Your reasoning is not very convincing. Point one is pretty much the entire question so claiming it as proof seems circular. If you have evidence proving that claim I would be satisfied. Point two is simply wrong as there was a lot of writing from CEO's and engineers that seemed quite upset about the claims. And for point three, uh... what? How are their denials proven to be lies? Or are you implying that companies using the phrase "direct access" is proof?
Honestly your post, combined with a lot of others' on this site, would seem to belong quite nicely in /r/circlejerk. I'm not saying that as an insult but rather how all of these speculations kept alive through echo genuinely come off as.
If you have actual proof please provide a better reasoned argument.
What do you mean by PRISM collaborators? I am genuinely curious because I feel like I missed when/where that was established.
To my understanding, and please correct me if I am wrong, PRISM isn't a system that companies subscribe to, but more of a government portal for requesting information from a number of companies in a legal fashion. Is this not correct? I admit I have not kept up with all of the bits of information released due to the high volume of speculations generated by just about everyone that talks about it.
I think you are missing the context of the question (mpyne's comment). If the max that will logically be handed down is way below the summed offenses, why is it being used? It seems like it's a threatening tactic and yes, draconian.
BS. It's possible to deal with the issues you mentioned and not screw your customers over. Even if it's not, it's still perfectly valid to be vocal about it.
This is simply nonsensical. Even the applications you listed don't just "do one thing". Vim and emacs have a trillion features each. Git has way more features than some other versioning systems. When does "one thing" turn into multiple things? Within the context of the thread - when did gmail stop doing one thing? When they added filters? When they added all of the labs features? With this current announcement? Do one thing and do it well is great but defining the scope of the one thing is not something to be taken trivially.
I think there are a lot of gaps within the primers too. With a degree in Mathematics and CS, I can only follow through midway most primers before requiring to find additional sources of information.
That being said, I really like them and I am a big fan of Jeremy's writing.
Just because you disagree with their actions it doesn't mean that they were just random script-kiddies. I am not a hacker but it certainly seemed like they had at least a modicum of true skill.
For some reason it seems that most people can't differentiate between the skill and morality of an action.
I'd be willing to give it a shot if you would like to partner up. I have reasonable (for some value) math chops. Email me at [email protected] if you are interested.
Time-wise I can commit only a couple of hours a week so I don't expect much but it seems like it could be fun.
If the app is crap it would make less sense to keep it. Perhaps relaunching the app after an "update" might be a good use of the name and positive press it has.
Honestly your post, combined with a lot of others' on this site, would seem to belong quite nicely in /r/circlejerk. I'm not saying that as an insult but rather how all of these speculations kept alive through echo genuinely come off as.
If you have actual proof please provide a better reasoned argument.