* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * MagicNZ e-zine * www.watson.co.nz/ezine.html * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Issue Number: #21 Date: Sunday 14th May 2000 Editor: Alan Watson www.alan-watson.com ================================ Contents ================================ 1. Editors Message 2. Pat Sweeney going into hospital 3. Stan Kramien in car accident 4. Viking Manufacturing Co. merged with Collectors' Workshop 5. The "Trust Me" tour 6. Richard Webster - books for sale 7. Magic on TV this coming week - by Ed Hall 8. The Battle of the Magicians 9. New Zealand will have new currency 10. Dangerous virus known as the Alan Watson virus 11. The new virus, called Kak 12. "Magicana" report 13. Melbourne Convention update 14. Diarise these events 15. News Items 16. MagicNZ e-zine archives 17. Benefit of subscribing to the MagicNZ e-zine 18. Subscription Management 19. Contact Information. ------------------------------------- 1. Editors Message ------------------------------------- Message from Alan Watson - The Magic One Last Sunday the Magic e-zine went out on time but unbeknown to us Xtra had set up their server to scan for certain words because of the "ILOVEYOU" Virus scare. 43 of our New Zealand subscribers did not receive the e-zine until Monday morning after I had dropped two items referring to the virus. Auckland magician Stan Goudge is off to FISM in Lisbon with wife Marie and won't be back until 20th August. ------------------------------------- 2. Pat Sweeney going into hospital ------------------------------------- Message from Burns Scandrett Pat Sweeney goes into hospital on 21 May, for a heart operation on the 22nd. I shall keep you all in touch with his progress. ------------------------------------- 3. Stan Kramien in car accident ------------------------------------- Message from Bev Bergeron Just received some bad news and trying to check it our now. Stan Kramien had finished running his Week-end Magic Conclave and was driving to pick-up Pam and Johnny Thompson. Stan's car was involved in a multi-car accident. Both of Stan's arms were broken. The really sad part is that some people were killed. Will try to get more on this later. ------------------------------------ 4. Viking Manufacturing Company merged with Collectors' Workshop ------------------------------------- Message from Bev Bergeron Jack White in San Diego, Calif. told me that George and Carol Robinson who operates Viking Manufacturing Comp have merged with Rich Block and Nick Ruggiero of Collectors' Workshop. ------------------------------------- 5. The "Trust Me" tour ------------------------------------- Message from Phil Cass The Footy Shows favourite practical joker can be seen first hand at these public venues in Australia. May 2000 Canberra Wed 17th Casino Canberra Thur 18th Canberra Irish Club Fri 19th Canberra Labour Club Newcastle area Tues 23rd Mayfield Ex-Services Club Wed 24th (State of Origin Night) Thur 25th Maitland City Bowling Club Fri 26th Mingara Rec Club Sat 27th Doyalson RSL Club Sun 28th Muswellbrook Workers Club Riverina June 2000 Thur 1st Griffith Regional Theatre Fri 2nd Wagga Leagues Club Sat 3rd Young S & C Club Sun 4th Leeton Soldiers Club Sydney June 2000 Tue 13th Avalon Beach RSL Club Wed 14th St George Sailing Club Thur 15th Parramatta Leagues Club Fri 16th Balmain Leagues Club Sat 17th Revesby Workers Club Sun 18th The Galston Club Tue 20th Easts Leagues Club Wed 21st The Richmond Club Thur 22nd Evan Theatre - Penrith Fri 23rd Castle Hill RSL Club Sat 24th North Sydney Leagues Club (If you can't make any one of these then, as always, feel free to contact me directly to be my guest at a corporate show). ------------------------------------- 6. Richard Webster - books for sale - esp@psychic.co.nz ------------------------------------- Books have gone all around the world this week. My apologies to everyone who missed out. Here's this weeks selection: OFF THE WALL by Ben Harris $20.00 Conrad "Connie" Bush's COLOR ISOLATION, a complete close-up card routine (Joseph K. Schmidt $10.00 R. C. Buff's KNOT ON THE SQUARE, new magic with ropes (Joseph K. Schmidt) $10.00 FOXIEST by Ray Grismer (Stage mentalism with cards) $10.00 SPONGEY by Ray Grismer (6 effects with two sponge balls) $10.00 ------------------------------------- 7. Magic on TV this coming week - by Ed Hall ------------------------------------- Sunday 21 May, 3pm, TV4. The weekly series 'Masters of Illusion'. While not quite magic..... Tuesday 16 May, 9:30pm, TV2. Strassman (comic/ventriloquist). email: edhall@ihug.co.nz http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~edhall/magic/ ------------------------------------- 8. The Battle of the Magicians ------------------------------------- Message from Lee Jacobs I spent last weekend with my author, Barry Govan, and three of his Aussie cohorts at The Battle of the Magicians in Canton, Ohio. I'm really sorry that I don't remember their names, especially as they are all valued customers. Anyhow, the Australian contingent was quite a surprise at this small, regional convention. Was good to see Barry, as we don't get a chance to get together very often. He is off to appear at The Castle for a week. I'm not sure what the others are doing. By the way, the international letter was definitely A because, in addition to the Aussies, there was a contingent of three or four Argentineans at the convention. ------------------------------------- 9. New Zealand will have new currency ------------------------------------- Message