alexqgb

78 ms·

601.
Cryptogams and the NSA (fiction)(warscapes.com)
126 points by alexqgb 13y ago|47 comments
602.
by alexqgb 13y ago
Dude, he IS the government.
603.
by alexqgb 13y ago
You said you couldn't see how the result could be unintended. I showed you how it could be unintended. You replied with sarcasm. So now I'm assuming you're not seriously interested in the answer to your second question. But I
604.
by alexqgb 13y ago
Of course I read it. And the key passage (to my mind) was this one: "We’ve also been hearing that there wasn’t a whole lot of communication between the various teams behind say, Mail and Safari. And that there were multiple teams insid
605.
by alexqgb 13y ago
Design by multiple, inexperienced, poorly coordinated committees, to be precise. http://www.fastcodesign.com/1672819/who-designed-ios-7-s-ico...
606.
by alexqgb 13y ago
Some people may think "Wow, this travesty looks like design by committee". Others may say "No, no, this looks like design by multiple, competing committees with no clear direction or coordination." As it turns out, the l
607.
Who Designed iOS 7’s Icons? Apple’s Marketing Department(fastcodesign.com)
3 points by alexqgb 13y ago|0 comments
608.
by alexqgb 13y ago
"It's hard to believe that there's any other reason the icons look this way other than through intention." Perhaps this will enlighten you. http://www.fastcodesign.com/1672819/who-designed-ios-7-s-ic
609.
by alexqgb 13y ago
> "After all, there are so many more harder and pressing problems in the world. Global Warming, Child Slavery, Drugs, overpriced health care, mortgage and education loans?" What do these problems have in common? That's rig
610.
by alexqgb 13y ago
That's one option. Another option is insisting they be removed so that you're no longer exposed to the costs of damage incurred by the imposition of socially dubious programs.
611.
by alexqgb 13y ago
This hinges on the same re-definition of "collect" that Clapper tried to make, equating "go into the world and gather" with "go to the secret library of everything and retrieve." The essential implication is th
612.
The Fragility of The Security State(ericgarland.co)
1 points by alexqgb 13y ago|0 comments
613.
by alexqgb 13y ago
"Even if this latest “pivot” is successful — and a lot of people think it’s a stretch — the company would be reduced to helping other people make the boxes used to ship the devices that will take the photographs of the future." Ma
614.
The N.S.A.'s Prism Remains Opaque(newyorker.com)
8 points by alexqgb 13y ago|0 comments
615.
by alexqgb 13y ago
There is no "the power" in a system of divided government. That's the whole point of a system of divided government. Power is distributed. The people have some, their representatives have some, the judiciary has some, the exe
616.
by alexqgb 13y ago
In Europe you can secure a copyright on a photograph of a work in the public domain (e.g. a Rembrandt). Provided that you've kept the source away from cameras, you can enforce your copyright on the grounds that any instance of "yo
617.
by alexqgb 13y ago
"There are...better financed tech companies." Unlikely. And given the secrecy surrounding their budgets, how could you know for sure? Even if you did, the dollars themselves are only part of the picture. The dynamic surrounding th
618.
by alexqgb 13y ago
Pretty sure that whoever down-voted this didn't actually read the link. Here's the key passage: "As Aaron Bady has argued in MIT’s Technology Review, the language and concepts for privacy evolved in a world where “walls” were
619.
Is a democratic surveillance state possible?(washingtonpost.com)
3 points by alexqgb 13y ago|0 comments
620.
by alexqgb 13y ago
Additionally "surveillance" is far too general a concept to be considered harmful or helpful in and of itself. The determining factor lies in the system that surrounds it. In other words, a "democratic surveillance state&quot
621.
by alexqgb 13y ago
Uh, thanks, but intelligent, educated people who are attentive to civic life (e.g. a significant portion of the HN readership) don't need to have the difference between a pure democracy and a representative one spelled out in detail ea
622.
by alexqgb 13y ago
Missing from this timeline is the insidious shift of surveillance power from formal state security to far shadier private contractors. The most damning fact to my mind is that, outside a very small circle, details of NSA spying are "to
623.
by alexqgb 13y ago
>>"A politician's worst nightmare is to be the one who was overseeing during an instance in which security disastrously failed (e.g. a terrorist attack)." And this is the weak link. Also, it is not necessarily the case.
624.
by alexqgb 13y ago
Not sure why you're getting the downvote. This is obviously true. It's also important to consider not just the size of the organization, but the nature and extent of its powers. For instance, Google - no matter how big - cannot ar
625.
by alexqgb 13y ago
Exactly. Which is why it would be an ad hominem (or really, ad feminum) to say "How can we possibly trust you as our CFO? You're a woman!" since there is no pertinent relationship between gender and the job's requirements. However, there's
626.
by alexqgb 13y ago
Your grasp of justice is about as firm as Attila the Hun's understanding of orbital mechanics.
627.
by alexqgb 13y ago
Uh, you didn't actually read the article, did you? If you did, you'd understand that yes, it was shoplifting. He was apprehended after the fact, at which point the shoplifting was discovered. When asked if he had anything else, he replied t
628.
by alexqgb 13y ago
Glad to hear it. Just consider this poor bastard, who was recently sentenced by said morons to 50 years for the entirely non-violent act of shoplifting a package of ribs. www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/31/willie-smith-ward-rib-theft_n_33655
629.
by alexqgb 13y ago
Did you even read the article, Daniel? Contrary to your assertion, the essay is not asking "What if action X did not end the war in the Pacific?". It is stating - categorically - that the commonly accepted narrative is based on an insuffici
630.
by alexqgb 13y ago
It's possible to disagree with an argument without losing respect for the person making it. You might, for instance, have a rare or specialized experience that would lead you to think differently from another person. Even if you know that p

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