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3.53 AVERAGE
3.53 AVERAGE
If you don't hang out much on the Internet, then "The Dark Net" will be a cursory but fascinating tour through the tubes, like a fucked-up version of Richard Scarry's "What Do People Do All Day?"
If, on the other hand, you know what pro-ana/pro-mia, rickrolling, and /b/ are, there's not much here that's terribly new. There are still great snippets from interviews here and there, but overall that crowd will find this more entertaining than informative or enlightening. I, for one, was expecting an in-depth look at things like Tor and cryptocurrencies and other things that happen on "the deep web" or that are at least heavily encrypted; as a digital native I'm well-acquainted with /b/'s shenanigans, thank you. So I was a bit let down in that respect, but I still had fun reading it. Plus, as of this review (January 2015), the book is hot off the press and is up to speed with most things happening online.
Fortunately, Bartlett (or his editor?) quite intelligently anticipated that complaint and included a list of recommended further reading for each chapter. So if you're going in with my anticipations, take down those titles to read at a later date (or even in conjunction!) and let The Dark Net be some mildly interesting and distracting public transit fare.
If, on the other hand, you know what pro-ana/pro-mia, rickrolling, and /b/ are, there's not much here that's terribly new. There are still great snippets from interviews here and there, but overall that crowd will find this more entertaining than informative or enlightening. I, for one, was expecting an in-depth look at things like Tor and cryptocurrencies and other things that happen on "the deep web" or that are at least heavily encrypted; as a digital native I'm well-acquainted with /b/'s shenanigans, thank you. So I was a bit let down in that respect, but I still had fun reading it. Plus, as of this review (January 2015), the book is hot off the press and is up to speed with most things happening online.
Fortunately, Bartlett (or his editor?) quite intelligently anticipated that complaint and included a list of recommended further reading for each chapter. So if you're going in with my anticipations, take down those titles to read at a later date (or even in conjunction!) and let The Dark Net be some mildly interesting and distracting public transit fare.
If you've been on the internet since the early 1990s, you've seen some things.
And yet, the internet itself has expanded out far beyond that since then, and the seedy underbelly gets some press but not a lot of the detail you'd expect. The Dark Net attempts to fix that by giving some short pieces and details from known things like the deep web and 4chan to lesser-known situations involving the GNAA and camgirls. The end result is a good read with some magazine-article-sized chunks of information throughout.
In a way, it only scratches the surface, both as a detailed read and of all the things that you might know of that the book doesn't cover. As I often feel with these more mainstream takes, I wish this had more detail, but that's a small complaint for what was a good read on a whole. Especially good for those who haven't been as ingrained in the culture.
And yet, the internet itself has expanded out far beyond that since then, and the seedy underbelly gets some press but not a lot of the detail you'd expect. The Dark Net attempts to fix that by giving some short pieces and details from known things like the deep web and 4chan to lesser-known situations involving the GNAA and camgirls. The end result is a good read with some magazine-article-sized chunks of information throughout.
In a way, it only scratches the surface, both as a detailed read and of all the things that you might know of that the book doesn't cover. As I often feel with these more mainstream takes, I wish this had more detail, but that's a small complaint for what was a good read on a whole. Especially good for those who haven't been as ingrained in the culture.
I wish it was more about the deep web, but maybe I'll just read a book about that now.
However, I can't fail to mention that this is the WORST audiobook I've ever listened to. The author is British and so was the narrator. However, he felt the need to do an accent for every person interviewed, as well as for every anonymous internet comment included in the text. And his accents are HORRIBLE. The anonymous people always ended up with weird New York accents. The most offensive was when he read a slew of comments on a thinspo picture on a pro-ana website and read them all in high "female" voices. Practice your accents on your own time, buddy. Also, whoever produced this needs to reevaluate everything.
But the book itself was really interesting.
However, I can't fail to mention that this is the WORST audiobook I've ever listened to. The author is British and so was the narrator. However, he felt the need to do an accent for every person interviewed, as well as for every anonymous internet comment included in the text. And his accents are HORRIBLE. The anonymous people always ended up with weird New York accents. The most offensive was when he read a slew of comments on a thinspo picture on a pro-ana website and read them all in high "female" voices. Practice your accents on your own time, buddy. Also, whoever produced this needs to reevaluate everything.
But the book itself was really interesting.
