...they are the FACES we know.

Those you and I never see - are MANY more, I'm guessing thousands. It's a cat and mouse game, spy vs spy. Someone somewhere leaks something, and someone else gets assigned to find out what leaked, who leaked it and how do we close the leak and clean up after it.

...it's because of the electric car.

We invented the electric car MANY years ago, way before batteries got anywhere useful. And we also made cars run on hydrogen, but the powers-that-be aka the oil industry didn't like that idea ONE bit.

This is no different, sure we can do so many things (and we pretend we can't, so the little milking cows that we have will go grazing on the grass we give them), except...they're not grazing, they're smoking it.

We can do this today, the technology is here, just look at super & ultra capacitors. We don't even NEED batteries. The sun has ALL the energy we'll ever need. They're even researching small powerful fusion generators that we can have in our back yards, afaik they even have made these, but do you see these selling yet? The only ones that surfaces...are those hoaxes you see on YouTube, those idiotic "free energy" things that pop up like dandelions in my yard all the time. But the real deal exist, whether it be solar or fusion. But the powers-that-be have a LOT more "power" than you and me.

Even a check-sum can be wrong, albeit not very likely. Give the following scenario a thought. The number 255 becomes 200 at address $0002. At Address $0004 the number contained is 00 but becomes 55, the check-sum total will still be the same (unless I missed something, which is possible...I don't know everything).

It's not TOR itself, sure...Tor isn't perfect, but today you really don't have many other options. In fact...I can't think of a single one. But it's the users that fails to understand that TOR really isn't the solution to all their anonymity wishes. I'd say 90% safety is up to the users themselves, I've written a little list a few posts below (look it up if you care), it's mostly about common sense. You don't walk into a dark alley with an open wallet telling everyone that you won big on the casino tonight, right? Same thing applies to Tor usage, don't reveal your name, use no-script religiously, don't use flash or any other app/software that can see your IP locally and forward it anywhere. Don't use your real name. Don't even use your nickname (unless it's anonymous coward of course), because everything that ties you as a user to a user on TOR...is bad for you.

Tor is actually pretty damn good, why do you think it's such a pain in the ass for the feds? Heck...it's even KNOWN to be a giant wart on NSA's butts simply because it's so good at WHAT it does. But it's not 100%, you need to apply common sense to the rest, and learn of it's flaws and the things TOR can not do for you. If you do...there really is no better alternative to freedom of speech out there.

...and that's how and WHY they get away with this. This is against any human rights, but shout "won't anyone PLEASE think of the Children", and these agencies can get away with murder.

So that said, to any whistleblower out there who doesn't have the tech savvy that we have, I'd offer a little bit of advice, read it - and don't forget it, you might just be next if you do:

1) Download Tails. Install it preferably on a CD.
2) Remove your hard disk connection (removing the power is enough) when you intend to boot from Tails.
3) Shut down your WiFi. And only use WIRED connections.
4) Boot tails, and when you start Iceweasel - make sure to turn NoScript ON for ALL sites. It's not on by default, when the SHIELD shows...it's on!
5) Never - ever use an acronym you'd use with your normal ISP (IP address), this WILL unmask you.
6) Do NOT use FLASH or JAVASCRIPT.
7) Do NOT do any banking business or anything that would identify the real you using TOR. Tor is like walking into an underworld of the worst place you could imagine in a bad movie (except Darknet is very real, and can be a VERY dark place, it has freedom...but freedom is precious there, and there's someone waiting on every corner to con you, and remember - this threat is VERY REAL!), so don't be a fool. Do what you have to, but stay safe.
8) Do NOT brag to friends that you're safe with Tor. As far as you know, you don't even know what Tor is.
9) If you can, use Tor with a laptop that has never been used on a wired or wireless KNOWN network with you, but only used for TOR ...without a harddisk! Use it to connect with TOR on a different network, preferably in a different city than where you live. You can't get much safer than that....IF...you apply the other 8 rules above.
10) Don't SURF TOO LONG AT ONCE - People are working to unmask TOR users all the time with Injection attacts, and they succeed often! Notice that when the chain of relays break (refreshes)...always keep looking at the NETWORK MAP...ALWAYS, DISCONNECT LIKE THE WIND and find another time to connect short sessions. Keep things brief, and as many clusters as you can.
11) Always make sure that the TAILS CHECKSUM IS MATCHING! I've downloaded TAILS TWICE from their so called official server and had CHECKSUM MISMATCH, this could be as simple as a faulty packet...but it could also be much more serious than that, imagine the rest yourself - BE PARANOID! It's your life!

Information is the only power we have left!

I just did, and now I'm just a little dumber.

Masters degree in Online Security, really? You might as well take a MS-something certification and call yourself a windows professional.

The most clueless people I've ever met working with IT, are those that work with the company's security. They have an exact set of rules to follow, and nothing else. They monitor their companies outgoing - ingoing data for certain things, and block certain services. They also have a strict policy on mobile devices, cellphones, USB-memory devices and usually give their employees their own...monitored...laptops, everything within a guaranteed controlled environment.

