skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Neither the story itself nor the actual title of the piece is about Snowden; whoever submitted the link to HN highlighted the comment by Snowden in their own title. Did you click the link? Did you read the article?
Hitman - A Markdown parser written in 66 lines of Clojure
You're making impertinent responses, and doing it wrong.

If there is a distinction between target and untargeted ads, it isn't being made through the insertion analogy. Invasiveness has nothing to do with specificity, and the shock value of the piece was clearly intended to come from the opening of the mail and inserting of the ads, not that the service "keeps profiles," which was just a brief aside in the post. Obviously, it's an analogy. Nothing about it is literal. However, analogies are supposed to bear resemblance to the real world, which this doesn't do and which is why it's detrimental to the discussion around these issues. That was my original point.

The OP clearly objects to relinquishing your data in general. He links to articles about "owning your own data" in the footer. I don't think this primarily about targeted ads. What if the post office opened and replicated every piece of mail that you sent or received, then kept it on file in case you needed it at some point. This eliminates any adverse reaction that might come from advertising while providing a valuable service. Do you think that the content of this post is condoning that? I'm not 100% sure of the OP's intentions, but this piece seems discourage relinquishing your data in general. It paints with an incredibly broad brush and fails to acknowledge the complexity of this issue. That is precisely why I don't like it.

If storing mail is bad even without ads simply because it makes you susceptible to surveillance, doesn't that validate the OP's point that storing of any kind is bad? I don't understand. Your arguments seem contradictory, and I suspect that you're making responses just to make them, not because they are constructive to the conversation. I'm not interested in a regressive conversation that is predicated on interpreting the intentions of a third party or engaging in a line-by-line debate that has strayed from the actual issue.

I'm not sure what's nitpicky about my post. Seems like you just read what you wanted to read.
Given the decidedly non-marketing-oriented layout of their stores, I don't think they'd miss the opportunity for up-selling.

I think they're more marketing-oriented than you're suggesting. There's a reason I have to walk by the big-screen TVs every time I walk in to my Costco, and why they hire all those workers (who are contractors, no?) to give out food samples. Come to think of it, at my local store, everything you might want to "browse through", from clothes to books to seasonal stuff, is in the low-shelved center of the store, while the "dependables" are in the back.

I'm sure they make money from the members who buy the same dozen things every time they visit, but I bet they make a lot more from the folks who browse the sample stations and who buy TVs on impulse.

Anyway, that counters my argument about Amazon, since they'll never be able to hand out Bagel Bites!
Because current interfaces to PGP/GPG are not grandma/soccer mom friendly.

It's better that they don't use encryption than it is for them to use it incorrectly (insecurely) and give them a false sense of security.

This "idea" comes up year after year after year after year. Occasionally, someone says they'll build a better mousetrap. Always, nothing comes of it.

PS: Zuck does not care about your privacy in the least. You are not his customer, you are his product. Advertisers are his customers.
6 Powerful Psychological Effects that Explain how Our Brains Tick
posting at the top level for visibility.

this appears to be an earlier, known case where lavabit complied. it does not seem to be the case that caused the shutdown.

see for example http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/08/lavabit-snowden/ :

Court records show that, in June, Lavabit complied with a routine search warrant targeting a child pornography suspect in a federal case in Maryland. That suggests that Levison isn’t a privacy absolutist. Whatever compelled him to shut down now must have been exceptional.
A famous one in first-amendment law (and in literature) is United States v. One Book Called Ulysses (1933). Gives it a rather evocative feel, setting up an image of the U.S. government and the book itself battling it out.

There are also some unkind jokes about the state of Kansas derived from the title Quantity of Books v. Kansas (1964).
No I doubt that, these are sys admins? Unless they wipe everything and start over?
Some of my friends (no maxi geek but 30 yo, gamers, smartphone users ...) still type google.com in chrome bar in order to type Facebook in google and then access FB via search results ... Mindfuck
The Angel Investor’s Ascent [Infographic]
Put another way: since March 20, Yahoo has averaged an acquisition every ten days.
"freedom of the press" and freedom of speech are very different things. "Press" is regulated and licensed by the government and expression in the press is available to a select few. Speech is available to anybody.

