skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
That is a interesting paper. I'm gonna read it later. The dipole observations related to galactic spin was a fascinating discovery a while back. More evidence for an "axis" presents some interesting cosmological possibilities. Thanks for this evenings reading assignment :-)
The Truth About Aaron Swartz's "Crime"
They should add RedPower mod to the curriculum. It has logic gates, movable frames to computers.

http://www.eloraam.com/
Aaron was a unique, inspiring, and puzzling individual. I knew him only a little, but I always knew that whenever I heard his name it would be in the context of an ambitious and bold new adventure. It's truly tragic loss for the tech community, and I cannot imagine how difficult it must be for his family. Our thoughts and best wishes are with you.
Playing video games on hard
Great post, and I hope everyone on HN follows your suggestions for bringing this to the attention of the public. But ultimately, it's the law that comes out of the legislative process that not only enables, but prescribes these prosecutions.

Because of this, advocates for reform risk playing right, straight, smack into the hands of the system by resolving to do nothing more than stop one out-of-control public official. Soon enough, others will rise (in fact, they already have). And what will happen when the unlucky victims of malicious prosecutions don't have "the Internet" to back them up? To protect the public at large, the system itself must also be changed.

"Seeing her dismissed and disgraced is in fact the only thing that will send such a message to such Javerts, as they have disabled the voice of the people by routing around jury trials and they are appointed rather than subject to elections."

Could the real cause be that federal criminal statutes are too broad, and often shoved into bills at the last minute or for no good reason, and that mandatory minimum sentences for poorly-defined crimes litter every major piece of legislation to come out of Congress recently?

Before casting blame for malicious prosecutions entirely on prosecutors who are merely enforcing laws passed by Congress, let's look inward at ourselves, and wonder how we could be so stupid as to vote for people whose philosophy it is to write criminal statutes so broad that all justice is left to prosecutorial discretion. It could be argued that it is the American public who are ultimately responsible for malicious, pointless prosecutions.

But that's not the whole story. Currently, the public is totally cool with voting for people who write criminal statutes so broad that falling out of favor with the government can mean prosecutors can jail you for the rest of your life for no reason any empathetic person would agree with. It is also the public that is voting for people who appoint prosecutors incapable of using appropriate discretion.

"It is incumbent upon us to see that she does not get [to higher office], that this behavior is NOT rewarded."

And this is why your post is good and useful. Let's just remember that the legislative process, and therefore voters, are ultimately responsible for the lack of empathy and discretion in our judicial system.
Here is my current Algorithm for setting up a meeting (which I do a lot):

o What City are they in, (Say, Melbourne)
o Hit F4 (Dashboard on my MBAir)
o It's 7:40 in Melbourne. 5 Hour Behind. Set
meetings starting no early than 9:00 AM + 5 Hours.

I repeat that algorithm (as do our partners) 2-3 times a week, and have done so for the last 2+ years that I've been in emerging markets. It works really well. I know, for instance, that I have a bit of wiggle room with Utilities on the _early_ side (I.E. I can get them to start at 8:00 AM usually), but less so on the late side (most of them don't stay much after 5:00 PM).

If we Switch to UTC, what's the easy way of determining when their equivalent of 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM is?
Get the WH petition to remove the DA to the frontpage
I don't understand why the police even care if they are being recorded. They are well training and should know the boundaries in which they need to operate, so someone recording them shouldn't be a big deal. Heck, a lot of times they record themselves (dash cams).

Disclosure: I have two brothers that are police officers
I just roll my eyes at all three of you. Puppets, all!
Man, if we could get this kind of outrage built up against over zealous prosecution when the defendant isn't a white techie, we might actually get some criminal justice reform in the U.S.
No, I don't understand either
Farewell to Aaron Swartz
The web.py Philosophy
For anyone else wondering what a "frank" is in this context, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franked_mail
I agree. Very eloquently put.
Lack of accountability misaligns government officials' incentives. This is arguably a more important problem than copyright.
Also, Lawful Neutral characters in Dungeons and Dragons.[1]

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alignment_(Dungeons_%26_Dragon...
This always makes me feel better and helps shake off such thoughts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7BuQFUhsRM
Petition to make the required changes to the law, not to remove a human cog from the machine.
Cannelloni ripieni con ricotta e spinaci, primi piatti al forno
>Would you prefer the US charge more innocent people with crimes to bring down the conviction rate?

