People are making it work. UK isn't going to war with the EU, just shuffling around a bit of legal paperwork. In the mean time, for the next few years things will keep on ticking over exactly as they are now.

Phillip.

Agreed. The reason the referendum result was roughly 50/50 is because the advantages and disadvantages are about that. Both Remain and Leave have winners and losers. Before the vote I thought Remain was best, post vote I can now see why Leave might be better.

The decision will be as good or as bad as we make it. A Remain vote would be for the status quo, not very good but at least you know where you are. The Leave could be a massive boost to the UK, or set it back it back if not handled properly. The fate of the UK is in its own hands. And that is the nice thing about it.

Phillip.

Brexit is a non-problem because it's not like Y2K, which had a hard deadline. The UK can trigger Article 50 whenever it suits them. Assuming Parliament votes it through. And the House of Lords ratifies it. At the moment it is planned to be triggered the start of next year. Then there are a supposed two years to then negotiate the exit, though as this has never been done before who knows if that won't be extended. More complicated trade deals could take even longer to complete.

Until we go out in a few years, the UK is a fully paid up EU member and will continue to reap the benefits for its continuing contributions. This gives time for science councils to petition the UK government to ring-fence sums in future tax revenues to replace funding that would otherwise have come from the EU. Scientists have been become too accustomed to begging for scraps from the gravy train because EU money is "free". Er no, that EU money came largely from us and goes to you after deducting a hefty Brussels "administration fee".

Phillip.

That's not how it works, iris-n. The pound fluctuates against the euro, it always has done and it always will. It went from 1.3 to 1.2, but it's been 1.04 before. This doesn't make Britain richer or poorer linearly as most of the GDP is spent within the UK itself. For instance the NHS pays doctors and nurses in pounds, therefore the pound going down makes no difference, but it will make drugs more expensive to buy from abroad.

Phillip.

A melody or a lyric is not like an API. A musical note or an alphabetical letter is. To take your own example, "For example, I can play "Yesterday" on a piano, guitar, speak-and-spell, and it's still a Beatles song". The musical notation is the API, and you are able to implement the copyrighted melody via that API on a variety of different instruments. Imagine if somebody held the copyright to the API and only allowed a guitar solo to be performed on a particular brand of guitar? Would music be where it is now?

If you allow an API to be copyrighted then you will destroy a good amount of the software industry. Designers already do lock down APIs when they want to, even 'open' APIs such as Google and Facebook require you to generate an API key which they control the validity of.

It should definitely NOT be copyrightable. It would be detrimental to both industry and society.

Phillip.

You are confused between wealth tax and capital gains tax.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_tax

Capital gains is only due when you sell something for more than you bought it. Wealth tax is an annual tax paid on your net worth, including property, shares, and potentially Bitcoin. Australia does not have a wealth tax.

Phillip.

In France, the French government no longer accept euros. For instance you can only pay the first €300 of your council tax bill in cash but generally all payments now have to be in electronic form.

Phillip.

Not on the Lenovo computers. I was stupid enough to buy one because it was on sale, thinking Linux ran on just about anything. Not on Lenovo. If only I'd bought the older Android version at least it would be usable, but Windows 8.1 means it is currently being used as a paperweight.

Phillip.

Agreed, Apple can get away with inferior underpowered hardware because it's "good enough". Cars are based on acceleration, mileage and safety. Throw in number of charge points and charging time for electric. The great gadgets and software in the Tesla don't even get a mention.

Though if Apple do produce a car, expect to see cracked windows on about half of them driving around.

Phillip.

The Tesla is an incredible car. I love the finishing, the build quality is great as well as the comfort. The screen is killer as is the software. The A4 size map right in front of you is a game-changer, and you can flick the map up onto the dash behind the wheel so you can navigate at the same time as drive through trickier/busier areas. The acceleration is beyond that of my "European" sports car. The styling is very neutral but I personally find it very pretty.

The "big boys" have been left in the dust. The offerings from BMW, Mercedes and Porsche have been pathetic vapourware. Ferrari are toys, all my friends with Ferraris use them as "weekend cars" and have a Bentley for day to day. I am amazed how such profitable companies like the aforementioned have managed to turn into such dinosaurs.

Phillip.

Of all the people that go on about the love of the noise and shifting gears, few have them have driven a Tesla. We will end up having two cars. Tesla for every day, and a sports car just for track days (or a run around Nurburgring). Once you have experienced never having to go to a gas station again, it would be hard to go to a petrol car again.

Interesting Amazon TopGear comment though, makes me think ferries and Eurostar should have Tesla chargers built in. A perfect time to recharge.

Phillip.

I'm quite happy with the "flat tyre" on the 360 considering what it gives in return. It's still too thick though. I can see why people will buy it though. I will hold out for gen 3.

Phillip.

Please post those hacks. I bought a Miix3 as I only wanted it for browsing, and I already want to throw it in the bin as Microsoft Windows 8 is unusable. At the moment it is a paperweight until Linux can be ported onto it.

Phillip.

"The UK had no beef in this originally, they were just acting on an EU arrest warrant"

They acted on an invalid EU warrant. They post-fixed the paperwork later when he was in solitary. And why was he unnecessarily put in solitary? There were so many things wrong about the way the UK went about it.

Bail-jumping was a serious thing to do but Assange had weighed up his options. The risk of being executed evidently outweighed being cooped up in a hole for years. He was pretty much screwed either way.

Phillip.

I don't get your point. What does being a jerk have to do with anything? The guy took on a massively funded secret organisation in the US government that has the ability to assassinate people with no consequences, and put that country back onto the path of accountable democracy. He put the US on the first step of fixing their democracy. Next is their corrupt Senate and system of lobbying, but that's not his battle.

Phillip.