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Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by dr_andus on July 24, 2013, 02:31 PM »

They have crackpots in Russia?? I thought that was an American thing.

-Stoic Joker (July 24, 2013, 12:06 PM)

You'd be surprised how widely American crackpots travel.  Wasn't there a dude that swam right across a lake to Aung San Suu Kyi's house while she was under house arrest? Or the ones that keep popping up in North Korea and end up hanging out with the Supreme Leader... 

I strongly suspect some sort of brokered arrangement has already been made that will ultimately result in Snowden winding up in US custody without making the behind the scenes choreography too obvious.

-40hz (July 24, 2013, 01:34 PM)

It's not an impossibility, but I somehow doubt. It would reflect badly on Putin domestically, as there is strong popular support for helping Snowden. Plus it would send the wrong message to potential US defectors and whistleblowers, and even existing double agents. The FSB needs to show that you'll be looked after if you cross over to them. Russia is trying to differentiate itself as "better than the US" in some sense but if they hand him over, they lose that advantage.

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Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by dr_andus on July 24, 2013, 11:32 AM »

This should allow him to walk into one of 3 Latin American embassies and claim asylum and get a travel document. But it still doesn't solve his logistical problem of how to get to the final destination, unless enough money has been raised for that charter flight and a suitable provider has been found.

Plus he will need some serious security escort while out and about in Moscow, to protect him from hostile security agencies, the media, and crackpots. I can't see how all that can be accomplished without active FSB assistance, in which case his moves will be seriously constrained (and channelled) by the Russians. He can basically only do what the Russians allow him to.

The Russians must have already decided whether it's to their advantage or disadvantage to keep Snowden in Moscow and/or in Russia until the G20 summit. So probably Snowden's next steps will play out within that framework...

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General Software Discussion / Re: Are you going to wait for Windows 9?

« Last post by dr_andus on July 24, 2013, 08:54 AM »

The new UI side of Win8 is aimed at tablets and as such should, I think, be compared with whatever it is they have on iPads and the relevant Androids. That's a world I know nothing about so I cant comment.

-tomos (November 21, 2012, 05:32 AM)

Okay, so how about comparing it to Win7 then? Are the "minor" annoyances you mention outweighed by some major benefit (for Win7 desktop users - or even XP users who may want to choose between Win7 and Win8)?

-dr_andus (November 21, 2012, 09:02 AM)

I just saw this promotional MS graphic doing the rounds, about the benefits of switching from XP to Win8 for businesses. I still can't see any compelling reasons why someone without a touch screen should switch from XP to Win8, rather than Win7. The main argument here seems to be "you'll get access to our store where we can sell you more stuff." That's hardly going to convince a lot of businesses...

Spoiler

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Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by dr_andus on July 22, 2013, 09:03 AM »

There seems to have been a shift in the game, in the sense that it's starting to look more like US v. Russia, than US v. Snowden at the moment, thanks to the forthcoming G20 summit in Moscow. It sure would look embarrassing if Obama had to share the media limelight with Snowden (being the two most newsworthy Americans in town at the same time, possibly at the same airport...). Journalists' questions and commentaries would just keep coming, overshadowing the actual G20 agenda.

It gives the power to the hosts, as the Russians could pull out that card and put it away at will, whenever someone is starting to criticise their human rights record. Plus it depends entirely on them, whether Snowden will still be at the airport in 6 weeks time, or stashed away somewhere else in Russia (Siberia comes to mind) or possibly in Latin America.

In the meantime, an interesting intervention from Germany:

The only person in Europe to see Snowden’s fate both in terms of political morality and in the context of the history of the US and Europe, is Rolf Hochhuth, the German author and playwright. He presented an eloquent petition to Chancellor Angela Merkel asking that Snowden be given asylum.

Hochhuth points out in the petition that where government is both accuser and perpetrator “the accused has no hope of justice”. He added that if Snowden returns to the US he faces years in prison, but if he stays in Russia he will be permanently muzzled.

