitator BRUCE STERLING
- and, while that hasn't been possible this time around, we've
wangled probably the next best thing: guaranteed places for
NTK readers at a rare London appearance by "Chairman Bruce" in
just 10 days' time. Promising some sort of "snake-handling
cyberculture high-mass complete with chalice of Web 2.0 Kool-
Aid", STEALING THE REVOLUTION 2.0 takes place from 7pm, Mon
2006-05-15, in the upstairs room at The Grouse and Claret pub,
14-15 Little Chester Street, London SW1X 7AP (approx 5 mins
walk from London Victoria station), and is completely free if
(and only if) you RSVP to bruces@newstatesman.co.uk with the
subject "I heard about this via NTK" to confirm you can get
in. Not that Bruce has started writing for the New Statesman
or anything, but the event's sponsored by this year's all-new
THE NEW STATESMAN THE NEW MEDIA AWARDS for new "new media"
projects that "benefit society, government or democracy" in
any new (or particularly "new media") way.
http://beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/21/2155/Grouse_and_Claret/Belgravia
- "the best pint of Tanglefoot I've had in many a year"
http://www.viridiandesign.org/
- or pretend to be an NTK reader, there won't be a test or anything
http://www.newstatesman.com/newmedia
- 8 categories, all free to enter, closing date Wed 31 May
>> EVENT QUEUE <<
GOTOs considered non-harmful
Yes, we have left it a bit late to alert aspiring geowankers
to this weekend's OPENSTREETMAP workshop to free-map the Isle
of Wight (from today Fri 2006-05-05, based around Newport/
Brightstone, pay your way for most things but check the wiki),
though there's still time to sign up for the GPS-powered
liberation of the (equally insular?) people of Greater
Manchester next weekend (Sat and Sun, 2006-05-13/14, HQ:
Manchester Digital Development Agency , Lower Ground Floor,
117-119 Portland Street, Manchester M1 6ED - for those who can
still bring themselves to use The Man's "slave postcodes").
Since ringleader Steve Coast then heads to XTECH 2006:
BUILDING WEB 2.0 (from 9am, Tue-Fri 2006-05-16/19, The Grand
Hotel Krasnapolsky, Amsterdam, somewhere in the region of
$several hundred per person), we're also tempted to propose a
similar collaborative mapping of the streets and canals of the
Dutch capital, just to see how many GPS traces would terminate
in one of the famed "tourist attractions" offered by the city.
http://xtech06.usefulinc.com/schedule/speakers
- we mean Anne Frank's house and the Van Gogh Museum, obviously
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/OSM_Workshop
- where "grockels" now merely arouse suspicion, not fear
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Mapchester
- "Beneath the paving stones - la plage!"
http://www.hackhull.com/
- plus, the last ever "Hack Hull" meeting, Fri Jun 2nd
http://pbd.lbl.gov/sbconf/
- also late to register for Berkeley's Synthetic Biology 2.0
>> ANTI-MEMES <<
there's smoke, flames, http://dohthehumanity.com/
overdue return of some "old thrills" #1 - Widdys of the week:
http://www.clikdog.com/3/Errant%20Prime%20Minister_.php ,
http://clikdog.com/3/Errant%20Prime%20Minister-thankyou.php
... navy security not what it was: http://www.rncca.com/ ...
abstract BBC pic: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/4940250.stm looks a
bit like the profile of chirpy synthetic midget built by JF
Sebastian?... semi-consistently medically-themed Google goofs
o' the month: http://google.co.uk/search?q=gangerous+goods ,
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=%22scared+heart%22 ,
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=%22beast+cancer%22 ,
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22polytheistic+ovaries%22 -
and, big enough for an adult guinea pig to make a nest in:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?&q=%22dental+cavies%22 ...
thanks anonymous Pipex image-hoster, that ought to do it:
http://easyclimatechange.com/ , http://virginclimate.com/ ...
for concerned Americans, "Father Ted/ Coupling" in a nutshell:
http://google.co.uk/search?q=father+ted+obscenity+report ...
