skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I don't want to oversimplify, but
if the voters wise up, then we will
get better candidates.

Also, supposedly both Clinton and
W saw the housing bubble blowing
and the threat but believed that
politically there was nothing they
could have done about it. So, they
just hoped for the best -- and wrecked
the US and advanced world financial
system the worst since the 1930s.

With smarter voters, no way could
Obama, the CBC, Frank, etc. get
Fannie and Freddie to back junk
paper that was the real gasoline
for the heat for the bubble blowing.
E.g., get the 'Frontline' piece
with its interview with the COB of
Wells Fargo: He was very clear.
He saw the bubble blowing, told
lots of the right people in various
committees in DC, put such a warning
in his annual report, and told people
that we were not going to like the
results. Still, we did nothing.

With better informed voters, a president
could have put 10 minutes in one of
his State of the Union addresses
showing the strong parallels --
bubble blowing from over leveraged
financial assets where the bubbles
pop and wipe out much of the financial
system and take much of the economy
down with it -- with The Great Depression
and stated clearly that the only
responsible thing to do was to
get a soft landing and save the
country. Then have some meetings,
say, about the CRA, Fannie, and
Freddie, AIG, some of the CDS
swap manipulations, the fast and
loose work by the bond ratings
agencies, the abuses of the
variable rate mortgages and no-doc
loans, etc.

In 1980 I was in Ohio and heard
some of the stories about the
suffering then in the Rust Belt.
Just take a list about every
bad thing that could happen
to people, families, and
communities, and that's what
happened. So, got domestic
violence, street crime,
alcohol abuse, drugs, infant
mortality, divorces, heart attacks,
suicides, all through the roof.

Bad gumment can be really ugly
stuff, hurt the middle class a lot
and hurt the poor much more.

I'm no fan of Obama, and while I
see a lot to like in Romney I
thought that from his 47% remark
on he just blew his campaign.

But my reading of Obama is that
in part he reads the winds and
sometimes goes with them, maybe
only temporarily, reluctantly,
ineffectually, but is willing to
appear to go with the flow. Well,
with better informed voters
speaking more loudly, I suspect
that he can actually pretend to
go with the winds and at least
mostly get out of the way as
Congress does the real work.

I believe it's in the hands of
the voters and, then, from the
media, and now from the Internet.
Why your phone records are not, in fact, protected by the 4th amendment
Well, you could have only one user (such as the sender) hold the decryption key and be willing to securely send it only to the recipient within a given expiry... The distributed data could still be floating around but would be unreadable.

There are plenty of distributed designs which could be secure and "read once within a time period".

(btw, a distributed network topology can look isomorphic to a centralized topology at the application layer. You seem to have a highly simplistic map of the territory.)
If they're going to edit, they really need to add a comma in this sentence:

"That is one reason we have long argued that the Patriot Act, enacted in the heat of fear after the 9/11 attacks by members of Congress ..."
NSA Leak: Internet Giants Let Government Tap Your Data
The only reason Mike Gravel had a copy of the Pentagon Papers is because Ellsberg sought him out, so Gravel wasn't himself the "leak", and Gravel knew that the NYT and others already had a copy (they were publishing parts).
OP pointed out the editorializing on the 'Collateral Murder' video as evidence that you can't avoid this.
Advanced Audio Streaming in Unity
Do you really think that that is going to be the long term solution? Think about an average consumer - will you expect him to log in through tor or do not register with Google/Yahoo since they require your name/phone number. Secondly it is more than just PII (the govt already has those if you are in US) - I view this more along the lines that govt is now getting more context around EACH individual. And a lot of that is personal. All your email info, your files on Dropbox, your chats, your videos are readily accessible to them.

The long term solution has to be institutional. EFF is committed to help out there. I am not saying that EFF is the only solution (or even the best solution). But, at this point, unfortunately I feel there are few other options.
Damn, I'm jealous... Coding, writing, or doing any sort of work is always better outdoors, on a beach or in a forest.

Sounds like an adventure, and lots of fun. I frequently take long trips through the forest, back-country camping, but we do have bears, mountain lions, and the potential of blizzards in August (and laws that govern what we can and can't do in our wild spaces).

I hope your start-up is a success, and if it isn't, at least you'll have had an adventure and a story to tell (but I hope you success).
Simply not true. They are forbidden from disclosing individual cases. Google files Transparency Reports all the time announcing that the government compels them to release user data unwillingly.
huh. still pretty cool site, though seems like valid complaints. curious what author would say about crowdtilt/ their new api - did $400k for soylent no-food stuff in 2 days right?
The line was in an earlier edit:

> "The administration has now lost all credibility."

http://www.newsdiffs.org/diff/245539/245566/www.nytimes.com/...
Forecasting Cross-platform Networks and Mobile Games
I'm so happy that newsdiffs exists! I had come up with the same idea (and name) independently after noticing substantial edits to articles on a major NZ news website, but never got around to creating the tool. I'm excited to check out their github repo and see if I can setup tracking for the sites I'm interested in.
Most of these use encrypted communications. NSA may be able to crack specific communications, but they can't crack all of them from Google, Skype, Facebook, iMessage in real time.

