[spectre] Two new reviews on Furtherfield by Rob Myers.

[marc garrett]

Two new reviews on Furtherfield by Rob Myers.

http://www.furtherfield.org

Abstract Hacktivism: the making of a hacker culture.
A book collecting two essays by Otto von Busch and Karl Palmas 
transforms the concept of "hacktivism" with well-argued historical 
analysis and a number of informative case studies.

"Hacktivism" is a cool-sounding portmanteau word combining "hacking" and 
"activism". Activism means political organisation and activity directed 
toward particular issues. Hacking can mean either "creative mastery and 
reworking" or "breaking and entering" of various systems, usually 
computer systems. The latter is more properly called "cracking". 
Hacktivism tend to mean cracking rather than creative hacking. This 
means that hacktivism usually identifies at most a negativist posture of 
technological resistance to socioeconomic ills.
Permlink - http://www.furtherfield.org/displayreview.php?review_id=307

Big Buck Bunny. The Blender Foundation.
Big Buck Bunny is the second short 3D computer animated cartoon from the 
Blender Foundation. The Blender Foundation produces these films to 
stimulate development of and promote use of their popular eponymous free 
software 3D modelling and rendering package.

The Foundation's first film, codenamed Orange, was "Elephants Dream". 
This was in the European experimental stop-frame animation tradition, a 
dark Gilliamesque fantasy with two men trying to escape a threatening 
clockwork labyrinth that may or may not really exist. The character and 
scenery designs were excellent, and the film as a whole was very 
atmospheric. The quality of the facial animation and the 
comprehensibility of the plot were criticized, though. And the full 
release of the soundtrack for the film was not Free due to being limited 
to noncommercial use. These minor criticisms aside, Elephants Dream was 
a very successful production.
Permlink - http://www.furtherfield.org/displayreview.php?review_id=306