Taking Canada as an example, doesn't Canada have Human Rights Council which prosecutes people for expressing opinions not condoned by the government?

In fact, Canadian Supreme Court considers limiting freedom of speech and defining what can and can not be spoken by the government completely justifiable:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Human_Rights_Commissi...

Existence of such laws and commissions proves that protection available to Canadian citizens in the realm of free speech is nowhere near what First Amendment provides.
Bombe droped on civilians in Congo DRC
Sorry to show You this. Massacre in Rumangabo by The Ciminal Joseph Kabila
This is interesting, many of the people I talk with believes that the browser is "internet". Which makes me giggle a bit inside everytime.
Privacy isn't explicitly guaranteed in the Constitution. So the Court has tended to side with the Government on matters of National Security vs. Privacy. In fact, the Constitution guarantees searches for the Government, so long as they are reasonable. On matters of national security versus a database, national security readily wins. The Court finds those searches reasonable.

So, in the case of Privacy, you aren't fighting your Representatives who can be bought to change laws. You are fighting the Court. That fight is much more of a long game. And that long game would seem to be better won through broader Civil Rights which are already under attack. Read the First Amendment and think of Snowden and the media. Read the 4th and consider the broadness of "unreasonable" and where it extends to property seizure laws. Heck read the 8th and consider how broadly solitary confinement is used as punishment in our prisons. Or how anti-drug and anti-marriage laws restrict personal choice. To me, protection of our broad Rights against the Leviathan is the issue of our time.

That said, the 2nd Amendment is also an ally in this fight. In contrast to Privacy, the right of gun ownership is explicitly guaranteed and the NRA is a partner in questions of privacy. We just need to help them realize that the national security apparatus could easily be expanded inwards to target gun owners. We need to help them realize that the technology to do so is already trivial for the Big Bad Government.
Docket @ the IA: http://ia800908.us.archive.org/9/items/gov.uscourts.mdd.2362... (has SHA hashes, as well as IA links to the docs)
Thank you for your hard work! Hugs from Bolivia!
> If you are a parent yourself, you will know that suggesting education is not enough.

...why do you think this? If you raise a child to be intelligent and independent, education is pretty much the only effective way to keep them away from something.
Own your audience.
More private, free alternatives to Gmail, Ymail, Outlook, etc? 
Obviously not expecting the level of privacy that you'd get from the paid services out there (and even then, apparently that's not foolproof), but I'd prefer something a bit more private than Gmail - some service that doesn't scan your emails. Preferably free? :)
It depends on how the VPN is setup... Multicast DNS will work if you are in the same L2 domain. Otherwise, a different solution is needed. For example, if you have a smartphone that you bring with you to the office, and that is connected to your office Wifi network and your home Wifi network, then synchronization would still work through your smartphone. Otherwise, a cloud-based "reflector" is needed. See the other comment about that.
I still have a client who is like this now. He still goes through AOL and thinks it's the internet.

The funny thing about it though is that he usually says things like "the page needs more pop", "make that bright red and bold because I can't see it", etc.. AKA, he has no idea what he's talking about but thinks he does. I stopped taking new work from him because it was the most infuriating thing imaginable.
I imagine most fields have a lot of jargon too; it's just that technology is one of the few areas that has become essentially ubiquitous, so we notice the difference between technology-savvy and non-technology-savvy more often.