Getting access to it "voluntarily" makes thing so much easier. It says in the slides the PRISM program only costs them $20 million a year.
I'm sure the editorial board's original intent was to say that Obama had lost all credibility on this particular topic. They were simply clarifying. Losing all credibility isn't really true in other contexts.
The same government that invented the nuclear bomb and provided feedback that protected DES's S boxes from differential cryptanalysis before it was publicly known to exist?

I think you give it too little credit.

The government does a bad job with citizen-facing software engineering. It's not clear that the same is true for defense and intelligence applications.
Sending a copy of data to someone is not the same as creating a back door.
I agree. I'm usually the first to spot a conspiracy, but this looks like an innocent clarification to improve the quality of the piece. It was shocking enough to see how adamantly the entire editorial board of the New York Times distanced themselves from the administration on this.
FWIW what I understand Hayek as discussing is something different, which is that centrally imposed definitions of "good" have very little to do with local decisions that people make. Hayek is arguing, as I read him, against the idea that "social good" as we culturally construct it through centralized structures (church and state) is the goal of the economy.

There is a way out of this, and that is a 19th century Catholic idea (I am not even a Christian but Catholicism is interesting to me to the extent the Catholic Church is a torchbearer for pagan Greek and Roman phylosophy) called "subsidiarity."

The idea of subsidiarity is that it is theft for a group to accomplish what an individual could accomplish by him or herself, and for the same reason it is theft for a larger, more centralized group to do what a smaller group could do. The goal of larger groups should be to support, not supplant, smaller organizations. This idea of subsidiarity thus seeks to reformulate society and the economy on Aristotelian grounds, with the family household in the center (rather than the multinational corporation of liberal capitalism, or the state). From this view, virtue and economic value are the same to the extent that people seek to live just lives, and to the extent that central authorities only seek to accomplish on their own what are fundamentally impossible for the smaller entities.

I think this is one reason why libertarians have associated the Catholic idea of subsidiarity with the private sector which only makes sense in terms of Hayek (I don't think that equivalence quite works but one can easily see the similarity).
They're professional writers, they knew what they wrote and how people would read it.

This is just the plausible deniability phase.
I think that is unlikely:

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/01/opinion/sunday/article-ch...
It doesn't have to be the kind of reform that takes decades:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_1968

I think you may be referring to changes that preserve current power and political structures, but that's not required.
Geez, I hope not: If my current plans work out, I'll be 50 when I start.
What is the denial worth if, anyway, these companies are obliged by the secret agreement not to reveal the fact that they participate in it?
I'm a Mormon though not from Utah.

You still need to understand the Mormon culture and church more so. I'm not sure what you mean by being excluded (Excommunicated, shunned, offended?) isn't absolute, in fact, no one really is excluded from the church as all are forever welcome (Some extreme edge cases aside) back. This is in an ideal situation and I know that in some locations that maybe a local leader or some local members because of lack of experience, their own mistakes or whatever don't truly welcome and help someone return. I'm also curious what are some of the minor infractions that were induce someone being excluded from the Mormon community..

Not all Mormons hide everything from their family, friends and leaders. We're encouraged to do the opposite, actually, in appropriateness and relativeness especially so when it's something quite bad which are the things someone would be blackmailed about. You wouldn't go blackmailing someone because he didn't read the Ensign every month which is something a Mormon probably wouldn't really bother telling anyone.

Also, someone who is a Mormon probably has fewer things to be blackmailed about—lewd pictures, drunken mistakes, egregious offenses to others and the law, hidden relationships (Sexual or otherwise), etc. are not things we seek out, instead, we actively avoid those things and not only actions but locations (Bars, night clubs, etc.) where more embarrassing/illegal things tend to happen. This is based on what I've seen and learnt throughout my life and I'm not pretending that these are any great or completely accurate comments, simply some postulations.
I wonder if the NSA and the politicians that enabled this realize the amount of economic damage this could do to the US by promoting the balkanization of the world's telecom networks and spreading mistrust for US tech and telecom companies. This seems very short sighted, if they care about that stuff at all.
And what he described wasn't a back door.
I did it five years ago, to Germany. No problem, you just need a job offer. It has to be mildly specialized to justify hiring you over a local, but this is a very loose requirement that's easy to bend if your employer so desires.

Germany also has no shortage of relatively unskilled Turkish immigrants who are simply working at restaurants.
If terrorists hate our freedom, then maybe this data collection shows Dianne Feinstein to be a terrorist. We need to access her information. I am sure she has nothing to hide.
Most likely this is the case in the short term until they come up with the computing power/software to analyze 100% of data.

