Flying to Amsterdam next week? Here are some tips!

Written on 12th April 2009                                                                                                              10 COMMENTS
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur

About half of the attendees at The Next Web Conference aren’t from The Netherlands. They fly into Amsterdam early in the week and stay for the weekend after he conference. We love it, and are very proud, that our conference has grown into an event with international appeal.

For our international visitors we have a few tips when it comes to surviving Amsterdam. Here they are, on no particular order:

Bikes
Beware of people of bikes. There are more bikes in Amsterdam than people and the people riding these bikes don’t stop for anything. Stick to the sidewalks and keep your ears open. If you hear someone ringing their bells seek cover or they will run you down. Sorry about that.

Drugs
Amsterdam is sometimes referred to as the ‘Drug capital of the world’. This is a lot more credit than we deserve but it is true that certain drugs are legal and readily available. If you absolutely have to get a taste of that we won’t stop you. But be very cautious. Our soft drugs are very potent and can easily make you sick. Locals usually aren’t too interested in drugs either so be discrete about your experiences. Apart from that, enjoy!

Flights
Flying into Amsterdam via Schiphol? Get a taxi (you might call it a cab but in The Netherlands we call them Taxis) or the train. Train is cheap and comfortable unless you arrive after dark in which case I would advise to take a taxi. Trains leave every 15 minutes from schiphol – costs 3,80 euros), then take a tram (line 4 or 25 – costs 1,60 euros) and get out at Frederiksplein (right in front of Hotel V). Total travel time 40 minutes

A taxi into town shouldn’t cost you more than 45 euros depending on where you need to go and should take no more than 35 minutes.

Also read this excellent article at The New York Times on how to arrive healthily and save. In short: drink a lot of water, keep moving around and take lots of vitamins.

Red Light District
Yes, the red Light District is a major sightseeing opportunity. Lots of sights to see there. Go ahead, check it out but pay attention to a few things. Beware of pickpockets: most people are so distracted by the sight of, well, what they see, that they don’t watch their personal belongings. Also, don’t make photos of the ladies, or men, behind the windows. They DON”T like that and won’t ask you politely to stop if you do take a photo. Don’t risk finding out what they WILL do.

Where to go and for what
The Next Web Conference will be held at the Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam. We’ve created a map with some interesting places in Amsterdam. We’ll add stuff to the map almost every day.

View Larger Map

amsterdam, attendees, experiment, fly, international, traveling, visitors

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Free public transport in Hong Kong, Britain and The Netherlands

Written on 21st July 2008                                                                                                              2 COMMENTS
Joop Dorresteijn, East Asia correspondent

Okay, its not as simple as free, but Dr. B. Jacobs, computer science professor at the Radboud University Nijmegen has demonstrated how to copy the smart travel cards, and travel for free in London last June. His demonstration alarmed the card maker NXP, who claimed that the publication was irrelevant to the research, and filed a case at the Arnhem court. Last Friday, the Judge decided that the research can be published this Oktober, leaving little time for the card makers to create a fix.

The court: “Damage to NXP is not the result of the publication of the article but of the production and sale of a chip that appears to have shortcomings.” But with over 1 billion cards sold, the impact of publishing would be devastating.
“I’m very happy that the court upheld the right to open research and freedom of publication,” said K. Nohl, a gratuate student at the university of Virginia. CNET News “I’m also happy that the court understood that publishing vulnerabilities is a crucial part of the evolution of security and a different court outcome would have slowed down that evolution of smart card security and left too many systems vulnerable.”

But for those of you that are thinking of setting up your own card business, Mifare mentions that there are techniques and countermeasures to detect cards and data which have been tampered with.

Edit: Stefan pointed us to the PDF file in the comments!

radboud, transport, traveling

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Traveling in Europe goes hand in hand with connectivity: UK allows mobile calls on flights

Written on 27th March 2008                                                                                                              0 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

Yesterday we reported that French railway company SNCF will offer a wireless Internet connection on its trains. A few minutes ago I noticed a story on MobileCrunch saying that the UK will allow mobile calls from aircrafts.

The Office of Communications announced that the UK will allow passengers on a British aircraft to make calls and send text messages once the plan reaches a minimum height of 3,000 meters. During take-offs and landings, calling is still a no-go.

A spokesperson from the Office of Communications said: “The safety of passengers is paramount and mobile systems on aircraft will only be installed when they have secured approval by the European Aviation Safety Agency and the Civil Aviation Authority in the UK”. Moreover, they’re in discussions with other countries whether phone calls can be allowed on all European flights.

So being unreachable for a few hours due to some ambiguous ”don’t-use your phone or we will crash’ fear will soon be history. It seems like traveling in Europe becomes more convenient by the day.

[Tipr: Peter Evers]

airplane, Europe, mobile, traveling, united kingdom

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France: trains with Wifi connection on board

Written on 26th March 2008                                                                                                              10 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

When traveling through Europe, trains come in handy. It’s cheaper and sometimes faster than flying. Moreover, the train seats are more comfortable than the cramped up Easyjet chairs. You even got the space to open your laptop without having to sit with your elbows in your neck. So far, there’s only thing missing though: wireless Internet. Of course some people have this Vodafone satellite connection, but that’s just slow. No, we need a fast and reliable connection.

Well, vive la France! The French are making my wireless Internet dream reality. Railway company SNCF announced today that the company is running tests with three trains from and to Switzerland, Germany and Luxembourg. It’s just six weeks before the first Internet-equipped train will leave the station.

The infrastructure of the wireless connection has been developed by Orange, Capgemini, Eutelsat and Alstom Transport and is suitable for every Train Grande Vitesse.

I think it’s a great way to lure travelers away from planes into trains. A lot of people will save time and money if they can keep working online during a trip. The only thing that might temper my enthusiasm is the price SNCF will charge for a Wifi key.

Europe, france, internet, tgv, trains, traveling, wifi

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