British Programmer living in Andorra

I read Austin Meyer's account of his fight against a patent troll .   It does seem unfair, and likely to stifle innovation. Is it not quite easy to fix?  Surely in order to get a patent infringement case settled the patent holder must have to show  active development? If there is active development this compensation payment can based on relative investment to the patent "infringer?"  OMG:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG9UMMq2dz4 So it appears to be some sort of scam being perpetrated in the Eastern District of Texas with families who Should Know Better being involved.  Judge Father and Son Lawyers - this a joke? Whole buildings setup with fake companies.  Wow. Making the US of A look more like a banana republic everyday.

The UK still uses the archaic "first past the post" voting system.  This needs to change.   Back in 2011 there was a referendum on changing this to the Alternative Vote .  We were already living in Spain then, but I followed it closely - the campaigns and the themes . At the end of the day people said.... "It's all too complicated ... we stick with the status quo". What a shame.   Fast forward to 2019 and Boris was able to lie through his teeth campaign with a clear message and get a thumping 80 seat majority - by getting a few more racist old people in the North to vote for him  than would normally do. Ultimately there was a majority of vote for Remain-parties but the way the cookie crumbled down the constituency-lines meant Boris and his team of ultra-right wingers got in. What can be done about this? I been looking at all the plethora of different voting system.  Boy are they complicated!!   I'm a programmer used to reading detailed manuals; reading th

Wouldn't it be great to work together and create a "distributed search engine" with the index spread across thousands of peer nodes - a Google beating thing of beauty and love and money. Sadly the latency, speed, algorithmic and storage requirements make this a non-starter .  Try the state-of-the-art example like  yacy  and you'll see what I mean. It's just occurred to me - something that might be as least as lucrative ( 1 , 2 , 3 ) is a "link database" - and several factors easier to code and manage..... ....Who fancies giving it a go?

This is the logo from the Live Aid concert's back in the 80s.  I just thought it is such a smart logo that I'd put it here and say that.

So those of you avidly waiting for the next update about my long running dog saga will be pleased to know I have some good news! Their owner has bought another house in our street, and moved the dogs up there!  That deserves another exclamation mark! So, how bizarre. - She says she "doesn't have a lot of money to put a nice wall in" - yet is capable of buying another house in cash - I know this because it was auction sale, and you have to deposit 90% of the cash before they let you bid here in Andorra. - Her new immediate neighbours are a fiesty french-woman, and a vet.  Both of whom will now, in turn, be highly unimpressed with the dogs antics when she is out of the house.  The vet has been trying to sell his house for many year now.... that's even less likely to happen now. - I doubt she bought the additional house so I, and the other neighbours this end of the road, could get some peace; but it does make me wonder if she's actually not selfish - jus

This reason alone is sufficient for me to wish that the UK rejoins the EU.