I imagine that in the eyes of tax experts, we are all totally ignorant of how we could make the most out of the tax system.
The title of the article seems to imply immediacy. the article itself though says that they plan on automating 90% of the employees out of a job. So I suspect a lot of people will work really hard in hopes that they remain part of the 10% and the smart ones are working on their resumes. Though the whole layoff itself is probably at least a year away.
Yeah, we're in the process of migrating from MySQL to PostgreSQL now. I don't think any other project at work has kept me up at night as much as this one.
RAPE TESTIMONY: CONGO SOLDIERS SODOMISED ME, SEE VIDEO
We bring you a shocking insight into the horror of the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the east of the country, thousands of women, children and even men were raped last November. A crime committed not by the M23 rebels, but by the regular army, supposed to protect the population.
I expressed my current opinion with it's rational. I don't see yours or anything having a vague resemblance to a counter argument.
I feel like I've already linked to my blog too much, but please take a look at http://nick.stinemat.es . I go through setting up Docker, to building my apps with Docker, to running a huge site on Docker.

If you're looking for more content, I'll be happy to provide it.
I don't believe that Lavabit ever claimed to be encrypting email metadata. Then there was also the requests for payment records, log information and the like.

So even if they couldn't deliver all requested information, they could deliver some.
This is where all those psychological profiles they did at the interview stage pay off. At least, that's what they are banking on.
I suppose we're just wired to overestimate the value of individuals. I just hope he spends a lot of that money, whereby it might actually do the world some good (rather than 'investing' it) .
This seems like a very interesting and ambitious goal, but the price seems way off. It looks like the child of a $2000 ToughBook and a few hundred dollars worth of solar cells. Could anyone speculate about the COG?

I don't understand why they would position it at $400 anyways, when certain types of customers (those doing aid work, or safaris, or whatever else people from North America and Europe do in remote places) would certainly be willing to splash out a few grand. The founder explicitly says their goal isn't the same as OLPC. You could even rent them to tourists (like those international MiFi companies).
Senic (YC S13) builds a laser distance meter for smartphones
I wouldn't be surprised if Amazon eventually reached the point where they start including samples in your shipments. "Based on your purchase history, your e-mail traffic, and data from the webcam we hid in your shower, we think you might like Product X. We've included a few, give them a try!"
Having done loads of tech support for old people, I've really got used to being sensitive about the terminology I used - and their 'alternative' terms.

Some of the best examples:
- 'the green' for the desktop (that teal desktop background from Win98)
- 'e' for the internet ("So when I'm on e...")
- 'the computer' for the screen - particularly hard to diagnose over the phone

Also, several times I fell foul to the old bash.org facepalmer of physical action when I ask if they can "open a window". Skeomorphism can be confusing.
> Think about how fucked up a tech company would be if it got to the scale of Microsoft or Google but without being able to hire non-citizens, have people enter/leave freely, hire anyone with at all a shady background, interact much with the outside world, etc.

Not to mention not hiring anyone who smokes marijuana. That would eliminate like 60% of the best CS grads I know.
KDE Connect For Android Shares Everything, Even Your Clipboard
Ask HN: Any practical advice/tips for a new Machine Learning guy?
I just moved from a software engineer position to a machine learning team. I know most of ML theory from my comp sci classes, I've re-read the PRML book by Bishop and I'm working through Hastie as we speak. What I'm missing is practical knowledge. I've been using Python and Scikit-learn recently on the tutorial problems from Kaggle, and I know I should get familiar with a Mapreduce implementation like Hadoop. What other skills/tools should I be familiar with?
I think I understood your intent as noble enough -- it isn't living and breathing in the sense that it is just there, waiting to be reinterpreted by whomever is in charge.
I've started using Foundation, and like it so far. It's less prescriptive visually than Bootstrap.
> This is not even remotely comparable to what most email providers do. They insert ads around the service, but never actually alter the content of the email

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57594819-93/google-starts-p...
I'm certainly not a TAO offensive security type, but maybe I'm somewhat representative of median people in the security space. I was certainly more than willing to work for USG at one point, but the "crypto wars" of the 1990s (as well as the end of the cold war and lack of a mission) convinced me not to go to NSA then (I was going to do ROTC -> NSA). Post-9/11, I fully supported both the USG infosec mission and the use of sigint/etc. to go after specific foreign terrorist groups, and worked as a defense contractor with what that entails (although doing nothing so glamorous as NSA/TAO/etc., but at least not running a helpdesk for ITT either. I envied INSCOM/ISA so much.).

