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. 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: first tentative steps into Frank Zappa
Currently playing: Control Resonant
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

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Last Notes

2026-10-23 19:56:36 UTC

How it started. How it's going. #DogsOfMastodon
https://media.mas.to/media_attachments/files/117/491/976/198/812/053/original/5f1308fea66e49fd.jpg
https://media.mas.to/media_attachments/files/117/491/976/855/837/269/original/dcb2ff3fea25c227.jpg

2026-10-10 11:22:23 UTC

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About £360. I’m furious with them.

2026-10-10 07:11:02 UTC

OVO Energy’s response to the VAT cut on leccy is to jack up my monthly direct debit to £615.
Time to switch providers.

2026-10-01 10:45:54 UTC

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Bob Dylan. End of. The OG obnoxious-fuckboy-with-acoustic-guitar, a spectacularly shit singer, and not nearly as good a songwriter as he’s held out as being.

2026-09-30 20:15:40 UTC

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Yeah, it's not a spectator sport really, is it?

2026-09-26 12:48:09 UTC

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Based on the student nurses I met at KCL back in the day, I'd say that's a racing certainty.

2026-09-26 12:47:11 UTC

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Nah, it's the tie knot of the Leslie Phillips-type character who gets the chambermaid pregnant and then steals Lady Asquith's diamond necklace before absconding to France. Like wearing a sports coat, or driving a Jaguar, or having a personalised number plate.
A gentleman ties his tie with a four-in-hand, or a half-Windsor at a push.

2026-09-26 11:34:21 UTC

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the tie knot of a cad and a bounder! 😋

2026-09-03 12:11:22 UTC

Heh heh heh. Call me childish, but I bloody love Viz.
https://media.mas.to/media_attachments/files/117/207/038/605/392/598/original/61dfc81ee1754339.jpeg

2026-08-05 09:26:58 UTC

Has anyone else found they're getting more and more left wing as they get older?
Like, in my 20s I was a fairly mainstream sort of centrist Blair-ish type, voted Labour in '97, '01 etc, thought we ought to have proper public services but had no problem with some people being rich as long as that didn't have to mean that other people had to be dirt poor.
Now, in my late 40s, I'm hovering somewhere around Clement Attlee and Nye Bevan. No doubt by the time I'm 60 I'll be a full-blown communist.

2026-07-02 07:23:26 UTC

I mean, really. #DogsOfMastodon
https://media.mas.to/media_attachments/files/116/849/180/863/427/509/original/a810969ad17381f5.jpeg

2026-06-25 10:47:14 UTC

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It was the PS2. Piracy was a thing on all platforms, the DC actually had some great RPGs (Shenmue, Grandia 2, Phantasy Star Online), and the Saturn was only a commercial failure in the West.
But, the hype around PS2 plus the fact that it could play DVDs was just too much for Sega. They couldn’t out-spend Sony on marketing, the PS2 was (somewhat, in some ways) the superior machine, and Sega didn’t have a DVD player.

2026-06-22 11:17:59 UTC

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Specifically, since David Cameron resigned in the wake of the Brexit referendum, we have had:
- Theresa May, who called a general election and lost her majority, forcing her to do a deal with the DUP to retain power.
- Boris Johnson, who prorogued Parliament illegally, then somehow went on to call a general election at which he won a thumping majority, then botched Covid and finally was assassinated by his own cabinet.
- Liz Truss, a woman whose only claim to fame is being the reason Boris Johnson doesn't go down in history as the UK's worst ever prime minister.
- Rishi Sunak, a homunculus.
- Keir Starmer, who won a landslide at a general election (one of only three Labour leaders ever to do so) and then somehow managed to piss nearly everyone off so much that his own party forces him to resign two years after taking office.
What a country.

2026-06-22 08:44:41 UTC

That's .... what, 7 prime ministers in 10 years?
What a mess.

2026-05-30 17:07:55 UTC

Can I ask the Fedi hive mind for some advice on a slightly weird topic please? Firstborn (17 going on 18, very autistic, quite introverted) likes to hide in their room a lot, which is at the other end of the house from the living room, kitchen etc. They also wear noise-cancelling headphones a lot. Calling them for dinner currently involves a lot of yelling and knocking hard on doors. Over lunch today, they floated the idea of a light or sign in their room we could turn on to summon them. "Like the Batsign," to quote. I guess I could do it with a simple light-up message board and a smart plug, but any more creative suggestions would be most welcome!

2026-05-10 19:04:17 UTC

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I don't interact much, but I always enjoy your posts and your lovely dog.

2026-05-03 16:54:35 UTC

Little twat.
https://media.mas.to/media_attachments/files/116/511/688/087/444/889/original/180e9cf1f6e0f82a.jpeg

2026-04-06 16:34:17 UTC

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Do they have video? If so: moustaches.

2026-02-23 16:40:20 UTC

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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

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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

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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

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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

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

2025-12-14 10:36:13 UTC

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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

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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

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

2025-09-20 05:23:26 UTC

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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

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Magnificent!

2025-08-31 12:49:38 UTC

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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

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Is it confined to the old southern Confederacy states?

2025-08-28 14:17:43 UTC

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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

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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

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no worries, hope you get it sorted!

2025-07-21 16:44:13 UTC

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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

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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

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A valuable tool to evaluate stools?

2025-05-22 12:06:54 UTC

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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

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

2025-05-22 11:58:18 UTC

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Hmmm.
Try this:
libreoffice -display localhost:0.0

2025-05-22 11:52:01 UTC

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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

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

2025-05-09 16:53:55 UTC

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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

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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

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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

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

2024-12-19 19:46:34 UTC

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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

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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

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that's a marvellous photo.

2024-10-26 11:40:06 UTC

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

2024-10-13 04:58:20 UTC

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

2024-10-06 15:32:23 UTC

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Our Prayer by The Beach Boys.

2024-08-31 14:52:01 UTC

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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

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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

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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

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

2024-08-18 19:11:46 UTC

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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

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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

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

2024-08-12 18:07:53 UTC

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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

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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.