Slashdot Mirror

Seconded.

C't - Magazin fuer Computertechnik

Learn German if you must; this magazine is a winner, most other magazines don't come close to its hobbyist- and tinkering-friendliness. Published by Heise. It's also translated into Dutch.

Tip: Speicher = memory, Festplatte = harddisk :-)

To give you an idea, the C't magazine was the first place I found out about the AARD code. Recommended!

42,642 people died in 2006 in the USA from vehicle crashes. If requiring a GPS in every vehicle would help reduce this number, and also protect citizens from the occasional police harassment, why not? And for those not fond of the government knowing so much about them, do like I do - ride a bicycle to work! Of course, maybe GPSing bicycles is the future too...

http://www.fnl.nl/ct/nieuws/lezen/archief/2007/dec/artikel/45-miljoen-fietsen-in-nederland-uitgerust-met-rfid-chip/ It's in Dutch, so Babelfish migh be your friend: the article mentions the rfids being in the lock, not in the frame (nasty Farada-cage). 750.000 bicycles are stolen yearly on a population of 17 million people. Ought to be brought down to 600.00 in the near future. Yay rfid! Now it's waiting for 'detection gates' so the real track&trace can begin. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Perfect_Day

I can second that: read C'T magazine. I remember when they had the scoop about botnets, while the rest of the world was wondering why there was suddenly so much more spam from so many sources. And weren't they the ones who found out about Microsoft's deliberate crippling of MS Windows running on DR-DOS?
Oh, and in their news section they often have small dumbed-down pieces about advances in (microelectronics-related) quantum chemistry, quantum cryptography etc, so you can start thinking about computers of the future before you can buy them :-). Does PC World have that as well? I doubt it.
The way I see it, there is an abundance of magazines that have the purpose of *selling* you a computer, but there's room for a few that discuss how they work and what you can do with them, as well :-)
Ah, found it: dutch C't magazine, may 2004, p. 84, about those spam botnets. You may have to learn dutch to read it :-) and I don't know if they put it online: http://www1.fnl.nl/ct/oude-nummers/overzicht/

Get a C`t subscription(German,dutch), you get an up-to-date knoppix + scanner once every couple of months. Its called "Knoppicillin" You could have gotten your first one and a half year ago

I suppose complaining to you favourite computer related montly about their ridiculous oversight in not copying this concept might help. That is, if you stay away from the "Screenshots, colors and windows for kids" magazine`s. On the months there isn`t a bootable knoppix waiting on your doorstep you will have to do with such stuff as an oracle database, a service pack (which microsoft refuses to let people redistribute} and always the latest kernel.

If you have no need for these you will have to do with investigative journalism, benchmarks that are early but impartial and at least in the dutch case an overview of the worst lawmaking idea "for an internetworked world" of the month (EU patent "reform", passport biometrics, "traffic data" retention, internet tapping) researched and written by laywers rather then bloggers... All ideas worthy of copying in other magazines I would think.

Here's a story about how the Israelis' bugged the Dutch Intelligence Agencies and half of the police forces in the Netherlands.

Here's a story about how the Israelis' acquired data on phone calls made here in the U.S., possibly including the ability to eavesdrop on any call they desired. (Other parts to the above story may be read here, here and here.)

The above were all accomplished by Israel through an Israeli company providing goods and services to the international community.

Now an Israeli company wants us to encrypt all our sensitive data using their technology, which is unbreakable. Yeah, sure.

Anyone remember when Dutch intelligence found out that thery were using Israeli software that leaked information to the outside? Here is a link.

Who can assure that this is not another attempt to place a backdoor in our companies? Is the algorithm open source? If not, how can you be sure that they do not keep a secret key?

Well just go for the project looking to do an open-source implementation, This project want to build and open and free implementation of the specifications that have leaked from dutch tapping plans. They argue that not every hosting provider wich only has a single server somewhere in a rack will be able to meet the tapping requirements if only comercial solutions where available. The documentation served at opentap.org includes things like leaked specifications of the tunnel used to transmit trafic to law enforcement servers, specifications of a working implementation of the tapping systems including openbsd/mysql/openssl based servers and a pcb design for a optical listening and filtering device by inovative systems delft and specifications and examples of xml based "electronic warrants" (yes they still need warrants in this case).

Why is the dutch situation so interesting? it seams like many european countries could learn a lot of the hassle that the dutch geverment has has gone trough enforcing its tapping ideas. and it also looks like the dutch laws which every isp has to folow will become similar if not the same.