Need To Know 1999-07-09

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"Reiss chastised Gates's employees as 'insensitive' for 'planting vials labeled as radioactive material at a facility that was the victim of one of the most notorious terrorism incidents in American history'..." - anyone else worried what'll happen if the DOJ rules against them? [ http://www.villagevoice.com/columns/9927/otis.shtml ] >> HARD NEWS << muttered phew's OFTEL, quasi-governmental scapegoat/poodle/monkey mutant creature hated by all, last weak went feral, leaping up and biting the nose of its BT nanny/dogcatcher/organgrinder. In a shocking, shocking move, it announced its intention to force BT to open up the local loop and allow others to share the implementation of xDSL and other copper services. That's awkward for BT, who had recently leaked their decision to roll out ADSL superquick - almost certainly in part to stop Oftel feeling it needed a shove. But will BT shove back, and deliberately retard development? Well, no. It keeps saying it might, but it won't. BT has much easier ways of slowing entry in this area: including, for example, having really grotty stuff in its exchanges that no-one else would want to touch with a 14.4 modem. There's forty years of gunk in there, man. And BT's still hoping that the other Telcos will get as excited about broadband wireless comms as the DTI is now getting, now that's decided to auction off some of the spectrum. Good for BT: because it keeps them off their turf. And good for BT, because the DTI's report is so caught up in big telco, big investment broadband ideas, that it pays no attention the bottom-up spread spectrum networks that might really pose a threat to the comfortable telco oligopoly. Oh, but that lead to chaos, wouldn't it? http://www.oftel.gov.uk/competition/llu0799.htm - actually this is all rather good (but we can't say that) http://www.open.gov.uk/radiocom/broadb/contents.htm - *cough* spread spectrum *cough* unlicensed *cough* Internet http://clickfree.co.uk/ - already opening up some domains A few brief updates on some recent and ancient stories. For those wondering what's happening with the E-COMMERCE BILL: the government are *really* keen to rush it through parliament, and waved it under the oppositions' noses to get it carried over to the Autumn. The Tories, to give them some credit, have muttered "not so fast", and are now debating internally as to whether to bounce the whole thing out of the parliamentary schedule altogether. Go, conservative scum! KEVIN MITNICK is still in jail, and just had his appeal against the $1,000,000 bail set for his California trial turned down. Kevin is charged with making a fraudulent phone call. In what we can only assume is either a *very* cool social engineering hack or some very targetted advertising (or *both*), Cable & Wireless' new ad campaign is based on the slogan "Free Kevin". It's even in the right colour scheme. http://www.tarags.demon.co.uk/cw.htm - boy they must really hate AT&T And from last week: apparently the New Statesman were happy to omit the J18 coverage from the winner of the advocacy awards, because they were giving the prize for *use* of the Net, not the actual content. Boy, those kids have been getting *really* high off that New Labour policy erasing fluid, haven't they? And in other awards, it was Yell last week. A birdwatching site won. No-one cared. http://www.yell.co.uk/yell/yellawards/index.html - at least it wasn't in Flash Awards too, to STUART CAMPBELL AND CO: for being undoubtedly the hardest bastards in known games journalism. First generation NTKers will recall [NTK 1998-01-23] that the gang's Web tribute to the beautiful and dead Future mag AMIGA POWER was casually copied onto the cover CD of ancient EMAP enemies CU AMIGA. At the time, the editors chuckled at Stuart's claims that the AP team would sue them for two years' wages. One court settlement in Campbell's favour and five figures later, the chuckling, for EMAP, is at an end. And this story - like all Amiga stories - looks set to drag endlessly on: "It is thought", says Campbell in his own profoundo press-release voice, "that part of these proceeds will be used to fund the prosecution of several court cases against another major leisure-computing magazine publisher in the next few weeks." http://x35.deja.com/=dnc/getdoc.xp?AN=406936564 - and as the platform died, so they turned upon each other http://www.amiga.com/diary/executive/linux-e.html - newsflash! New Amiga's abandoning Linux, will run on pure vapour >> ANTI-NEWS << berating the obvious ONLINE MAGIC finally falco'd out of existence... NUA claim "while 90 percent of online consumers now shop online, just 18 percent make online purchases"... mainly the "LOST" side of things: http://www.ntk.net/doh/19990709lost.gif ... "Geeks read Wired as if it was the Koran", claims KATZ. Yeah, - and they were Fundamentalist Christians... head of PR for UK passport-system programmers SIEMENS is currently - abroad on holiday... "Looking to history, it has only been the most dictatorial of regimes, and the very worst excesses of the controlist mentality, that have tried to constrain the basic human need and right to communicate", proclaims PETER