I have some of those too. Problem is they’re nowhere near as efficient at cooling as ice cubes are and never cool my drink enough. It’s the melting (phase change) process that does the majority of the cooling with ice cubes, which you miss out on with these solid blocks.

I forget the exact maths, but a quick googling reckons it takes something like 84kJ to change the temperature of 1kg of liquid water by 20K, but changing the temperature of the same amount of ice from 0K ice to 20K water takes nearly 420kJ, or roughly 5 times more energy, which is why they’re so much better at cooling drinks…

Then in a lot of places (check your local tenancy laws to be sure), you’re legally allowed to get someone in yourself to do it (or do it yourself) and deduct the expense from rent payment.

I have the Bluetooth + 2.4G one with hall effect sensors and paddles (with the 2.4G/Bluetooth switch on the back and included 2.4G receiver in the dock).

I didn’t realise the dedicated 2.4G one received Bluetooth later, but the firmware was for the 2.4G receiver, not the controller, which I’d assume to be the same one regardless? That said, it’d only allow you to use “Switch Pro Mode” and “Xinput Mode” when connected via 2.4G to the receiver. Bluetooth mode behaviour will be unchanged… But given the choice I’m not sure why anyone on PC would use Bluetooth instead of the 2.4G anyway, unless they’re not using the dock with that particular computer…

All that aside though, my initial comment was to indicate 8bitdo were actually quite helpful when I reached out to them, in contrast to the person I was replying to… To answer OPs actual questions:

1. Bluetooth mode outputs as a Switch Pro controller by default, so a lot of games on PC won’t recognise it unless you use Steam Input or some other translation layer to convert to Xinput. There are numerous applications to do it, but Steam is probably easiest and most accessible. To set the paddles etc You can download the Ultimate Software on your Phone or the PC to set the back paddles and tweak settings.

2. I’d recommend playing around with some first person shooters using the Gyro. Steam specifically has a Flick Stick-like mode that is a really fun way of using the Gyro in FPS games like DOOM. You angle the stick to the direction you want to face, and then use gyro to aim up/down and make fine corrections. E.g. to snap turn 180degrees, just flick the right analogue stick down. Works brilliantly when you (eventually) get the hang of it, it’s so much faster.

I complained about that part too, and 8bitdo doesn’t seem receptive…

I mentioned it to them and they were very helpful… They specifically sent me a beta firmware for the reciever that allows me to toggle between Switch mode and Xinput mode by holding Select+Y or Select+X respectively.

I’ll see if I can find the file …

I do enjoy my tea… I think it might be my next rabbit hole to go down. I just got back from a business trip to China, and was gifted a few different black and green teas, loose and bagged. Really enjoying them so far.

I really want one of their…uh… Tea tables(?), which has a tap and temperature controlled kettle and drain built in. I’d drink so much tea…

I might not be able to tolerate the type of coffee that happens to be available to me at some random gas station or cafe along the way. That hasn’t been a problem for me yet, but how about you?

Not really been an issue for me either. I’d say I notice more now when a coffee is slightly under/over extracted, but I’d probably have noticed it tasted 'weird" before and just not known what was wrong. That said, I’ve found it to be very rare. A lot of places just use quite forgiving dark roasts that are a LOT easier to make than more lightly roasted beans.

Sage Barista Pro. Really happy with it to be fair.

It goes on sale fairly often so you could save £100 or more on the price I quoted.

I’m still learning myself, but it’s potentially because the machines are already warmed up and the grinder is “dialled in” for the beans on offer. One very important aspect (among other things such as temperature, pressure etc) with espresso is the grind size, which will need adjusting between different bean types and roasts. Everything else being equal, a grind that’s too coarse will let the water through too quickly and give you an under-extracted “sour” tasting coffee, whereas too fine and the water moves too slowly and you end up overextracting (and/or choking the machine) and it gets very astringent and bitter tasting; not pleasant at all.

Alternatively, they could be using a pressurised portafilter, which give much more consistent results, but do take away some control and limit the end result. If it’s a high end machine though it’s probably an unpressured filter basket.

Edit: Also the roast makes a big difference to how difficult it is to pull a good tasting espresso. Many restaurants/ chains use fairly dark roasted beans which are generally a lot more forgiving than lighter roasts. At least that’s been my experience.

Sage Barista Pro. Definitely an entry level machine, but I’m very happy with it… I’m not invested enough to go for a dual boiler or higher end machine quite yet - They start to get very big and very expensive very quickly, and I have limited space.

I genuinely almost did!

Not branched out into different brewing methods yet though. I’ve already claimed enough kitchen surface space, my GF will kill me!

Coffee.

I blame James Hoffman entirely.

Within a year I went from:

Drinking instant coffee at home, but really enjoying “proper coffee”

To

Buying a cafetiere (~£15) + preground coffee

To

Buying a Nespresso (~£60 on offer) + pods

To

Buying a budget espresso machine (~£120) + preground coffee

To

Wasting my money on a cheap manual coffee grinder (~£50) + beans

To

Immediately replacing it with an entry level Sage grinder (~£170)

To

Buying an entry Level “proper” espresso machine (~£700)

It took me a good 2-3 weeks of practicing and dialling in before pulling a good shot of coffee that I’d actually want to drink, but by that point it was also about learning a new skill, learning how different aspects of the process affect the end result and learning how to make all sorts of different espresso-based drinks.

My girlfriend thought I was nuts at first, but a year or so later even she agrees it was worth the investment. I still for the life of me can’t get the hang of latte art though.

The problem is now though that I’m a waaaay more critical of coffee from coffee shops, because I spent a long time making bad coffee whilst learning!

I just got back from a business trip to China also. The high proportion of EVs, particularly in the southern cities like Guangzhou and Shenzhen really stood out to me, and many of them (particularly from BYD) looked really, really nice. They seemed less prominent in the more northern part of the country (e.g. Shenyang, Beijing), but even there I’d say they’re more common than in the UK.

It was a real eye opener

If the average person cut out 100% of their carbon emissions for the rest on their life, they’d save, on average, the amount of CO2 that industry creates in ~1 second. Our personal emissions are but a drop in the ocean in the grand scheme. Change is best brought about by voting both metaphocally with our wallets and literally with our ballot papers.

Until you end up like me; spending more time messing with the emulator than playing, just to see how good you can get stuff looking and what other cool stuff they can do.

To be fair, Elden Rings difficulty slider is the same as any other RPG… going off and doing other stuff for a bit until you’re OP for the part giving you trouble.

Also summoning people (or even the seamless coop mod that allows coop all the time everywhere) that’s also an effective difficulty slider.