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  • NTK 2007
  • NTK 2006
  • NTK 2005
  • NTK 2004
  • NTK 2003
  • NTK 2002
  • NTK 2001
  • NTK 2000
  • NTK 1999
  • 25/12/98
    Holiday Special #8
    Christmas InDin with all the trimmings
  • 18/12/98
    #75
    politic, politics, quake fragfests, politics
  • 11/12/98
    #74
    making a stand, cyberstrikes and proof of a CONSPIRACY
  • 04/12/98
    #73
    Wassenaar, Flavor Flav, Zope!
  • 27/11/98
    #72
    Netscape dies, Cliffilms, Chocolata
  • 20/11/98
    #71
    Phantom Menace, Patches as Art, and Wiki
  • 13/11/98
    #70
    Domains, Ataris, and Tommy Flowers
  • 06/11/98
    #69
    Mark thingy, Christian whatsisname, and Scawen scary name
  • 30/10/98
    #68
    HipCrime, Tron and Halloweeeeen
  • 23/10/98
    #67
    More Tales From The Crypt, Sunbather Falco and Roobarb
  • 16/10/98
    #66
    ADSL, John Prescott, and the Anarchist Bookfair
  • 09/10/98
    #65
    DVD 1 Industry 0, XFM, and Funny Food
  • 02/10/98
    #64
    Sky Digitalis, Clickety-Click
  • 25/09/98
    #63
    Dixons Docks, Orwell Knocks, but Flash gets it clean
  • 18/09/98
    #62
    ISP trust, RISC PC busts, and homeless IT bosses
  • 11/09/98
    #61
    Starr networks, Ya Basta Blasters, token Windows software
  • 04/09/98
    #60
    Explorer runs out of memories, PGP 6, and Pat
  • 28/08/98
    #59
    Whose whois, Gameboy hacking, San Francisco
  • 21/08/98
    Holiday Special #7
    BT Highway Robbery, Bab5 Wrap Party,
    CU Amiga RIP
  • 14/08/98
    Holiday Special #6
    Strange Customs, OpenSource Meet, Victorian Net
  • 07/08/98
    #58
    Microsoft doublethink, Beebisms, Resfest
  • 31/07/98
    #57
    Net myths, Spy cams, and Hartley Hare
  • 24/07/98
    #56
    Beeb Falco, Millions Lost, and Dave "King Stupid" Green
  • 17/07/98
    #55
    Apple booms, DES doomed, DEFCON reaches VI
  • 10/07/98
    #54
    iMacs, Script Kiddies, and Is He Serious?
  • 03/07/98
    #53
    Ireland, Italy, and the End of The World
  • 26/06/98
    #52
    Net censors, Psion, and dead as a SOHO
  • 19/06/98
    #51
    Nominaughtiness, databastardery, and Patrick Moore event
  • 12/06/98
    #50
    BT goes cheap, Doc Solomon goes West, and ICQ goes downmarket
  • 05/06/98
    #49
    No news, street news, sweet news
  • 29/05/98
    #48
    @Home, Ross' Foundation, Power Renames
  • 22/05/98
    #47
    Gateswar!, Open Source flightsim, and a happy birthday
  • 15/05/98
    #46
    MacOS X, Anarchist Studies, and bloody Killer Net
  • 08/05/98
    #45
    Red Buses, Apple iMacs, more Killer Net
  • 01/05/98
    #44
    Crypto policy, IMDB sales, MP3 in your car
  • 24/04/98
    #43
    Falcomania, ICA knobbled, Spacewar!
  • 17/04/98
    #42
    BIB rumours, Intel downturn, and Dougie Coupland
  • 10/04/98
    #41
    RIPE.NET, Microsoft bribes, Richard 'Trek Wars' Barry
  • 03/04/98
    #40
    Demon sales, USENET wars, MOZILLA!
  • 27/03/98
    #39
    JavaOne, Edge Dunderheads, Virtual Turntables
  • 20/03/98
    #38
    LineOne, Scallywag, and Fete de l'Internet
  • 13/03/98
    #37
    Crypto, Technorealists, Crypto-Technorealists
  • 06/03/98
    #36
    Gates and the Senators, IWF takes their PICS, Bull Electronic
  • 27/02/98
    #35
    BIB backtracking, Hacker witch hunts, UKCAC
  • 20/02/98
    #34
    Crypto shenanigans, Alledged Jobs nuttiness, Action SuperCross
  • 13/02/98
    #33
    Key escrow, Tempest spooks, XML
  • 06/02/98
    #32
    Bill flanned, Postel goes postal, mealy MILIA melee
  • 30/01/98
    #31
    Compaq gobble DEC, Bill damage-limits, Time Crisis 2
  • 23/01/98
    #30
    Netscape lose the source,
    CU Amiga "sucks dogs", Pinker speaks!
  • 16/01/98
    #29
    Excite gets kids, Dennis has kittens, Webmedia kicks bucket
  • 09/01/98
    #28
    Microsoft mad, Apple make money, the zine scene
  • NTK 1997
  • HARD NEWS
  • ANTI-NEWS
  • EVENT QUEUE
  • TRACKING
  • MEMEPOOL
  • GEEK MEDIA
  • SMALL PRINT

