skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
He may not be in most cases; but usually if you're going to sell proprietary or closed-source software, you should at least give back to the community somehow with an open source project.

Of course, it's not always right. And that's fine; the issue is yours, not mine.

What he IS right about is that licensed software limits the user's freedom. That's unequivocal, you can't deny it.
I attended a conference in Montreal where Palantir demoed their software. They used a large amount of data on an ecoli outbreak to map out and track the point of origin. Simply because a company isn't public about all its activities and deals with "large amounts of disparate data" is not grounds to call for their cruxifixion. This story had brought out the absolute worst in HN commenters.
Why You Should Do A Tiny Product First
There is considerable debate about this:

http://www.rcfp.org/browse-media-law-resources/news-media-la...
It's probably hard to get a lot of government counterterrorism and military contracting work if you are dedicated to openness in the spirit of Google.
Trust is a two-way street. A government unwilling to trust its people is unworthy of being trusted by its people.
That's exactly the problem. He MADE it legal.

So

step 1: Pretend outrage at your opponent's illegal behavior.

step 2: Promise to end it to help get elected.

step 3: Fulfill promise by playing games with the words of your promise and instead of ending the behavior, end that it's illegal, keep doing bad behavior

They had to search for a judge to approve it. Says a lot.
I wonder whether the time has come to build some better tools for protecting privacy. Looking at the common implementations of encryption the publicly available free stuff has some fairly awful interfaces. It's especially a mess if you're looking at securely communicating with a website - I can't think of a single browser that supports anything like a decent standard of encryption for that.
We're basically trying to compete with the prepaid wireless phones from physical locations. We think we're better because:

- You can order the product online without making a physical appearance anywhere.

- Many of the prepaid cell phones in physical stores come with the SIM chips activated -- so the phone's location has already been broadcasted to cell towers and is pre-registered, making it slightly less anonymous for the end user.

- We're going to be accepting bitcoin in the near future (we're finishing that integration now), so we hope to compete with cash purchases in that regard.

- You can recycle these phones like you would normal phones.

- We piggyback off a ton of different US carriers -- so as you move around you'll be swapping between various carriers in your region.
You should. It's really good.
I find my Raspberry Pi and install this OS, feel cool. But I think I will keep my ownCloud staffs, because I have two PCs and one Mac running three different systems... If arkOS could support Mac and Win, I will have a try again. BTW, the ownCloud really always delete my files when sync, which make me always want to go back to Dropbox...
Dictionary of Obscure Startup Terms
It's not that he's factually incorrect, it's that his conclusions are insane and that's what makes him dangerous. Like Glenn Beck, he starts in the realm of reasonable and ends up painting a picture that's surreal.

His solution to these problems is to disconnect, to remove himself from the equation to the best of his ability. No cellular phone. No internet connection. No credit cards. Cash only. Don't use web services. Turn off cookies and JavaScript and Java. His answer to any problem seems to be to boycott it, as if that'll change things. Who but Stallman can operate like this? Not even secret agents are as paranoid, they're trained to hide in plain sight.

What someone in his position should be doing is talking about how to avoid this dystopian future by promoting standards, accountability, and more transparency. They should be engaging with law enforcement to understand their need for information and protect a person's right to privacy. There's a legal framework out there that needs updating by people that understand technology, but if they're all stubbornly opposed to co-operating, more stupidly out of touch laws will be passed.

This is why the EFF and organizations like it are extremely important. They're not advocating shutting down the internet just because it's being wiretapped. They're not hiding in a cave while invasive laws are being passed.
> Actually, it's not.

Yes it is.

>The US election process operates under the Electoral College[1]

No, the US presidential election process works that way; that's one election for one office, there are many more offices you vote for than just president and all that voting matters and is absolutely worth more than a no vote.
Tar archives include filesystem metadata (e.g. permissions), which don't make sense if you're viewing it as a collection of cacheable resources, and omit http metadata (e.g. content types, e-tags) which it would be at least helpful to include.
Something devised 50 years ago might have looked for the word "bomb." These days, it would be self-training systems that even the operators would have little idea of what it was recognizing.
Jvmtop - Java monitoring for the command-line
And every elected federal official in the United States takes an oath to defend the Constitution.
something that isn't marketing recruitment speak would be more illuminating.
Vesper, Balls and Marco Arment
While learning Angular, it pays to really understand how the $scope works, when $watch'es are fired, and when you need to explicitly call an $apply, etc. What are some examples where things just don't work? While I was learning angular, a lot of times I had assumed things were available in scope when they were not. Some built-in directives like ng-repeat will create local copies of scope so I would try to change a variable directly expecting the parent to pick it up but it won't. Now my issues are simply misuse of the APIs. Eventually you will "get" the way angular works and instinctively know how to write with it.
Perhaps, but the government did not care how many children were born or old men died in some remote village.
Is there anyone who didn't immediately see a knee-jerk crackdown against civil liberties coming after the WTC attack?
I'm just going to quietly leave this quote here.

