While it is certain that Facebook sells the information they collect to advertisers, I was wondering if *governments* were some of Facebook's customers? By 'customer', I mean beyond the type of legal demand for information on a specific person, in relationship to a specific event.

I wonder - is it possible that some of the information collected by Facebook is collected at the request of one or more governments?

I'd wager that even if none of it is currently collected at the request of governments, that someday - probably in the not too far future - it will be...

Of course, that leads me to wonder if the fees that Facebook collects when it complies with information requests from governments are profitable to Facebook? *That* would be an interesting line item to add to their annual report!

Because you sound grumpy! Yes, 'great' SF movies are hard to come by - as is great written SF - as is anything else - all of which is otherwise known as Sturgeon's Law. I'd love to see my SF favorites made into movies, but I also know doing so would loose much of what I like about a story. For example, while I loved the imagery in the LOTR movies, I cringed at what had happened to the story and the characters. Still, the movies have a place on my shelf. So be it. Enjoy what is worthwhile, ignore what is not, and don't get your panties in a twist because not every SF movie is great. And lay off the caffeine for a while...

I don't think the issue is necessarily 'military hardware'. I believe the issue that the article addressed are the commercial chips *inside* hardware - military or commercial, used for military purposes. A grid of commercial servers used for military purposes is 'military hardware', despite it's commercial origins.

I would not be surprised if -- for example, and I'm making this up -- the latest Intel processors had a hidden RFID capability supplied by the DoD that would cripple the processor if it received a particular coded signal. With a chip budget of billions of transistors, who could ever find something like that *if* it existed?

Or maybe a Chinese-made motherboard with the same capability. Or a controller chip made fabricated in Eastern Europe. Or a software device driver with hidden military functionality. Or whatever. The point the article tried to make is that today's chips, motherboards, and software are so complicated, and are designed and produced by so many countries (not all of whom are necessarily on the same side) that hidden functionality could be built into them and nobody would ever notice them -- until they were activated.

There is even the possibility that multiple kill functions exist in a single computer - each controlled by a different organization.

Military hardware or not, imagine the havoc you could unleash if you had the capability to cripple all the Wintel computers in a given country...

Well, Ubuntu worked for me. I recently sent my last Windows PC off with my daughter to college, and built my own PC. Taking a leap of faith, the new PC got 64-bit Ubuntu from the start -- no Windows -- and everything is, and has been working since I first powered it up. This, with no real *nix experience.

I understand that Ubuntu might be considered a Linux for neophytes, but that's OK with me. I needed to be successful with *nix since I was starting with bare iron and zilch experience, and Ubuntu delivered that. If at some point I may choose to go with another distro, and I know that much of what I learn with Ubuntu will apply to any *nix distro. But for now, I'm content.

Have I had issues? Yup. But there is a lot of help for Ubuntu around. There might be a lot of help for the other distros, too, but I knew there was a lot of help for new Ubuntu users before I even started. I knew a lot of people have been successful with Ubuntu. I knew that my hardware was compatible. Basically, I had a -- maybe unjustified, and maybe myopic -- warm and fuzzy feeling about Ubuntu.

-- Bill

I would recommend to anyone interested in the history of the Bible as a document to read the book "Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why". Available at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Misquoting-Jesus-Story-Behind-Changed/dp/0060738170/ref=pd_ys_iyr49

If I recall correctly, the number of differences between all the earlier versions of the Biblical texts we *have* is greater than the number of words in the Bible... The reasons for the changes are many and varied, which fall into a number of broad categories, which are covered in the book.

It's a fascinating story for anyone interested in this subject -- believer or non-believer.

    -- Bill