[Home page](/) [Latest blog](../all.html) # slef-reflections, Year 6, continued ![photo](../../mjr2002.jpg) This page will be where my date-related short comments appear, newest first. [Earlier comments are on another page.](index) ### Annoying Judge Resurrects Software Patents in the UK ##### Posted by mjr 2008-03-23 (permalink) Programs themselves cannot be patented. They're explanations of mathematical relationships, not inventions. [Paul Russell mentioned this ruling to me](http://likesomuch.blogspot.com/2008/03/oh-joy-high-court-rewrites-uk- software.html) and [Alex Hudson mentioned it to fsfe- uk.](http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.org.fsf.uk/5454) There's been [some BBC coverage](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7307375.stm) and [very silly coverage in Computing](http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2212353 /symbian-wins-software-patent) which summarises it as as > "Symbian's win could benefit UK software makers" You what? Shouldn't we be enabling other UK companies to compete in a free market with Symbian, which is a consortium of foreign companies after all, instead of granting Symbian a monopoly here? ***fume*** [Comment form for non-frame browsers](../../comp/respond.pl). Comments are moderated (damn spammers) but almost anything sensible gets approved (albeit eventually). If you give a web address, I'll link it. I won't publish your email address unless you ask me to, but I'll email you a link when the comment is posted, or the reason why it's not posted. ### UEA rebrands itself as IE+1 ##### Posted by mjr 2008-03-04 (permalink) ![UEA, maybe](http://mjr.towers.org.uk/blog/2008/newuea.jpg) I was a bit surprised when a letter from UEA arrived with a new logo on it. It looks like someone turned up the brightness until the thin parts of the letters started to vanish. IE+1? What's that then? There's confirmation on [UEA's wikipedia page](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_East_Anglia#Corporate_identity) which includes the above logo. Ironically, the letter I got looks like it doesn't conform to the linked guidelines. I think this change weakens UEA's links with its alumni a bit, don't you? The old logo was everywhere while I was there. I'm going to miss the square logo with rounded reflex blue letters. Maybe I should stock up on UEA mugs, although [a gold-on-blue UEA mug](https://www.ueastudent.com/cgi- bin/merchandise/00217.html?id=3waBdUyA) looks a bit wrong. * Comment on this This is copyright 2008 MJ Ray. See fuller notice on [front page](/).