_   _ _____ _  __ <*the* weekly high-tech sarcastic update for the UK>
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|_| \_| |_| |_|\_\|_| |_|\___/ \_/\_/   o     http://www.ntk.net/



           "You have to treat them as you would a spoiled child. You
           have to decide, do I spank them or give them some candy?"
                                      - Sun's JOHN CAGE on Microsoft
                or ask the government to spank the candy out of them


                               >> HARD NEWS <<
                                private views

         Since the Net is supposed to be populated exclusively by
         peeping toms, evil hackers and sociopathic stalkers, it's
         surprising how few commercial Net sites there are for this
         burgeoning demographic. Well, fret no more. This week,
         CAMEO opened for business - a fully searchable online
         database of the entire UK Electoral Register. Find long
         lost friends - or the location of familiar enemies! Uncover
         names and addresses for future false identities! Bulk
         download the details of whole towns for real-world spam!
         The site also generously offers a free trial period, so you
         can browse for free, and you can register as often as you
         like - ironically, in relative anonymity. Our own research
         into the NTK readership reveals that you're all poll tax
         dodgers, so no hits there, but we're surprised none of the
         Proper Media have picked up on the self-evident potential
         for abuse. Except, of course, that the Proper Media's
         marketing people have had access to this info in convenient
         CD-ROM form since 1995. And we trusted *them*, didn't we?
         http://cameo.bvdep.com/
               - only an appallingly clunky NT server can save us now!
         http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/10.61.html#subj2
                           - there was a time when people gave a damn

         We all know how hard domain registration companies work.
         You've got to check the DNS server doesn't come unplugged:
         you've got to make sure the Webserver is still cashing
         credit card orders (securely, mind!) And there's always one
         more scary letter to write, informing companies that their
         "mrs-miggins-pies" trademark is dangerously unregistered in
         the Christmas Islands domain. Up until now, NOMINET (the
         organisation that - quite literally - "nominally" oversees
         the .uk domain) has been a loose confederation of these
         domain naming registries, all working characteristically
         selflessly to ensure that everyone has the chance to buy a
         domain off their members. Now, though, it's time to get
         organised. Last week, Nominet's Council of Management sent
         around proposals for a new voting system. Curiously, for
         such a charitable group, the proposals weren't a variant of
         "one domain, one vote". They weren't even "one registry,
         one vote". No - to preserve *absolute* fairness for all,
         the ballot was carefully biased to give the top 5% of
         registries a majority. That, says the current Council,
         makes it proportionate to the "relative commercial
         involvement in the UK Domain Name service". So, who gets
         how many votes? That's "commercially sensitive
         information", say the Council. And how do you state an
         interest in the .uk domain? Well, unless you're a domain
         salesman, you haven't got one. Better get sending out the
         scary letters.
         http://www.mrs-miggins-pies.cx/
                                                     - oops! too late!
         http://www.netnames.com/
         - Largest name registry (prop. Ivan Pope, Nominet Councillor)

         There's bugs, there are features - and then there are the
         real showstoppers. SECRET WRITER'S SOCIETY is a educational
         game for seven to nine year olds. In the words of its
         publishers, Panasonic Interactive Media, it "puts the 'fun'
         into learning about writing fundamentals". Just how much
         fun that can be became apparent when the SuperKids Website
         decided gave it to a panel of kid reviewers. What those
         children learnt that day changed their lives forever. Now,
         click on...
 http://www.superkids.com/aweb/pages/reviews/writing/1/sws/merge.shtml
                                   - why beta-testing is important
         http://www.panakids.com/phase3/html/body_swsrelease.html
                           - Panasonic learn a few lessons themselves!