>> TRACKING <<
sufficiently advanced technology : the gathering
There's something a bit Flintstones Universe about VIM 7.0,
the very-nearly-released update to God's Own Editor. Sure,
the new features are exceedingly modern, but underneath it's
all bare feet and pterodactyls. That's not to say the
features aren't useful - or the implementation awesome to
behold. When you turn on spell-checking and see a Word-like
red squiggle appear underneath your fixed fonts; or have
Vim's embedded Ruby interpret itself, and dynamically
intellisense object methods as you type; or create a new
"tabbed window" on your defiantly Curses terminal: well, it
is to giggle. As ever, the magic is turned off by default
and buried under weird options (Background spellchecking?
Type ':setlocal spell spellang=en_GB', of course), leaving
you to pore over :help instead of doing your real job. But,
surely, soon, your real job will just be a recorded macro
and an embedded MzScheme function or two away, right?
http://www.vim.org/
- yes MzScheme. First one to port Elisp wins exile to Pluto
http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/vim/vim7/runtime/doc/version7.txt
- new since this: PHP omnicomplete, a script packaging system (shiver)
>> GEEK MEDIA <<
get out less
TV BONERS>> Don't think we can claim all the credit for this
one but, shortly after NTK 2006-03-17's comment about ITV4
ditching "Larry Sanders" and "Dream On", SIMON SANDIFORD-
MITCHELL received a response from the channel blaming
"football, boxing and other commitments" for their absence -
both shows have now been largely reinstated in their
traditional any-random-time-after-midnight weekday slots. Hey,
anything that bolsters ITV4's reputation as the UK's very own
"Brilliant But Cancelled" dumping ground is good enough for us
- next week featuring would-be "Silence Of The Lambs: The
Series" THE INSIDE (10pm, Tue), plus "fabricated Americans"
satire GREG THE BUNNY (8pm, Sat) followed by THIS IS SPINAL
TAP (10pm, Sat) - all together now: "I said Spinal Tap *above*
Puppet Show"...
Elsewhere, the BBC battles on with another Stephen "Press
Gang" Moffat episode of the increasingly patchy DOCTOR WHO
(7pm, Sat, BBC1), Doogie Howser MD vs Willow from "Buffy"
flashback sitcom import HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER (7.35pm, Sun,
BBC2), and Julian Fellowes' punctuation-pedantry panel game
NEVER MIND THE FULL STOPS (10.30pm, Thu, BBC4). Still, it
might be worth setting the Freeview box for "Blade Runner"-
inspiring architect FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT: MURDER, MYTH AND
MODERNISM (9pm, Thu, BBC4), and/or Irwin Allen's scifi clunker
CITY BENEATH THE SEA (3.35pm, Thu, five), a film whose script
appears the result of a contest to get the name of (fictional
radioactive element) "H128" into almost every other line...
Speaking of Freeview, "The 'en' wiki entry for Promise.TV is a
hoot", chuckles HARRY http://xcom2002.com/doh/?s=06050514oth ,
but the biggest postbag was inspired by last time's musings
about whether THE APPRENTICE (9pm, Wed, BBC2) really is filmed
at Canary Wharf, as the establishing shots desperately try to
imply. "One of last year's contestants, James Max, said that
the firings take place in a film studio in Acton", confided
GEOFF, but it fell to (another) GEOFF to reveal that "The
boardroom is just (*clatter of disbelief*) a set built in
Westway Studios near Latimer Road tube, [...] referred to by
me and my housemates as 'the building behind our flat' until
we were alerted to the link between the two when we saw our
bedroom window in the backdrop of one of the interviews!" The
area isn't "as gritty and full of urban charm" as it used to
be, Geoff adds http://www.halftone.co.uk/fres/fresmenu.htm ,
but then "there wouldn't have been enough Amstrad e-m@ilers
casually dotted about" to make it sufficiently convincing...
>> 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
"Yet another example of podcast ignorance"
http://blogs.opml.org/tommorris/2006/04/01#When:10:00:34AM
NEED TO KNOW
THEY STOLE OUR REVOLUTION. NOW WE'RE STEALING IT BACK.
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