How much was it?

The latest on my mini-campaign against software patents: my MP, Andrew Murrison, wrote on my behalf to David Lammy, the Minister of State for Higher Education and Intellectual Property.

In his reply, David mentioned that the President of the European Patent Office has referred the question of software patents to …

It doesn't arrive until about Thursday, but I bought a Giant Trance X 5 today. Don't ask me how much it was, it was extravagant, but now the die is cast. I needed to make my mind up because my brother needs his bike back next weekend. I'm excited!

One of the dogs found a cardboard box, climbed in, and settled down to sleep! This was taken at my aunt's house in Kenya.

Dave Andrews said to me one day, 'we should really read The Wealth Of Nations you know'. That was some time ago, and I've now just finished Volume 1.

The theory is pretty much as I thought it would be, but all of Smith's arguments are filled with historical detail …

In my ideal programming language, the size of the integer type would only be limited by the storage space of the machine, it wouldn't have an artificial limit. It would be like the BigInt type in Java. This is exactly what Clojure does. Brilliant!

There isn't such an elegant solution …

I'm annoyed that the EU could force Microsoft to bundle Firefox with Windows. If people want a good OS they can buy a computer with Ubuntu. Please allow proprietary software a graceful decline and fall.

My bike has conked out. It wouldn't cost much to repair, but it is 15 years old, and I'd like to get a new one with front and rear suspension. In the meantime I'm borrowing my brother's bike, and haven't actually got round to looking for a new one. My …

My dad's wife was diagnosed with ovarian cancer last year. She's just had an operation, and I'm relieved that it all seems to have gone okay.

I think Dave's placard is referring to the Warsaw Ghetto. I've been more and more struck by the similarity between the treatment of the Jews by the Nazis and the treatment of the Palestinians by the Jews.