Edward Snowden is in full propaganda mode for Vladimir Putin, basically becoming Putin’s puppet. I’m sure he’s enjoying his award nominations while his patron state terrorizes women.
Barack Obama showed weakness when he even floated the possibility that America would turn our control of ICANN over to other countries. Down in Brazil they’re all over that idea (the anarchists are claiming they want a non-governmental control, but look, in a world with Russia and China, and even the EU countries like Germany having ‘national champions’, that’s not happening). India’s game, too. Republicans, and heck it’d help if Democrats did it to, must signal that the next President will not let this happen.
A tale of two companies. Aereo is fighting for its life having come up with a novel way to connect people with broadcast television antennas, and yet it’s no sure thing that they will be allowed to innovate, which rightfully they should be.
Meanwhile Pandora just keeps looking for government handouts, and is now having to get sued over their business practices. And yet Pandora, who’s always got a hand out, is the one that keeps getting defended on the Internet, but it’s Aereo who keeps getting attacked. It’s Bizarro land, this Obama era.
Of course, Pandora isn’t alone in being a leech, with a hand out looking to take, take, take. Terrestrial broadcasters are the worst, government-created monopolies constantly seeking more, more, more, at everyone else’s expense. I guess that’s the model Pandora is following.
Bitcoin and Crime watch: They think they’re above the law in the Tor/Bitcon economy. So they steal from each other. And they also take advantage of the lack of property rights in Bitcoin, knowing a Bitcoin ransom can never be recovered or reversed. Then they go participate in the human trafficking economy with their winnings.
It’s starting to come out that the US Government was vulnerable to the heartbleed bug, which is more evidence that NSA didn’t know about it. If they knew, it was their job to protect our side. Obamacare makes us less secure. And yet big government types have the audacity to claim that government should act against the private sector on security breach transparency. The fact is government action here would be bad.
Beware Paypal folks. They have a track record of essentially taking people’s money and holding it for months (or forever), and invent the flimsiest pretexts to justify it. Don’t keep significant amounts of money in there, and don’t depend on having money going through there. Something like Stripe is probably much better for a business.