It's voting time in the lunacy that is the Eurovision Song Contest. Here is a summary, including some strange bits of Euronglish:

1. Bosnia+Herzegovina - nice but no chance;
2. Spain - 4 guys in tight white and pink lights - creepy;
3. Belarus - Medallion man with a rock ballad to bukkake - "when you cast your loving potion over me";
4. Ireland - Folksie, charming, dark yet jolly;
5. Finland - more noisy dark rock with drums;
6. Republic of Macedonia - up/down ballad with drums;
7. Slovenia - Opera in black with drums;
8. Hungary - Bluesy rock angst. No drums. Phew;
9. Lithuania - Guitarry song with "lonely shades walking";
10. Greece - an odd disco/dance at the "heart of attention";
11. Georgia - a nice slice of trance;
12. Sweden - revenge of 70s glam! Maybe "with my head in the can" was deliberate;
13. France - Franglais pop. How did monoglots follow this?
14. Latvia - a singalong. In Italian. But it looks like Italy aren't here this year. So how's that help?;
15. Russia - another fun girl band, singing different (ruder) lyrics to the official song sheet;
16. Germany - sexism swings;
17. Serbia - a red up/down song;
18. Ukraine - dance nonsense - the first song I walked out on this year;
19. UK - an example of Britishness and why I call myself English, not British;
20. Romania - a fun little polyglot guitar song;
21. Bulgaria - drums, dance, squeaking;
22. Turkey - "How much I crave for you" - a dancey whirly song;
23. Armenia - the tearful stalker's song;
24. Moldova - gothest song of the night - "each people will gnaw our wishes no more"???

I can't pick a winner from that. I only voted to try to stop Ukraine.

When I have a longer comment on someone else's blog post, I usually write it up on my own site and then send a pingback or trackback. I've written my own really basic pingback and trackback clients and servers, which seem to work. I'll package them up Real Soon Now. Sooner if anyone asks for them. I don't have much sympathy with people who complain about losing comments because their Javascript or Cookies died when their own blog post has a stupid eyetest on it and its trackback settings are a bit screwed-up. Update: Cord Beermann commented:

"If you have a problem with the trackback function of my blog, then please be more specific what is wrong with the trackback function, because the software may be part of Debian soon."

Your page includes trackback:ping="" which seems obviously wrong.

"The 'stupid eyetest' however is a personal decision for my blog."

So what if it's a personal decision? It's stupid and I'm going to say that it's stupid. Are you the sort of guy who takes a personal decision to kick guys in wheelchairs, but then protests if they run over your foot in return? I'm disappointed if more stupid software is going to be in debian. Update 2: the image test seems to have been replaced by some numbers now. Thank you for removing the eyetest, but it still won't save a comment for some reason.

"However: both isn't related to the initial problem."

I think the broken trackback/pingback support is related to your initial problem. If your trackback/pingback support worked, you could use a real editor on your own site instead of a web browser on someone else's. In other news, here's Alexandre Vassalotti's review of Emacs weblogger-mode.

Did you know that it's the last day of Compost Awareness Week today (Saturday 12 May)? No, nor did I. I was pretty aware of the compost bin when it flew across the lawn before I bricked it down. Maybe that's not what they meant. Getting a compost bin has reduced our rubbish to less than a bag a week, but we've yet to get any compost yet, after six months of winter. So last week, I tried a coco peat brick that you reconstitute in water. Easy to transport, but it seems to need mixing with regular compost to give a decent growing soil. Are you aware of your compost? Go on, give it a hug. Update: Alex Hudson wrote:

"Actually, I was aware of compost awareness week! We have a nice local website which many local groups use, including EcoLocal - they were doing build-your-own compost bin today, and handing out soil conditioner. I actually built our composter out of fence panels which blew down in winds a while ago, and I like the idea of using wooden/constructed bins than plastic (though I suspect plastic is much more efficient)."

