autonomy77

>>It's one thing to watch a human mentally deteriorate when they are at the end of their life<<

Alzheimers is terrible to witness at any age - the elderly included. While it's certainly tragic to see in younger people, it's no less tragic to see older people in a state of fear and panic, when they should be enjoying their twilight years.

I'm always interested by alternative 'Foxes, but I'm intrigued as to why the installer is about 25MB bigger than Firefox. What's in there that makes it a 50% bigger installer?

Agreed, and this is probably by design. It's all a part of social control, or attempted social control. It's the threat of constant surveillance that will contribute to keeping people under control. Personally, I remain skeptical that Govt agencies can do a fraction of what they are claiming to be able to do - anyone who has worked with the various joys ofindustrial sized databases will know how difficult it is to maintain and query the really big ones - but the possibility of the threat remains. I forget the movie that the line is from but: "you don't actually need a big gun - just tell 'em you have one".

Plus, with the new "websites visited" retention rules - extendable at whim, there will be a permanent record, for example of that episode of Frasier that you downloaded from a Torrent site. A permanent record that is, of you "stealing something".

£51 for four burgers and fries in London is a tad excessive :)

Treat with caution - CartoonStock are a British company, based in Bath. I'm not aware of any US presence aside from a toll free number. Most UK Limited Liability Companies use UK lawyers too, so a Seattle based "law firm" representing them sounds somewhat fishy. Be careful.

Our responsibility as developers is to deliver a working solution within the parameters that we are given, not to push an agenda (no matter how strongly we may feel about it).

Like it or not, most of the businesses in the developed world are still using MS and the associated file formats, and will be for quite a while yet.

That's an accurate comment to make, yes. They know that you correspond with people who use Tor. See how this can escalate? I think we are (hopefully) all agreed that chasing down people who use the web for wrongdoing is acceptable for the govt to do - but the collateral damage is where the problems can lie - the potential for "guilt by association" here is monumental.

Firstly, to come out with a statement like "Ev's technical skills are light years beyond any of you so-called programmers" shows that you have no idea who the audience is for HN. Your comment is both incorrect and comically pretentious.

Secondly - are you the same Gwen Bell who "co-created" Bitters? If so, can you enlighten us on how it differs from the Express demo app? Please give details.

Good article, but there seems to be a current trend towards being either a full-time tech-head or a neo-luddite who rejects technology. I'd argue it's possible to be both. I have to be (and actually rather enjoy) being 100% plugged in for my job - yet I also enjoy powering down all my tech and spending dedicated time with my family with no devices online.

I think we sometimes forget that we're allowed to do them both - but sometimes the balance gets skewed. Plug in if you want to, but when you unplug, unplug completely. It's bliss.

>>But you can't have the internet without equipment, without servers built by guess who? Corporations. Take that away: no internet.<<

Partially correct - we need equipment, but mesh networking is becoming a reality. No corporate involvement beyond the hardware.

have a look:

http://www.dailydot.com/politics/greek-off-the-grid-internet...

It's satirizing the likes of Ev Bogue who actually used to post nonsense like that. I believe Bogue has changed from minimalist snobbery to "pretend to be a techie" snobbery now though. And I think he changed his name too.

Another rent-a-cliche is the inevitable Moleskine notebook. You sometimes even get to find out what make of bag they use too, like it could possibly matter. It's egotism and childishness combined, IMHO. For "minimalists" they really seem to care about brands :)

To nmjenkins, thanks for the reply and apology - please do not take this as a personal shot: I appreciate that issues occur with automated systems - but ignoring emails of complaint sent to addresses advertised on your website suggests that a different issue is in play. Not one of my emails was replied to, and the lasting impression is that - as I do not wish to become a customer - there was no point in responding at all to my complaint. Your reply above is appreciated, however - thank you.

While it's a relief that I'm not alone in this, it raises a concern that this policy of bludegoning people to sign up via email DOES appear to be a company policy. Plus, they refuse to even acknowledge emails on the subject.

I cannot recommend them less. Shabby treatment of potential customers.

Not impressed with Fastmail - I tried their free offer, wasn't impressed, and didn't sign up for the paid service. I've since had over 100 (yup) emails telling me of my "OVERDUE PAYMENT" (the caps are theirs), and they ignore correspondence requesting that they stop. Marketing via harrassment - interesting tactic, and incredibly bad form, IMHO.

The irony is heavy, isn't it? :)

Bitcasa are offering 10GB for free. Their unlimited service is cheap too. I cannot comment of their security.

The policy of intimidation is working - it doesn't matter if the NSA/GCHQ really do have the technology which is actually capable of performing this scale of surveillance - something which I'm entirely unconvinced of, incidentally - they are spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) and being quite successful at it too. Are they capable of trawling so much data to the depth that is claimed? Probably not. Are they capable of intimidating individuals with wide reaching knock-on effects including among the general public? Absolutely. So which method is having the most impact? The threat is far more effective than the reality. Make people scared - it saves you having to actually do anything.