So, why should Germany of all countries offer asylum to an American? Hochhuth writes that “more than any other, the German people are obligated to honour the right of asylum because, beginning in 1933, our elite, without exception from the Mann brothers to Einstein, survived the 12-year Nazi dictatorship purely because other countries, with the US as the greatest example, offered asylum to these refugees.”

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Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: PDF-XChange Viewer ($FREE version) - Mini-Review

« Last post by dr_andus on July 22, 2013, 07:09 AM »

PDF-XChange Viewer now gets a 5  x  from me (was 4½).
No issues re OCR, now - it all seems to work just fine. I see that it currently caters for English, French, German, Spanish, but I have only used the English OCR functionality so far.

-IainB (June 20, 2013, 12:56 AM)

I agree that PDF-XChange Viewer is excellent. I used the free version for years, and recently have upgraded to PRO.

Regarding OCR, it is generally fine for most purposes. Where it begins to have problems is with poorly scanned texts. For those situations I use ABBYY FineReader, and there can be a big difference: where PDF-XChange Viewer might have a 60-70% success rate in recognising text (which is basically unusable, as you can't understand a sentence where a third of the words are unintelligible), FineReader produces a 99.99% correct OCR. But these are marginal cases I'm talking about (book pages scanned at a low resolution).

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Living Room / Re: Government spies on Twitter

« Last post by dr_andus on July 19, 2013, 06:44 AM »

How about Twitter spying on people? I've set up a Twitter account with my Hotmail account years ago, but I do not use it. Twitter have kept sending me emails about feeds they thought I might be interested in, which were usually related topically to a handful of feeds I'd subscribed to, all of which are based on my academic interests (and are not from my local area).

However, today there was a new twist: Twitter sent me an email saying I might be interested in the feeds of my local council. How on earth did they figure out where I live? I barely log on to Twitter (maybe 3-4 times a year to do a search), and I only do it on my PC. Is that based on my IP address or they're doing something different?

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Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by dr_andus on July 17, 2013, 08:58 AM »

What Happens When We Actually Catch Edward Snowden?
the denouement to this drama may be unpleasant not just for Snowden, but for his captors as well...

-40hz (July 17, 2013, 08:10 AM)

As I suggested earlier in the thread, it does not actually look like the US really wants to catch him and bring him back onto US soil, for the reasons now described in this article as well. So the tug-of-war with Russia over Snowden might be just a charade, to make it look like they're after him, while in the meantime increasing his chances of getting asylum elsewhere and keeping him away.

I wouldn't be surprised if they've actually explicitly agreed to play this game with Russia, judging from Putin's jovial statements on the matter in public. Putin gets a bit of domestic political capital out of it, while the US comes out looking stern but achieving its objective of not apprehending Snowden.

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Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by dr_andus on July 12, 2013, 08:22 AM »

But, I've not really been poking fun at anyone lately, so, might as well have a few laughs.

-Renegade (July 12, 2013, 06:05 AM)

h/t Nerdcore

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Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by dr_andus on July 12, 2013, 03:10 AM »

Aviation insiders say Snowden’s chances of reaching Venezuela are slim at best

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Living Room / Re: Possibly the ultimate $21,000 computer desk/chair combo?

« Last post by dr_andus on July 11, 2013, 04:27 AM »

This chair would still kill you in the (not very) long run. For this kind of money they should have built in a treadmill and a stationary bike at least...

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Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by dr_andus on July 10, 2013, 09:59 AM »

I'd be inclined to declare the first match a stalemate. But this tournament is far from over.

-40hz (July 10, 2013, 09:13 AM)

If we base the assessment on Snowden's declared original objectives, then it must be 1:0 in his favour, as he had managed to change public opinion on the issue despite all the spin, while the US government failed to apprehend him or stop him from leaking further information:

American voters say 55 - 34 percent that Edward Snowden is a whistle-blower, rather than a traitor, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released today.

In a massive shift in attitudes, voters say 45 - 40 percent the government's anti-terrorism efforts go too far restricting civil liberties, a reversal from a January 10, 2010, survey by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University when voters said 63 - 25 percent that such activities didn't go far enough to adequately protect the country.