                               >> ANTI-NEWS <<
                             berating the obvious

         DISNEY buy INFOSEEK, fittingly the Mickey Mouse search
         engine... "Homeless man has Web page business", reports
         NANDO... SIGUE SIGUE SPUTNIK to reform - on Net... MARIMBA
         to disappear from Navigator: Kim Polese to be airbrushed
         from FAST COMPANY back issues... LOUIS ROSSETTO wins
         "Ditherati Quote of the Year"... PERSIL TABLETS in legal
         battle with AERIAL DISCS... PAT ROBERTSON suggests "Gay
         Days" at Disneyland may bring Florida "earthquakes...
         possibly a meteor" - Infoseek deal seen as portent...
         FUTUREVISION "demo" turns out to be bunch of men dressed in
         balaclavas... bad karma at FREE TIBET gig in US: punters
         struck by lightning... audio CDs can be "copied onto
         ordinary CD-ROM disks", uncovers RICHARD BARRY...


                              >> EVENT QUEUE <<
                        goto's considered non-harmful

         Is it just us, or is there actually *less* fuss about the
         World Cup this time? Or is it now so ubiquitous that it's
         bizarrely easier to ignore? Anyway, here's a tip if you're
         desperate to avoid football/tennis/"Glasto"/whatever: just
         *do whatever you would do normally* - which in our case
         would mean: alcopop ad star JULIAN BARRATT continues
         "monkeying around with your insides" in his Edinburgh
         tryout show on Mon 22/06 at the Hen And Chickens theatre
         bar, London N1, UKP4, followed by similarly booze-themed
         "pub landlord" AL MURRAY, and (perhaps later this week) NTK
         stand-up fave STEWART LEE... when we checked this morning,
         there were still tickets left for departed sitcom god JERRY
         SEINFELD at the London Palladium on 12/07, maybe 'cos
         they're priced UKP30-45... the Real Audio at last seems to
         be working for non-stop temporary-license limited-range
         "radio art event" RESONANCE 107.3 FM (until 05/07), somehow
         linked with John Peel's Meltdown Festival. And it's not
         just meaningful bursts of static alternating with Tuvan
         throat-singing: this week has the Association of Autonomous
         Astronauts (10pm, Sat), "new music enthusiast" Stew Lee
         (4pm, Sun), the KLF (7.30pm, Sun), that Scanner bloke, and
         a breakfast show hosted by samplin' pranksters Negativland
         (8am, Fri)... something of a London bias so far, which we
         heartily correct with the unashamedly mainstream outdoor
         picnic concert tour A SYMPHONY UNDER THE STARS: 27/06 High
         Wycombe, 04/07 Hitchin, 11/07 Elstree, 18/07 Wokingham,
         25/07 Alcester, 01/08 Peterborough, UKP16, booking on 0500
         66 1812. The leaflet looks a bit like that Trek convention
         that went bust, but the live orchestra/ fireworks present
         all the outer-space classical greats, including Holst's The
         Planets, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, Moonlight Sonata, and - of
         course - Star Wars. Incredibly, it's hosted by Patrick
         Moore, who promises both "star gazing" and his "own
         composition on xylophone".
         http://www.londonfringe.demon.co.uk/Venues/henachk.htm
                               - an "action packed woodland bonanza"
         http://www.ticketmaster.co.uk
            - Seinfeld "popular event"; won't let you book it online
         http://www.l-m-c.org.uk/resonance.htm
               - like Radio 3, but with a show called "Shit Happens"

         If you've popped along to our NTK live events and you're
         gay or something, you'll sure to have fallen in love with
         our Viewdata-obsessed Internet Weatherman, JAMES COATES.
         He's not just a pretty face, however: next Friday 26/06/98,
         he's hosting his own club night at Smithy's, Leeke Street
         WC1X (bloody London again). And the spurious Net connection
         is...? Well, the tickets are available from Webshack... and
         we're sure it'll be filled with the beautiful people of the
         British online community. Such as they are.
         http://www.bettyfjords.com/
                            - anything else we can do for you James?

