Fun_People Archive
29 Nov
NTK now bits 28/11/97

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Sat, 29 Nov 97 01:57:43 -0800
To: Fun_People
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Subject: NTK now bits 28/11/97

Excerpted-from: NTK now, 28/11/97


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|_| \_| |_| |_|\_\|_| |_|\___/ \_/\_/   o     http://www.ntk.net/


            "You look at France and Germany - and to a lesser degree
                             the UK - and it's like the Third World"
      - NICHOLAS NEGROPONTE, keynote address, European IT Conference
                                                        oh, fuck off


                               >> HARD NEWS <<
                               weak lemon drink

	Suave scene hacker KUJI strolled away from court this week, with
	all charges regarding his alleged "infowar" with the US military
	dropped. The judge said that conducting a trial wasn't worth the
	expense. Funny - that wasn't what the Americans were saying at the
	time of the 1994 attacks.  Then, Kuji and his "accomplice" (penitent
	music student THE DATASTREAM COWBOY) were twin Satans, stealing
	valuable secrets for foreign powers, wreaking havoc on sensitive
	mainframes, and almost tipping North Korea into war. Or that's what
	Air Force Office of Special Investigations told Congress, in an
	attempt to increase "awareness" (*cough* funds *cough* status) of
	the hacker threat. As it turned out, the AFOSI had little evidence
	of any serious breach of security - and what they did have was
	profoundly flawed through their own sloppy procedures. Still, plenty
	more young hackers to demonise, and if the authorities are more
	careful, they'll ruin people's lives properly next time.
	http://sun.soci.niu.edu/~crypt/other/crypt38
		- George Smith de-crypts the media brouhaha
	http://online.guardian.co.uk/theweb/880564579-fumble.html
		- Duncan "the other, famous Duncan Campbell" Campbell's take


			   >> EVENT QUEUE <<
			pointers with references

	Not perhaps the obvious way to celebrate World AIDS Day, but each
	to their own: EROTICA '97 takes over London Olympia this weekend
	(perhaps better known to NTK readers as the venue for rather more
	chaste gatherings, like Mac Expo and the ECTS). The Website both
	criticises a Victorian-era attitude to sex, then adopts its
	terminology, promising an "erotic extravaganza in the form of a
	Public Exhibition... entertainment designed to tantalise and
	fascinate." No info yet on exactly what the seedy attractions might
	be, but even the stand specifications sound a bit racey: "White
	Octanorm with white infill wall panels... Ceiling Grid with muslin
	ceiling... Black Fascia infill with white letters for exhibitor
	name..."
	http://www.erotica-uk.com
	     - of course, that depends what you mean by "exhibitor"


			     >> TRACKING <<
		 Web site come by this way two moons past

	FACEIT! is a PC facial recognition program that, barring
	Travolta/Cage-style test-cases, actually works. The free
	time-limited download can use QuickCam and standard video inputs:
	featured progs are an access-control screensaver which will only
	unlock when it sees your face, and an encryption program that uses
	your head as a key. But our correspondents agree that the best bit
	is the passive- recognition system, which will pluck out and circle
	up to six faces from a continuous realtime video feed. "It's like
	having a desktop-mounted gunsight", they are pleased to report.
	http://www.faceit.com/pcaccess/pcaccess.html
	  - now we want one of those "Resurrection" breath scanners

	ICQ failing to scale; Microsoft submitting its own competing
	standard to the W3C; Netscape teaming up with AOL - are these the
	last days of the "buddy list" pioneers? Hell, no! Out of the wilder
	fringes of Appledom comes HOTLINE! A palpable hit with Mac users
	for months, HOTLINE has been billed "the BBS for the Nineties". It's
	got threaded discussion groups, chat, and a fast ftp system.  It's
	also eminently hackable, with all kinds of nice extensions to try
	out. Out on the PC by the end of year, too, although apparently
	there's some sort of bootleg PC version going around the Hotline
	sites. As it is, the downloadable Mac client is time-limited to 15
	minutes.  Although apparently there's some sort of bootleg crack...
	ah, you get the picture.
	http://www.hotlinesw.com/
		 - talk about creating a Frankenstein's monster...


			     >> MEMEPOOL <<
			   hasta la altavista

	BT to buy DEMON?... BIO TETRIS... case-insensitive URLs on MICROSOFT
	ads... death of SUCK? Or is it just Thanksgiving?
	... LOUISE NURDING follows NTK advice in her new video,
	attacks CCTV camera with laser pen... GameBoy digital camera...
	JESSE BIRST - the new Pournelle... Barbie-size Realdolls:
	www.racydoll.com ... Meat Bomb...
	www.xtra.co.nz/content/loveman/cag-v0.9b/part3/ ... HARRY "ain't it
	cool" KNOWLES tempted by high life...
	www.fiorella.com/equipment.html ... BLADE RUNNER movie sequel to
	reunite original cast... speleonics
	http://members.tripod.com/~cnet_truth ... BUGTRAQ finds security
	vulnerability in John Madden Football '97...
	easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~stephenbalchin/zoe.html spizzerinctum... and
	if *anyone* can take over the world, CANON can:
	www.canon.co.jp/Philosophy/century-e.html ...


			      >> COMPO <<
		      congratulations. you're fired.

	An emotional competition last week, as competition winner Jay
	slipped in on Thursday after a week of struggling through every
	foodstuff URL known to man - "Did you know even *Ryvita* have a
	Website?", he writes. The eureka moment came as "we were massaging
	hungover headaches in a greasy cafe. A friend of mine buys a can of
	Diet [CLUE CENSORED], we all look at each other, look at the [OBJECT
	DELETED], look back at each other again - and slap our heads in
	unison". It's just like Willy Wonka, isn't it? Jay and friends win
	the new Metallica album RELOAD, sci-fi Command & Conquer clone DARK
	REIGN,and a child's T-shirt advertising Shell smart cards. (Oh and
	special kudos to the perpetrator of the URL, who "resigned" from
	his job on the same day as the competition. Webmasters should check
	out http://www.ntk.net/compo/ to find out how they too can spend
	Christmas poor and alone.)

	To this weeks URL. It takes the form http://www.a*****o.com and it's
	the answer to this question: "cosa significa 'absurd'?". Answers to
	tips@spesh.com. Corporate queries to ourlawyers@spesh.com.


			   >> 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 "subscriber 2000 compliant".

                                 NEED TO KNOW
            THEY STOLE OUR REVOLUTION. NOW WE'RE STEALING IT BACK.
                        Archive - http://www.ntk.net/
                     Excuses - http://www.spesh.com/ntk/

(K) 1997 Special Projects.
Non-business copying is fine, but retain SMALL PRINT.

© 1997 Peter Langston