skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
It's not hard to imagine some political tensions if these things are supposed to do a full circuit of the Earth on a given latitude. It's true that balloons in the stratosphere have a lot in common with satellites in orbit, but that may not be enough to stop people getting annoyed.
I would advise against going to this link, or even posting the link. It is bad form to give such poor articles any traffic or credibility, and posting the link will up its ranking in search engines.
This article is full of 19th century middlebrow dismissals that are amusingly similar to online comments. Plus ça change.
I hope the irony of asking about the Free Software "Freedom Zero" and then only talking about Open Source was not lost on Atwood.

People don't care about Freedom Zero for the same reason why Open Source took over Free Software. Because the vast majority developers and businesses embrace it only for their only self-interest, by reducing development time and costs. They don't give a single fuck about user freedom, as it's well shown by the number of companies who release open source backend tools but keep their customer-facing applications proprietary.

In fact, this is no secret: the whole point of creating Open Source as an alternative to Free Software was to keep the code sharing parts while shedding the ethical positions of the GNU philosophy, such as Freedom Zero, which were unpleasant to the money makers in the industry.
I actually built this with two friends and our goal was to build something together and play with realtime in an app. As far as our plans, getting this far feels great and we're excited to see how people feel about the app. If people like it even a little, I know we'll keep going.
Glad to see at least one of my senators attended those meetings and doesn't remember being briefed about phone metadata collection (Johnny Isakson R-Ga).

But then again the Director of National Intel James Clapper said that he understands that "collect data" would mean they take a book off the shelf and read it. Not that they have a giant bookshelf of data that is possibly yours and mine.

Just another politician type doing some CYA. We will see more to come.

[1] http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/intel-dir-james-clapper-lie-c...
Yes. In the US, you're allowed to see Greenwald's piece.
This supports the findings in the book, "1600 Perfect Score: The 7 Secrets of Acing the SAT" by Tom Fischgrund. One of the key points in the book talks about how reading a lot (double the amount of average score students in hours spent reading).
Fb's user experience has waned on a number of fronts... users of the site feel the change and are losing interest.
I took part in this program http://www.inventorium.org/events/swequity-wales-spring-2013... that runs in Dublin and now North Wales. Great idea - check out the info packs to see how it works. No reason that you could not harness something like this to an accelerator or incubator program for a share in the best ideas.
By the same token 99.9% of consumers don't care about the legalities and 'freedoms' that Atwood talks about - only what they can do with their computers and the ease with which they can do it.
I Uncovered A Serious Gmail Security Bug
Which specific statement did I make that you disagree with? I'm happy to go into more depth.
I have a hard time believing any sort of script kiddy would risk major jail time and a high profile arrest for hacking into a journalists laptop for no profit.

Then you don't pay attention to script kiddies.
Looks like Snow isn't being extradited. Xinhua is the official press agency of the state. Editorial or no, this didn't get posted without the state's nod.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinhua_News_Agency
He worked for Booz-Allen for three months. June - Three = March. So ... Greenwald and him were just chatting about the weather for a month or two?
When I was an undergraduate, the Mathematics Department cork board of announcements had an NSA(No Such Agency era) brochure, describing a program labelled something like `OCREA'. I do not remember it clearly, but its intent was soliciting academics to preview their work with the NSA before publishing, or possibly, it was an offer for grant funding.

What struck me, and why I remember it, was the freehand watercolor/acrylic bluish/dark painting graphic of the entire cover page, Showing a long straight road/landing-strip(?) made of rectangular tiles, receding into a horizon's vanishing point of a low horizontal mountain range. To one side, we see a small green budding plant surfacing through some broken tiles. Suggesting to me: "A weed surfacing through a sidewalk needs to be snipped."
Sure. I just think China is much more culpable; they allow these actions as a considered and deliberate matter of public policy. I'm glad we agree that they're essentially criminal actions.
So what we claims is that he is a Goldstein in the making?

That would be interesting. Is there any studies on how those figures come into being? I bet there are a few real Goldstein in history. Do they start already protraited as failures or at some point they have the popular opinion on their side?
NSA leaker Edward Snowden's story isn't holding up
I've only tested it in reasonably random settings a few times, so, you may be right about the filter bubble. What are your results? (If you've seen pictures you'll know I'm not the bodybuilder with the "zigurd" account name on some bodybuilding forum.)
Robots on the Boeing assembly line
Couldn't agree more, and "we the people" have aided and abetted these scum by accepting the status quo and voting them into office.