I moved recently. I seem to have some random tiles and bricks, but I left all the wood behind in King's Lynn. The fence panel that was lying around when we saw the house was cleared away before we moved in. I'm not sure that I'm good enough at woodwork to build-my-own anyway. I don't know if plastic is better - I guess it insulates better, but they still tell you to wrap it up in winter, which is nuts: any wrapping would blow away in a storm.

I mentioned above that I didn't know much about the Woodcraft Folk. Ben Hutchings commented:

"I was in the Woodcraft Folk for a while. They're like Scouts/Guides but more liberal and PC. I think I fit in quite well there..."

Sam commented:

"Quality motion. This is exactly the point that I raise at just about every committee meeting I attend, but to have it formally supported by the wider membership is a good step. If things don't improve soon, we should try that line of attack in the Central and Eastern region."

One suggestion in the debate was to have a co-operatives fortnight, similar to the fairtrade fortnight, to promote the Co-operative Group (tCG) membership, other tCG businesses and other local cooperatives. Let's see whether SW can lead the way again! ;-) The question-and-answer session was pretty interesting. All of the questions were submitted in writing. Some of them were submitted in advance and others during the lunch break. No spoken questions were taken and most Insurance (CIS) and Bank questions were held back because no-one from financial services was there. The answers were grouped under a few headings.

Ethics, answersed by Catherine Staveley

1. CIS's voting record is public, but some details are buried under sustainabiliy on the group's corporate web site.
2. The panel were asked to define a few terms. By ethical, tCG means generally being "a good neighbour". Materiality is how much a business relates to tCG's aims and they think shelf penetration is how much space and promotion a product gets in the stores. The financial services profits aim to be all-ethical.
3. Members were asked to please take part in the consultations about the new food retail ethical policy.
4. tCG has a "triple bottom line" - in addition to looking at profits, we also consider our effects on our communities and sustainability.
5. tCG is leading the way on packaging minimisation: onion nets are already biodegradable, work continues on developing biodegradable fruit nets and a new light-weight (but still strong) whiskey bottle has just been launched. We'll see whether it's possible to give more dividend points for buying less packaged goods.

Food retail, answered by David Parker (regional food), Gary Metcalfe (operations), Clive Netherway (top 100 stores) and Nick Lowe (sales and support)

1. Local stores: Minehead Post Office contracts have been exchanged and planning permission granted in Budleigh Salterton - both sites should be ready in a couple of months.
2. There are new small stores at Amesbury, Ilfracombe, Perranport and Lyneham (where it's hurting Tesco Express more than anyone). tCG have also acquired 7 stores from Higgins, one from Savages and a petrol station with minimarket in Bath. Dawlish has just opened, giving a total of 14 new stores. In addition, 50 stores are being refitted in the south-west region.
3. The Falmouth store is a bit of a puzzle: whether to split the existing store or develop a nearby site.
4. tCG stores have outperformed the The Institute of Grocery Distribution index for 15 months in a row and is now seeing growth-on-growth.
5. Problems with product stocking should be taken up with store managers first.
6. Home delivery has been trialled and failed several times, but is being trialled again in the new OCO stores. (What does OCO mean? There's one at Portishead.)
7. Supply problems with RSPCA Freedom Foods meats will be investigated.
8. The Westbury-on-Trim Stoke Lane store will only be expanded if its turnover increases.
9. Suppliers are still letting some stores down on delivery times. This will be re-checked.
10. The best response to the crocodile community projects of other companies is to strengthen tCG's community project funding in areas before other supermarkets open new stores.
11. Local produce is rarely stocked because of problems with availability and meeting tCG technical standards (I could almost hear the hackles raise at this answer!). Organic is only usually stocked in areas where surveys suggest the target audience lives (which I guess is why my tatty 60s store has more sweets and sugar drinks than fresh food). Similar biases exist for other ranges.
12. Missing product complaints will get written answers: Clipper tea and sugar-free Mintoes.
13. There was a complaint about the lack of notices about the unique status of co-op milk. (In short, we own our farms so our milk had better not be getting abused.)

