Should free development be a part of free software, or is Apache pioneer Roy Fielding asking too much of Sun? Besides looking at the commercial side of free software, this month's column investigates synchronization of speech and text.

Linux lets users watch the kernel at work with a little help from Ptrace, a tool that both debuggers and malicious process kidnappers use. A CPAN module introduces this technology to Perl and, if this is not enough, C extensions add functionality.

The ancient Linux permission system is often insufficient for complex production environments. Access Control Lists offer a flexible alternative.

Python inventor Guido van Rossum is known to have a good sense of humor and probably had a good laugh when he heard about the Guido van Robot project. If you are learning how to program, or would like to teach others, this software gives you a light-hearted introduction.

We'll show you a Perl script that helps you draw area graphs to keep track of your portfolio's performance.