Don't be ridiculous. What I would prefer is that more of the innocent people who are currently charged not be convicted or coerced into a guilty plea by the prospect of outrageous penalties and soul-crushing legal fees.

>People indicted by Grand Juries should end up getting convicted the vast majority of time, otherwise Grand Juries (and the prosecutors that bring cases before them) aren't serving their function, and their findings of probable cause are erroneous.

It is pretty obviously the case that they fail spectacularly at this function.

"a grand jury would 'indict a ham sandwich,' if that's what you wanted." - New York State Chief Judge Sol Wachtler

And until that changes (if it even can), the conviction rate should not be anywhere near as high as it is.

>too many things are illegal (and felonious in particular), and the penalties are too severe.

On this we agree.
It seems pointless to talk about conviction rates in isolation. In a perfect world, prosecutors would bring charges exactly when they had enough evidence to prove that the suspect committed the crime, and they would be found guilty at trial due to that evidence. One could also imagine a horribly imperfect world where prosecutors routinely charge innocents and achieve convictions in every case regardless due to kangaroo courts. In both cases, the conviction rate is 100%, even though one world is great and one is awful.

Without knowing why the rate is what it is, it seems pointless to talk about it at all. A 99% rate could be great, and a 50% rate could be great, depending on why it happens.
http://ia601205.us.archive.org/25/items/UsaV.AaronSwartz-Cri...

"Promises, rewards, or inducements have been given to witness Erin Quinn Norton. Copies of the letter agreement with her and order of immunity with respect to her grand jury testimony are disclosed on Disk 3."
It depends on what the options contract says, so read it and you'll see. Sometimes there is a provision for partial acceleration of vesting in the event of an acquisition.
Yes, I think he probably didn't go that much in the past few months, relative to the previous decade.

Which would be profoundly depressing. If you were already somewhat unstable, it could lead to a bad outcome.

It's probably more rare that someone at the top of his game kills himself suddenly and for no particular reason. I imagine if you talked to Steve Jobs between Apple and NeXT, he was probably a bit down compared to before or after. The thing is, it seems likely someone like Aaron who spent a decade doing interesting and awesome stuff would be likely to do more stuff like that in the future, particularly after a federal case was resolved, or he either got help with depression or figured out how to deal with it (early 20s is statistically the worst time; even with no other treatment, as lot of people are better off later in life).

So yes, I feel comfortable saying he was likely to have done a lot more awesome stuff over the rest of his life.
Thanks for some clear, rational thinking in what is otherwise an irrational, emotional, and ignorant cluster fuck of a thread.
You need root access to his linode. Eventually something on his instance will break and take everything down with it.

Even if you keep the bills paid forever, the only long-term solution is to focusing on archiving static copies of everything you can.
RSS History
How did you get to know yourself?
It was 2nd and 3rd for two hours or so today: http://redditrewind.com/?id=50f16ca1f4733c000c249218&but...
JPMorgan Said to Weigh Releasing Whale Report Faulting Dimon
Also applicable: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/remove-united-stat...
How about both? The cog is broken, as is the greater machine. Let's fix both.

Is the ball already rolling on a petition to have these particular laws changed?
Some more context about the prosecutor:

She was named "Bostonian of the Year" for her successful cases against mob bosses and drug companies:
http://www.mainjustice.com/2012/01/03/massachusetts-u-s-atto...

Out of the 94 U.S. DA offices, her office alone collected ~67% of the total criminal and civil fines in 2012, mostly owing to the successful prosecution of drug companies. Her success led to speculation that she would run for higher office:
http://www.mainjustice.com/2013/01/07/mass-u-s-attorney-carm...

