I’ve had this book for a while but haven’t had a chance to review it for this site.

Access Denied is a review of different methods of filtering Internet content across 40 countries including North Korea, Myanmar, and quite a few others.

It’s broken up alphabetically by country. Each country’s section is devoted to explaining how that country’s government blocks, doesn’t block, or otherwise restricts access to the Internet at large.

Most people are only familiar with China’s “Great Firewall” but other countries institute similar methods of controlling their populace.

For example, the section on North Korea states that, as a whole, North Korea is a “virtual black hole in cyberspace” but that an intranet exists in the capital of Pyongyang of just over 30 websites.

The section goes on to state “key indicators” of life expectancy, literacy rate, and several other factors. North Korea has a life expectancy of 64 years, and a literacy rate of 99%. Each country summary ends with several pages of bibliographic information for further reading.

Other sections are just as informative and state the type of content each country prohibits and why, which countries have state run ISPs, and other fun facts about where the country is. You can use the data to find out how one country fares against its neighbors.

Access Denied (the book)

Stylemac is all about open source graphic design programs. And, of course, the main one of them all is Blender. From Big Buck Bunny to Project Orange and everything in between, Blender is a very versatile imaging program.

Of course, this doesn’t mean it’s easy to use, the old adage of “easy to play, difficult to master” comes to mind.

I’ve been using Blender for a couple years now and thought I knew a bit of everything Blender had to offer, but I was wrong. I picked up this book by Allan Brito figuring it’d be a refresher in things I already knew, but I was wrong.

Not only does it show a few things I already knew, but a bit more on things I didn’t know. Even my mother, who has used Blender far longer than I have, was able to learn a great deal from this book.

The primary focus of the book is on creating building interiors and lighting effects, but the lessons learned can be put to different uses within Blender.

In all, I’d say this is a great book for new Blender users and veterans alike.

Link to Packt page for the book.

The Copyright Royalty Board is deliberating right now as to whether the royalties paid to music publishers and writers would be increased to 15 cent.

Currently, Apple pays 9 cent per song to the publishers.

Apple states that an increase in price for royalties will end iTunes’ profitability.

Apple threatens to close iTunes