skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
It sounds like you support quite a few causes, but I think the EFF and cyclists need your money more than the NRA does.
Yahoo's is almost exactly the same as what Google posted.
I still wouldn't want to eat it three times a week. It is quite strange that it's considered a delicacy, if you look at live lobsters up close they are kind of disgusting and really just look like giant insects that happen to live in the water. They do look much more presentable after being boiled/steamed (color change) and presented on a plate with garnish, though.
"The general public agrees with Obama for the most part."

Evidence?
I am an introvert, which is one reason I'm acutely conscious of when people would rather be left alone.
They simply don't get it: I DO NOT BELIEVE THE US GOVERNMENT HAS ANY RIGHT TO VIEW MY DATA THAT I ENTRIST TO PRIVATE COMPANIES. In the event they somehow have stumbled upon the right, I should be notified that my data has been examined.
This is a great initiative. However, I'm missing the one emerging country in all of South East Asia, any plans for Laos?
I tend to agree with you. I am mobile developer and have been since the days of WAP. I used to get excited about the latest mobile tech and software, and always carried the latest device.

Over the last few years my attitudes have changes considerably to the point where I no longer carry a personal smart phone around with me.

I started to notice that many, if not most conversations, I was having with real people were being interrupted by texts, emails, and other notifications, sometimes for only a second or two, but often to the point where the spoken topic of conversation was forgotten by the person i was talking with.

This included colleagues but also family members and friends.

I once tried to explain this to my own father during a lunch, but he took a ph call while I talking to him.

I have a zero tolerance policy toward this now. I don't get rude about it, but if someone will break a real life conversation with me to look a a notification, I usually excuse myself from the conversation.
Good grief, no. If you want to help someone in emotional distress, offer them a tissue or simply ask 'can I help?' Don't make a speech in praise of your non-judgmental character.
It just comes down to values, in my opinion. For me, if I have to question whether or not to approach a distressed person - then it makes life not worth living. To me, what is the point in life at all if we are to not reach out and help one another? Am I right about this stance? No. Just a question of my values.
The air strike was an 'oops'.

The order to give the air strike was a war crime.

Another very obvious example was the My Lai massacre itself. It's really hard to find a valid military purpose for either carrying out the order to bayonet a child, or giving the order to kill a child.

But the fog of war is not as hazy on the ground. During WWII (which was admittedly a total war) you could drop all the bombs you wanted at a tank factory and still manage to hit the school a kilometer away. That wouldn't have made dropping the bombs a war crime by any stretch of the imagination though; the raid itself had a valid military purpose.
Yes, I misremembered, it's been a couple of years since I met him. Here's his blog, though you've probably found it already: http://computationallegalstudies.com/
It's not explicitly mentioned in the Torah why shellfish are not kosher. Seems to be tradition rather than anything rational. Camels and pigs are no more toxic to eat than cows.
Bad opsec to tip your hand about ongoing operations.
Do me a favor and actually look up what happened in the aftermath of the My Lai massacre.

Hint: Fuck all.
Why should the soldiers on the ground consider it moral that 5 of them die so that 1 less civilian dies?

Certainly that's an easy choice for you to make; you're not the one bearing the brunt of that decision.
Opinion polls on government's performance, priorities etc., suggest that people are primarily concerned with economic issues. If you're expecting protest marches on DC over this I think you're in for a disappointment.
You're assuming that the NSA requires physical access to unencrypted data.

The NSA has been in the IT security game for a very long time, they employ the best of the best, and have practically unlimited funds. I'd imagine that very complicated algorithms determine who to monitor and what keywords to look for. Images from the middle east or a VPN are likely more heavily analyzed than images from a college campus inside the US.

Why set up shop at specific social media companies when they have physical access to backbone routers and root certificate private keys?

Yes, it would be easier to just ask FB/Google/Apple to give them unlimited read access to their databases, but that would be a scandal waiting to happen.
That's great, but it's not the law. If you would like it to be the law, work on repealing the Patriot Act and rolling back the worst abuses of the post-9/11 surveillance state. Or donate to the EFF and ACLU, who have been raising alarm about these laws for over a decade.

But don't blame the companies involved. They're following the law, as laid down by duly-elected representatives. The alternative is that their executives go to jail for contempt of court.
Fish is too rich? I thought that the consensus was that it is appealing because it is a lighter and healthier alternative to meats such as beef, chicken and pork.
Well, we all have to make choices, and that's the great thing about living in a free and open society: We get to actually make those choices. I can understand why you might feel the way you do, but I consider defense of the 2A and gun rights to be one of the most critical issues of all, so a slightly greater portion of my disposable "support causes" dosh goes to gun rights groups. But that's OK... I'm just one man, and no one man by himself can do it all. I just do my part as best as I can. There are other people (perhaps yourself) who will do it differently and maybe send the EFF the bigger check.
The simple answer is that the US national security apparatus doesn't follow the law. They will harass you at borders, put you on 'terrorist' lists, and otherwise attempt to intimidate and sabotage you if you are perceived as a nuisance to them. It doesn't matter whether what you do is actually illegal.
Nationalism is one of these archaic concepts that should have no place in modern society. Interestingly, I found the USA to be the most nationalist 1st-world country there is. By far.

