
Introducing Palantir's first open source releases - regs
http://blog.palantir.com/2011/12/14/introducing-palantirs-first-open-source-releases/
======
gbhn
I think these were the same crowd drawing up plans to sell the government on
how to crush wikileaks amid other miscellaneous dirty tricks.
([http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-02-11/tech/30050719...](http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-02-11/tech/30050719_1_wikileaks-
analytics-privacy))

~~~
jchonphoenix
How could Palantir software even accomplish what was claimed in the above
links?

I don't see how data visualization software can be used to crush wikileaks in
the manner that the article says.

~~~
nivals
I spent two years working on this problem as my masters thesis. It's possible,
not trivial.

~~~
jchonphoenix
Which part? Data visualization or data visualization to crush wikileaks
through defamation and ddos?

Can you elaborate? I'm just having a really time seeing how "Palantir was
going to destroy wikileaks" which is what everyone says, but if you read the
documents that were exposed, this doesn't really seem to be implied.

Additionally, the type of software Palantir makes couldn't really be used to
destroy wikileaks in the ways claimed.

Yes, Palantir is a government contractor, but that doesn't mean they do evil
things. You don't call google evil because HBGary uses google search. In the
same way, I don't see how you can call Palantir evil for making a data
visualization platform.

~~~
nivals
I'm looking at data visualization to prevent corporate espionage. In reality
it's data theft that brought Wikileaks in to the public consciousness.

I think that most people forget/aren't aware that the data was actually stolen
by a 22 year old private. In fact, he goes in front of the court tomorrow:
<http://bit.ly/viXkwq>

When I say 'prevent Wikileaks' via data visualization I'm referring to
preventing corporate espionage and data leaks, not destroy the Wikileaks
organization itself.

It's more of an easy way to explain it to people:

Them: 'Hey what's your thesis on?' Me: 'Preventing Wikileaks' Them: 'Oh, cool'
_confused expression_

------
caycep
it would be interesting to see what the internal divisions of palantir are,
and what are their government/defense contracts like vs. their commercial
products division.

fight for government money can always get a little dirty. i'm sure good
engineering happens there but they will always be colored by the HB Gary
episode. plus the fact that partnering with a shady right wing corporate law
firm and the HB Gary Federal clown will alway reflect badly on their general
common sense judgement...

~~~
Karunamon
I am often very perplexed why legitimate comments get downvoted. This is one
of those times. WTH everyone, this isn't Reddit.

~~~
tedunangst
I don't see how caycep's comment enhances my understanding of the released
software. It's just a big dump of ad hominem (as are practically all the other
comments).

~~~
scrollbar
Palantir open sourcing their software could and should be viewed through a PR
lens, an action meant to build favorable reputation in the developer
community. Maybe caycep could have elaborated on this more, but I understand
the point: Palantir has a mixed history, so we should take the positive with a
grain of salt and beware.

------
ap22213
I was surprised to see Swing. Is that still a fairly common foundation for
UIs?

~~~
tikhonj
I remember seeing a demo of their UIs when they gave an infosession at school.
They look _nothing_ like Swing--as far as I could tell, all the widgets were
either custom or redesigned. If I remember correctly, it looked more like MS
Office 2007 than anything else.

Since Swing is "lightweight"--all the widgets are drawn in Java instead of
using native ones--using it to make a completely custom UI makes sense.

------
Vivtek
Gah! Cognitive dissonance! How can I assign a good/evil score now?

~~~
jforman
Palantir is definitely True Neutral

~~~
balloot
I dunno. I definitely consider Palantir evil no matter how many open-source
goodies they put out.

------
jf
And posted to GitHub no less. Nice!