You always hear about the dark web on TV shows but I didn't what actually is the dark web and how do you access it. This talks about Tor hidden services (AKA THE DARK WEB YOU GUYS) but also places like chan sites, Nazi Facebook, and Chaturbate. I still don't understand how you actually make a website for the dark web but I guess that would be a different book.
I have to abandon this, because in creating (well-written) vignettes of the "Dark Net", there is minimal interest taken in the victims of the various groups he is profiling. The EDL and the antifa are basically made equivalent and Bartlett declares, "neither is as bad as the other thinks it is." OK...but one side is *actually the fash*, mate. You are playing down *the actual fash* here. Likewise, in being fascinated by chan culture, the victims are suddenly disappeared as the overwhelmingly white and male culture of the "Dark Net" as Bartlett describes it are romanticized. The chapter on pro-ana/pro-harm focuses on young women (as demographically, that makes sense), but the young woman composite is a victim of Wetherization, whereas the trolls and fascists and Galtian cypherpunks are given an aura of doing, of making, of cleverness. Obviously this also went to press before G*merg*te, but if we're going to talk about how clever trolls are, maybe we can talk about how clever their victims are. Let's talk blocklists on twitter, let's talk counterops. There is more to the "dark net" (a term also rather misused by Bartlett) than white men behaving controversially (actually more like being complete racist jerks in various ways while trying to avoid all the rest of us peasants), and the way Bartlett covers it, it's just...so incredibly biased.
informative
fast-paced
I dok se digitalno podzemlje u brojnim novinskim člancima prikazuje kao ultimativno zlo koje samo rijetki kriminalni umovi mogu shvatiti, autor je odlučio pobliže istražiti temu.
Njegova analiza samog nastanka kao i nekih od najbrojnih aspekta kriminalnog digitalnog milja je izuzetno zanimljiva.
Sama činjenica što on razgovara i sa stručnjacima za svako od pojedinačnog područja i korisnicima istog otvara cijeli jedan svijet koji se bazira na principu - uvijek ima netko tko želi i uvijek ima netko tko je voljan platiti. Autor u nijednom trenutku ne glorificira, međutim ne krije niti kako stvari stoje.
Njegova analiza samog nastanka kao i nekih od najbrojnih aspekta kriminalnog digitalnog milja je izuzetno zanimljiva.
Sama činjenica što on razgovara i sa stručnjacima za svako od pojedinačnog područja i korisnicima istog otvara cijeli jedan svijet koji se bazira na principu - uvijek ima netko tko želi i uvijek ima netko tko je voljan platiti. Autor u nijednom trenutku ne glorificira, međutim ne krije niti kako stvari stoje.
This audiobook came up as a suggested read on my Libby account, so I figured I would give it a try.
I am a 20-something year old who was part of the generation that had home computers growing up. It’s funny to think back about my parent’s “Computer room,” and thinking about present time where each of my family members now have their own person laptops.
The internet was like the wild west back then, and I would never let my future children go on without supervision, but there I was, a pre-teen, entering AOL chatrooms and pretending I was older. I was obsessed with MySpace and documented all my feelings on LiveJournal.
The internet has changed, and grown, just like I have. I was aware of all the topics that were brought up in this book (4chan, doxing, trolling, cam girls, pro-ana/mia sites etc.). Besides some history on the trolling and forum site pioneers, I didn’t learn much.
The book started off discussing one website in which you could predict someone’s date of death, and even pay to make sure your prediction came true. I thought it would be more about the horrors of the dark web rather than people trolling and infiltrating forums under fake accounts and discussing people who need better hobbies.
I am a 20-something year old who was part of the generation that had home computers growing up. It’s funny to think back about my parent’s “Computer room,” and thinking about present time where each of my family members now have their own person laptops.
The internet was like the wild west back then, and I would never let my future children go on without supervision, but there I was, a pre-teen, entering AOL chatrooms and pretending I was older. I was obsessed with MySpace and documented all my feelings on LiveJournal.
The internet has changed, and grown, just like I have. I was aware of all the topics that were brought up in this book (4chan, doxing, trolling, cam girls, pro-ana/mia sites etc.). Besides some history on the trolling and forum site pioneers, I didn’t learn much.
The book started off discussing one website in which you could predict someone’s date of death, and even pay to make sure your prediction came true. I thought it would be more about the horrors of the dark web rather than people trolling and infiltrating forums under fake accounts and discussing people who need better hobbies.
If you’re interested in a high-level read on all the weird, dark niches of the internet, this is a great read.