Need To Know 2006-05-05

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NTK 2007

2006-09-29
Mini NTK #32
Muttley's top games, dastardly ID cards

2006-07-14
#373
Techa Kucha culture, Steve "Coast to" Coast

2006-06-09
#372
Dorking Burn-Bot, You Propose It To Them

2006-05-05
#371
Bruce Sterling, 5 (count 'em!) things happening outside London

2006-04-01
#370
Still valid if you're on California time

2006-03-17
#369
All the events, all the time

2006-02-17
#368
Plugs, more plugs, and intelligent mains

2006-01-13
#367
Web 2.0, mail from 2004

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>> 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. 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) 2006 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.