emilsedgh

It's not a matter of who's problem it is. It's just that a scale-able architecture in most cases is a premature optimization. When building a product, scalability is only one aspect. And in case of most startups and companies, amongst the smaller ones.

I personally interview a lot of people and if they start proposing microservices or k8s or anything trendy like that (before having context), I consider it a negative point.

When hiring, I want someone to take a look at a busines problem, break it down into a smaller pieces. Most of the times, the most important engineering work is coming up with the right data models/data structures.

So yeah, maybe the architecture I have now wont scale up. But at least it'll get the business going. Years later when there are more resources, the software could be rewritten or whatever.

Also, you'r example mentioned "software being hacked". I never said undermine security. Security should always be taken seriously. Security is not a premature optimization. Scalability is.

Isn't that the right mindset?

It's just that the signal/noise ratio used to be several orders of magnitude higher.

Kopete

https://apps.kde.org/kopete/

I personally am pretty much a GNU person too. So is KDE. I don't think you can find many communities that care about software freedom like KDE does.

But don't worry. KDE as as free as it gets.

PDFJS is fantastic.

But PDFJS folks, how can you do such a subpar job at documentation?

There is really no documentation available on pdfjs. Or a proper changelog. Like in this article they talk about JS execution in pdfjs. And how they have a solution called quickjs. _no_ documentation whatsoever about how to use it.

This has been their documentation for years:

https://mozilla.github.io/pdf.js/api/

Had I created something as complex and magnificent as pdfjs I would've documented _the hell_ out of it.

I get that pdfjs usage in normal web is not their priority and what they care about is the Firefox pdf viewer but I'm sure they would've had a much better contribution rate had they done better api docs.

KDE's telemetry is opt-in. It does no telemetry by default. Why is that a concern? If you don't like it, don't turn it on?

This is correct. KDE's user feedback collection is:

* Opt-in.

* Has several different levels of sharing and pretty clear about what is being shared.

* Even at the most relaxed level, it's fully anonymized.

The only criticism I've heard about it a long time ago was that even if you turn it off, it still will collect the data, locally on your machine. Which was a technical matter at the time and may have already changed.

KDE people are among the most privacy respecting bunch. Grandparent is spreading FUD (or has been misinformed as result of FUD). In a world that people are comfortable with Facebook and Google I find it funny that people would have privacy complaints about KDE.

Disclaimer: Used to be a minor kde contributor.

Im not in the film business, but it appears that cgi is a “resolved” problem. Quality storytelling and good screenwriting is not.

> Both of these would only serve to amplify the power of Iranian government many fold. And there is no "maybe" and no "time to time". We're talking the de-facto tools of surveillance capitalism here.

I'm not so sure they would be equal. Example:

Iranians have been using Telegram/Whatsapp/Viber for many years. And every few years the government tries to block them and push their own "national" app. Every time they try to push this agenda, there is a massive massive backlash, because noone trusts the government.

Maybe Iranian government would have enough leverage against Facebook/Google to ask them to do something (like removing Navalny app) at key moments (or push to surveil some key people at certain moments) but they definitely wont have access to every single person's database like a "national" app would. That's a very big difference.

When the parent is asking for Google to leave Russia, that implies any given company in the same situation should, which would certainly be in the direction of limiting country's communication with the outside world and create more hostility between the nations.

> At the risk of digging in a bit politically here… I’m curious if Donald Trump’s actions here were a crucial tipping point in your view or if there were other factors too that were obviously at play? As much as I’d love to blame it all on Trump I’m curious if he exacerbated things that were already slipping, or if he (and the Republicans) precipitated it…

There were obviously a lot of factors in play here. However, pulling out of JCPOA, against the will of all European partners and many US companies with no alternative reason was a crime. It was only to deny Obama/Democrats a win (over a good deal with Iran) which has brought a decade of misery upon Iranian people and risk of more wars among people in the region.

But the JCPOA was a massive, massive step forward and had no downsides for any of the countries involved. But leaving JCPOA was a step even more backwards and it may have pushed Iran over the edge. It may have been a point of no return for Iranian regime.

P.S: Thank you for the kind words.

I live in the US now and I'm no stranger to how these companies surveil you. My point is, Google has more incentives and interests than just keeping the powers to be in Iran.

But a state-owned company would only and only have 1 master, which would be the state. And it wouldn't bring any of the benefits of Google with it. It would surveil you more aggressively and it would be more devoted to the state.

So the choices are:

1. A western company that has to abide to Russian's unlawful and immoral requests time to time

2. A Russian company, which either belongs to the state, or is fully controlled by the state, or has absolutely 0 power against the state.

You choose 2?

Another way of looking at it for me is this:

If, one day, Iran and US governments allow Google to operate in Iran, that'd be a step forward. It's true that Google _may_ have to bow to Iran's regime from time to time. It's also true that Google may _want_ to help Iran's regime from time to time (due to whatever interest) but their interest is not 100% aligned. It's only sometimes aligned.

That, next to all the benefits of Google operating in Iran, would definitely make me choose 1.

I'll try my best, but obviously these are just my thoughts and a lot of other people don't necessarily agree with me.

I think all authoritarian governments rely on a chunk of their population to stay in power. This population can be very small, but sufficient.

In order to maintain their popularity they rely on:

1. Lack of education

2. Strong propaganda

3. Poverty

4. Social welfare

5. Religion & ideology

6. Fear of enemy

Within their target demographics.

So, they will end up with chunks of population who are uneducated, poor, strongly reliant on government welfare that are actually thankful for the government for their social welfare and cultural/religious alignment.

The pro-democracy people are usually middle class citizens. How do you fight uneducated, religiously/culturally motivated people with tame middle class citizens? It's not doable. That's why Taliban takes control of Afghanistan.

