skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
> Well, the beauty of a democratic society is that if a majority agree with you, then you can change the system.

That may be a reasonable response to the PRISM/FAA702 disclosures. But in relation to the blanket domestic phone-metadata surveillance? The program which was based on an very expansive interpretation of the FAA business-records provision? The program which was kept secret from not only the US electorate but most of the US Congress? As was the legal interpretation justifying it? The program which even the US Congressmen who had heard about it and found it objectionable were not permitted to inform anyone about? http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=HNm...
When governments[1] complain about spying, I imagine it is also often a case of crocodile tears, as I assume many of them also spy on foreign non-citizens with regularity.

[1]: Blanket statement about governments in developed countries. Not sure about Germany specifically.
Medium seems to be karma bait these days. Not EVERYTHING needs to be cross-posted here.
Better availability in rural areas. I've lived in cities and small rural towns (though never the suburbs), I've never had trouble finding fuel.
We've just opened up the sign-up and we're now processing your feeds. Please bare with us. Thank you!
Whatever happened with Iceland? There was some noise about them offering help at one time... has that option gone completely off the table or what? Has there been some news on that, that I missed?
Even worse for me is that my clients have been in the US and I am in Germany. The landlords here would rather give an apartment to somebody who is on welfare. Seriously.

I'm considering incorporating and granting myself a EUR salary just so there is a steady pay stub.
The grand "balance" has been under our nose the entire time, as laid out by prof Lessig, also of Harvard.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5964883

I think it is ignorance that is causing this. Specifically, ignorance of the nature of information, and maybe a propensity of lawyers to attempt to "balance" security with law, and thereby destroy security.

Read my other comment here about Palantir's marketing material, how they advertise "immutable audit trails", and how that's supposed to provide transparency and whatever... and a link to a paper that says it doesn't work. Of course it doesn't work.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5965317

I don't blog, so somebody else should compile this and publish it.
These numbers seem pretty misleading. What we're interested in are businesses that are started from scratch and derive their income through their own brand identity. What we're reading about are people who pass their consulting pay through an LLC for accounting reasons, or people who own income generating property through a holding company. This is more about how successful people are structuring their finances than about how people are achieving high incomes in the first place.
I served in the military. I have nothing but respect and admiration for our service members and their sacrifice. But when it comes to liberty, a military life isn't one filled with it. I don't see what is rude about making this statement. Obviously this officer doesn't understand the meaning of the word, at least now how I understand it.

I admit I regret my phrasing. Instead of "but it is not surprising that officers in the military do not understand what liberty means since they have not lived a life of liberty" I should have said "but it is not surprising that an officer in the military may not understand what liberty means since they have not lived a life of liberty"
Having read (only) a few books on the history of the american intelligence community, I suspect most people who work there believe in the work that they do. While domestic spying is obviously a black mark in the history, I suspect that the good work thats been done there is fairly substantial. We can actually thank the NSA for some security technologies that are used regularly (and are open source).

Also consider that the president OKed this happening and the public isn't yelling for revolution nor impeachment.
For me, I have the option of opening in a new tab by using middle-click, or opening in the same tab with left-click, and I use both options. If stories opened in new tabs by default then you would remove from me one of the options I use, without providing any benefit.

Oddly enough, this has been asked about before, and there has been some previous discussion. Here's a search:

https://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=title%3A%28ope...

There have also been people who have supplied GreaseMonkey scripts and bookmarklets. You might like to have a look at a few of these to see what I mean:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3560941

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2469065

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4880204

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5085659

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1866268

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3549314

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5284186

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2353291

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3695029

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=516933

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1621892

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5919030
How is this any different than the current monetary system? Bitcoin is no panacea, but I would first ask the same questions of why we ‘stick our head in the sand’ with regard to the worldwide fiat system?
It doesn't work when your pictures are on the front page news.
Rubyists. Reinventing wheels since 1995.
No, it's a paraphrase of one of the conclusions of the original source paper:

http://eprint.iacr.org/2012/584.pdf

"[W]e isolated all the large transactions in the system, and discovered that almost all of them are closely related to a single large transaction that took place in November 2010, even though the associated users apparently tried to hide this fact with many strange looking long chains and fork-merge structures in the transaction graph."
Maybe I'm a little more trusting than I should be, but I can totally understand how a program like this would be justified in the minds of agents and agencies trying to do better at their jobs. They probably truly believe that this program is for the greater good of the nation and that it WILL save lives. I can get all of that, and I sympathize.

But power granted is not easily revoked. I'm not as worried about the current administration and their motives. However, the future can be predicted by no man, and where this nation is in 10-30 years, no one knows. This power can easily be used for not just subjugation of this nation, but possibly the world. In the wrong hands, this could be a tool of unfathomable power. And that is something I'm absolutely NOT okay with.

