‘Know your enemy’, Sun Tzu once said. And that goes for everyone, from emperors to executives – and now for sysops too. The University of Abertay in Dundee, Scotland, is starting the first Bachelor of Science Course in “Ethical Hacking and Countermeasures” at the beginning of the next academic year. Apparently they’ll use Home Office vetting procedures to ensure no nefarious villains sign up – I feel safer already.

What a fun concept: the simmer stove (theoretical only, at this point) recesses the heating element in the countertop to improve efficiency and safety.

Jamais Cascio (of Worldchanging fame) has penned a list of the 12 things journalists should know when interviewing futurists. Lots of good cautionary advice for those of us who get dazzled by futuristic glitter.

Yikes. Judging by the video, this coil hand gun is not a good toy for your cat.

We’re still hungry for more powerful computers, especially in the science and engineering fields, and it looks like the silicon architects are cheerfully rising to the challenge. Cray Computers plan to have ‘Baker’, a liquid-cooled petaflop behemoth, installed and running by 2008. IBM say they’ll have Blue Gene up to the same speed at the same time. But this is an international phenomenon; the Chinese, the Japanese and even the Indians are getting in on the act too.