It was not entirely based on how academic you were, it was also based on how many places existed and were funded. There was a cap on university placements to fit within the funding. A key part of the thinking for the tutorial fees (which I am personally against, but for this post will argue its rationale for existing) was to remove that cap and have placements based on demand.

Student loans came in early 90s rather than mid - I'm from the first year ever to have them, and I gradated in 1992.

Not sure about these particular devices, but in general devices will still be fine. You add via a QR code, HomeKit stuff is local only. But even with this - it's Matter/Thread that's the current hotness, not HomeKit/Google/Alexa-specific. If a thing supports Matter and Thread, *properly* (i.e. hubless), then you're fine. If it doesn't, or it does but needs a hub in the middle before it spits out Matter out of the other side...be wary.

This is a good example of why you pick things that work natively with what you want. In this case, if you've connected them via HomeKit then they'll carry on working without issue. In future cases - buy the standards, look for Matter (and preferably Threads) integration to make sure you don't need this kind of reaching out to servers.

Although the literal answer to that is "yes" since people have definitely rewired houses before, the more relevant one is - this isn't a completely different system. Your light bulb remains a light bulb. It screws into the same sockets as the last ones did, and is operated by the same switches.

In terms of protocols, I've already got several protocols running in my house and they mix and match without issue. Gradually switching over to emphasises one of them (Matter/Thread) more than the others won't affect the overall setup at all.

Many aren't doing Matter properly unfortunately. Take Switchbot for instance - it uses a hub to expose its devices over Matter. Aqara did too, though not sure if their latest stuff needs it.

Many people did Matter as "take our Zigbee kit, run it through yet another hub, and we'll push it out the other side as Matter". Not ideal.

Interestingly I've found that there are good deals...just not at Amazon. It's from stores making sure they can compete/are still relevant during Prime day. For example I'm a musician who's into synths: this is a good deal on a well-regarded (if a bit controversial) synth. There are other examples for other niches - I get emails from smart home tech manufacturers for instance and they seem to do ok.

And no-one has ever replaced a light bulb in their house before. No, not ever in the history of the universe.

Was torn between moderating and replying - am replying. Yes, it is and by 'backwards' I'm guessing you mean that as a good thing. Ives did fine with most hardware, but when he got his hands on software and produces macOS Funereal Edition (aka 10.0 Lion) stripping all colour and joy from the interface...yuck.

Bring it back, that's what I say. People still talk about BlingOS, Snow Leopard, as their favourite incarnation. There's a lot of functionality added since that I'd miss and I'm not totally sure on the 3D dock base, but I certainly get where they're coming from.

So what, we plunge to oblivion because we didn't hit good? If we're in a minimisation game, so be it. But we should still try to minimise.

There's still some good news on the UK, although it's less visible. There is a change to building regulations this year requiring new builds to have solar panels. It's long overdue.

There are pushes on heat pumps as well. In fact I had a worry with the original Green New Deal that it had basically been hijacked by lobbyists to concentrate too much on carbon capture, allowing them to carry on burning stuff but still claim the money from the deal. The EV mandate is on track regardless of the lobbying to soften it, which is a good thing, and also lower cost attractive EVs are starting to arrive. Our energy mix is improving too, with a smidge over half being generated by renewal last year.

There's the standard tabloid backlash rubbish, but in general green ideas are popular in the UK so they're likely to continue. Is it as big as the push from China? It is not and the deadcat bounce of loud and boorish objectors is annoying. It's still a pretty good picture though.

This makes no sense at all to me. While we're (I'm in the UK, this applies to the rest of Europe too) fretting about how to keep Russian gas supplies and other nonsense, China has built phenomenal amounts of renewal power and their emissions peaked this year, with a modest (1%) decline.

Here's a good source from the World Economic Forum. It notes the complexities and fragility of the decrease, but also shows the underlying path which lead to it. Their renewal energy capacity grew faster than their demand and interestingly, their demand was rising at a higher than average level just across for fifteen years.

The EU? Not so much. Energy sector is moving forward with a 2.9% drop, but outside that sector emissions are rising. The UK has a 3.6% drop, with coal in particular back to Medieval times and peak demand having passed over a decade ago.

The EU is playing politics here, nothing real. It is the EU that would struggle to live up to the example of China in the energy sector.

Steam has normalised DRM to the point where fans will defend it or try to breeze past the point. It's not just a happy friendly library, it comes with restrictions. The original animated GIF for Steam, for those with long memories, was not a kind one.

You mention you have the N version? That's the one with simulated engine noise and gear movements - how are you finding it? Fun? Or are you finding you're not using those bits?

Curious - I like the idea of the N, it's not a car for me but I can very easily see its appeal as a useful vehicle that still adds a bit of a fun factor.

I don't know why - 'an hour for my car to charge' hasn't been a thing for years. I owned a first gen (nose-cone) Model S and could spend 45 minutes getting to 80% of a 202 range if I ran it to the bottom. But that car came out eleven years ago. No car today charges like that - I have a Y right now and 10-15 minute stops if any are the norm, and that's on a much bigger range to start with (330 miles I think - says everything that I can't remember because it's just not an issue I hit).

Get through a day's driving on a single charge? Easily. Two days for most. Three days for some. Charge it while I sleep? Of course, I do that every day and have done for the seven or eight years I've been driving an EV now.

So what you're saying is it's back to the 50s then?