bandushrew

Yep. I guarantee that as well as taking the process through the courts, they have also been obeying the existing law. They have no choice.

"Are you suggesting that if in the event of a CEO or shareholders of multinational corporations deciding not to comply with secret orders then they will be labeled by the state to the public as terrorists and national security threats?"

or child molesters, or rapists, or tax fraudsters, or anything that can be found and has the smallest chance of sticking. There is a pretty good history of this, including Assange, and the CEO of some telco whose name I forget. It is a pretty standard way for Intelligence departmentsto get what they want, see the history of intelligence companies.

The NSA have access to all our communications, finding something to use as blackmail isn't going to be hard.

"If one needs the populace at large in order to discern whether the actions undertaken by the state or any of it's outsourced entities are reprehensible or not, they we have bigger problems at hand…"

we honestly do. The actions of the state are moving beyond the common understanding of the social contract.

I guarantee you that this is not something the Feds themselves believe.

What makes you think it is true?

I wonder how well silverstripe runs on it....

"Facebook uses hphpi (and now hhvm) for day-to-day software development, but uses the HipHop compiler (hphpc) to create optimized binaries that serve the Facebook website. hphpc is in essence a traditional static compiler that converts PHP→AST→C++→x64."

For some reason they appear to be spying on me, specifically.

I do find that surprising, yes. Shocking, even.

Scary, certainly. What will they do if I say something they don't like? How will I know? Who is deciding whether what I am saying is acceptable?

Because I am against this spying, have the Americans started monitoring me more carefully? Will they contact my government for more information?

My job is contractor to a local business that receives a lot of business from my government. Could that be affected by my private communications? One of my friends is a bit of an anti US nut. Will my communications with him put me at greater risk?

For some definition of the word, I believe that Facebook is effectively deploying a c++ web app as part of its solution at this point.

There are many use cases for which RoR or PHP is the better solution, but it turns out it is imply true that there are others for which a c++ web app is the better solution.

Go figure :)

but yup, low memory/cpu/ram situations are one clear place where a c++ web app makes a heap of sense.

Also things like routers, where there is an environment that doesn't change frequently (..or often at all for years..).

There is also a bunch of use cases where the fact that installing/replacing/updating the web app is as simple as replacing a single binary is a real win.

There just are a bunch of places where it makes perfect sense to use a c++ web app, and none at all to use frameworks like RoR.

Its not a big deal, there are entire worlds of requirements and use cases that look and sound nothing like 'public facing web application', where the ability to provide an HTML interface is a win, and the ability to lower resource requirements from something like RoR is a win.

The only reason I posted is that it just makes me sad when people are so utterly oblivious to the worlds that they dont know, and - because of that - are tracked into making definitive statements about things, when they should probably preface their comments with "to my knowledge..." or "Im not aware of" or even preface it with a genuine question "why is something like this useful?, I dont understand.."

There is nothing wrong with admitting you do not understand something and asking for clarification :)

I was somewhat understating concerns about private companies there to avoid diluting the conversation too much, but I totally agree.

Hell, anyone could put their hands up to blackmail me over my midget donkey fetish, it doesn't have to be the government - but it does reach a particularly nasty level when it is government policy.

Its the fact that if I happen to spend private time doing/thinking/talking about anything someone in the government finds objectionable with anybody someone in the government finds objectionable, I will get flagged and investigated.

Seriously, I couldn't care less if facebook employees read my posts, they have no power to hurt my life. Gmail employees laughing over my email? go for it. Mozilla employees discovering my personal fetish for modget donkey porn? meh.

But the government? I am now dependent on nobody in the governmental apparatus finding my private opinions and speech objectionable or questionable, now or ever in the future.

Fuck that. Either they stop doing that, or I stop expressing my private opinions to other people.

Society loses if the second one occurs on a massive scale. we have entered a really bad place.

Small minded thinking is being unable to step out from behind the 'protection' offered by authority figures because the world just seems too scary to you.

If the cost of belief in the rights of humanity to freedom, dignity and self determination is high, that is because the rewards are great.

Stop being cynical, and stop being scared. Look up. The sun is shining :)

Surely its not unreasonable, before surrendering, to request a promise that one will not be sent into a regime known for torturing its prisoners?

Waiting until someone actually commits a crime will stop people being persecuted for a coincidental similarity of their behavior to that of a terrorist, sociopath or mime artist.

you could have pretty much the same code in any language by doing something like:

    List personList=database.personListForID(id)
    for(person in personList)
    {
        person.setPhoneNumber(phoneNumber)
    }

The government should not be allowed to deny human rights to anyone.

Any whistle blower who has made the moral choice to make certain information public has a choice around whether to take responsible steps to ensure that the information is released to the public as they intended.

Releasing it only to the media companies is an odd decision, if you want to be sure the information will be made freely available.

http://news.cnet.com/2100-1029-6140191.html

The only reason that is true is that he chose not to use a micro framework for php.

overall I think I prefer the python example.

Please dont write posts like that on HN.

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

That says nothing about being american, or a citizen, or the distance between the people involved. It just says something that should be common sense - people have a right to be protected against unnecessary search and seizure.

If those two things were not true, I would be heading for mars in a second, inconveniences be damned.

If he can build it, people will come.

what is that exactly? I have twin girls, one is a full foot taller than the other. One is noticeably pudgier than the other.

They both eat differing amounts, and clearly pretty much the same kinds of foods is used in differing ways by different digestive systems.

what makes you think there is an establushed norm?

"Calories in - Calories out doesn't give you an exact picture, but it comes reasonably close for the purposes of most people."

Im not at all convinced that this is true. It sounds true, and it naturally appeals as a simple truth, but I haven't seen much evidence to support it.

From what Ive seen across a wide range of people, differing bodies process foods in wildly differing ways - some people fart or burp a lot, some people hardly ever, some people prefer eating large amounts once a day, some people prefer eating small amounts regularly. As a teenager I could consume mcdonalds like a horse, now a single burger sits like a lead stone in my stomach for hours.

Convince me that it is true?

WTH is the bank doiing, enforcing the terms of a contract I have with a third party? since when is that the job of the bank?

Yes, the third party can sue me. Thats fine, but I must be able to maintain control over my own bank account.