Welcome to the Spring 2024 edition of Network Time Foundation’s newsletter!
Honoring the Legacy of David L. Mills
Sadly, David L. Mills, PhD, died on 17 January 2024. Dr. Mills, an Internet pioneer and the inventor of the Network Time Protocol (NTP), left an indelible mark on the digital landscape. His contributions continue to shape the way we synchronize time. See NTF’s tribute and the video of Dave’s memorial service at UDel (including Harlan’s memoriam).
Here are ways you can pay tribute to this remarkable individual:
Share Your Memories: If you had the privilege of knowing or interacting with Dave, or found his work to be especially significant to you, please send your heartfelt memories and stories, along with your name and title.
Mills-Spring Fund: In collaboration with Dave’s family, we have established the Mills-Spring Fund to honor his legacy and support ongoing work in the field. You can donate or text MILLS to 53-555.
Explore Dave’s Work: Dive into Dave’s extensive body of work related to timekeeping. Visit the NTP Project’s reference library to access his time-related presentations and reports.
NTP Protocol Enhancements: Before his passing, Dave was actively working on enhancements to the NTP protocol. You can find his latest paper on this topic here.
Dr. Mills' impact extends far beyond the technical realm. His dedication, vision, and unwavering commitment to accurate timekeeping have left an enduring legacy. Let us celebrate his life and contributions together.
Project Updates
Three NTF projects had releases this spring:
- NTP 4.2.8p18: fixes 40 bugs and provides 40 other improvements.
- LinuxPTP 4.3: adds the Common Mean Link Delay Service and support for the AUTHENTICATION TLV.
- libptpmgmt 1.3: adds support for the AUTHENTICATION TLV and a C language wrapper.
The Khronos Project achieved RFC status in February.
NTP Mailing Lists Updates
As of February 22, 2024, Google has disallowed posts to the comp.protocols.time.ntp group. If you were part of this Google group, we encourage you to switch to the NTP questions mailing list.
All NTP mailing lists have been moved from the old mlmmj server to a new Sympa server. This transition brings several benefits, including reduced spam, self-service subscriptions, and unified login.
New Downloads Site
The newly launched https://downloads.nwtime.org/ provides a one-stop portal to download current and past releases for NTF Projects, via https or ftp, with links to each Project’s website and documentation. The current projects with software releases are:
Recent Presentations
Update on SSD Appeal
Big thank you to everyone who has donated so far! Thanks to you, we are almost halfway through our goal of 24 SSD sets. Please donate!
We’d love to hear from you
Ideas for topics in a future newsletter? Comments? Send us an email.