She is no stranger to being part of a disenfranchised group, as she was the first Hispanic and first woman to hold the position of U.S. attorney in Boston. Her first internship was with the DOJ's public integrity unit, created after Watergate:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011...

She's not of the "evil prosecutor" mold as is commonly thought and her background, particularly her history of fighting white-collar crime and corporations, doesn't strike me as someone who is intent on screwing the little guy over. That said, the seemingly-excessive charges could stem from a result of misconception and, let's face it, technological ignorance (hacking sounds bad, period). But in solving the overall problem in the justice system, let's not attribute to malice what can be attributed to other issues just yet.

--
One edit: a link to a piece by Aaron on yelling at the machine, rather than the person:
http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/nummi

My intent is not to say that the petition is wrong, but to argue that if people are going to call for action, call it for the right and productive reasons, rather than simplifying cause and effect to just one main person (even if the buck technically stops with her).
Was this page not noticed before? Surely if it had been, someone would've spoken to him about the possibility of him suicide? I feel like the Internet could've done a lot more for him.

R.I.P Aaron, you achieved a massive amount in the short time you were here. Remember that, wherever you are.
Compelled to testify in front of a grand jury. Ain't the American judiciary grand?
I didn't know Aaron and had simply heard his name in the news a few times (i.e. over the whole JSTOR fiasco), so I'm struggling to understand why I personally am responding so strongly to this. I guess there are a lot of little things that add up. For one, the tragedy of debilitating depression. It's always sad when someone loses all hope and decides to end their own life, whether you know them well or not.

Another dimension is the absurdity of the prosecution he was facing, which may have contributed to his despair. The government was making him out to be a thief trying to profit from what they represent as millions of dollars of stolen property. In reality, he was freeing information that rightly should have been free. I believe very strongly in that and I admire the guts it took him to make such a public and illegal statement about it. It's a shame that it cost him so much.

Finally, there's a sense of the things he might have accomplished. He was certainly prodigious and his accomplishments at such a young age really can't be overstated. When Steve Jobs died he had already had a chance to leave his mark on the world. Both could've done more if they had lived.

There's also the fact that he was a YC alum and Reddit cofounder so he has inherent ties to many in this community. So I guess for many it's a very personal loss, and for me it's a complicated but still deeply profound tragedy.

>But anyone with a brain could have developed a technical specification and a website that turns out to be good.. right?

Absolutely not. Many have the technical skills to attempt this, but few have the foresight and drive to succeed, especially at such a young age. What were you doing at 14? People like Aaron Swartz are rare and should be celebrated.
There was an interesting bill introduced into the House recently, the SHIELD, or "Saving High-tech Innovators from Egregious Legal Disputes" act, which offsets the cost of a patent law dispute to the loser.

The issue of legal costs is not only relevant with federal criminal lawsuits, but also with smaller companies and "patent trolls". Taking this into consideration, the SHIELD act seems like a mere Band-Aid.
Marketers are Today’s Journalists
Some heads rolling could set things into motion. No doubt this Carmen Ortiz will find a cushy job in the private sector from the ones lobbying her to do this, if she's fired.
Interesting Read: "Bostonian of the Year: Carmen Ortiz"

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011...
A petition like this will attract the right attention to the problem with the side effect of removing a bad apple from the basket.
Seriously, thanks for doing that. It's a wonderful feeling to search for the title of a paper and have the first result be a PDF link to an academic or personal site rather than a springerlink/JSTOR/citeseer result.
It seems like a pragmatic web page. Plenty of us try to reduce the 'hit by a (bus|truck|car)' factor but we don't do much more than pushing to github regularly.
Having lost my brother to suicide just a year ago, I can empathize deeply with your loss. My thoughts are with your family.
If we're lucky we can get this kind of outrage built up when it is, and then fix it for everyone.

