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Double life as a KGB agent

theguardian.com

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Re: Double life as a KGB agent

#31

Post by ianderf »

knieveltech wrote: post #18
warent wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment comes across as small minded and pessimistic without real evidence. Scientists and engineers typically help the world, with or without money. See Gates, Stallman, Page & Brin, Clair Cameron Patterson, etc

Income inequality, labor arbitrage, job loss to industrial automation, exponential increases in the surveillance state, healthcare cost increases, this list could go on indefinitely. Scientists and engineers intentions are largely moot as long as their inventions and innovations are consistently used to further concentrate wealth and power in the hands of a vanishingly small minority of the world population.

You life in the Middle Ages definitely would have been way much better. /s

Re: Double life as a KGB agent

#32

Post by striking »

Cyph0n wrote: post #23
Luc wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He set up his foundation 20 years ago. Still too recent?

I can start a foundation tomorrow. Your point? In any case, he was a billionaire several times over by then. The MS IPO was over 30 years ago. Edit: Now that I re-read my comment, I come off as an arrogant prick. Sorry about that. All I really meant to say was that setting up a foundation != charitable work. Any poor guy - like me for example - can setup a foundation, but it will only exist on paper.

Maybe you should start your foundation today rather than complaining that others don't do enough on an internet forum. One of those is more productive than the other.

Re: Double life as a KGB agent

#33

Post by ethbro »

privong wrote: post #17
ethbro wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the inefficiencies of embedding agents like this seems to be that they're subject to the same vagaries of chance as all of us. What are the chances of an agent being hired and then promoted to have access to an SCI file you're interested in? It seems a pretty poor bet compared to turning individuals already in relevant positions.

> What are the chances of an agent being hired and then promoted to have access to an SCI file you're interested in? I think the chances are higher if you expand the realm of interest to industrial espionage.

Statistically, this seems like a better bet for using the agents.

Re: Double life as a KGB agent

#34

Post by sn9 »

quakeguy wrote: post #12
warent wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment comes across as small minded and pessimistic without real evidence. Scientists and engineers typically help the world, with or without money. See Gates, Stallman, Page & Brin, Clair Cameron Patterson, etc

To expand, Oppenheimer, Turing, Feynman and even Gauss come to mind. Really stupid comment.

Those weren't engineers. Mathematicians and physicists, really.

Re: Double life as a KGB agent

#35

Post by corndoge »

kev009 wrote: post #24

I had some level of respect for The Guardian vis a vis Glenn Greenwald. But wow, the brazen seed on current events "Might Trump have been recruited by Putin?" and "right wingers are easier to convert". First class journalism right there folks, way to be taken hook line and sinker by the intelligence community while doing an article on the intelligence community. Pretty comical.

I didn't see anything in the article text that references what you are talking about. Did I miss it?

Re: Double life as a KGB agent

#36

Post by sn9 »

warent wrote: post #9
myf01d wrote: post #6

Just like engineers, they think they are smart and they are changing the world and blablabla but it is actually all about billions and power going to the big guys

This comment comes across as small minded and pessimistic without real evidence. Scientists and engineers typically help the world, with or without money. See Gates, Stallman, Page & Brin, Clair Cameron Patterson, etc

Scientists and engineers are just people. They can be moved to good or evil or anything in between just like anyone else.

Re: Double life as a KGB agent

#37

Post by arca_vorago »

Cyph0n wrote: post #21
warent wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment comes across as small minded and pessimistic without real evidence. Scientists and engineers typically help the world, with or without money. See Gates, Stallman, Page & Brin, Clair Cameron Patterson, etc

Please stop throwing around Gates as an example of "working for humankind". His charitable work begun only very recently. Before that, he was a cold and ruthless money making machine.

"His charitable work begun only very recently."

Oh you mean his tax deduction schemes?

"Before that, he was a cold and ruthless money making machine."

The world is going to suffer for decades under the proprietary NSA infected umbrella of his software. His ruthless machine lives on without him, he never turned it off.

Just wait and see, all this open sourcing from MS will increase and many will fall for the trap (embrace/extend), and then when the days of extenquish come around those of us who took the effort to transition to FOSS ecosystems will be far ahead of the game.

RMS is right. You either control the program or the program controls you.

Re: Double life as a KGB agent

#38

Post by nl »

corndoge wrote: post #35
kev009 wrote: post #24

I had some level of respect for The Guardian vis a vis Glenn Greenwald. But wow, the brazen seed on current events "Might Trump have been recruited by Putin?" and "right wingers are easier to convert". First class journalism right there folks, way to be taken hook line and sinker by the intelligence community while doing an article on the intelligence community. Pretty comical.

I didn't see anything in the article text that references what you are talking about. Did I miss it?

Yes.

I ask what he thinks of the unverified allegations that President Trump was compromised during visits to Russia. The dossier of claims, compiled by former MI6 agent Christopher Steele, was published just a day before we meet. “Clearly, blackmail is a weapon in the KGB arsenal,” Barsky shrugs. “If they could use it, they would. The only question is whether our new president was foolish enough to do any of that stuff.” Today’s Russian security services seem to think in much the same way as his old handlers in the KGB, he says. “That’s the thing with big organisations anywhere: they’re very resistant to change.”

And

In the 1980s, Barsky’s most interesting potential recruits were radical rightwing ideologues; here, Soviet agents would pose as activists from the radical right. “There was one individual I reported on who I’m convinced would have fallen for that, because he was so strongly rightwing,” he says.

I think it would be unusual not to have asked at least the first (and I don't think Trump is a Russian agent).

Re: Double life as a KGB agent

#39

Post by Cyph0n »

striking wrote: post #32
Cyph0n wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can start a foundation tomorrow. Your point? In any case, he was a billionaire several times over by then. The MS IPO was over 30 years ago. Edit: Now that I re-read my comment, I come off as an arrogant prick. Sorry about that. All I really meant to say was that setting up a foundation != charitable work. Any poor guy - like me for example - can setup a foundation, but it will only exist on paper.

Maybe you should start your foundation today rather than complaining that others don't do enough on an internet forum. One of those is more productive than the other.

What I meant by starting a "foundation" is setting up a non-profit company on paper. I have nowhere near the financials to fund it though.

But yes, I agree, this is not productive at all. My bad.

Re: Double life as a KGB agent

#40

Post by arkades »

kev009 wrote: post #24

I had some level of respect for The Guardian vis a vis Glenn Greenwald. But wow, the brazen seed on current events "Might Trump have been recruited by Putin?" and "right wingers are easier to convert". First class journalism right there folks, way to be taken hook line and sinker by the intelligence community while doing an article on the intelligence community. Pretty comical.

I lost my respect for the Guardian a while back. They were reporting on hostilities in Israel.

They had a side-bar for "Related Articles", which were one after the other - critical of Israel as being an unprovoked aggressor. Fine, if that's the truth, except:

Every article I opened had a long lead-in about Israeli aggression, its consequences, etc. Every article had buried in the last paragraph, practically mumbling under its breath, "The IDF moved in because they were repeatedly being attacked by RPGs &tc." Nothing was provided to suggest the IDF was lying or incorrect about being provoked - so why was one headline after the other all about characterizing unprovoked unilateral aggression?

I was done. It's fine to be critical of Israeli policies and military posturing; it's another to essentially lie through your teeth and then cover your ass in postscript.

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