"The massive swing in public opinion about civil liberties and governmental anti- terrorism efforts, and the public view that Edward Snowden is more whistle-blower than traitor are the public reaction and apparent shock at the extent to which the government has gone in trying to prevent future terrorist incidents," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

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Living Room / Re: Google Reader gone

« Last post by dr_andus on July 10, 2013, 08:20 AM »

You make valid points, but I'd say that signing up to a fledgling service with no apparent business model is also a way of supporting that idea and business. Another benefit of doing it is that early adopters quite often get a good deal out of being beta testers, by being excused from upgrade fees etc.

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Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by dr_andus on July 10, 2013, 05:53 AM »

Everything the US has done so far had contributed to Snowden staying put in Moscow. So either a dilettante is directing this entire operation (whoever he or she may be) in the US, or it might not be that easy or convenient to seize him in Latin America after all.

-dr_andus (July 09, 2013, 12:41 PM)

An alternative interpretation would be that US action so far has been deliberately clumsy, to make it look like they are after him (as a deterrent to other potential whistle-blowers), while deliberately increasing his chances of getting asylum somewhere, to make sure they don't need to deal with him on US soil. Then one day we'll be reading about it in Obama's memoirs, how he had secretly aided the escape of a true American hero...

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Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by dr_andus on July 09, 2013, 12:49 PM »

But this whole scandal is suggesting to me that perhaps the NSA is putting so much effort into online spying on everyone because it is a lot easier to do (from the comfort of your plush suburban office) than to get your sorry ass over to Yemen or Waziristan to find out what is really going on (and get all sweaty and dusty and in real danger 'n stuff)  So what we get then is a bunch of operatives who are really good at using Facebook 

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Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by dr_andus on July 09, 2013, 12:41 PM »

And if Snowden winds up someplace in South America, he'll be "extracted" sooner or later. Count on it.

Not that long ago, the United States went into an independent nation called Panama, hauled out it's freekin' president, shipped him back to the US to stand trial, and incarcerated him. So I doubt going in and grabbing one of its own citizens charged with espionage is going to give the US much pause or concern. It has the tools. It has the talent. And it wrote its own law that said it's legal for the good ol' USA to do things like that - even if they won't let anybody read it.

-40hz (July 08, 2013, 09:54 AM)

If this were true though, then why doesn't the US let Snowden leave Moscow, so he could be more easily apprehended in Latin America? Quite the opposite is happening. Everything the US has done so far had contributed to Snowden staying put in Moscow. So either a dilettante is directing this entire operation (whoever he or she may be) in the US, or it might not be that easy or convenient to seize him in Latin America after all.

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Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by dr_andus on July 09, 2013, 09:14 AM »

That's not so clear.  They've *chosen* not to kill him.  There's a difference.  They aren't *that* bloodthirsty that it's the first option on the table.  There are other less permanent options that leave other avenues open.  It really does take a bit for a kill order to go out on something like this.

-wraith808 (July 09, 2013, 07:59 AM)

I wasn't saying that that would have been necessarily their first option, I was just saying that they probably have the capability to do so (it is technically an option), but they can't exercise that option exactly because of the public and internationalised nature of the affair (plus the fact that Snowden might be a genuine whistleblower, not just a defector or rogue agent).

Let's not forget such an option was exercised against Anwar al-Awlaki (and there were plenty of such executions of double agents etc. during the Cold War. In fact I keep hearing about mysterious deaths of people (Westerners) even in recent years who have in one way or another had dealings with the security services).

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Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by dr_andus on July 09, 2013, 03:56 AM »

@40hz

I don't disagree with much of what you've said. But my point is that I don't think that Snowden is an entirely spent force or that his situation is entirely hopeless. So far he had proven to be a wily operator.

But what's perhaps more important is that he is possibly on the right side of truth, the law and history. The US govt clearly can't just kill him now, otherwise they would have already done so, even at Moscow airport or in Hong Kong. And even bringing him to court in the US could be problematic, as it could provide a rallying point for supporters and public opinion might swing in his favour. Not to mention the risk of martyrdom, which could prompt even more whistleblowing, in fact an unstoppable flood, rather than just occasional leaks.

