Slashdot Mirror

In other news, first measles infection in the Netherlands in 5 years. A properly inoculated population will be able to cope with this, but the last epidemic in 2013 was allowed to spread because the more religious part of the country has a tendecy not to inoculate.

I hope the following link doesn't hurt any cultural or linguistic sensitivities but it's an article on the subject from the largest Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf.

http://www.telegraaf.nl/binnen...

http://www.telegraaf.nl/binnenland/21769604/__NL_se_vinding_geblokkeerd__.html

Form the University site: http://www.ru.nl/english/general/news_agenda/news/@895890/radboud-university-0/

Interesting is the statement VW was informed about the problem nine months ago and Dutch Government/Jurisprudence finds 6 months of silence already sufficient.

For a terrorism-centred country like the USA this is a very incomplete report.
No details about what was on fire or the person that attacked the supposed terrorist. See http://www.telegraaf.nl/binnenland/5656080/__Hollandse_Jasper_pakte_terrorist__.html?p=1,1 for the raw story.
One wonders: what security-theatre will be the new norm after this incident?

Brein is already going after Mininova. The verdict is postponed from July 15 to August 26 though - source (Dutch, sorry)

A lot of countries are calling it Mexican flu already anyway (see: the Netherlands).

I assume France is too after all of their outrage and desire to shut the border to Mexican flights.

It makes sense for people to call it by the name of the country most effected/appearing to be the origin, but really it matters very little as long as it's clear what is meant. If this leads to some confusion when using a cheap internet translator, I think that it is acceptable. A proper translator would catch the mistake, or someone who is reading an article on 2009 H1N1 could reasonably infer that a reference to Swine flu meant Mexican flu or 2009 H1N1. I think Mexican flu 2009 and Swine flu of 2009 both convey the idea well enough*. I personally prefer 2009 H1N1.

* - unless there is another one in the second half of the year..which would coincide with my upcoming movie.

TomTom's shares are on an historical low. This might be one of M$ ways to kill them off for good and get into the mapping business for real. I presume that they are not so happy with Google being in it. Only a wild guess, but it might be that they are on their normal evil path again. Not against Linux, but against a weak company that might be suitable for a take over.

Here's a Dutch link, but the picture and amounts tell a clear story:

http://www.telegraaf.nl/dft/bedrijven/tomtom/?tabid=bedrijven&tab=7

http://www.telegraaf.nl/binnenland/3619543/_Wilders_slaat_aanbod_af__.html?p=14,1 in Dutch
http://canadianinfidel.blogspot.com/2008/03/wilders-declines-offer-from-muslim.html in English

So apperently the Muslims in the Netherlands are willing to show it if they can see it upfront to make sure it contains no legally libel content.

Nice to see that the Muslims are more willing and open then a US based company when it concerns free speech.

I played up the race relations, as it was a key part of the event for everyone involved. I did not however describe anyone in a prejudiced way. It is relavant to the continuing theme of 'US Oppression' and the tags of 'Police state'.

As I cannot search Youtube, try this one, or 'ondiep'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpdetGCDODw

This is in Dutch, although a reputable source:
http://www.telegraaf.nl/binnenland/60338261/Politi e:_Stille_tocht_Ondiep_gaat_door.html

It quotes 135 arrests and the killing. Can be translated at http://babelfish.altavista.com/.

Again, you will not find this in any European national newspaper or non-Dutch European source, which makes source hunting difficult though not impossible.

I think its all bollocks. All those voting machines are equal, the only difference maybe the software which is being used but its just that which makes it vulnerable. The software is embedded on an EPROM which is very easily switched which can influence the ellections. By the way; its not the national goverment but a few local goverments (in Dutch "gemeenten", counties I guess, but in a different sense of the word) which decided on this.

Another delicate, yet ignored, issue is the way voting machines are locked down. All those machines can be started and stopped with the exact same key. Naturally this little issue doesn't get any attention from our local goverment. And thats not even getting into more details with regards to storage. Many of those voting machines (yes, the ones which will be actually used in the actual process) are not safely locked away. A report has shown that its rather easy to gain entry to such a storage depot: in many cases all you need to do is climb a single fence.

The last reason I think this is all a bunch of balony is the fact that the producer of this voting machine works and believes in the "Security through obscurity" strategy, our goverment has even bound themselves to that. Concluding that it would be impossible for them to share the actual reason why this particular machine was banned from the elections. Simply because it would mean that they'd have to disclose a difference between them which, alledgedly, isn't there to begin with. So to me its all a bunch of balony. Just taking some action to make the population feel safe again. Well, if I have the chance I too will try to avoid a voting machine and cast my vote the old way. My trust in those cettles has really dropped to below 0.

And in addition to that local newspapers also report that Nedap (company which makes these machines) is already in the process to deliver 500 extra. You can read this report here (its in Dutch). It basicly says that the counties ("gemeenten") who rejected the machines can get replacements.

The municipality of Groningen is going to be the first major municipality in the Netherlands to use OpenOffice. This way 330.000 euros will be saved on licencing costs. The council of Groningen agreed yesterdayevening to let the contract with Microsoft for Microsoft Office expire.

