I think Firefox has stumbled in the past few years but will experience a resurgence for two reasons: 1) privacy issues and a growing, healthy distrust for the behemoth that is Google and 2) the Chrome browser is slow, less responsive and more resource hungry on the popular Windows 8 OS.
Also according to some sources he has been planning for years (according to some sources he held off in 2008 because he was hoping for action by Obama). He is uncommonly bright and prepared. I don't think the choice of regions or timing can be a coincidence at all. He announced he was in Hong Kong when the leaders of both Hong Kong and China were in the US, and he has managed to very skilfully play various groups off eachother.
He almost comes across as too prepared. Occasionally I have wondered if someone was coaching him, but if he has been planning for years, he could have half a million dollars stashed somewhere (or at least a sizeable fraction of that), and he may simply have spotted his opportunity and known it wouldn't come again.
On the other hand, I would have thought that he might have been better off just letting himself get arrested in the US. He has the attention of the world, and every time his case moved in court he would be on the front pages again. I can't imagine the US government having the courage to face the public opprobrium that would come with placing a whistleblower acting for the people in prison. This guy is no Bradley Manning - he wasn't revealing legitimate US state secrets that could put innocent people in danger, he was revealing potentially illegal behaviour of the US government with respect to its own citizens.
Whilst on the run however he can be "disappeared". How do we tell the difference between a Snowden lying low in some forgotten corner of the world, and a Snowden chained up in some forgotten US prison cell, or a Snowden burned to ashes in a car in Afghanistan? In both cases he is invisible to us. Dangerous, dangerous game. In fact it's so dangerous it's bordering on unbelievable for me.
Let's not forget he's also been able to see how the US has treated cases like Manning and Assange and learn from those situations.
I'm fully expecting that Snowden has prepared some kind of "insurance file" ala Assange and made sure it's set up and triggered to go in case he's suddenly taken into custody and rendered into parts unknown. He's hinted as much in his initial Guardian interview (e.g. "there's a lot more here but I don't want to hurt anybody personally").
Americans have been so distracted with US propaganda on how bad China is with human rights, they didn't notice their own freedoms being pickpocketed. Now look at how bad it is.
Snowden is a courageous, smart guy who is making a BIG point about the hypocrisy of the US government. He's making one of the biggest statements of the century, and he's put his life on the line to do it. Recognize!
All you have heard is US media propaganda about being hacked by the Chinese. You never considered the possibility that the US may be doing the same to China, but much worse?
I would say that it's a personal digital web library. You can basically organize all of your information you collect online into a searchable, sharable, resource. It's advanced bookmarking. Here is how the site depicts it.
> With Kippt you can save links, read articles, watch videos, share notes and much
> more. Your collections can be private or public, or shared with the people you
> work with.
I have the Lumia 920 and Microsoft absolutely nailed the design of the OS. It works seamlessly with Office Live/Online/365 whatever the heck they call it too. The home screen of the phone agitates my OCD something fierce because I have to get it just right or... I'll... die...
Seriously though, its a great phone and if you need one for work like I do, might as well get one you really like.
Lumia 900 owner here. OS is nice, but the apps... just as an example, I got really frustrated with IE this morning because it didn't recognize StartCom as a trusted certificate authority, and it doesn't cache my response (to ignore the warning and browse the page anyway). The https page loaded the first time, but subsequent pages just showed blank screens. And that stupid SSL warning page just kept popping up.
It's 2013 and I can't browse certain web pages with my expensive smartphone...
The pendulum has peaked at globalization and now it's swinging towards isolationism. Whether we like it or not borders have been drawn along the previously wild-west-like internet, and it may take on the form of virtual Berlin Walls.
Brilliant insight. Globalization will probably be only a blink of an eye when compared to the history of human civilization. A snapshot in time when conditions were favorable.
Now the conditions are changing again: peak oil, international surveillance and rising labour costs in developing countries are all deal breakers.
It's only as good as "you are right till you are not proven wrong". This goes for anyone. Tim Cook, dead Jobs, Obama, dead Hemingway, Confucius, Gandhi, North Korean rulers or CEO of Samsung. Blah blah.
What you said it valid for anyone anything anywhere.
Also, Firefox is a great browser!