throwaway10001

When you join the Army etc you largely leave your free speech (and many other) rights at the door, so I fail to see the equivalence.

My guess is that that info is still classified, even though it's public, and accessing it might be a technical violation for those without clearances.

So who the F can we trust? All those denials from everyone and now we see this, which I kinda suspected since Verizon was ordered to hand over the same for phone calls.

But Snowden offered them nothing new, so they must trying to avoid detection as much as they can.

> So what? Islam has 1.5 billion "members" and I don't recall any special Ramadan doodles.

Not sure if they are any doodles for Mohammed or Ramadan in Arabic and largely Muslim countries but I don't see why they should be any in countries where Islam barely registers. That applies to any other religion of course. Google would be insane to put a Christmas doodle in Pakistan, Indonesia or Saudi Arabia for example. Local sensitivities should apply.

>In short: not everything is about Jesus. Hopefully, this trend will continue.

Like I said, this is Google's page but simply because they did it doesn't mean it's the right thing to do. Google surely loves to take boatload of adwords money for Easter and Christmas. Why do they respect local sensitivities when it comes to making money?

AP - The Official NSA Public Relations Organization

Yeah, Al Qaeda didn't know that NSA listens and reads to their communications. That's why Bin Laden used couriers to personally deliver thumbdrives and had no telephone or internet.

You know what would be inclusive? Acknowledging that not everybody is Christian, and being OK with the Google home page celebrating something other than your Christian holidays on occasion.

You know what would be inclusive? Acknowledging that not everybody is for Gay Marriage, and being OK with the Google home page celebrating something other than your pro-Gay Marriage ruling.

Personally I am barely a "believer" and don't oppose gay marriage but your argument made no sense. No doubt you can find people opposing Mandela, Mother Teresa and even Einstein, so no doodles for them to be inclusive?

No offense but popularity among who exactly, the Silicon Valley crowd? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_opinion_of_same-sex_marr...

Christianity has over 2 billion "members" worldwide and Easter is a major holiday.

Somewhat off topic but for Easter Google did what? http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57577171-1/google-cesar-...

It's their site and all but as a business they should be more inclusive. Ironic since billions of people are (at least nominally) Christian and most probably observe or note Easter.

Judging by what I have read, Pandora is not making much (if anything) so there's a limit on how much they can pay. Maybe the is not a feasible business model, or maybe someone else--other than the artist--is getting the lion share of the royalties.

Bing controls less than 20% in US and probably less than 5% in EU.

What I'm surprised is why EU, at least, allowed Google to buy more market share by paying Firefox

I notice that the 4th Amendment doesn't factor into it.

The 4th doesn't really apply if you're talking about the war on [drugs, terrorism, child molesters, tax cheaters, file sharers] etc. etc. etc. We are always at war

I use mainly so I can search with Google. Without adblock, it's a nightmare on many searches, the first screen of my laptop is all ads (not including youtube, maps, Google local etc.

You never know unless you doublecheck it. But yeah, with tens of thousands working with NSA /CIA odds are that Russia and China both know a lot

FSB, er KGB Jr quite able to add dozens of cameras in any room he may stay, or maybe they can tell by the sound the keys he presses, analyze the light the monitor releases or who the hell knows.

Of course they may briefly arrest him to check his status, and Igor on the other room is cloning his hard drives. Last resort they may blackmail him, go to hell /a USA prison or tell us the password.

Russia wins by doing nothing.

Russia wins by copying his files and denying it. Espionage is alive and well, just last month a CIA officer was arrested allegedly trying to recruit agents for as much as $1 Mil a pop. The info Snowden has in his laptop is super valuable, why not have it?

Yes but you work the odds of the robbery happening right after the Skype call and then the thieves taking just the laptop where some of the most valuable pieces of intel are. Anything is possible, but...

On another note, if Snowden wasn't in HK, CIA would have already "paid him a visit" or five. Probably each of them was shadowed by dozens of Chinese ones so they couldn't take the risk.

But thieves don't just take a laptop once in

Yeah, because jewelry, cash or electronics have no (resale) value so thieves don't touch them ;)

Shocking aint it? They are like employees on every corporation with expense accounts. Some or many will abuse it.

Most startups and founders are like that, either because they want to get the product out yesterday, they are broke as hell or both. So MSFT is not targeting the desperate, but real start-ups.

So he remains in Russia, and he probably has problem getting to Ecuador.

Maybe no direct flights and other transit countries might arrest him?

You mean the promises to arrest him for releasing confidential information?

Arrest, a fair trial and humane treatment is different from what Bradley Manning suffered. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/11/stripped-naked-b...

Also, need I remind you all the statements made against him by politicians?

If there's a will, there's a way.

Maybe drop charges and enter a binding non-prosecution agreement?

Also, "Ex-CIA official: Snowden probably questioned by Russians “The likelihood that there’s either been no conversation with him or they haven’t downloaded stuff from his electronic gear is about zero,” Philip Mudd, a former CIA deputy director of counterterrorism, told Matt Lauer." http://www.today.com/news/ex-cia-official-snowden-probably-q...

In other words, considering how US has promised to treat him, Snowden has almost no options. The Russians hold all the cards and know how to play them well. USA should have advised his family to hire a lawyer for him and issue a pardon while he was in HK, before spilling all the other info he has.

Well done, morons!

Two things: 1. Putin is sick and tired of US raining (or trying to) on his parade. This would tell US to go F itself, increase Putin's cred in Russia and in many other countries.

2. Snowden has a trove of intel that Russia would love to have.

Why not? If he's good to try his chance at Google like startups, why not at MSR? Can we agree that having been at MSR does wonders to your resume?

I just watched someone turn down one of these breakout companies because Microsoft offered him $30k per year more in salary—that was a terrible decision. He will not build interesting things and may not work with smart people.

Interesting things....like making people click on ads? Microsoft products are used by billions of people worldwide and by virtually every Fortune () company. And then we have Microsoft Research, love or hate Microsoft as company all you want but Microsoft Research is top notch. Quite a few smart people there http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Research. Maybe not as smart as Sam Altman (the OP) but smart nonetheless.

would that evidence and fruits of it be admissible in court?

Ask HN: Can we please slow down the stories about Edward Snowden?

They will, as soon as I finish writing my "How I made $7 billion on an app built while sharing the screen with Snowden stories"

IIRC, Google was having problems with licensing some content from media cos on Google Play (?), and then it was solved...as long as Google http://readwrite.com/2011/01/27/google_starts_to_censor_torr...