These laws get passed when the innocent victim is a sympathetic white girl, why can't they get repealed when the innocent accused is a sympathetic white boy?
Interesting that he uses the term "objects in space" on this text. I wonder if it was inspired by the Firefly episode with the same name, which itself reflects the directors reading of Nausea[1].

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nausea_(novel)
Database of Academic Institutions and Funders with Open-Access Mandates
It all depends on what your investing your 401k in, but putting it in a stock index fund is a pretty good guard against inflation. Stocks will adjust accordingly to inflation, but putting the money in the bank certainly won't. Also, it is amusing to me that people freak out and stop investing when the market tanks. That's like only buying groceries when they aren't on sale! The best time to buy stocks is when they are down. If you invest consistently over boom and bust, you can insulate yourself pretty well against major swings. Of course, free advice from strangers on the Internet is worth what you pay.
The following probably won't see the light of day-- few of my posts here seem to, for whatever reason. And it's not a lengthy diatribe on reasons for living or reasons for suicide. Much smarter men than I have written on that subject, both recently and throughout recorded history. If it's in such words you find your personal solace, please disregard what I have to say. I never found any solace in it, though; I don't believe in Epiphany Theory.

Currently 24, I've dealt with depression and suicidal thoughts on and off for 4 or 5 years now. That heavy depression where you don't take care of yourself, don't shower, don't brush your teeth, you eat just enough to stay alive (I once subsisted on 2-liters of Mountain Dew and 99-cent bags of Utz cheese puffs for weeks-- dropped my deuces like a wood-chipper). You avoid going to sleep because after 31 episodes of Futurama, all you can think to do is watch a 32nd. You avoid waking up because you don't want to...be alive.

You shut yourself in, you stop going to class, you don't answer anyone's phone calls, you cut yourself off from the outside. You set yourself up to make it as easy as possible. How can your parents miss you if you haven't talked to them in weeks? If anything, you tell yourself, the fact that their calls have gone from hourly to daily to weekly is a sign that they've almost let go...can't let them in now, or it'll be too hard for them when you're gone. Emotionally hard, anyway. Really, they'll be better off with me out of the picture. Everyone will. I'm doing everyone a favor--Mom, Dad, my brother and sister, my friends who obviously just pity me, everyone.

That was me 3 years ago. Today I'm happy! :) I'm fine. I'm doing awesome. I don't attribute the turnaround to blog posts, I attribute it to taking my goddamn anxiety medication. Consistently. Every freaking day. If you forget, fine, but take it the next day, and the day after, and keep freaking taking it. It helps. Take your meds, everybody. Give it a shot for a couple months and see if things change. If you still feel down, go back to your psych and tell them, and they'll prescribe something else. Epiphanies always feel like the answer, and meds feel like the enemy, but do everyone who loves you a favor and give them a shot. Please.
"It's not a matter of restricting access to public knowledge; it's a matter of Aaron draining the village pool."

Copying documents does not destroy the original copies, so it does not drain anything.

"Information shares all of the downsides of the public commons: because it is freely available, no one wants to pay for the maintenance costs."

If JSTOR had made these documents freely available, there'd be plenty of people and organizations who'd gladly have paid for the maintenance costs. For example, archive.org.

"Note also that JSTOR provides assistance with locating articles relevant to the user's needs (i.e., library functions), and such services are frequently more valuable than its archival functions. ... A wiki will not suffice to maintain access to this information; Wikipedia and Wikileaks have shown that. You would end up with all of the articles but no practical way to find the particular article or articles you are looking for."

If anyone wanted to use those services, they could pay JSTOR for them regardless of whether these documents were also available elsewhere.
> When he was 20, he carried me through my divorce. We promised each other a year. I apologized so many times: that I was better than what he was getting, that he got me destroyed. Still, what a year. Later, I tried to take care of him while he was being destroyed, from inside and out. I struggled so hard, but not as hard as he did. I told him, time and again, that this was his 20s. It would be better in his 30s. Just wait. Please, just hold on.

