The UN is sponsoring the International Conference on Engaging Communities in Brisbane, Australia, from August 14-17. Speakers include Stephen Coleman and Robert Putnam.

On 24 tonight, in the face of a fictional denial-of-service attack, the fictional cyberwhiz of the fictional intelligence agency notes that they’re in good shape because “the Cisco network is self-defending.”

My past research on hacktivism took me far enough into the hacker world to appreciate the difference between hackers and script kiddies. In a nutshell, real hackers are computer experts who use their impressive skills for peace, love and kindness, while script kiddies are non-experts who learn just enough to use their unremarkable skills to do stupid (and often destructive) things that give real hackers a bad name.

But our good friends at ODTAA put us onto a lovely exchange that represents a little comeuppance for all those who roll their eyes at script kiddie shanigans.

Auf deutsch, check out: StopHipHop.de
Or for an English-language version please see this page from Google’s cache.