The only thing that I've seen work is this:

1. You try to keep communications alive with population. Google leaving a country? There couldn't be anything worse.

2. You incentivize government/regimes to stay as open as possible.

3. You wait decades for paradigm shifts within populations.

As for #1, let me give you an example. ~25 years ago I was 7. I lived in Iran. There was no internet. TV & Radio are government controlled and the country was too poor for people to travel abroad.

The _only_ thing that kept us connected to the outside world was... soccer.

Iranian state TV would broadcast a few soccer games a week (not live). For a massive chunk of the population, the only way to see there are _other_ type of people, not name Ali, Hussain, Muhammed, etc, and instead named Alessandro, Paolo, David, whatever, was soccer. Something simple like this can really keep the mind open. Allows you to realize there are other ways.

Fast forward a few years, a "reform" government was in place. The regime was relatively incentivized to talk to the US. Thus, they allowed Internet. The reform government allowed music and film to flourish again. As a result of economic growth a lot of Iranians were traveling abroad (from Turkey and Dubai to all over Europe) and as a result the middle class got more and more "western".

Fast forward to Donald Trump leaving the JCPOA, putting a "maximum pressure" campaign against Iran.

The economy went to shit (it's really a humanitarian crisis now). The government, scared of riots, locked everything down. All European brands/companies have left the country and the government is pushing to close down internet altogether.

A decade ago Iranians were pushing for democracy (Green Movement). Now, their only concern is survival. There is no hope anymore. The population is getting poorer and poorer, less and less educated.

So my question after this story is, do you think Google leaving Russia will end up helping Russians get more educated, more wealthy, more connected to the free world?

Or would it push them to the direction of poverty, isolation and disconnect?

Iran 10 years ago (before maximum pressure campaign by the republicans) was on the path to be something like Turkey. Not totally free, but somewhat OK ish country. Now it's on the path to be another North Korea (if this direction continues for another 15-20 years)

Sorry this wasn't a well written, well thought piece. It was an anecdotal dump of thoughts, but hopefully I managed to make a point.

I come from a 3rd world dictatorship country.

I don't really think that'd help. It'd further isolate those countries, making them more and more authoritarian and less and less educated.

Google pulling out of any country for help democracy either.

Isn't that +∞ and -∞?

As far as I understand Wine does way, way more than that. Wine actually re-implements all Windows API's. Not syscalls, but higher level libraries like DirectX and whatnot.

Comment above me claimed we should have sympathy for unvvacinated people [that have access to vaccine] who die, just like we do sympathize with people who die due to smoking, drinking, etc.

I argued that being vaccinated is not comparable to those, because unlike them, your body doesn't have any urge to not vaccinated. It's very easy to get vaccinated. It's just a stupid decision.

In smoking, drinking, eating too much, there are pleasures. Thus, making it difficult for people to stop. Stopping them requires fighting real urges. That's why they deserve sympathy.

In not getting vaccinated there's no pleasure. Only stupidity and ignorance.

You are assuming Taliban _left_, and Afghans are letting them come back.

Initially, Taliban offered surrender. US denied their terms. So they kept on fighting and rebuilding.

They took over the country in less than a month. They never left. They were always there.

Not only that, US initially empowered Taliban to fight the cold war.

You are right. All the good movements in tech happened ~20 years ago. Free Software/Open Source, Wikipedia, etc, all date back to early days.

Now it's all about that SaaS money.I don't mind the money part, but sadly, tech has become a gold mine for predators who smell the money and are out for blood.

> Watching the intelligence community go full nuclear to undermine and destroy a democratically elected interloper president in coordination with the media is something that can't be unseen to many Americans.

Why does everything have to be about Trump? Public’s lack of support for Snowden, Assange and Manning was well before Trump.

Watch the US government make such examples of every whistleblower and even this level of accountability which is purely driven by personal consciousness of individuals to become ineffective in fear of harsher and harsher prosecutions.

Sad indeed. US intelligence agencies have gone rogue and public doesn't really care.

Can you provid examples of this? De we have examples of public health being leveraged for anything other than public health?

Interesting question. What's the attack surface for a data center from a remote location?

I like this conversation, wish we could talk in person.

> Look, I happen to have a very high opinion of Iranians and Iranian society. I think you are one of the most sophisticated people in the world

Thank you. I don't have such high opinion we're quite average, but thanks.

You are absolutely right that my observations are only a tiny fraction and quite subjective. But that doesn't mean they can be fully dismissed.

Go to youtube and search for Americans or European's impressions of Iran when they visited. Some of them are at very rural parts [0], and yet, they are so warmly welcomed. And don't be fooled. Iranians can be horrible people. Just see how we treat Afghans. It's pretty damn embarrassing. But to Americans, I've never heard a single bad experience from a European/American in Iran.

From reading your posts, I'm pretty much sure we're on the same page. Except that it implies that you think Iranian working class do hate america, whatever that means, and that doesn't seem aligned from what I experienced or from what I've heard from other people's experiences.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2LEgowbzSc This is a great example of a visitor going through "children of heaven" class of Iran. There are countless examples of this.

His statement is not correct.

First, a massive portion of the population (middle and upper class) are also considerable and they _dont_ hate America.

Second, the working class doesn't hate America. I was born and grown up in Iran and I've never seen _anyone_ actually having strong negative feelings towards the US. I don't think Iranian working class thinks about US as much as Americans are lead to believe.

> Citizens of both countries seem to hate America

Absolutely not. Middle and upper class Iranians absolutely love America.

Never been to Saudi but I doubt their people hate America as well.

(I agree with the rest of your comment though)

Source: Iranian