"Unfortunately, you’ve grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that’s at the root of all our problems. They’ll warn that tyranny is always lurking just around the corner. You should reject these voices."

(The Ohio State University commencement address)
How to accurately identify impact of system issues on end-user response time
But what good does it do?

"Oh look, the bad guys are spying on our people, what can we do?"

"Stop them!"

"We can't!"

"Ok, let's spy on them too then!"

If this seems like a logical conversation then change "spy on" to "rape" and see if it still makes sense.
Not having a cell phone would probably be your best bet if your looking to hide something. If not, campaigning for a senator/congressman who will work on changing the current flawed NSA.
It is less bad. The US government doesn't have any obligation to protect the rights of citizens of some other country not living in the US. If your government disagrees, tell them to sign a treaty.
Anomaly Hunting: http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/anomaly-hunting...;

Not to be confused with investigating.
I was involved in marking a standardized test for high school students and one question involved inventing a story on an (unspecified) election. What shocked me the most, aside from the poor writing ability, the unintentionally unbelievable facts of the stories, and the surprising amount of confusion and internal contradiction within the students' responses, was that although remarkably few students demonstrated much awareness of politics or the political process, despite having taken a mandatory course on this subject, nearly all of the students regarded voting as a mystical or near-spiritual experience of civic involvement, social communion, and individual empowerment.

Some students were probably 'sucking up'. But nearly every student?
>The trustworthiness of data is a function of its provenance, not its accompanying analysis or commentary.

From an idealistic standpoint, sure. From a real world standpoint, trustworthiness colors peoples' perception of the data itself. Including commentary with the release has lead to Wikileaks being viewed as untrustworthy in many people's eyes, resulting in them dismissing the analysis of data sourced from them outright.

Again, in an ideal world, the data would rule all, but that's simply not the way it actually plays out. It's not hard to find examples of exactly this playing out with Wikileaks, and it lessens the overall value of the data they do release in swaying public perception.

>(I prefer something more like what Nate Silver does).

Nate Silver does meta-analysis. He doesn't perform any data gathering himself. He represents the third-party editorial voice I'm advocating. In fact, Silver's model even further illustrates what I'm getting at because it accounts for and weights the reliability of the sources of the raw data.
I hear you on the being monitored thing.

I am not a US citizen, but I lived there for 7 years. Being an immigrant was no fun. Every time I traveled it was 10 toes, 10 fingers being scanned, picture taken - as a matter of course. I don't even have an Arabic sounding name or fit any of the "terrorist" stereotypes that they probably look for - don't get me wrong, I am not saying they should, just saying that it's not as if that is the case. My name is Marc, and I am from Jamaica.

Not many red flags there - as far as I could see.

My Driver's license had a big red 'temporary' going across the bottom, and I had to renew it every year.

Needless to say, it was quite horrible.

It wasn't always like that for my entire stay, just in the last 3 - 4 years.

So I feel your pain.

As a matter of fact, it's the 1 major reason I wouldn't move to the Valley. As much as I love HN, YC, the tech scene - it's not worth it.

And now they are encroaching on the freedom of citizens. I feel your pain.
"The Only Thing Necessary for the Triumph of Evil is that Good Men Do Nothing"
Underwater Photography Contest
The entreprenuer in my heart really appreciates, and gives full kudos for, helping creating a product for the market. But, the ecological side of me just freaked out enough respond. Technological waste is a real issue.

Please consider a prominent and easy way to recycle these phones, whether re-use, recycle or repurpose. For instance, pre-paid, pre-printed, anonymous mailing to a recycle center.

Sincerely.
> Computer vision is superior to human in many aspects

But not in any way relevant to the September 11 hijackings as the hijackers were travelling under their real identities including real photo ID cards.
There is something very weird about the employees in Palo Alto: I never see them at local meetups, events, parties, and such. They are truly strangers who keep to themselves and don't engage with the local community... and very young.

Very similar behavior to Washington DC defense contractors.
To be fair, design is an evolutionary process. Anything and everything ever designed was at least partially influenced by the designs that came before it almost to the point of copying, which is a good thing to me.

The definition of modern that they use does not mean "The newest design that has never been produced before". Their definition falls more under the lines of zeitgeist, where it is the design that represents the common theme of the current time we live in. This is of course completely subjective, but if you look at all the flat design that is out there it can be argued to be true.
> Look, I know Star Trek is science fiction, but hasn’t Trek always at least nominally tried to get science right?