COCHRANE, whose opinions do not represent official BT policy or pricing structures... all-too credible MICROSOFT doh! http://www.ntk.net/doh/options.html ... ... some BLIND people getting better net access than http://www.theregister.co.uk/990708-000032.html realises: http://www.globetechnology.com/gam/News/19990702/UHACKN.html ... Junior Doctor Weeps At State Of JILL DANDO - eventually: http://www.thisislondon.com/dynamic/news/news_story_msn.html?in_review_id=152928 >> EVENT QUEUE << goto's considered non-harmful God smiting the evil computer underground? Someone setting off more fire extinguishers than usual? Or have those brilliant, misguided youths somehow managed to *hack the weather*? It's unclear whether severe flooding in Las Vegas will physically deny access to this w/e's DEFCON 7.0 (NTK's report from the preceding BLACKHAT BRIEFINGS is at the end of this document); if it's getting really bad, we're sure someone can revive that old Egg Race spirit and lash up a raft out of ethernet cables and Jolt cans. http://www.defcon.org/ - underground - and under water? http://www.co.clark.nv.us/pubcom/flood_update.htm - a change from all that ping-flooding, anyway >> TRACKING << making good use of the things that we find In celebration of Microsoft's recent GLOAT ABOUT BLOAT in Sloat, er, SLATE this week's tracking is a fat-downloads-interesting-ideas-how-do-I-uninstall special. [ http://www.slate.com/webhead/99-07-06/webhead.asp ] In the big country on planet Linux, we offer you XSHIPWARS, which has been around for a couple of months, and is already huge. You'd describe it as a bloated xtrek - a server-based 2D real-time space sim with chunky graphics and bleeps and planets and a smooth widget set and explosions. Except that, historically, it's actually a bloated FurryMUCK game system. Yup, this software has grown to 32 meg of multimedia - *from a text-based game*. And it's still early days. Potentially addictive, but we need the disk space back so we could actually breathe in here, so no long term tests. Eat it! http://fox.mit.edu/xsw/ - EAT ALL OF IT For Windows users? Well, what could be better than an even fatter (yet incompatible!) version of ICQ? ODIGO is a buddy system that includes *very* snazzy graphics, a intuitive radar system for spotting fellow travellers who are visiting the same Website as you, an intriguing "find the most popular sites currently" button, and a ridiculously detailed set of personal interests you can nominate (our favourite: media/tv/closed-caption systems). Also lots of buttons that go bleep, and an installation program that sings opera. Interesting concepts, some heavy privacy issues, already category-killed by ICQ, worth the download, not worth the diskspace, know what we're saying? http://www.odigo.com/download - probably in pre-beta, but they said we could "tell our friends" And we wouldn't want to give anyone any ideas, but it looks like http://www.conservative-party.org.uk/ is running on Apache/0.8.14... >> MEMEPOOL << hasta la altavista Tom Christiansen *is* DARTH WALL... what MICROSOFT fans are like http://www.notepad.org/ ... our token "ADULT" site this week: http://www.doanload.com/ ... 30 years ago: US citizen lands on moon. Today: US citizen plays perfect game of PACMAN http://www.twingalaxies.com/PR-Pac-Man_World_Record.html ... STARFLEET ACADEMY... "HACKING" your own website for publicity (again)... what would a ./configure on your BRAIN look like? ... draft new NT slogan: "It just works" (draft first parody: "It just crashed")... EXCLUSIVE! REGISTER'S MYSTIC MIKE MAGEE ALSO SAUCY SEX EXPERT http://www.hubcom.com/tantric/ ... CRINGELY finally makes some cash... JIM GOAD's prison memoirs titled "Shit Magnet"... HARRY POTTER And The Well Of Loneliness... "No. You are too old." "No. You are too old": http://www.actionfigurexpress.com/actionfigurexpress/inyod.html ... JOHN GALT dedicates IETF draft to AYN RAND... What If! DARTH VADER! Is! The Good Guy! http://www.kithrup.com/brin/starwars.html >> GEEK MEDIA << the less rude http://www.ntk.net/tvgohome/ TV>> a bizarre replay of third week of April 1998 [see NTK 1998-04-17], with another showing of urban deliverance soundtrack tie-in JUDGMENT NIGHT (11.15pm, Fri, BBC1), a repeat of the one where Lilith comes back in FRASIER (10pm, Fri, C4), plus even Lee & Herring reporting from Montreal's FESTIVAL OF FUN (11.55pm, Sun, C5)... various moon-landing tie-ins line up for re-entry, including MOONSHOT - THE SPIRIT OF '69 (10.10pm, Sat, ITV), 4Later's double-bill of cheap Nasa footage over techno tunes THE TRIP (12.45am, Sat, C4) and, capturing that old military-industrial spirit rather better than the rest, the satellite debut of STARSHIP TROOPERS (10pm, Sat, Sky Premier)... plus, two weeks ago, they run a "Twister" season, and homes across Britain were hit by mini-hurricanes (where's that Onion "Twisters Blamed On Media Portrayal Of Extreme Weather" link when we need it?). So, basically, god knows what'll happen when BBC1 rip off more of Discovery's schedule in what seems to be a SHARK WEEK (from 6.10pm, Sun, BBC1)... Jimmy McGovern's hard-hitting scouse strike drama DOCKERS (10pm, Sun, C4) does not appear to be based around the trousers ad of the same name... and everyone's