I've got a Siemens Gigaset which connects to POTS and has SIP capability. You can download and upload the address book (slow) to each phone using a web control panel. I also have a SIP account, you can generally get these to email you voicemail.

It syncs to a NTP time server and has a reasonably flexible dial plan which you can use to control which calls use SIP and which go via your landline. It also displays the local weather info on each handset. Unless you go for a full blown Asterisk setup a Gigaset is probably a good second.

It's actually quite difficult to stay opted out. Every time they alter WGA it gets offered again, and it gets offered to any user who is with local admin rights irrespective of whether other users have declined or hidden it.

I've posted a script in my Journal to do this automatically and to use your %appdata% folder without having to change the script for each user.
I've been running this for several years and never had any problems with it breaking any sites.

Ah, that explains why all the images are broken when using User Agent Switcher to view the IE8/Vista page.

You're right that no proof is required. I was cut off myself by Karoo last year. They don't seem to realise that many bittorrent trackers intentionally list a percentage of innocent IP addresses to taint the use of their IP lists as evidence of infringement.

Claim from the second link article:

One Hundred Per Cent Reliability for Traders on High-Volume Trading Days

Compare with:

The problem occurred on what could have been one of London's busiest trading days of the year, as markets rebounded worldwide following the [bailout]

source
Clearly only valid for some values of 100%

Not all malware needs to run as admin. I'm thinking of those ransomware programs that encrypt all your files under "My Documents". That wouldn't need any special privileges.

It's the secret ingredient in Love in the South Pacific of course Johnny Johnny.

You can get XP to look like Vista too but that's not the point. Vista comes with a whole new layer of DRM in the audio and video subsystems which is the reason for the increased overhead. Some of the pro-audio applications are still recommending XP for this reason.

In the UK it is often quoted that cellphone driving is more dangerous than drink driving. However the actual study that was done compared it with people who were at the current legal limit, not over it - and therefore able to drive legally.

In any case they'll never ban conversations whilst driving as that would mean that the police would be completely out of contact unless they were parked.

No you don't, or at least you'll be glad you don't live in Hull UK. Their monopoly ISP 'Karoo' disconnects users with NO WARNING upon receiving any unsubstantiated allegations of file sharing by its users.

Here's proof with a link to a sample letter.

I've also had this happen to me on one occasion. They claim that they will charge 60GBP for reconnection if it happens regularly.