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5951
Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Essential Studio WinRT 100% Discount
« Last post by wraith808 on June 27, 2013, 12:01 PM »
Oh yeah... I think I mentioned that before in one of the threads I posted about the book offers.  They're very aggressive, and I had to get very rude to get them off my back.  Thankfully, I used a google number... but still.
5952
And that was based on the true story of an Iranian man that lived in the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, for 17 years.

Yeah... I figured the movie had a wider reach than the story.  And had more humor value.  You have to admit, saying that Nasseri lived in an airport for ages wouldn't have had the same impact... :)

So... The US is expecting to get favors from people...(directly)...after getting caught red-handed shitting in their hats.

Dear god, how stupid are these people?!?

And why are they running this into the ground?  He was an IT guy, not a field agent.  Their security was stupid, and he took advantage of this to get incriminating papers.  He's distributed those.

He doesn't have operational knowledge.  So ... what's with this Scorched Earth approach to getting him back?  And by our lead diplomat, also?
5953
Living Room / Re: Interesting Amazon MP3 development
« Last post by wraith808 on June 27, 2013, 11:55 AM »
Same thing with DVDs.  Many DVDs come with an ultra-violet code.  Once you've added it to your online collection, what's the incentive not to re-sell the DVD?
5954
Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Essential Studio WinRT 100% Discount
« Last post by wraith808 on June 27, 2013, 11:42 AM »
Cool, grabbed a copy as I've been pondering the possibility of attempting a Metro app.

..So is this a standalone IDE, or an add-on for MSVS, or both?

No, it's controls for use in  Visual Studio.  I evaluated for work, but we ended up not using it because of politics, even though I liked it and the company better than the alternative.

Don't waste my time evaluating if the choice has already been made, please...  :-\

Thanks for the heads up!
5955
I'm gonna go out on a limb and say today's Supreme Court rulings tangentially bear on all this. If we play with Venn diagrams, some fragment of the overlap is about "opression". So if the topic of Marriage just became "medium less" oppressive, despite people specifically calling for the Good ol' Boys club, then that's a small step towards transparency in all those other agency areas.

That has little to no impact, IMO.  Think about it.  Marriage is an institution created specifically to control.  So... people have fought long and hard... to be under more control.
5956
That's not fearing the people...that's viewing them with contempt.

This... And actually I'd phrase it a little differently... that's fearing the person rather than the people.  There's a distinct difference.  If the war for independence had hinged around any one person and that person had been taken out, what would have happened?  Historians look back at the close calls that George Washington had during the fight, and how differently things would have played out had any of those close calls come to pass.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again... look at The Spartacus File by Lawrence Watt-Evans.  It's science fiction... but when you read it, bile will begin to rise as you recognize similarities between our own government and that in the book... and the actions and behaviors.

A quote from the book
Smith wanted Beech killed before he could do anything- but Schiano, who had compiled the Spartacus File, wanted to see how far Beech could get, and what, if anything, he'd do about the apparent conflict in his programming between pro-Americanism and the need to overthrow the government.

Schiano was beginning to suspect it wasn't that much of a conflict, actually.  After all, sending assassins after him hardly reflected the highest ideals of American society, or any great respect for Constitutional rights.

Not that he'd never say anything like that to Smith.  If Smith had any ideals, Schiano doubted they resembled anything in the Constitution.  The entire Covert Operations Group didn't much resemble anything in the Constitution.

5957
These are not issues that powerful elites in the area of our defense and security apparatus should have more than a peripheral opinion about. I don't buy that the President's hand was forced in these cases (particularly the ones where the promises were broken *immediately*).

We don't have (and never will) the full story on anything that happens behind the curtains, so we don't know how peripheral the interests actually are.  When people get power, they tend to want more, not let people off the chain.  The only other explanation is that he is a complete sociopath, because the indications in body language and speech were that he really did believe and want this.  And I don't think it's that simple either.  And we have to consider- Day One for us as it relates to him was not Day One for him.  There's a lot of preparation and briefing that goes into the transfer before inaugural day.  So what is considered campaign promise broken on Day One isn't really so.
5958
I find it interesting how so many are willing to concede our government's right to spin stories, send off flames, bully pulpit and dead-cat its opponents, and lie at will to the public - yet very quickly label any nose tweaking or blunt editorial characterizations in return as being "partisan politics."

