....how much ice did you catch?

From TFA:

This might be true in the US, but in other regions the PlayTV hardware add-on enables you to do exactly that. PlayTV allows you to watch live free-to-air TV and HDTV through the PS3, and record those programs to the PS3's hard drive. I bought the PlayTV add-on (I'm in the UK) as it was cheaper than buying a standalone DVR for free-to-air broadcasts, and have found it to be easier to use and far more reliable than the standalone alternatives available here

I think you'd be hard pushed to find too many cinemas in the UK where the owner is actually on site when you show up to watch a film - they're nearly all owned by the big chains these days unfortunately. Also, we pay for things in Pounds Sterling in the UK.... for the time being, at least.

Don't all new PS3 games check that you have a certain minimum firmware installed, and force you to update to that minimum before you can play the game? I.e. your current games may well work, but will newly released ones?

This appears to be nothing like the Nokia service from TFA. All this is is a pre-pay credit card (of which there have been many available in the UK for a while now), which is only available to O2 customers and has the added function that they send you a text message when your balance changes. It does not let you pay for your stuff with your mobile, and it does not let you top it up using your mobile phone (although you can top it up at O2 shops and mobile phone 'Pay Points').

From TFA:

Don Foster said: "The Conservatives' incompetence when they were in government has made laws designed to ...protect children from harmful DVDs unenforceable"

I don't think a law passed in 1984 was designed for DVDs, considering they were still ten years from making an appearance at that time.

I've had no problems using VGA on several different HD TVs - you just need to set the resolution to the native resolution of the screen.

The same objection also applies to many other non-solutions to the problem, like using a Linux distro that encrypts your entire file system. Even assuming this would be within the technical means of the average person who wanted to do encryption, it's still going to look suspicious as long as the vast majority of people are not doing it

It's already within the means of the average person who wants to 'do encryption' - as part of the (very simple) install process for Ubuntu 9.04 it asks you if you want to install full file system encryption or not.

Agreed, it wouldn't have surprised (or bothered) me in the slightest if track-side in-game ads had appeared in Wipeout HD, I kinda expected it as they already have advertising hoardings on the tracks, but slowing down the loading process is just out of order.

I'm in the UK, played Wipeout HD with the 2.0.1 update and the Fury DLC last night, no ads there, although according to the Double Fusion press release from TFA it'll only be a matter of time unfortunately.

That link you posted isn't to the free openoffice.org, it appears to be some scam site trying to get people to pay to download openoffice.org

of their website:

CentOS has numerous advantages over some of the other clone projects including....developers who are contactable and responsive

Also from the same band:

• Fire
• The Heat (The Energy)
• Fuel My Fire
• Spitfire
• Hotride
• World's On Fire
• Take Me To The Hospital

As I have the entire Prodigy discography on my iPod I could be perceived to be in danger....

Indeed, The Prodigy wrote the track Their Law in direct response to the passing of this law.

Last.fm haven't 'cut the UK off', in fact the UK is one of three countries (along with the US and Germany), where Last.fm is still available for free.