oceanstone

You might be interested in NoScript. With this addon, JavaScript can be blocked by default, and allowed on pages of your choosing.

If you'd like an easier way to toggle this setting. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/happy-bonobo-...

I wish Chrome would provide this setting too.

Oh, that's good

After my interview with Netflix, I felt smarter. Didn't end up working there, but met new people & we shared strategies for achieving higher performance.

I like to associate `.apply` with "Array", and `.call` with "Columns".

    f.apply(this, arrayOfArgs); // Array

    f.call(this, arg1, arg2, arg3); // Columns

> How a democracy could work where Government operates in absolute secrecy for the people

Democracy depends on informed consent of the governed.

> What happens when the people in power have all the power and no oversight?

The phrase "power corrupts - absolute power corrupts absolutely" was inspired by human history.

> By losing your privacy you don't get more security.

> Are you safer when you are transparent to them but they are opaque to you?

Eroding privacy protections aren't necessary. Many recent terrorism attacks could have been nipped in the bud, if more help was accepted from the public. For instance, the underwear bomber's parent warned the CIA [1] of his child. Russian intelligence warned us of the Tsarnaev's [2]. A flight school instructor warned the FBI of suspicious students who didn't seem interested in landing [3].

[1] https://hbr.org/2010/01/why-they-didnt-connect-the-dot

[2] http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/blog/2014/04/11/fbi-admit...

[3] http://www.newsweek.com/terrible-missed-chance-67401

- - -

Keeping citizens informed & in the loop would help national security more than anything.

Does anyone else see Title II as potentially opening the door to more competition?

From a recent article: http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/01/google-letter-fcc-title-i...

> Mountain View pointed out that if broadband internet access is declared to be a Title II service, then Google Fiber should be granted the same access as other utilities to poles and other essential infrastructure. It went on to say that doing so would actually "promote broadband deployment and competition."

> I would probably think it through and have my house in order first

The bulk collection has been going on for at least a decade now.

> Politicians aren't known for being tech savvy, but they aren't known for being stupid either.

I've observed politicians get away with certain behaviors, to a point. For example, Eliot Spitzer, or Bill Clinton. Once they become a target, their trespasses aren't necessarily forgiven.

> This too shall pass.

The Snowden revelations are "The Jungle" of our time. We'll adapt to these issues. Still, our adaption won't be free, and a proactive attitude will benefit us.

> Although I'm not familiar with the _actual_ operating procedures involved

Their official line is that the data isn't being collected, correct?

Was that Binney or Tice?

> If we continuously make it increasingly harder for NSA, MOSAD, GCHQ and the rest of them to spy on us, we can achieve good enough privacy

Right now everyone's digital communications are being collected by those agencies, via fiber optic cable taps [1]. This could be called bulk surveillance. Different people & groups have access to these databases of communications. Some are government employees, some are contractors. Now, what if an activist or a Senator starts speaking out against bulk surveillance? Would those with access to the databases be tempted to run a few queries?

  'SELECT * FROM `sms` WHERE `person_id`="$senator_id"'

Note: Most analysts would never run that query. But it just takes one.

[1] http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/homefront/interviews...

Sad to see a great person like him leave us.

I recommend everyone check out defensive driving. You just never know what state of mind other drivers are in.

> I don't recall which software update it was, but my iPhone 3g was a great example of this.

Do you recall if it was a major or minor update?

> A great programmer doesn't merely do the same work faster. A great programmer will invent things an ordinary programmer would never even think of. > ... a great programmer might invent things worth 100x or even 1000x an average programmer's salary.

I like how Paul slips in some encouragement for engineers wanting to start their own businesses.

> Online freedom isn’t automatic, and it’s only through active effort that the internet will stay an open platform for creativity and innovation. We take our role seriously.

Well said, Stripe.

Keep up the great work, Mozilla! I'm excited to see where a lot of these projects go, especially asm.js.

Be honest with your managers.

Oh, good to know. I wish we knew Mozilla's permanent Bitcoin address.

When Coinbase gives the option to donate directly to a Bitcoin address, "1GnkMmEjTHHrw8BaWzBxEzuNweUwhmwGrg" in this case, is that a wallet Mozilla owns?

Thanks for the insight!

Your comment reminded me of this blog from Netflix: http://techblog.netflix.com/2013/01/reactive-programming-at-...

> I also imagine (though am mostly speculating) that a benchmark involving a full-stack frontend framework like Angular or Ember, with hundreds or thousands of JS objects and lots of DOM manipulation, should put V8's performance a bit closer to CPython

Interesting idea! How would we make a version of the benchmark for CPython though?

> That's not an objective comparison, since Javascript has been optimized to deal with arrays and numbers

What were your thoughts on the regex-dna benchmark?

> The runtime performance is already very good and continually getting better

Have you checked out the Computer Benchmarks Game? Here are some benchmarks they provide, comparing the JavaScript V8 to Python [1], Ruby [2], and PHP [3].

Looking at statistics such as these, I'm left thinking, "1. This is awesome! 2. Is there something about these other languages that prevents V8-like performance, or is this more a matter of browser performance being highly invested in by Google, Mozilla, etc.?"

[1] http://benchmarksgame.alioth.debian.org/u64/benchmark.php?te...

[2] http://benchmarksgame.alioth.debian.org/u64/benchmark.php?te...

[3] http://benchmarksgame.alioth.debian.org/u64/benchmark.php?te...

> what would be the reason they didn't put a nuclear battery on board

Not every launch makes it to space.

> Anyone with access to the connection can tell what site you're talking to.

HTTPS encrypts the URL paths you access [1]. Would you rather an adversary knew which IPs you visited, or the IPs plus the URLs?

[1] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/499591/are-https-urls-enc...

> If it's public static content, what is SSL protecting?

Comcast was recently caught injecting self-promotional ads via JavaScript injection. Sites using HTTPS are immune from this sort of attack. [1]

[1] http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/09/why-comcasts-java...

The language just gave you a block of memory. It lets you decide whether you'd like to dedicate resources to clearing that memory.

From a psychological standpoint, a server that consistently responds quickly & doesn't break is easier to trust.

> We were assured at the time that this was an essential law enforcement tool that would be used only to protect the country from terrorism.

This describes much more than just the "sneak and peek" power.