Corporate questions, answered by Frank Jones

1. Compensations of the merged tCG/United Co-op societies are shown on page 12 of Stronger Together.
2. There was a question about a 10% profit target which I didn't understand. The answer was on page 13 of the annual report.
3. Party politicians were in the hall.
4. The results of the merger meetings were unknown at the time.
5. The Co-operative Funerals are derecognising the GMB union, which has worried many members. The comment from the floor was "there's usually one motive for derecognising a union"!
6. There's a 16% pay increase for executives who don't join tCG's pension fund, which is what would have been paid into the fund for them. Whether it applies to all employees will be checked and a written reply given.

Strategic questions, answered by David Doyle

1. Travel offers will be promoted in the food stores. tCG wants to avoid "silo" businesses which don't cross-promote with other businesses where appropriate.
2. Leaflets of other tCG and other co-ops should be stocked, particularly at festive times.
3. Offsetting CO2 is not a complete answer to climate change, but it was the only one of five suggested actions which was approved. Is the Co-operative Travel chain underperforming because it doesn't offer enough ethical choices? Some shouting from the floor about them still not offering European rail tickets.
4. The regional view of the United merger... This was nicely controversial, as it bloody well ought to be... There's no requirement for a tCG membership vote, so there will be no tCG membership vote. There was a hierarchical vote: very few of the Cornwall area turned up at the regional meeting in Bristol, but Devon and Somerset turned out in numbers and the south-west's delegates to the national meeting voted against 5 of the 6 merger resolutions, which were passed anyway. The chair stepped in and cut short the debate, stating that everyone knows the south-west is unhappy about certain aspects, like not having a choice on the first merged chief executive, but what's done is done.

Finally, a list of questions being sent for written answers were given by Andrew North and the chair (was it Colin House? It's annoying to find one name and lose another).

I went to the Co-operative Group's South-west region Annual General Meeting in Taunton last Saturday (5 May) and I'll be writing this up over the next few days. It's taken me that long to find time to reread my notes. I'll try to blog the two bits that I think are interesting to other regions today, because more AGMs are happening tomorrow.

"The AGM is one of only two [formal decision-making] meetings open to members each year, when they can recieve information on the performance of their Society, and hold their elected representatives to account. Afternoon sessions will again be less formal, and include topics such as food retail, ethics, our banking and insurance businesses, and healthy eating."

(from A Cambridge Co-operator). There are other meetings for members during the year, of course, but they tend to be consultations and workshops and so on. The meeting was opened by the Woodcraft Folk, who I didn't know much about, but they seem to be like an outdoorsy co-operative youth club. Then there were introductions by the chair, a presentation by Catherine Staveley from group head office about ethics, environment and community, the annual reports and then a motion:

"This meeting is disappointed that we fail to declare our distinctive, mutual, consumer ownership and ethical values in our trading outlets. In our large outlets, wall space is left vacant and little attempt is made to promote what we stand for. We undersell ourselves as an alternative form of business enterprise which has principles. Therefore, we request the Regional Board to pursue the prominent display of messages to proclaim our ownership structure and promote the causes fundamental to our unique consumer appeal."

After many speakers in support and one against, the regional board came out in support and the motion was passed overwhelmingly. Finally, there were the questions and the report of the Party. More on that soon.

Now I've got my tickets, I've put some tips about finding cheap debconf land travel onto the debconf site. (I know that was selfish, but debconf's travel deadlines sucked and it refused to help pay for travel, so please excuse me looking after myself first.) Damog emailed me, grumbling about how hard it is to find cheap/quick land travel from a major English city to Edinburgh. I sent back three options for under GBP 35 return, but I've heard nothing more. Hope it worked. Simon Richter wrote GyrosGeier's blog - Why the environment loses out, again. complaining that Deutsche Bahn quote 426 ? (EUR, I guess) to go to Edinburgh from Munich. Well, I just asked Lufthansa and they quote up to EUR 1400 to fly Munich-Edinburgh, but I'm sure you can find that cheaper too - obviously, if you get only one quote from a dominant supplier, that may not be the best price available. I don't know about travel from Germany, but someone already left a link to another ticket agency in the comments.