And in the case at hand, it doesn't help that the US government seems to consider it fair game to have all data of foreign users of US web services handed out to them, in secret and without the users having a say in this.
I think it is because they believe, with much justification, that Americans use their freedom to enrich themselves at the expense of others, and to try to make others more like themselves. Often by war, killing, coercion and manipulation.

The trouble is, Americans believe they have the best system, society, country in the world, and that it is up to them to make every one have that same sort of system, regardless of whether or not they asked for it.

If you see America as a religion, its constitution as a holy book, its foreign policy as a crusade, its politicians as religious leaders, its people as believers, then you begin to understand the problem.

The problem is, America has a fundamentally different history than most other countries, and is that way it is because of its history. Essentially diverse people came from abroad for many different reasons to create it. The rest of the planet is not like that. Nothing wrong in that at all for America, it makes total reasonable sense, and works fairly well inits context. But for most other countries it does not. All America needs to do is accept that its unique and that other systems have equal validity to their own people. It is not up to America to judge other and seek to tell them they are wrong. If other countries and culture are wrong for their people, its is up to them to change it, not have it forced on them. If such people want American "democracy", which lets face it, Americans seem to have plenty of issues with, then such people will fight for it, loose blood for it, and really value it. Just like Americans did for themselves. No one forced democracy on Americans.
> Seriously, how can justify these kind of mistakes when you have military satellites, surveillance drones, intelligence and all the stuff that goes with it. I don't buy in it being just "collateral damage".

Satellites and even drones don't have that kind of resolution.

And what kind of intelligence do you think they have? Even the NSA, even with PRISM, requires a warrant on specific foreign persons to be signed by judge to milk data on them, unless they're dumb enough to communicate over a net NSA is able to monitor. (They're not that dumb).

Do you think it's like FourSquare where KSM says he's checking into a wedding? It's not, and it's also not like they can send the white/black/Hispanic guy in on the ground to check it out.
I'm 27. One of the few memories from my childhood that I cling most dearly to was when in 1994 I flew to the US from Austraila. The pilots invited my family and I up to the cockpit during the flight so I could see the controls of a 747.

This wasn't some uncommon special event either. It was part and parcel of doing an international flight as a kid.
A smart phone is a digital camera.

You show me a smart phone with a telephoto lens, and I'll show you a smart phone that is a camera.

they are outdated, inaccurate and a relic of the past

Paper maps don't run out of batteries at the least opportune moment. At the very least, they are a good backup for your tech in the backcountry.

ou can argue all you want about how hipster it is to use a dumb phone

You make this much too complicated. A smartphone costs more money, and offers me no added value that I care about. Is that Luddite-ism? Or is the Luddite-ism the part where I don't feel compelled to tweet or "check in" every where I go?
They were in Sudan previously, as I recall.

By the way, Clinton did attack Sudanese AQ training camps (watch "Wag the Dog"); still waiting for the Sudanese terrorists...
Beyond recognition: the incredible story of a face transplant
There's definitely some questions here, though.

"government employees cleared for PRISM access may “task” the system and receive results from an Internet company without further interaction with the company’s staff."

What does that mean? Does the company have any oversight over what's being requested? It doesn't sound like it. How does that square with the statements from the CEOs that each request is carefully considered and restricted?

“The server is controlled by the FBI,” an official with one of the companies said. “We do not offer a download feature from our server.”

This is a very fine distinction that doesn't matter much. Word games are being played here.
I am the parent poster.
How can you trust the US government less than private companies?

Data mining exists at every company because of its value.

I'm much more concerned that private companies (Lexis Nexis I'm looking at you) have access to so much of my data and have no obligation to inform me of what data they have.

The US government exists to protect the United States and its citizens. If we put left vs right politics aside, why is there inherit distrust of the government? What would make you trust them? More transparency?

