But of course, you are a long term thinking genius with extraordinary insight. And not just you, but several hundred other random individuals who are also posting on this web site. Yes, we all are superior, more able to take a broad view of things, and hence develop a better, more rational strategy and philosophy.

Sounds to me like someone is pining for an oligarchy. You (and lots of others posting this kind of nonsense) are smugly arrogant and confident that you know best. Isn't that what everyone was whining about with the NSA 24 hours ago, and praising that kid who took it on himself to leak secrets because he knew best?

I think there are a bunch of people here who wouldn't mind in the least if the government continued to act in exactly the same kind of allegedly disgraceful fashion so long as the government was doing things they liked. Then you'd respond to any complaints by saying that the rabble rousers just weren't intellectual enough to understand what you were doing, and that it's for their own good so they just have to put up with it.

Do you not see the hypocrisy and sheer arrogance of this?

Congratulations, you have been modded +4 Insightful for suggesting a dictatorship should be put in place.

Just curious, how old are you? Mid-40s or older, i.e. old enough to have lived through and have some awareness of the IRA terrorist extravaganza of the seventies?

Okay. You'll probably think this is a bad one - I'm not sure I'd disagree - but it's an argument. WSJ reported that this program intercepted two plots in 2009, including a plot to bomb the NY subway. Now that we've got that out of the way...

I believe it's the bigger picture that should be considered. Maybe this leak isn't so harmful, but when you sign on to a job like this you say "I won't tell secrets that I'm not supposed to tell". If you can't be trusted with low level secrets, what stops you from throwing out the big ones? Put another way (and you may not agree with this), but some things should be kept secret. There are political considerations, technical considerations, operational considerations, planning considerations. Those all need to be taken into account. Does that mean the people with 25 years of training in making these kinds of assessments will always get it right? No, but they're an awful lot more likely to do so than some random twenty something year old high school dropout with no knowledge of politics, covert operations, or any other inputs.

I'm bemused by the man's claims that he wanted to do this for the common good (i.e. "I got a conscience"). You don't sign on for a job with a secret security agency whose job involves surveillance and trying to capture bad guys without knowing that, gee, sometimes they're gonna do things that aren't black-and-white "we're the goodies, and those guys are the baddies, no middle zone". Just what sort of jobs did he think the NSA did?

Are you sure about that?.

I suppose the moral of this story is it doesn't really matter if you use G+ or not; Google, through some sneaky machinations, still are doing everything they can to artificially inflate the number of "users".

Go to your account settings and choose to download your expanded archive. (You can also download an abbreviated version.) If you just click on "settings" it's at the bottom of the "General" settings, which is the default page - nice and easy to find.

Be aware it takes quite some time to collect all the info for the expanded archive - they tell you to continue browsing and they'll email you when it's done. Have fun seeing your account history. I'm quite sure it won't show what they're inferring, but then neither will Google's data access.

This is possibly one of the saddest comments I have ever read in my 14, 15, whatever it's been, years on Slashdot.

Forget the politics. Forget the anger. Forget the "rah-rah-rah" of the NRA or second amendment. For purposes of this, I don't even care about the second amendment.

28 gun deaths per day is a cheap price for... whatever comes next is meaningless.

I think you have lost a sense of proportion. I think you have been horribly desensitized, or perhaps you just make these comments ad hoc without actually having the maturity and strength to think what your words actually mean in the real, physical world. Please, just think about 28 people in your office being killed today.

And another 28 tomorrow.

Look at the people walking by you. This isn't abstract, these are real lives that you dismiss in such a cavalier manner.

Ten thousand people by the time we reach New Year's day 2014.

Twenty thousand people in the next two years.

More than a hundred thousand people in the next decade.

And one of the most depressing parts is you're an Anonymous Coward and probably won't even see this comment, and most likely won't think of these real lives that you so cheaply throw away for even a second.

If you believe so strongly that this is worth it and the second amendment means what you say it means, sign up for the national guard and put yourself at the lethal end of someone else's gun.

May God protect you that none of the ten thousand people who will be murdered in 2013 is someone you know.

No kidding. I started off with the "standout items" list.

Number 1 - gigantic tablet. Nothing standout or breakthrough, just quite large version of existing stuff, vague assertions that "it might be sort of useful in the enterprise?". They couldn't even think why it might be useful.