I think all of us who've transitioned from 20 to 30 can agree with her. I still can't get over how much he could've impacted civics and technology as a wiser man.
President Obama has the power to issue a posthumous pardon of Mr. Swartz (even though he was never tried or convicted).

This kinda says it all. He can't be pardoned, having never been convicted. While there are many good and beneficial things that can be done, this one is impossible.
This article holds true for any year.
Thanks for posting this. The rest of this thread is ready to throw someone under the bus that they know nothing about.
It's worth a shot.
It's apparently closed permanently, but there is some prospect that something will replace it: http://tech.mit.edu/V131/N58/nightline.html

The biggest problem seems to have been that word got out about it outside the MIT community, so that they were getting many calls from non-MIT people. But, their policy was to try to help anyone they could: http://tech.mit.edu/V130/N43/nightline.html

Maybe it would have been better to change the policy than to scrap the whole service.

(BTW I was one of the first Nightline staffers back in 1978.)
brb, torrenting Django.

Where can I get my medal?
No laws are being rewritten posthumously for 'sympathetic white girl'.

There's really no need to inject 'prosecuted white guy' into the conversation.
Don't unnecessarily abstract someone's actions in order to reduce their culpability. This is not an impressionable child. "Society" is not to blame.
I just read that entire indictment. I do not find the quote about Norton that you just posted anywhere in the document. There is, in fact, no mention of Norton whatsoever. Do you have some other source for that quote? Because it very much appears that you just created a throwaway account to post this.
Maybe we should be replacing prosecutors who remain technologically ignorant years after these issues come up. If her job responsibilities include prosecuting computer crime, she needs to understand the applicability of computers to crime, otherwise she's not doing her job. Being old and an appointed official is no excuse anymore.

It's not as if she's a holdover from the Reagan years. She was an early appointment by President Obama.
Not true: Ford pardoned Nixon even though Nixon was never impeached, tried, or charged criminally for anything.
That struck me as just poetic language -- completely justifiable mourning for a possible future that suddenly, jarringly, became impossible. It's a genuine tragedy when everything that could possibly happen to someone in the rest of their life is simply deleted.
OK, she's a hero. Does it entitle her (or the people under her) to fuck up people's lives?
They are also known to seize assets so even if someone has money saved for defense, those can easily disappear.
The least he could do is remove Carmen Ortiz, his prosecutor, from office:

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/remove-united-stat...
> What I would prefer is that more of the innocent people who are currently charged not be convicted or coerced into a guilty plea by the prospect of outrageous penalties and soul-crushing legal fees.

Swartz was guilty. Even Lessig's post decrying Swartz' treatment intimates as much. Again, perhaps the things he did shouldn't have been crimes, or at least not felonies, and the penalties shouldn't have been so severe, but you need to distinguish between innocent people being wrongly prosecuted for things they did not do and bad law making criminals out of good people.

> "a grand jury would 'indict a ham sandwich,' if that's what you wanted." - New York State Chief Judge Sol Wachtler

Judges, prosecutors and legal academics in general exhibit hostility towards juries, grand and petit alike. There are rare exceptions, such as Antonin Scalia. But in general, the legal profession resents the continued involvement of the common man in the judicial process, especially in as crucial a role as pre- and post-trial arbiter of fact.

Whatever perceived defects exist in the grand jury process, such as its secrecy or the absence of the accused, these can be remedied while still keeping intact the basic structure of 23 average citizens making, by majority, a determination of probable cause.

In fact, rather than being part of the problem, if juries were so emboldened, they could mitigate many of the injustices of our system themselves through the use of jury nullification.
If you're asking from the perspective of evaluating an options package being offered to you or if you're planning to offer options to employees, I'd say it's pretty usual to expect all options to vest in the event of an exit/acquisition.
MLK Jr. did his jail/prison time and he didn't pussyfoot around his civil disobedience.

All the love for aaronsw, but he wasn't ever sentenced and if what he was alleged to do was a civil disobedience act, it was hidden behind his lawyers.