Flutterby™! :

I've had a couple of messages about the serial numbers that Intel will be putting into their new CPUs. Maybe someone out there can correct me. This is just a unique ID, much like every ethernet card has, the difference is that it's locked to a unique CPU. Basically, it's a built in dongle. It might make licensing for node locked software a little bit easier to manage, apparently there's a way to turn it off that requires a reboot to reenable, and your software will still need to transmit it to anyone making use of it. Now I know some of you use Microsoft products and expect your computer to go sending things like lists of all your software off to the folks building the mailing lists, but just use protocols and implementations you can trust. I fail to see the cause for panic.