You know that XKCD comic about dependency? Turns out to be true: learn about the people holding up the internet. I didn’t know that one volunteer maintains bash, four volunteers maintain SQLite, and one volunteer maintains the time zone database. (A little googling to learn more also turned up that one person maintains gpsd, which all GPS devices seemingly rely on. As always, our most critical infrastructure is seemingly built on the most fragile ecosystems.)
October 09, 2026