Number 2 - LG has lots of cool television enhancements on the way such as improved interfaces and voice command response. But they didn't show that. Just a rather big screen that's too expensive for anyone to buy.

Number 3 - a little hovering thing. Nothing new, nothing improved, except it's got extended battery life.

I gave up at this point.

Only in the narrowest possible definition.

I have to agree with this. My company is not very big - less than 1000 FTEs - but we have a ton of PhD staff. There are six other companies in the U.S. who do what we do and every one of them also has a bunch of doctorates. If you came to us with a PhD, it'd be a definite bonus, rather than making us nervous.

Why the difference? No, we're not a software company like those mentioned by robbo, but we are nonetheless highly technical (in the EE field, as it happens) and value people with expertise in technical fields. EE primarily, but also computer science and math, as well as other disciplines.

I'd be looking at companies that have a technical discipline as their core business in some form.

I have to beg to differ; it may go against what they've said (and I've been exercising my sarcasm rights over the whole "don't be evil" thing for years, and catching much grief for it here on Slashdot), but their actions have been putting the lie to that mantra for a long time. It's just getting more obvious and harder for their fans to defend.

I didn't see this (There's no avoiding Google+) reported on Slashdot, but I may have missed it. (Or maybe nobody thought it was particularly interesting.) Wall Street Journal talks about how Google+ has been a non-starter so far, so now Google are wielding their might and forcing people to sign up for Google+ accounts as they use other Google services. Create a GMail, YouTube, Zagat review, etc., account - automatically get a public by default Google+ page.

I've posted several times on Slashdot about how and why I use Yahoo Mail, Yahoo search, MapQuest or Bing maps, etc. Part of it is convenience and preference - I like Yahoo Mail and have had the same account for, oh, 15 years or so now - but another major part of it is because I don't trust Google. And I'm increasingly glad that I have almost ceased using Google for the last two or three years.

I assume, then, that you have no interest or passion in your life that revolves around anything someone else may see as pointless or a time waster. Most hobbies or leisure activities are not that interesting to a vast majority of the public, and they wouldn't understand your frustration if something you enjoyed disappeared with little warning.

World of Warcraft? I've never played it, so I don't care if it goes away. But other people surely would, and I don't begrudge them their enjoyment. Or any other MMORPG, for that matter.

I like model trains, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, windsurfing, and lots of other things. Most of those interests are not that valuable in the grand scheme of things. So what? They're hobbies.

Or, as girlintraining puts it, you're a heartless bastard.

I do not think you understand what it means to rule by the cult of personality. In the geek world, everyone knows who Linus is. He is revered, held up as an icon, almost worshipped. People ask, "what would Linus do?" His personal story (where he grew up, where he lives, his career moves) is known in detail by thousands of geeks. Just because you don't know what he looks like does not preclude a cult of personality. How many people actually know what Charles Manson looks like? Or L. Ron Hubbard?

It's not considered acceptable in the wider world; most people barely know who he is and certainly don't know about these childish tantrums.

Slashdotters seem to be falling over themselves to make excuses for him. Imagine if this report was of Steve Ballmer shouting and yelling at a Windows developer.

There are many posts on this thread stating this is how you get quality software. No, it isn't; it's how you alienate volunteers. The way you get quality software is by being a grown-up:

This is how the software that controls the space shuttle gets done. Linus may rule by the cult of personality, but it's not a particularly good way to ensure provably correct software in a situation where it simply MUST work.

I'm not familiar with that trip, but it has to be some kind of an edge condition. Out of interest I looked it up on Amtrak's site and it's two trains. (Does Amtrak even operate in Canada?)

Nevertheless, for the trips I take, Amtrak is much faster and far more enjoyable. I take the train when I'm going from Philadelphia to New York, Washington DC, or occasionally Boston.

* By the time I've fought with traffic around NYC, or made the detour, or fought with traffic around DC, the train has already arrived.
* Oh, hey, I'm on the train - I don't have to fight with traffic. That's a win in my book.
* And I'm not driving. I can do work on my laptop, read a book, or snooze.

I like trains. Amtrak is more expensive than the local services, but I get a guaranteed seat instead of having to stand the whole way.