oceanstone

I welcome Eric Holder's honesty as well. It sets a good precedent for more (current and former) officials to come out and say, "these disclosures actually empowered the American people."

> Makes you wonder, does the USG feel a sense of relief now that all this mass-surveillance stuff is out there and the general public doesn't care that much?

Referring to the US government as a single entity is a bit of a simplification, considering it's made up of millions of American employees and contractors. Many of them support privacy, and want surveillance reform. Also, there's been a large amount of ongoing public outcry, which keeps leading to more security advances in mass market products.

> "We stepped up and fixed all the problems, so there is no need to continue the debate."

Interesting take. When I read Holder's quotes, “we are in a different place as a result of the Snowden disclosures” and “his actions spurred a necessary debate”, I got the sense he was acknowledging progress we'd made as a society. He didn't seem to imply the debates or reforms were over though.

They are using a modified version of Unreal Engine 3. (Much like X-COM, and its upcoming sequel.)

So this is less of a port, and more of a deployment to a platform that widely varies in terms of performance. And this is much easier to do when your graphics aren't so "next gen".

> Apple, Oracle, Google Inc. and seven of their biggest peers now have in excess of $500 billion of cash and marketable securities, up more than three-fold since 2008, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The problem is much of it is stuck overseas.

Stuck overseas in the sense that these corporations aren't willing to pay American taxes [1], insisting on using complex tax loopholes that essentially leave the bill on the doorsteps of normal, hard working American citizens.

[1] http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/10/08/to-cut-corporate-taxe...

This is a great example of why the NSA & FBI should invest in strengthening American encryption standards, instead of trying to weaken them.

Merriam-Webster defines terrorism as "the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion" [1].

[1] http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/terrorism

@rand334 & @vdnkh: The original comment highlights the only two Senators who voted against the "Freedom" Act and supported net neutrality.

I'm celebrating the only two Senators who voted against the "Freedom" Act [1] and supported net neutrality [2]. Both also voted against the "Patriot" Act in 2001, while they served in the House [3]:

Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) & Bernie Sanders (I-VT).

[1] http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_c...

[2] http://www.baldwin.senate.gov/press-releases/us-senator-tamm... & http://www.markey.senate.gov/news/press-releases/to-protect-...

[3] http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2001/roll398.xml

Russ Tice, a Bush-era NSA whistleblower, claims Obama's phones were tapped by the NSA starting in 2004 [1]. If true, questions would be raised. Could they have some leverage on him? That's just speculation though, and wouldn't give Obama an excuse for supporting the illegal [2] NSA programs.

[1] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/20/russ-tice-nsa-obama...

[2] http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/07/us-usa-security-ns...

> After all we only are talking about "phone records" here

Phone records are the most publicized example of Section 215 in use, but the section is worded to apply to any "tangible thing."

The NSA's "upstream collection" program involves copying entire datastreams (actual content) from internet hubs across America. The EFF mentions it on their main "NSA Spying" page here, https://www.eff.org/nsa-spying.

Mozilla tried to launch a site to help educate people while tracking engagement?

This seems like a much bigger issue than the NSA copying entire datastreams from American internet hubs.

> Nope. It was a tip-off to the national security hotline.

In America, for whatever reason, that tip might have been ignored. :(

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/boston-bombing-anniversary/...

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/bombers-phone-call-father/story?id=...

To be fair, the script is "http://localhost:35729/livereload.js". That shouldn't leak anything to an adversary, if the request doesn't leave the client's computer.

Still should be fixed though, so the HTTPS warning can serve its function and call out real threats.

When I knock on someone's door, and then hand them a hot box of pizza, they smile and often hand me money: $5's, $10's, sometimes a $100. I'm just doing my job, just like this Harlan "Father Time" Stenn. I suppose we take for granted, that which we can't see.

I hope you're right. It definitely helps with parking.

Well, that's possible with compile-to-JavaScript languages. Also you have the option of plugins like Unity, if you're going for something graphically adventurous.

That being said, JavaScript is a powerful tool, if wielded correctly. It's so flexible. In a lot of ways, it's like a pizza. One man orders a pizza with anchovies, another with green peppers. And on and on. Eventually it's like they've got two completely different dinners.

I just worry about the congestion. Then again, I'd rather be driving alongside a Lyft driver than a taxi driver, if you know what I mean.

Lack of speed can be a safety feature. As a pizza delivery man operating in the city of Chicago, I've seen all too many young hotshots come in the business, and leave with moving violations.

> And generally all Lyft drivers I've met have been happy Uber driver converts. I totally buy the Southwest Airlines angle they are trying to achieve.

I've noticed this too - the Lyft driver's are happier on average. And when you do get a rude Lyft driver, chances are they are driving for Uber too. At least this has been my experience.

I'm a little worried. More Lyft drivers on the road might mean it's harder for me, a simple pizza delivery man, to deliver value across the city of Chicago. At the same time, I welcome Lyft to challenge Uber's dominant position - and hope they can gain market share while maintaining a stronger moral stance than the incumbent.

There does seem to be a bias towards overly worded critical comments.

What I'm hearing is you'd like to make the topic of astroturfing "off-limits", because you feel its discussion is "toxic".

If you can live without Flash, it's worth uninstalling. These days, the killer apps you'll experience from Flash are zero-day exploits.

> PS: The accusations of astroturfing on HN are a vile sort of rhetorical tactic.

You sound upset about the accusation. What if it were true though?

You seem to be saying placement on the front page shouldn't impact the eyeballs driven to a story. If that's what you believe, I won't try to convince you otherwise.

> Frankly, most people don't give a shit

What's worse, truly not giving a shit, or giving a shit but giving up because there isn't enough outward validation?

> "Minimize awareness"? Obviously we don't try to do that, nor would we ever want to, or even think that way.

The higher up on Hacker News an article is, the more awareness will typically be allocated to the story. If a story drops from the front page, significantly less attention will be allocated to it.

While the penalties might not have been intended to minimize awareness of these stories in the greater scheme of things, they were certainly meant to minimize awareness of the stories on Hacker News.

> “In a post-Snowden world,” Sanabria said, “nothing would surprise me.”

That's the spirit.