

The Blast Shack, Bruce Sterling's (long) essay on Wikileaks - philoye
http://www.webstock.org.nz/blog/2010/the-blast-shack/

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jdp23
Great hacker culture perspective. As a hack, Wikileaks is neatly and
intricately constructed, working on multiple mutually-reinforcing levels. When
it hits the real world, things get a lot more complex.

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cubicle67
great hacker culture perspective? I thought it was some of the worst writing
I'd read in ages.

Chock full of awful B-grade cliched stereotypes with almost no insight at all.

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cubicle67
Similarities between this essay and an episode of CSI - both rely on cardboard
cutout characters, simple binary motivations, cleat cut good/bad guys and
almost completely no basis in reality. The more you understand how the things
they portray actually work, the more your enjoyment diminishes (I'm more of an
NCIS fan :)

Differences between this essay and an episode of CSI - CSI knows full well its
entire purpose in life is to be mildly entertaining. It never pretends to be a
reflection of what real life CSI is like. It's entertainment, nothing more,
and it knows it. Unlike the author of this essay, who for some reason thinks
he has a deep understanding of "Hacker culture" and the entire saga, and needs
about 3000 patronising words to explain his great insights to us.

oh, and if I ever see/hear the word 'cypherpunk' again I think I shall
probably vomit.

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djtumolo
He seems to think we have only two options, transparency and pain, or
discretion and balance. The next step in this sage will be finding a way to
have transparency and balance.

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iwwr
Do you have a cached version? Main site is unavailable.

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gnosis
[http://www.webstock.org.nz.nyud.net/blog/2010/the-blast-
shac...](http://www.webstock.org.nz.nyud.net/blog/2010/the-blast-shack/)

