I've just written an article on preventing brute force hack attempts I thought you all might be interested in reading at http://www.webhostgear.com/240.html
Good read for those of us worried about hackers using brute force to gain access to vulnarable systems and scripts. Even though there is really no way to not get hacked (depending on the level of experience and if your not connected to the net at all), it always good to be as safe as possible. Thanks for the post.