The Internet Systems Consortium has announced that it has received enough support from sponsors to launch the BIND 10 project, to create a replacement name server for BIND 9. BIND 9 began its development in 1998 and is the most widely used DNS server software on the Internet. Among the sponsors are the UK's Nominet and Germany's DENIC.

"Yesterday was the 218th anniversary of the birth of Samuel F. B. Morse, who invented the telegraph. We present this simple exercise in his honor..."

"A new version of GNU sed has been released [...] This is the first stable release of GNU sed to adopt version 3 of the GNU General Public License. It is also the first release to use gnulib to achieve maximum portability..."

"David Moon has created a programming language called PLOT, for 'Programming Language for Old-Timers.' His introduction to it can be found at: http://users.rcn.com/david-moon/PLOT/ ..."

From the 'who doesn't use GCC?' files:

One of the most popular open source programs (technically Free Software) in the world got a major boost this week. GCC 4.4 adds in lots of new features the biggest of which is the Graphite Framework.

"Well this has been a very active month. The wording for the exception to the GPLv3 was finally settled with the FSF and so almost all of the remaining GPLv2 files in the GCC source tree have now been updated. This has also meant that the gcc 4.4 branch now generated a full release..."

As a parent of three young boys, I often think about what it's going to take to be competitive in the job market of the future. Obviously, they'll need solid reading, writing, math and science skills, with history, literature and art thrown in to make them well-rounded. Being a computer nerd myself, I recognize the value of even basic computer skills.