Dan Hedley

IT/tech/media lawyer by trade but mostly tooting about other things. Rarely entirely serious. Fond of otters and dogs, scarily obsessive about music and old videogames. Boosts absolutely are endorsements; it's why I boosted them. He/him.

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hedders_at_mas.to@mostr.pub

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Last Notes

2024-08-30 19:53:13

Note to self. Workdays starting at 5am and ending at 8pm are not really sustainable at my age.

2024-08-25 14:11:29

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@npub1mqx…xqll No band from my town itself, although Neil Gaiman grew up here. Closest is The Cure, who came from the next town over.

2024-08-17 19:20:27

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@npub1mqx…xqll 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

2024-08-17 09:00:34

“The court heard Mr O'Rourke had allegedly expressed support for the recent riots and offered advice on how to remain anonymous to his 90,000 followers.”
Clearly, very good at remaining anonymous then.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy9elrjpry0o

2024-08-16 18:26:41

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@npub198t…hasj Blimey. What printer do you have, if you don't mind my asking?

2024-08-16 18:24:26

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@npub198t…hasj They're printed? Wowser.

2024-08-14 07:54:18

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@npub1dvd…h0ph Isn’t it part and parcel of that “great replacement theory” nonsense that the far right spouts? “White women need to have loads of babies or we’ll be overrun by brown people” or some such drivel?

2024-08-06 17:09:36

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@npub198t…hasj Thank you. I'm OK really. Just having a moan.

2024-08-06 14:43:27

It’s not even 4pm and I’m utterly fried. Been basically multi-tasking non-stop since 06:30. I am getting too old for this …

2024-08-01 11:43:00

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@npub198t…hasj Is that to get around outbound connection restrictions on some public wifi networks etc? Smart.

2024-07-27 13:43:16

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@npub198t…hasj Standard London innit. Was supposed to be a cheeky brunch at Borough Market with Firstborn. Won’t be home until teatime at this rate ….

2024-07-27 13:35:27

We have now entered the third hour of trying to escape from London. We do, at last, have a train. But it has no driver.

2024-07-19 16:28:41

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@npub198t…hasj Fair enough. Either way, a lot of people are having a rotten time, and I wish them good luck in their recovery efforts!

2024-07-19 16:10:33

I know Masto tends not to have much love for the conventionally-licensed software world, but nonetheless: there are a LOT of people having a really, really bad day today thanks to this Crowdstrike balls up. Spare a thought for them.

2024-07-17 20:16:25

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@npub1m9p…4fja I stuck 24.04 on my Surface Go 3 recently after it became completely unusable on Windows 11. It's like a whole new computer. Terrific.

2024-07-16 20:03:41

Why? ORG are not stupid. They know full well that the ICO has neither the capacity nor the stomach for a major tussle with a rich and powerful tech company. The chances of them actually taking on Meta in response to this complaint are about the same as the chances of me being made Lord Chancellor. What are they hoping to achieve?
https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/16/campaign_group_complains_to_uk/

2024-07-15 20:06:31

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@npub1mqx…xqll Someone needs to do the peerless rear view from the back of the sleeve. *Shudder* What was Bill Ward *thinking*?

2024-07-11 21:04:12

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@npub182s…q6t5 There are always cuddles for my daughters ... even when they think I'm embarrassing!

2024-07-11 20:51:25

Firstborn's self portrait done in her GCSE art mock exam. Not sure whether to be impressed or just to cuddle her forever and tell her it's going to be OK.
https://media.mas.to/media_attachments/files/112/769/824/706/948/789/original/064c1e487c59dbcc.jpeg

2024-07-11 20:48:00

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@npub1cmg…rzd2 She's SO good!

2024-07-10 11:51:37

Is the Wayback Machine having a little lie-down, or is it just me?

2024-06-29 09:10:42

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@npub1mqx…xqll OK, here goes …
Love Like Blood, by Killing Joke
Bizarre Love Triangle, by New Order
Higher Love, by Depeche Mode
Ghost Love Score, by Nightwish
Temple of Love, by Sisters of Mercy

2024-06-19 17:27:19

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@npub198t…hasj that 34k seems ambitious for a sole practitioner! Ours was 41 and there are 5 of us!

2024-06-15 17:48:03

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@npub1mqx…xqll The Who. 1970.

2024-06-12 19:44:36

Have to take Dogbert to the vet tomorrow for a scan. He will hate it. I will hate it too, because it's going to cost me about £700.

2024-06-11 17:24:40

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@npub1mqx…xqll “Closer” by Nine Inch Nails.

