Search is still useful. But google search is not, and regretably neither is DuckSuckGo.

But startpage.com is not (yet) contaminated. Long may it remain that way!

Good to have a minor respite in the constant churn.

... but emojis in Python is a whole new level of utter stupidity.

This happens because designers get employed, then have to make work for themselves. Does this change matter? No. Does it change functionality? No Will most people notice? No. Will this improve the usefullness of anything - such as the worsening results from google search. No. So what if a logo hasn't changed in 10 years? Instead of spending money on trivia, spend the money on improving services.

A short, insecure password. Why phone banking apps use a 4-digit pin is beyond me.

And as LTSC shows, MS could have produced a Windows 11 which detects the TPM and whatever hardware, and doesn't use it if it isn't there. By not doing so they have deliberately junked 10s of millions of fine systems to enrich their hardware partners. I can't even give computers to charities and needy folk if they don't run Windows 11 - the risk of malware is too great. Billions of dollars of good quality kit into landfill to satisfy MS and their hardware partners. The waste of resources is beyond measurement.

Not available in my region. Released on 3 Aug 2023 and still apparently only available in US?

If you read the original article in Nature you soon find the core of the issue: "The first is that many if not most standard assessment systems globally do not reward an understanding of reasoning — that is, how a particular result was arrived at (the stories behind the maths and science). They reward a mastery of the method and an ability to get the right answer. Second, relatively few teachers are skilled at teaching reasoning and describing maths through storytelling, and of those, even fewer teach students from low-income families." Mathematics is a study in patterns, and reasoning. Not in getting the answer to artificial problems, or mastering the huge number of tricks that seem to make up mats "textbooks". If you aren't teaching understanding, you have failed. If your students don't ever experience finding a pattern you have failed. If you think that memorisation has any value in a maths classroom, you have failed.

This sort of reasoning has handicapped the learning of mathes for centuries. Subjects gett taught in silos for logistical reasons, but don't exist in silos.And knowing tricks to "do" mathematics is not related in any way to understanding the subject. Focussing on getting the answer is the exact opposite of what we should be doing: which is understanding and generating maths. If a student can spot a pattern - such as perentages are commutative - they are far better at maths than someone doing mental arithmetic quickly. [commutative percentages: a% of b is the same as b% of a.]

I don't want anything not essential to be installed. Purging a new Samsung phone of crapware is not fun at all.

Not gutting social sciences - a bit of a clean up of the worst excesses.
Where do you see any reference to "historical sciences" - whatever they are. Would you like to continue research into phogiston theory?

The reporting of this change is not at all accurate, almost everywhere.
The redirection of Marsden Fund money is a fact. But many other funding sources, both government and non-governent,still exist.
For example: - $315 million of research every year through the PBRF
- The Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment lists 19 other funds available for research
- Ministry for Social Development has funding available for social science research
- The Health Research Council has funding available for health research.

There are plenty of other governrment, business and privately backed funds.

The reigning in of the Marsden Fund, to focus on its original mission, trims only a small amount of funding from increasingly vacuous research areas.

Why? For fun, and learning.

Microsoft do not, never have, understood basic principles of writing and reading useful, understandable email. For example, right now my Outlook account (personal, not administered by anyone other than MS) has marked two emails as spam. Both are from Microsoft Feedback, and about CoPilot (which I have no opinions of as I have resoultly avoided any contact with it). Now if a company cannot recognise its own email ....

The headline should be Microsoft Makes Copilot MORE Useful on New Copilot Plus PCs