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Comment Re:only a trick if the truth makes a difference (Score 1) 346

"Hello Edward, I am a Russian diplomat, come to Moscow and we won't extradite you to the Americans"

"Hello Edward, I am a Russian spy, come to Moscow and we won't extradite you to the Americans"

I can't imagine Snowden was under any illusions about the job title of the "diplomats" he was talking to, so it wasn't much of a trick. It might not have been a particularly good long term deal, but there wasn't a whole lot else on the table.

It seemed pretty clear in reading Greenwald's book that Snowden had no illusions about anything he did or the consequences. He never attempted conceal his activities or obscure his own person. He knew that due to US policies he would be charged with treason and found guilty. His only hope was that he could avoid extradition and not spend the rest of his life in a 10x10 wet hole in gitmo. Whatever rumors swirl around him mean nothing so long as he can stay out of prison until America changes his policies, or he can get on a rocket to Mars. The latter is probably more likely to happen sooner than the former.

Comment Re:Alternate headline (Score 1) 286

whistle the correct codes to launch nuclear missiles at Mayor Bloomberg."

You do know that Mr. Bloomberg doesn't get to keep the title forever, right?

But he "thinks" he does. Eight years wasn't a legit reign. Another four was not nearly enough. No doubt there's some hidden clause that lets him invoke the title for eternity.

Comment It's all "tech"-ish (Score 3, Interesting) 158

Okay, since you asked nicely.

I've been doing IT since I chose to become a programmer. As you can see, being a programmer didn't really happen, even though I had been programming and even went to school for it since I was a mere youth. Fast forward many millions of years later and I still manage some IT systems for a select group of high-end clients whom I know personally. That's a plus and it's easy work for me. This whole time that I've been doing IT I have been doing many other projects: building custom high-end servers and workstations; doing wordpress buildouts, and running some eCommerce sites on various platforms. Somehow this morphed into driving traffic and is changing into a lucrative business. I don't worry about where I will end up, so whatever I start digging my nails is where I go.

It's all tech-ish somehow.

Comment From many points of data (Score 4, Interesting) 772

While Dan has certainly taken pains to show the many correlations between one subset and another, I think the most important one to consider is this:

Those who firmly believe that a "God" was involved in the universe/mankind, were less likely to score at the upper tier of scientific knowledge. Everyone else drew mixed results.

I also like this quote here:
Nevertheless, the subgroup of such students who did back away from two particular beliefs hostile to naturalistic evolution (that the “living world is controlled by a force greater than humans” and that “all events in nature occur as part of a predetermined master plan”) consisted of the students who scored the lowest in critical reasoning skills.

Comment Re:Correlation vs correlation (Score 1) 433

OK, so "there has been no significant correlation between successful strikes and a reduction in al-Qaeda attacks".

Am I the only one thinking things might have been much worse if no terrorist leaders had been taken out at all?

There's only one way to handle this. The US is a bunch of pansies with girlie underpants.

Drone Strike every leader, and at the same time hit every second-in-command
You will miss a few leaders so now you must drop heavy artillery all over their compounds
You will have missed a few followers so now you must drop nuclear weapons all over their towns
You will have missed a few sympathizers so now you invade the country and kill everyone using your might at land and sea.
Anyone who lives should be put in prison.

Victory!

Comment Re:Blizzard Shizzard (Score 1) 252

they're just suing since despite tying their game to their servers they still haven't figured out the shit enough to not transmit troop positions or map pieces to the client the client shouldn't know about - and they pretend to be serious about competitive online play.

You're right. I don't see what the problem is. However, because someone makes a profit off of the company's failure that's where the loophole is, as far as the civil courts are concerned. Alternatively, if you create a cheat based on data packets sent to the client, even in this piss-poor environment of protect-the-corporation-first, you'd still probably get away with it, although you'd likely spend a miserable few years back and forth in court.

Comment Work harder at what? (Score 4, Insightful) 238

If you own a clothing store and want to prevent theft by increasing security you can:

Add metal tags to clothing
Hire more security guards inside the store
Install cameras in the ceiling and watch shoppers

The NSA opts instead to
Ask shoppers to wear metal tags
Hire agents to follow them after they leave
Install video cameras in their homes

And now we call it "America"

Comment Re:I beg to differ. (Score 1) 370

It gives companies like Google the ammunition they need to take to the US government and say look, we can't just hand you this data because that then puts us in breach of European data law. It gives them ammunition in their arguments against the US government's excessive over reach and abuse of secret courts and so forth.

It's one of those cases where the simple nature that everyone points to belies the trove of wealth that can be leveraged behind it.

Comment oh lord who has the finger on the button (Score 1) 216

There is nothing worse than an open thermostat in a small office. We have people here setting the cool setting to 76 and heat settings to 80. When I tell them that it's completely unreasonable, let's at least shoot for 74 degrees I have to endure hate crimes for being dressed in something other than the thinnest material above and below the waistline.

Comment Re:Aaron Swartz was charged for scraping content. (Score 2) 139

The big difference between Swartz and McAffee is that Swartz's motive was for what he believed to be in the public interest. McAffee's motive is for profit.

And since step 3 is profit, we all know that it's perfectly legal. And if not, endless litigation followed by a small fine will serve!

Comment Re:Give up the keys (Score 3, Insightful) 125

If you can't trust your sysadmin, you shouldn't have hired them in the first place. Anybody capable of doing the job, with a reasonable background, should be given the opportunity to show their mettle without being arbitrarily restrained.

Keep your own administrative access, but since you were barely qualified to be a sysadmin in the first place, just learn to let go. The organization will be better for it while you move back into finance where you belong.

Colonel Meyers: Are you new to the infantry, Major?
Maj. Malcolm A. Powers: Yes, sir. Just came over from supply.
Colonel Meyers: Were you good at that?
Maj. Malcolm A. Powers: Yes, sir!
Colonel Meyers: Well then, stick to it because you're a walking cluster fuck as an infantry officer. My men are hard chargers, Major! Leutenant Ring and Gunny Highway took a handfull of young fire pissers, exercised some personal initiative and kicked ass!

Comment Re:Old phone cords? (Score 4, Funny) 120

No, it's a new shape, dammit!

I have also invented several new shapes. One of them, I draw part of a circle, and then it turns into a squiggly line for a while, and then a quarter of a square, followed by a third of an asymptote. Another time, I drew 3 squiggly lines connected to a 4th line that was almost straight but still a little squiggly. I call it a squiggle-square.

By the Gods boy, where are your patents?

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