If anybody is to blame it is congress. As elected representatives, they should have ultimate responsibility as to what happens in this country. They should also be held liable for ALL of their actions, but good luck getting them to approve that. How can congress enact laws that only affect themselves or give them more power? That is corruption and should be considered treason.
Even I deleted it? :/
Welcome to 2013 I guess.
This whole article is about a single slide? That seems a bit heavy-handed. OK, so the slide in question says:

Mobile Users Reach to phone ~150x a Day...
Could be Hands-Free with Wearables

The article misses the key point of that headline: Many of the tasks that people most frequently use their smartphones for could be done with a hands-free, wearable device. Meeker is pointing out industry opportunities. The actual number is almost irrelevant.
What exactly did I argue for with my statement of solidarity and mutual responsibility (to which YOUR personal outlook and abilities are completely irrelevant), other than for the priority of caring about the work of Wikileaks, and not so much about the private life (and private crimes) of Assange?

And how does wether something is "surprising" enter into any of this? Oh, and big data, too, huh? What is this, bullshit bingo?
Yes, the perpetrators got off with essentially no punishment whatsoever, the U.S. tried to cover it up, one of the very few heroes was actually punished even further for allowing the story to come out.

All deplorable, and a very deep stain to have associated with the U.S. for all time.

But what does that have to do with the definition of a war crime?
Because block encryption doesn't help you if your machine is compromised by software, but project-specific vaults might.
Derek, congratulations on launching!

(As cofounder of Leanpub, this makes me especially happy, of course :)
Would you prefer humanism? Nationalism is one of the stronger motivators we have for doing "things". It would require too radical of a cultural/mindset change to unify humanity, UNLESS there was an alien invasion like in the Independence Day movie.

Humans want something to fight for, we want goals and "teams", and history/evolution/cultural tradition have equipped our brains to handle that kind of environment.

I think part of the reason that the US is so keen on nationalism is our military strength. We have the mindset that the US can do whatever it wants anywhere in the world and nobody can really do anything to stop us.
Some guy on Tumblr picked apart Yahoo's carefully worded denial, actually [1] turns out it's totally bunk

[1] http://peterhassett.tumblr.com/post/52499296411/exclamation-...
One question: Where is Anonymous in all this? I was expecting all kinds of DDOSing going down in the last 48 hours, but they have been unusually quiet.
Yes it's real. It's amazing to me how quickly this room, ECHELON, Carnivore and all the rest have been forgotten. There seemed to be a small but vocal technical uproar over this rooms existence when it was discovered but the public at large ignored it. Then Congress retroactively made it legal so there was nothing we could even do about it at that point.
A Letter to Verizon Customers
If I were a Chinese official reading this, my #1 priority would be to try to get access to PRISM.

No matter what checks and balances the US may employ to make sure legitimate access stays within bounds, any time you have an automated system, you're open to the possibility that someone can get access and automate it in ways you don't like.
There's a big difference between "Hey by the way guys I THINK and from what I OBSERVE the average person takes their phone out 150 times a day" and "Hey guys the AVERAGE SMARTPHONE USER TAKES THEIR PHONE OUT 150 TIMES A DAY [in the fine print: source is total BS, it doesn't say anything about average smartphone users]"
Nation states have grown bigger for anybody's comfort. It is time to rethink the organization of states and go for alternate arrangements that will 1) Ensure individual freedom 2) Human Dignity 3) Sustainable Development - This is the big human challenge for the 21st century to solve.
It would seem that the civilians would be the ones bearing the brunt of those decisions.

More importantly, the issue at hand is that we don't know whether that decision was as clean-cut as you suggest, precisely because of the lack of transparency of our .gov and .mil.

Now, there are very sound opsec reasons for not making that information public, but when we are the foreign aggressor I believe that it is not an unreasonable burden to place on ourselves; indeed, it may help encourage caution when considering military adventures abroad.
Space Monkey? http://spacemonkey.com
How your VPS provider can steal your SSH server's private key
Haha sorry... been a busy week. I misinterpreted your intent with your original post. Should have indicated that I was being rhetorical/willfully asking the begged question I thought I saw
Sorry for the self promotion (what's our spam policy on this?), but I felt that this audience would be more interested in the content :)

This post describes why it's a bad idea to assume the security of your machines if you host them on a VPS provider. The only secure server is one that you have exclusive physical access to.
How the fuck do you think this is about the definition of war crimes?

This is about what we consider valid defenses, and our ability to prosecute war crimes. Do you not understand how our absolute failure to prosecute the My Lai Massacre might be relevant to how we prosecute war crimes?

Christ, it is almost as though you have absolutely no interest in understanding what people are saying to you.
This is what I've been trying to find out. None of these articles seem to have it.
It is so funny to see how correct and accurate were insights of Ayn Rand, Steinbeck, Misihma in describing how the system (corporations, banks, politicians) works and how naive and abstract are all those political theories compared to what was actually built.)

It is a good moment to re-read Atlas Shrugged. And Orwell, of course.
You can apply here: http://jobs.saic.com/job/Molesworth-NATO-Intelligence-Fusion...