More developments on cycling and the Highway Code: There was a written answer in parliament about the Highway Code which completely avoided the question - cyclists are voting 'no' to its 'Does this answer the above question?' poll. I have. bikeuser wrote about the Highway Code with excerpts and links to me and also linked Eleanor Blair - More Highway Code which mentions the Early Day Motion in parliament with a suggestion that you write to your MP and ask them to sign it. In a comment, Anonymous asked:

"I agree with you that cyclists should have the right to decide that a cycling road seems too hazardous. However, other than that, any reason why cyclists should get to use roads when cycle paths exist?"

Yes. The most important reason is that most cycle paths are built to a very low standard (design speed of 18mph on an unladen hybrid bike) which is unsuitable for commercial carriers and even ordinary road bicycles (what I used to call racers). Even national government suggests to use the road if you want to exceed the design parameters of cycle paths.

"As a general rule, if you want to cycle quickly, say in excess of 18 mph/30 kph, then you should be riding on the road."

Also, cycle paths usually get the lowest priority of all highways at every junction (contrary to national guidance) and are hopelessly badly signposted. Would you choose a bumpy-road that gives way at every piddling side road when you have the choice of a flat, smooth A road? I doubt it - that's the basic form of traffic calming in bypassed villages like Blisworth. There are some cycle tracks I use, but even those are so badly signed, it's taken me weeks to figure them out - and I've been visiting family in this area for years! For example, I don't enjoy riding on the exposed Somerset Avenue dual carriageway and the adjacent purpose-built shared-use path is segregated, with few junctions or pedestrians, but consider the junction complex at West Wick (the aerial picture shows the cycle path, but the roads on the bottom right have changed). It's faster to use the underpasses, cross Churchlands Way into Yew Tree Drive and then use the Summer Lane underpass to reach North Worle, but which way do the cycle route signs send you? Yep, round to the left, across four sets of traffic lights where the cyclists get the lowest priority (and a 'Cyclists Dismount' sign for good measure) and then along a path that level-crosses an estate road completely blind (under construction in the aerial pic, above the roundabout). Oh, and the cycle route map's wrong for that area, just to make it even more confusing. Because of the bad signposts and maps, it's also very difficult to report any problems with cycle paths and tracks to the highways maintenance team. Cycle paths often don't have names and I've sometimes had reports come back with "there is no fault" when it turns out they've looked at the nearby road, not the cycleway. Forcing cyclists to use cycle paths will probably always be the wrong choice, but there's a lot of improvements needed before you can expect many cyclists to use them by choice. Doing so now would be like directing all cars onto unsigned B-roads instead of motorways that exist for the same journey, just because vans and lorries have a bigger need for the motorways. I like having B-roads available for journeys which would be much longer otherwise, but I wouldn't want to be forced off the motorways just because they exist. Even if you're a car driver, write to your MP and object to directing classes of traffic off of roads that are safer than alternatives. Else, if you tolerate this... The bigger question is "why is so much money spent on the cycling equivalent of B-roads?" and I don't know the answer to that. We would do much better to widen roads to add cycle lanes (or allow safe in-lane overtaking by cars), instead of widening the adjacent paths and painting them as shared use.

