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Issue 158 (June 2012) - Beat the CIA

Click here to get the DVD via BitTorrent

Click here to get the just the source code used in tutorials

Keep prying eyes out of your Linux box – including those of the CIA!

There`s always someone trying to get into your data, whether that be an insurance company wanting to find out how much of a risk you are, a non-evil search engine company wanting to target its advertising at you or a government agency trying to extend the powers of the state onto your hard drive. But help is at hand: with our ultimate guide to privacy and data protection you can keep them all out of your /home folder, whatever their nefarious intentions.

Elsewhere in the magazine we`re full of tips on how to map your perambulations with GPS, impress easily-impressed girls by getting them to touch your Android phone, and expand the limits of your computing knowledge with our roundup of alternative operating systems.

PLUS we blow our tiny minds learning how to make a working CPU out of logic gates, get at terrifying glimpse into the future with Oil Rush, and learn what quilting has in common with Linuxing. All this, plus the usual heady mix of tutorials, in Linux Format 158!

Features

Android vs iOS

The mobile titans go head to head. We find out which one is easiest to use. (Mike Saunders)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Beat the CIA

The World Wide Web is the greatest system for sharing information ever created, but how do you stop it sharing too much? (Ben Everard)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Build your own computer

Discover the electronic building blocks that make your computer tick. (Jonathan Roberts)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Map your walks

Use the wonders of GPS to share your routes with the world. (Ian Barton)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Interview: Ciarán O'Riordan

So, there's no software patents in the EU hey? That's what we thought until we met End Software Patents (Andrew Gregory)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Coverdisc

DVD Pages

Tails, PC BSD, Haiku, Icaros and more! (Ben Everard)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Hotpicks: MyJGUI, Urban Lightscape, SysUsage and more

We bring you the hottest software from around the net. (Nick Veitch)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Tutorials

Administeria

Talk the talk, know your weaknesses and SELinux (Chris Brown)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Arduino

Light up the world using just an Arduino and a handful of LEDs. (Nick Veitch)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Vim

Learn to write code faster and better using Vim's advanced features. (Jonathan Roberts)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

FontForge

Turn your handwriting into a font. (Shashank Sharma)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

IRC

It might be good to talk, but it's even better to chat online with strangers. (Mike Saunders)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

VPN

Keep the internet's riff-raff out of your network using OpwnVPN. (Neil Bothwick)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Coding Academy

Code Concepts: Loops

The best coder is the laziest coder. Loops save you time and effort, so it's essential to understand them. (Graham Morrison)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

PHP: Databases

Make your PHP applications play nicely with a MySQL database and understand the fuel that powers the interwebs. (Mike Mackay)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Python: Inter-process communication

Get your Python scripts talking to each other and feel like the coding equivalent of Parselmouth. (Nick Veitch)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Reviews

Audacity

Audio editing the free software way. Now with added VAMP and other acronyms. (Graham Morrison)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Gnome 3.4

The popular desktop environment gets a new browser. (Jonathan Roberts)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Renoise 2.8

Discover what happens when you bolt an audio workstation onto the soul of a soundtracker. (Graham Morrison)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Oil Rush

Part strategy, part shoot-em-up, and part terrifying warning from the future. (Alex Cox)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

XBMC 11

Turn your Linux box into a fully-fledged media centre. (Ben Everard)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Alternative operating systems

We take a look at PC-BSD, GhostBSD, OpenIndiana, Haiku and Icaros (Mayank Sharma)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

News: The latest news from the Linux world

The Governments' Snoopers' Charter, Microsoft love Linux, Red Hat make billions, and more (Andrew Gregory)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Distrowatch: Sabayon 8

The new release of Sabayon makes more friends than enemies, Arch celebrates its tenth anniversary, and Minix gets an update. (Susan Linton)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

What on Earth: The Journal

Discover a new tool for recording system logs. (Jonathan Roberts)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.