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ReVirt is very, very cool security functionality:

ReVirt (part of the CoVirt project) is a complete Linux-on-Linux virtual machine with replay capability: you can explore the state of the entire virtual machine at any point in the past. For example, if you discover an intruder, you can ‘go back in time’ to see how they broke in, watch the exploit in progress, and discover what was compromised. The overhead of virtualization and logging is only 15-30%, even for kernel-intensive applications.

Can’t wait until this is stable…

Games: The Body Behind Vice City’s Tommy Vercetti (Escape Mag): an interview with the guy who did the motion-capture for Vice City:

What advice do you have for any readers interest in doing motion capture?

… Stuff your Spandex mo-cap suit. That’s the key.

Patents: SFGate: Inventors patent ideas to pre-empt their rivals: ‘(IP lawyer) Dennis Fernandez has come up with an idea for TV sets with built-in cameras and small screens that would let viewers talk to one another while watching a show. … Fernandez has no intention of actually building such a device. But the idea is his — and he has a certificate from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to prove it.’

And there was me thinking these things had to be non-obvious, and have novelty, to be patentable. :( What is the US PTO up to? And what’s going to happen if the European Patent Office get their way?

I’m beginning to think a pro-bono collection of freely-licensable defensive patents, filed by the FSF or similar, is the only way to work around this brokenness.