regis

Silicon Valley is basically just Wall Street wearing a clown suit...

Many people here work for (or even own) companies that are enabling this sort of data collection to happen whether or not they take responsibility for it. We as a community are burdened with this issue and it is our responsibility to be knowledgeable about what is going on in an attempt to understand/deal with it.

Rust looks really great and I would love to switch all of my C development over to Rust but last time I tried to compile it, it took a good hour or two. Has this changed at all?

Exactly, this is the weirdest part to me. The US government feels alright with the fact that they have publicly declared anyone living outside the US a possible enemy. That is definitely not how I feel at all as a citizen and that viewpoint is obviously extremely dangerous. It seems like the US is becoming something like a xenophobic elderly person who isn't able to adjust to the times.

Hm, every new bit of news relating to the US government and the Internet makes me question what exactly the Internet is doing for me and if I could live without it.

Lately I've began to realize that within the next 5 years my Internet usage will be extremely minimal(if at all) unless there is some kind of huge change.

I'd rather just cancel all of my accounts on major websites than be forced use this creepy ID system.

I totally agree, this isn't necessarily about the projects listed in the article. It is more of a reaction against the over abundance of announcements like "it's like X but open!" without really providing any significant openness over google drive or whatever it's attempting to replace.

After checking out the projects mentioned in the article I would definitely say that they don't fall into this category.

I feel like most people don't consider that the content people post on Facebook is posted because the person wants everyone to see it... They wouldn't post about the absolutely mundane stuff that we all go though every day unless it's significant in someway. This is why it can be depressing, because you're looking at the best moments of hundreds of your friends' lives and you're just sitting there at the computer.

But when you post something interesting others feel the exact same way you did when they posted something interesting. Sort of a weird situation.

Why are people so interested in recreating a 'more open X' (where X is something like dropbox, skype etc...)? When these people could actually be iterating on these ideas and creating something different. Is it because there is lots of money/publicity surrounding this new found interest in "openness" or do these people actually believe that this is the most important thing to be working on? I am just trying to imagine what kind of new openness we could create if we began thinking outside of the framework that current applications provide already.

This is not not to say that they're not doing enough, but it's just a question that's been bouncing around in my head lately.

That may be true, however, we may understand that google has been doing this since day one but many people have no idea about this kind of stuff. Not everyone understands the Internet and how everything works... to some people I'd imagine this could be quite shocking.

But I do agree that this is definitely part of a trend and this could have been reported on at any time over the last couple years.

I personally found that some packages wouldn't install because they had dependencies that were broken in some way. This was about a year ago though, so I don't know how things have changed since then. Also, node packages seems to be small and specific so npm downloads many dependencies for each package. Again, I only played around with node for a little but I got a bit frustrated with all the packages and dependencies.

I don't know the details of what they do with it. But for instance, someone can purchase ads targeting a specific type of user and google probably uses this browsing data to decide if the user should be targeted for a specific kind of ad or not. That advertiser is in turn getting better ad targeting due to you using google analytics on your website.

Your analogy would only work if the website was actually hosting their own analytics. Using google analytics is quite literally participating in a larger tracking program. It is not the same as individual shops collecting data on customers for their own use.

I believe that tracking users in this way is wrong no matter what the reason is. About 2 or 3 years ago I removed all analytics and other forms of tracking from my personal website and all other projects. At first it felt weird, now it just feels normal and when someone shows me their google analytics dashboard it feels plain creepy.

I suggest that if you support privacy then the things you create should reflect that.

I would tell myself to not be afraid of publicly failing. I had, and sometimes still do have, a really hard time putting myself out there. So, do not be afraid of the judgment of others; if you are proud of what you're doing then that's all that matters.

Definitely.... However, I have been working to keeping this subject alive but at a certain point people don't want to hear it and even more disturbingly I've found that many people don't think that our government would really do something like that even after reading about it.

Whenever I fly I request a hand screening and it seems that more often than not the person screening me is more uncomfortable than I am. In the past I have literally walked a TSA employee through the procedure because he was to shy to touch me like he was "required" to.

It's not only passengers who struggle with this stuff but also the employees of the companies that require this kind of behavior.

