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For some time now, there has been a great deal of debate and lobbying in Europe on both sides of the software patents issue. I will declare my bias straight away and say that, as a developer of both commercial/proprietary software as well as Free/Open software, I am firmly against the patentability of algorithms and software. Patents create a legal minefield, almost impossible to map out, in which any given non-trivial piece of software could simultaneously infringe upon hundreds of patents. The situation with software is fundamentally different to, for example, the pharmaceutical or manufacturing industries. Richard Stallman has given numerous speeches on patents and written many articles, including an excellent analysis of patents that I urge everyone to read.

I recently took up a new mobile phone plan, and took with it a spanking new Sony Ericsson K700i. It turned out to be a very nice phone, the first time in a very long time I didn't go for a Nokia (the current range seem a bit ugly to be honest, and the SE has a bigger screen). It has many features I needed, such as Bluetooth support and iSync for talking to my PowerBook, and some that are a bit of a luxury, like Java3D support (but hey, if you're bored, a quick game of Tennis can take your mind off things).

Anyway, as I often work "on the road" as they say, I am not always within reach of an internet connection, wired or not. And now, with the phone supporting Bluetooth (an amazingly groovy bit of tech if you ask me, only recently coming into its own) I can use the phone's GPRS support for general IP traffic. All I needed to know was how to configure it...

On days like these, I realise why C++ is really not my preferred langauge any more...

Python is clearly the winner, and has been for some time. Python is so elegant, powerful and productive that when I hack in other languages I really miss it. These days, I think the ideal development model is to write mostly in Python, and then optimise the slow bits with a C module. Have a good separation between the 'engine' and the interface, so things are nicely reusable and embeddable. I would probably rather write in C than C++ anyway. Oh, and lots of Twisted stuff too. That is way cool... Oh, but -

When it is Copy Controlled (tm).

So what are you really buying? Look carefully at your next CD purchase, and read on for some discussion.

For the last few days, I have been exploring Twisted, a potent application framework for the wonderful Python language. Twisted has to be one of the coolest chunks of code I've played with in a long time. Coding is fun again!

On the 15th of September, the top-level Domain Name Service (DNS) for .net and .com, fundamental to the entire Internet, was hijacked - by the very custodian entrusted with its upkeep.