Most of us are gonna have to trust someone at some point. We can't build our own CPUs out of sand, we have to hope that Intel didn't install an NSA sponsored backdoor. Fortunately all the evidence so far suggests that the NSA avoids creating pre-exploited hardware and firmware, instead relying on more subtle techniques like weakening encryption or making use of genuine bugs. Maybe they insert a few bugs too, but again the evidence suggests that using systems like Tails is pretty effective.

At any rate, it seems to be far better than using Windows, even if I haven't personally audited the millions upon millions of lines of source code needed to build it.

Tor mitigates traffic analysis attacks by padding data, generating extra random packets, combining packets it is forwarding or splitting them up again etc.

The problem is that it isn't clear from Theo's statement if they are dropping support just for old platforms, or if they are dropping Win32/64 and MacOS support as well.

True, but if you are that paranoid you can use a VM with the hardfile in an encrypted container on the host OS that is protected by a keyfile.

It's actually a nice way to do it because you can have the host OS as something like a read-only bootable Linux DVD, and use it as an outer layer that somewhat mitigates attacks on the host OS. For example if the host OS was running a VPN/Tor and sending all traffic from the inner host OS over that there would be no way, short of the user making a mistake, for the host to get the IP address of your internet connection. It also prevents apps in the host OS from leaking data outside of the VPN/Tor, and allows you to spoof the network card's MAC address at a (virtual) hardware level, and limits hardware fingerprinting of the machine the host is really running on.

You can also Wireshark the host OS if you are really paranoid, see if it sends any packets to nsa.gov.

The problem is that in order for people who do a public facing job where their personal reputation and popularity affects the company's fortunes to have free speech without consequences everyone else would have to be forced to support the company no matter what. Boycotts could be made illegal, but how would you stop people uninstalling Firefox after his appointment?

Like it or not personalities matter when it comes to CEOs. Remember all the personal hate for Bill Gates and the way he acted at Microsoft? All the love/hate for Steve Jobs, who arguably was responsible for much of Apple's success due to his strong personality, his outspoken views and "reality distortion field". There have been endless cases where people paid to advertise a product have been dropped over things they did or said, because their actions tarnish the advertiser too. At least in the case of a CEO they have some involvement in the thing being tarnished and aren't just a pretty face.

I agree that leaks are worrying, but in this case I'd argue that donations to political campaigns should be public. If someone without money to spare wants to endorse or promote a cause they have to speak, revealing their position. Just because you can afford to give up $1000 shouldn't excuse you from that responsibility. Yes, you are free to say what you want, but you are never free from the consequences.

Actually it's demand from the networks that keeps the IMEI writeable. They want to buy phones in bulk from the manufacturer, program their own IMEIs and load up crapware, and sell them to customers. When the customer decides to upgrade they will offer some pittance for the phone, then sell it on to another network in another country who change the IMEI and sell it to their customers.

The argument doesn't extend to areas other than lighting. I can only drive one car at a time and the time spend driving is mostly limited by the fact that I need to spend 8 hours a day working and maybe 10 eating and sleeping, so have to keep commuting time down no matter how cheap it is. Similarly I can only watch one TV at a time, so there isn't really much point turning two on. Even if I did a modern TV uses less than half what an old CRT did anyway.

A lot of the techniques for reducing global warming involve removing the need for things like air conditioning and heating most of the time by making buildings more efficient. If there is no need for air con most of the time I'm not going to use more of it under any circumstances.

With lighting specifically I'd be amazed if demand had increased faster than population growth, considering we went from a 60W incandescent bulb to a 15W CCFL and now a 6W LED. In a few years when LED is the main type being sold there would need to have been a 10x increase in lighting use just to maintain the old level. Do you have any citations for the claim that it has gone up?

You should use a passfile as well as a password. Makes it much harder for an attacker because something like a hardware keylogger or audio analysis to recover keystrokes can't see which file you selected. When it comes to breaking your key there is no way to know after the fact that a keyfile was used, so they will probably waste a large amount of time trying a dictionary attack on the password before even realizing that they need to also try any of the 100,000+ files on your computer as well. That is assuming you used a file on your computer, if it was on an external drive they didn't collect when they grabbed it they are screwed. Keep a few corrupt USB flash drives around just to make the wonder if they had it but broke it.

Yes, but who will audit the audit? Because it is open source we can meta-audit, much like how Slashdot meta-moderates. Otherwise the audit would be useless to us, much like a corporation paying for an audit of itself and presenting that to the public as proof of its good work.

Obama and Clinton have both publicly reversed their positions, Eich has not so we must assume his has not changed. It's okay for people to be wrong about stuff, as long as they acknowledge that when they realize.

The reason the CEO gets big bucks is because he is one of the most public facing parts of the company. Regardless of the reason why it was clear that he couldn't perform that role well because of all the personal criticism he was receiving. People are of course free to speak their minds and state their opinions, but in his case their opinions of him made his position untenable and the only way to fix that would have been a massive censorship campaign to clamp down on all opposing speech.

He chose to do what he did, and must live with the consequences. Free speech is not freedom from consequences.

I really don't see any problem with the bakery incident. The bakery is a business, it offers products and services to the public. One of those services is baking cakes. Like all businesses it is required to abide by anti-discrimination laws, e.g. they can't put up a "no blacks, no Irish" sign in the window or refuse to serve Mexicans. That's the deal, if you want to run a business and benefit from all the things society offers you have to run it by the rules society laid down, even if you really would rather not make cakes for niggers or pay any taxes that fund social healthcare and contraception.

Spin it around, would you be okay with the bakery being driven out because the owner of the shop they rent decided he didn't like Christians?

Come on, all they are being asked to do is provide their services equally to everyone, in the same way that society provides a good environment to conduct business in to them. They sound like they want to have their cake and eat it.

Yep, and unfortunately it seems to be patented to the hilt so anyone who can't afford one will just have to risk losing a few fingers until other manufacturers are allowed to do their own versions.

There is something called "SawStop" that very rapidly stops the blade and, in the case of a table saw, pulls it down out of the way before it can do serious damage. The trigger is some kind of capacitative sensing I think. The moment the blade touches skin it stops. There are videos on YouTube if you are interested.