Here's a talk description for an April 15 event, InfoTec '09:

Software is less stable than you think it is. Bugs are constantly being discovered in every major piece of software you use. Thanks to the Internet, both exploits and bugfixes are being disseminated faster than everbut the exploits are winning, since applying the fixes typically requires something disruptive like a restart. In this talk, I propose an alternative: modifying a running program to fix the bug, without a restart. I'll discuss why this is hard to do, how those challenges can be overcome, and why this technology represents an important step forward in computer security.

Hmm, hot patching is "hard to do". I've been hot patching the application server that runs this blog (and the entire Cincom Smalltalk Site) for years now. I guess I just have access to better technology :)

Heck, Randal Schwartz is giving a Seaside talk at the same venue; perhaps he should point out that hot patching doesn't have to be hard while he's at it :)

Now Listening to: Who Will You Run To by Heart from: Bad Animals

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