If revoking these programs, we open truly open ourselves to more attacks, so be it. That is the price to be paid for limiting of government power.
I think more of us need to run mail servers. For ourselves, for our families, and possibly for others who are willing to pay. Email is far too centralized now, at a handful of companies, in a handful of data centers. So in that regard, running a mail server on a VPS at one of the popular providers is kind of missing the point.

My local cable ISP doesn't allow incoming or outgoing connections to port 25, nor incoming connections to port 80. So at least for now, I can't run a mail server in my home. I've thought about switching to DSL, but then I would take a major hit in speed, in both directions.

Luckily, I have another option. There's a hosting provider where I live (Wichita, Kansas) that offers KVM-based virtual machine hosting. So I'll get a VM there, and if the service is any good, I'll move there from Linode. The pricing isn't competitive with Linode, let alone DigitalOcean, and I doubt that the connectivity is as good, since the server will be in a building here in Wichita rather than a real data center. But I'm willing to try it, in order to support a local business and fight the centralization of the Internet.
This is the reason our company creates their own packages and runs our own repositories.
nice.

a bit offtopic:
I am searching for a WebRTC server stack for Node.js or PHP (libevent). I would like to host the STUN, ICE handling on my own server.
The only project I found that supports recent WebRTC API changes is https://github.com/priologic/easyrtc . Has someone tried it on a production environment, are there maybe better alternatives?
This is the first mistake Edward Snowden has done, although leaving HK could have been one, but going through Russia... Especially without passport, that's like a gift.

I foresee a very bad future for this man, and this is infuriating.
Has anybody gotten this to work yet? (The comments below imply nobody has.)

EDIT: Yeah it works, just keep pressing "roulette".

FEATURE REQUEST: I would really like a mic testing function. I can't tell if it's working or not.
I always find it funny that taxes are only for the poor as far as I'm aware. In reality speeding tickets aren't for reckless driving they are for funding police departments. The laws we have are and have always been designed to require whole teams of specialised people at great expense to debate whether, in fact you are or aren't in contradiction of them (insert campaign for plain terms legal messaging that is binding). In fact the law is so complex now that if you can pay for the smartest people to get you off the hook on technicalities.

We didn't get onto corporate power and influence in this thread (yet) but you get the idea. Is shut up and take it an option anymore when it's looking increasingly likely that governments corrupt and subvert real public debate (infiltrating organisations like Greenpeace with trouble makers), monitor everything you do on the internet and can trace it all back to you, and should the policies change under, say a Nixon, McCarthy or worse you could find the apparatus on your doorstep for a making everyone a suspected terrorist fairly soon. Turnkey Tyranny is exactly the correct terminology.

The truth is you can't trust the NSA to do the right thing and anyone with any common sense can see even in very very recent American history the powers of the state were massively abused. Freedom, democracy, these always have just been words to sugar coats a system by the rich for the rich. I the more you look at the system the more you realise that Chomsky is right about power and that you and me all need a fairer slice of the cake (both monetarily and in terms of our say in how government happens). What is good is that the means of production is coming back to the people; I can see the rich and powerful being very scared indeed by this.
Recruiter spam
It just occurred to me: If I were an intelligence agency, or intelligence agency contractor, I would start putting out job opening for all sorts of outlandish shit, just to keep people guessing about what the real capabilities are.

And if no one gets hired for some of these because the capability isn't there, well, we can just say that no applicants had the needed knowledge/skills/abilities.
Words 2.2 Open Beta. RSS done right.
The 'Nobel' as you put it encompasses multiple fields, most of which are based in sciences proven by empirical analysis. The 'Peace' prize has historically been controversial as contributions to peace are inherently political in nature.

Please don't disregard the other prizes: they represent real, quantifiable achievements. Peace is a simple result from political policies, but chemistry, physics, and medicine have a rich history of research and application.

Nobel Prize categories:

* Physics

* Chemistry

* Literature

* Peace

* Physiology

* Medicine

* Economic Sciences
Not knowing what I'm signing up for is a deal breaker.
Interesting stuff. TRESOR might not be overkill after all.
forging papers is the easy part. the hard part is knowing which borders you can safely cross and how to do it without setting alarm bells.

all of that doesn't concern snowden since he's on the run with a celeb status.
So it all went to hell once Wikileaks got involved.
I don't think a President Wyden would try to repeal ACA or really do too much meddling; he'd be busy for 4 years downsizing the defense-intelligence-industrial complex, which would provide more than enough savings to defer dealing with the other issues for a while.
You are barking at wrong person. I live in Ireland and drive 15 years old car. Also I doubt that large cities are powered by sunshine and rainbow.
How To Improve Your Conversion Rate When You Have High Traffic
> the beauty of a democratic society is that if a majority agree with you, then you can change the system.

