UK open source consultancy netproject is clearly on something of a roll. Earlier this month the company announced the first deployments in a pilot scheme intended to equip police forces in England and Wales with secure Linux desktops, and next month it plays host to what sounds like being the trusted computing face-off of the year - John Manferdelli versus Ross Anderson versus Alan Cox.

It is of course possible that they'll all agree, although if so it's not immediately obvious about what. John Manferdelli is general manager of Microsoft's Palladium business unit, and you can get an idea of where he's coming from here, while some of Ross Anderson of Cambridge Computer Labs' fears and doubts about TCPA/Palladium are expressed here. Lead Linux kernel developer Alan Cox you probably know about too, and he'll be dealing with the issue as regards open source.

The workshop, the Trusted Computing Masterclass, will take place at the QE2 Conference Centre in Westminster, London on Thursday 7th November, and is aimed at IT strategy and security managers.

"Trusted Computing is happening now," says Eddie Bleasdale of netproject, and if people don't find out about it now they're going to wake up one day and find it's in place, and there's nothing they can do about it. So the workshop is intended to provide some early debate, information and education.

And yes, since you ask, Eddie did phone us up and ask nicely for some advance publicity. But when we heard who he had presenting we told him we'd have written it up anyway. Plenty worse ways to spend £395 plus VAT, if you ask us - more details and booking information here. ®