Install HTTPS everywhere (was hesitant at first but it works really fine now). It makes NSA SIGINT hate you cause they got most likely harmless, useless info in encrypted form stored in their vault.. We can never fill up their space individually. Encryption is the only tool to at least cause resistance at individual level. So far, in the next 5 years the issue needs to be addressed globally (creating even better encryption methods is one answer, endless cat&mouse game played in mathematics) or nations will start to separate and control their own net...which is a huge step backwards, wiping 20 years of internet freedom in it's wake and doesn't address the issue in personal level.. Most likely such intranets are very very heavily controlled and monitored.. goodbye freedom.

Encryption is the first step and one that offers some personal privacy, next is to contact to every page you visit daily to request https if it isn't available (or works poorly).

Basically, using end-to-end encryption everywhere you can is the only thing the majority of us can do who don't live in US. Even then the major hubs (google, facebook etc) are not safe but at least lets make them go physically to each and every server farm to install signal splitters and backdoors. And Google and Facebook store your data anyway by default, that's how they work. But FB won't come knocking on your door in the middle of the night.

Those can vote in US, we are looking at you, why do we need to even think about this? Use your vote wisely. Rebel if needed. If this does not change, rest of the world WILL take measures to stop traffic going in thru US unnecessarily.

I've been trying to use Drive for a daily journal but lately I've not bothered. I think the problem is that the mobile app is not great to use (nor even the desktop version) with the main problem being that you're using a watered-down Office productivity service.
Searching is really clunky and when I need to retrieve something I realise it's going to be a slog.

I used your link for Copy and am just going to try it out. If it's just a Dropbox alternative I may not be that interested. But effective, rich document management would be useful.

I also use www.papyrs.com for my "intranet" needs but hard to get my mates on there but with Drive everyone I know has a google account and sharing docs is very easy. In fact Drive seems to work best for working with other people but isn't so great for the individual user.

>> ^doogle:
WIKI formatting.

This was something I had thought of at one point too. I've spent enough time editing the intranet wiki at work that I've sometimes started using the syntax in comments here and elsewhere.

I can't imagine this will happen, but if it does, for the love of the Unicorn (MHHNBS), don't model it after MediaWiki's horrific syntax! Use something like Creole.

Pfft Internet, more like 'Great Wall of China Intranet'.

Ah yes, Dewey and Mel are on the front page of our library Intranet.

In reply to this comment by Thylan:
I'm sure i cant be the first to wonder if you've run across the web comic unshelved before, but your recent blog reminded me that i hadn't joined the hordes who came before me yet

Lurch, i would refer to bases in germany, uk, lithuania and literally scores of other countries as a form of occupation, it's a kind of quiet empire. The presence of those bases gives the USA considerable political leverage.
"state sponsored killing" referred to collateral damage, not bases. i would definitely call the US Army blowing up Iraqi civilians "state sponsored killing". Hope that explains it.

As for the whole "there will be bloodshed if we withdraw"... damn, as if there isn't bloodshed now, and as if the bloodshed will stop quicker with an occupying christian army on their soil. Comparisons to Vietnam are interesting... last time I checked Vietnam was not a communist stronghold bathing in blood.

What you are saying, by extension, is "there should be US troops in every country where there's bloodshed" and that is totally impossible. What is so different about Iraq? Why not go prevent the bloodshed in Sudan or Burma or China or Russia? No war proponent has ever explained this to me.

About those bases you say aren't permanent:

We're talking about a U.S. embassy compound under construction these last years that's meant to hold 1,000 diplomats, spies, and military types (as well as untold numbers of private security guards, service workers, and heaven knows who else). It will operate in the Iraqi capital's heavily fortified Green Zone as if it were our first lunar colony. According to William Langewiesche, writing in Vanity Fair, it will contain "its own power generators, water wells, drinking-water treatment plant, sewage plant, fire station, irrigation system, Internet uplink, secure intranet, telephone center (Virginia area code), cell-phone network (New York area code), mail service, fuel depot, food and supply warehouses, vehicle-repair garage, and workshops."
...
When it comes to American construction projects in Iraq, the sky's really the limit. Just recently, National Public Radio's Defense Correspondent Guy Raz spent some time at Balad Air Base about 70 kilometers north of Baghdad. As Thomas Ricks of the Washington Post reported, back in 2006, Balad is essentially an "American small town," so big that it has neighborhoods and bus routes -- and its air traffic rivals Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174858/baseless_considerations