New EarthLink VP Jonathan Young's house ..

Jonathan Young recently joined EarthLink as a VP overseeing, among other things, our security products.

I've known Jonathan for over 10 years now, and been friends with him since he took the momentous step of moving from his beloved New York down to Atlanta. We both worked for CNN; me up until 5 years ago, and him until just a few months ago.

Jonathan is a high mucky-muck now, but I was still surprised when I looked at Dave Coustan's EarthLink blog and found a very nice piece featuring Jonathan talking about about how a computer security expert deals with home security..

The piece is centered about the funky place Jonathan bought after he tired of living the life of an apartment dweller. Atlanta is a town of traditional suburban homes, but Jonathan managed to find a place that would look right at home in Manhattan.

If you read the piece, you might get the impression that Jonathan likes tinkering with his tech setup. No kidding! Of all the people I know, Jonathan always has the coolest stuff. Even all those Next cubes in the closet - and old Sun gear, too? - are pretty cool. I love going to visit him to get up on the latest cool stuff.

Oh, and Jonathan's comments are right on, I think. Security is about a balance between risk and cost. You have to be able to live with the overhead; going paranoid, in computers or homes, leaves you a prisoner of your fear.