Fun_People Archive
25 Feb
NTK Bits, 2000-02-25

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Fri, 25 Feb 100 18:48:24 -0800
To: Fun_People
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Subject: NTK Bits, 2000-02-25

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From: "Danny O'Brien" <danny@spesh.com>
Excerpted-from: NTK now, 2000-02-25

 _   _ _____ _  __ <*the* weekly high-tech sarcastic update for the uk>
| \ | |_   _| |/ / _ __   __2000-02-25_ o join! mail an empty message to
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|_| \_| |_| |_|\_\|_| |_|\___/ \_/\_/   o     http://www.ntk.net/


	"We have always done a good job of safeguarding privacy. I don't
	think we've done a good job as we could have on getting the message
	out there about privacy."
                                           - DoubleClick's KEVIN RYAN
	http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2444975,00.html
 ...although if you had detailed knowledge about the sites we visited,
                                       you could probably work it out


                                >> HARD NEWS <<
                                nuts and screws

	If you were wondering why this week's Private Eye had an advert
	for www.portia.org.uk, an apparently empty site, here's why. PORTIA
	is - or was - a site that documents suspected cases of false
	convictions in the UK, run by the eighty-year-old journalist, Ken
	Norman. On February 9th of this year, the small ISP who hosts the
	site received a letter from lawyers acting on behalf of the Police
	Federation. The Police Federation is currently seeking action
	against the BBC for a Trial and Error program on the Eddie Gilfoyle
	case, and sought to have a page covering the case removed, and
	replaced with "a full apology". Eddie's conviction has been found
	unsafe by the the Criminal Cases Review Commission, and following
	an investigation by a neighbouring police force, officers involved
	have been recommended for disciplinary action. Nonetheless, under
	the weight of the Federation's legal threats, the ISP felt obliged
	to remove the entire site.
         http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:www.portia.org.uk/cpages/intro.html
         - although, of course, censorships' just a caching problem
	http://www.deja.com/%3Ddnc/threadmsg_ct.xp?AN=588838054
                                            - best dealt with backups
	http://scandals.org/trialanderror/gilfoyle.html
                                                  - at multiple sites

	Of course, we have our own battles to fight. Not quite in the same
	league is our two year campaign to hold Bill Gates to his promises.
	As founder subscribers will recall, back in 1997 we challenged Bill
	on a promise he gave some years previously: to release the source
	for the original, 4KB Altair BASIC. Since then, he has persistently
	mentioned "getting around to it". We guess he's been too busy
	forgetting stuff for the DOJ trial to recollect this particular
	commitment. Or has he? IT WEEK recently reminded him of the deal,
	and Bill said that "anybody who wants a copy can just ask." You
	heard the man: wonder what license he's going to pick?
	http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/2000/7/ns-13511.html
                        - next, he has to get Win2000 to run in 640KB
	http://gizmonaut.net/soapflakes/EXE-199711.html
                                                   - the story so far


                                >> ANTI-NEWS <<
                             berating the obvious

	http://www.softwareparadise.co.uk features ISO9002 "qulaity" (sic)
	accreditation ... ... MATT DRUDGE demands bongo and flute backing
	to his audio book ... THE THE in Amazon's top ten pre-ordered
	albums: but *how*? ... BBC reveal that in futuristic Finland, "Some
	girls change the covers to suit their clothes - if they're wearing
	a red dress they'll have a red phone that day." ... SUNDAY TIMES
	recommends users "jiggle their mouse" to beat online time-outs ...
	AMAZON not learning much from that purchase circle feature:
	http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/subst/wishlist/wishlist-portal.html
	(try Bill Gates) ... they're just trying to wind up Tim BL, right?
	http://www.g-wizz.net/errordocuments/404error.swf ...  still, there
	are worse industries to have a doh file:
	http://www.zipworld.com.au/~zem/images/bsod-1.jpg vs
         http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/L.Wood/received/mandarin-airlines/


                                >> TRACKING <<
               sufficiently advanced technology : the gathering

	GRAPHVIZ is one of programs that make you realise that (a) everyone
	else has the same problems as you and (b) a few of them are *much*
	better at getting around to solving them. It's a suite of programs
	for UNIX and Windows that takes a simply organised text file of
	directed or undirected nodes, and constructs an accurate and
	aesthetically rather lovely graph of them. And it saves the shame
	of borrowing Marketing's copy of Visio. No recent changes (although
	it did slip quietly into an Openish Source license last September).
	We only just found it. We're fools.
	http://www.research.att.com/sw/tools/graphviz/
                                                  - Tony Buzanariffic


                               >> 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.
                                 NEED TO KNOW
            THEY STOLE OUR REVOLUTION. NOW WE'RE STEALING IT BACK.
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