i dont have to worry about internet connectivity when on business trips to the dark side...

I often use passwords that are us one of 2 non-english languages that i speak well. The words and phrases in that when written in English are typically unique to me as there is no right way to spell hindi words in English and then i add sprinkling of local context from my childhood. So Hindi for teacher is adhyapika/adhyaapica/adhyapeeka and now change few of those letters with numbers/special characters using one of the many possible choices... replace english letters with corresponding numbers or actually change the corresponding letters with numbers from hindi alphabet set (like aa could be 11 or 2).

My sense is that using non-english languages brings in a complexity that is highly resistant to attacks but I am not sure. In theory someone could have compiled a password dictionary with these combinations as well.

I think you missed 2 points. First of all the total video content over the network is really low due to the fact that the broadband penetration is at around 20% globally. Secondly most of the content is still not HD. You and I are benefitting from this in terms of the last mile being the bottleneck. So even if just consider HD resolution, the backbone will start to get clogged as more content becomes HD and more people get on broadband. To reiterate last mile will not be the bottleneck the backbone will be. There are many more points around why 4K makes sense which have to do with interactivity (think digital zoom) and projection displays but we dont even need to go there to see why networks will be unable to keep up as they stand today.

Is it not possible to make every access to data logged (whether through the application our outside of it) and then provide permissions to change those permissions only to a select group of people. These limited set of people (with ability to change the logging behaviour of the systems) can then be selected/monitored through highly stringent processes. While this will not eliminate the possibility of still having an insider threat but I'd think it'd go a long way towards deterring "insider" threat especially of all admins know that all their actions are logged and only the "superadmins" can change that. It seems to me that it is a design + awareness issue combined. Then comes the issue of even if it can built (the process) and implemented is there sufficient motivation for Cloud providers to do this. This is where regulation may be needed because if this investment is measured using regular business investment metrics around ROI then it is unlikely to meet the criteria.

Not so fast my friend. Video breaks this assumption especially when you consider increase in broadband penetration rates over next few years. Last mile, which has been the bottleneck for the first 20 years of internet will find that the other parts of the network backbone, peering points etc will need costly upgrades to carry all the video traffic. Especially as the video content on the internet moves from a measly 320x240 largely to HD, 4K and beyond. The increase in resolution and increase the demand for higher resolution (broadband penetration) can possibly change the economics to a physical media based distribution model especially for high resolution video. Even mobile video can consume a lot of bandwidth if it has interactivity. In many ways, relatively low penetration of braodband has been the reason that has kept the internet from collapsing under its owne weight.

Network based content distribution technologies are evolving to help address this. But my point is that the outcome is not as certain as you make it sound.

I found this (http://diagonalslash.blogspot.com/2010/08/google-must-respond-and-plug-this-leak.html) of privacy on part of Google quite astonishing. For some reason very few people seem to care about Google's continued "unusual and unexpected" usage of data provided by its users. The trade-offs you are making as you share each bit of information with Google are not at all obvious and easy to understand.

The issue I have raised continues to exist (though it was much worse earlier) in Gmail.

so you have had your parents for longer than your heat pump. what is your point ?

talking about bugs i have documented my experience here http://diagonalslash.blogspot.com/2010/05/google-is-messing-with-my-profile-data.html

While the bug exposed it there is something going on here which i didn;t expect as a user.

Google definitely uses my data in ways that I don't explicitly authorize them to (arguably it is embedded in one of those terms of service that i sign but I am not talking technicality here but perception of trust) and definitely creates suspicion on total transparency image that is often spread in this forum. I have posted my experience below.

http://diagonalslash.blogspot.com/2010/05/google-is-messing-with-my-profile-data.html

Oops sorry i am ahead i missed a digit there

Damn you beat me again...

Change your name huh !! When you are asked to show your educational degrees which still have the old name and will continue to have unless you can have those changed as well. It isnt that simple is it ? Changing the name. Some one who has tried should shed more light on this.

DVD that can store data for 1000 years. Who cares even if it does ?