The technology you refer to has not changed since 1975.
It is a stretch to call this smarthome technology considering the ban on incandescent bulbs, which completely eliminate X10s ability to dim or fade bulbs (because you are using CFL, and if you use a x10 dimmer on a CFL, you can burn down a house), and writing any sort of logic based on whether the device is on or off is not possible.
Now Insteon supports bi-directional communication and you can determine state, but you are looking at $45 per outlet or switch versus the $8 X10 stuff.
So, yeah, still out of most people's price range, unless you want to settle for over 30 year old technology.
Her father, a doctor, paid for a year of her undergraduate studies, leaving her free to dodge student loans for a while.
Not full, just one year.
"My intention was to go back to work after my first year of law school," she said. "[But] I did so poorly that I didn't think I could [keep a job at the same time]. So that’s when I started borrowing money."
I seriously doubt she had a 3 year scholarship to law school, especially after doing poorly the first year.
Also, she graduated in 1994, so either that year, or 1993 was the last year she took out student loans.