The interviews below were written while I was online tech editor of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald from May 2002 to December 2005. They aren't the only ones I did; these are the ones I like. Apart from one prominent exception, the subjects were all of my choosing.
- I hate it when shills for the proprietary software industry try to paint independent and small-time researchers as the ones who cause security problems. That's how I came to interview Dave Aitel - someone had tried to cast mud on him, something I felt was unjustified. read more
- This is probably the most important interview of the whole lot. It is unusual in that three people were at the answering end. read more
- By far, this is the longest interview I've ever done. It's also the only one in this section where I paraphrased stuff instead of sticking to the Q and A approach. Theo de Raadt is a fascinating individual and someone whom I wanted to interview for quite some time. He's also very frank. read more
- The interview with Ian Mulholland came about following a suggestion from a hacker on the Full-Disclosure mailing list. It is probably the only time that someone from Microsoft has answered questions somewhat to the point. read more
- Georgi Guninski is a typical nerd - brief and to the point. He is a brilliant researcher. This interview is about the shortest one I've done. read more
- Russ Cooper is the most media-savvy sysadmin I've ever encountered. He knows the game and plays it well. But he's an interesting person and never backs away from what he's said - even if he's stuffed up. read more
- Russell Coker is the most intense developer I've ever met - and I've met a fair few. One thing I never asked him was what his IQ is - maybe I should have because it would have been a talking point. Extremely intelligent man, and a pleasure to talk to. read more
- Jeff Waugh is the only person I've interviewed because he sought an interview. Waugh wanted to reply to some of the points raised by Shawn Gordon; he was extremely unprofessional in that he emailed me at my personal email address and literally demanded an interview. In what only can be described as a case of extreme chutzpah, he later complained that the questions had been unfair! read more
- Shawn Gordon was brought to my attention by a friend on the local Linux user group's mailing list. He proved to be an excellent subject. read more
- Interviewing the spokesman for the Debian GNU/Linux project was a natural outcome for a Debian user. This isn't one of the better interviews but it was a necessary one. read more
- Craig Sanders was a sysadmin at the time I interviewed him. Today he is an independent consultant. He is frank and forthright and thus people do tend to judge him harshly. I found him extremely helpful on mailing lists. read more
- Rick Moen was somewhat embarrassed when I asked him if he would like to be interviewed. But at the end of the day, he was well worth the ask. read more
- Sirtaj Singh Kang is a KDE developer from India who lives in Melbourne. read more
- Patrick Volkerding was a good subject to pick as a start; he was grateful for the publicity. Slackware fans are a very loyal lot; I got emails from as far afield as Sweden thanking me for interviewing Pat. read more