Now, I'd have a really hard time doing anything more contractory than selling totally standardized COTS products to the USG, even something non-threatening like a better teleconferencing system, until/unless there is re-established effective elected oversight (i.e. congress, as a whole, and not just 15 committee members with little interest, expertise, or competence) over these programs. Not really holding my breath on that.
You make it seem like crypto is a solved domain. Implementation of crypto is incredibly difficult to do right even when the underlying "math" is provably secure.
Lavabit only offered that extra level of privacy on paid accounts.

The free accounts didn't have it.
Well ck2 it certainly reads like something close to worship. "How is it possible for him to be inspired any further?" "Sacrificed his life" "He can't be inspired, he is the inspirer" That's pretty strong stuff.
https://www.spamgourmet.com/ in some ways similar
Even if they look safe: http://thejh.net/misc/website-terminal-copy-paste
Many "conspiracies" do seem to require implausible, superhuman feats of coordination driven by Machiavellian malfeasance.

These can be dismissed as improbable.

However, many horrible things happen in the world that are not driven by a plot, but by dumb nature, stupidity, or the conflux of human biological urges -- ill suited to a technologically advanced world.

Such "emergent" threats deserve greater consideration; particularly if the theory renders them (at first glance) plausible.
Hiding like Osama? Quite the opposite wouldn't you say? Don't we all pretty much know where he is all the time?
It's the "CS grads you know" thing that is the problem. There's plenty of Venn overlap between hardcore CS and ROTC, too. They're just not the people we hang out with.
Until we have specific, actual, real privacy atrocities I can't see this effort getting the traction of any of the groups you've specified. Labor had company towns and less but still specifically abusive employers, with plenty of specific people maimed or killed in unsafe workplaces or labor actions. Environmentalists had deformed children from Japanese industrial mercury dumping, and, oh, the Cuyahoga River catching on fire. Gun grabbers have killed, maimed, or otherwise grossly abused thousands of people and that continues to this day.

What specific incidents, with victims most will empathize with, can the privacy effort point to?
FWIW, NSA doesn't hire people who "smoke" marijuana, but probably doesn't have a huge problem now (extrapolating from the past) with people who "smoked" marijuana. It's probably below "has a foreign spouse" on their rejection criteria, provided it was "a college thing".

FBI and other LEOs had a much more serious antidrug screening than DOD or IC.
If they can get the price down, pairing this with the Google balloon WiFi would be awesome. Making it easier and cheaper for people in developing countries to get online would be great.
That only applies if you're spying on the taxpayers, though, or possibly threatening to kick their doors in looking for drugs.

If you're teaching taxpayers or helping them in any other way then most of your department got the axe a decade ago.
Despite a long history, the NRA was just getting started in politics when Reagan was elected, and was a lot softer back then. The transformation that began with Cox and Carter in 1977 and was later carried on by Lapierre took time to gain strength. Even in the mid 90's I'd say the NRA was not as strong as it is today.

The 1994 assault weapons ban was a wakeup call, and probably contributed to the rapid sales growth of that type of rifle (it's the fastest growing segment in the industry today), which increases support for the NRA - you see how it goes. The more they try to ban the stronger the gun rights folks get. In 1994, AR15's were a niche product that even some gun owners scoffed at as useless. Today they are very much mainstream.

There also seems to be a rise in Libertarian-like thought across all parties these days that probably contributes to the NRA's cause.

