Unfortunately, no. Not and do any justice to the article. This is just one of those things that needs to be read in its entirety to be absorbed and properly understood. It is worth the read.

I still have issues with affirmative action -- like not believing it works very well -- but after reading the article in The Atlantic, there are a lot of things I am rethinking.

http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/05/the-case-for-reparations/361631/

I'd be surprised if there wasn't a JBoss or Tomcat back end in there somewhere. And while JSON is popular with the web crowd, XML still rules when dealing with back end processing and transformation. There are since powerful enterprise tools that can do XML but far fewer that know what JSON is.

What I'm describing is a societal behavior trait, not necessarily one fundamental to humans as a species. We (Americans) didn't used to have it, but with the comforts of civilization and not having to struggle comes complacency and a softness.

No, I'm not saying we should go back to struggling for a living, I'm just pointing out a simple fact. Eternal vigilance is the price we pay for liberty.

As an American who has not lived extensively in another country for several years now, I don't presume to speak for them. I spoke only for what I am immersed and have experienced first hand. That isn't bigotry, just confining my opinion to what I know -- my own subgroup.

Yes, the media plays a large role in exacerbating this. So does Hollywood and the entire political apparatus. It is in their own self interests.

Hollywood and the media sell tickets, boost ratings and make money. Politicians get elected off of fear, accrue power by doling out patronage and make money.

There is an entire ecosystem based on keeping the public afraid. Scared people are willing to buy the feeling of security, even if it is fleeting and false.

I agree, but don't have enough experience with people from too many other countries to speak in that general sense. I'm immersed in American culture and thus see it every day.

The sad truth is the majority of Americans are fundamentally cowards. That, combined with the human tendency to grossly over estimate the risks from rare events with severe consequences creates this problem.

Unlike a war which happens over there terrorist acts can happen anywhere. If they can happen anywhere, they can happen here, to me! Gasp!

Look at the hysteria that occurred when the anthrax mailings were going on. People were reporting "white powder" everywhere and breathlessly telling each other "that could've been me, I could have DIED".

No, not really. Unless you were a postal worker, you had a bigger chance of being kicked to death by a wild mule than you did of encountering anthrax in a package.

The sad truth is people play their potential role up in their mind because they think their lives are boring and uneventful. A terrorist attack may be horrible, but it is exciting, too. People do the same thing with celebrities. "OMG! I ate dinner in the same restaurant as Justin Bieber! He was there the night before!"

Add all of that together and you get a lot of people who will gladly give up lots of freedom for a little (perceived) security.

Thanks. Paxil showed up the other day. I can't seem to find your e-mail address, though I thought I had it before. Mine is charles DOT e DOT hill AT gmail DOT com.

I don't get up to Springfield much anymore since I moved out of the Chicagoland area.

If I have to turn my head to see more, then I want a break of some sort. When working on something that really needs focus, I prefer to be able to read by just moving my eyes and keeping my head still.

At work, I use two monitors but they're for two distinctly separate tasks. The one on the right is always e-mail and chat. The one on the left -- pretty much directly in front of me -- is for whatever else I'm working on.

Widescreens are good for positioning stuff in an IDE, but as far as the actual code goes I personally prefer 132-column width window, Deja Vu Sans Mono font.

The problem is, if it is installed it must be maintained. On servers, they have a tendency to ignore the browser, Java and flash installs and let the sit. Then, one day, some admin browses the web while logged in because it is convenient and gets owned thru a malicious ad or something because they didn't patch. We've had this happen a couple of times.

We have regular patching metrics, with machines scanned weekly to ensure the software on them is kept up-to-date. Having a bunch of unmaintained crap on there skews the metrics horribly.

In reviewing the security configs for a bunch of Red Hat and Solaris servers, I noticed that they had full desktop installs. When I asked the senior admin about it he said the junior admins couldn't manage the servers without a GUI. None of them had the experience to do command line based management via remote SSH. They couldn't even do remote X sessions. I about cried. These are people making $80,000+ annually and had multiple degrees and certifications.

I am familiar with SOX, PCI, HIIPA, FISMA and other privacy requirements. It is my job.

You don't get legal indemnification because the cloud service is providing IaaS in most cases. You aren't outsourcing risk. Proper configuration, application security and the like are still YOUR responsibility.

(You CAN get indemnification clauses if you're using their services AND you pay for it.)

The legal requirements from privacy and security aren't absolutes -- nothing is. You have to take reasonable accomodations and show due diligence, just like in every other contract. The level of effort is frequently detailed in the law requiring compliance.

And I'm not angry.

Then look for a cloud service provider that has been awarded FedRAMP certification at the FISMA Moderate level. Then evaluate their controls yourself.

Oh, and speak to a privacy expert because your "reading" of privacy law is incorrect.

No, it isn't. Weather occurs in the troposphere, the layer of the atmosphere closest to the earth, extending up to between 7 - 20 km above ground level. About 80% of the mass of the atmosphere is here.

The ionosphere is about 0.1% of the mass of the atmosphere, starting from about 90 km above ground level and continuing to between 500 - 1,000 km above ground level.

Educate yourself a little. Science is a beautiful thing.