Intelligence Fusion Center Collection Manager

Requires proficiency with PRISM, RMS, and Coliseum and Top Secret clearance, amongst other things.
Being primarily concerned with something else doesn't constitute agreement.
Gotta love a headline that's worded in such a way that it looks like a fact. Thirty straight days of these on every major outlet and most people who were not already concerned won't be doing anything differently, if they ever did. As a bonus, no need to worry about breaking the story anymore.
We're not even sure he said it. He denied authorship of the compilation that the quote originally appeared in.
More Details On PRISM Revealed; Twitter Deserves Kudos For Refusing To Give In
You don't have to be the NSA to intercept public WiFi traffic..I do it all the time on Wireshark :P
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/08/nsa-prism-server...

The slide with the explicit formulation was published, written by NSA, that made claims of "not inside companies" much less believable:

"Collection directly from the servers of these U.S. Service Providers: Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, Paltalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple."

This supports the claims of Glenn Greenwald's article and is exactly what companies claimed not existing.

Read the slide: they explicitely name the collecition on the "fat pipes" under other code names. As they have the access to the big pipes, the real time data (c.f. the other slides, earlier) from the inside of companies is certainly unencrypted.
I love the PBR China story. $44/bottle. Hustle! "There’s almost no ale in China: I had to smuggle the yeast into the country."

http://www.danwei.org/advertising_and_marketing/pabst_goes_u...
Because Stackoverfow is not a place where you can't ask for help or open questions. There are restrictive rules for the type of question one may ask. So I don't think Stackoverflow is what a company should use.
Take it from someone who probably is 2.5 times the avg age of the avg yc user and therefore was around when she made a name for herself the first time: Meeker is 99% bullshit and 1% luck
Lobster is not a delicacy in New England, and eating at a lobster pound is the New England equivalent of a German biergarten. One of the reasons why the price has dropped so much is that the lobster fishery is managed for sustainability.

I think the stuff about humanely killing the lobsters is hogwash. Boiling and eating a live lobster is one of the few meals where you have to confront the fact that we kill so that we can eat. Hold them upside down, plunge the lobster headfirst into the boiling water, and give thanks for life. And make sure you have a pot with a heavy lid.
The best thing the government could do to legitimately appease citizens is pass a statute that nothing gathered through these means will be used to prosecute anything but terrorism or threats to national security. If that's the real purpose, then they should have no problem putting it in writing.
A warrant canary service would be nice, by Google and others.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warrant_canary
Just like Mark Klein knew nothing about the NSA room in the AT&T building? People without clearances come across classified information.
vi is a small miracle of software engineering.
"10.3.3. Hackers

Hackers are computer specialists with the knowledge to gain access to computer networks from the outside. In the early days, hackers were computer freaks who got a kick out of breaking through the security devices of computer systems. Nowadays there are contract hackers in both the services and on the market." (emphasis added)

What? This is an official EU report?
Well EFF have already discovered that the law has been declared unconstitutional, but the administration is keeping it secret.

What now?
Because clearly the US government is doing much worse stuff than the private companies right now. And when someone discovers it, they try to put him in jail. I don't know about you, but that scares me more than if I found out the private company sold my info.
Maybe once upon a time they had one, but it was dead before anyone learned about it..
If you're apathetic its because you don't know your history. For example, our government not that long ago locked up every Japanese-American they could find in prison camps. The government is entirely capable of doing terrible things. We should by principal only give them as much power/money/information as necessary and not an iota more. Being cynical and apathetic is a danger to you and your fellow Americans.
That sounds like far too much work than the current process. I doubt any lobster eaters would jump through all those hoops when simply boiling them works so well.
Where I live it is often stated that patriotism is love of the country while nationalism is the hate of all the others.

I don't know if politicians make that distinction though.

It's also a catchy sentence that could be used to disguise nationalism or discredit other politicians's stance on the country they live in.
CitizenWeb
Also, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECHELON

British journalist Duncan Campbell and New Zealand journalist Nicky Hager asserted in the 1990s that the United States was exploiting ECHELON traffic for industrial espionage, rather than military and diplomatic purposes.[10] Examples alleged by the journalists include the gear-less wind turbine technology designed by the German firm Enercon[6][11] and the speech technology developed by the Belgian firm Lernout & Hauspie.[12] An article in the US newspaper Baltimore Sun reported in 1995 that European aerospace company Airbus lost a $6 billion contract with Saudi Arabia in 1994 after the US National Security Agency reported that Airbus officials had been bribing Saudi officials to secure the contract.[13][14]
In 2001 the Temporary Committee on the ECHELON Interception System recommended to the European Parliament that citizens of member states routinely use cryptography in their communications to protect their privacy, because economic espionage with ECHELON has been conducted by the US intelligence agencies.[6]