Tesla anything shouldn't be allowed to operate in the UK (or anywhere in Europe for that matter).

There are ways you can use a Spotify account registered in another country and you basically pay about £2 a month. I'm mainly into 80s and 90s music and used Spotify to discover music, and once I come across a song I like I add the album name to a list (i.e. note it down) and find the CD from a second hand shop or failing which obtain the FLAC files some other way. This way I now have an offline library that has most of the songs that I love. Spotify will be there as long as I can just pay £2-ish but the moment they try the age verification or raise prices, its bye-bye for them.

This is the reason I will never buy an apple device and go out of my way to (try and) convince people in my circle not to buy apple devices.

Its sometimes fun to watch this drama from the otherside. Windows is 'that other OS' for me now. I was switching between Linux and Windows a while ago, and made a permanant switch around 2021-ish (I think). I only use Windows at work as I don't have a choice, and in certain instances where I'm forced to use a Windows device e.g. for online exams, etc..

I have a non-uk account but at the first sight of age verification I will delete my account.

Nuked everything from reddit. I still have the account though.

There was a video on LTT about this. From what I remember the conclusion was that if you shut down the laptop while connected to power, it remembers the fact and wakes up in the middle of the night to apply updates and shut down again, assuming the power cable will remain connected so there wouldn't be an impact on the battery. But of course, most people (I think) disconnect the power cable once the laptop is shut down. Windows still wakes up, sees the power cable disconnected, and goes 'oh well' and proceeds to update anyway.

I think (although I've never tried to verify) Steam is making progress to make most games playable on Linux.

Publishers, universities, tutors, all of them are on this together. You need to get yourself in debt to study and buy text books that are 'updated' every year to milk as much as possible out of students, and tutors wont let you in class if you don't have the 'updated' text book. Digitally distributed books are so locked in and as recently pointed out in a Louis Rossmann video a lifetime license to use a book can mean just 2 to 5 years. Students are at this point morally obligated to pirate the text books and share them with others, specially those who cannot afford them.

They should offer more tests and finish the back log off first. Then they can be chatty as much as they fancy.

True. For me it hasn't come up so far, possibly because my account is registered in a different country. It's going to be a bit inconvenient but probably time to give them the finger and look elsewhere.

It is now. If someone just uses the browser, they wouldn't really notice if it was Linux. Well, they'll notice because it would be faster. I have my entire Steam and GOG library setup on Linux and every game I want to play regularly works just fine. Yes there are instances where I'd need to get on the terminal but that's quite rare.

It also helps that most indie titles don't need the latest and greatest hardware. I have a budget laptop and it runs most indie games well at 1080p.

True, I enjoy games like Spelunky and old arcade racers a lot more. Play for a bit and leave it. No story to worry about.

People do stupid things for internet views.

Apple don't.

This is why I want a Raspberry PI based PDA and a Tablet. Nothing fancy, even if its somewhat thick and not water proof, etc... It should be modular and repairable. Put a flavour of Linux on it and configure it to be secure. Then have a dumb phone which I can use as a modem if I want but otherwise call and text and turn off when I don't want it.

I have (had?) a similar problem with my 8bitdo Pro 2 controller. I wanted to swap the buttons, took it apart and found out that there are grooves on the buttons so they wont fit the right way up when swapped. I think the grooves keep the buttons from rotating but they could have done it in a way that the buttons can still be swapped the right way up. Possibly its done so they can sell first party buttons with X Box layout? Over time I was able to simply swap the buttons in my mind so I know where the buttons are depending on the platform I'm playing without actually having to look down at the controller. But I'm with you on this one.

Unfortunately true. It's the uninformed (and who don't care enough to get informed) that allow the violation of rights and privacy continue.

I use my mag loop indoors. It's a 40 to 17 meter band loop, but as you say its a pain to tune, even with the lovely built-in analyzer in the G90. I've set it at 7.028 (FISTS CW calling frequency) and I can move a bit up and down without messing up the SWR. I can make contacts around the UK and sometimes across to the continent.