from Burns Scandrett News item, although not magic, but as used by magicians. New Zealand will have some new currency within the year, so advance warning will give magicians time to think of new effects to be up with the play as they come into usage. The five cent piece is being phased out, the ten cent coin will adopt a slightly changed shape, the twenty cent phased out being replaced by a "quarter" (a 25 cent coin) there will be a new coin, the five dollar coin, and also a $200.00 banknote. The "Anzac" (or whatever they will call the Australia/New Zealand currency will probably not be introduced for another eighteen months at least, in respect of the new currency changes which take priority. Remember that you first saw it in the MagicNZ e-zine. Incidentally, I am not doing a Richard Webster by trying to predict the future, this is FACT. ------------------------------------- 10. Dangerous virus known as the Alan Watson virus ------------------------------------- Message from Sean Taylor I would like to warn all magic NZ readers of a potentially dangerous virus known as the Alan Watson virus. When you switch on your computer all the pages come up blank. If you shut down and re-open files again the pages all have outline drawings of doves, rabbits, magicians etc. If you close down and re-boot a third time, all of the pictures are coloured in. Can't think how that happens! Good luck and don't say I didn't warn you! ------------------------------------- 11. The new virus, called Kak ------------------------------------- Message from John Gordon As detectives in the Philippines continue their investigation of the "ILoveYou" virus and as corporations worldwide scramble to clean up its aftermath, security experts in the U.S. are targeting a new, potentially more destructive e-mail virus that doesn't even require its attachment to be opened before wreaking havoc. HEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLP!!!!!!! The new virus, called Kak, (been plenty of that here! :0)) seizes on any e-mail program that recognizes HTML, the language used to create most Web pages, and infects computers when the e-mail message that contains it is merely opened or previewed. HEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLP!!!!!!! Kak affects computers running Internet Explorer 5.0 or Microsoft (MSFT) Office 2000. It spreads by taking advantage of a security hole in Explorer that is caused by a programming bug in an ActiveX control called scriptlet.typelib. The browser doesn't need to be running for the virus to be unleashed, and the bug can be installed on a computer through its default security settings, according to a security alert issued Wednesday by the System Administration, Networking and Security Institute. "If the ILoveYou virus had made use of this, we would have gone crazy," says Jimmy Kuo, a McAfee fellow at Network Associates (NETA). "By the time you find out you've received the e-mail, you've gone and looked at it, and that itself sets off the virus and it's a bit too late." The ILoveYou virus spread via Microsoft Outlook, sending itself to all recipients listed in a user's address book before deleting image files and hiding audio files. It has spawned at least 25 copycats with varying levels of destructiveness. Police in Manila, Philippines, released a man from custody who they initially suspected of writing the virus, and are now looking at suspects connected with a local university. In response to the outbreak of the virus, which has caused an estimated $6.7 billion in damage, Microsoft and security experts have advised computer users that the best way to preempt infection is to avoid opening suspect attachments. That remedy no longer applies. HEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLP!!!!!!! A Minneapolis company claims to have developed the first software that allows users to recover files destroyed or hidden by the ILoveYou virus. OnTrack Data International's EasyRecovery software, which sells for $49.95, restores JPG, JPEG, MP2 and MP3 files damaged by the virus to their original condition. It doesn't attempt to repair corrupted files or rewrite the original drive, but instead locates the files' signatures, copies "deleted" image data to a new location and reveals the location of audio files, says Jim Reinert, OnTrack's director of software products. WHAT A SALES PITCH THAT IS! While the Kak virus, which Network Associates believes originated in France,(probably right, aren't most things from France K**!) isn't as malicious as the ILoveYou bug and doesn't spread in the same way, it has the potential to be the most dangerous virus to date if it were expanded with nasty attributes. So far, the Kak virus doesn't do any damage and merely displays a message on the first of the month that says: "Kagou-Anti-Kro$oft says not today!" according to Network Associate's profile of the virus. If a user's security settings are set high, Kak might display warning messages regarding ActiveX and scripts. Users who see a dialogue box asking, "Do you want to allow software such as ActiveX controls and plug-ins to run?" should respond "No." The same security hole that spawned Kak also exposes users to harmful scripts in malicious Web pages. Microsoft could not be reached for comment on the hole, but a bulletin posted on the software giant's Web site says it could allow a "malicious Web operator to take inappropriate actions on the computer of a user who visited the site." Users of IE 5.0 and Office 2000 should update their