I am still outraged but I don't know what to do about it. I don't think the restore the 4th/1984 day stuff is the right way to go about it. That is a great way to spread a message but has about a 0% chance of shutting down the NSA etc...

This stuff has recently caused me to fall into a bit of depression because I feel totally helpless.

Does anyone else feel this way? What could we do?

Yeah, that's sort of true... but I think people do see these snacks as real food. Pop-tarts are marketed as a breakfast food - this makes it seem as though you could eat pop-tarts in the morning before you start your day instead of a fruit salad or something more "time-tested"

People eat things like Pop-Tarts, Skittles, Grape Soda and other "food products" like that without researching the team behind them. Does it really matter what the team members' positions are?

I would trust a company like Soylent over General Mills until I have reason to believe otherwise.

edit: By the way General Mills also has a CTO: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/sue-simonett/5a/829/8a

I completely agree with you. I went to art school and studied programming in my own time and have found it to be the best way to establish a well-rounded interest set. Art school helped me develop critical thinking skills that could apply to nearly any field. However, from what i've seen many art school graduates do not realize this.

"You don't need to go to a library to do your research. You don't need to go to the opera to listen to your favorite arias."

This is true, but it doesn't mean that i won't go to the opera/library anymore because of the internet...

I'm not sure I get what point you're trying to make.

Perhaps a bit, but these comments are also based on real conversations with homeless people in SF.

Yeah I am aware of that, but that doesn't mean that there aren't also people who don't want to work. I would love to not work and just enjoy life while I can, but I can't because I have bought into this idea that having extra money for shelter, food and other junk makes life more enjoyable... some people haven't bought into this that are struggling to enjoy their lives outside of the crazy whirlwind of packaged desires.

I think many people choose being homeless over giving into the pressures of our society like having to sustain a job in order to pay rent and go out for dinner etc... and all that stuff that 'normal' people desire. I've met homeless people that split their time between SF and some hills near Santa Cruz and only come into the city to sell some hash or hang out ith friends for a couple of days... but yes there are also many people on the streets who don't want to be there too.

One thing that I think is missing from these discussions about the homeless in SF is: many of these people do not want to be rent-paying members of society and even if there was housing for them, some might still prefer their current lifestyle. Many people still view that lifestyle choice as unacceptable because it challenges the typical goals of someone working hard for a 'better' life. I don't think the question should be 'how do we get these people to participate in society?' but 'why don't they want to participate and how can we accommodate these alternative life choices?' Otherwise any progress made would benefit those who want to see the streets cleaned up and not necessarily those living out there.

Wow, I think this is much more offensive than someone saying 'fuck'

Just because you choose not to do something does not mean that people who do that thing are lower than you.

"We used to value hard work. It was the cornerstone of our society..."

And I welcome this change with open arms. Hard work in itself is not a goal and shouldn't be treated as such.

I am not actually saying that the author is pushing forward this sort of thinking, but I do think that the author is wrong in saying that this is "the going idea" as I have never heard that comparison before. My objection is to this common idea that graffiti is "low-art" while something like poetry actually seems much more damaging in terms of proper english usage, yet is regarded as "high-art" (historically). I simply fail to see the connection between texting and graffiti and it struck me as odd that this could be a commonly held belief.

"The going idea is that texting has, in essence, made graffiti a universal pastime: Barely punctuated, sparsely capitalized and with decidedly creative spellings throughout, texting means that today's America is reveling in writing badly."

This is an extremely poor and essentially meaningless comparison between graffiti and texting. People spell properly in spray paint on walls all the time. A defining characteristic of graffiti is its engagement with public spaces; I see no real connection between graffiti itself and the words the author used to describe it. To make a better comparison, this description could actually be applied to poetry rather than graffiti.

Okay, I sort of get what you're saying but what if it was a gay man saying my boyfriend made this? Or a woman saying my boyfriend made this? What if it was his mom who made the video? Does that still invoke sex appeal to you? The problem here seems to be with your reaction to the word girlfriend and not actually based on anything other than her gender and status. I agree that the girlfriend part could have been left out of the title, but I also don't think it ruins the integrity of this posting at all.