Hedders

Rarely entirely serious. Fond of otters and dogs. A bit obsessive about music. Partial to videogames and mucking about with old computers. Keen but inept archer (getting better though). English (yeah, I know. Sorry. Someone has to be). British. European. A tech lawyer by trade but mostly tooting about other things. Tries to be a good ally. Definitely a bit over-privileged. He/him.

Currently listening to: Protest the Hero, Devin Townsend, Depeche Mode
Currently playing: Lies of P
Trans rights: are human rights
Otters: make everything better

Public Key

npub1n9j8duqjct52pndeu9wl9kqkdt2py6jsmvp6t7pvqpt07r6846kq4x6ztw

NIP-05 Address

hedders_at_mas.to@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsfjerk7qfv969qeku7zh0jmqtx44qjdfgdkqa9lqkqq4hlpar6atqpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsn543ul

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1n9j8duqjct52pndeu9wl9kqkdt2py6jsmvp6t7pvqpt07r6846kq4x6ztw

Show more details

Last Notes

2026-04-06 16:34:17 UTC

- reply

Do they have video? If so: moustaches.

2026-02-23 16:40:20 UTC

- reply

The difficulty one runs into is how you define social media. It seems obvious, but it really isn't once you dig into it. What actually counts as social media? Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc are all pretty obvious. Reddit, I guess. YouTube, presumably. Snapchat? WhatsApp? Yeah, maybe. Signal? Online forums? Usenet? Email lists? Anything where users can interact with other users? It gets tricky quite quickly.

2026-02-02 14:26:42 UTC

- reply

As I understand it, 45% of new Azure business, which Microsoft is expending large amounts of capital on building capacity to meet, is from just one customer, OpenAI. OpenAI doesn't actually have the money to pay for that new Azure spend on which Microsoft is relying unless it secures massive additional funding.

2026-01-23 14:55:09 UTC

- reply

It’s just what happens when you send a Very Very American presenter to interview a lad from Crawley. Culture clash innit.

2026-01-22 06:19:54 UTC

- reply

From memory, the thing about Golden Axe was just its impact as a statement of intent as to what the Megadrive could do, rather than its merits as a game. As a game, it’s obviously nowhere near as good as, say, the Streets of Rage series that came later. But I still recall seeing Golden Axe on the Megadrive for the first time and being gobsmacked by it.

2026-01-07 16:29:59 UTC

- reply

🎵Never trust a man in a blue trenchcoat, never drive a car when you’re dead🎵

2025-12-14 10:36:13 UTC

- reply

Suede. I was never the same again.
https://media.mas.to/media_attachments/files/115/717/474/051/722/190/original/44c141e7d1ed754c.jpg

2025-12-12 15:17:48 UTC

- reply

that (very good) column also touches on a very, very important point about the Supreme Court judgment: the judgment is authority for the proposition that it is *lawful* to exclude trans women from women-only spaces. It is not authority for the proposition that one *must* do so. The EHRC’s assertion to the contrary is - to use the technical legal term - utter bollocks.

2025-12-04 20:26:37 UTC

RE: https://mastodon.social/@jonhicks/115662466196992390
Don't use Spotify. Buy music. Direct from artists, if you can. If you really must get your music from a streaming service, get it from one that pays artists better, like Tidal.
#note1dl6…uvnk

2025-10-02 11:25:58 UTC

X is where you find the people who think they run the Internet.
Bluesky is where you find the people who think they ought to run the Internet.
Mastodon is where you find the people who actually do run the Internet, and kind of wish they didn't.
(WIth apologies to Yes, Minister)

2025-09-26 16:55:38 UTC

- reply

It’s easy:
Amo
Amas
Amat
A monk
A mink
A minibus

2025-09-20 05:23:26 UTC

- reply

One sees this assertion a lot. While one might *want* it to be true in order to make a point, it's important to keep in mind that the reality is more complicated, because the regime created by the Dublin Regulation (and its predecessors) hasn't ever really worked very well in practice.
A better point might be the loss of about half a billion in EU funding which we were getting to help support migration control efforts in the UK, and which we now don't have (and haven't replaced).

2025-09-14 19:07:32 UTC

- reply

Magnificent!