But even if this is the case it's irrelevant to whether or not the government should even be engaged in this practice.
I also am single founder with 3 products built. The 3 products share a technological base but address very different markets and somewhat different expressions of the underlying idea.

I haven't sought any funding, but I am often in a quandary whether to spend more of my long-term financial reserves and stay focused on building the business around the products, or seek short term income through consulting. Or, possibly get a full-time job and think of these three as pre-built side projects.

I have also thought that if I could find the right salesperson/business development person as a partner that would be ideal. But like you that takes time that feels highly unproductive.

No easy decisions when those first (B2B) sales take so long.
What's new on Facebook for small businesses
Working with economic development groups in your area. They have large rolodexes and are generally well thought of by their clients. Offer reduced cost in exchange for feedback. Helps you get traction and feedback; makes economic dev groups look good.
Agreed, I hadn't seen it before I saw this entry on HN. Really awesome idea for a site.
Looking at all the spiffy official "Top Secret" warnings on top of all the slides, it seems that maybe this ties into previous WaPo stories about the "top secret" spying mentality in the Mil-Ind-Complex since 9/11. The top spooks tried to get an account of all the "top secret" programs and clearances going on in all the intelligence/law enforcement agencies and found that there were so many that were shielded away from oversight that it was impossible to get an accounting of everything the government was up to.
Mattermark (YC S12) Schlep-Hungry Data Intern Needed
We're looking to hire an intern to help collect, organize and clean massive sets of data. This is not a software development job, it is a spreadsheets job. We do have developers who have built tools to do most of the heaviest lifting but there is a certain amount of curation that needs to be done by hand, and then we will turn your manual processes (read: massive schleps) into code.

We are a team of 3 people currently doing this ourselves and we need to help so we can go faster. We will be schlepping right alongside you. If you're a non-technical reader of HN who wants to get into a startup we want to talk to you!

If you are considering working in a venture capital firm someday this role is for you. By the time you are done you will probably have memorized the names of every venture capital firm, partner, and portfolio company.

We are hoping to find someone uniquely excited about our data set of startups and their investors. You should be able to use Excel like a beast - busting out keyboard shortcuts, formulas and macros. If you can also query mySQL databases that is a huge plus, but if not we can teach you. Having a background in finance might make this role more interesting for you, but it isn't required. The biggest requirement is your ability to endure the schlep, whatever your background.

Hourly contract, minimum 30 hours per week. You must be able to work from our office in San Francisco. $20/hour

Applicants should email danielle (at) mattermark.com with your LinkedIn URL and a brief (think 3 sentences) answer to the question "Why do you want to work for Mattermark?"

Thanks!

PG on schlepping
http://www.paulgraham.com/schlep.html
What's Needed Early
We Are To Blame
See the problems aren't systemic. It's just this one no-name person who was going to retire anyway. We must have just forgotten that he was back there spending billions spying on everyone. No worries he's retired now, so we're all good now. Right american public? Right?
Ask HN: programming environment for a student who has outgrown toy environment?
My middle-school child has been learning to program for a couple of years now. He's worked his way up through Scratch (MIT's drag-and-drop sprite environment) and CodeHS (a minimal JavaScript editor coupled with a simple graphics toolkit and a good introductory curriculum). He's ready for something more substantial, but I'm not sure where to turn.

CodeHS is nice for beginners, but it lacks basic IDE functionality, and is fixed to a small (400 x 400) canvas. In decreasing order of importance, my criteria for his next tool:

1. Basic IDE functionality, such as autocomplete, static error checking, multiple files, and a debugger.

2. Allow creating both graphical applications (e.g. games) and simple console-type programs.

3. Support publishing games and other simple applications as a web page, so he can show his work to friends and family.

4. Runtime environment is simple and lightweight (e.g. don't have to learn a complex UI toolkit).

5. IDE is lightweight and easy to learn.

6. Live in the cloud, so he can work from any computer.

7. Use a mainstream language.

Any recommendations?
I wasn't speaking of all cases of is/ought. I was referring to the idea that virtuous jobs should be valuable jobs and vice versa -- that the system of production can be turned to produce according to a ranking function of virtue. Civil rights and suffrage aren't jobs or economic production; they're matters of custom and law, which Hayek also discusses as similar but distinct forms of spontaneous order.

You correctly pointed out that the value of labour has been affected by simple economic considerations more completely than any theory of the native goodness of honest toil.

Rand's cardboard aliens all seem very smug and self-assured and basically I think her books have done more harm than good.