But it is a mistake to paint the NRA as a Republican organization. It is far from it. That Republicans tend to support the NRA is a fact, but the NRA is non-partizan. If you look at successful lobbying groups, you'll see that they are for the most part non-partizan. The big unions are an exception, but I would argue they limit themselves by aligning with Democrats.
Benefits of becoming a full stack developer
I think Joey Hess already has a solar powered Linux laptop, albeit its not commercially available. Does anyone else have a setup like this?

http://joey.hess.usesthis.com/
Being held accountable is irrelevant. If what people want is someone to be accountable, people will get scapegoats.

The key difference would be that when acts happen that defy the needs and expectations of society that those actions end.

If Keith Alexander was blamed for acting without authorization and imprisoned for treason and then NSA operations went quietly on their way again, that wouldn't necessarily mean anything.

If on the other hand, there was no punishment doled out, but instead any apology was given out and the PRISM program and similar were dismantled, and a new intelligence system were built in its place with support and approval from the public. Maybe something with proper auditable checks and balances, something with less risk to the public. If that was the case, even if nobody was punished, the situation would improve.

Calling for punishment or vengeance will satisfy emotions. It doesn't do anything to change the status quo. I'm not in the US, but if I were, I wouldn't be calling for the President to be held accountable, or anyone else. I would be calling for change of the laws and processes that I felt were violating my rights.

I think this is especially true in a system as complex as government. There is no one person truly responsible for these systems. So to focus on punishing a person is meaningless. People can be forced to do things despite the potential punishment. People can have decisions made by more powerful people attributed to them.

In the end though, it is more important that bad behavior stops than it is that we exact retribution on some person for it happening. If the latter happens without the former, it's worse than meaningless.
> The world, under the guise of "everybody is created equal," has fallen under the spell of "everybody has the same intellectual capacity" (which is clearly wrong). Yahoo isn't paying a high school dropout $100 million + $80 million because of his snazzy FU-my-mom-dresses-me haircut — they're paying him that because he's different. He's better. He's done more in five years than you've done in 20. You can't train that. People just are.

Don't agree. I don't like the idea that knowing some fancy-trendy-computer skill is equal to "He's different", "He's better.". Computer skills don't make you better than a plumber. It's just a skill. A skill that turns out to be in ridiculously high-demand today, but it doesn't make you better than the plumber or the janitor or the cashier at Starbucks.
I know when I decided to get a BS in computer-science, I had the full intention of being a videogame developer barely making ends meet in a cockroach-filled apartment. I had absolutely no idea this whole Bay Area trendy-"web2.0"-linux-cloud-opensource movement was going to happen at all. I surely didn't plan to make even half the salary I'm getting now. This make my family incredibly fortunate, but not better than anyone else. I think HN-folks in general need reminders that we're not some group of superior beings, we're just insanely lucky we won the "career-lottery" for being in the right place at the right time with the right skills.

P.S. I don't know how we'd measure intellect, but I do believe that all healthy human beings do have the same potential for the amount of knowledge they can consume, at least at birth. And I'm not even sure how to define "healthy", Stephen Hawking probably doesn't meet most people's definition of healthy but he's very smart, right? And is he smart in all subjects? Or just physics, cosmology, astrophysics and other universe-related things? What subjects do you need to be well-versed in to be considered smart?
How can any one individual get an insight into a population of millions -- without making at least some concessions to practicality, and the generalisation and other "technical" untruths that this implies.
" released back into the labor pool " is a wonderfully sweet way of saying fired.
John Gruber And Jeff Atwood Explain Why Markdown Is Still Growing Up
This is very nice. In Denmark we have a country-wide database of buildings with physical data about them (number of floors, square meters, number of units, etc.), and it's gratis-queryable at a small scale through a web interface [1], but to get the data in bulk you have to license it for a lot of money. Would be nice to see it going in the open-data direction.

[1] https://www.ois.dk/
Humans are slow. Gmail's computers are programmed to wring the most possible profit out of millions and millions of accounts. Seriously, I'm convinced the humans would do less damage.
Here's the kicker: most of these non-tech-savvy users are not the older generation.

They are the younger generation.

The generation that is used to tech that "just works", without ever having to figure out why it doesn't.