This is false. The NSA considers itself outside the realm of law:

> "NSA does not have a statutory charter; its operational responsibilities are set forth exclusively in executive directives first issued in the 1950s. One of the questions which the Senate asked the Committee to consider was the "need for specific legislative authority to govern the operations of...the National Security Agency."

> According to NSA's General Counsel, no existing statutes control, limit, or define the signals intelligence activities of NSA. Further, the General Counsel asserts that the Fourth Amendment does not apply to NSA's interception of Americans' international communications for foreign intelligence purposes."

> http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/church/reports/book3/pdf/C...

We'd have to overthrow the "government" as it's existed for the past 50 years or so to get rid of the NSA.
This all a bunch of newspeak.

"People who sacrifice essential liberty for temporary security deserve neither."
Maybe, maybe not. Not everybody pays attention to the news... and it's not that hard to make yourself look different enough to evade the average Joe... like the guy/gal at the airport, earning minimum wage working as a ticket counter clerk, or TSA agent (or other national equivalent). Even the border police types can't examine everybody under a microscope. If you're a guy, grow a beard (or shave yours), dye your hair a different color, put on glasses (or take off yours), and you probably stand a decent chance of escaping notice.

Of course, this all requires some foresight, as you'd have to have ID documents done with the "disguised" appearance... but that's half my point - now is the time to start working on getting alternate identities, if you think there's even a slight chance you might need it.
We need a Rapid Response Internet Task Force
yes. but Microsoft has proposed a different protocol that is based on Skype technology ideas: http://html5labs.interoperabilitybridges.com/cu-rtc-web/cu-r...

Google and Mozilla are pushing the WebRTC: http://www.webrtc.org/
Thanks skram. I found these resources:
1. http://www.epictrends.com/resources/usability/betatesting.sh...

2. http://www.slideshare.net/centercode/sucessful-beta-testing-...
Just had a chat, so it definitely works! Text chat area is missing, but otherwise impressive.

Also, right now it's probably 90% HN users, that's a very interesting crowd to meet randomly.
>- turbo charger (obviously spins very quickly and unlike a petrol engine it comes on from about 1500rpm so it's used a lot)

What's with the turbocharger FUD in here today? BTW 1500 RPM is 1/2 or 2/3 the way to the redline on many diesels, so it's not really used more than it would be on a gasoline engine.

>- diesel injectors (high precision components operating under pressure)

Really simple devices in principle, can get expensive for some vehicles when the engineers have gone around the bend with new features (Mercedes Sprinter, I'm looking at you).

>- diesel particulate filter (can clog and require expensive replacement if car is not regularly driven hard)

No experience with them.

>- random engine/ECU "thing" that nobody can figure out (who knows what the root cause of this might be)

Nonsense. This is a mechanic/technician training issue. Diesel ECU's are no more complicated than for a gasoline engine. I'm really surprised to see anyone on HN play the "Dang them fancy computers is too complicated fer me." card.
Yea, I just talked to someone in Lithuania! It was exciting to see someone that read hacker news as I know no other person who reads it too.

That was my only successful attempt. Now I keep trying but the call doesn't go through.
The current best practice is that when police ask you to give up your fundamental rights you politely say no. Calmly say, "I don't consent to searches."

There is literally nothing good that can come from giving up your rights if you are innocent (for you personally, for the police, for society).
Hello, that was me!
Former NSA, CIA director: "The United States does conduct espionage"
Yea, missing text chat but I'm glad someone did something like this.
I don't quite understand how this is any different from a real checkpoint. There's a sign that says there's a checkpoint, there's dogs, and four cars were searched.

Only difference is they didn't search 100% of the cars.
Hyeonseo Lee: My escape from North Korea
Well...there went six hours.
It's not "some people", it's an entity or small set of entities that control a significant fraction of the total bitcoins in existence. These entities may or may not be manipulating the currency, but they have the power to do so if they choose. It is not unreasonable to be disturbed by the fact that these entities seem to have taken measures to conceal their existence.
Haha, nice! Now you can show me your work :)
This is true in theory, but soldiers the world over a trained simply to follow orders without question. How many soldiers when given an order, stop and think to debate the Constitutional issues, if any?

Mind you, there are good reasons for training soldiers this way - In the heat of combat, the Platoon Commander can't put everything to a vote. But this way of life does have its negatives.
And if you do start doubting our mission, keep your mouth shut, because we'll ruin your life no matter who you are (that's why they're going after a retired four star general right now over leaks).

