Very bad of me: I only just added Tats's current blog and web to my RSS reader and site. I'm linking it here so other ex-tsw can see it.

A two-part documentary, "Code Breakers" will be aired on BBC World TV starting on 10 May 2006. [cont. with times and links]

Google Desktop's privacy traps are featured on c't magazin TV show week beginning 6 May [repeats Monday+Tuesday on hr, Tuesday mdr]... This is the sort of thing I would like to see made "Massive Computer Misuse" in any updates to English law ... [cont. with links]

My email appears to be down. At least, incoming email to phonecoop and debian addresses isn't arriving here. Have called TPC support and now it's back up, but expect slow replies for a bit.

The Council has replaced the three-quarter width gate at the southern entrance to the Walks with a full-width one. I was told that this wouldn't happen and now it has. As well as cycles and wheelchairs, it may also block pushchairs and prams on the diversion route to Greyfriars School while their bridge is closed. I called the Walks project manager Richard Hales ... [cont.]

April 2006 traffic discussed avidemux bugsx cube-data db3 db4.2 debian-installer dialign doc-rfc-*? kolab dpkg foobillard gallery2 gnome-themes kscope libfaad* libx264* libtom maxdb-doc mysql niftilib php-json sork-* sork-forwards-h3 tetex-extra tremulous www.debian.org

Had a rather confusing letter that said permission for pollarding has been granted. So what about the felling?

Added a link to a message that I overlooked which describes how to identify stealth sponsors without GPG.

Another cycle farcility picture. This one's the other great Norfolk fetish sign: "End of Route". It's positioned 2 miles from the end of the route, at a point where I'd swear the route has never ended, and is immediately followed by a shared path sign. Is this a joke?

Added a section describing my sponsoring and notes from looking for new RFSes. Uploaded a new git, by the way.

More cycle farcility pictures. Just captured another needless Cyclists Dismount and evidence that NCC think cyclists are superhumans who can see through trees. Also added a note about the first fixed farcility since I started spotting them.

Over at the Register, they think it's good to simply point and laugh when spammers claim to be Tom Jones, son of a Python. Yes, some of this spam is truly bizarre. Do spammers like ridicule?

Google runs a "Summer of Code" scheme which buys some projects a student worker for the summer. My view is that we should note Google "aren't a particularly good example, but if you can get money out of them to improve debian and the web search tools it contains, good luck!" [generally tidied the Google Bugs page too]

Please email me any comments on the items Lynn Cycling Forum will discuss tomorrow (Fri 21 Apr): Town routes, Dropped kerbs, parking, developments, questions for our MP, signposting wish list, HGV restrictions, Hardwick and A10 routes, KL Transport Strategy WG

Congratulations to Anthony Towns [...] I'm not sure the policies are ambitious enough, but maybe they can be SMART. Good luck! [... full text on link]

Ciaran O'Riordon will speak at a British Computer Society meeting in London on Friday 7 April 2006. GPLv3 will probably also be discussed at a multinational free software conference in/near southern Austria. [details...]

Oh great, the software patent debate is back. After a long and disgusting campaign where pro-software-patents lobbyists employed all kinds of semi-legal and undemocratic filthy tricks in order to introduce software patents in the EU behind our backs, the European Parliament decided by a large majority to reject the directive "on the patentability of computer implemented inventions" (a.k.a. software patents) in July 2005. Rightly so. It is beyond my imagination how a certain pro-software-patents commissioner (Charlie McCreevy) dares to restart the whole debate after such a clear defeat. Consultation and "public hearing" He has organized a "Consultation and public hearing on future patent policy in Europe" which pretends to collect your views on the software patent issue (which he's trying to introduce through the "Community Patent" backdoor). Alas, the "questionnaire" is inaccessible (it's only available in 5 languages, instead of all 25 (+2) languages of the EU member states), biased towards software patents, very obfuscated and unreadable for the general public. There's no independent working group which conducts or oversees the consultation, no independent studies and reading materials, no mentions of the negative implications of software patents, no public debate, nothing. Now, who would have expected that? The FSF Europe has published a response to the Patent Consultation Questionnaire, which highlights many of the problems. Similarly, the FFII has questioned the validity of the consultation procedure, and gives a very detailed explanation of all the serious flaws of the process. What can I do?

• First things first: the DEADLINE for answering the questionnaire and expressing your views is April 12, 2006!
• Answer the questionnaire! The FFII has prepared a short How to answer guide which you can use as a basis for your answer (per email, snail mail, or fax).
• Raise your concerns about the validity of the consultation process!
• Write your MEPs! Tell them what you think.
• Spread the word! I'm under the impression most people don't even know about this issue, yet!
• Put up banners. I know you all like pretty banners ;-)

Software patents suck (in case you didn't already know) Let me quote Donald Knuth on this:

I strongly believe that the recent trend in patenting algorithms is of benefit only to a very small number of attorneys and inventors, while it is seriously harmful to the vast majority of people who want to do useful things with computers.

(via MJ Ray)

Update: extended to 12 April. Please tell them what you think. [Background material linked from my site]

I took this picture of what I found in the Market Lane cycle lane (NCN route 1) today...

I received a message asking if I knew anything about a company [...] and today I got a pretty funny follow-up: "my friend had put me down as a contact, so these people called me up over the weekend and offered to meet up. I did, and it was the most amusing meeting. ... [more on my page]