Uploads

New packages accepted

libjazzy-java_0.5.1a-3

qdox_1.6.1-1

libxmlgraphics-commons-java_1.1.dfsg.1-1

jrexx_1.1.1-1

c3p0_0.9.1.1.dfsg.1-1

New uploads

xmlgraphics-commons_1.1.dfsg.2-1 (move to contrib because it needs jpeg codecs from sun.* classes) (waiting for FTP-masters)

libcommons-lang-java_2.3-1

javassist_3.4.dfsg.1-1 (re-upload because I messed debian/copyright... sorry ftp-masters)

In reply to my tips for anyone making the trip over land from England, Joachim Breitner wrote:

"Damn it! Now I was waiting for the night train tickets back from Edinburgh, just to notice now that they don't operate on Saturdays! I wonder if there is some car going from Edinburgh to London on Saturday, 23rd... (/me is worrying about his trip)"

and 10 minutes later:

"Never mind, there are still overnight busses available - and damn cheap :-)"

I hope that crew of that overnight bus are kinder than the one I did London-Paris on a while ago: calling out over the public address at 0230 stops that no-one had tickets for, then arriving over an hour early in Paris. No-one wanted to be in Paris at 0430. Anyway, I think I'll spend a few hours in Manchester and Derby - anyone got tips on where to eat or what to see?

I asked: does anyone want to recommend good recipes that don't mind the ugliness of frozen mint? Holger wrote:

"Jamie Oliver recipe: SALMON WRAPPED IN PARMA HAM WITH LENTILS looks probably doesn't matter as it wilts a bit anyway and volumewise most is made up by the spinach. Also: With green tea the looks doesn't matter that much if you brew it in an opaque tea pot."

alephnull wrote:

"Another way of freezing the mint is to put it into ice cubes. Just pack them into an ice tray and top them up with water. They don't wilt as much and look better too."

Thanks, both! I'll try them later.

Steve Kinsella wrote:

"Your right to ride on the road is in jeopardy. The revised Highway Code says cyclists should "use cycle facilities where possible". [...] The implications of this are bad. First, we will suffer more abuse and intimidating driving. Secondly cyclists will be disobeying the Highway Code when they assess that a cycle lane or path is dangerous and act accordingly. Thirdly, if a cyclist is involved in an accident and tries to claim damages, the insurance companies are likely to argue that the rider contributed to the accident by not using the cycle facility. The Highway Code has been laid before parliament. It will automatically be approved possibly by 20 May unless it is referred to a House of Commons Committee which cannot amend it and can only recommend the whole document be rejected. [...] There is a petition on the government website. One can be sceptical about the value of these petitions but the publicity is valuable as can be seen from this Sunday Times article of 7 May. It is interesting to note that 35 MP's objected to the original revised wording. Unfortunately, the replacement wording is worse. 11,000 objections were received to the previous wording. There are 70, 000 in the CTC alone who should now be objecting. If this Highway Code is approved by government cyclists will effectively lose the right to ride on the road where there are alternative routes or adjacent facilities. Please register your name on the petition and persuade others to do the same."

(via nscycle )

One of my co-operatives, The Phone Co-op, has set clear monthly data allowances from 5GB to 20GB on its residential ADSL Max packages. If you exceed that, you get emailed (a bit before you hit the limit) and then billed GBP1.50 for each extra gig. When telling me about this, they wrote

"Unlike other ISPs, we will not impose any other restrictions to your service or how you use it"

which surprised me. Are heavy users still TOS'd off the network by other ISPs? They also announced a pound a month discount for combining ADSL and line rental, which suits me fine!

I've booked my travel to Debconf7. Here are some tips for anyone making the trip over land from England: There are cheap megatrains and megabuses from central Edinburgh to/from Manchester (train, weekdays) and Sheffield Meadowhall (bus, everyday) which give useful connections to points further south, avoiding London. Caledonian Sleeper Bargain Berths are now bookable, but Fridays go quickly (and seem to have gone for 15th). Similarly, there seem to be no cheap tickets left on the train up the Welsh border to Manchester for most useful dates. Find your "magic towns" for train tickets: stations where you can break long journeys to save money. They're often stations with more than one fast train operator, so these are usually old railway towns. For example, mine are Crewe and Derby from Somerset. Sometimes you don't even need to get off the train, but if you do change trains, you might be gambling on delays on the way to that town (if using timed tickets and so on), so allow enough time! Debconf's arrivals day (Saturday 16 June) is the European Day of Action Against Airport Expansion so arriving over land is a damn good idea, even without the CO2 reasons. (Debconf's last day is Pride Scotia - is all the silly scheduling deliberate?) Anyway, I think I'll have a bit of time in Manchester and Derby - anyone got tips on where to eat or what to see?