Also, thank you for posting that Ted talk!
Yes, and Xerox PARC also had a ton of smart people working on a bunch of exciting futuristic projects at one point as well.
The thing with script kiddies is that they are not necessarily mature enough to realize and properly weigh the risks associated with their illicit hacking. It's fun and it gets them "cyber cred". Gangsters are often the same way. They risk jail time for flashy stunts that earn them respect from their peers.
We are thus far discussing technical details of an attack that would be easy for a teenager to have carried out in 1999, let alone 2013, and are attributing them to the world's most experienced computer security organization. I think that's happening because it's much more fun to think about NSA breaking into media laptops than it is to think about random Eastern European hackers doing the same, and HN has a profound bias towards whichever narrative is more fun to talk about.
It's the usual trick for any hot or controversial matter. They hope nobody will see and/or complain. This trick is outrageous and used way too often.
a) Or he might just be a regular Nerd who cares about details.

b) Or he might just be a regular Nerd who took a long time to think about this stuff.

c) Or he might just be a regular Nerd with the typical emotional detachment from what he is doing while still being deeply intellectual invested.

d) Pure speculation without any weighting.

e) What?

f) Ah good, it's not like he addressed this point in particular.

g) Meta Speculation.

h) Well that doesn't even begin to make sense.

It's funny - she actually has a point. But the point can stand on its own, all the points she is clearly making up actually serve to cheapen that point.
He had worked for other intel contractors prior to that, quite possibly in exactly the same job.
Teddy Roosevelt's trust busting.
citizen censorship is so ironic
Do you know more than I do about Microsoft's disclosures to the US Government (effectively nothing) or is it an educated guess that what they receive is comparable with MAPP?
Did I say something above that you disagree with?
I don't intend on being too harsh on this article, but I must say that it seems about as skewed as a Fox "News" broadcast.

It is not too difficult to find less biased coverage - my favorite technique is to take a story I am interested in and then read two or three articles about it from different countries.
By why do all these pseudo-lefty celebs (Wolf, Maher, etc.) make it a point to smear Snowden? They seem to be doing it of their own volition.
"what they can do with their computers" is the whole point of freedom zero.
Thanks for sharing the link. Building up our customer base, from the ground up, via accelerators/incubators, is something that is definitely on our minds.
I agree that my previous work experience can be viewed as "blue collar". I hadn't considered it may be difficult for a hiring manager to overcome.

It's not the fact that you've done "blue collar" work in the past that's the problem; it's the way you introduced yourself as the guy worried about his inexperience who did "blue collar" work until it became impossible. You should be introducing yourself as a self-taught developer with an unconventional background rooted in hard work.
Very refreshing to see an Android-first app. Great job all-around.
The algebra of iTunes
Thanks, so is there a windows equivalent?
Rock found in backyard came from space station
I live a terrible life in the shadow of a greater man with the exact same, exactly as rare name - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Deutsch

(although my twitter does show up on page 2 when anonymous, page 2 when logged in, so there.)
Considering the historical role of the NSA, I'd imagine it was more a reference to hope and freedom bursting out of oppression. People who work at these agencies do not think they are evil, they think they are contributing to ensuring American freedom and prosperity.
She has a few good and a few weak points there. Especially the last point is important and some peculiar reactions to this scandal can be better explained with it - for example, the odd way the Congress seems to show no interest in the mass-surveillance, as if they knew that it's a fabricated story to trigger the panopticon effect.

On the other hand, I wonder what the NSA is doing in all those huge buildings, if not spying on all Americans and the rest of the world. Perhaps they're empty? Not very likely, but it would make a great story.
That people are focusing on the wrong things are nicely illustrated by people claiming him to be an amateur and too professional at the same time.
Buffalo buffalo buffalo... Oh, never mind.

----

P.S. Ok, for the downvoters: I tend to engage in humor on HN in very limited amounts. (Yes, the way things "used to be", here.)

I knew the risks in making my comment. But, the parent reminded me of the linguistic (and logical) tangle we can start entering in discussing conditionals upon conditionals.

Which in turn reminded me of this other linguistic tangle:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffal...

That's the context of my remark.
> Politicians spend much of their time in office fundraising for re-election.

Politicians should be disallowed from consecutive terms. They can run only when they're not already in office, preventing them from spending all their time on reelection, and (hopefully) leading them to fight for what the people want.
If you don't already have wealth, then the only means to an income or wealth is labor. The view that you must be trading that labor instead of investing it directly in creation is potentially limiting (and is, I think, what you're actually seeing and objecting to).

We are presently in a situation where our particular skills (which, incidentally, society has poured some resources into developing) are capable of creating things worth owning more efficiently than it can be automated. That is outstanding, but it's not necessarily sustainable.

If labor can't produce value, then people need to start out with something else.
Exactly! And to compliment your second point; in light of the biggest intelligence leak in history just last week - at the hands of just one frustrated sysadmin; it illustrates just how inept these agencies can be.
Might not be a script kiddie. I know that the Washington Post calling something like this "sophisticated" is kind of ridiculous, and the reporter's reaction is only more absurd, but there could be some real motives here. Business, government, whatever-- I do think that the government wouldn't risk something like this, but there could always be rogues, and you can never distrust government too much as we saw with PRISM.
Interesting. I went back to the link and it is now behind the paywall for me too.
This is how James Jesus Angleton drove himself insane.
Maybe its 'fun' to talk about or maybe it's just the first logical assumption given the circumstances.

