Hacker News Reader

uvdivon There’s a Secret Patriot Act, Senator Says (2011)

According to Paul's office, the senator "didn’t think it went as far as it should" and wasn't comfortable signing the letter when his changes weren't adopted.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/06/28/_26_senators_vs...

uvdivon WikiLeaks refutes media reports about 'Ecuadorean disarray'

This is fabulously ironic:

President Rafael Correa responding to the leak [of the Snowden asylum document] by the newspapers has accused the media of spying on Ecuadorean officials. He also stressed that the corrupted media power is the worst weapon that mankind has invented.

uvdivon Ecuador's Correa says Biden asked him to deny Edward Snowden asylum

"I think WikiLeaks, if you've looked at past history … their focus isn't necessarily the constitution of the United States."

Which is truly remarkable, seeing how they are based in Sweden.

uvdivon U.S. bugged EU offices, computer networks

Here's the cable for that:

https://www.aftenposten.no/spesial/wikileaksdokumenter/artic...

uvdivon U.S. bugged EU offices, computer networks

Like this?

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/04/30/world/us-expanding-its-eff...

uvdivon U.S. bugged EU offices, computer networks

Has Germany banned its foreign intelligence agencies from spying on the US government? Is that also covered under its privacy laws?

uvdivon U.S. bugged EU offices, computer networks

Isn't this the explicit purpose of the NSA, to spy on the communications of foreign governments? And aren't EU members' governments doing the same thing against the US?

uvdivon In the 1970s, Congress investigated intelligence abuses. Time to do it again?

Wyden and Udall are already on the Senate committee that oversees the NSA.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_Select_Co...

They have been for years, if anyone's been paying attention.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/16/us/politics/democratic-sen...

uvdivon In the 1970s, Congress investigated intelligence abuses. Time to do it again?

Doesn't the Church Committee still exist? It's the Select Committee on Intelligence:

[Senate, ex Church] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_Select_Co...

[House, ex Pike] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_Permanent_...

The current chair is Dianne Feinstein, who apparently supports everything the NSA is doing.

uvdivon Ecuador says letter of safe conduct for Snowden is unauthorized and invalid

Misspelled "hight"?

Occam's razor reminds you that this is a third-world bureaucracy where English is not the native language. Not every typo hides a spy thriller.

uvdivon Snowden given safepass to Ecuador [pdf]

Likely will be printed on June 28th, thought it appears online earlier than that.

uvdivon Snowden given safepass to Ecuador [pdf]

Yet, Wikileaks is claiming the opposite:

"WikiLeaks, which is assisting Mr. Snowden, has said that Ecuador issued him special travel papers and that it is his ultimate destination."

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/28/world/snowden.html

uvdivon In 2009, Ed Snowden said leakers “should be shot.” Then he became one

This is interesting:

these are the same people who blew the whole "we could listen to osama's cell phone" thingthe same people who screwed us on wiretappingover and over and over againThank god they're going out of business.

Referring to the NY Times. "Screwed us on wiretapping" in the sense that they reported about it, thus tipping off terrorists and making it less useful. (Snowden's interpretation, not mine).

uvdivon Edward Snowden has not entered Russia - Sergei Lavrov

Nevertheless:

06/25 14:37 RUSSIAN LAW ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITIES MAY DETAIN SNOWDEN TO ESTABLISH ALL CIRCUMSTANCES, INCLUDING PASSPORT DETAILS - SOURCE

http://www.interfax.com/news.asp

uvdivon [Stack Overflow]Design a function f, such that f(f(n)) == -n

If you want to quickly understand the answers, the key insight is here:

http://stackoverflow.com/a/824878

Paraphrased: defining such a function over a symmetric subset of the reals X is equivalent to partitioning the positive (>0) elements of X into disjoint pairs (a,b). This uniquely describes a satisfying function f, under whose action:

    f:  0 -> 0
    f:  a -> (-b) -> (-a) -> b -> a

And conversely, any such function is uniquely described by such a partition. That's all there is to it!

There is no such partition on the set of int32_t's, because the # of nonzero int32_t's is odd.

For the set of all integers Z, the "obvious" partition is {(1,2), (3,4), (5,6)...}. This is what many of the answers are getting at with even/odd tests.

This also works for some subsets of the integers, such as {-2,1,0,1,2}. These are the symmetric ones with an even number of positive elements. These have 4n or 4n+1 elements total, depending on whether they include zero. [-2^31, 2^31] works (this has one more element than int32_t). As does [-2^31 + 2, 2^31 - 2] -- the largest such subset of int32_t.

This has a natural extension to the rationals, the reals, etc. Namely: (a,b) is a member of the partition iff (floor(a), floor(b)) is a member of the partition for integers, and their fractional parts are equal.

There is no such function on the reals that is (analytically) continuous. Any such f must be bijective (a != b implies f(a) != f(b)). If f : R -> R is both continuous and bijective, it is monotonic, and therefore so is (f . f), which is incompatible with the requirement that (f . f)(x) = -x.

uvdivon Demonizing Edward Snowden

The article misattributes this quote:

    An unnamed senior Administration official joined the Snowden-bashing 
    chorus, telling reporters, “Mr. Snowden’s claim that he is 
    focussed on supporting transparency, freedom of the press, and 
    protection of individual rights and democracy is belied by the 
    protectors he has potentially chosen: China, Russia, Cuba, Venezuela, 
    and Ecuador. His failure to criticize these regimes suggests that his 
    true motive throughout has been to injure the national security of 
    the U.S., not to advance Internet freedom and free speech.”

