6 ms·

Syria secretly sentenced free software developer Bassel Khartabil to death

110 points by saurabh 11y ago

greenyoda 11y ago
Previous discussion of original source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10560781 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10560781
jmnicolas 11y ago
I was wondering what he did exactly, but didn't find much. According to a French site [0] he was charged with "spying for an enemy of the state". [0] https://fr.globalvoices.org/2015/10/03/190898/ https://fr.globalvoices.org/2015/10/03/190898/
Patronus_Charm 11y ago
Very sad the state of world affairs we find each day in our news.
- _vya7 11y ago
  That's kind of how news works. It does whatever it can to grab our attention and keep us as long as possible. So it shouldn't be surprising when we read a news article and feel the way the article intended for us to feel. The way I work around this is by just not reading news articles unless they have to do with some programming concept I'm interested in learning more about. Hence my being at HN more often than reddit.
  - codewithcheese 11y ago
    Totally agree with you. Hacker news is pretty satisfying for me, but I have many other interests. I think there is tons of potential for news outlets that don't just dredge the horror... Open to non tech suggestions (ars, crunch i can find myself thanks)...
    - chadykamar 11y ago
      I like timeline.com and nextdraft.com a lot. They both have apps for iOS.
      - codewithcheese 11y ago
        thanks!
jbuzbee 11y ago
It's sad that you often see this overreaction on both sides of a conflict. You mete out disproportionate punishment that outrages people who would have otherwise stood on the sidelines drawing them into the conflict as well. Not to make light of the situation but it's much like the Streisand Effect with much higher stakes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect
RainforestCx 11y ago
Another great piece written by Bassel's friend Henry Oh (SV entrepreneur): https://www.birgitterasine.com/works/books/visionary/stories/henry-oh https://www.birgitterasine.com/works/books/visionary/stories...

110 points by saurabh 11y ago

Previous discussion of original source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10560781 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10560781

jmnicolas 11y ago

I was wondering what he did exactly, but didn't find much. According to a French site [0] he was charged with "spying for an enemy of the state". [0] https://fr.globalvoices.org/2015/10/03/190898/ https://fr.globalvoices.org/2015/10/03/190898/

Patronus_Charm 11y ago

Very sad the state of world affairs we find each day in our news.

_vya7 11y ago
That's kind of how news works. It does whatever it can to grab our attention and keep us as long as possible. So it shouldn't be surprising when we read a news article and feel the way the article intended for us to feel. The way I work around this is by just not reading news articles unless they have to do with some programming concept I'm interested in learning more about. Hence my being at HN more often than reddit.
- codewithcheese 11y ago
  Totally agree with you. Hacker news is pretty satisfying for me, but I have many other interests. I think there is tons of potential for news outlets that don't just dredge the horror... Open to non tech suggestions (ars, crunch i can find myself thanks)...
  - chadykamar 11y ago
    I like timeline.com and nextdraft.com a lot. They both have apps for iOS.
    - codewithcheese 11y ago
      thanks!

jbuzbee 11y ago

It's sad that you often see this overreaction on both sides of a conflict. You mete out disproportionate punishment that outrages people who would have otherwise stood on the sidelines drawing them into the conflict as well. Not to make light of the situation but it's much like the Streisand Effect with much higher stakes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect

RainforestCx 11y ago

Another great piece written by Bassel's friend Henry Oh (SV entrepreneur): https://www.birgitterasine.com/works/books/visionary/stories/henry-oh https://www.birgitterasine.com/works/books/visionary/stories...