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First, some basic questions as to measuring Linux installs. Very hard. No bar-code events in many cases.

The other problem that I have with this guy's article is that it is contrary to recent reports even here on /. about the really stunning popularity of Linux AND Mac sales on Amazon. Also, there is a totally different distribution chain. Macs are sold in stores or on-line. Linux is often distributed through social networks, such as the telecentros in Sao Paulo, Brazil and Extremadura, Spain; or in thin client networks such as at this public middle school in San Francisco; or via free giveaways, such as this guy who gave out 16,000 Linux computers in Berkeley, California; or via the numerous municipal and national migration projects to Linux, such as in Munich, Madrid, and Extremadura Spain; or via Nokia's N880; or the OLPC; or the Asus EEE PC, or the Everex PC.

It is a totally different business model. The fundamental problem with TFA is that it does not understand this fundamental different.

More about Brazil:

9) The Brazilian media constantly emphasizes violent events in Brazilian cities. However, the murder rate in Rio de Janeiro was, the last time I checked, about two-thirds of the murder rate in the U.S. capital city, Washington, D.C.

10) Brazil is the music appreciation capital of the world. Brazilians have all the styles of their own music, and those of other countries, too.

11) Several years ago the most popular local band in Portland, Oregon was Rubberneck. On an average night they would draw an audience of 40. A local band in a small town in Brazil drew an audience of 800.

12) Brazilians often know all the lyrics to numerous Brazilian songs.

13) There is a magazine about Brazil called Brazzil, based in Los Angeles, USA.

14) Brazilians are often very socially skilled.

15) Brazil is approximately as large as the continental United States.

I don't doubt what you say. It makes sense to me.

However, the question is whether the FBI is, in some ways, actually influencing law enforcement and the law in other countries. That's what happens with the U.S. government's CIA agency; "working with other countries" meant "infiltrating the governments of other countries". Does the FBI operate by its own rules, but show the other government only what it wants the other government to know?

In Brazil 40 years ago, U.S. government agencies "providing training" meant influencing the military to create a military dictatorship. Hidden actions of the U.S. government overthrew Brazil's government.

Corruption of the Brazilian government by the CIA in Brazil is a strong present-day concern. O Globo, the place where the article was originally published, is the biggest media company in Brazil.

The question is not what you see, but what is deliberately hidden from you.

In actuality, it is very difficult to run any organization. Organizations that have a high degree of secrecy quickly become uncontrolled.

U.S. Senator Frank Church investigated extreme corruption in the U.S. government's secret agencies. The agencies certainly never apologized; it must be assumed that nothing really changed.

I'm guessing that you, like most American citizens, have never read about the corruption mentioned here, or the many other cases of extreme corruption of the U.S. government in influencing other countries. That's why you mentioned "tinfoil hats".

--
Trying to make one book explain all of life makes some people crazy enough to kill.

Unfortunately for them, their own plans are about to lead them to cultural ruin. Bush's plan to provide High Speed internet to the nation should be read as what to him would seem akin to the Rural Electrification Project. Where the idea was, lets get power to the people out in the farms so they will be more competive and produce more. That sort of backfired. They got used to the power and started wanting more. More TVs, DVD, Fancy cars and the lowly Banana.

The upshot was that the young started to abandon the farms in droves. As they did the cheap labor of the farm children was replaced by cheap labor from immigrants. The old cycle was that the Farm would be inherited by the children of the farmer and next generation would take over. As the found new jobs as computer programmers and got MBAs they let their parents sell of the old family farm to large agro businesses. Large Farms got larger and Cities got bigger.

Wiring the rest of the county will give reason for companies to relocate to cheaper parts of the US and bring good jobs to town who's main income was the local speed trap. If your a Conservative Rural Republican in a Red State, visions of selling farmland to city slickers for housing and commercial parks must seem like heaven. Voting for Bush was voting your pocketbook.

Now here comes the other side of the coin. Unlike mining towns of the 19th and early 20th Century you really can't lock people in. Your neigbors will undercut your housing deals because they all got buckets of land and nobody to grow whatever.

City Slicker Programmers and the upper skilled workforce are not Conservative Rural Republicans, There those damn Blue State Liberals. They eat fish RAW!!!!, A lot of them aren't even from the USA, most dress like they were extras in that confusing movie The Matrix. As Techs and Tech businesses move to the boondocks they will turn the red states blue.

Right now the current FUD is that Liberals don't respect people with Faith. The fact is that the rural people can't afford to break the back of the liberal technology complex. Ever wondered why Strict harsh and very communist China hasn't stompped all over Hong Kong? China needs Hong Kong more then Hong Kong needs China.

$249 is cheap here, but does it qualify as a "budget" machine in the target markets (India, Russia, China, Mexico and Brazil)? According to this site, the average income in Brazil's largest metropolitan areas is less than $300 a month!

Okay.

Brazillian cussin'

Cona, f [cunt] -- vernacular terms

Private industry can not take up the flag for space exploration...

There is no profit in exploration. The only equivalent is R&D, and that typically only accounts for about 10% of a company's budget.

In order for that to happen [cheaper space flights] there must be central agency that focuses on this, and the agency must get government funding.

That would be the FAA.

Nasa needs to keep doing what it has been doing, and it needs to be able to explore other RnD efforts.

Just because you and 99% of the population associate NASA == Space Shuttle does not mean that it is true. Its name is Aeronautics and Space, not space, and thier budget is something like 20% for space IIRC. (BTW, NASA's budget is currently about the same ad DEA. Which would you rather fund?)

The only company the could do priovate space launch successfully would be microsoft, and even there 40+billion wouldn't ge them far.

Oh really. Take a look at this PDF that talks about private launches and how there has been a 15% growth in the market annually.

once private companies do start backing manned space exporation, we had be damn sure there is a controlling body for safty, and launches.

Again, there is no forseeable profit in sending a couple of people in space a couple times a year. Airlines have a steady flow of revenue and have trouble making profits.

For more info, there is an article discussing France's private launches. And one and another about Brazil. This looks like a new US company for space launches called space tethers. And this talks about how "Latin America Pioneered the Satellite Communications World".

This page contains an excerpt from Beyond Carnival by James N. Green and tells more about the term. I won't reproduce the text here, or I'll be sent to the Camp of Tolerance. (Hail Lemmiwinks the Gerbil King!)