This wasn't some "unnamed senior Administration official"; it was the White House spokesman, Jay Carney, speaking in this afternoon's press briefing. It's an official statement of the White House. Here's the video and transcript:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/2013/06/24/...

uvdivon White House: Snowden's "true motive" is to "injure national security"

MR. CARNEY: Let me say this about that question, which is that Mr. Snowden’s claim that he is focused on supporting transparency, freedom of the press, and protection of individual rights and democracy is belied by the protectors he has potentially chosen -- China, Russia, Ecuador, as we’ve seen.

His failure to criticize these regimes suggest that his true motive throughout has been to injure the national security of the United States -- not to advance Internet freedom and free speech.

I think that with regards to the first part of your question, I’ve made the point that the unauthorized disclosure of classified information -- the kind of information that has already been disclosed -- has an enormous negative impact and there are ongoing damage assessments being done. But, certainly, it would be our assumption that any information -- any further classified information that he has that has not yet been divulged publicly would be compromised, or has been compromised.

uvdivon USA must not hunt down whistleblower Edward Snowden

The White House rather unambiguously threw Snowden under the bus:

"Mr. Snowden's claim that he is focused on supporting transparency, freedom of the press and protection of individual rights and democracy is belied by the protectors he has potentially chosen - China, Russia, Ecuador, as we've seen [...] His failures to criticize these regimes suggests that his true motive throughout has been to injure the national security of the United States, not to advance Internet freedom and free speech."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/24/us-usa-security-ob...

uvdivon Edward Snowden whereabouts unknown as US presses Russia

I apologize, I thought it was implicit this is just about wind patterns.

uvdivon Edward Snowden whereabouts unknown as US presses Russia

Vietnam! The plot thickens!

I doubt Vietnam is relevant here. This visit was announced a week ago:

http://talkvietnam.com/2013/06/top-ecuador-diplomat-to-visit...

"Vietnam will be Patino’s second stopover during his Asian tour. Besides Vietnam, he will visit the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, and Singapore."

uvdivon Edward Snowden whereabouts unknown as US presses Russia

Which time zone? It's 7 PM in Hanoi.

(reply to edit: it's 7 AM in Ecuador)

uvdivon Edward Snowden whereabouts unknown as US presses Russia

It actually overflies the US mainland today:

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/AFL150

But on other days it goes nowhere near it:

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/AFL150/history/20130620/1...

uvdivon Edward Snowden whereabouts unknown as US presses Russia

This rumor has a credibility problem:

* The Oslo flight left only 20 minutes after the Hong Kong arrival

* That route would involve four flights to reach Iceland (stopping in Moscow, Stockholm, and Oslo). The trip can be done in two: you don't need the Moscow or Oslo stops.

uvdivon Facebook, With a Focus on Mobile, Works on Project for News Via Users

The quoted Josh Elman does not work for Facebook.

uvdivon Facebook, With a Focus on Mobile, Works on Project for News Via Users

In Soviet Russia, newspaper reads you!

(In Capitalist America, newspaper profitably sells many copies of you and goes on to a healthy IPO).

((In Strossian America, sentient uploaded newspapers rove the clouds. They hunt in packs)).

uvdivon An Apology to my European IT Team

Snowden directly answers this -- he claims NSA analysts can get away with it:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/17/edward-snowden-n... and

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/17/edward-snowden-n...

This is getting overlooked, but a 2009 NYT article claimed an NSA analyst looked through Bill Clinton's email out of curiosity (he was caught). I think this is very revealing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/us/17nsa.html?pagewanted=a...

uvdivon Study of lead levels in rice under scrutiny

Wow, me and tomsaffell practically called it:

"I'm beginning to suspect someone confused a mg/mcg/μg somewhere; that seems like the Occam's razor explanation..."

"But something doesn't quite add up... which if true would contradict the FDA's results... What are we (or I) missing?"

"It doesn't make sense to me either. If the FDA found n.d. levels of lead in all their samples, you would expect some of the new study's samples to have low levels as well."

"Right, the low end of the range should be much lower. Right now, my money is on a units error."

uvdivon Snowden's destination is Venezuela through Havana

Russia Today reports:

"Citing a source close to Snowden, Russian news agency Interfax reported that the whistleblower’s final destination will be Venezuela with a transfer in Havana, Cuba. He will reportedly be on flight SU150 to Havana, leaving Moscow on Monday and then on flight V-04101 to Caracas."

http://rt.com/news/snowden-fly-moscow-aeroflot-125/

uvdivon Snowden Leaves Hong Kong on Commercial Flight to Moscow

We'll at least he'd be safe from NSA spying there, seeing as the whole island is air-gapped.

uvdivon Snowden Leaves Hong Kong on Commercial Flight to Moscow

The US can guarantee to waive the death penalty in exchange for an extradition. I've read some lawyers think the US is likely to try this.