Well, given the few facts I read about the Blackphone, I'd consider the following setup just as good, yet cheaper: used phone, CyanogenMod, device encrypted, RedPhone for calls, TextSecure for texts, Xabber + OTR for messaging, DroidWall, Orbot as a proxy.

A proper open source OS would be nice, but CM will do for the time being.

Hey Warren,

I'm Ben Sinclair, the Guy from High Maintenance. I was wondering if you wouldn't mind pulling the "Qasim" episode off of this forum. I'm all for open-source sharing of information, but its part of our artistic mission to keep episodes of HM off of websites with advertising, which unfortunately this forum has. It would mean a great deal to us if you would respect that. And feel free to come say hi if you ever leave Nebraska for NYC. It's always nice to meet someone that enjoys your work.

Thanks Warren,

Ben

It is perfectly open, you are free to create your own sub-reddit and manage it however you please.

Open doesn't mean that every part of the site needs to cater to you, the point is people have the opportunity to do what they want, it doesn't mean there are no consequences.

The core of Linux is open source, you can do just about anything you want on your fork of Linux but it doesn't mean you can do whatever you want in the Ubuntu fork of Linux, that one is heavily moderated and that's their chosen path.

People know exactly what Reddit is, we simply didn't get butthurt over some likely trivial matter to set us on a crusade against it. If you want to not sound petty, feel free to share with us what you were trying to post and where you trying to post it. Then we can form an opinion of our own, as right now, we're just taking your bias word that you were wronged.

"When I worried on Twitter that we could not trust encryption now, technologist Lauren Weinstein responded with assurances that it would be difficult to hide 'backdoors' in commonly used PGP encryption – because it is open-source. Openness is the more powerful weapon." - Jeff Jarvis

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/06/nsa-surveillance-welcome-end-secrecy

We need an open source decentralized and encrypted P2P network for IM and audio/video communications that we can safely run on encrypted devices.

Do we have one of those?

I just used archive.org a few hours ago ( googlelabs.com last useful page = Oct 11, 2011 ). Great work they are doing, even if the site is a little slow.

Nice to see all their servers are SuperMicro... best bang for the buck if you are building an open source platform.

I'm not too concerned about the privacy implications:

1) Don't use your real google account; make a new one with no "friends", false name and other data. I'm sure this removes some of the "features", but probably nothing you can't live without if you're concerned about privacy issues. In the meantime, feel good about yourself for "stickin' it to the man" and making google's advertising database think that all of your browsing history/etc. is being done by a 93-year-old woman from Abu Dhabhi named "Beverly Knickerbocker".

2) If you're extremely concerned about google knowing what you're looking at 24/7 because of the camera on the device, I'd be happy to sell you a small piece of electrical tape "digital privacy filtration screen 2.0" for the low-low price of $10.

*edit* -- I don't want one of these things myself, but I'm not vehemently opposed to their existence. With some sort of firmware update that puts a configurable open-source "OS" on them that allows you to control exactly what comes in and what goes out, might be more interesting. But in the meantime, it isn't privacy concerns (or even worrying about looking like a dork -- totally lost cause there) that make Glass a non-sale to me. It's simply that I don't think I'd get much positive use out of them, particularly compared to cost.

*further edit* That was a fun rant you linked to @dag. I think he needs to relax a little. Or maybe just get out ... less? When you see pretentious douchebags everywhere, maybe the solution is staying home?

savemedia.com (this one was obvious, I think )

virtualdub.org (open source awesomeness)

I know you said it sarcastically, but the National Counterterrorism Center's own report calls it "open source reporting", so good luck on finding a real answer. However, it also says that "most were victims of attacks in Iraq".

Imagine a village that takes 7 hrs by dirt road, a boat ride and a walk of 2 hours to reach. Lamps and fires are sustainable because people can understand, maintain, and fix them.

The answer to poverty is not fancy engineering and technology. It's understanding the context of the problem.

Potential energy and LED's are a great idea... but why do people have to spend a weeks worth of food on your plastic device?

Go back and redesign this with every day items, a rope, a pulley, cogs maybe something as a fly wheel. Make it open source.

You'll never convince the smaller states to get rid of the EC. But it can be somewhat fixed:

* Replace the first past the post with an alternative vote (see one of his other videos)
* Replace the winner take all in every state. The winner of each congressional district gets that district's vote, then the last two votes go to the winner of the state overall. This is perhaps one of the most important changes as it makes it as close to the popular vote as you can get without getting rid of the EC, which as I said, I don't think you'll get enough states to agree to.
* District lines should be drawn by open source software to help eliminate gerrymandering.
* Strict term limits (on both houses and the Supreme Court) and no life-time benefits for any of them that isn't given to every citizen, and every law that applies to citizens applies to them (so no more insider trading being legal for them).

Those few changes alone make it easier to be represented and increases the chance of 3rd parties getting some votes.

I would extend it further with one more important change. We have had 435 Representatives since 1911. It hasn't kept pace with the population growth. With modern technology there is no need for everyone to be in DC. Rather than adjusting those 435 people based on the population of the states, we should go back to the original system of having a Rep for X many people. Perhaps one Rep for every 50,000 or 100,000 people (no less than one for every 250,000). With everyone in their home districts and so many of them it makes it hard to buy them all. With so many Reps it probably means a pay cut, which they should have anyhow, especially getting rid of the life time privileges it comes with now... I would also kill the ability to add amendments to bills that aren't super tightly integrated to the bill, if you can't get your legislation passed without it being hidden as part of another bill, then it shouldn't be passed. Perhaps a lime-item veto of amendments and riders for all members of congress and the President. I say make pay based on the poverty rate and adjust for cost of living in each district... perhaps 2x the poverty rate, that would encourage them to fix poverty (and while we are at it rather than set some random number like $250,000 as a high tax bracket, tax brackets are broken by multiples of the poverty rate as well, so 10x the poverty rate puts you in the same bracket as $250k does today).

I'm definitely not a fan of the rampant consumerism and the idiots on both sides who equate their phone with their identity... but it seems to me that the amount of vitriol and anger in this video suggests that TheAmazingAtheist thinks about this specific topic more than most fanboys I know. He probably has to, as he has quite a few more people to hate on.

Me, I dislike Apple's policies towards developers (and, hence, their walled-garden) and like the ability to write little apps for my Android phone without a subscription. (I tried out writing iOS apps, but found myself doing a lot of mundane things that you don't have to worry about with Java) I'd have tried a Palm Pre, but it wasn't available for T-Mobile.

I'm very interested to see if Blackberry can pull out of their 'slump', and I'd like to see MS become a player again... But I imagine that I'll stick with Android for as long as they're the 'least evil' (read: 'most free') option.

I would rather my Identity include "The guy that is a fan of Open Source and dislikes Apple's corporate policies" than "The guy that gets so worked up about what other people think about other people that he yells and spits at a camera until he's red in the face"... but that's just me.

I *promote this as it creeps me the f*ck out when it runs quickly.

Also, that's an Arduino compatible, open source software robot right there. And the gait this one has is way more creepy and realistic than the one it ships with

It's the reaching and pulling of the legs that makes it look natural and creepy, unlike the gait it comes with which just looks artificial.

Amazing tech, and you could do wonderfully creepy things with these and some silicon skin for a movie.

By the look of some of the bugs, mainly walking at slanty angles when exiting a vehicle, my guess is this is a mod for the open source classic Rigs of Rods. Amazing physics based sandbox game if you have the time and imagination for it.