It is for the media to raise awareness of issues. If the reporter had simply released all the stories at once, then the potential exists that all of the stories would have been lost on the public as they could not focus on any given issue. This is smart journalism in my mind.

They were on public facing servers without any authentication. That is about as "publicly visible" as it gets. He is a stupid, unsympathetic man, but that doesn't change the facts of the case. AT&T left this information on a public server. A home is terrible analogy for a public server. It is more like AT&T left the paper copies of their customer data in a corner the public lobby of their building (that they intended to be private but had not put up any signs or walls, etc) and he saw them and took pictures, then gave the pictures to a reporter. He did not trespass to obtain this information as AT&T placed this information in a public place.

Because he has been planning this for awhile. As a long time NSA employee and contractor, he developed significant knowledge of their security systems from the inside. He then took the one job that he knew would allow him to access significant amounts of the NSA without suspicion (he said as much during an interview). Using this knowledge, he fabricated authentications to numerous systems that he wasn't supposed to have access to. Is it really that hard to comprehend?

The problem here is that there aren't any appropriate channels. Secret agencies, acting under secret laws, overseen by secret courts, where does one blow the whistle? His only course of action was to report potential (likely) constitutional violations to the same people who put them into place or to go public. Several NSA whistleblowers have already gone the former route and they got nowhere.

The leaked secret FISA order already allows the NSA to pass on any "criminal" information it finds. I suspect a broad interpretation of that order could also include copyright infringement.

I think it is safe to assume that most people in this world need handholding. If Snowden's goal is change, then having the public's attention (as large a public as possible) on the problem for as long as possible is the only chance that change occurs.

This information has already come out. He entrusted multiple people with the data and others with the encryption codes. The order is that if anything happens to him, then the people with the codes give them to the people with the data. Some information has already been given to numerous members of the press in unencrypted form (such as the Guardian) and it was to be leaked slowly. The data that Snowden is carrrying is heavily encrypted and he doesn't have the keys, so the data is useless to Chinese or Russian, etc. intelligence.

Snowden needs the information leaked slowly so the public, with their short attention spans, don't simply move on to other things. He needs to keep this information in the spotlight for as long as possible to have a chance at action.

I am sure if you search Google hard enough, you can come up with the interview (I believe it was the Guardian reporter who spoke about it).

I am not a polygamist personally, but the arguments look the same to me. This is just contract law. It seems silly to me to argue that one group of consenting adults is entitled to certain legal benefits and not others, just because some people don't believe in their choices.

Your opposition is based on the fact that some people in a group are bad, therefore, the entire group should be deprived of benefits enjoyed by the rest of society. Instead of addressing the problems, you are attacking the entire group. There are gay couples that abuse their spouses and children, does this mean that all gay couples shouldn't be able to get married? I just don't agree with this premise.

As the other respondent pointed out, polygamy does not just mean one man and many women, the opposite is possible as well. Another way of looking at the relationship is as equal partners. If the marriage was legally sanctioned, then each member of the marriage would be legally entitled to equal benefit, inheritence, etc. If one member attempted to capture more than their share, then legal recourse would be possible, whereas today it is not. It seems to me that by making the relationship illegal, it removes possible legal protections to remedy this issue and helps perpetuate the very problem you want solved.

This isn't a question of decency or history, it is a question of legal contracts and free will. Shouldn't consenting women and men be free to enter into any relationship they choose (note that these relationships involve legal consent; something an animal, toaster, or child cannot do)?

I disagree. Same-sex marriage advocates frequently campaign on the notion that descriminating against consenting adults by denying them marriage benefits is not constitutional. Once a state agreed, then they challenged the Federal law on the grounds of State's rights. The same arguements could be made for polygamy, where all parties are consenting adults. Other comparisons, such as animals, toasters, or children, are very different because in these cases, one party cannot enter into a legal contract.

As for restitution, the court did not order restitution for all gay couples who paid more in taxes during past years, for instance, so I doubt that issue would gain much traction.

If marriage was simply a legal contract, then only those eligible to enter into legal contracts could participate. In our society, animals are not allowed to enter into contracts, therefore, they could not marry. Likewise, children cannot enter into legal contracts and, therefore, could not marry either.

Two of the three guns were in a storage unit (one was an antique) and the handgun was registered in Virginia, but not in Maryland, where the man had recently moved. The man was clearly not trying to evade the law and considering he has a clean record, I doubt jail time would have been on the table even without the heroic act.

He admitted in court that he sprayed the field with RoundUp, intentionally killing off all the non-RoundUp Ready seeds. This fact weighed heavily in the courts decision. The majority opinion implies that the court might have (probably would have) ruled differently without the action of the farmer. The case does not create any kind of a broad precedent.

I used to feel the same way...until I got a tablet. I still use my desktop most of all (sheer power, multiple monitors, and my mechanical keyboard). I use my laptops mostly to connect to my desktop remotely (which is quite a bit actually). The tablet is used exclusively for content consumption. When I have a question and I want a quick answer from the internet? Tablet. When I want to search recipes for what to make for dinner? Tablet. When I am planning my next vacation while sitting on the couch? Tablet. I could use my phone for these things, but it isn't more convenient than the tablet and the large, clear screen makes the experience more enjoyable and useful (Nexus and iPad here). We now have three tablets in different form factors and all of them get significant usage. The phone is great for on the road, but if given a choice, I will almost always reach for the tablet.

As for windows8 and making software for tablets, I haven't run into this yet, but then again, I don't use Windows and the only Apple products I have run a mobile operating system.

Have you seen their marketshare? Five years is a little optimistic.

Are you suggesting that the server was public property?

The hardware was private and the intention of the company was for the information to be private. Now, they displayed the information in a manner that allowed anyone to gain access to it without explicit knowledge that it was private information. This is what I am trying to capture in the analogy.