there will always be a system administrator with the technical ability to snoop data stored or in transfer. The only reason you can slam Google here is because they actually caught the guy.

Not always, if security is properly implemented. Google implemented poor controls, and had no idea he was doing this. There can be preventative controls and monitoring and auditing, they implemented neither, they only figured this out when the parents complained.

Their security is poor, simple as that. Now granted, many companies probably have lousy controls also, and the hackers (internal and external) seem to be always a step ahead, _however_ there are companies that are doing this right, Google is not one of them.

I'm thankful for the UK government in photographing this individual and keeping him out of the U.S. Our country will be safer. Sending a threatening e-mail is one step away from a threatening action for these unhinged individuals. Hopefully he will be monitored. The U.K. is a terrorist hotspot with many immigrants from Pakistan, India, Africa plotting their nefarious deeds.

We need to be super-vigilant these days, with radio hotheads like Limbaugh making inflammatory comments, who knows when some crazy will take him up on it? Don't be 'embarrassed', these actions must be nipped in the bud. No appeasement here, that did not work with the Nazis. Sorry for the heavy hand, but America must be kept safe. We must fight them over there, so we are safe behind our sovereign borders.

Interesting you mention PostgreSQL. There was a recent presentation on InfoQ by Andres Kutt, one of the architects of Skype, and they use PostgreSQL quite heavily (and are also contributors), and also put business logic in the databases. He was initially against this, but it's worked out well. They have use some other interesting components from PostrgeSQL, such as their messaging system. Worth seeing:

Learnings from Five Years as a Skype Architect