Yet Another Information Security Professional, working in a sensitive information startup.

Of course, a lot of these have been in use long before the NSA revelations...

A few of my personal tools and our corporate-used tools:

All OSX shop configured with strict firewall, fileVault, and openVPN,

Browser plugins to block ads (adBlock Plus), scripts/flash (NoScript), popups (Adblock Plus Pop-up Addon), trackers (Ghostery), and enforce HTTPS (HTTPS-Everywhere).

GPG Tools for encrypting individual files / emails - https://gpgtools.org/

OTR for secure messaging (use Adium which has OTR support off the shelf) https://otr.cypherpunks.ca/

Silent Circle for encrypted voice and text - https://silentcircle.com/

Personal VPN for traffic encryption for browsing outside of corporate purposes, e.g. one of these:
https://www.bestvpn.com/blog/4809/best-vpn-service-top-10/
note that several offer payment methods that are anonymous, e.g. gift cards purchased with cash, i.e. http://www.paygarden.com/

Obligitory Schneier:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/05/nsa-how-to-remain-secure-surveillance

So the *signature* piece of Obama's second term agenda -- the legislation he's harped on loudly and constantly -- launches with an epic fail. The contractors working the site were sounding alarms well in advance of the launch. And yet Obama is somehow utterly unaware that the launch could be anything but a total success? I call bullshit. Either Obama is the most disconnected president in recent history when it comes to the success of his *core legislative agenda* or he's just bullshitting about not knowing there were issues on launch day.

Just ask Pelosi: they had to launch the website so they could find out what would crash it.

Oh my that was a terrible episode.

The job of government is to pay for education.

At some point one must question whether they are doing a competent job. Got the money? We are $17 trillion in debt. You mean other people have the money and you'd like to seize their property. Most rational people will object.

...this kind of government idiocy, ineptitude, and invasion of privacy is exactly the same kind of crap we're inviting into our healthcare system. TSA, NSA, DMV...ACA. Yeah, gimme more of that fucked up shit.

An article about a service failing and no comments about whether Netcraft confirms it or not? Slashdot, you've changed.

The Constitution authorizes Congress to establish post offices, it doesn't require them to.

Sears made that change 100 years ago, there's nothing saying Amazon won't, also.

Remember, Sears started as the first Amazon, but using catalogs instead of a website. That they forgot their beginnings is why Amazon was able to take such a huge and early lead.

But capitalism alone can't address the needs of the very poor.

Your signal to double down on capitalism.