Have you read the news man? Everybody should have a bias to blaming the NSA for breaking into journalist laptops! Geez, they have motives and the means.
This is going to sound dickish, but technically it's "the NSA," not just "NSA".

"National Security Administration doesn't need Microsoft to break into computers." vs "The National Security Administration doesn't need Microsoft to break into computers."

Too much of a tangent, perhaps?
I agree that they are not doing Snowden any favors by writing this piece. It makes him look more suspicious. They should just shut up and watch the show.
-1 cannot reproduce (possessing a gmail account without dots, I cannot create a similarly-named gmail account with dots in).
Really, they've just tricked us into not having enough levels of recursion.
Doesn't sound dickish. You're probably right. Force of habit.
A script kiddie would do as much damage / steal and leak as much information in as dramatic and public fashion as possible. That indeed doesn't seem to be the case here.
NSA's attack/penetration teams are not inept.
Ask HN: One-click unsubscribe, wth
No one uses one-click unsubscribe. I get 100s of emails from Pinterest, Microsoft Health Vault, Twitter... and none of the have a one-click unsubscribe. This is getting to a very ridiculous level of annoyance.

Is there a way to force people to respect people's inboxes and provide a one-click unsubscribe -- that is, without requiring the user to log into his or her account, and then go to "account settings", and go through 3-4 clicks?
> This would be better on /r/conspiracy than Hacker News.

Shallow reasoning ... check

No understanding of subject matter ... check

Usage of pseudo psychological nonsense instead of any hard evidence ... check
Yep. It seems logical that an high profile reporter might be a target for other potential attackers who are not the NSA. Even if it's just some smart teenager somewhere, doing it "for the lulz" to say they got someone of that level.

I can also imagine that an investigative journalist, whose livelihood is made in part based upon tips received from people external to the newsroom, might easily become a target for a spear phishing attack from any of those potential actors.

But to immediately attribute this to the NSA strictly based on the facts laid down in this article, that seems like making a heavy use of a Jump to Conclusions Mat.
3 Reasons Why You Fail at Network Marketing and How to Turn It All Around
Watch Glenn Greenwalds twitter (@ggreenwald) over the next few days/weeks. He alleges to have several more bombshell stories to release, and it looks like he's waiting for the government to lie themselves into a corner before dropping them in the limelight.
I honestly think it's time to take action more than just normal protests.. Which are useless.. We need to find a way to get more than just the minority to revolt. Think about how many straight up stupid things are happening.. We make jokes about politicians and theyre decisions (see daily show) but i dont think its funny anymore. We need to change. I'm thinking about making some sort of political website, I can't decide what the best way to do it is... But just a way to show how corrupt these assholes are, a very clear interface, showing their decisions, and how common sense doesn't dictate them. It's ridiculous and I'm upset by it. Anyone have any ideas to make this thing as good as possible? Ill start it tomorrow, any designers feel free to contact me :)

The retarted amount of money our government spends on "defense" and other things... Think about how much better we can do with the worlds best engineers and 1/10th of the defense budget. Ugh
Assuming that the NSA doesn't possess quantum computers, perhaps 4096-bit PGP email hosted on a local mail server, along with SELinux, full disk encryption and a strong firewall that blocks all incoming connections, should do the trick. Am I correct?

It's the setup I'm using now.
Sounds about par for the course for a government ran operation.
I indicated that in the post. However any existing account combination like this will route mail to both accounts presumably. I can certainly say that email intended for an account without the '.' will route to the account with the '.'
No, also not true of "script kids". They do that when it suits them. You're naive if you think the only systems they break into are the ones that land on Pastebin.
> how do you prove you're not lying other than saying you're not lying?

There is something called "evidence" used exctly at those circunstances.

Of course, I have no idea what kind of evidence those companies or the US government have, they are not telling anybody. And that is evidence that they are lying.
Who do you hate America?
What do you have to hide?
It's all to protect the chilrun
/sarcasm

Sadly, the train has left, even courts are neutered. They can and are supposed to nip it in the but they will not do it. Journos are harassed at airports for doing investigative works, and no one wants to do anything about it
I'm never a fan of giving up equity in exchange for short-term services, rather than a long-term commitment from an employee or investor.

I wonder if you would have success attracting high-potential startups. It would seem that most of these are able to raise money for the needs you talked about, especialy since it appears easier than ever to raise a small seed round.