2025-08-31 12:49:38 UTC

- reply

It never ceases to amuse me how the hard right just cannot cope with the fact of Angela Rayner’s existence. The notion of a capable woman with a regional accent having power just seems to make them kernel panic.

2025-08-28 16:39:23 UTC

- reply

Is it confined to the old southern Confederacy states?

2025-08-28 14:17:43 UTC

- reply

this has always fascinated me about the USA. Over here in the UK our racists mostly feel obliged to dress it up as other “issues” or “concerns”, because they know that racism is a shameful thing. Not so in the States. There, it seems politicians can say the quiet bit out loud and people vote for them anyway.

2025-08-26 11:25:51 UTC

The stupidest article doesn't exi-
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/aug/26/can-ais-suffer-big-tech-and-users-grapple-with-one-of-most-unsettling-questions-of-our-times

2025-08-05 16:50:48 UTC

- reply

yeah. They also pre-suppose a certain amount of space, which not everyone will have. I mean, CRTs are great, but now that I work from home I can’t spare the desk real estate.

2025-07-21 17:57:30 UTC

- reply

no worries, hope you get it sorted!

2025-07-21 16:44:13 UTC

- reply

Possibly dumb question but are you using the NTSC fixed version or the regular version?
https://www.lemon64.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=81422

2025-06-03 06:03:37 UTC

- reply

Sounds like the same basic problem that caused the Horizon scandal. Just like the Post Office, nobody in DWP will have consciously *set out* to do this, but just like the Post Office a blind focus on process coupled with jobsworthery, incompetence, laziness, incuriousness, a desire for a quiet life, and a near-total lack of accountability led inexorably, and just like the Post Office, to misery, ruin and death.
That poor, poor woman.

2025-05-23 06:57:52 UTC

- reply

A valuable tool to evaluate stools?

2025-05-22 12:06:54 UTC

- reply

Weird. Last thing: what happens if you run it with an ampersand at the end? i.e. libreoffice &

2025-05-22 12:00:00 UTC

- reply

If I do a web search for “Bristol stool chart”, will I immediately regret it?

2025-05-22 11:58:18 UTC

- reply

Hmmm.
Try this:
libreoffice -display localhost:0.0

2025-05-22 11:52:01 UTC

- reply

Dumb question but what’s the output of echo $DISPLAY ?

2025-05-12 10:59:49 UTC

Let's try something. I'm an English technology lawyer in private practice. I can help with tech contracts, software licensing (including FOSS), SaaS and the like, and data protection.
Unlike most lawyers I'm actually technically literate, in that I spent a number of years as a sysadmin before becoming a lawyer, and I've kept up my knowledge since.
I'm practical, quick, and my rates are reasonable. Maybe I could be useful to your business?
Boosts appreciated!
#GetFediHired

2025-05-09 18:02:55 UTC

- reply

Pretty much. But with a few more sulks and a few more towels on the floor.

2025-05-09 16:53:55 UTC

- reply

You don't, basically. You just have to let it happen. All the tears, all the heartache, the whole shebang. And you guide and protect them as best you can, and try to make them feel loved and heard, and hope like hell you're not fucking them up too badly.

2024-12-29 14:17:52 UTC

- reply

A perfect illustration!
(I always thought I’d love to do a proper American road trip. Then I had to drive from Newark NJ to Hanover NH right off a transatlantic flight and by the end I wanted to die. I think that cured me!)

2024-12-27 19:52:39 UTC

- reply

They do say that if you want to know why Brits and Americans don't really understand each other, you have to remember that Americans think 200 years is a long time, and Brits think 200 miles is a long way.

2024-12-24 15:08:41 UTC

- reply

this is the universe’s way of telling you that you need to start that band.

2024-12-19 19:46:34 UTC

- reply

Completely different, but have you seen The Thick Of It? It's a fly-on-the-wall mockumentary about British politics and spin doctors. It's very fast, VERY foul-mouthed (seriously - they had a special consultant whose job it was to make the language as vulgar and offensive as possible) and one of the funniest things that British TV has ever produced.

2024-12-10 15:57:59 UTC

- reply

There’s something in that. I suspect that if we paid MPs shedloads - like, 500k a year or more - and gave them gold-plated pensions for life after they leave Parliament, but then absolutely banned any and all outside commercial interests, and limited the work they can do afterwards to academia, charities and writing books (so no lobbying, no NED-ships, no “consulting” etc), we would see corruption vanish and standards in public life rise enormously.

