I finally had a talk with a friend of mine in the security industry about my idea on intrusion detection.  He got the idea immediately which was a good sign.  Sometimes, I have to flap my arms like a bird in flight to communicate ideas to usually smart people.  Unfortunately, he also remembered reading an obscure paper that described a very similar idea.  Disappointing, but I am glad I don't have to grunt through the pain of filing a patent.

It is still amazing to me that an idea like that is just remembered and not widely used.  As everyone say, ideas are cheap and even great ideas are often lost in time, hopefully to be found again.  I am going to implement the idea in a side project of mine.  Until I do, the idea will have to be lost a bit longer.  Sorry, but I don't want to ruin the surprise.  As someone said, surprise is all about timing.