Today is an historic day as Dave Winer writes that it's As good a time as any to announce that...

"At some point in the next few months, there will be an open source release of the Frontier kernel. Not sure what license it'll use. There won't be any grand expectations of what kind of community will develop. Even if no bugs get fixed, if no features get added, if no new OSes are supported, it will be worth it, because its future will be assured. That's the point Ted makes, and that's my reasoning behind this.

We decided this quite some time ago, but waited for the right moment to start discussing it publicly. It seems now is the right time, or as good a time as any."

This is fantastic news. In fact on the train in to work this morning I was pondering the future of Frontier and UserTalk and my continued commitment to what has been a proprietary platform. Of course, lots of details need to be ironed and announced by UserLand so I'll be waiting with bated breath for these.

I'll also be very interested in reading what some of the Frontier old-timers have to say about this development. In the past the Frontier community was one of the brightest, most helpful and resourceful, and if the new community is anything like the old it's going to be a very exciting and interesting future.

Way to go UserLand!

If you're of the Spectrum, Vic, BBC micro, Dragon, etc., home computer using generation then you'll love the Hey Hey 16k - Anim by Rob Manuel - Song by MJ Hibbett flash animation. Even the Dragon gets a mention in the lyrics [even though it had a massive 32K of RAM rather than 16K as immortalised in the title ;-))].

Dave starts to answer some FAQs about Frontier open source release:

"All the source code you need to build the Frontier application on Windows and Macintosh, the core object database, Frontier.root, and the ancillary databases, but not manila.root or radio.root"

The news is getting better and better.

I'm often inspired by the bloggers that I consider to be friends even though we have never met face-to-face. One such blogger is Jim hbwt Roepcke and today I was deeply moved by his openness and honesty. As I began reading Finishing what I started I realised that my students would also find inspiration from Jim's story of courage and commitment and resolved to direct them to his posting. When I reached the final paragraph I was surprised, but particularly chuffed, to see that I merited a mention. I'd be very very proud if Jim has taken even the tiniest bit of encouragement from some of the things I've posted to my weblog over the years.

The UVic Department of Computer Science will be fortunate indeed to have such a keen and committed student and I know Jim will do well. I have no doubt that he will be the sort of student that is a pleasure to teach. I look forward to the regular updates on his progress and to hearing of his graduation in due course.

Very best wishes Jim.

Joel on Software - The Best Thing on Television, Ever:

"We just finished watching Season 1 of the BBC television series The Office on DVD during our lunchbreaks at Fog Creek. WOW! Incredibly funny, incredibly touching, and supernaturally realistic. But now I'm paranoid when nobody in the office laughs at my jokes. I'm an entertainer, first, really, then a boss. Also I'll have to cut down on the army stories.

Hint to Americans: turn on the English subtitles and you'll catch twice as many jokes."

Subtitles!? Is it really true that the Americans and the British are indeed peoples separated by a common language!? Glad to see Joel's office get the jokes. I'm often led to believe that Americans fail to see/appreciate irony and subtlety in humour of the kind that Ricky Gervais excels at -- especially as portrayed by David Brent ;-)