virus-detection software in order to close the hole, which takes less than five minutes, according to Paller. Network Associates also advises computer users to remove Windows Scripting Host from their systems. Tools to patch the hole, which Microsoft posted in August 1999, are available here, http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms99-032.asp and a correction script may be run directly from here. Network Associates has information on its Web site http://vil.nai.com/villib/dispVirus.asp?virus_k=9706 about the virus. ------------------------------------- 12. "Magicana" report ------------------------------------- Message from Michael Woolf I've just returned from a visit to Christchurch, where I met with Liz McClean and Robert Clark who are doing such a great job at the Castle of Magic. They will be advertising in "Magicana" and Robert is also going to the Melbourne Convention, where he and I will join others showing the flag for New Zealand. Also met up with Greg ("El") Britt, who says he is busier than ever now that he is performing fulltime. "Magicana" continues to receive great support - I've never had this much mail before, and the e-mail makes the computer run red-hot! There will be some surprises in the June-July issue, including some new advertisers. Also, a reminder that subscriptions are now due. ($NZ40, $A40, $US30.) Please make cheques out to "Magicana" and send to "Magicana", Box 38046, Wellington New Zealand. Editor Magicana Michael Woolf Box 38046 Wellington Mail Centre Wellington New Zealand 64 4 587 0045 fax 64 4 587 0042 mobile 25 577774 ------------------------------------- 13. Melbourne Convention update ------------------------------------- Message from Paul Bowen Less that 4 weeks to go and the committee are in full swing. Each committee member is confirming guests for their section of the convention and asking me to let every one know about their event. So here is another update. Intensives: We are holding two intensives that will run at the same time. In one room we will have the 'History of Magic' with guest speakers Gerald Taylor talking about the history of Australian Magic, and Chuck Fayne speaking on his time with Dai Vernon. In the other room we will hold a 'Card Intensive' this will be held by Bary Govan and Pat-Trick. On the Monday we are running a trade session. This session will be in an open area and will have 7 speakers each talking to small groups on a variety of topics. Each talk will be 15 minutes and will be an interactive question and answer session. The topics covered are: Speaking properly, Balloon Sculpturing, Prop building, Story Telling, The GST, Ventriloquism, and Juggling. We have also just tied Alan Slogget down and asked him to speak on Magic at Children's Birthday parties. This will be part of the Friday afternoon Children's Magic Seminar. I'll send some more info next week. ------------------------------------- 14. Diarise these events ------------------------------------- Sunday 25th June Auckland - Harvey Berg (USA) - lecture Tuesday 27th June Wellington - Harvey Berg (USA) - lecture Thursday 29th June Christchurch - Harvey Berg (USA) - lecture Sunday 22nd October- IBM Ring 160 Day of magic Thursday 12th - 16th April (Easter) 2001 - 26th New Zealand Magicians' Convention If you require more information about the above events go to www.watson.co.nz/ezine-archive to research for more information. ------------------------------------- 15. News Items ------------------------------------- If you have any news items that you feel the majority of our subscribers would be interested in please e-mail me so I can include them in the next e-zine. The magician who e-mails me a particular news item FIRST will receive full credit at the top of that item. If the news is of major importance I will send them out immediately as a Newsflash. ------------------------------------- 16. MagicNZ e-zine archives ------------------------------------- Back issues of the MagicNZ e-zine go to: www.watson.co.nz/ezine-archive Both the User Name and Password MUST be entered in lower case to gain access. User Name: ezine Password: magicnz When you enter the archive the e-zines are in issue order and are coded. Eg 001nov6.txt first three numbers denote issue number then the date. ------------------------------------- 17. Benefit of subscribing to the MagicNZ e-zine ------------------------------------- You will now be informed well in advance of coming events and kept right up to date with the latest news. MagicNZ e-zine is published weekly, late on Sunday night. ------------------------------------- 18. Subscription Management ------------------------------------- Our subscriber list is NOT made available to other companies or individuals. We value every subscriber and respect your privacy. To subscribe or unsubscribe from the MagicNZ e-zine: www.watson.co.nz/ezine.html The opinions expressed in this e-zine are those of the individual contributors. Neither MagicNZ nor Alan Watson can vouch for the accuracy or reliability of any opinion, message, statement, or other information reported via MagicNZ e-zine. We reserve the right to correct any errors or omissions as we see fit. >> This publication may be freely redistributed to other magicians if copied in its ENTIRETY << (c) Copyright 2000 Alan Watson ------------------------------------- 19. Contact Information ------------------------------------- Alan Watson Ph. (9) 483-9274 Fax. (09) 483-9274 Mobile 025 95-7070 e-mail alan@watson.co.nz www.magician.co.nz www.magicianz.com