The contract with Microsoft for the operatingsystem Windows will be renewed. Groningen counts about 181.000 inhabitants and the municipality itself has about 3650 pc's internally. In Groningen people started investigating the possibilities of using Open Standards and Open Source Software after requests from the council. The reason of this investigation was that they wanted to break the monopoly of large software suppliers and that they didn't want to depend on them for changes to their software.

No switch to Linux

OpenOffice will be installed under Windows in Groningen. From the investigation it became clear that a total switch to an Open platform like Linux currently isn't a viable choice. The municipality does say to strive that workstations in Groningen will run as much software as possible that runs on both Windows and Linux. At a later point in time the switch to Linux would then be easier.

Because they want to avoid the risk of having to ask for general municipality funds if the switch backfires and they want to switch back to Microsoft Office, a large portion (170.000 euros) of the funds will be saved in a "Microsoftlicences" account.

The remainder of the funds (78.450 euros) will be used to form a migrationteam that will start with the preperations of switching to operating-system independent workstations.

No, I'm not kidding:
http://www.telegraaf.nl/binnenland/17479421/Misdad iger_kan_pistool_declareren.html
(To cost According to director Gerard Sta of the office Ontnemingen Public Prosecution Service is it indeed possible that criminal cost that has been made for committing a indictable offence, can deduct. It concerns costs which have an direct relation with the indictable offence. Costs would not have made therefore that an offender differently. A second condition is that the indictable offence must be completed be, thus stands. The law goes there according to stands from that the financial situation of the bank robber after ' payment ' with justice the same must be as for the overval. The robber of the bank in Chaam had buy that weapon to be able rob that bank. It sounds perhaps a beetje oddly, but this way is the law. Director Sta gives still a another example: "if a hemp plantation is closed down the grower can indicate which onkosten he has made.")
Lousy translation, but you get the idea. The deduction should only be applied AFTER arrest, not before. The IRS are not stupid.

The Dutch article is here

Seized disks contained a lot of european content.
My guess is that this is related to a death
treat to a Dutch politician named Wilders.

The so called international stalinists called
for his death with 6 bullets. The story, in
Dutch, is here.

I think that providers should hand over IP logs
concerning death threats.

It could be argued that the manufacturer owes you at least a refund, if a CD-R loses its data in only a few years (although the equipment and method of burning also play a role, over which the manufacturer has no control). Years ago, I used to buy 3M diskettes because it said "lifetime guarantee" on the box. When I went back to the shop with a bad one, I had to convince the guy to replace it. "That just happens sometimes" he said. Anyway, replacing the defective media is about as much as you can expect. However, due to the abysmal results in the PC Active test of the CD-R's sold by the Dutch drugstore chain Kruidvat, they now offer to attempt recovering the data if you have one gone bad. See: article (in Dutch). Apart from the Kruidvat brand, Platinum and MMore are specifically disappointing: article (Sorry, also in Dutch)

The text says that his teachers predicted he would end up in the gutter. At age 16 he started his own Internet company. "If I end up in the gutter, it will be my gutter!", he defiantly said.

I guess his teachers were right after all...

The alleged perpetrator in the article (Martijn Bevelander) was hailed as a young Bill Gates in dutch media in 1999. A popular newspaper (Telegraaf, think of The Sun, not of The Sunday Times) ran an article (dutch), quoting the 19yo: "Even at primary school I announced I was going to be famous & rich!"

In other news (dutch) today, Bevelander denies being involved with the spammers' front, Cyberangels. He threatens the BBC (boy, will they be scared) with litigation, "our resources to end this nonsense are endless." Which is remarkable, as his company went broke in 2002.

However, simple checks by Webwereld (public files at the local chamber of commerce) reveal a link to MegaProvider, Bevelander's current set-up. Bevelander, who claimed earlier to be an investor in the spammers' operation, now dismisses this as "something from his past."

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It has just been discovered that research causes cancer in rats.

Pascalstraat 17
2014KZ Haarlem
Tel.023-5101094
Fax.023-5441982

It is probably an office address, but I'd guess he spends time there as well. International callers should not forget to add the country code for the Netherlands, which is 31.

Martijn Bevelander is a highly controversial figure: he dropped out of school, then started an internet company (at a very young age) during the boom, got into legal trouble with lots of people, and finally went broke. Some people think he is the second coming of Bill Gates (quite a few people think of Bill as a role model...). Others think he is a lier and a thief. He appears to have made a business out of hijacking domain names, but foolishly forgot to register his own name.

There is a very critical article in Dutch here (search for "martijn"). Another list of critical articles, again in Dutch, is here. There is a picture here, although (according to the first link) the equipment in the background is not actually his.

All in all, although he himself thinks he is a genius, in reality he is nothing more than a parasite.

I cannot, of course, condone any course of violence against his person. However, if (for example) the United States were to think of him as an international crack dealer and demand his extradition, I wouldn't shed any tears for this fellow countryman...

Well, that's it then. Bush won.

It's a good thing (for Bush), the dutch didn't get the right to vote for the new "world" leader. A poll showed Gore would have wone with 82% of the votes.

Mark
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

i meant resigning, that's what "it" meant

from the link

The situation cooled down for a couple of months, but when I resigned on-air
from my job as a VJ, which MTV chose not to air btw, things started to get
ugly.


Oh, and he wrote a bit about Linux in January of Last year, but, uh, no comprende.

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