Hayek's tone is an exasperated old school master. He just wants people to understand that you can't create -- as in design or ordain ab initio -- a working economic system that aligns to virtuous ends. It will break.
All these denials cover one specific thing that they're not doing, not the spirit of all things that could be done. Mirroring all traffic to an additional destination isn't providing a back door, but it accomplishes much of the same function.
I'll make the middle-ground argument then: Obama is at fault and should have done better, but he's also done a lot of other good things. This is one aspect of his presidency I am not happy with; for a lot of other aspects, I think he has been quite reasonable and progressive.
Matt, the disavow tool is most certainly incontrovertible proof that negative SEO works. Why? Because whether a "spammy" link has been created by a website's own misplaced SEO efforts or through that of a third party which wishes them ill, the effects are the same: a negative effect in ranking.

We know from google that "spammy links" can and do indeed negatively effect rankings - this is why google has provided website owners the ability to 'clean up their act' in the first place

But it does not matter who created the link, the effect is the same, hence, negative SEO works.
Just because there's a clearly defined path to making a lot of money in a high prestige job doesn't mean it's easy or that everyone can pull it off.

The best way to start an "upper class career" is to be born into the upper class. Good luck getting into finance or consulting if you didn't go to a top tier university. And it's not small matter -- even if you have the right background -- to get that job at McKinsey or into a Harvard MBA. You have to be extremely smart and strategic in your career choices, and not slacking off in college, either. Then, to advance and do well, you have to put in long hours and do very good work.

In this day and age, I think it is hard to argue that there is an easier, faster or more forgiving path to economic success than software engineering and programming. The author of this article wouldn't even have a chance to get started in any the of other lucrative professions you mention with his 2.9 GPA.
Deny, deny, deny... it will all blow over in a few days... makes me sick.
Android alters all: Now the PC?
Nobody wants to see a car bomb go off in Times Square, but the problem with this line of reasoning is that it requires an unrealistic amount of trust that the government won't take this power to extremes. It's just human nature that power tends to corrupt, and absolute power will corrupt absolutely -- especially if left unchecked. In the case of these revelations, how can something be kept in check if its mere existence is kept secret by those who abuse it?
So knowing how audacious of a undertaking this would be I'm a bit skeptical that the Tech companies complied. No one keeps a secret this big for this long, plus some of these companies actually do care about privacy and are rather open about their government requests for data.

It seems more feasible that the ISP's are cooperating (the Guardian article states they rely on compliance of ISPs). The government and ISP's/telecoms have a long history of cooperation in regards to surveillance. Wouldn't it be feasible for the government to sniff traffic to/from these companies central servers with help from ISP's? The data would be encrypted, but we already know the NSA can quickly break the most common encryption methods employed by these companies. (http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/al...)

From there who knows who they rebuild or aggregate the data, but this seems more likely/feasible than trying to strong arm companies into back doors. Also makes the program scalable. Regardless this is ridiculous.
Most Google services can work over SSL (after years of pressure). That trumps ISP's DPI. And live traffic is nothing compared to your search history (with location and profiling) and email.
you guys all knew about the surveillance sinse the eary 90´s, and i dont mean all the non tech guys, i mean you.It was all about the foreigners, so you dont care. Echelon was all about the non-american, so nobody cares at all. My sympathy now for you is so close to zero, like same sympathy you have shown in the past
Learn programming to make a prototype. I recently hired a girl programmer who learnt programming by herself in just 10 weeks and built really good product while learning programming.
1) Considering these programs may be authorized by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Courts, and thus may be legal, none of these responses are actually denials. Far from it.

2) Moreover, if the alleged companies were knowingly providing user data to the US government as members of the PRISM program, they would be unable to confirm or deny this fact because it would be illegal for them to do so. The orders for compliance are accompanied with gag orders.
Right, but the documents were still classified at the time so he could have prosecuted for publicly disclosing them had he not taken advantage of his position to read them into the record. The point is that there is a Constitutionally guaranteed mechanism for Congressmen to disclose alarming classified information they have access to.
Google specifically says "no back doors". Why use a back door when the front door works... try before you pry.
Yes. Looking over the changes, I honestly only see attempts at making it more explicit.

Which in itself could mean they were initially eager to release it (instead of letting it rot on a shelf or something), and/or that it was written with a hot pen, if you know what I mean. "Lost all credibility" [on everything ever] is something I might say, but it's not something I would expect to read in a decent newspaper. Someone got a bit emotional over this and I salute them for that; that they later decided to be a bit more smart and effective about it doesn't take anything away, it just adds to it.

edit/addendum: Just consider what it would literally mean, he lost crediblity on everything; a feast for any and all republicans, for starters. I mean, does this mean gay marriage was a mistake, too? Some would happily use this as water on their mills with unrelated issues.
[T]hey are just making bit more explicit what was already implied.

Interesting view. I didn't get that implication at all. When I read it I was quite amazed, and impressed, that the Times had flat out said that. Damn straight, I thought.