Except that "Guaranteed" part, because there are really no such thing as a guarantee within computer security, the only way to truly learn computer security is to practice hacking, thinking like a hacker, be a hacker and yes...have the same incentives as a cracker would have, and the fun a hacker would have solving new puzzles, breaking into new systems, learning every corner of that hardware inside out. You can't TEACH that at a school, heck...not even the most experienced hacker in the WORLD can teach ANYONE these things, there is so much...and you need to know everything from scratch, everything else is just being a well mannered script-kiddie that would be totally clueless if they received a "virus" that no one of their hardware/software systems could detect, simply because the programmer is so clever (we're talking hackers here, just in case you mistook a programmer for a programmer instead of a hacker, hint hint, wink wink and nudge nudge). And the reason they can't detect it, is because it's not been discovered yet. How can you teach that?!

Kids today don't even know what vectors are, they have NO clue how the bios work, gawd...I'm gonna grab myself a bag of popcorn and watch this freak show.

I have to call BS on this one, sorry bub...but you live in a dreamland - unless you have sources that proves it's that easy for ex. an American to migrate to EU countries, I know a bit about it (because I'm an EU citizen of Scandinavia, and we have Americans who try REAL hard to emigrate to one of the worlds RICHEST countries, Norway, Denmark or Sweden. And albeit we absolutely ADORE Americans over here, it's hell on earth for them to even get a permit to work and stay here for a while. Same thing applies for Scandinavians if they want to migrate to America, not easy at all (believe me, I've tried numerous times and know the immigration law on the back of my hand by now, in fact...I could probably do as a part time immigration lawyer by now, it is THAT depressive. Mobilization is a wet ...but non existent dream).

I can give you a few examples, if you're a student...you CAN come to Scandinavia and study, heck...we'll even pay for your tuition and most of what you need, what you can't have from us you can get in grants provided that you qualify for them. But that doesn't guarantee you a job OR a PERMANENT relocation to our countries (albeit we'd LOVE to have those nice hard working Americans here, your work ethics ROCK!).

If you want to stay here permanently, you'll actually only have to learn the American Immigration Law, because we have EXACTLY the same laws as you have, albeit the visas are named differently, we have WORK visas just like you, we have immigration visas for asylum seekers (war torn countries etc.)...again...exactly like you. We even have BUSINESS visas exactly like you have, and you can get married to a Scandinvian citizen and get naturalization that way...exactly the same way as we could with YOU in America, however - it's a LONG and HORRIBLE process with suspicious government looking down on you every step of the way, costing you THOUSANDS of dollars in processing fees (EXACTLY THE SAME WAY YOUR COUNTRY DOES WITH US)...man...you could almost be driven to believe we've copied your entire immigration system, but yeah...it's actually quite true. Look it up.

Sony already lost me when they first announced that they wouldn't touch the Linux install possibility on the PS3, and then ONE month later announced that their latest update would remove the possibility to install another OS onto it.

...here's why:

Renting games is ANY company's wettest dream. Hollywood have a long history of re-releasing their old office hits over and over again, milking the same cow into retirement and even beyond the grave, and families of actors & owners loves this, it's a guaranteed way to get money - basically forever!

Why sell you the game, when they can rent it to you over and over again? Remember that cool GTA5 game you paid 60$ (Some of us in Sweden paid 120$ for it) back in the days? 10 years later you want to revive your "fun days" and in a future of "rental only" game systems, they'll be able to MILK you into oblivion for as long as it takes, with literally millions of old programs from every system, simply because you didn't protect your purchases - it's not their fault either, it's YOU who accept it and thinks it's totally okay to do so.

Netflix is a GREAT ad-free service, so much so that I've been lazy when it comes to my DVD collection. But what Netflix doesn't give me is a permanent possibility to relive those fun moments I had with a few flicks some years ago...unless they've paid for the license to retain the flick in their collection. When it's in MY DVD collection, I don't need a license or permission, I just dust of that old DVD player and have a GREAT time - for free (or at least get the full value of true ownership).

I have Wii-U, and we finally have some great games for it (certainly took a while), it even comes with downloadable indie-games that are so cheap (and fun) they rival the second-hand store/game-this-and-game-that-stores AND it's possible to RE-install on the same console if I should decide to sell the console, that's okay in my book...downloadable games as long as they're somewhat transferable...is the future and the way to go, I love not having to SWITCH between CDs all the time.

So there you have it, Sony Or Microsoft won't get my money this time as they've chosen the wrong way - excessive greed.

I didn't.

And no, that shit is far from dead. You'll find lots of assembly in specialized proprietary hardware where it's easier to just implement your own code instead of using an entire suite of libraries and ready made IDE packages.

What I like about coding assembly, is that it's relatively straight forward, ok...the math really isn't as we don't have the luxury of floating points in every variable, various math function - and we need to keep track of our code jumps as the MCUs have certain limitations when it comes to branching here and there.

I usually use older MCUs too as I don't have to deal with numerous layers of special codes to access special features of the chip. I keep things on a simple I/O level - and add "shit" as I please. No need to have an AD/DA converter with every thing I come up with, so I just add the hardware layers I need and what whenever I need them. I've been thinking of moving to FPGAs...now THERE's something that would eat my time. Assembly is the simple shit. (But very gratifying and fun to do, even for beginners).

...and btw, those systems are OFFLINE ALWAYS! ;)

Yep, I live in the stone ages, but at least I know every corner of my systems.

Yep, I'd like to see that. Never-mind why, I just want to see that.

Really, are you using Lynx on a *nix box?

What OS are you using?