singin' like canaries over new mob comedy THE SOPRANOS (10pm, Thu, C4) - though the quirky everyday problems of mafia hoods do seem to be a major current trend, seen also in recent US movie release "Analyze This" and, intriguingly, likely precursor NATIONAL LAMPOON'S THE DON'S ANALYST (12.40am, Fri, Sky Moviemax)... FILM>> early Thursday previews of STAR WARS EPISODE 1: THE PHANTOM MENACE (imdb: star-wars / blockbuster / boy / council / android / cult-favorites / desert / droid / famous-score / war / futuristic / aliens / spacecraft / part-computer-animation / space / queen / racing / robot / prequel / space-opera / space-travel / swordfight / underwater / apprentice / epic / betting / saga) so guess we ought to review it: predictably effects-heavy, yet unpredictably odd, genuinely like old black and white Flash Gordon serials ("let's aimlessly fly around from one planet to another, then go and visit the fish men") but with better CGI. Only absence of Mark Hamill detracts from the authentic flavour of a Lucasarts CD-ROM adventure; as reader MATT BACON once said of Iain M Banks: "I've had some good games of Traveller in my time, but I don't go to the trouble of writing them all down"... not much else out except latest sassy teen Shakespeare gynacologist comedy 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU (imdb: school / teen), with the kid out of "Third Rock From The Sun"... so time for a just-for-fun quick competition: which recently released US hit is *this* a breathlessly enthusiastic review of... [SPOILERS AHEAD!] "God was called many vulgar and hateful names. Satan was glorified. Jesus was equated with sexual anatomy. A child was graphically incinerated by igniting his anal wind, then another kid tried to beat out the flames with a stick and was concerned about the stick catching fire. Body parts dripping with blood were ripped from a child by a surgeon who expressed shallow concern. The dead child was then seen with an exploded chest. The dead child, after being rejected from Heaven (by nude female angels) and cast into Hell, was then presented as a ghost trying to influence the other kids. An all-male chorus line wore pink bikini briefs. Homosexual acts were described. Decomposing burned bodies were cast as live occupants of Hell. "Big brother" electronic shock control of a child was used to prevent his use of foul language (each time he cussed he was shocked - he used this shock later to defeat Hussein by shouting every known and several unknown foul words). A man committed suicide by jumping out of a window. And throughout the movie was script to promote licentious belittlement of wholesome life and entertainment: rationale to lessen even further the threshold of acceptance." - and, no, it's not the beginning of the first Naked Gun film. Remember, it's just for fun, so don't write in; check your answer at http://www.capalert.com/capreports/ ... FEAR OF A BLACK HAT>> [with NTK's roving reporter, the UK's least famous David Phelan]: first keynote was JEFFREY HUNKER, of the Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office, explaining the US gov's 10 step plan (PDD 62) to defend against groups with "organised capabilities", but "not cyberwarfare in the science-fiction sense" - what, like The Matrix? The plan is known by the credibity-enhancing nickname of "version 1.0", and was presented on OHP slides - one way to keep your data secure... in keynote #2, DR MUDGE http://www.l0pht.com launched a new promiscuous mode device detector, AntiSniff - until two uniformed security guards turned up (to make a public announcement). All he said on seeing them approach the podium was "Uh oh"... SIMPLE NOMAD http://www.nmrc.com announced Netware [c|h]acking tool Pandora v4, but not before revealing that a vulnerability had been found in Hunkers version 1.0, and advised everyone to upgrade to 1.0a, otherwise their country might be taken over... and Bill Cheswick talked about internet mapping, which he does via a daily customised traceroute of 90,000 nets from a dual Pentium 90 running BSDi - "it said install Windows 95 or better". The military find this fascinating: "It's okay for me to ping Finland, but if the Air Force does it - that might be an act of war". The Australian government was first to complain about the probes; in March he started a scan of Yugoslavia (to see the servers going down all over Bosnia) but his slides were dramatically punctuated by fire sirens and strobe lighting, due to Vegas' heavy rainfall [see Event Queue]. Bill closed with holiday snaps of the Great Wall of China, Edinburgh Castle, and cells from the inside of his cheek - not, one hopes, tourist attractions of equivalent popularity... >> 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. It is registered at the Post Office as "in-jokes for outcasts" (JP) NEED TO KNOW THEY STOLE OUR REVOLUTION. NOW WE'RE STEALING IT BACK. Archive - http://www.ntk.net/ Excuses - http://www.spesh.com/ntk/ Unsubscribe? Mail majordomo@lists.ntk.net with 'unsubscribe ntknow'. Subscribe? Mail majordomo@lists.ntk.net with 'subscribe ntknow'. NTK now is supported by UNFORTU.NET, and by you: http://www.ntk.net/books (K) 1999 Special Projects. 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