By now you may have heard that there’s a new sheriff in town: K-pop fans, they’re are here to save the day! An army of online fans of Korean bands, particularly BTS, have been getting organised to lend their social media reach to tackle several problems. By now you may Read more…
Depiction of computing and hacking in Hollywood has long been the subject of amusement for techies around the world. From the preposterous idea that you can hack into an alien computer, to increasingly unbelievable graphic user interfaces, film has been poisoning our perception of computing for years (and don’t get Read more…
Yesterday I wrote about the anti-ACTA protests taking place across Europe, which prompted a very interesting tweet discussion with Geraldine Juarez (Storify in Spanish here). The gist of the argument is that Geraldine disagrees that there is no reason to protest, while my argument continues to be that people have Read more…
The rise of individualism One of my favourite documentaries of all time is The Century of the Self (2002) by Adam Curtis (you can view it on YouTube in its glorious four hour entirety here). I’ll concede that Curtis is not everyone’s cup of tea, but I believe that in Read more…
After the (at least for now) defeat of SOPA and PIPA, the copyfight has been moving towards a more international setting with the arrest of the Megaupload owners in New Zealand, and now with the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). In fact, ACTA is not new, but it has been making Read more…
As Wikipedia goes silent today in protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA), and as other Internet giants unite their voices against the proposed legislations, we could really say that Web activism is starting to become a force to be reckoned with. Undoubtedly Read more…
I find it amusing that the important political debates of our time is being fought not in the op-ed pages of the New York Times, but in your choice of graphic novel. The question of the day is not whether you are Socialist, Labour, Conservative, Tea Party, Libertarian, Democrat, or Read more…
Remember, remember the fifth of November, Gunpowder treason and plot. We see no reason Why gunpowder treason Should ever be forgot! It is a heartening example of our age (or a sad indictment, depending on your world view) that one of the most famous hacktivist collectives in the world takes Read more…
The UK has had a glimpse of what the total societal collapse looks like. The UK riots of August 2011 have struck me as an example of systemic failure of government and society at almost every level of organisation, as lawlessness and anarchy reigned supreme for a few nights. This Read more…
Scotland Yard has caught LulzSec’s Topiary, their biggest scalp to date. Topiary has been identified as Jake Davis, an 18 year-old from the Shetland Islands (pictured here looking like a poster child for teenage hackers, including Neo-wannabe shades). He appeared in court earlier today and was released on bail, under Read more…