Got an e-mail in my inbox this morning from Pandora with the thing all UK-based users of this service have feared: Pandora will stop streaming to the UK as of January 15th. They have been forced to isolate everyone except the UK for a while, in hopes they might still be able to work out a deal. I guess it did not work out.

Oh well, there’s always Last.fm or HotSpot Shield. Yeah, you read me right! While it’s been intended as a protection over your wireless connection, HotSpot creates “a virtual private network (VPN) between your laptop and the wireless router. This impenetrable tunnel prevents snoopers and hackers from viewing your email, instant messages, credit card information or anything else you send over a wireless network. Which means you remain anonymous and protect your privacy.”

Well, who says you have to use it on a wireless connection? It is FREE, as we feared and you could possibly probably potentially use it to hide say, your “real ip” from the websites you’re visiting and make them think you’re IN the US, not outside eh?