Does this mean a future where industrial espionage becomes the norm, where companies can steal and get patents on other companies property at least up to the point where the crime cannot be proved? Doing this across borders to gain US patents on foreign competitors products could prove lucrative if your Govt. is not keen on allowing foreign parties to investigate to far in your country.

The OED reflects words in common usage at the time of the publication of the edition not necessarily words that have passed the test of time. Words are not removed so that someone is the future can read a book published x years previously and still have a reference guide for those that are now out of use and the reader has not previously seen defined or been taught. It is a reflection of what is in use not a conservative list of what should be in use if everyone spoke the same static language. If that were the case we be missing a lot of words used quite correctly everyday in the tech press and would may not be able to understand them correctly in years to come once they drop out of use. As for staying profitable and relevant, the UK pays OED for free online access for EVERY library card holder in Britain so they can log in and use it from home or the library. That makes it very relevant as I cannot afford to pay for digital access nor buy a complete edition, and I would hope at least a little profitable.

Yes she is, as her person is considered the crown and sovereign and the courts are in fact her her courts, she is immune from prosecution. Last time a British monarch was in court, was Charles back in the 17th century, he was charged with treason.

I am fairly sure its fine in the UK, the recorded warning is clear and repeated both at the start and during the conversation fufulling its legal obligation(in fact it only has to be said once at the start). It is unusual that the recording is a conversational message in its tone but it is quite clear. Should the calling companies chose you use an auto-dialling system to make outbound calls which prevent their staff from hearing the start of the message, then they should expect to not hear messages warning them of such.

The Co-Op a huge grocery retail chain in the UK use XP based tills. I only noticed them because the customer facing part of them often displays Win errors :)

http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?CaseStudyID=4000001958

Also I know of a large Radiography company whose X-Ray machines all had Dell workstations running XP inside..now that's scary.

The speed cameras are mobile units, the cameras that are in fixed positions are well documented (or vandalised) and so to catch people temporary speed traps are set up. This will allow them to be configured with an accuracy acceptable to the courts. Should there be any doubt as to the accuracy of the equipment used, any good or even crap barrister would be able to get the charge quashed by the judge in lieu of any other evidence (skid marks, etc).

Britain is a strange country for cars, the cramped roads cause a lot of hate AND cameraderie amongst drivers. When the law changes whole groups of motorists will get together to try to test and break it when the day before they were leaning on horns and swearing at each other. Any loophole will be jumped on en masse and so accuracy is paramount with regards to technology used for speed traps. This is all mainly Jeremy Clarkson's fault.

In the UK you possibly wouldn't even need to take them court yourself. Merely report the retailer to Trading Standards (the govt dept for these kind of things for you non-Brits) detailing the advertising for the product at the time of purchase and how you believe the law has been broken and they will do it for you if your claim is valid.

Not only that, if they are successful they can also order other companies to offer refunds/discounts/compensation should they also have sold the product without those consumers having to go through the same process.

Going down this route means the govt not the consumer funds the legal action should the claim be valid and the company concerned dispute their breach of the law. Additionally in the UK we also have the pleasing effect of BBC1's consumer program Watchdog, if they take up your case the company will find themselves having a 10 minute grilling of their services and how they have broken the law viewed by several million prime time viewers. Watchdog is such an institution here that a bad press from them can have very serious repercussions on your sales, and will probably make the daily newspapers the next day in some form (probably the Daily Mail with a headline like "Amazon product lies killed Diana!"). This is what Amazon really fears.

I have been with NTL (previously NYNEX and Cable n Wireless)for 10 years or so now. I currently have a 2meg conn and my average is about 1.4 - 1.8 when tested at www.bandwidthplace.com/speedtest/ . I test it every now and then and rarely have any problems. Broadband in the UK is a very cut-throat business so perhaps we get the better speeds because of the large number of suppliers available and that its easier to upgrade hardware in a small country with a high density population (UK) than it is a large country with a low density population (USA).