datenschleuder

For the German-speaking of my audience who haven't heard about it yet: the Chaos Computer Club has compiled an excellent reader on the topic of the new, machine-readable passports (EPass) that have been introduced here in Germany.

Basically, if you're a German citizen you probably can't afford not to read up on the subject... Many thanks especially to Frank for putting in all this time and effort for such an important issue.

Whoha! This is as close to a miracle as it gets! We've actually managed to get two issues of the Datenschleuder out the door within two weeks!

I've used the pun "the increasingly inaccurately named quarterly magazine" far too often during the past two years and due to our, well... chaotic publishing schedule we were seriously risking our precious status as Postvertriebsstück with good ol' Ma' Deutsche Bundespost. (In short, it means, that as a quarterly Magazine we pay a significantly reduced postage for delivery to our subscribers than normally. It does, however, also mean, that we must deliver it, you know... four times a year...)

Anyway, after just recently getting issue No. #84 out, we were faced with the challenge of publishing another issue well before Christmas. The good news was, that meanwhile, we've got so much quality contents at our hands, that we actually managed to fill a complete issue with content in this short time. And with 'we' I actually exclude myself this time. I was simply too busy with family affairs and 'pay-the-rent-work', so Erdgeist pretty much pulled this one off on his own. Kudos! Only yesterday we had a final session, where I went over the files he had prepared, before they go off to the printers.

That gives me approcimately a week to prepare the online version for publication. Well, I'm actually looking forward to that. I've still got a few ideas up my sleeve for the site... Can't wait to get my hands dirty on this one ;-)

Drizzly cold weather outside, book-keeping done, the kids are taken care of, a steaming mug of good coffee and 48 hours time to whisk up a new design for the online version of the Datenschleuder. That spells geek happiness!

While we're still preparing the launch of the print version we had an issue concerning one of the articles that simply couldn't wait. So we put up a press statement and a brief online-documentary of the background information.

These (already heaviliy visited) resources will soon link to the online version of the full article - except that the site isn't ready yet ;-)

What I've done yesterday was to export all of the contents of the existing, somewhat broken Zope instance (including member data and customized workflow), wiping everything and installing pristine versions of Zope (2.7.3b2), Plone etc. Only this time round we've learned our lesson: I've set up the ZODB as a ZEO master in preparation for a load-balanced (mini-)cluster. Currently the Zope instance simply connects to localhost, so no big difference there. But the plan is to add additional Zope nodes (at least one until Monday) to make the whole shebang heise and spiegel-proof...

If you want to take a sneak-peek of starbug's excellent(!) article - you can download the PDF-preview I made yesteray here (the article is in German).

Update II:T-Com have issued a statement admitting 'security problems'. The spokesperson stressed the point, that the telephone and mobile telephone network were not affected. This, however, must be taken with a grain of salt: one of the many customers of OBSOC Intraselect is Deutsche Telekom Networks, Projects & Services GmbH - the company running the T-Online network!

In other words, nobody - including anybody from the CCC - is yet fully aware of the consequences. The things admitted in T-Coms statement are just the tip of the iceberg.

Also noteworthy: all customer portals and ftp-upload servers remain offline, i.e. while all the hosted webpresences are still reachable, currently no T-Com customer can modify their webpresence.

This should remain interesting for weeks!

Slowly, but surely it's making the round. It seems, that all it took was a little time. Perhaps some journalists out there actually take just that (time) and do some research before publishing a story ;-)

Poor Erdgeist (who posted his mobile number at the end of our press statement) has had a "large number of unusual conversations today" as he has told me just earlier...

Even good ol' Spiegel has joined the merry band. I think now it's safe to say, that the issue is out and can no longer be 'ignored away'.

Of course, we're all still waiting for a statement from T-Com themselves - but at least now we can do that a whole lot more relaxed ;-)

Stay tuned and <radio-dj-voice>"remember, where you heard it first!"</radio-dj-voice>

Update: Oh, and btw. tagesschau.de has put the story back on, together with an update about the shutdown of the T-Com servers. Still, a radio-interview with the Hessische Rundfunk had first been requested and then cancelled again last minute. (Purported) reason: "Not enough relevance, too few people affected." Hello?! There are at least 700.000 customers at OBSOC...