Tom Lachecki

Here's a Debian bug thread I ran into on the interweb today. It's quite old, dating back to 2002, but I think the discussion still holds very much real-world relevance to the prevailing view of society.

There's a lot of chat about the EU fishing rules which set stringent quotas on the number of fish that can be farmed. Now the EU is backtracking and has this week concluded that a new decentralised Common Fisheries Policy is called for. Apparently, environmentalists and fishermen alike are concerned that lots of poor fish […]

A 69-year old Viennese tourist named Matkza was forced by police officers to delete photos he'd taken of the Vauxhall bus station in London, saying it was "strictly forbidden" and recording the passport numbers and hotel addresses of him and his companions, presumably because the Security Services at headquartered nearby.

Another term, another accommodation nightmare at the University of Nottingham.

As our beloved Western civilisation finds itself teetering on the brink of a stage in the inevitable social cycle that involves a government committed to maintaining order at all costs, it is more important than ever that we do not let Britain descend into a terrified nation.

If it's immoral and illegal to send the latest episode of Heroes to your friend, the Pirate Bay ought to be at least partially responsible for facilitating that transaction.

On the one hand, Facebook users are on a free service and shouldn't expect any realistic right to say what should or shouldn't be on it. On the other, Facebook users are responsible for Zuckerberg's entire income and have made him worth a LOT of money. So can you consider the use of a social network an indirect form of payment?

The European directive that requires Internet Service Providers to log their customers' communications came into force in the UK today, and means that details of user emails and internet phone calls will be stored by ISPs for twelve months. On paper, Directive 2006/24/EC is not such a bad thing. In real life, though, the fact of the matter is that the European Directive on Data Retention is highly controversial.

Meet Lauren. Lauren wants to find a laptop for under US$1000, with a 17" screen and a comfortable keyboard amongst other criteria.

She's promised by anonymous voiceover man (who's graphically accompanied by a contemporary Windows logo) that if she can find what she's looking for, they'll buy it for her.

I'm occasionally asked why C++ programmers conventionally use .cpp and .hpp files, what they use them for and what happens if they don't. On the spot I'll usually come out with the template answer that conventions exist for a reason, but I thought I might as well take a moment to explain more fully the reasoning behind this one.