“We get bullshit turf battles like Tumblr not being able to find your Twitter friends or Facebook not letting Instagram photos show up on Twitter because of giant companies pursuing their agendas instead of collaborating in a way that would serve users. And we get a generation of entrepreneurs encouraged to make more narrow-minded, web-hostile products like these because it continues to make a small number of wealthy people even more wealthy, instead of letting lots of people build innovative new opportunities for themselves on top of the web itself.”—Anil Dash • Discussing the freedom we had with certain features of the Web—features that are now gone due to eventual changes. The title? “The Web We Lost.” Preach it, brother. (ht seldo)
Blessed be the third party ap makers.
On the Existence of Anonymous
As strange as it seems, just the bare existence of Anonymous in itself is a fascinating topic. With their re-emergence aligned with the SOPA and PIPA controversy, now might be a nice time to address their true nature. Although I don’t claim to be a true, well-studied expert, I’ve been following the group personally for a few years now (though I avoid partaking in any activities since I can’t risk anything happening, health-wise and financially) and have really gotten to know it. It’s far more complex than you’d think.
[Also, warning: My playlist auto-plays, so either turn your volume down or press the pause button on the bottom left-hand corner when it loads.]
Anonymous Message On How YOU Can Be A Part Of #OpGlobalBlackout FACEBOOK ATTACK 12 AM
Anonymous has been very ambitious recently, as many of you know. However, due to the current situation, they’re finally getting to business. The idea of knocking down Facebook is not at all new in their discussions, but it seems like they are finally planning on going for their biggest target yet. And they’re perfectly aware that it’s a daunting task. Facebook has 60,000 servers, more or less, so it’s capable of the hundreds of billions of visits it receives each day.
So they’re asking the citizens of the Internet - all of you - to accompany them in this major DDoS attack.
They give simple, easy instructions on how to use their Low-Orbit Ion Cannon, or LOIC, the primary software that they use for such attacks, as well as a link to a popular program that will change your IP address. They also plan on executing it simultaneously on 12 AM EST, January 28, 2012.
The question is, who will join?
If they get enough Internet users to join, if raids were to happen, there is a lesser chance that they will actually arrest the primary users in charge, perhaps humiliating the governments involved. Plus, it’s harder for them to reach their goal if lesser users join in.
If this succeeds, this will be the biggest stunt Anonymous pulls. And it will definitely speak to the world.
What do you think? Will you join? Will you watch and cheer them on? Or do you think this is an act of stupidity?
The 6 Corporations That Control 90% Of What You Read, Watch, And Listen To…America’s Media Monopolies…
I think it’s really interesting that i brought the price so close to stealing and made the movie so easy to get and made it so clear that it’s a human offering it that it sparked a debate about pirating.
[T]o steal from someone and not feel bad, you either have to be a sociopath or view the act differently. One way is to remove “Someone” from the equation. You’re not stealing from a person. Big companies do a lot to help people view them as less than human. I heard a speech by Noam Chomsky who said that corporations are like super humans. They cannot be hurt like a human can and they never die. They are not susceptible to scrutiny or accountability. this makes them more profitable. If companies want to enjoy these benefits to some degree they have to live with what else comes with being not human. you miss out on compassion, forgiveness, camaraderie, empathy, trust all kinds of shit.
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Louis C.K.—who made his latest album available for download for only $5 on his website—making an excellent point about internet piracy and corporate personhood (from his Reddit AMA thread) Generally speaking, people feel much less compunction about stealing from Geffen and CBS than they do from their favorite artists. We want to support the creatives, not the executives. (via downlo) And an interesting commentary on “companies are people too” in general. -Jess (via stfuconservatives) |
North Korea’s Digital Underground
25 million people live in North Korea and only a few thousand select researchers and high-ranking officials have access to the internet. Computers are legal but must be registered with local authorities. Printers are even more rare because…
Oh. I get it.
The bottom-right is pure blogging, and the upper-left is pure networking.
As you go up, it becomes more popular, and as you go down, it’s less popular.
On the left is more “direct” media that’s more personal and user-based with more intimate relationships between the site and user, while the right side is more content-driven. In the middle it’s kinda mixed.
The isolated media blocks are information sources.
