The servers do not have to be in the US and they are close to enough to (some of) the five eyes to intercept communications anyway.Plus, the UK already do a 'full take' on all data, not just metadata. Whatever they say about 'not spying on the Irish' is not so. There has been enmity long enough in (and with) Ireland to make it a place of interest. The move is more symbolic than anything else. A better location would be Iceland. Again, it would be purely symbolic, but it does send a stronger statement. When I think Ireland, I think 'tax shelter'.

Have you tried to use Wine for Adobe CC? Good luck!

Yeah, what can be done about this? The current GNU/Linux alternatives still have a catch up time of at least a decade in this field. Pixel editing is okay, vector editing is one of the success stories as well as digital photo development. But video is way off...If only one of these major companies can get a port to work on GNU/Linux...unless we can crowdfund openshot or some similar ilk to close the gap...

1) The NSA is aware of computer software vulnerabilities and exploits by other unscrupulous entities, yet they hoard this information rather share with the public (they are mandated to protect). Imagine how much safer American computers would be from say, phishing and ransomeware that affects even public institutions like schools should the NSA actually try to help them. 2) A lot of NSA espionage resources are dedicated to industrial espionage of foreign entities to maintain economic hegemony for a handful of corporate interests rather than American business at large. 3) Retroactive punishment. Web activity is stored and mined should future laws be broken to retroactively punish a populace or build profiles. For instance, someone takes part in a protest such as the occupy movement. That person's web life becomes an opportunity to search and find anything incriminating, no matter how trivial. 4) Mandated sharing of raw intelligence gathering with Israel, without reciprocity. Rather than empowerment, the NSA seems more of a repressive regime tool.

I don't bother with facebook, twitter, linkedin et al because it does not serve my purposes. It is sort of like working a part time job and not getting paid for it. I don't see anything that productive coming out of it. Though, I am considering using alternatives like Quitter, Diaspora, among other GNU social alternatives. However, they do seem to require a lot of effort and am not sure I want to invest in my time that way. Things like Vimeo and Flickr make more sense (to me) as you can work on video and image stills and share with a community to get critiques on your work. As for employment, while some may not hire you if you don't do social media, people also lost their jobs because of social media. It is a sad commentary that people may not hire you because you don't have a bloody linkedin account. I've been spammed mercilessly by linkedin and recall a time they used to go through user contact lists on e-mail clients. (come to think of it, that is how they spam people...) I understand why linkedin does this, but it is also terrible etiquette.

Are there any more companies that offer GNU/Linux out of box on lappies? Somehow, I do not trust the Dell's and HP's of this world.... What about desktops? Do you have to have Windows by default too when you buy a new motherboard? Anyone?

Uhhh, last I checked, Linus has no problems with secureboot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

The masses don't know and don't care. Maybe Slashdotters do, but we are going against the tide of lemmings stampeding for the cliff. Maybe we need two 'puters now. One 'puter where we do stuff for the man another for everything else.

Canadians are a complacent bunch. They will lay down for almost anything.

A vassal state really.

Stop interning the Palestinian populace. Allow the Palestinians to have their land back as per UN Resolutions. Let them have freedom of mobility, the chance to build a viable economy and rights as a regular citizen, not a second class citizen. No justice, no peace.

The US government will spin this as a leak of delicate secret documents. Whereas Snowden made a distinction between actions taken by government agencies that violated US citizens' constitutional rights and other state secrets that may put an agent's life in danger. It is the former that he outed while trying to mitigate the risks of the latter. However, the US government will say that Snowden is not one to distinguish the former from the latter. Moreover, they have no guarantee that more delicate state secrets were not compromised. They just have Snowden's word to go on. As such, the US government will throw the book at him. His position was to follow orders, not question them. Obama pretty much reiterated this. Agreeing or disagreeing with what Snowden did is incidental, the US will still stick to their policies and will mete out punishment accordingly. Also, they will set an example with Snowden as a deterrent to other would be leakers/whistleblowers.

I want to be one of those old Asians who do tai chi in the park at early hours. I see California Raisin old Chinese men buying condoms at drug stores. The closest thing I do as a Caucasian is make obscene gestures at the bus as it zips off before I reach my stop. Time for a lifestyle change.

I guess people will take their e-commerce business elsewhere. No point in supporting the playground bully. Other hubs will surface, hegemony won't last.

I am always blown away by how great VLC is. Whether on a Libre or proprietary OS platform, I know VLC is always has by back for audio/video playback. I recall when I first started watching movies on a computer, VLC played the file, ANY file! Also DVD's in whatever region(!!!) played. Sure, the proprietary OS's grumble, but the Libre OS version played the DVD, region one or two just fine. Now that I am in school working with audio/video and VLC constantly reminds me of its value. Our of all the proprietary media players out there, VLC blows them out of the water. Thanks VLC!