So it's not only Snowden who is between a rock and a hard place but also the US govt. The US is at a crossroads in its history and the whole meaning of what the US stands for and what it means to be an American is at stake here. Not so long ago even on the proverbial Arab street people would have grudgingly acknowledged that the US of A stands for freedom, human rights etc., etc. That situation has changed radically in recent years and now other than possibly in Israel and the other 'Anglo-Saxon' countries the US is losing friends and admirers very rapidly.

So whatever the US does now with Snowden will have far reaching consequences. He is not a Bradley Manning or not even Wikileaks because he isn't just indiscriminately dumping information but he is making a very specific point about what's happening to the concept of the US of A.

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Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by dr_andus on July 08, 2013, 05:05 AM »

Granting asylum won't sweeten the pot for any nation doing it now. It will just inflict a cost on what's already been gained for free.

Snowden is no longer a piece in the international game. And he has no champion. As time goes on, his continued predicament will start to be an embarrassment to every nation.

-40hz (July 07, 2013, 11:36 AM)

He's already almost a non-player. A few more weeks and he won't be one at all.

-40hz (July 07, 2013, 12:05 PM)

I disagree. Snowden's ongoing leaks continue to destabilise international relations. Just look at his ability to interfere with the US-EU trade negotiations or his ability to 'convene' an emergency meeting of the Brasilian government last night. He could still have a lot of stuff up his sleeve.

At the moment he continues to be a major asset for the Russians, as he is continually affirming their interpretation of US hypocricy, which suits them in their domestic politics but also with strengthening their alliances with the Chinese and the Latin Americans. So the Russians are in no hurry to force him to leave just now, despite what they say.

Also, left wing governments in Latin America could use him as an ongoing asset in bolstering their case to stay in power (e.g. Venezuela), so giving him asylum would pay dividends in the long term.

Finally, he is an intellectual asset in his own right (not just as a pawn in international politics). Which corporation wouldn't want a guy with his kind of insight and experience on its executive or advisory board? The same goes for any government or security agency. You would want to pick this guy's brain. He is no Bradley Manning, and so far looking cleverer even than Julian Assange. He would make a fine advisor on international, security, and technology issues for any head of government (as long as you can put up with the US pressure)...

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Living Room / Re: Google Reader gone

« Last post by dr_andus on July 06, 2013, 01:20 PM »

I can't imagine why they'd put the comments there, but I decided that I'd move on.

-cyberdiva (July 06, 2013, 12:49 PM)

I presume that this is why the service is free, i.e. the developer might be making some commission on 'encouraging' people to check out Chrome (just speculating) or use the Chrome extension.

However, I've been using it in Firefox and it's been working fine. I have not tested the Chrome extension, so can't say anything about that.

Perhaps check out the reviews here, this is where I first heard about them (in fact I was directed there from the defunct Google Reader page, by Google):

http://alternativeto.net/software/google-reader/

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Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by dr_andus on July 06, 2013, 11:52 AM »

There's still something wrong with this whole story. All of it. It's something to do with "too much noise".

-TaoPhoenix (July 06, 2013, 11:03 AM)

My guess is that this is uncharted territory because the world of spying and the world of media have changed beyond recognition (due to the capabilities of the technology involved), so no one knows how to deal with this. Orwell's 1984 has become possible, but with a twist - that the oppressed also have access to the "wire" and can channel their own messages, affecting public opinion and international relations.

While the US administration needs to punish Snowden to show what happens to spies that leak, at the same time if they overdo it, there is nothing they can do from preventing a 100 new Snowdens leaking even more information, especially if they turn him into a martyr (Spartacus and Jesus come to mind...). It could equally inspire left-wing liberals and far right people against an overbearing Federal government. US democracy and the world order are being tested at the moment...

Everyone just seems to be improvising...

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Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by dr_andus on July 06, 2013, 10:46 AM »

Some interesting analysis by Ana de Palacio, a former Spanish foreign minister, Senior Vice President of the World Bank etc.