2024-06-10 14:17:15

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@npub198t…hasj I hope you find your way out of it soon!

2024-06-10 13:33:07

For some reason I just cannot get my brain in gear today. The day just feels like a write off, productivity-wise.

2024-05-31 11:47:33

Any #RetroGaming people with knowledge of #MiSTer know why an N64 SNAC adapter wouldn’t work with a RetroBit 3P N64 controller? Using on a MiSTer Multisystem, if relevant.

2024-05-31 05:05:29

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@npub1ykd…6j2y Huh. And there was me hoping there would be some outtake somewhere of the cast giving Weapon Of Choice a bash!

2024-05-30 17:35:38

Denis Villeneuve really missed a trick with Dune Part Two. Imagine having Christopher Walken in Dune and not having him say “If you walk without rhythm, you won’t attract the worm”.

2024-05-30 12:20:28

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@npub198t…hasj “exciting speaking opportunity” always means “pay to speak”

2024-05-24 18:38:39

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@npub1vu7…nmuv Tenner on Rees-Mogg?

2024-05-24 18:35:51

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@npub1vu7…nmuv There goes my money in the office sweepstake on who will be this election's "Portillo Moment" ...

2024-05-24 18:25:34

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@npub198t…hasj Fair. For an individual home user, my own tentative first steps into the modern Linux desktop suggest they'd be best off with something like Linux Mint.

2024-05-24 18:19:58

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@npub198t…hasj For a business, I'd say it's the same reason you'd use RHEL or Oracle Linux rather than Fedora or whatever: there's paid support if you want it. That's not nothing.

2024-05-23 15:43:49

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@npub198t…hasj thanks! *Makes mental note to learn the Firefox keyboard shortcuts*

2024-05-23 15:36:20

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@npub198t…hasj how does that work for web browsing?

2024-05-22 17:37:10

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@npub1mqx…xqll
1. Rush (I know, I KNOW)
2. Oasis
3. Morrissey
4. Anything with autotuned vocals
5. Anything with that horrible nasal singing style that you hear so often these days.

2024-05-19 15:10:49

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@npub1kva…mjqx Yuck. That sounds awkward.

2024-05-19 13:04:06

My goodness, the author of this piece needs to get over themselves. Some people are neurodivergent. Some people are introverts. Some people are anxious. Some people just don’t like chatting. None of those things makes them rude. Writing stupid columns in The Observer denigrating those people sure is, though.
“Demanding a haircut without talking is just rude – how important do you think you are?” | Barbara Ellen | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/19/haircut-without-talking-salon-session-stylist

2024-05-19 05:22:00

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@npub198t…hasj oh dear, not trying to buy an Amiga are you?

2024-05-15 20:25:16

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@npub198t…hasj Wait, you mean the emotion extractor didn't work on you? Someone should tell CoL.

2024-05-12 20:35:19

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@npub198t…hasj You'll be battling with hard disk drivers for the Atari ST in no time ...

2024-05-12 20:33:35

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@npub198t…hasj Welcome to the simple joy of futzing about with old and obsolete computers!

2024-05-11 16:42:19

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@npub198t…hasj Indeed. I'm taking a run-up to the big project, which is my main desktop and gaming machine.

2024-05-11 16:04:18

I have now put Linux Mint onto my positively Jurassic Thinkpad T510i. And it's totally useable. It even runs YouTube.
I'm starting to see what all the fuss is about with this whole Linux-on-the-desktop thing.

2024-05-10 17:06:48

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@npub198t…hasj well, I started out aiming for figurative defenestration by removing Windows. Right now we’re heading for literal defenestration.

2024-05-10 16:47:39

Tonight’s project is to Linux up my Surface Go 3. First obstacle: Bitlocker. And it won’t let me just nuke the drive, because of course not. Back to Windows to decrypt …

2024-05-08 20:27:00

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@npub198t…hasj Not an issue for me. My SG3 is basically a video player and occasional bits of light browsing. As long as Debian runs better than Windows on it, no camera will be just fine!

2024-05-08 20:16:06

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@npub198t…hasj oh crikey! Well that sounds stupid easy. I'd asssumed it would be a total PITA.

2024-05-08 20:12:30

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@npub198t…hasj I keep meaning to figure out how to get Linux onto it. It's just that there's always something more important/urgent to do.

2024-05-08 20:07:12

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@npub198t…hasj Mine is horrendously slow under Windows 11. Haven't found a good way get a penguin into it as of yet.

2024-05-08 20:05:43

My goodness the Surface Go 3 is an absolute potato, isn't it? Just fecking unusable.