As a result, you could be left with mediocre to low-quality startups only which threatens the model.
Not par for the course for NSA attack/pen.
#leastuntruthful
This is innuendo, not analysis.
That would require a constitutional amendment to overturn 30 years of legal precedent that gives an enormous advantage to the wealthy and connected. It is illegal for Congress to put everyone on the same playing field and disallow wealthy candidates from self funding. So any public financing would simply give an enormous advantage to wealthy candidates and dark money groups with the resources to overwhelm the publicly financed guys.

Right now in order to compete you must fundraise constantly or risk not having funds to counter the spin of a bankrolled
opponent. It would be interesting if the Supreme Court simply eliminated the contribution limits but this would give even more of an incentive for congressmen simply to sell their votes("Vote for us and we will give you X gazillion dollars over four years vote against us and we drop millions in dark money against you and fund your opponents").
"Well, first of all, let me take you—the population at NSA, about 85 percent of them, I think, are ISTJs on the Myers-Briggs scale, and they’re very strong introverts, you know? They have a very focused job to do. Breaking a crypt system or something is a very focused effort. You—it’s really intense. So it’s really something that’s really compatible with their character. And so, when something happens and they see things happening to people who get involved, like myself or others, they get afraid. And being introverts, they even go further as—further into themselves and staying isolated. So, that’s—that’s the primary character of people. And the others, the others are probably part of it and believe that it’s the correct thing to do. And they don’t try to find a reasonable, constitutionally acceptable, legally acceptable way to do the—to achieve the objectives that they want. They simply felt that they had to go to the far—the other far side of the spectrum and get as much as they can about everybody they can."

- William Binney
This is pure innuendo.
can they just do my taxes for me then?
Well, if you're on any arbitrary Unix system with bash installed, just open up a terminal emulator and keep hitting the up arrow key. It should give you a full history of all commands entered. Unfortunately, there's no date tagging to my knowledge, so you'll just have to remember when you entered a command and if you see any anomalies.
It is, after all, rather sunny in Death Valley.
Considering its origin, anyone have a firm-handle on the Miss Liberty political cartoon? Who's the rat?
All lot of the language in this document explains why we've seen the government refer to many domestic activist organizations, no matter how peaceful, as terrorist organizations. By simply adopting the term terrorist to describe any group, the government can at least semantically defend the wiretapping of any individual. Want to wiretap someone? Simply find any single organization they belong to or have belonged too that can be labeled as "terrorist", no matter how tenuous any connection to actual terrorism there is.
Sounds like Daniel Suarez' novel Daemon.

TL,DR: Programmer dies but his program manipulates the world after his death, then the US government spreads word that the program is a hoax, so later in the novel most people disbelieve that such a program can even exist (because the government "disproved" it!), hindering any chance that society would even believe that something like this existed, let alone was possible.

I just wanted to throw it out there to illustrate the parallels of the plot in the novel with the current things happening right now...
Leaked Emails: Launch chemical weapon attack on Syria and blame it on Assad
+1 I at least give her credit for thinking outside of the box. It is OK to speculate and look at things from a different perspective, even if you might be wrong.
I agree. This is the weirdest part of this whole thing. Surely there are a dozen countries less inclined to want to extradite Snowden to the U.S. for the grounds stated.

Why not flee to a country that is a weak (but not too weak) ally of the U.S., thoroughly outraged by the PRISM program, and which doesn't have an extradition treaty that could possibly be construed as permitting extradition under the stated terms (as Hong Kong arguably does with the U.S.).

I'm not try to defend Wolf. Just sayin' . . .
If you want creativity nothing beats Cannabis.

But between the two definitely beer.
... and completely failing to capitalize on more or less all of them, because they didn't even try.
http://gmailblog.blogspot.se/2008/03/2-hidden-ways-to-get-mo...

https://support.google.com/mail/answer/10313?hl=en

This has been there since launch, afaik.
As Chinese start demanding more social and human right freedoms, the economic anything-goes freedoms are honestly going to be diminished. The situation right now is downright toxic, and it's not clear that many Chinese will live long enough to see the expected "improvements."

Also, libertarians shouldn't come here expecting a libertarian paradise. There is plenty of unfairness and economic non-freedom to go around.
Sweden is not the same as the UK. Sweden's extradition laws are bit less vague than the British ones. The risk of the US asking Sweden to extradite Assange is pretty much nil at this point. At least, if the US has any sense of PR and not trying to adopt the German diplomacy of the First World War.
You mean, like, not charging money for anything?
I think it is more likely that he has the backing of a loose confederation of anonymous civil disobedients, young & media savvy, and they took some time to develop the story in a way they thought would achieve maximum impact.

I admit the expressive neo-feminist pole dancing gf seems a bit gratuitous.
I dont think you get it
The difference is that the NSA is taking away our freedom while the Great Firewall is ensuring a harmonious society.