Our enthroned leadership has made an art form out of using so-called "partisan" political strategies and debating techniques. That's one of the reasons they have been - and continue to be - so successful.

FWIW, I think we can have "intelligent" and "measured" and "respectful" dialog about this whole problem until the cows come home. The only way any real change will come about (or even become possible) is if the general public feels sufficient anger and disgust about what is going on to force changes. Because it isn't ever the "bright promise for the future" that stirs our public out of its chronic political llethargy. It's the hard realization that "enough is enough" and that "I am no longer willing to tolerate this behavior - starting now" that brings about social change. Something that our politicians understand and have learned to take advantage of all too well. Because they're often the first to remind you "you're better than that"; and that "you shouldn't talk that way"; and suggest you try to "exercise proper restraint and some consideration with your comments" - because they certainly aren't going to do the same with theirs.

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.

Friedrich Nietzsche

And I think that's where it is in the end.  And ideological struggle.  Not for dominance, because it is the fight that is important.  We talked about Obama before, and how utterly he changed his tune.  We've talked about entrenched politicians, and how inured to the demands of the office over the demands of the political arena they become.

They don't start out that way.  But they make concessions in order to serve the greater good.  And that slippery slope eventually claims them.

Lies are damn lies, no matter if they're told for the greater good.  And if you tell one, you're more willing to tell the next.  And then descend to their tactics.  And then, by the time you win, you look back at the broken road that you took to get here, and can't really pinpoint the time that you became what you are... which is what you formerly hated.

The Truth should stand on its own merits.  Or it's not worth the medium used to deliver it.  And anything you tarnish it with makes it somewhat less than it should be.

We need to come together as one voice, one people... sex, creed, race, beliefs, orientation be damned and say that we stand for Truth and the Rule of Law, and we will accept nothing else.  No games, no twisting of words, nor hyperbole to exaggerate the situation.  And not let any of those things divide us.  That is why I'm against any hint of partisan politics as usual in the phrasing of any of this.  It's about something greater than that, IMO.

Of course, as you say, YMMV.
5959
Two mind-numbing articles by Paul Craig Roberts:

I'm afraid you're crossing the line into partisan politics.

I agree with the overall conclusion you're presenting here. But, bad as the situation that they describe is, these articles do contain untruths and exaggerations (I won't enumerate them, because I don't want to dig deeper into the political quagmire). Presenting things in this manner undermines the effort in the long run: it gives the bad guys the opportunity to rebut trivial details while ignoring the big picture, and it robs us of (some of) the moral high ground.

Agreed +1
5960
Ok...it's 17:15 EDT on 25-Jun-2013.

Mssr. Putin has just confirmed Mr. Snowden is currently standing in the 'international area' in Moscow's airport.

The US is insisting Russia has the legal authority to expel him immediately, and is insisting they do so.

Tom Hanks lived in an airport for ages and he's done alright for himself.

On a side note: Your level of detailed insight on this stuff is truly frightening at time.

Think of me as Shepherd Book character in Firefly... ;)

***

Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: It's of interest to me how much you seem to know about that world.

Shepherd Book: I wasn't born a shepherd, Mal.

Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: You have to tell me about that sometime.

Shepherd Book: [pause] No, I don't.

 8)

That was at once the coolest and the most infuriating line Whedon's ever written. :)
5961
Well, it's pretty much always come down to settling rather than choosing in every election I was ever old enough to vote in.

Why settle for the lesser evil?  Cthulhu for President!

(Really... when I don't have a choice, I write in Cthulhu... what?  ;D)
5962
Of course, without a public trial, it's not really a help... but still...

This lad will never come to trial if those in a position to try him have anything to say about it.

Yeah... that was my point.  And if he does, it won't be in any shape or form public.  National Security, natch.
5963
I'm guessing "somebody" got cautioned. And in no uncertain terms.

Yeah... all it takes is a not-so-circuitous reference to the grassy knoll to put them in line...

I still remember the last big thing that Kennedy said before that fateful day about the powers-behind-the-throne and blowing the lid on the whole thing.

Meanwhile having watched a few James Bond movies, if this Ed Snowden critter basically did one of the "top five worst acts of treason" ever, why is it this hard to take him down? What am I not getting that a nice infiltrator team with a $25 million budget including some payoffs can't get done in a week? Or does *that* create the "Game Changer" martyr they're desperately trying to avoid? Why all this prancing around with the spin campaign?!