2024-05-08 14:14:49

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@npub1nk4…us2w I immediately love him unconditionally.

2024-05-05 09:34:54

Oh dear. I have just discovered that Home Assistant is a thing. This is going to be one colossal rabbit hole.

2024-05-04 21:07:06

Blimey, Andy Street's gone. Possibly the last popular Conservative (I don't think he ever liked the label "Tory").
Surely now, even the headbangerest of headbangers have to acknowledge that the game is up, and call the damned general election.

2024-05-03 15:42:00

Well, at least I now know which deal I’m going to be working on flat out over the bank holiday weekend.

2024-04-30 18:09:00

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@npub1vu7…nmuv glad you sorted it!

2024-04-30 17:42:13

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@npub1vu7…nmuv the machine doesn’t have a management/iLO board?

2024-04-30 17:29:10

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@npub1mqx…xqll oh so many!
Dog Man Star by Suede
Imaginaerum by Nightwish
Any of the White Stripes albums
Ten by Pearl Jam
Alice by Tom Waits
Scarlet’s Walk by Tori Amos
I could go on all day …

2024-04-30 17:27:05

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@npub1vu7…nmuv tell me about it. Years ago I used to look after some Apple XServes. They were headless (at least, if you wanted a RAID card, which you did) and the management software was just absolute clownshoes.

2024-04-25 18:35:08

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@npub198t…hasj A strong whiff of "I became a homeowner at 30 with this one simple trick of being given an enormous sum of money by my parents"

2024-04-25 11:14:59

This is important. Musicians are on the bones of their collective arses, and the creation of new music is rapidly becoming the preserve of a few mega-artists and those with other incomes who can afford to do it as a hobby.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/apr/25/shocking-truth-money-bands-make-on-tour-taylor-swift

2024-04-22 10:53:00

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Hilariously, a few clauses later I come across a clause that they have clearly nicked from a contract I drafted about 5 years ago.
(This sort of thing, where you see your work cropping up in other contexts, happens all the time to commercial lawyers. It's a weird mix of annoying and flattering.)

2024-04-22 10:43:08

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@npub198t…hasj One of these days I might offer a talk on it to the SCL...
"50 ways to put your customer's back up before you've even started negotiations" or some such.

2024-04-22 10:40:13

Today's obnoxious vendor MSA requires the customer to indemnify the vendor against against any and all third party claims arising from content made available to the customer by the vendor.
(I think this may be incompetence rather than intent, judging by the overall quality of the MSA, but nonetheless that's what the words on the page say)

2024-04-21 18:38:33

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@npub1mqx…xqll Crowded House - Weather With You
The Doors - Riders on the Storm
Guns ‘n Roses - November Rain
The Cult - Rain
The Levellers - Four Winds

2024-04-21 08:36:13

Idea for a TV show: “Is it gak?” in which minor celebrities snort a variety of white powders, and try to determine which one is the Bolivian marching dust.

2024-04-20 16:39:34

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@npub1mqx…xqll Fifteen Years by The Levellers.

2024-04-18 11:58:05

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@npub198t…hasj Seems like. Unfortunately I can't get to their service status page either!

2024-04-18 11:40:11

Zen Internet seems to have chosen today (of all days) for its network to have a little lie down? Any other #ZenInternet users out there having issues?

2024-04-17 12:40:22

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@npub1sh4…32nx thank you! I’d assumed it would be complicated. Perhaps not …

2024-04-17 12:31:41

Advice needed from PC gamers who run Linux, please!
I’m thinking seriously about ditching Windows on my main PC. The only reason I haven’t done so years ago is gaming. I have a _massive_ library on Steam and I really don’t want to kiss that goodbye.
I understand Linux gaming has got wildly better in recent years. Can anyone point me in the direction of a good primer on the subject? Debian or Debian-like focused preferably, as that’s what I’m most comfortable with.

2024-04-10 14:10:14

Given the antics of the likes of that Wragg twit, I wonder if we might be better served by banning the sale of smartphones to Tory MPs.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/apr/10/uk-ministers-considering-banning-sale-of-smartphones-to-under-16s

2024-04-08 20:51:54

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@npub198t…hasj Nah she’s just got a twisted sense of humour driven by leftfield cultural reference points and enjoys being a brat to wind people up.
Oh. Yes. Yes, I see. Er, that apple didn’t fall so far from the tree, huh.

2024-04-08 20:41:40

I think Firstborn just rickrolled me with a damned recorder.

2024-04-03 13:20:11

Today’s obnoxious vendor MSA includes this absolute banger:
“[Vendor] may use Customer’s Confidential Information for its own business purposes, including disclosing it …”

2024-03-31 20:55:12

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@npub198t…hasj don’t someone hack a BlackBerry keyboard onto an Android phone?