         And if *that* wasn't enough for you, Phil Agre's excellent
         Red Rock Eater mailing list points out the following
         exhibitions, *all* happening on 23/06/98 - 25/06/98:
         Bournemouth, England sees the DERA -organized
         "International Chemical Warfare Demilitarization Conference
         (CWD98)", Shrivenham stakes out the Royal Military College
         of Science (RMCS)'s "European Guns, Mortars and Ammunition
         Symposium", while in London, Nexus Information Technology
         is organizing the "Undersea Defence Technology Europe"
         conference. We have no idea what any of these shows will be
         like. We just like imagining what would happen if they took
         a dislike to one another.
         http://communication.ucsd.edu/pagre/rre.html
                         - Shrivenham to go on to the quarter-finals


                                >> TRACKING <<
                                net tucker man

         We had planned to weigh you down with a couple of
         *fascinating* new Net standards, courtesy of the W3C -
         SMIL, which is worth a flick through if you're into
         synchronised multimedia extravaganzas, and the WEB
         ACCESSIBILITY INITIATIVE, so you don't screw the people for
         whom multimedia is a tad less multi. But at the last moment
         we were drawn away by THE WORLD'S FIRST QUAKE POETRY
         COMPETITION. The prize, offered by Loki's Minions, is a
         Voodoo 1 card, but that's not the point. The true reward is
         seeing your work appreciated by the toughest literary
         critics of all - the Clans of Planet Quake. Note: the poem
         must incorporate two references to classical or Norse
         mythology, demonstrate the "elements of love, betrayal, and
         honor involved in multiplayer first-person shooters" - and
         contain only words beginning with "L" and "M". What's
         wrong? Not MAN enough to take the challenge?
         http://www.w3c.org/
                                                  - the new Academy
         http://planetquake.com/lmctf/
                                               - for the new Athens


                                >> MEMEPOOL <<
                              hasta la altavista

         first GATES buys Cliveden, haunt of Oswald Mosely - and
         then - http://pes.eunet.cz/billy.jpg ... does WESTWOOD's
         new DUNE 2000 take place 9000 years before the previous
         one?... BITBOYS Oy!... HAIKU is the PalmPilot killer app...
         bootleg WORLD CUP feeds... Computers as Theatre:
         http://www.puppettime.com/ ... SRL at Web 98: stand well
         back... BSD most reliable, Windows stingiest, MacOS most
         over-rated: it's an OS WAR AGAINST CYSTIC FIBROSIS at
         http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Network/5601/ ...
         "sinister-smurfing"... get an adult to help you with
         http://www.xeromag.com/fvtoys.html ...URBAN OUTFITTERS
         (quit sniggering, US readers - they only just arrived
         here)... http://www.ideosphere.com/main.html ... SONIC
         BINGO... about:jwz - http://themes.org/totd/guest/ ...
         better (and unclaimed) name than "portsurfer" for a hacking
         zine: THE LISTENER... Duke Nukem to use UNREAL now...


                               >> GEEK MEDIA <<
                     may contain strongly-typed language

         TV>> the irrepressibly excellent FRASIER (10pm, Fri, C4)
         elegantly bows out of Friday nights for now, possibly
         leaving a gap ready for the first series of SOUTH PARK,
         currently squelching to an end on satellite (10pm, Sat;
         11pm, Sun, Sky1)... 5 new drivers, 5 talking cars; so
         surely TEAM KNIGHT RIDER (5.25pm, Sat, ITV) can only be 5
         times worse than the original...  serious-voiced Heather
         Couper closes THE SCI-FI FILES (8pm, Sat, C4) with -
         surprise! - a look at the future: ie clips from Things To
         Come, Stepford Wives, and Blade Runner... followed by
         interminable Mark E Smith drinking anecdotes in LEGENDS OF
         THE FALL (9pm, Sat, C4)... invite your approaching-30 pals
         round for the dull movie version of LOGAN'S RUN (8pm, Sun,
         BBC2); its second showing in 10 months, by the way...
         "features three-in-a-bed sex, full frontal nudity and lots
         of swearing", "warns" The Radio Times about Anna Friel/
         Joely Richardson cult romp THE TRIBE (10pm, Sun, BBC2)...
         while "features Keanu Reeves, Patrick Swayze and Lori
         Petty" should be the warning on daft Pepsi Max "thriller"
         POINT BREAK (10pm, Sun, C4)... hmm, not quite *enough*
         gratuitous nudity in Bo Derek's TARZAN, THE APE MAN
         (11.40pm, Sun, BBC1)... and, as an ironic counterpoint to
         all the Tarzan stuff on terrestrial (what's going on?),
         it's Sky monkey movies week, including Wednesday's
         fantastically titled, but sadly terrible, LIFE, LIBERTY AND
         THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS ON THE PLANET OF THE APES (around
         1pm, Mon-Thu, Sky Movies 1)... 3 degrees of Kevin Bacon
         commence with FLATLINERS (11.15pm, Mon, most ITV), linking
         to cool worm chaser TREMORS (10.45pm, Tue, BBC1), then
         PYRATES (12.15am, Tue, BBC1) where the focus is on
         involuntary firestarting rather than copyright violation...
         "men and women biologically different", uncovers hard-
         hitting pop biology in WHY MEN DON'T IRON (9pm, Tue, C4)...
         gangland-style execution too good for Lynda LaPlante's new
         BELLA MAFIA (8pm, Tue, C5)... tasty-gorgeous product
         placement when the TELETUBBIES (10am, Thu, BBC2) enjoy
         "Becky's Flake Cakes"?... and here's hoping schedules don't
         overrun with the controversial "dying man" episode of THE
         HUMAN BODY (10pm, Thu, BBC1) confusingly followed by
         footage of a 61 year-old "base jumper" parachutist in THE
         MAN WHO JUMPED TO EARTH (10.50pm, Thu, BBC1)...