That's also why Obama administration has been so hard on leakers and whistleblowers in general. To serve as a clear message to those who would talk about what's been happening at the NSA: we will punish you. The reason for clamping down so hard is because the scope, both in the amount of surveillance and in the sheer number of people who knew (in the military, government employees, contractors, and private companies NSA is collecting data from) had gotten so out of control.

The questions in my mind are:

How much of a systemic change has this program caused to the federal government already (e.g. clamping down on whistleblowers)?

How often have the capabilities of NSA been used to track down whistleblowers of any kind already (ironically employing what's causing the problem in the first place as part of a "solution")?

Have these capabilities been used to settle political scores already? I'm thinking of Petraeus. Interesting how those dots were connected. Interesting also that by then both Obama and Hillary Clinton had reason to be upset with him.
I have never used it but I've seen it demoed at the most recent London Node.js User Group meeting and it was pretty impressive: https://github.com/malditogeek/vmux
VW, Mercedes Benz and BMW are the brands I have these anecdotes for specifically. But reading on forums, it seems people have a lot of problems with modern diesel cars them generally. This is not exactly scientific, but the issue crops up at times in UK motoring and not-so-motoring press. Sample links:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012/mar/02/turbo-charged-co...

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-2332107/Petr...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/9407960/The-hidden-...

http://www.which.co.uk/news/2012/07/petrol-cars-cheaper-to-r...
I'm a first year CS student and I've been working on a very similar app as a pet project.

I've thought this was a great idea for a while now and I really like your execution. Cool name, nice design. Congrats on launching.
The real estate jobs aren't necessarily involved with owning and maintaining properties. They could be one-person real estate agencies.
They wouldn't search 100% of cars at a real checkpoint either.
I have never seen HN comments sound more like a Customer Service script than this.

I believe his issue is that he doesn't have a Google Reader account to import from.
Fantastic resource:

http://www.forentrepreneurs.com/saas-metrics-2/
"What's left is real estate, but I'm regularly told I shouldn't even bother if I'm not a fix-it handyman sort, which I'm not."

You don't need to do the fixing yourself... My advice would be to read 3+1 Plan book (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_3%2B1_Plan). You can get it for free in PDF from the author if you sing up for one of his websites.
Not sure how they do it in Ohio, but they've been doing this in Missouri for a while. They post the signs right before an exit that is rarely used that say something like "Drug checkpoint ahead be prepared to stop." I think I even saw it say something like last exit before checkpoint once. They then stop everyone that gets off at the exit. If you take a second to think about it, it's pretty obvious. Apparently it still manages to catch people.
Among my group of friends, DOMA generated far more interest than the NSA news. Are they just misled by the media?

I wouldn't blame anyone for taking more interest in gay rights than the NSA. The emerging widespread acceptance of gays as fellow human beings is probably unique to human history. It is hard to overstate the significance of that. But at the same time, I wouldn't give too much credit to the news media. It was a convenient wedge issue, but I suspect established powers were largely indifferent as to the outcome.
Yes, everything is encrypted by I2P during transport. However, nothing is encrypted on the disk, as I feel that is a system-level function best-served by full disk encryption.
CEO pay basically not tied to any kind of reality at all (report)
Why? This isn't a case of some shadowy organization actively trying to spy on americans, a la HBGary. BAH had a contract to support netops and hired Snowden. Not exactly the same thing Barr did as CEO.
Great question - file syncing in general can lead to so many problems. We're working on making it play well for single developers with multiple clients/workstations. Our goal is to really provide an awesome infrastructure to host your dev environment that you can access from anywhere. Conflicts could still arise with a single developer as they work on different machines, but we're trying to make it easy to merge work, such as in the case where one of your machines gets out of sync but still has unpushed changes made to the workspace.

At this point we're not focusing on collaboration between developers. There are incredible companies like GitHub whose core mission is to make code collaboration an amazing experience, and we really want to help developers leverage this while not worrying about environment, config & setup issues.

Thanks for the comment!
I'm surprised Germans are not up in arms about it given the Stasi history. They should know better.

Similar-minded agencies in other nations most likely will try to catch up with NSA/PRISM. It is a serious issue and I hope people will not let the NSA scandal be a cover for those initiatives, but an aid to expose them.
Blinders: military personnel can't read The Guardian, gagged, `Need to Know' sequestered. Why risk being a Chatty Kathy on HN when, this week, we read a General is being investigated for opening his big fat mouth. At Fort Meade, `Hackers' are criminals. I imagine any NSA or its contractors reading this are tasked to identify the outliers.
> and implore them not to revolt as Snowden did.

I don't have any evidence to support this, but I bet most NSA employees would rather see Snowden brought up on charges vs. using him as a lightning rod for revolt. The majority agree with what they are doing on a day to day basis, not the opposite.