...the Snowden affair reinforces the perception that the US is losing its sway in South America. (...) The threat by US officials to cut off aid to Ecuador, which would amount to a measly $12 million in 2014, further evinces a clumsy approach. America's traditional sources of influence - its soft power, regional alliances, and financial leverage - appear to be running dry. The message to the world is clear: the US is not the regional power that it should be.

Obama's flippant attitude concerning alleged US surveillance of the European Union and its member states shows that American exceptionalism is alive and well. Instead of acknowledging the legitimacy of European concerns, he shrugged them off as a frivolity: "guarantee you that in European capitals, there are people who are interested in, if not what I had for breakfast, at least what my talking points might be should I end up meeting with their leaders."

The US certainly has an interest in gaining deeper analytical insight into its European allies' decision-making than can be gained by simply calling, say, German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Accepting that spying is realistically part of the US toolkit, we Europeans expect it to be conducted responsibly. By dismissing European concerns about how such surveillance is carried out, Obama has demonstrated one of America's worst habits - that of patronizing Europe.

P.S. I guess the point is that the Obama administration has been incredibly clumsy so far in its pursuit to catch this guy. It's stirring up all kinds of ill feelings with traditional allies and giving plenty of ammunition to its traditional critics, which probably could have been avoided. Perhaps this attests to the skills of Snowden or the Wikileaks people, or it's just simply an unfortunate occasion that exposed these inadequacies in the current US administration (though I'm not saying Bush would have handled it better...).

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Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by dr_andus on July 06, 2013, 10:10 AM »

Tweaking the nose of the giant.  And making a statement.

-wraith808 (July 06, 2013, 09:33 AM)

Even though the giant was exceptionally polite 

The Embassy of the United States of America presents its compliments to the Ministry of Popular Power for External Relations of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and has the honor to request the provisional arrest for the purpose of extradition of United States citizen Edward J. SNOWDEN...

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Living Room / Re: Google Reader gone

« Last post by dr_andus on July 06, 2013, 08:27 AM »

I haven't done any in-depth research, but I've been scanning reviews, and eventually I settled on InoReader, which doesn't seem to have been mentioned on this forum yet.

My criteria were to try find something as close to the Google Reader experience in terms of simplicity as possible. I wasn't looking for any fancy intelligent processing or social networking. From what I've seen so far, InoReader came the closest. It's also free (for now).

So far so good. There were a couple of quirks in setting it up (I couldn't import an OPML file properly, but the XML export from Google Reader worked; and for some reason the service still says I need to validate my email, even though I've already done it several times), but otherwise it works and seems to be fast enough on the desktop. The iOS interface on the iPad (in the Safari browser) does not match the Google Reader experience as well, but for now I can live with it.

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Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by dr_andus on July 04, 2013, 12:30 PM »

I think it went something like that.

-40hz (July 03, 2013, 07:21 AM)

That's classic    And probably true 

-wraith808 (July 03, 2013, 08:12 AM)

An alternative explanation is that they all know that they are as bad as each other...: France 'has vast data surveillance' - Le Monde report

France's foreign intelligence service intercepts computer and telephone data on a vast scale, like the controversial US Prism programme, according to the French daily Le Monde.

The data is stored on a supercomputer at the headquarters of the DGSE intelligence service, the paper says.

The operation is "outside the law, and beyond any proper supervision", Le Monde says.

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Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by dr_andus on July 04, 2013, 06:55 AM »

Flood every Email server in Washington DC with messages from "We the People"... What say let Edward Snowden go, he's a true patriot and deserves a medal for reporting rampant corruption in our government.

-Stoic Joker (July 03, 2013, 11:49 PM)

Something is happening today along these lines: Mass protests planned over web NSA spying revelations

Some of the web's biggest names have backed mass protests over internet surveillance carried out by the US National Security Agency (NSA).

The Restore the Fourth movement - referring to the US constitution's fourth amendment - said it wants to end "unconstitutional surveillance".

Reddit, Mozilla and Wordpress are among the big web names backing the action, due to take place on Thursday.

Almost 100 events have been planned across the US.

Oh, how come Google and Facebook are not on that list? 

More info on today's protests etc.:

Restore the Fourth FAQ