partially at least...

Manned space is just a cargo cult at this point.

More like changing the oil in your car in a straight jacket following instructions from a blind person...watch some old ISS footage of spacewalks and other EVA and you'll see the poor Astronaut have to, essentially, report every move they make and get a 'yes/no' from Ground Control....every...move...'remove wrench from toolkit' takes 3 confirmations from ground...

'risk management' to the destructive degree...it's psychotic...death by bureaucracy

I appreciate where you are coming from though...

See, you're more right about this than any of us would want to admit:

It's a way for well-connected A-type personalities to get an ego boost and a cheap thrill ride.

It's that way **precisely because** real manned spaceflight has always been under the boot of the military/industrial/political bureaucracy.

Operational manned spaceflight means **trusting astronauts** and giving them alot of personal discretion....in the relative sense of course....a smart astronaut wants Mission Control to have thought of everything 3x...

But instead, unfortunately, NASA's manned spaceflight has become a weird sort of academic/bureacratic obstacle course which ends in a roller coaster ride...

That's how I see it...astronaut's call it "Waiting your turn"...

I chose not to go that route with my brief military career...so I'll always wonder...however, **MY** dream was to walk on other worlds...see new horizons with my own two eyes...be it asteroid or Mars or moon return...something...

I honestly feel like I would have to suppress alot of regret if I had worked so hard to become an Astronaut then had to 'get in line' with the others for my chance to play with a chemistry set in shiny metal alpine tent...

I wanted to **fly** to space damnit!

You're bending every which way possible to give validate your support for Snowden but it is not working...you're being duped

if you don't see it you're cruising for a bruising and will be manipulated like Snowden one day...be it from a co-worker or girlfriend, or...?

You're an easy mark...look at each statement of your last post individually and it is plain you are setting up a narrow definition for correctness then making every assumption that would lead to you being right...

He probably knows the capabilities of his previous employer better than we do.

For IT professionals (logical to assume a /. reader has some IT knowledge) these 'capabilities' are all well know...it's the legal use of them. All data transmitted is interceptable. Are you saying that Booze/Allen has capabilities *beyond* the US government they work for?

National Security is THE trump card in the US right now.

umm...what? I gather this nonsense statement is intended to lend 'significance' or 'weight' to the context you are trying to sell...

I have no doubt that he considered doing this anonymously.

Only if you make several assumptions...based on what we've seen, you could say "I have no doubt he **was aware** he could do this anonymously"...

But that he "considered" it, no possible way for you to guess....He either wanted to be Anonymous or NOT...

Either way, this is not a valid statement b/c it doesn't matter if he considered the better option (anon) or not...the point is he could have and chose not to and it was a **DUMB CHOICE** b/c he can never come to his home country again

His family also works intelligence though. We don't know all of his reasons for coming out publicly but it could be to protect them.

How do you know that...has it been reported? How is **coming out publicly** and revealing their identity protect them???

No way...

Wait...yes...**if he is being blackmailed** then yes, you could view his treason as motivated by protection of his family...

But if that's true then every other point about him and his message and motives you've made are wrong...

It could be Blackmail...

Otherwise you're just as easy of a dupe as Snowden...

Mmh, the number of Diaspora users grew by almost 40% within the last 12 months, so it seems quite alive and well to me.

40% growth on zero is still zero...

So it's growing faster than G+, then?
/rimshot

The problem is that most corporations don't think long term anymore. To them "long term" means more than one business year.

New technology is very, very often founded by taxpayers in its initial stages. Then corporations pick it up and make it big and take the credit, but the fact is that they could start with a mature product instead of doing all the basic research themselves.

There are exceptions, but if you really go through the history of even recent inventions, you will be surprised at how often taxpayer money is involved in the early stages.

For my country, most of the current telecommunications stuff, TV and radio, a lof of transportation, thousands of small inventions in material sciences and engineering, alternative energy, almost everything in the aerospace industry, the early Internet and an endless list of other things would not have come to pass without the government funding at least parts of the early development, and often considerably more than that.