Hmm, maybe a little bit. At least not as bad as into darkness.
GregTraver
Fedora 19 Installer Comes For Google Nexus 4
Github.

I use Github, and I love it, but they're closed-source, in spite of so many free software projects being hosted on the site itself. It's ironic. Now, of course, Github doesn't have vendor lock-in because it runs on Git, and you can switch to Gitorious should you need to, but nobody will be there, and there's no features. In essence, you either use Github and it's awesome yet closed-source interface, or you just do local revision control or use a hosting site nobody uses.

It's a vicious cycle. What if Github changes something? We can't change it back. What if they implement a backdoor to leak code out to third-parties? We can't change it back. We can't move anywhere else either, because everyone uses Github.

You can apply this scenario to perhaps more critical applications as well. Office is one more example.
The president can, and does do things without congress. Dig into FISA for an example.
Excellent project! We need to pull together and fund this so jcook818 can work on it full time. jcook818, how can we contribute? Have you thought about setting this up on Kickstarter or the like?
Echelon was indeed confirmed, afaik, although in less apocalyptic terms than initially described, hence deflating the related news-cycle. In a way, 20 years later, all the fuss looks very naïf compared to what GCHQ and friends do nowadays.
> "Representative democracy" isn't democracy.

That's just silly, it most certainly is. The word democracy does not mean only direct democracy.
> You imply that HUGE SWATHS of what the Federal Government are unconstitutional

I'm not sure on what basis you infer that thing about HUGE SWATHS from what I said.

> and that's complete bunk.

While, contrary to your claim, I didn't say (or imply) that it was true, I also don't see the evidence that it is "complete bunk". Please present it.
I really don't understand your analogy. The whole point of releasing to the few reputable parties in the current case is so that they go on to release it to everyone else including the internet.

randall's comment makes more sense regarding the Guardian and the Post would be more responsible to only publish information that wouldn't risk lives although I don't think it's right to push the responsibility on to them.
Exactly why I voted for him and now feel disappointed. I had the terribly stupid hope that he would bring about real change in his second term given he wouldn't have as much backlash to worry in regards to being reelected.
>not as powerful as LXC though
I think many would completely disagree with this.
We'll definitely be adding something like this in the near future -- we actually rushed to finish up our website yesterday due to all the press discussion about the NSA stuff -- we were planning to launch in a week with a much nicer website / support stuff in place.

Thank you for the comment, we completely agree.
Skype was p-t-p until MS bought it and made it more centralized. Wonder why they would do something like, i.e. make it more expensive to maintain and provide less service.
Quote from Clapper from the article:

“The unauthorized disclosure of information about this important and entirely legal program is reprehensible and risks important protections for the security of Americans,” Mr. Clapper said.

If the program is "entirely legal", why all the effort to hide it?
Assange is an exemplary case of how secret services operate. Containment plan is generally to discredit an inconvenient person via a character attack, which directs attention to a single person (and boy do the crowd loves gossip and celebrities), overshadowing whatever sensitive information there is to disclose. Make this person an unreliable source before they have anything to say.

He's been labeled a rapist, a crackpot, or even an agent of the evil, with little regard to atrocities exposed by the Wikileaks.

Yet like our beloved RMS, if you read the early texts, it is clear that they had seen it coming way before us - sane, normal people.
The "legal" part is what's probably the most important question. Is it really legal? Or is it legal, so long as it has not been disclosed and made illegal by general public outcry?

Sounds too much like "not caught, not a criminal" philosophy.
Their moral compass is slightly off, methinks.
This is a very small comfort when the government gets to have "classified" interpretations of the law.
With the benefit of hindsight and a single source this certainly might seem like future prediction or visionary thinking. However, with the events of the time, this idea was pretty obvious and similar opinions were shared by many. If there was vision, it was that he put his thoughts online for all to see.
Why choose google plus as a way to sustain this kind of community ?
Sorry that you have not gotten any replies.

I make 60k if that helps. I am a junior developer at an agency specializing in rails web apps.
IMHO, the story is 90% politics.

To Americans, it is a politics-as-usual discussion. To the rest of the world, however, there has to be a strong question as to how rational it is to federate much of the world's data to American corporations that fall under the realm of American intelligence and legal purview. This is going to have much broader influence on the data practices of multinational organizations.
As usual, Stallman was not only ahead of his time, but also swimming against the tide of conventional wisdom, immediately after the attacks of 9/11. While nearly everyone else was focused on more mundane concerns of immediate importance, he was worried and tried to warn us about long-term, higher-order, societal consequences. (He's always doing that -- worrying about long-term, higher-order consequences -- so his warnings and antics strike more practical people as being 'out of touch with reality.')

