>> BARELY NEWS <<
oh, those Event Queues
"I know that change is inevitable, but I really miss the old
days when NTK actually had news about IT related matters.
Nowadays, it seems like the entire issue is devoted to EVENT
QUEUEs. Your heyday was a few years back when pointing out the
hijinks over at SCO, or mocking some underhanded move by
Microsoft. Any chance of returning to your glory days?"
- Jeff Winn
Los Angeles, California
Not to infuriate you any further Jeff, but there'll be plenty
of mocking Microsoft and, er, Nintendo at... a session we've
been putting together for next week's London Games Festival
Fringe, belligerently entitled GAMES YOU SHOULD HAVE PLAYED
(6.30-8.30pm, Mon 2006-10-02, 01zero-one, Hopkins St, London
W1F 0HS, free but mail insync@westking.ac.uk to say you're
coming to reserve your place). Pitched somewhere between
"obvious stuff - The Sims, Tetris, Asteroids - that everyone
knows about" and "obscure Japanese imports of interest only to
Edge readers", the aim is to suggest a range of innovative
interactive experiences for gamers of every level of ability,
with the lively assistance of NTK reader Simon "Muttley"
Wistow and Nick Gillett from the Guardian Guide. There should
be the usual selection of drinks and snacks included in your
admission, making it all the more vital that you - and anyone
else you tell about it - RSVP to that insync@westking.ac.uk
address before turning up, lest you are excluded from the
proceedings and have to watch them from outside, "in sad
silence, as a ruined man looks through the windows at people
dining in his old house".
http://londongamesfestival.co.uk/Custom/EventDetail.aspx?ID=97
- that's Simon Wistow, NTK reader...
http://thegestalt.org/simon/ps2rant.html
- ...and noted apologist for the Sega Dreamcast
http://www.xpt.com/uk/category/news/
- on Wed, Tim "XPT" Wright's lego-powered mission to the moon
http://www.londongamesfringe.com/
- more here, though perhaps not for more delicate browsers...
There's nothing we like more than when partisan campaigning
comes complete with handy consumer advice - and, according to
No2ID, you should be able to save up to UKP15 on your next
passport if you apply for a new one before Thu 2006-10-05.
That's UKP15 that you could then spend on a ticket to No2ID's
jam-packed WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? comedy benefit night this
Sunday (7.30pm, 2006-10-01, Hackney Empire, 291 Mare Street,
London E8 1EJ, UKP12.50, concessions UKP10) - and, no, the
performers won't "probably need ID cards" for you to be able
to recognise them, as they include the likes of former Xcom
2002 keynote speaker Gary Le Strange, Kevin "Simon Quinlank"
Eldon (hopefully doing some of his poetry) and co-organiser
Lucy Porter, who Rob Brydon humorously pretended not to know
who she was in "Annually Retentive" recently.
http://www.no2id.net/news/events.php
- see also http://www.renewforfreedom.org/
http://www.garylestrange.co.uk/
- back with experimental new album, "Beef Scarecrow"
http://www.brum2600.net/brumcon6/
- elsewhere: the Midlands' top "blackhat thinktank", Sat Oct 7
http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/os_user_groups/losug/
- London OpenSolaris User Group reconvenes Wed Oct 18
http://ironfire.org/takebacktheweb/
- and in Brighton, Oct 28: no, not *that* Chris Anderson
>> GEEK MEDIA <<
get out less
TV SPECIAL>> despite the evidence of both the 1979 movie "Time
After Time" and the "Tempus Fugitive" episode of The New
Adventures of Superman, HG Wells was a real person who never
completed a working time machine, reveals HG WELLS: WAR WITH
THE WORLD (9.10pm, Sat, BBC2)... all the listings we've seen
still show Top Gear's Richard Hammond hosting BATTLE OF THE
GEEKS (8pm, Sun, BBC2), a transatlantic contest to blast an
egg across a Namibian canyon without putting anyone in
hospital... and a one-off episode of Robbie Coltrane's CRACKER
(9pm, Sun, ITV) sees the chubby crime-fighter taking on the
maddest, most smooth-talking murderers he's ever encountered -
George Bush and Tony Blair!...
Over on digital, our mild disappointment with ENTOURAGE (10pm,
Sun, ITV2) is tempered by the fact that it's followed by the
genuinely intriguing US version of THE OFFICE: AN AMERICAN
WORKPLACE (10.35pm, Sun, ITV2) and - later in the week -
perfunctorily performed ex-"Saturday Night Live"-er vehicle
NORM (7pm, Tue, ITV4)... in other comedy, you can at least
catch the final episode of NTK reader Alan Connor's
surprisingly endearing prostitute sit-com RESPECTABLE
(10.30pm, Wed, five)... while THAT MITCHELL AND WEBB LOOK
(9.30pm, Thu, BBC2) seems to be improving at exactly the same
rate as EXTRAS (9pm, Thu, BBC2) is running out of ideas...
For less intentionally humorous subject-matter, THE OUTSIDERS
(9pm, Tue, ITV1) is squarely aimed at audiences who find the
BBC's SPOOKS "much too realistic"... THE MOON (7pm, Wed, BBC2)
muses that landing on the moon again might somehow be useful
or constructive, not a complete waste of time like you thought
... ironically, the TV spin-off series of LOGAN'S RUN (9pm,
Fri, Sci-Fi: http://youtube.com/watch?v=IGDO2g5K3pc ) failed
to be "renewed" after 14 episodes... and you've got to admit
that, in the light of DRAGONS' DEN: WHERE ARE THEY NOW? (8pm,
next Sun, BBC2), it's tempting to apply for the next series
with a business plan based around "Dragon's Den" BDSM erotic
fiction, utilising both the safe-word codephrase "I'm out",
plus the host's dire warnings that "entrepreneurs" must leave
"empty-handed", unless they get "at least what they asked for"...
>> 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
"somehow I managed to miss the namecheck at the time"
http://martylog.livejournal.com/223397.html
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.