The CEO of Aspera, a software company that specializes in data transfer for media, has published an article called How Can Hollywood Utilize the Cloud? She seems to suggest security is the biggest hurdle, without actually saying the word security:

Of course, the elephant in the room when it comes to data sharing in the cloud is reliable movement of data. Before entertainment organizations — or really any organization— exports their valuable data to the cloud, they need to be sure they can easily, quickly and reliably access it, from anywhere.

Reliable movement speaks to data integrity. Easy and quick, I would argue, are always at the top of requirement lists. The availability of information is an obvious requirement. No elephant there. Reliability also is likely to be found high on the list. All this is known to Aspera because their product is made for easy, quick and reliable data transfer.

Confidentiality, on the other hand, often gets left out of the discussion or postponed due to complicated and technical issues. Perhaps it is left out by the author in this instance for the same reasons. Thus, I would say the real elephant in the room for cloud data is the whole picture of security of data, which would be the classic pyramid of confidentiality, integrity and availability. If cloud gets this wrong, “reliable movement” means there will be massive data leaks/breaches like never before.

The Long Island Press says five people have already drowned this summer on a beach with “no swimming” signs posted:

The latest incident involved a 12-yr-old girl on a school trip with other students from Harlem.

A teacher at Columbia Secondary School for Math, Science and Engineering – one of three chaperones looking after sixth-grader Nicole Suriel – was injured as she was tossed against a stone jetty while trying to rescue the girl, officials said.

Dozens of police and lifeguards – on hand to set up for weekday lifeguard staffing due to begin next week – joined the search for Nicole. Her motionless body was pulled from the water shortly after 12:30 p.m., more than 90 minutes after she went under off Edwards Boulevard, according to Long Beach and school officials.

The cost of the search must have been astronomical with helicopters overhead and firefighters, police and lifeguards in the water. Long Beach officials said no life guards were on duty because of budgetary constraints.

Jerry Seinfeld sounds upset with how a troublesome fan was put into his box at a baseball stadium.

Gaga showed up during the fifth inning of the day game between the Mets and Padres and was furious that her front-row seats were so close to photographers covering the game. Instead of sitting, she vanished into a lower-deck concourse — only to reappear in the seventh inning in the empty luxury box owned by Seinfeld, a big Mets fan. “You give people the finger and you get upgraded? Is that the world we’re living in now? he said.

The interview is pretty funny. Perhaps the best line is here, when Seinfeld mocks the name of his box violator:

…”I wish her the best,” but then added, “you take one ‘A’ off of that and you’ve got gag.”