Like him or not, Richard Stallman is already a major historical figure, because his impact on society (via the gnu, FSF, various manifestos, and activism) will be felt for a very long time. Much of what he has said/written in the past has gained stature with the passing of time.

--

Edit: added last sentence.
> They are decided by single votes.

Yes, but they are not decided by a single vote, and a single vote is all you get.
And, of course, the Chief could simply be lying. I'm sure all the effected companies are under gag orders so no one can call him on it.
I'm not sure you have anything to explain to someone who responds with "Why are you surprised?". They understand the implications; nothing to explain there. Where they probably differ, is that they are likely resigned to the belief that it is not within their power to stop it (which I tend to agree with) and the only way to live with it is to act accordingly.

These people accordingly limit their trace-ability through channels they suspect of being monitored (e.g. phone, financial transations, Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc. - not everyone signs up for these) and when they do use such channels, they do not divulge private information through them. I realize for some people I'm conjuring up an image of a person wearing a tinfoil hat, but these people (and I can't even say I'm one of them - I fall somewhere in between them and "average joe") weren't so "paranoid" after all.
Google Glass Prohibited at Google Shareholder Meeting
Well, the numerical advantage is not always as dramatic as you presuppose: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi). Also, your assumption that the entire remainder of the populace is "on side" is possibly a little optimistic. All the state has to do is ensure sufficient apathy to whittle those odds down to something that (with it's organizational, technological and financial advantage) is comfortably one-sided (to the advantage of the state).
I've had 3 kids and juggling work, family and hobbies is a challenge. I tend not to think about work out of hours (unless overtime / something crashes during the night)

I work on my hobbies 2/3 nights a week (about 6-9 hours a week) and then the rest is family and kids. Trying to leave the weekends for them.

With my commute I see the kids for about an hour and a half on weekdays (45 mins in morning and the same in the evening before they to to bed) so the weekends are when we make it up. Out all day, the park/beach anywhere outside.
Imagine a government which has popular support, but only because their PR is so good. Is this a success for democracy?
Repeal the Patriot Act petition.
> Which we have all now learned over the last few days is actually what has been happening, for far longer than anyone realized.

Ever since Carnivore (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnivore_(software)) was uncovered, it's been obvious that a lot is going on behind the scenes. When the massive wire-tapping operation at AT&T (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A) was brought to light, the scale and pervasiveness of this became clear.

This was years ago.

It's been safe to assume that all telephone conversations, text messages, instant messages, VOIP calls, email traffic, and all unencrypted web traffic is or could be subject to inspection, capture, and archiving. If it's not encrypted, it can be captured. If it is encrypted, it might be possible to decrypt it, you'll probably never know.

Facebook has long been suspected of being partially owned and/or controlled by the CIA (http://www.globalresearch.ca/facebook-the-cia-conspiracy/126...), and who could blame the CIA for taking an interest in such a valuable dataset. It's not clear if this is true, but if you're truly surprised that it's the case, you're far more of an optimist than I am.

The only thing surprising about this is that it leaked out, not that it was happening in the first place.
Given this is being driven by Keith Vaz a well known and documented politician of debatable integrity (corruption, bribes, lies etc) then I wonder why this is being driven.

This is after all knee-jerk news or FOTM too some. No new evidence has been presented, no insight and yet more Britons personal details are violated by the hollywood law changes that the goverment has instigated.

It is not new that the UK and USA are buddies, we share data, we don't like criminals and like to catch them, nothing changed there.

Heck given BBC has a department called BBC monitoring that is located in a secure building and who's job is to monitor all the news Worldwide and on the floor above is a office run by a USA agency, then if anything one could question anything the BBC says.

Like most, I'm more shocked at the rabble rabble, OMG I had no idea this was happening mentality of many than I am about this old cold-war legacy exchange of information comming to light, albiet no new evididence has actualy come to light and it is just Mr Vaz jumping on another bandwaggon for personal gains.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Vaz Would you trust him
Burner Phone
>This is totally backwards and you have to do some mental gymnastics to believe it.

I think he was pretty much dead on on this one. Swap Republican/Democrat politics for another any other choice and the "you have no right to complain" point makes less sense. Take a fictional encounter with a Doctor...

Dr: You're going to get testicular cancer. Would you prefer it in the left testicle or the right?

Me: I don't want cancer in either testicle.

Dr: You don't understand, if you don't pick a nut then you don't have the right to complain about having testicular cancer.
They always were, it's just easier now.
Is "USG" a standard acronym?
You should add a way to "recycle" the used phones. Maybe a trade in program?

1. Making it even more secure and harder to track.
One phone can be used by many people.

2. Keep cost down for the physical device.