Avast ye! Will the scallywags at Google soon be feedin' the fish?

A post on the Freakonomics blog yesterday discussed Google's new consideration to anchor supercomputers on barges at sea to lessen taxes and harness wave power. The question posed in the article focused on the obvious: Blimey! WHAT ABOUT PIRATES?!?!

Aye, it is feared that sea-faring, hornswaggling lads-o-doubloons will heave ho and pillage what private information they can from the massive amounts of data on board the supercomputer barges.

The scene this forms in my fanstastical and childish mind looks something like Jack Sparrow-esque characters running around stabbing servers with swords and shouting things like "Yaaaarrrrrr!!! Bring 'er alongside and find ye the terabytes! Ye need t' hack it, steal the booty, sell it t' China and scuttle th' barge! Gar, whar's me bottle o'rum?"

... But then that's just me.

In case this whole thing sounds a bit proposterous to you, below is the IMB Piracy Attack map for 2008. Good luck, Google -- and be wary the jolly roger.

(Click on the map to go to the actual webpage)