I spotted ZDNet reporting Abbey and Prudential plan to support Firefox-based browsers. Finally! I've relisted Barclays because no-one objected to a "wait and see" approach.

Boycott Novell republished my explanation of how boycotts work.

Boycotts are consumers doing judo on corporations:

1. Most corporations aim to maximise their profit and their shareholders usually push them to do so.
2. Boycotts are an overt way of linking lost sales to a particular issue.
3. If it looks like it's costing more profit to suffer the boycott than to address the cause, the corporation is not maximising their profit.
4. So, the executives should answer the boycott or the shareholders should replace them with some who will.

So, it is helpful to boycott harmful companies and it's more helpful to do so noisily.

I thought the idea was that we shouldn't search for invalid patents, because ignorant infringement is punished less severely than wilful infringement? Joe Buck replied:

"Well, yes, there's the matter of triple damages for "willful infringement". That only kicks in once a court has found you liable, but it's an issue. There's been a change in the last few days though; a recent US Supreme Court decision should lead to a very large number of software patents getting tossed (though unfortunately they would have to be challenged one by one). My take: free software developers shouldn't go searching for bad patents. But people like the EFF and the SFLC should, the better to get those bad patents tossed."

We've just harvested a bumper crop of mint (spearmint, I think) which was threatening to take over its part of the garden. I asked: anyone got any good recipes that use kilos of mint? Boris suggested:

".. essential for Pimms! And after a few you won't actually care that you've not used it all."

cmot asked:

"Let it ferment, then distil it and bring it to Debconf 7?"

Well, I don't like Pimms and don't own a still, but I'll not doubt the alcohol-love of my commenters in future! Holger suggested:

"- Green tea with mint (I like gunpowder best with mint) - There is some nice Jamie Oliver recipe with lots of herbs including mint and lentils You can actually freeze the stuff as well. It discolours and looks ugly but retains the taste."

While trying to find the Jamie Oliver recipe on the BBC site, I stumbled across this sea bass recipe which was quite good, but next time I'd at least halve the pesto because it was so sickly rich. It doesn't use much mint, so I've taken up the last suggestion and frozen most of it. Now, does anyone want to recommend good recipes that don't mind the ugliness of frozen mint?

Update: As I predicted, this seat was a comfortable Con Hold. The surprise is the "Conservative landslide" (and maybe the Mercury being stung by criticism to be the first town news service with the results). Official results map Elsewhere, I see Green and Conservative gains in Norwich and West Norfolk counting the next day and generally botching an online results service as usual.

I'm Going to Play Some Number at the Lotto The Lotto Game is a really popular gambling game in Italy, run by the state itself. As in all good gambling game: you, the player, can win a lot of money while who is running the game (the Italian state in our case) will win a lot of money for sure, no matter what. Anyhow, to the facts, it's a well-known folklore that people win playing Lotto FOR SURE by playing numbers told while dreaming by parents, friends, kitties, whatever, ... As a scientist, I've no reason not to trust this folklore, why should I? As a strange coincidence (another fact that strongly hints I HAVE TO PLAY), this night I had a dream (well, it was more this morning while reading the planet, but it doesn't really matter..., folklore is folklore!). There were a lot, really a lot of people whispering this to my ears:

09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

well, ok, they aren't in decimal notation, and they aren't even comprised between 1 and 90, ... but what would you expect from a bunch of geeks??? They are probably trying to exploit some overflow in the hands of the lotto extractor or something like that... But I won't desist, I'll play those number! Open questions:

• on which wheel(s) should I play the numbers?
• how should I handle overflowed numbers? throw them away? modulo 89 operations + 1?

any proficient Lotto player to answer them around?