2024-03-31 20:49:44

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@npub198t…hasj I now have a mental image of a sort of Road Warrior lawyer, driving the wastes in a battered Range Rover Discovery, armed only with a dog-eared copy of Chitty and a jerry-rigged Blackberry.

2024-03-31 20:44:29

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@npub198t…hasj Nice! I have a similar setup, although since my Brother scanner has the ability to scan to a network share I have it send direct to the paperless-ngx consume folder.

2024-03-22 18:36:55

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@npub198t…hasj This has reminded me how utterly disgraceful my keyboard is. I think there's something living in it.

2024-03-20 19:06:13

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@npub10zv…nz7m He does basically communicate by booping. Wants attention? Boop. Wants a pee? Boop. REALLY wants a pee? Boop boop BOOP. Little Timmy fallen down the well? Boop. The universe is a hologram, reality is an illusion, buy gold? Boop.

2024-03-20 14:59:47

Here’s Bobdog, aka Dogbert. He’s a former Hungarian street dog. He’s a bit smelly, tends to bark at things like empty plastic bags or trees where he once saw a squirrel two years ago, and every so often he vanishes into the next county in pursuit of deer, but he’s very fluffy and soft, incredibly friendly and affectionate, can detect cheese at 500 paces, and will do anything for pizza. #PetIntelligence #DogsOfMastodon
https://media.mas.to/media_attachments/files/112/128/608/406/922/425/original/e7aa84e0d9ed01ba.jpeg

2024-03-05 21:07:40

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@npub16ju…y8u7 My former firm, Irwin Mitchell, can probably do this. They do most of the big clinical stuff, and have a load of people who know all about probate and suchlike.

2024-03-04 19:25:54

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@npub198t…hasj I got an Echo Dot in my swag bag once. A Raspberry Pi Zero W another time. And I've had a few decent water bottles.

2024-02-24 12:52:52

I have spent this morning painstakingly disabling and then re-enabling 2FA on all my online accounts to migrate away from bloody Authy, because they won't provide a pigging export function. Lesson learned. Don't use products that don't let you get your data out.

2024-02-22 18:58:28

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@npub1r47…wytr Huh. Thank you! My use case would mostly be as a digital notepad.

2024-02-22 18:34:15

I was at a client meeting the other day and their GC had one of these. I had immediate gadget envy. Anyone got one? it any good?
https://remarkable.com/

2024-02-17 14:50:08

My Mrs had a hip replacement yesterday. Her entire hip, taken out and replaced with a new one. Today she’s sitting up in a chair, standing, even walking a bit with crutches.
Her. Entire. Hip.
Sometimes, I’m flabbergasted by what humankind can do.

2024-02-14 09:29:46

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@npub198t…hasj not sure if it’s “AI” per se, but a system for identifying and flagging content which is likely AI-generated would I think be a very useful tool in guarding against misinformation. I have no idea whether that’s what Moz is talking about, of course.

2024-02-09 20:50:36

I wonder what percentage of people who own a Roomba have stuck googlie eyes on it?

2024-02-06 15:43:00

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@npub1yyx…qa5g I did enjoy the bit about Rees-Mogg railing against the Nanny State while having a literal Nanny.

2024-02-03 17:34:38

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@npub1nn8…8sed you’re welcome. Always enjoy your posts.

2024-02-03 17:30:44

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@npub1nn8…8sed Did you try from:me (I.e. with “me” rather than your username)?

2024-02-03 17:26:38

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@npub1nn8…8sed I think if you include from:me in your search terms it will do what you want.

2024-02-01 19:14:11

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@npub198t…hasj The best explanation of a lawyer's job I ever heard was: "We read things so other people don't have to".

2024-01-27 16:51:14

Behold the 40 CLOVE MEGA GARLIC BREAD. Large boi, “Oh Lord he comin’”, absolute unit etc.
https://media.mas.to/masto-public/media_attachments/files/111/828/944/239/392/730/original/6b9da40d8d7372b6.jpeg

2024-01-25 20:11:14

A few things commercial lawyers say, and what they meant by them:
"We seem to have one or two unmarked edits in this clause" --> "You're a crook."
"I don't think we're very far apart on this, but I'm not sure what's on the page at the moment entirely reflects what we're aiming for" --> "You can't draft."
"I wonder if we're over-complicating this?" --> "I'm on a fixed fee."

2023-12-24 18:14:56

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@npub198t…hasj oh crikey. I wish you peace and quiet.