Basically, any technology that takes several years to mature and deploy as well as any that requires a considerably deployed base before economy of scale makes it profitable.

And that's a set of baseless assumptions right there.

I prefer a fact-based approach to bullshit propaganda. So unless you've got any evidence of your claim, I'll call you a liar.

What I'm saying is: Maybe they would love to do just that, but everyone complains when they need a bigger budget because they are not going with the dirt cheap solutions anymore.

The big picture is that there is this liberal assumption floating around that anything the government does is bad and expensive, and everyone private enterprise does is cheap and good. And I'm saying that's bullshit.

No. But it's still a job that can be done well, or badly.

I'm just trying to make you think one step further, beyond "the city fucked this up" towards "why did they fuck this up?".

I don't like representative democracy, either. However, the people decided that this is how they want it, so they are also responsible for what happened afterwards. I can't give you a gun and tell you to shoot something, and then complain about the details of where you shot it and how.

Complain, yes. But there are valid and invalid complaints. You can still dislike it, but you should acknowledge that it is like that for a reason. That you might disagree with, but the majority doesn't.

Ok, that's a bit beating around the bush. What's getting on my nerves is people complaining about government actions as if the government where an alien parasite that infects the planet and not something that we do to ourselves.

yeah, I am aware...it's not really about nation/states or polities...

it's spheres of influence among oligarchs...usually rich people with some connection to english or dutch royalty or the catholic church...or the saudis...

in this context, the 'government' is the people's best friend...democracy is our weapon against oligarchy

*grin* that was a really good one.

But, of course, I'm quite sure that you can get authentic dino skeletons from China in whatever type and quantity you desire...

Have you ever thought about the other explanation: They they do it cheaply and badly because everyone tries to save a few pennies on this job? I'm pretty sure had you hired a contractor, it would've been more than $800, but it would've been done properly.

Everyone always expects the government to work great, but with an absolute minimum of budget. Well, newsflash, private corporations don't manage to do that, either. Many of them just have the advantage of getting infrastructure, etc. for free from the government.

Example: The rail company in Germany was made a private company about 10 years ago. The first few years, everything looks great, just like the consultants had promised. Then things started to go downhill, and still do. Because the first thing they started to save money on was such irritable costs as maintainance. With minimal maintainance, the tracks and stations work just fine... for a few years...

Government is sometimes wasteful, but often they are just more expensive because they don't cut corners as much as private companies do and because they take risks and explore frontiers that corporations rather not.
NASA is crazy expensive, but they got a man to the moon in 8 years. And even with all the groundwork long done, private companies are still working out the details of reaching earth orbit after 11 years.

Well, that is democracy for it.

Here's the longhand explanation: The voters have decided that they want to do it this way. If you don't see it that way, then you're in the minority. Tough luck.

jerk...

you conceded your argument but first, do you just copy/paste "please argue without name calling" randomly in your responses?

n/m don't answer I don't care...

what I **do** care about is what you're arguing now? you just sort of conceded all your points and then now...

How long do you think it would take to figure out who released the docs though?

since you agree otherwise, this has become a question of logistics...are you asking me can it happen? I know it is possible but I don't want to take the time to explain or link to my resume just to prove a troll wrong...

YES...HE COULD HAVE WORKED WITH **professional journalists with the best 1st amendment lawyers available** AND DONE THIS ANONYMOUSLY

are you saying that it is *physically* impossible for a person to anonymously leak information?

if not, then what? b/c you agree with me everywhere else...

it's not the 70' anymore...

what's your point?

unless you respond, quoting me and offering counter arguments, then your last post is considered your surrender flag...

you've proven to be a troll...firing off some random fact means nothing...you can't defend your position b/c it is indefensible

you're either 1. self deluded or 2. a paid commenter...I'm betting the former b/c you're logged in and if you were the latter you'd have better logic keep trolling longer