Theo de Raadt is the project leader for OpenBSD, a Unix-like operating system. We spoke with Theo about the upcoming release of OpenBSD, 3.9, the financial state of the project, and about companies that profit from free software without contributing back.

de Raadt can be ... difficult. But I can agree with him on the situation with device drivers.

Interview: Theo de Raadt of OpenBSD

Avie Tevanian, the man who has led Apple Computer's software development efforts for nearly a decade, is leaving the company.

He was one of the principals on Mach at CMU back in the 1980s.

Tevanian to leave Apple

As a result, each new version of Windows carries the baggage of its past. As Windows has grown, the technical challenge has become increasingly daunting. Several thousand engineers have labored to build and test Windows Vista, a sprawling, complex software construction project with 50 million lines of code, or more than 40 percent larger than Windows XP.

Backward compatibility is the albatross that is strangling Windows.

Windows Is So Slow, but Why? - New York Times

International Standard ISO 8601 specifies numeric representations of date and time. This standard notation helps to avoid confusion in international communication caused by the many different national notations and increases the portability of computer user interfaces. In addition, these formats have several important advantages for computer usage compared to other traditional date and time notations. The time notation described here is already the de-facto standard in almost all countries and the date notation is becoming increasingly popular.

Summary of ISO 8601

The FOAF project is based around the use of machine readable Web homepages for people, groups, companies and other kinds of thing. To achieve this we use the "FOAF vocabulary" to provide a collection of basic terms that can be used in these Web pages. At the heart of the FOAF project is a set of definitions designed to serve as a dictionary of terms that can be used to express claims about the world. The initial focus of FOAF has been on the description of people, since people are the things that link together most of the other kinds of things we describe in the Web: they make documents, attend meetings, are depicted in photos, and so on.

Apparently, there's a standard (which LJ, at least supports). I wonder if there's anything interesting that does anything with it yet...

FOAF Vocabulary Specification

Earlier this year we requested your questions on one of ICANN’s most heated discussions—issues involving top-level domains (TLDs)—which we passed on to Vint Cerf, Google’s VP and Chief Internet Evangelist and chairman of the board of ICANN. Despite an understandably heavy schedule, Vint Cerf has taken the time to personally respond to more questions than we had originally anticipated. So with our special thanks, here are his responses.

Vint Cerf even answered 3 of Decius' questions.

Answers from Vint Cerf: The Road Ahead for Top-Level Domains

Back in the days of dial-up modems and transfer speeds measured in hundreds of bits per second, unwanted email messages were actually felt as a significant dent in our personal pocketbooks. As increases in transfer speeds outpaced increases in spam traffic, the hundreds of unwanted emails we received per week became more of a nuisance than a serious financial threat. Today sophisticated spam filters offered by all major email providers keep us from seeing hundreds of unwanted emails on a daily basis, and relatively infrequently allow unwanted messages to reach our coveted Inboxes.

I'd have to think about this a bit but at least he proposes a migration path.

Hypertext Mail Protocol (a.k.a. Stub Email): A Proposal

Large flat-screen televisions for digital broadcasting are currently the focus of much attention. Heralded as the new generation of high-quality large flat-screen display, the SED (Surface-conduction Electron-emitter Display), jointly developed by Canon and Toshiba Corporation, is almost ready for practical application. Its greatest feature is the ability to produce vivid color images that surpass conventional types of display. Also, the SED delivers exceptional overall image quality—fast video-response performance, high contrast, high gradation levels—and low power consumption.

TVs based on this may ship by the end of 2006.

Canon Technology -SED-

At a press conference in New York today, IBM® introduced a blade computing system based on the Cell Broadband Engine™ (Cell BE). The IBM branded Cell BE-based system is designed for businesses that need the dense computing power and unique capabilities of the Cell BE processor to tackle tasks involving graphic-intensive, numeric applications.

IBM Unveils Cell-based Blades

"The Windows source code is the ultimate documentation of Windows Server technologies. With this step our goal is to resolve all questions about the sufficiency of our technical documentation," Brad Smith, Microsoft general counsel, said in a statement.

The implementation is the only documentation Microsoft has, apparently.

Microsoft offers up source code in EC dispute