They are all a bunch of crooks, liars and criminals.

I thought that was something on my smartphone screen at first. 😅

Thank you for the kind words and support for Ukraine. It genuinely means a lot to me. We are having this back and forth and banter, but this a real point that means a lot.

I believe he was going to LATAM and he couldn’t continue while transiting through russia. But that’s beside the point. For me personally, I question his motives wrt revealing data on US surveillance following his collaboration with the russians. All local digital services (mobile phones, ISP, social media, streaming) are under the direct supervision their security services. It’s basically like the USSR. You can literally get 5 years in jail for social media post, sure this really become more common after 2022. But even back in 2012, they were well on their with establishing a digital surveillance regime.

Sure, it’s legitimate to criticize anything. But without taking all the circumstances into account, the critique loses relevance. At least for me it does, and that’s what I’m arguing.

Why is his collaborating with the russians not a fair circumstance to take in account? If he is being forced to work with them, then shouldn’t we disregard what he says as being suspect? Aren’t there better spokespersons for the FOSS/digital privacy movement that can be promoted instead?

And we’re back in the discussion at hand :) the only consequences I can think of, that comes from Snowden collaboration is the propaganda tool he is now, and the intelligence he had to offer 11 years ago. Disregard him to mitigate the propaganda consequences.

He is almost certainly trying to leverage his fame and influence to promote russian security services goals; i.e. try to sow discord in the US. Their approach is multi-dimensional; for example in europe they were involved with green organizations in order to counteract the possibility of a rise in shale gas production in Europe. That’s why it’s best to not give any attention to Snowden; he is a russian tool. I would even speculate that he has internalized a lot of their goals (he is a russian citizen after all).

I don’t think that I’m putting Snowden on a pedestal. All I’m saying is that, like everyone else in Russia, who have a public profile, Snowden knows that he can either toe the party line, or plunge to his death from a basement window. What we really need to do, is to realize that anything coming from the mouths of anybody in Russia, is the result of a proverbial gun to their heads and should be treated thusly.

While this is true, people most definitely put Snowden on the pedestal and do not critically approach his statements.

Nah, your logic is virtue signalling.

You don’t want compromised inviduals promoting your points; there are many other who have a measure of consistency in their beliefs and don’t back down (to a regime that makes US surveillance seem like a walk in the park) at the first sign of trouble.

If you don’t want to make such choices, then don’t get involved in activism. It’s very simple.

Assange has also worked directly on russian payroll (he had a program on RT) and has basically admitted that he supports russian imperialism (not in such an explicit manner, but we are all adults here). Not to mention he had no issues undermining the safety of whole multitude of people in his leaks as part of his quest for fame.

Snowden knew (or should have known) what he is signing up for. Collaborating with the russians (whose internal control of local internet services and jailing of people for social media posts makes the US look reasonable and human rights focused) is not right.

And even from a pragmatic standpoint; let’s say I believed all the stories about Snowden not having any other options (I speculate that he actually supports russian imperialism and their methods); why should anything he says be given any attention?

Tomorrow the russians might tell him that he needs to promote that Stallman is evil pedophile and Adobe are a great company. You’re saying he will suddenly reject their orders and refuse to execute them?

What is your logic here?

There is no reason to believe this would be the case, see Chelsea Manning.

He could have return to the US. Instead he chose to help the russians; why do feel that he is beyond criticism for this?

Yes, he could indeed. He could be the metaphorical guy with the bags standing in front of a line tanks. But why should he?

He can make his choices. And we can evaluate them and label him as a hypocrite and mouthpiece of the russian security services.

If you insist on applying a purely theoretical analysis, on the actions of a very real person with very real concerns for his safety, then I think I’ve found the problem with this discussion. You can’t lift this problem to this level of abstract theoretical morality.

But to answer your question more clearly: no, I don’t see how this perceived hypocrisy could be important for others.

Do you sincerely believe, that Snowden should have stayed put and faced a firing squad for whistle blowing? Snowden is trying to survive, and if daddy Putin says “go on TV and say these lines”, then the sentence doesn’t have to end with “or else”. Snowden did what he had to do for his country, by telling the public about the surveillance, now he’s paying for it. Why should Snowden be fighting for the Russian people as well?

Cut the bullshit with “very real concerns” and all that jazz. It is not convincing. No one is asking him to fight for the russian people. What I am saying is it is legitimate to criticize him and highlight his collaboration with the russians.

Well let me tell you as someone living in Ukraine (and was born in Donbas with my hometown being occupied in 2014 and relatives having to leave everything because of the russian occupation); you’re just playing dumb. You full well know that there are real consequences from Snowden’s collaboration with the russians.

I brought up “theory” to try and engage with you. To highlight the possibility that there are other perspectives and your thinking might be parochial.

Trying to survive is fair. But putting him on the pedestal and labelling him as “untouchable saviour who can do wrong” is not normal.

He could have chosen to not collaborate with the russians and refused to act as their mouthpiece (For example, he was hardcore promoting the “russia is not going to invade” rhetoric before Feb 24; a key element of russia’s short term communication strategy at that point).

There are many people in russia (both well known dissidents and just average people) who refused to toe the government’s line or even in some cases took direct action against the regime.

Don’t you see the irony of Snowden focusing on “spying in the US”, while also choosing to work with the russian regime that has absolute control over local digital services and arrests people for social media posts and Twitch stream?

This might not a big deal for you, but on a purely theoretical level, you don’t see how this hypocrisy could be important for others?

Edward Snowden cannot be trusted.

He was all high and mighty with respect to leaks in the US (arguably relevant and justified), but immediately folded when things got real and decided to collaborate with the Russians (arguably one of the most brutal fucked regimes both currently and historically).

True, I remember the first time I used nano, I was like “Ctrl + O to save, huh?”

TSMC would love such a setup, although I feel Apple will demand a measure of loyalty (and to my limited understanding Apple hates Nvidia).

It’s definitely just my opinion. Honestly did not mean to imply otherwise.

I would almost prefer them to just switch to the new keybindings by default in version 8.0.

And what if Nvidia does front a lot of cash (similar to how Apple bankrolls new nodes)?

Not saying this is happening or will happen, but it is a distinct possibility.

The development of PRC’s chip industry is not guaranteed to go on a exponential curve.

There are inherently some disincentives to PRC’s approach to managing their chip industry, lots of money chasing limited productive projects (you can bet some opportunistic people in China are going to try and piggyback the money faucet). Essentially no-bid type contracts that are going to create a culture of stagnation (at least partially). Lack of a broad customer base (e.g. Apple essentially bankrolling new nodes at TSMC); global demand will always be way bigger and more sophisticated than China, Russia and Iran.

Then you also have technical limitations like lack of access to hardware from ASML, more limited (and less competitive) tooling and design ecosystem.

I wouldn’t go as far as making a big deal out of it, but it is funny.

Android OS updates have been somewhat lackluster since Android 8/9. The OS and smartphones in general are increasingly becoming mature products with little true differentiation.

They will try to leverage “AI” to accelerate upgrade cycles, but we’ll see how that goes.

Thanks for the list!

One point I will add is that Startpage is actually owned by an American spamming company:

https://restoreprivacy.com/startpage-system1-privacy-one-group/

I used to use them a lot before the system1/Privacy One acquisition, but then decided to switch back to google (never liked DDG’s results, but might have to try them again).