2024-12-07 17:33:39 UTC

- reply

that's a marvellous photo.

2024-10-26 11:40:06 UTC

- reply

Suede, Manics and Depeche. My goodness, not easy.

2024-10-13 04:58:20 UTC

- reply

Warm is normal, but too hot to touch definitely isn't! Can you return them as defective?

2024-10-06 15:32:23 UTC

- reply

Well, the late great Geordie Walker of Killing Joke has to be up there, as does James Hetfield. I'd also put in a small shout for Emppu Vuorinen of Nightwish; yes he plays leads as well, but he is a *very* good rhythm player.

2024-09-29 04:42:11 UTC

- reply

When Hank dies, I hope he leaves his collection to a museum or something, because he has some utterly incredible stuff.

2024-09-21 19:12:35 UTC

- reply

Annabel, by Goldfrapp
Eva, by Nightwish
Tracy Jacks, by Blur
Andrew Ridgley, by Black Box Recorder
Jolene, by Dolly Parton

2024-09-08 13:43:51 UTC

- reply

Well, quite. If they can still make records like Invincible Shield after 50 years, then they still have what it takes, so why not go on?

2024-09-01 09:29:24 UTC

- reply

Our Prayer by The Beach Boys.

2024-08-31 14:52:01 UTC

- reply

Oh! Oh! Actually, I’ve got it. Realms of the Haunting, a 1996 PC first person fantasy horror adventure by Gremlin Graphics. Utterly bombed on release because it looked like Duke Nukem in a world where Quake existed and because it controlled with a bizarre mix of Doom keys and point-n-click, but is one of my absolute favourite games of all time.

2024-08-31 14:44:28 UTC

- reply

brilliant idea for a video series and a great question that’s had me racking my bleary post-nap brains. I did wonder about all those Magnetic Scrolls text adventures? Often brilliant writing and some very clever puzzles, hidden behind a wall of green text and a finicky command parser that responds to most things with “I can’t do that”.
Or, another one might be Captain Blood, an ST point-and-click where you have to learn a symbol-based alien language to play it.

2024-08-25 14:11:29 UTC

- reply

No band from my town itself, although Neil Gaiman grew up here. Closest is The Cure, who came from the next town over.

2024-08-20 05:35:15 UTC

- reply

Amen. My teenage daughter and I watch Bluey religiously. It's humane, warm, insightful and incredibly relatable.

2024-08-18 19:11:46 UTC

- reply

Fun fact. In the 1980s, my Dad was the press officer at the British Embassy in South Africa. He used to curry favour with the editors of the SA newspapers by inviting them to illicit screenings of Python movies at our house (which were banned in SA, but our house was technically British soil). Suffice it to say, the editors tended to look more favourably on the British line as a result. One could say, in a roundabout way, that The Life of Brian helped to end Apartheid.

2024-08-17 19:20:27 UTC

- reply

There have been many great bass players. But there has only ever been one Jaco Pastorius.
https://media.mas.to/media_attachments/files/112/978/979/966/271/504/original/23b6cdae20992bda.jpeg

2024-08-12 20:36:05 UTC

- reply

Soul Star! That's the one I was trying to remember! Thank you.

2024-08-12 18:07:53 UTC

- reply

I wonder if it had more to do with the fact that Sega was quite focused on FMV games for much of the Mega CD’s life? There were other games that used the sprite scaling tech - Batman and Thunderhawk were especially impressive - but maybe it just wasn’t where Sega’s focus was?

2024-08-09 07:50:49 UTC

- reply

Perhaps optimistically, I am still kind of thinking that the OSA is doomed to collapse under its own weight. Politically it can’t be repealed, of course, because (clutches pearls) THINK OF THE CHILDREN, but I suspect it will become one of those things that hangs around on the statute book looking vaguely embarrassed, rather than being meaningfully implemented.

2024-07-09 14:36:06 UTC

- reply

Lord yes. Every bass player knows Jaco. Hell, every bass player worships Jaco. If you could put Cliff Burton, James Jameson, John Entwistle and Flea in a room together, they’d talk about Jaco.