Issue #185 / Apr 2016

Handheld navigation devices point the way and continuously record your position while you are walking. With a few scripts on Linux, extreme climber Mike Schilli attractively visualizes the data from some of his bold first ascents.

In last month's issue, Charly sent the lean pdnsd DNS cache down the catwalk. To see whether pdnsd really does the work expected of it, he now puts dnstop through infinite rounds in the name of names.

Crystal is an open source project that seeks to combine the best of two worlds: the simplicity of a language syntax similar to Ruby and the speed and capabilities of the LLVM platform.

A powerful search engine, a tool for processing and normalizing protocols, and another for visualizing the results – Elasticsearch, Logstash, and Kibana form the ELK stack, which helps admins manage logfiles on high-volume systems.

Man pages provide essential information but may seem cryptic if you're not familiar with their structure. We explain how they're organized so you can get the most out of them.

Use the power of Bash to transform a Linux machine into a device for automatic backup of storage cards and cameras.

Bitwig Studio 1.3.5, together with the JACK sound server, gives users the freedom to produce professional-quality tracks.

Qubes OS compartmentalizes every activity on your desktop in its own VM.

maddog reflects on the fact that Linux is not perfect, but it's still arguably the best.

The 32nd Chaos Communication Congress (32C3) attracted a colorful mix of 12,000 hackers to Hamburg, Germany.