Because the movies make the work look easier than it is, and Snowden is (was) an insider.  He's no babe in the woods... I think he did his research long before-hand, especially into what happened to the other NSA whistleblowers.
5964
DC Gamer Club / Indie Royale Account and Collection
« Last post by wraith808 on June 25, 2013, 01:35 PM »
Indie Royal has an account now so you can register your purchases with it: http://www.indieroyale.com/collection

You also get bonus content depending on how many bundles you've purchased.  Very surprised at how many I've purchased... and how many others there were.
5965
^ Ummm... I think that was 40s descriptive title.  ;D
5966
But you can't make a fully informed vote that is representative of your constituents if you don't have all of the information.  That sort of strips away any illusion of a representative government.
5967
Had this happened back in the 70s, there would be no question whatsoever about impeachment, resignations, and criminal prosecution of government officials and officers over any of this.

The thing about it is that it wasn't as endemic back then.  Everyone, from the top to the bottom is in some way involved, whether by empowerment, willful obliviousness, or outright complicity.

This is the thing.  I don't think that what Obama is now is what he was when he ran.  But that thing about absolute power?

In a moment of candor, he admitted that he'd been wrong on some of his votes as a Senator, and some of the things he'd said about his predecessor, because he didn't have the full picture as a Senator.

Think about that.  He'd been asked to take a vote on things that he didn't have the full picture on.  What's wrong with that statement?  What does that say about this situation, and about the US government in general?
5968
If Snowden is caught and brought to trial, here's what I think the next move ought to be:

Snowden should claim that everything he said previously was a lie. And there's no law against telling lies to our enemies, right?

To make its case, the government would need to prove that the stuff Snowden said really was true, thus forcing the government to admit, at the very least, the truth of Snowden's claims.

That increases the trolling to even more epic levels.  I LOVE IT!

Of course, without a public trial, it's not really a help... but still...
5969
So is he *really* good... or *really* dead?

http://www.bbc.co.uk...orld-europe-23045790

And when I say *really* dead, I mean like these others...

MI6 Codebreaker Found Dead in Bag Was Likely Killed, Coroner Says

http://www.wired.com...der-death-foul-play/

Dead Codebreaker Was Linked to NSA Intercept Case

http://www.wired.com...8/codebreaker-death/

Two Strange Deaths in European Wiretapping Scandal
European investigators are tracking the mysterious deaths of two security experts who had uncovered extensive spyware in their telecommunications firms.

http://www.alternet...._wiretapping_scandal

The Men Who Knew Too Much? NSA Wiretapping Whistleblowers Found Dead in Italy and Greece
Adamo Bove and Costas Tsalikidis: Both uncovered a secret bugging system and both met untimely ends.

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3305

The Athens Affair How some extremely smart hackers pulled off the most audacious cell-network break-in ever

http://spectrum.ieee...ty/the-athens-affair
5971
Living Room / Re: Google Reader gone
« Last post by wraith808 on June 24, 2013, 02:24 PM »
Well played, and valid point :)
5972
This is definitely humor.. not sure if this is silly humor, so I posted it here.

Achievement-Unlocked.jpg

Epic Troll Status: Edward Snowden

epictrollstatus.jpg
5973
Sometimes I'm glad that the powers that be are so willfully and utterly stupid and prideful.

There was an obvious out that they could have taken to both make themselves look better and move public opinion on the matter- and all it would cost them is a bit of face.

The documents are already leaked, right?  So catching Snowden is a matter of pride, and nothing else.

Offer him a pardon in exchange for his testifying on the Hill in committees designed to look into (and bury) the whole thing.  Make the right noises about being respectful of the 4th amendment, and things being more than they seemed and that the are concerned about privacy of the average American, and those that have contact with them.

It's quite unlikely that he would believe them.  Which would erode his position if he was unwilling to deal, since he said that was his primary goal.  If he did, he could be dealt with in court- not towards him, but towards the whole policy and the leaks, which is the larger issue.  Destroy him and his testimony from that front, and you have a win.

This way?  There's only a slim chance of winning this...
5974
Living Room / Re: Google Reader gone
« Last post by wraith808 on June 24, 2013, 01:31 PM »
Someone else tried that... and posted the results here somewhere, I think...
5975
This is playing out like a movie...  I'd be grabbing the popcorn if not for the fact that this hits so close to home  :-\
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