         MOVIES>> CITY OF ANGELS (imdb: romance / drama / angel /
         swimming / death / medical / religion) is - of course - a
         funnier remake of Wim Wenders' Wings Of Desire, rather than
         say, The Crow II: City Of Angels. And it's directed by the
         bloke who made the appalling film of Casper The Friendly
         Ghost. As with many Meg Ryan films, not as bad as you'd
         think. But still pretty bad... otherwise a choice of two
         hipster beat dudes, daddio: DREAM WITH THE FISHES (imdb:
         drama / comedy / voyeur / fish / fantasy / bowling / buddy
         / suicide-attempt / euthanasia / drugs / twist-in-the-end /
         black-comedy / suicide / terminal-illness / drama / drug-
         trip / lottery) gets a slightly wider release (and more
         laughs?) than the Keanu Reeves-featuring THE LAST TIME I
         COMMITTED SUICIDE (imdb: drama / beatnik)... or take your
         pick of harrowing violence with '60s Lee Marvin beat-'em-up
         POINT BLANK (imdb: thriller) - nothing to do with the Namco
         arcade game of the same name - or Oliver Stone-produced
         former-Yugoslav war saga SAVIOR (MPAA rated: R "for strong
         violence including brutal war atrocities, and for language"
         - well, there's mispelling "Saviour", for a start)...

         BOOKS>> A pair of writers, outwardly different but with
         peculiarly similar backgrounds - it's either the plot or
         the biographical blurb for Iain "M" Banks' new INVERSIONS
         (hardback, UKP16.99) - good to see the requisite plot-twist
         down to two words... just out in paperback, LONGITUDE
         (UKP6.99) may be the dullest pop-science bestseller since
         the appalling Sophie's World, reading like a naval history
         textbook without any diagrams of how any of all these
         interesting nav systems worked... Ellen Ullman's CLOSE TO
         THE MACHINE (paperback, UKP10.99) combines cool you-are-
         there coding anecdotes with - uh-oh - social
         responsibility, and the best bits are all online at
         http://www.salonmagazine.com/21st/feature/1997/10/cov_09ullman.html
          ...  people have been recommending Katherine Dunn's GEEK
         LOVE (paperback, UKP7.99, some special offers) - but
         - it's about carnival geeks, not computer ones... still
         not much sign of the enticingly titled VIRTUAL LOVE
         (paperback, UKP5.99), from the author of TV potboiler "Real
         Women". And we quote: "Virt-E-Go have developed a virtual
         reality interactive sex machine that fulfils your dreams...
         while the all-male management can't rise to the
         challenge... step forward the secretaries... all desperate
         to prove that mechanical mating can make them money, even
         if it'll never beat old fashioned rumpy-pumpy"... roll on
         Danielle Steel's THE KLONE AND I, that's all we can say ...


                              >> 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 "educational"


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  • HARD NEWS
  • ANTI-NEWS
  • EVENT QUEUE
  • TRACKING
  • MEMEPOOL
  • GEEK MEDIA
  • SMALL PRINT