Microsoft's 'Palladium' project is a partnership with chip manufacturers to embed security and rights management fuctionality into the lowest levels of a user's PC. Obviously, this is a sickening development that will ensure two things: one, that normal users will be exploited by the system through surreptitious logging and daily intereference, and two, that the system of rights management will be broken before it goes to silicon. I can't wait to see what Bruce Schneier has to say about this one. I'll be watching Cryptogram carefully....