Assange: Google Is Not What It Seems • Hacker News Board

Re: Assange: Google Is Not What It Seems

#21

Post by smtddr » Thu, Oct 23, 2014, 11:07 PM UTC

chiaro wrote: post #9

He writes well, and it's an interesting look at how intertwined the government has become (was it ever not?) enmeshed with corporate empires. Unfortunately in the wider population, Google's image is nigh unassailable. The average user wouldn't know about their being saddled with military contracts through their Boston Dynamics acquisition, for example. For this, and other reasons, 99 times out of 100, "free market" c…

>>Unfortunately in the wider population, Google's image is nigh unassailable.

Well, for me I _still_[1] think of Google as the good guys because I place the blame for this mess squarely on USgov, which perhaps ultimately leads to the public's lack of empathy - but I see this as a chicken-and-egg problem. I don't know if USgov laws created a socioeconomic setup that made people too stressed about day-to-day life not care, or people not caring resulted in our current socioeconomic setup. That's the cycle I'd like to break; but blaming Google solves nothing. What are they suppose to do? Just straight up say "Screw you USgov, we're not obeying the law. Don't care about your gag-orders or your subpoenas. We're just going to flat out refuse. Do your worst, come at me bro." --- I would think even Google must crumble under the full force of USgov that would swiftly follow such an act of rebellion.

Afterall, Google cannot dodge, bob and weave like say... Snowden.

1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8443796

Re: Assange: Google Is Not What It Seems

#22

Post by redthrowaway » Thu, Oct 23, 2014, 11:12 PM UTC

AshleysBrain wrote: post #14

In all of Chrome, Firefox and IE, after a few moments the page background turns black, and then it's unreadable (black text on black background). Is this happening to anyone else? Is there a readable link? :P

Try:

    jQuery('#cboxOverlay').remove();
    jQuery('#colorbox').remove();

There's a modal that pops up with a black overlay. Opacity is 0 for me, but that might not be registering for whatever reason for you.

Re: Assange: Google Is Not What It Seems

#23

Post by lern_too_spel » Thu, Oct 23, 2014, 11:13 PM UTC

mkal_tsr wrote: post #12

lern_too_spel wrote: post #5

The last section reads like the ravings of a conspiracy nut. From associating the DARPA grants that fund many university computer science projects with nefarious spy collaboration to repeating PRISM is the long-debunked full take program of Greenwald's fantasy, it's straight lunacy.

That's a lot of citations there, thanks for backing up your claims!

It's in TFA. What citations do you need?

Re: Assange: Google Is Not What It Seems

#24

Post by justicezyx » Thu, Oct 23, 2014, 11:14 PM UTC

TheMagicHorsey wrote: post #19

I did not realize what a nut Assange has become. The more there is the danger that he might be forgotten, the more ridiculous his theories of the world. However, you have to think about his target audience. The audience doesn't consist of people who are familiar with things like DARPA grants, and think tanks. For people in the know, this writing will read like lunacy, because they will understand that Assange sees de…

There is no consipiracy, it's just powerful people excercise their influence through the powerful channels. It's no difference than the culture revolution happened in Chian's 1970's. The difference is just the influence is excercised in rather different form and manners.

Re: Assange: Google Is Not What It Seems

#25

Post by nickff » Thu, Oct 23, 2014, 11:15 PM UTC

chiaro wrote: post #9

He writes well, and it's an interesting look at how intertwined the government has become (was it ever not?) enmeshed with corporate empires. Unfortunately in the wider population, Google's image is nigh unassailable. The average user wouldn't know about their being saddled with military contracts through their Boston Dynamics acquisition, for example. For this, and other reasons, 99 times out of 100, "free market" c…

>"That's alright though, when you can trust the state to properly monitor and regulate ethical conduct, though it doesn't look like we'll be quite so lucky here."

Please provide an example of an industry whose regulator has performed this task well (or a list of regulators if you can find more than one), as I am not familiar with any in North America (my area of residence and familiarity).

>"Regulatory capture is one of the biggest problems in the government today, but the solution isn't decreasing the power of the government over companies, it's decreasing the power of companies over the government."

Why is the former solution inferior to the latter? I believe that the first solution is the only solution because of problems such as the aformentioned regulatory capture, as well as public choice, and various resource allocation (market-related) reasons. Please explain why I am mistaken. If you would like clarification with respect to any of my reasoning, let me know, and I can show my work (but I don't want to bore you unnecessarily).

Re: Assange: Google Is Not What It Seems

#26

Post by dismal2 » Thu, Oct 23, 2014, 11:16 PM UTC

lern_too_spel wrote: post #5

The last section reads like the ravings of a conspiracy nut. From associating the DARPA grants that fund many university computer science projects with nefarious spy collaboration to repeating PRISM is the long-debunked full take program of Greenwald's fantasy, it's straight lunacy.

Please let us know how it has been debunked.

Re: Assange: Google Is Not What It Seems

#27

Post by grecy » Thu, Oct 23, 2014, 11:20 PM UTC

lern_too_spel wrote: post #5

The last section reads like the ravings of a conspiracy nut. From associating the DARPA grants that fund many university computer science projects with nefarious spy collaboration to repeating PRISM is the long-debunked full take program of Greenwald's fantasy, it's straight lunacy.

> reads like the ravings of a conspiracy nut.

As do all the articles about the information Snowden made available to us.

Imagine it's somewhere in 2005-2010 while reading... you would be nuts if you didn't think they were conspiracy nuts.

Re: Assange: Google Is Not What It Seems

#28

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Oct 23, 2014, 11:24 PM UTC

TheMagicHorsey wrote: post #19

I did not realize what a nut Assange has become. The more there is the danger that he might be forgotten, the more ridiculous his theories of the world. However, you have to think about his target audience. The audience doesn't consist of people who are familiar with things like DARPA grants, and think tanks. For people in the know, this writing will read like lunacy, because they will understand that Assange sees de…

[deleted]

Re: Assange: Google Is Not What It Seems

#29

Post by HonorSworn » Thu, Oct 23, 2014, 11:25 PM UTC

It is not that I believe that Google and Eric Schmidt along with the government are part of some kind of conspiracy. And I do acknowledge that someone like Assange probably is much more paranoid than he should be.

It is simply that we should not voluntarily give so much power to a single company.

Re: Assange: Google Is Not What It Seems

#30

Post by lern_too_spel » Thu, Oct 23, 2014, 11:26 PM UTC

dismal2 wrote: post #26

lern_too_spel wrote: post #5

The last section reads like the ravings of a conspiracy nut. From associating the DARPA grants that fund many university computer science projects with nefarious spy collaboration to repeating PRISM is the long-debunked full take program of Greenwald's fantasy, it's straight lunacy.

Please let us know how it has been debunked.

The NY Times published a correct description of PRISM very shortly after Greenwald's published his insane misread. http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/06/08/technology/tech-compani...

This description matches the declassified PRISM documents, the description in Snowden's leaked slides, US law, the miniscule price tag in Snowden's slides, and the description of a specific PRISM integration I heard from one of the implementers (possibly one interviewed in the nytimes story).